Why we’re proud to be part of the Scouts family

Here at Selkirk Scouts, we’ve got Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and support Explorers too. We’ve also got some Young Leaders who are a great help. In fact, the first one was my son! As soon as we heard about the new brand we wanted to get on board. The new image is really crisp, clear and simple – just what we needed.

I’ve got to be honest, updating our branding was a piece of cake. I went on the Scouts brand centre and everything was there for me. You can pick up your personalised logo in the right colour and all the materials automatically come out in the right font and layout. It was a doddle. We’ve ordered two signs – one for the front and one for the back of our headquarters.

Making the switch
The brand centre is really well thought through. We’ve ordered noticeboards, feather flags and letterheads through the site. Everything we needed, really. The guidelines are all there on the brand centre for you to refer to and the whole process of switching to the new brand was very simple.

Being visible in our community is a big thing and we’re now looking at getting window stickers too. It’s really important that our community knows who we are and what we do. We also like the fact that the brand shows we’re all part of the family of Scouts. No matter where you are, we’re all part of the same movement and the new brand really shows that.

An active group
We’re a really vibrant group and have lots to be proud of. We have a family rota and lots of parents help out. We regularly take our group to camp, including to Guernsey. In fact, we’re such frequent visitors there, they’ve even got a place called the Selkirk Field. We hike around the island, have campfires, canoe and sail and the Scouts love it, although it did rain quite a bit last time we were there.

We also make trips over to Germany. Selkirk is twinned with Plattling, Bavaria. It’s a town on the Danube about an hour from Munich. On the 20th anniversary of the twinning, our group was invited over. We met the mayor and the head teacher of the local school and got to meet young people there. We were so proud to represent both Scouts and our town.

Happy volunteers
In the five years I’ve been involved with the group we’ve done a lot, but that’s because we have a great team. There are two critical things for every Scout Group – you have to make sure that the Scouts have a great experience and that the volunteers are happy.

My son has just graduated from being a Young Leader to becoming our Scout Leader. I’ve seen him grow up from being a young Cub to becoming a volunteer. At our last camp we got chatting about Scouts and all the people he’s met through the movement and all the things he’s got out of it. It got quite emotional!

In terms of impact since the rebrand, we’re certainly seeing lots of enquiries. We must be doing something right, as we have lots of parents getting in touch wanting to know how they and their families can get involved.