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SSAGO Blog

Pink Blog

Recent Blogs

SSAGO has moved to a new home, and had some upgrades along the way!

Welcome Back & Charity Update

Constitution Consultation Update

Reps Voting Results – February Rally 2019

SSAGO Constitution Changes

Update

February 2022 update

Oli Bills, Webmaster

Wednesday 23rd of February 2022

Report

  • SSAGO ID: Introduction of QR code-based SSAGO ID which can be used for all manner of things from registration and check in to dietary requirements to spending money
  • SSAGO App: Continuing development work on the SSAGO app, with the hopes of having it available for Rally of Games
  • SSAGO Game Platform: Developed a platform that can be used for location-based games, such as ClueGo
  • SSAGO Credit: Exploring a consistent credit based system for future SSAGO events for finances, rather than using event-specific tokens or similar and to provide a better transaction-fee-free alternative
  • Event System improvements: Better improvements to the SSAGO events system for things like export, information, teams, Q&A and similar
  • Team Pink improvements: Blog, reps, spam improvements and introduction of national event reports
  • Event support: Helping out Rally of Games, Amalgam and Rali Cymru with their event systems and bookings, along with other events, such as the BUGS reunion.
  • Supported exec in new technical requirements (e.g. blog, commendations, improvements to team pink administration and reps)

Aims

  • Web Hack Weekend and Webteam: Putting together the web hack weekend for this Summer and the growth of the SSAGO Web Team
  • Amalgam: Lots of exciting new technological developments to support Amalgam
  • Team Pink: Work with the new Exec to improve the Team Pink tools available
  • Continue Developing: Continue work on some of the exciting new projects, including the app and SSAGO Credit
Update

February 2022 update

Tom Webster, Secretary

Tuesday 22nd of February 2022

Report

  • Policy: Created a new Policy Fixers drive so any members can join the project and make comments on policy and view past versions.
  • Factsheets: Created editable versions of SSAGO's factsheets, flagged ones that are out of date and identified demands for new factsheets.
  • Complaints: Met with the Scouts Commissioner for People to discuss SSAGO's complaint policy, how complaints have been handled and given input into the handling of Scout Active Support Unit complaints for the next update.
  • Charity: Attended more joint meetings with The Scouts and Girlguiding on our future relationship and improving links between organisations.
  • Guidance: Worked on new guidance for Club Reunion events and managing alcohol at SSAGO events.
  • Finances: With Alex and SAGGA met to discuss how SSAGO should manage expenses, finances and banking and represent this in new policy.
  • Emails: Sending and receiving lots of them!

Aims

  • Factsheets: Finish editable copies of the final few factsheets and ensure those that are out of date but easy to fix are fixed before handover.
  • Policy: Work with the incoming secretary on reviewing the final few policy documents.
  • Charity: Have a final list of changes and a new relationship agreement ready for the incoming exec's input.
  • Forms: Update all the emailable forms to web forms to make them easier to use.
Update

February 2022 update

Alex Banwell, Treasurer

Monday 14th of February 2022

Report

  • Charity: Met with Scouting and Guiding multiple times to ensure that they are happy with the new constitution, and to formalise a new 3-way agreement to put in place for the new charity
  • Accounts: Published the draft accounts for 2019-20 and 2020-21.
  • Bank accounts: Set up a Spring Rally, Summer Rally, Ball, Reunion, Witan, Shop, Indie and 2 spare event accounts with Lloyds
  • Bank accounts: Applied for debit cards for event accounts.
  • SSAGOBus: Booked, and organised the SSAGOBus to Viking Rally
  • Queries: Replied to a number of bank account related queries from clubs, using my knowledge and experience to help.
  • Events: Paid and checked lots of loans and tried to ensure that events were on budget, and accountable, including by sharing my own knowledge and experience with more recently elected events.

Aims

  • Charity: Continue to see through the process to become a charity over the line
  • Accounts: Continue to work on improving the accounts system to be more transparent
  • Bank accounts: Start to promote the use of the new bank accounts
  • Fundraising: Research grants that could be applied for once we become a charity
Update

February 2022 update

Leon Brindley, Publicity

Saturday 12th of February 2022

Report

  • Online publicity campaigns: Continued to promote SSAGO online, including events like Viking Rally and our upcoming SSAGO AGM, key dates like Remembrance Day and Christmas, and additional initiatives such as the Rally of Games Ludo Badge and Christmas Egg Hunt.
  • Publicity Officer photo library: Uploaded lots of new photos from events like WomBall and Viking Rally to SSAGO's Publicity Officer photo library.
  • Team Pink publicity resources: I've updated the resources available to future Team Pink members (e.g. logos, images and posts) to support future Publicity Officers, and updated the Publicity Officer social media spreadsheet with new social media profiles from our local SSAGO clubs.
  • Online profiles: I've updated the branding and configuration of SSAGO's online pages and groups, including on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Aims

  • Social media promotion: Continue to promote SSAGO as widely as possible on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Discord!
  • Awards: Roll out exciting new SSAGO Awards at Once Upon A Ball 2022.
  • SSAGO Support: Promote additional activities, alongside Warwickshire Scouts' Get In 2022, through our SSAGO Support programme.
Manifesto

Manifesto for Chair

Thomas Stevens, Chair

Saturday 12th of February 2022

Hello! I’m Thomas, studying Material Science & Engineering (MEng) at Swansea University. You’ve probably seen me at rallies in a wolf hat, nagging the many freshers of SUGS to do things and actually function!

 

I’ve been in SSAGO since I was a fresher in 2017, and since then I’ve attended every in-person rally, and made some sort of bid at each AGM! From 2018-2020, SUGS have bid to hold a rally (and we’re still waiting on Rali Cymru), and last year I bid for this position. What I'm saying here is you’ve probably seen me make a tit of myself in front of everyone, but I’m also very aware of the inner workings of the voting and democratic mechanisms within SSAGO through experience.

 

Speaking of Rali Cymru, thanks to being on the Rali committee I’m well aware of the effort required in inter-club committees - experience which would translate to being on team pink. It’s made me aware of what works and doesn’t work with meeting with people across the country, which will help in organising national exec committee meetings.             
On Rali Cymru, I’m Vice-Chair – although that only really entails mainly social media promotion as well as being Ben’s Loud Voice™ for talking at to people. This will allow Rali Cymru to have a close connection to the national exec, and won’t be able to get away with hiding anything from the exec! (Not that we would, mind you)

I like to think I’m quite involved and dedicated to SSAGO, both at a local and national level. I’ve made some good friends through getting to know people at rallies, and wish to continue this further as chair. At a local level, I’ve been SUGS president for the past three years. In this time, our membership has exponentially grown (from fifteen to fifty, now the largest club in SSAGO!) - so I must be doing something right! I’ve also gotten several members involved in leadership positions within local Scout and Guide groups and troops, building on more local engagements and cooperation between SSAGO and the Scouts / Guides.
Also, I think it’s important to demonstrate that what we do is fun. I’ve made the odd video for SUGS and Rali Cymru to try and help demonstrate this, and the type of people involved in running SSAGO. As chair, I’ll lend my full support to the publicity officer to project this vision from a national perspective too.

 

A demonstration how how much SUGS has grown as a society over a few years!
(A look at how SUGS has grown over the past few years, two events at the same venue)

 

“But Thomas, what do you actually want to do as chair?”               

Well, thanks for asking unnamed SSAGO member! I’d like to give SSAGO a strong central point as we (hopefully) emerge from the pandemic. Putting a face to the national exec (which is ironic as I have face blindness) is, in my opinion, very important to a large national organisation such as ourselves. I’ll endeavour to be a personal contact point for anyone within the organisation to come to with questions or concerns, and try and sort things quickly and efficiently with empathy; whilst also delegating well to the rest of the exec committee should they have better experience in the matter at hand.

 

To conclude: I end up taking charge when I’m needed to anyway, so why not jump the gun and make me responsible permanently?

Manifesto

Manifesto for Publicity Officer

Leon Brindley, Publicity

Saturday 12th of February 2022

 Hi! I'm Leon, National SSAGO's Publicity Officer for the past year!

 I'm hoping to be re-elected this year and continue working incredibly hard to promote SSAGO as widely as possible! 😃

 I'm in my 3rd year studying MEng Electronic Engineering with Computer Systems at the University of Southampton.

 I've been a member of the Scouting movement ever since starting Beavers at the age of 6!

 I volunteered as a Young Leader with Beavers for over 4 years, I'm the Webmaster of Southampton SSAGO and I volunteered as the Publicity Officer for Build-A-Rally 2020! 

 What are some of the things that I've done over the past year as National SSAGO Publicity Officer?

 I've created various National SSAGO promotional videos, including our new Main SSAGO Promotional Video, our A-Level/SQA Results Day Promotional Video, our #ThankYouExec Video for last year's SSAGO Exec and our fully-captioned SSAGO Introductory Talk (as initially delivered at Gilwell Reunion 2021).
 I've consistently posted on our SSAGO Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Discord about National SSAGO events like WomBall 2021, Viking Rally 2021 and our 2021 EGMs, closely following SSAGO's Branding and Publicity Policy and using colourful graphics and calls to action.
 I've shared various posts on social media about key dates, such as Christmas, Mental Health Awareness Week, Star Wars Day and Pride Month, and shared colourful customised updates for each SSAGO Exec member to keep SSAGO's membership updated on our progress.
 I've reinforced the personal and community aspects of SSAGO by sharing pictures of our members undertaking lots of exciting events (e.g. WomBall and Viking Rally activities, University Freshers' Fayres, 2021's Team Pink Camp and flashbacks to events like Birmingham Chocolate Rally), and creating our new National SSAGO TikTok so we can continue to share the wealth of activities we undertake!

 I've designed National SSAGO's 2021 blanket badge and business cards, and taken the time to fulfil various additional requests from our members in publicising initiatives like Badges @ Home, our Virtual SSAGO 1st Anniversary, the SSAGO Minecraft Server, Indie Camp 2021, SSAGO Does Eurovision 2021, National Rally staff nominations.
 I've reliably performed my SSAGO Exec administrative tasks, including consistently attending my National SSAGO meetings (including Exec meetings, Team Pink meetings, joint meetings with event committees, Reps and more), tidying the branding and configuration of SSAGO's online accounts and groups (including on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), planning new National SSAGO Awards for our 2022 Ball later this year, regularly liaising with the SSAGO Webmaster Oli Bills, compiling my Publicity Officer resources on the SSAGO Google Drive for coordinated future publicity campaigns and much more!
 I set up the UK SSAGO Humour meme page on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for future member submissions via memes.ssago.org, and made a few memes myself!
 I've updated SSAGO's online Publicity Photo Library and promoted events like Warwickshire Scouts' Get In 2022 for SSAGO Support.
 And lots and lots more to facilitate the day-to-day running of National SSAGO! 😊

 What other SSAGO experience do I have?

 I've created engaging promotional videos for Southampton SSAGO, including our Main Southampton SSAGO Promotional Video and The A-Z of Southampton SSAGO.

 I've volunteered as Webmaster of Southampton SSAGO, publicising Southampton SSAGO across social media (e.g. via #OnThisDay posts, SSAGO trivia posts, event promotions, etc.) and performing plenty of administrative tasks regarding the SSAGO Website, our Students' Union's Website, setting up committee emails, etc.

 I served as Publicity Officer for Build-A-Rally 2020, coordinating publicity campaigns such as our World Cup of Construction Sets, our merchandise advertisements, fun tasks like our Build-A-Bingo, committee introductory posts, bookings leaderboards, online Build-A-Rally video compilations, etc. I also designed the official Build-A-Rally 2020 neckers, and contributed to different aspects of the overall planning of the event during the uncertainties of the Covid-19 pandemic.
 I've worked with Larah (the National SSAGO Archivist of the time) to acquire summaries of SSAGO's Discord channel for the National SSAGO Archives, and served on the SSAGO Minecraft Team organising the SSAGO Minecraft Server.



 What additional things would I do as National SSAGO Publicity Officer this year?

 I will create brand-new promotional videos for National SSAGO, as I have done over the past year, so more people are aware about our movement and the incredible diversity of activities we offer!
 I will cooperate closely with the currently active SSAGO Project teams to ensure our SSAGO projects are as successful and widely-promoted as possible! I'll also liaise with Charlotte, our current National SSAGO Archivist, to share plenty of awesome stories about the rich history of SSAGO with all of our members.
 I will ensure to collaborate with The Scout Association and Girlguiding UK to bridge the gap between Explorers/Rangers and SSAGO, to ensure people eagerly make the transition to SSAGO without leaving the Scouting/Guiding movement when they turn 18.

 I will engage heavily with the SSAGO membership, especially during all of the upcoming in-person SSAGO events this year! I will share lots of pictures from our events to demonstrate the friendly and caring nature of SSAGO!

 I will expand SSAGO's Publicity Resources even further, to provide new opportunities for local SSAGO clubs to spread the word about our movement at their universities and Scout/Guide clubs.

 I will encourage SSAGO members to provide helpful and honest feedback to me around my publicity campaigns and general duties, and act on any recommendations that I receive to optimise my promotional drives and administrative decisions.

 Why should you vote for me?

 I've put countless hours into being National SSAGO Publicity Officer over the past year, both in terms of publicity campaigns and my general SSAGO Exec duties, and I'm really passionate about promoting our organisation as widely as possible!

 I love SSAGO through-and-through, and want to continue to effectively share the word about how awesome SSAGO is!

 I've got lots of experience regarding the National Publicity Officer role, including as National SSAGO Publicity Officer for the past year of course, as well as being Publicity Officer for Build-A-Rally 2020 and Southampton SSAGO Webmaster.

 I'm incredibly ambitious about raising awareness of SSAGO across lots of different publicity channels, and I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure our movement goes from strength-to-strength!

Manifesto

Manifesto for Members Officer

Rose Moran, Members

Saturday 12th of February 2022

 

Hello SSAGO!!

I'm Rose, a recent graduate from Keele University in Mathematics, and now working in a school as part of an inclusion support team. This past year I have loved working on the exec and getting to know so many members both online and - finally - in person.

I have loved virtual SSAGO as it gave me the opportunity to meet so many different clubs at their meeting. Hopefully, with restrictions being lifted (and me now having a car!), I will be able to visit so many more at weekly meetings and freshers camps etc.

Here are some of the things I would like to focus on if re-elected:

Event Welfare:

  • Participants: As in-person events are starting to happen again I would like to make sure that all members feel safe and included while at national events. In order to do this, I will ensure that each event has a reserved quiet space, a dedicated welfare officer, as well as the committee putting welfare plans in place for members that may need it.
  • Committees: Running a SSAGO event can be very hectic and stressful at times, but I believe that event committees deserve to enjoy the planning of an event as much as we enjoy participating in them. Therefore I want to make sure that the well-being of event committees is taken seriously and is a priority at future events. I hope to work more closely with event committees and the events officer in order to allow more open conversations about how they are feeling, especially when it comes to the pressures from deadlines, the exec, etc.

Club Support:

  • Last year it was voted in reps that the welfare of SSAGO members' would be mainly handled at a club level. However, I know many clubs may not feel particularly qualified when some SUs do not offer any relevant training. Therefore, I would like to create a factsheet of resources with links to information, training courses (both free and paid options) as well as how to work with the exec and SUs if anything becomes more serious.

Inclusivity:

  • As an organisation, I believe that we should always be working towards becoming a more inclusive and welcoming environment for our members. Therefore, I would like to introduce bi-monthly drop-in sessions to specifically discuss what is important to our members and how to implement more inclusivity within SSAGO in a more relaxed and open environment than reps.
  • I would also get SSAGO back into supporting local and national events, such as Gilwell 24 and participating in Pride parades.
  • I would also like to work with the publicity officer to make an inclusion calendar for the year in order to make sure important dates aren’t missed.

Communication:

  • It is often hard to see all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes of Team Pink and so I would like to re-introduce the SSAGO newsletter! This means that monthly updates will be delivered straight to you rather than looking for them on the website as well as any other key information and dates you may need.

Growing SSAGO:

  • Unfortunately, over the last year, I have had to close 7 clubs and therefore membership numbers have gone down significantly. I would like to start some new clubs in order to boost these numbers back up! Last year we had interest from multiple universities but many wanted to wait until they had settled as a society before joining. Therefore, I would like to follow these up as well as get in contact with any other SUs and network groups not already a part of SSAGO.

Manifesto

Manifesto for Secretary

Nicholas Bond, Secretary

Saturday 12th of February 2022

Hi, I’m Nick! You might have recognise me from wearing a red Rali hoodie and 3 neckers, or featuring in one of Thomas’ many SUGS videos… I’m currently studying an MSc in Civil Engineering at Southampton. I first joined SSAGO as a member of SUGS in 2017; since then, I’ve spent a year with UOBGAS during 2019, went back to SUGS for my final year at Swansea, and then switched to Southampton where I’ve been since September 2021. I’ve also been the Activities Manager for Rali Cymru since spring 2020, so I’ve certainly been around SSAGO quite a lot!

Secretarial Skills

I’ve chosen to run for national SSAGO Secretary since I am organised and efficient. I can manage multiple tasks simultaneously (with the aid of detailed and summarised lists), as well as quickly and correctly file all documentation and communication for future reference. With this efficiency I have learnt how to support others by quickly doing all those little jobs that tend to get forgotten in keeping things running. Finally, I am punctual with all my work, and good at getting others to be too!

What Have I Achieved In SSAGO So Far?

Rali Cymru Activities Manager

I am currently involved with running Rali Cymru, in my role of Activities Manager. As part of this role I have:

  • Managed email communications with a variety of people to arrange (and subsequently cancel) our bookings.
  • Maintained the Rali email inbox with appropriate folders and prompt replies
  • Created and updated detailed to-do documents with current progress, so I can quickly come back to any problems
  • Assisted with the website and bookings system, gaining experience of the complexities of the SSAGO website.

If I were to be elected for the role of Secretary, I would look to appoint an Activities Assistant to Rali Cymru; this would reduce my conflict of interest, spread out the workload for Rali, and improve the age diversity of the Rali committee.

SUGS Events Manager

My first SSAGO committee role was the Events Manager for SUGS, a position I held for two years. Since much of that was during lockdown I had few live events to manage! Instead, over that time I have:

  • Gained an ability to assist others, being able to pick up any small organisational tasks where required
  • Prodding other committee members to ensure critical decisions and actions happen on time.
  • Oversaw a wide variety of SSAGO’s behind-the-scenes operations.

Finally, over the past three years I have gained an understanding of SSAGO structure, requirements, and politics. From the fortunate position of joining three separate clubs I have discoverd a range of opinions and viewpoints ranging from the small such as Bristol to the massive such as SUGS. With my diplomatic outlook and aversion to conflict I believe I can tie these views together to keep everyone understanding.

What Do I Want To Achieve As Secretary?

Of course, my top priority is to maintain everything that’s expected of a national secretary – creating and publicising meetings, agendas, minutes. However, I also intend to:

  • Improve communication and workflow within Team Pink and with SSAGO clubs, reps and event committees. This will include creating and updating summary and detailed checklists so any mutually agreed decisions and actions to be taken are not misunderstood or forgotten, and can be referred back to easily at any time without searching through detailed minutes or irregular conversation histories.
  • Promote informal communication with wider SSAGO. It can be easy for individuals to feel distant from exec, or that decisions don’t have any direct impact on clubs; I would like to identify and break down any perceived separations.
  • Share experience with future events – as part of an unexpectedly long-running event committee, I have gained a fair amount of experience of organisational and technical tips. I would like future national events to be the best they can be by further promoting knowledge sharing with and between them. This will be by both word of mouth and helping to make the event resources as accessible and understandable as possible.
I've been able to participate in SSAGO at many levels, and seen it work from different perspectives.
I hope you will give me the opportunity to help SSAGO continue to run smoothly, for all to enjoy!
Update

January 2022 update

Rose Moran, Members

Saturday 22nd of January 2022

Report

  • Membership: Finished sorting membership and closed the appropriate clubs.
  • Indie and Associate Rep Handover: Had a successful handover and helped them to settle into their roles.

Aims

  • Welfare Kit: To finish off putting together the welfare first aid kit so that it can be used at ball.
  • Payments: Get the last few membership payments from clubs.
Update

November 2021 update

Conni Schmitt, International

Saturday 13th of November 2021

Report

  • International attendance to Rally: I invited various student scout and guide clubs from abroad to attend viking rally. An Irish scout, myself as a German scout and a SSAGOer studying abroad in Spain will attend. A group of Dutch students was interested in attending but due to the ongoing Covid situation postponed this to a future event
  • Ordering of international badges for Badges@Home: Organized the purchase of Philipean and New Zealand scout badges (can not directly be bought from abroad) over international scout contacts, and helped as a shipping point for Dutch ones (can not be shipped to outside of the EU)
  • New International Club: international students can now join as their own club. I invited an Australian and an American student scout to our online community on Discord
  • Maintaining relations to international equivalents of SSAGO: Excitingly, we might be invited to a German large scale camp next summer! This will be confirmed shortly

Aims

  • International attendence at SSAGO events: I'll be in touch with Irish, Dutch, German and other international student scout groups and invite them to both virtual and in-person SSAGO events
  • SSAGO visiting international events: I will keep an eye and an ear out for events by international student scouting groups (like the Irish Rover Intervarsities) and hope to make it possible for SSAGO members to join
  • Answering questions by internationals: I'm more than happy to be contacted by exchange students, both incoming and outgoing, and get them in contact with local clubs if there is one known to SSAGO!
  • Promoting an international atmosphere within SSAGO: Discord has done an awesome job at getting SSAGOers and student scouts from different coutries talk to each other - my goal is that this international community is preserved even after lockdown is over!
Update

October 2021 update

Leon Brindley, Publicity

Sunday 3rd of October 2021

Report

  • Promotional videos: Released promotional videos on the National SSAGO YouTube Channel: 'New Uni? New Society | The Student Scout and Guide Organisation', 'We Are The Student Scout And Guide Organisation' and 'Introducing The Student Scout and Guide Organisation'.
  • Social media: Publicised various aspects of SSAGO on social media, including events like WomBall, Viking Rally and Rali Cymru, projects like Badges @ Home and the SSAGO Minecraft Server and photos from local SSAGO clubs like the inclusion of SSAGO in various university Freshers Fayres.
  • Badges: Designed and showcased the new SSAGO blanket badge.
  • Outreach: Hosted an introductory talk, titled 'Scouting for Students', at Gilwell Reunion, introducing prospective members (and parents of prospective members) to SSAGO.

Aims

  • Social media: Continue to widely publicise SSAGO to new members on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
  • Promotional videos: Create additional promotional videos for SSAGO, using newly submitted clips from SSAGO members.
  • Awards: Create a brand new collection of SSAGO awards to reward those who contribute so much to SSAGO!
Update

October 2021 update

Alex Banwell, Treasurer

Friday 1st of October 2021

Report

  • Charity: Submitted an application to the charity commission to register SSAGO as a charity!
  • Written the new constitution and bylaws and sought feedback from a range of interested parties.
  • Banking: Had some fun with HSBC, decided to switch to Lloyds.
  • Took control of the Lloyds bank accounts, and started the process of transferring the accounts over. Set up a new account for Viking Rally and the Dev Fund so far.

Aims

  • Banking: Finish changing SSAGO over to Lloyds fully, and close the HSBC accounts
  • Charity: See through the application, and any changes proposed by scouting/guiding, and ideally start activating some of the benefits of being a charity.
Update

September 2021 update

Oli Bills, Webmaster

Thursday 30th of September 2021

Report

  • Helped support the EGM and Rally
  • Massively improved SSAGO email system
  • Added more features to help committees with events
  • Supported present and upcoming events
  • Implemented new SSAGO off-site backups to Google
  • Major updates to SSAGO backend Infrastructure
  • Improved Discord and Website integrations
  • Improved Google and Website integrations
  • Prepared SSAGO website for Freshers
  • Minor improvements to booking system
  • Repaired the SSAGO shop
  • Archived the SSAGO Minecraft
  • Handled SSAGO rollover to new academic year

Aims

  • New and improved SSAGO shop
  • Website and framework update
  • Grow Discord and Virtual SSAGO to compliment physical activities
  • Continue to support upcoming events
  • Prepare for charity status and technological benefits
  • Plan for the future of SSAGO web and technology
  • A real Web Hack Weekend!
Update

September 2021 update

Samir Soares, Chair

Friday 24th of September 2021

Report

  • Hello there!
  • I hope you have been keeping well and it was great to see so many faces new and old at Womball in September! I hope people have kept ell over the last few month and are looking forward to the new academic year and the SSAGO activities we will have together.
  • Us at Team Pink have been working hard to bring back the National SSAGO necker, working with Scouts and Guides, progressing towards making SSAGO a charity, holding EGM elections for SSAGO events and of course the biggest thing we are working towards is having a wonderful Viking Rally and beyond!

Aims

  • I have been organising the SSAGO 2022 AGM.
  • Meeting with Scouts and Guides to work out how SSAGO can become a charity and involve their organisations as well as developing a new triparte agreement between the three of us.
Update

September 2021 update

Tom Webster, Secretary

Friday 24th of September 2021

Report

  • Policy: Tried several alternative ways to manage policy.
  • Policy: Updated several documents and created some new fact sheets.
  • Training: Promoted SSAGO at DC Day and took part in lots of training from the scouts.
  • Events: I've seen lots of SSAGO members at NW and NE(SW) freshers and saw DUSAGG at their Midnight Madness event!
  • Emails: Responding to clubs' questions and filing away your forms.
  • Charity: Working with the Scouts and Girlgudining on their relationship with SSAGO once we become a charity.

Aims

  • Policy: Finding a way to easily keep the policy up to date and present changes to reps.
  • Policy: Have a complete, editable, and reviewable set of policy documents and factsheets available on Google Drive for members to access and ensure they're the same as the ones on the website.
  • Forms: Update all the emailable forms to web forms to make them easier to use.
  • Emails: Sending and receiving lots of them!
Update

September 2021 update

Rose Moran, Members

Friday 24th of September 2021

Report

  • New Clubs: Had introduction meetings with a few universities so potentially new clubs soon!
  • Closing clubs: Unfortunately, Covid has been very hard on a lot of clubs especially when trying to fill committee positions. Therefore I have had to start the process of closing clubs for a few. However, I plan to leave these clubs open on the website for another 6 months in case some fresher want to (fingers crossed!) start them up again.
  • New members: I've been spending most of my time talking to new members and sorting them into the correct clubs!

Aims

  • Indie and Associate rep elections: Currently setting these up and I plan to help the current reps with promotion and give any support needed during the handover period.
  • Freshers and new members: I am working with clubs to support them as we head back to face-to-face meetings and with planning their programmes.
Introduction

Introducing Samir Soares

Samir Soares, Chair

Thursday 2nd of September 2021

Hello there!

I am Samir the Chair of SSAGO from 2021 to 2022, you may have see me all over the place in SSAGO at in person rallies and at various online events such as Green Rally Yellow Rally. I am always open to talking and listening to anyone to improve SSAGO for the betterment of everyone.
I and the rest of National SSAGO will be working towards safely resuming face to face SSAGO activities aswell as looking further into the future and how we can together lay the foundations of the SSAGO of tomorrow.

Introduction

Introducing Tom Webster

Tom Webster, Secretary

Thursday 2nd of September 2021

Hey, I’m Tom and am the SSAGO Secretary! This is my seventh year of SSAGO, spending four years reading Mathematics in Cambridge, a year as an associate working in London helping with CUSAGC and other clubs and I’m now in my second year of a PhD in Informatics at Edinburgh and am an Indie member of SSAGO.

I first joined scouting as a beaver in Sheffield, moving up through all the sections until I finally reached SSAGO! I spent my first years heavily involved in CUSAGC as social secretary and then chair. It took a while to make my first national SSAGO event, Leeds Northern Lights Ball in 2016, quickly followed by Southampton Dino Rally and then every other SSAGO event since. Along the way, I ran Cambridge Duck Rally in the Summer of 2018, the virtual Green Rally Yellow Rally in 2021, had 5 other committee positions in CUSAGC and was part of the ScotNorth virtual fresher's event! Through SSAGO I've massively increased the number of UK cities I’ve visited, met loads of amazing people and had some extraordinary experiences.

This year I'm aiming to keep the best of virtual SSAGO as we (hopefully) return to something a bit more normal and plan to do lots 'behind the scenes' to try and make national SSAGO more accessible and democratic as well as creating some structure for SSAGO to efficiently accomplish long-term tasks that have been passed down from one exec to the next exec (often more than once).

I think the best thing about SSAGO is it’s members and I’m always happy to hear from you, send me an email, tag me on Discord or find me at a SSAGO event (if we get to have one), I’ll be wearing pink!

Update

July 2021 update

Anthoney Gathercole, Events Officer

Thursday 1st of July 2021

Report

  • Over the last few months, I’ve been helping the Exec with handover in relation to everything to do with National Events. The Exec and Events Officer have met up with all the National and International events since the new Exec taking over and one of the major requests from these meetings was better access to resources. The National Secretary and I updated and rearranged the Events Resources Google Drive Folder and added more resources to the folder so that it is easier to navigate through the folder and find what is wanted easily.
  • A lot of meetings have taken place over the last 3 months. Event committees have been very busy despite the exam season which has meant lots of meeting minutes to read through. I have been working very closely with Viking Rally helping them get ready for the big return of SAGGO Rallies.
  • Everyone loves a mascot in SSAGO and I’ve been in this role now for over a year ( and still no in-person event) but I still do not own a physical mascot for the Events Officer. This will be a top priority along with the car and van magnetic SSAGO reflective signs. Further things that will be done are updating and restocking the first aid kit which a lot of things have unsurprisingly gone out of date since the last in-person event, and updating the How to run a Rally document.

Aims

  • What I’ve done
  • -Rearranged the Events Resources Google Drive Folder, hopefully, future-proofing and making it easy to navigate desired resources.
  • -Reading a lot of meeting minutes from event committees.
  • -Attending meetings with some event committees
  • -Helped in editing the National Events Policy.
  • -Held a hustings session on how to run for national events.
  • What I will do
  • -The Events Officer still doesn’t have a mascot, So I will endeavor to get one before the next (first in a while, I’m so excited) in-person event.
  • -Bring the SSAGO magnetic signs to the next in-person event.
  • -Update the out-of-date first aid kit for future events.
Update

July 2021 update

Joe Barnes, Quartermaster

Thursday 1st of July 2021

Report

  • Clearing old orders: There is a backlog of nearly 100 orders in the Shop that need either extra items sending out, or are waiting for new stock to arrive before I can complete the order - so thank you for being patient. I am in the process of sorting out the outstanding orders offline, but work has got in the way in the last few weeks.
  • Neckers: Several suppliers have been / are being contacted for samples based on the closest matched swatches; the supplier with the best quality/cost combination will receive a very large order of neckers!
  • Badges-at-home: I have most of the outstanding badges that people have ordered, most orders are waiting for badges that are stranded in the Netherlands before being posted out to people.

Aims

  • Reopening the Shop: My number one task is to get the shop back up and running efficiently. However, Oli has announced that the same problem that has caused some issues with other parts of the SSAGO website has completely destroyed the shop, so the Shop may well not be back online for some time. Once the backlog of orders is sorted, I will look at taking orders directly if the website isn’t back open then.
  • Restocking: By the time the shop reopens, I aim to have a full barrage of your favourite merch ready to buy (who remembers what a SSAGO necker looks like?! :'( )
  • Long term: POS Efficiency. I'm working with Oli to make the shiny new electronic Shop system work more efficiently for us, including being able to use it as a more integrated till at Rally, which will make stock control much easier and mean that hopefully none of these problems we’ve had will happen again...

Student Scout and Guide Organisation (SSAGO), 2026
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