SSAGO Blog

Update

February 2025 update

Alex Banwell, Charities

Wednesday 26th of February 2025

Report

• -Submitted a new application to the charity commission to register as a charity!!!
• -Finished getting the 2019-20 -> 2022-23 accounts independently examined
• -Completed the 2023-24 accounts.
• -Worked on this year's accounts
• -Sorted insurance stuff
• -Other miscellaneous team pink stuff
• -Sorted catering for TPR

Aims

• -Get the 2023-24 accounts independently examined
• -Work with the new treasurer to implement better financial processes as strongly recommended in the independent examinder's report, to ensure better compliance with charity regulations.

Manifesto

Manifesto for Publicity Officer

Lucy Smith, Publicity

Sunday 16th of February 2025

Who am I?

My name is Lucy Smith, and I am your current National Publicity Officer. I am re-running because, to be honest, I loved my role and my year on Pink, so why stop doing something you love?! I’m keen to continue building on the progress we’ve made in promoting SSAGO to both current members and potential new recruits through the 2025/26 term.

I joined the University of Nottingham, and SNoGS, in September 2022, and I haven’t looked back! I served as SNoGS Secretary in the 2023/24 academic year, helped to run Midlands Freshers camp 2023, and then threw myself into SSAGO further by being elected as Publicity Officer! Since then, my love for all things SSAGO has grown, and I have also become even more involved, as demonstrated by being on 2 (!) national event committees. I am also organising a SSAGO goes to spoons!

In addition to all things SSAGO, I am an active Girlguiding leader and recently opened a Brownie unit in Nottingham, and I have a guide unit at home too. I have also recently become a member of Network!

 

What have I done?

Having already served as Publicity Officer, I understand the role's responsibilities and have the experience to hit the ground running if re-elected. Over the past year, I have:

• Expanded SSAGO’s presence on social media, increasing engagement and visibility, through consistent posting.
• Supported club publicity officers with a revamped publicity and freshers fair guide, containing advice to help promote their own clubs.
• Ensured SSAGO’s brand remains consistent and professional across all platforms, by spending a lot of time looking at hex codes and the branding policy!
• Created engaging content, including photos, videos, and graphics, to showcase what SSAGO has to offer.
• Expanded SSAGO’s presence on TikTok, through participating in active trends, and getting some great engagement over there!
• Attended Gilwell Reunion and ran a stall for SSAGO, and even featured on the radio to talk about SSAGO!
• Updated the publicity leaflets on the SSAGO resources section of the website so they contained up to date and accurate information.
• In collaboration with Bangor, helped to develop the SSAGO leaflets but in Welsh! And provided the Welsh clubs with a £5 discount to access these leaflets ahead of Freshers.
• Reached out to newly established clubs to offer out publicity resources and guidance so they can hopefully increase their membership.
• Writing news articles myself, and coordinating others to write articles, and getting them published while the media and news project is being set up.
• Restarted the ‘World cup of…’ Instagram story game, which has boosted engagement greatly!
• Shared a ‘semester round up’ post to highlight what clubs have been up to, and hopefully also give some inspiration for weekly meeting activities/socials for other clubs.
• I am an active user of the discord, and I like to think that as a result I am an approachable and friendly face if anyone has any questions!
• Beginning to develop some ranger/explorer friendly resources.

Separate to publicity I also like to think I have been a proactive member of Team Pink. Participating in meetings, attending reps, helping make decisions, and helping where I can!

I as previously mentioned, I am on two event committees. I am Publicity Officer for Team Pink Rally, and I am Secretary and Publicity for Goose Ball. I think my time on event committees will shape me into a better member of Pink for the 2025/26 academic year, and will also enhance my ability to work with future national events with any publicity needs/questions.

 

Building on success

I like to think I have done well as Publicity Officer, and I want to continue working hard if re-elected. Some of my aims for the 2025/26 academic year would be:

• Increasing external outreach by working with Scouts (Explorers/Network) and Guides (Rangers/Inspire) to promote SSAGO as the next step for young members. This is something I have been working on and hope to continue to!
• Enhancing club support by developing new templates and guides to help clubs. While I have developed a general publicity guide, making some more specific resources such as Instagram templates is something I want to explore more.
• Growing SSAGO’s digital presence by continuing what I started on platforms like TikTok. I didn’t quite get the chance to make as many TikTok’s as I had liked due to how busy Team Pink can get at national events, so I still have plenty of plans drafted up in my notes! And so, this is something I would like to continue.
• As one of the very few active Girlguiding members of current Team Pink, I feel very passionately about helping to foster our growing relationship with Girlguiding, and so would like to continue with this if re-elected.

 

Balancing Team Pink and my studies

Having started my placement year in September, I have comfortably balanced my time on Pink alongside full time work. In addition to my placement, I regularly attend other society meetings and events. As a result of my busy schedule, time management and organisation are skills that I pride myself on. I love a to-do list, and my weekly planner is my best friend! I have no fears about balancing my role on Pink with university work when I return after my placement.

 

Passion for SSAGO

I think it’s safe to say I am passionate about SSAGO. SSAGO has given me some of the best experiences of my life so far, between rallies, balls, and even some international trips! I like to think I have made some lifelong friends through SSAGO too. This drives me to publicise SSAGO, and make sure more people have the opportunity to get involved. I genuinely enjoy working on publicity, and as a part of Team Pink, and I believe my enthusiasm and experience make me the ideal person to continue in this role.

 

Manifesto

Manifesto for Chair

Jack Woodward, Chair

Sunday 16th of February 2025

Hello SSAGO,

 

I’m Jack, and for anyone that is unaware, I’ve been SSAGO’s chair for the last 12 months (actually only 10 so far, technically). Before that, I was SSAGO’s Secretary for 2023-24, and before that, was on the CentenaRally committee and Chair of the then newly restarted Policy Fixers Project. Going further back, I was co-chair of Rally of Games, while simultaneously president of Liverpool SSAGO, and before that, started my long string of SSAGO committee roles as Treasurer of Liverpool SSAGO.

 

All that to say, I very much know what I’m getting myself in for. Being on Team Pink is not an easy responsibility - it takes a lot of time, and effort, and can sometimes involve making some really challenging decisions, and the chair has to spearhead that. It can very easily take over your life, and SSAGO is best served by having members of Team Pink who are able and willing to dedicate their time to. I know, and I hope everyone who I’ve had the pleasure of working with over my last few years on Team Pink knows, that I can do exactly that. I still have 2 and a half years of funding left for my PhD, so I know what my capacity will look like for the next year, and know I am capable of fulfilling the role.

 

I would like to hope that most of you would agree that I’ve done a reasonably good job this year - not perfect, by any means (there are plenty of things I wish we’d been able to deal with quicker, or more efficiently, and things I could have done better) but good. And yet, there are still things to do - longer term projects that I’ve been working on this year, in some cases for the past 2 years, that I want to see through to completion:

• Most obvious of all, SSAGO is still not, quite, a registered charity - we’re really close now (close enough that significant changes could happen between me writing this, and you all casting your votes), but not quite there, and given the reason we’re not there yet, I believe the relationships I’ve been able to build with The Scouts over the last 2 years (both through SSAGO, and in my own Scouting roles) will really help in getting us over the finish line.
• Additionally, I recently had the first meeting between National SSAGO and someone at Girlguiding HQ in a number of years - we’ve made a really positive start, and they’re now keen to build a relationship that allows us to help and support each other in achieving our goals as organisations, and I’d like to make sure that succeeds.
• There’s also the SSAGO Strategy - we’re now 1 year into the 3 year plan I helped shape as Secretary, and while I think we’ve made a good start, there’s still plenty more work to be done, to meet our aims.
• Finally, events - I mentioned in my manifesto last year that I felt that events (and not just national ones) were one of the best parts of SSAGO, and I still do. I also said I wanted to work more with the events officer to make sure event committees get the support they need. I do think we’ve gotten better at the way we support event committees in organising their events, but it really is a challenging undertaking, and we could be better. Especially given the number and complexity of events we’ll be overseeing for this next year, with Witan and Reunion added to the schedule, I want to help make sure that event organising gets off on the right foot, and that the support Team Pink is able to provide continues to improve, and I think my skills and experience put me in the best place to be able to do that.

 

As anyone who knows me could tell you, I’m incredibly passionate about SSAGO, and I want it to be the best it can possibly be - if I didn’t think I was the best person for the role, I wouldn’t be running. This would be the last of my 3 years that I’m eligible to be elected for, and I honestly believe that now, while I’m already fully immersed in everything that we have ongoing, is the best time for me to complete a 3rd year on Team Pink.

 

One of the things I love most about SSAGO, is it’s role in allowing people to develop as people through taking on new and challenging roles and pushing themselves, in a safer environment (lets face it, if you’re going to organise a large event for the first time, things are going to go wrong, and if they’re big things, better it happens with a bunch of students who can generally look after themselves than with a campsite full of Cubs)! Something I’m very aware of is that by continuing as chair for the next year, I would potentially be taking the opportunity to learn from the experience of being SSAGO chair away from someone else. But while SSAGO can be a lower stakes environment, it can also be unforgiving at times (something I think we could all work on), and I believe that everyone else on Team Pink, and to an extent event committees too, will benefit more from having the support of an experienced chair to sit lean on, than someone who is new to the role.
 

              

Manifesto

Manifesto for Treasurer

Lara Hagger, Treasurer

Sunday 16th of February 2025

 

Hi SSAGO! I’m Lara, currently doing a Masters in Medieval Studies at the Uni of York. I joined SAGGY in my first year and have had the best time, especially going to various rallies and balls and even being on the committee for Rally Through Time. I’ve made some amazing friends through SSAGO and I’ve learnt so much from them all, and I want to help future members of SSAGO experience the same things! Alongside SAGGY and SSAGO, I’m a Girlguiding leader back home and lend a hand in York whenever I’m needed.

 

Why vote for me?

I’ve enjoyed my time as both a member of SAGGY and on the committee, so now I’d love to be a part of the exec. I’ve been Treasurer for SAGGY for the past two years, as well as Treasurer for Rally Through Time (you may recognise me as one of the several committee members dressed as a green skittle running around over the weekend). Having been in charge of the accounts at a club level and for a national event means that I know the problems Treasurers face and what kind of support they might need. I think it’s also important for Team Pink to have people from different clubs filling the various positions, and I’d be proud to be the first person from SAGGY to have an exec role.

 

Additionally, I’ve been in charge of the spreadsheet for our Freshers’ weekend away in Scarborough for the last two years, keeping track of everything and working with the rest of the committee to run a fun and stress-free event. Doing things like this alongside my studies means that I’ve had a lot of practice balancing everything and getting stuff done on time. I’m also used to working on a team of passionate people and I generally enjoy doing admin tasks (especially with a glass of wine).

 

Finally, I love a spreadsheet and I’m the daughter of an accountant (the two requirements for Treasurer?!).

 

What are my ideas/what will I do

• Money is fun: I will be a visible presence for all things accounting! Treasurer is usually the role that committees struggle to fill so I want to help everyone be confident with money and show people that it’s a fun position :)
• Power of the group chat: putting treasurers in touch with each other to share woes, frustrations, anger at banking, whatever - and I will do my best to help!
• Development fund: remind club treasurers that they can apply for monetary help if needed, and support them to do so.

 

Ultimately, I believe that my enthusiasm for spreadsheets and my love of all things SSAGO will make me the best person for this role and I look forward to being the keeper of the purse!

Introduction

Introducing Anna Matthews

Anna Matthews, Members

Thursday 5th of December 2024

Hi! I'm Anna and I'm SSAGO's Members Officer for 2024/25.

I had a bit of a weird start in Scouting having begun as a Brownie before joining Explorers when I was 14. I also became a Young Leader for Scouts and then Cubs, and completed my Young Leader Training. When I turned 18 I became a leader and I also helped set up a local Network Group which we called Underground Network.

When looking at universities I would only consider places that had a Scout and Guide Society. I didn't know about SSAGO at the time but I'm definitely glad to have found it. I joined BUSAG when I started at the University of Birmingham and have since been the club's Publicity Officer, Secretary and Social Secretary. I have enjoyed getting involved in both regional and national SSAGO events and have been Publicity for Midlands Freshers 2022 and Co-chair for Oktoberfest Rally. Whilst at University I have also volunteered at the local Scout group in the Scouts and Explorers Section.

I am currently about to graduate with a Political Science BA (hopefully!) and in September I will be extending my time in SSAGO with a PGCE in History.

Update

November 2024 update

Grace Hinks, Secretary

Sunday 17th of November 2024

Report

• This summer has been incredibly busy for me, and I unfortunately had to prioritise certain aspects of my role, but since my last report, this is what I have been up to:
• Meetings: I have planned 5 Team Pink meetings since the last report. These have been less frequent than Team Pink would have liked due to our busy and often conflicting Summer schedules but hopefully they'll be more frequent soon!
• Minutes: The publication of Team Pink meeting minutes experienced delays over the summer. These have now been uploaded to the website, and I sent an email to all reps and committees holding my hands up and explaining why these delays occurred to offer some reassurance and explanation.
• Outstanding actions: I have been trying to keep Team Pink on top of all our actions. This has resulted in me creating a detailed spreadsheet to keep track of everything. Hopefully this will help all of us keep as up to date as possible going forward, and not let anything fall through the gaps!
• Autumn 2024 Reps: I have spent time setting reps up ready for LOTRR. Due to Summer 2024 Reps not meeting quorum, it's a big one. I have trialled a new system to help spread the workload of setting up Reps by creating a document where Team Pink had the opportunity to write about areas they had been most active in, meaning the information at Reps has been provided by those most experienced in each section. Whilst there have been small teething issues you would expect with any change like this, overall I believe this has worked well in both reducing the stress for all of Team Pink in the run up to Reps, and ensuring that Reps is of the highest quality possible.
• Emails: I have been keeping on top of my emailing, which has mostly consisted of approving forms, but, most recently, contacting the required parties in preparation for Reps.
• My life: I have recently moved house and changed jobs, (very stressful), but am now settled in and ready to jump feet first into everything SSAGO once again.

Aims

• Mitigate delays: Over the summer, due to unfortunate circumstances, the most public aspects of my role, like publishing minutes, faced major delays. I am now in a position where no delays should occur, but to be certain I have created a plan to ensure that all delays are either minor or completely avoided.
• Clear up the GDrive: The SSAGO GDrive needs a tidy, and I'm planning to spend some time organising it to hopefully help the current and future Team Pinks!
• Updating factsheets: It has been noticed that some SSAGO factsheets are now out of date, and I'm looking forward to helping to update these alongside the rest of Team Pink.
• Organising more Team Pink meetings: As usual, there's plenty more Team Pink meetings to come, and I am looking at ways to ensure the best attendance from Team Pink.
• Miscellaneous: I have plenty of other things planned for the near future, including creating a helpful document on how to run a bar, updating the official complaints form, creating a pre-event email template and of course, plenty of emailing!

Update

November 2024 update

Lucy Smith, Publicity

Saturday 16th of November 2024

Report

• Since my last update I have been up to the following:
• Instagram:
• Over summer updating the instagram with summer camps from clubs.
• Promoting assistant applications.
• Promoting project lead applications and the projects in general.
• Results day (see other section).
• Promoting important days/weeks, including world mental health day, transgender awareness week, remembrance sunday.
• Planning content to continue with over the next few months.
• Freshers/results day:
• Made posts and generated ads for results days. A total of over 11,000 people were reached by these posts! Continuing to aim posts at freshers, some of which have included an ‘intro to SSAGO’ post, and an upcoming event highlight post.
• Tiktok:
• Not been plenty active on here as at national events I have been busy with other things, but plenty of plans lined up for LOTRR so we can get some more tiktoks and reels out there.
• General stuff:
• Distributing publicity resources and guides to new clubs.
• Team pink meetings and responsibilities etc.
• Writing up a Witan article.
• Keeping on top of responsibilities for my other two event committees.
• Keeping on top of discord, answering questions etc.

Aims

• Aims up until Team Pink Rally:
• Keep on top of instagram and facebook.
• Generate more tiktoks.
• Work with SSAGO events as well as other events to publicise opportunities to members.
• Develop a strong SSAGO media/news team.
• Work with SSAGO supports to publicise opportunities.
• Work with Ben (Liaisons) to work on our relationship with Girlguiding.
• Support events with any publicity queries.
• Continue with team pink responsibilities.
• Update handover doc where necessary.

Update

November 2024 update

Jack Woodward, Chair

Thursday 14th of November 2024

Report

• International: Having now removed the International Officer Role, we've now had an abundance of contacts, and I've been leading on this. Primarily, this has been contact with the Irish Rovers and development of the joint event which now has a committee, and Shivaree - the Dutch proposal for a Jamboree style international Student Scouting event.
• Projects: We've been working on reviving the SSAGO Projects, and I've been leading on choosing the new Project Leads - those appointed are now on the clock to get their projects up and running, so we're hoping to start seeing them become more active!
• Scouting and Guiding Relationships: We've recently made contact with some of the senior staff at Girlguiding HQ, and while it's still in it's early stages, I've been leading the conversations. I've also been strongly involved in our ongoing conversations with The Scouts, on a variety of issues.
• Events: I've attended and supported a variety of events, including Witan, and representing SSAGO at SAGGA's Service Summer Camp - Essex International Jamboree (SAGGA were responsible for the Wet and Wild Zone)!
• Reps: This Reps, we're taking a number of steps that work towards meeting some of the long term aims in the SSAGO Strategy - moving the financial year, moving the membership deadline. We're also taking a number of steps that bring SSAGO back into line with good financial practice, and which haven't happened for a number of years - proposing a new national budget, and ideally presenting properly examined accounts for the last few years (unfortunately, delays in the examining process mean these will likely now be presented at the AGM).
• Assistant Recruitment: I took the lead on appointment of a new Quartermaster now that Joe has taken the decision to step down, and Bee's appointment has been announced with this reps. A Conflict of Interest prevents me from being fully involved with the appointment of the Web and Digital Assistants, but I have worked to move along the process as much as possible, where it has faced significant delays.

Aims

• Charity Status: We've been delayed on submitting a charity application by waiting for the Scouts legal team to sign off and say they're happy with us applying using the new constitution, but I'd like to have at least sent off the application before Team Pink Rally, and ideally have SSAGO be registered as a charity by handover.
• SSAGO Strategy: There are a number of aims on the strategy with deadlines before the end of my year, and I'm aiming to make sure that SSAGO meets those aims. There's also a few aims that, in retrospect, may no longer be in line with SSAGO's best interest, and I'd like to identify them, and propose any necessary amendments for the Team Pink Rally Reps Meeting.
• Assistant Recruitment: While a Conflict of Interest prevents me from being fully involved in the appointment of Oli's replacements, I would like to ensure the process starts moving more smoothly, and that the appointments can at least be decided on as soon as is reasonably possible.
• Scouting and Guiding Relationships: I'd like to further develop the contact we've had with Girlguiding, and establish a long term convention for ongoing contact, as well as clearing up a number of points about the relationship between SSAGO and Girlguiding. I'd also like to continue our current contact with the Scouts - we have a number of currently ongoing queries with our contact at Gilwell, and I'd like to see them all resolved before the end of my term.

Update

November 2024 update

Alex Banwell, Charities

Tuesday 12th of November 2024

Report

• -Sorted some of the paperwork in preparation for an application to the charity commission
• -Compiled a list of receipts and documentation for the independent examination of the accounts
• -Worked on this year's accounts
• -Sorted banking and insurance stuff
• -Other miscellaneous team pink stuff

Aims

• -Register SSAGO as a charity
• -Finish getting the most recent set of accounts independently examined

Update

November 2024 update

Katie Waters, Treasurer

Monday 11th of November 2024

Report

• Since summer rally I have:
• Met with rally committees to get them set up with bank accounts
• and make sure they understand how to use the rally loan form
• and to make sure they know they can find me any time they have a budget concern or question
• I have worked with the rest of Pink to get the budget to reps which hasn't been the case for the last few years
• Lloyds have finally prossed all the forms and I now have account access so I can approve all your lovely payments that make events happen
• In more general pink jobs I have
• Helped with the appointing of new project leads
• date checked and replenished the First-aid kit for all your accidents on rally to keep you nice and safe
• Attended Witan and come up with a hundred tiktok ideas of Lucy and actually made none of them - see aims
• Approved along with team pink an application to the development fund- keep your eyes on the socials to see what
• Made contact with West Sussex Jamboree after they reached out as they are interested in having SSAGO present next year and

Aims

• See one of my tiktok ideas through to completion
• See some more applications to the development fund and see the impact it has on growing wider SSAGO
• Get the details for SSAGOs stall at West Sussex Jamboree finalised
• Keep SSAGO in the Green!

Update

October 2024 update

Anna Matthews, Members

Thursday 24th of October 2024

Report

• Team Pink weekend: I attended Team Pink weekend in August where I helped with sorting, reducing and cataloguing the national event kit. I also had a lot of fun branding the SSAGO kit with pink spray paint! The national event kit was then passed on to LOTR rally. I also used this weekend to do SSAGO admin, in particular writing the Membership email.
• New clubs: I have stayed in contact with our newer clubs and made sure they had everything they needed for Freshers week. I have also received a number of emails about setting up new clubs and have had a couple of meetings regarding this (details to come soon!).
• Behind the scenes: I have also been doing lots of SSAGO admin behind the scenes, especially now that term has restarted. This has included supporting events with welfare, fielding requests for volunteers for Scout and Guide groups, and contacting new members.
• Gilwell Reunion: I and other members of Team Pink represented and publicised SSAGO on a stall at Gilwell Reunion. The event was brilliant and it is definitely something we’d like to do again.

Aims

• Scouts Inclusion: I am currently in the process of trying to make contact and establish a relationship with the Scouts Inclusion team. The SSAGO strategy aims to introduce a new Reasonable Adjustment Policy by September 2026. The plan is to get advice from the Scouts Inclusion team to help Team Pink in developing this policy.
• Membership: The next membership email will be coming out soon and with it I will be checking and approving clubs’ membership lists.
• Projects: Every project has been assigned a member of Team Pink. I will be overseeing the Pride project and in the next couple of months I will be supporting the project lead in creating a direction and goals for the project. Team Pink have also received a number of emails regarding exciting international opportunities and I am looking forward to discussing these with the International project.

Update

July 2024 update

Jack Woodward, Chair

Wednesday 10th of July 2024

Report

• Handover: Completed handover, moving from Secretary to Chair - helped get all of the new exec up to speed and ready to go. Did the big handover meeting at ball!
• Assistant Review: Finalised our plans for what Team Pink looks like going forward - started the process of recruiting replacement assistants for those stepping down, and managed the stepping down process of those not continuing.
• Team Pink Weekend: Organised for Team Pink weekend to be an inventory of everything SSAGO owns - everything is currently in storage near Leeds, we have a booking for Bramhope, and will then be passing on anything rally need to the LOTR Rally committee, so they have it for the start of rally!
• General Chairing: There's been emails and queries best dealt with by the chair, we've had more complaints than would have been ideal, and all of the other minor things that come with the role!

Aims

• Assistant Recruitment: I'd like to get the process going as soon as possible, so we can choose our new assistants, and get them on board and part of the team as soon as possible!
• Meetings: A variety of delays and problems means we haven't yet had meetings with SAGGA, or the Scouts, since handover, so I'd like to make them happen!
• Camping: I'm going to go camping a lot! From county events, to my own unit's summer camp, to EIJ with SAGGA, to Team Pink Weekend, to Gilwell Reunion/Witan before freshers camps and other events start turning up in the new academic year - I've got lots of places to be between now and November!
• Minutes: There are a few sets of minutes from the Handover period, while I was simultaneously Chair and Secretary, that I haven't had the chance to clean up and publish, I hope to do that soon!

Update

June 2024 update

Grace Hinks, Secretary

Tuesday 18th of June 2024

Report

• Getting Started: As I joined Pink late, I've had some catching up to do, however after some long handover meetings and incredible support from Team Pink, I am now confident in my understanding of the behind the scenes of SSAGO and I am looking forward to fully jumping into my role.
• Awards: The SSAGO awards and commendations awarded at Birthday Ball 2024 have now been updated and published to the SSAGO website.
• Meetings: I have organised and taken minutes for two Team Pink meetings, and, whilst these minutes still need to be published, it is at the top of my to do list now I am no longer busy with university!
• Finished my Degree: I joined Pink with less than two months left of my degree, and I can now say I have completed all the necessary work and will be graduating this summer!

Aims

• Communication: I want to continue to provide open and clear lines of communication with SSAGO. I hope to send plenty more emails and I am currently exploring ways to make these as engaging and accessible as possible.
• Reps: Due to some set backs, the Reps meeting will be taking place after Summer Rally this year, I want to help make it go as smoothly as possible given the changes to the usual scheduling. I also now have a better idea on the work that goes into organising and carrying out Reps, which puts me in a great position for next time!
• SSAGO Policy: Some policy and factsheets are still in the process of being updated. I have spent some time already expanding my current knowledge and getting as familiar with SSAGO policy as possible (something I have thoroughly enjoyed!). I am looking forward to continuing to explore the policy and helping keep policies and factsheets up to date!

Update

June 2024 update

Rose Moran, Events

Wednesday 12th of June 2024

Report

• Supporting Events: I have now had introductory/getting started meetings with all of our new national event which were voted in at this years AGM and set clear goals for the next few months. Supported Birthday ball and Sports Day rally in the final planning stages for their events.
• Events Templates: I have finished making a set of starter planning templates for each different aspect of a rally which the newest events have started trialling. The aims of these is to give events a clear structure and make them aware of what level of detail they should be planning at from the beginning.
• Event Timelines: I have created a a more structured plan of what rally committees should be working on throughout the course of their planning time. To suit the various lengths of time events have to plan, I have made a clear timeline that splits this time across 7 meetings that Team Pink will have with the event. Each meeting will have a specific focus so that myself and the events can make the most of each meeting by being able to prepare in advance.

Aims

• Demo Event Website: From discussions with previous events, support on how to best understand and great a good website is something that is potentially lacking. Therefore, over the next few months I plan to make an example event page with all the feature you can utilise within an event website so that events can visually see how each feature works.
• Event Timelines: I would like to make a similar timeline to help ball committees use their time efficiently and have a more clear structure.
• Event Kit: Work with the rest of Team Pink to work out an effective system for sorting and logging SSAGO event kit.

Update

June 2024 update

Anna Matthews, Members

Wednesday 12th of June 2024

Report

• Getting Started: I attended all handover meetings and Pink training sessions. I've begun familiarising myself with the membership system and the various SSAGO drives. I have also attended relevant meetings with events and clubs.
• Irish Rover Scouts: We (Jack, Ben and I) met with a representative from Irish Rover Scouts to discuss student scouting and guiding in Ireland and the possibility of joint events with SSAGO. We are currently considering a joint event at some point in 2025 to occur in Northern Ireland.
• New Clubs: I organised a hike for the Midlands where I was able to meet the chair of WUSAG and find out how their first year as a SSAGO club has been and what support they need from me going forward. I am also currently in the process of helping to set up a new SSAGO club at the University of Winchester.

Aims

• SSAGO Factsheets: When sending factsheets to new clubs noticed that the factsheets that are on the SSAGO website are not up to date. I want to make sure that any factsheets that committees might need are correct before the start of the academic year.
• Scouts Inclusion: I am currently in the process of trying to make contact and establish a relationship with the Scouts Inclusion team. The SSAGO strategy aims to introduce a new Reasonable Adjustment Policy by September 2026. The plan is to get advice from the Scouts Inclusion team to help Team Pink in developing this policy.

Update

June 2024 update

Lucy Smith, Publicity

Monday 10th of June 2024

Report

• General social media
• So far this year I have began to create and upload posts to the Instagram and facebook showcasing what has been going on in SSAGO, including future events and SSAGO support events.
• Brining tiktok back to life
• I have began to plan, create and upload tiktoks in attempt to target younger populations.
• Adobe
• Reactivated the adobe account for SSAGO event committees to use upon request.
• Freshers publicity
• Started to gauge interest in SSAGO publicity for clubs to use over freshers. Learnt that there isn't much interest, assuming as a lot of clubs will have personalised publicity materials.
• Since my last update I have been up to the following:
• Instagram:
• Over summer updating the instagram with summer camps from clubs.
• Promoting assistant applications.
• Promoting project lead applications and the projects in general.
• Results day (see other section).
• Promoting important days/weeks, including world mental health day, transgender awareness week, remembrance sunday.
• Planning content to continue with over the next few months.
• Freshers/results day:
• Made posts and generated ads for results days. A total of over 11,000 people were reached by these posts! Continuing to aim posts at freshers, some of which have included an ‘intro to SSAGO’ post, and an upcoming event highlight post.
• Tiktok:
• Not been plenty active on here as at national events I have been busy with other things, but plenty of plans lined up for LOTRR so we can get some more tiktoks and reels out there.
• General stuff:
• Distributing publicity resources and guides to new clubs.
• Team pink meetings and responsibilities etc.
• Writing up a Witan article.
• Keeping on top of responsibilities for my other two event committees.
• Keeping on top of discord, answering questions etc.

Aims

• Instagram:
• Post as consistently as possible.
• Varying and engaging posts and stories.
• Share posts to facebook too.
• Tiktok:
• Post engaging tiktoks to showcase SSAGO to younger generations.
• Share these onto the instagram and facebook too.
• New club highlight scheme:
• Attempt a new format of post which involves reaching out to clubs in regards to one of their highlights of the year to share to socials to give an insight into other clubs.
• Focus this over the course of the summer as posts can get scarce around this time of year due to less SSAGO stuff ongoing.
• Freshers publicity
• Publicise SSAGO around A level results period and around the time of freshers.
• Support clubs in their publicity around freshers and refreshers periods.

Update

June 2024 update

Alex Banwell, Charities

Saturday 8th of June 2024

Report

• -Consulted on the new constitution, presented it last reps, and with the help of other team pink members, got it approved by the membership
• -Completed the accounts for the previous 4 years, including creating a template for the accounts going forward.
• -Other miscellaneous team pink stuff

Aims

• -Register SSAGO as a charity
• -Discuss with the scouts, girl guiding and the membership about whether to convert to an incorporated charity status
• -Get the most recent set of accounts independently examined

Introduction

Introducing Grace Hinks

Grace Hinks, Secretary

Monday 29th of April 2024

Hi I'm Grace and I am the National Secretary for 2024-2025!

I joined Girlguiding when I was 5 and was a Rainbow, Brownie, Guide and Ranger, and went on to be a Young Leader for my local Rainbows, Brownies and Guide units (all at different times when the units needed it!). I absolutely adored my time in Guiding but, unfortunately, this experience was cut short and before I knew it I was at University and had a Girlguiding sized hole in my heart.

I discovered SSAGO near the end of my first year of Uni after friends from a different club encouraged me to join SNoGS (Nottingham). Since joining I have been the SNoGS Social Secretary, helped organise Midlands Freshers camp in 2023, and I am now Logistics for Rally Front to Back in 2025! Joining SSAGO has absolutely been the highlight of my time at University and my only regret is not joining sooner!

I am about to graduate from the University of Nottingham with a History BA, and will be taking a step back from education. However, this means I can dedicate plenty of my time to SSAGO and Team Pink!

Manifesto

Manifesto for Secretary

Grace Hinks, Secretary

Monday 8th of April 2024

Hey! I’m Grace and I’m currently in my final year of studying History at the University of Nottingham, I will be graduating this year and looking at taking a step away from education, but still want to be as involved as possible with SSAGO, hence running for Team Pink!

A bit about me:

This past year I have been the Social Secretary for SNoGS. Through this position I have gained excellent experience in working within a Committee whilst developing my problem solving, organisation and management skills. As Social Secretary I've had to plan, organise, and advertise a multitude of events for SNoGS, so have plenty of experience in these areas, but I’d love to give a new kind of role a go! As Social Secretary I also focused on (and had a lot of fun) creating helpful forms and documents for future Social Secretaries to make events easier and quicker to organise in future years. I have enjoyed encouraging people to join SNoGS and increasing membership numbers alongside my fellow committee members, something I’d love to bring to a national level. I am also a consistent attendee to national events, meaning Reps would be easy and fun for me.

I LOVE admin and organisation, just ask anyone that knows me! I’m a big believer that you should be able to find important documents and information without being told where to find it, so anything produced for SSAGO by Pink will be stored in an accessible, clear manner and be as intuitive as possible. I even took it upon myself to organise the SNoGS GDrive for fun, as well as produce plenty of documents for the club to aid future committees. I have also taken a keen interest in policy during my time at SSAGO and would like to explore this further! As a History student I am very good at typing and I will be able to keep up while writing minutes for meetings. 

I’ve been a part of Guiding since I was 5 and I loved every minute of it and I have also been a young leader for Rainbows, Brownies, and Guides! Unfortunately for me, this opportunity was disrupted by Covid, but SSAGO allowed me to continue my experiences and I’m extremely grateful for this, as it has allowed me to reignite my love for all things Scouting and Guiding, as well as have incredible experiences while at University. I am extremely passionate about SSAGO, I can easily say that it has been the most enjoyable part of University for me, and I would love to help SSAGO on a national level to give back to the Organisation. As previously said, I am a final year student, so I would love to be on Team Pink to allow myself to continue my SSAGO journey after graduating.

What can I bring to the role?:

As Secretary, my main aim will be to engage with members in a fun and friendly manner, whilst ensuring that any items published by SSAGO are accessible, as I am aware how daunting long emails or documents can be to people! I already have a few ideas for this, including looking at publishing a heavily summarised paragraph alongside minutes, highlighting the key discussion points of the meeting, to allow a good understanding to be gained at a glance. This will hopefully allow people to gain a better understanding of how SSAGO works at a national level, and potentially get people interested in a Team Pink position down the line! I also would like to include summaries at the end of emails to allow people to easily access information, and hopefully increase engagement at a national level. This means if people do not have time to read an email that has been sent out, they can still access all the key information needed! 

I am aware of the changes occurring within SSAGO clubs based in Wales. As Secretary, I would like to explore the possibility of publishing minutes in both English and Welsh, as well as ensuring that important documents have an accessible Welsh translation, to help these clubs reach their full potentials! 

Finally, Team Pink looks like fun, so I'd love to be considered for the position of Secretary! 

Introduction

Introducing Katie Waters

Katie Waters, Treasurer

Monday 25th of March 2024

Hey I'm Katie I am SSAGO's national treasurer for 2024-25

I joined Guiding unofficially at age 3 as my mum was my leader so I got an early start
I then went through, Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers becoming a part of the guiding advocate panel and a young leader.
Due to the pandemic, I sadly left guiding but found my way back via SSAGO!

I was originally UoBGAS (Bristol) where I was president and SSAGO rep, before joining Pink and moving to Edinburgh for my masters where I'm trying to re-launch our SSAGO club! I am currently studying for a LLM in human rights law

When my time isn't filled with SSAGO fun and games I play and coach cricket so if you ever want a game of French cricket at a rally come and find me!