Is it possible for synergy network to set up and run there own fellowship. As we have members who are getting to old by want to stay involved in scouting

Hi Graham,

not sure on this one - technically fellowships fall under the district boundaries which is a little different to that of network. Also, you need to have a purpose or mission statement for exisiting that is complimentary to the existing fellowships in the district that your fellowship would fall under !!

Best thing I can suggest is to speak to Alastair (acc fellowship) you should be able to find his details on the website somewhere

Contact details and further Fellowship related info available here:

Essex Scouts Fellowship Web Page

P

Do fellowships have to be linked to a district. The purpose of Synergy X would be to support Network activities. As network is county linking the supporting fellowship to a district would be difficult - afterall which district would you link it to when Synergy network covers 4 districts? Rules rules and more rules!

that's exactly the issue Amanda, fellowships are linked to Districts yes.

Synergy X wouldn't fit, and if we were going to have a County Fellowship who's aim was to support Network then it wouldn't really be fair to call it Synergy X as it would need to be a county-wide outfit.

Realistically it would also be duplicating what fellowships are meant to be there for!

it may be what fellowships are meant to be there for but how many times have we heard that someone wants to set up a fellowship as an alternative to network?

There are a lot of people out there who don't for one reason or another like network. Equally there are an increasing number of people over 25 who are supporting network in some way or another - not all of whom have other official roles in scouting. this support is not always forthcoming from the other fellowships and there is clearly a need for the fellowship - doesn't really matter what it is called.

Hi Amanda,

the only thing I can suggest as before is that you speak to Alastair and Rob and see what their thoughts are sorry I can't be more help!

Why not setup local Fellowships in each District and Network them together, Combined Programme Planning / Shared Meetings / Shared Events etc... They will operate as one virtual Fellowship network, but satisfy Scouting rules. You will of course need an aim for these local Fellowships.

The aim could be to support events in all of the Districts and encourage inter-district co-operation with all sections ?

Shouldn't we encouraging those Network members who are getting too old to take out warrants if they want to stay involved?

Wasn't the death of Rover Scouting in the 1960's brought about by members who didn't want to take out warrants but still wanted to 'hang on'?

If we encourage people to 'hang on' by the formation of an exclusive Fellowship then we run the risk of something similar happening again, plus we lose out on potential leaders.

I accept that there are those who will not be able to take out warrants due to personal constraints (I fell into that category myself in my 20's) and the current Fellowhips will serve a useful purpose for those people but I don't see the need for a specific 'Network' fellowship.

A lot of us have warrants already for younger sections. that doesn't really help network though.

Hi Folks,

Time I "stuck my oar in", I think.

Lots of interesting comments posted above and here are my thoughts:

1) A Fellowship has to have a purpose and that has to be to act in some sort of service capacity for the youth membership. Therefore in principle we could have a Network Fellowship for over 25 year olds.
It would need a committee i.e Chairperson, Secretary Treasurer etc and a clear constitution and remit. I would insist that you had to be 25 or over to join such a Fellowship.

2) Yes Fellowships are usually attached to Districts and or Groups but they can also be part of the County structure. All of our activity Teams are County Fellowships

3) The issue of taking out a Warrant at 25 after Network is an option for people. However, I'd sooner enable someone to stay involved in Scouting than leave because they didn't want to take a warrant and had no other option. Can't comment on the Rover Scouting issue as I'm not old enough to know.

4) Chris, Alastair, and myself will need to chat this through to see what we feel would be the best way of satisfying the need.

5) So keep your comments coming put something down on paper as a proposal and as "Three wise men" we will consider it.

6) Remember, Fellowships should be active in support of our young people and can be of any age not just "the old, the bold, the bald and the grey" or "smell of wee and make the Tea" brigade. Of course, not that we have any of them in the County. All our Fellowships are vibrant and energetic fulfilling a useful Service to our young people.

Take Care

Rob

*cough cough* yeh right < I'm kidding of course! >

I think the idea of a Network Fellowship is great! The extra support would take the strain of some of the organising of the big county events such as MAD.

Anything which is going to benefit network seems like a good idea to me

As for taking out warrents - Amanda is correct, many networkers have them - and if they don't... they aren't likely to get one! It depends on what each individual wants to do - and Rob is right, it would be terrible to loose people when they could be benefitting the scouting movement. Obviously until we have a Fellowship we can't make too many assumptions, but I'm 60% sure (which is more than half but less than completly sure) that they wouldn't be completely adverse to helping out at events which include Explorers - especially joint events. - basically I'm saying it could benefit more than just Network

As for Synergy X - its a shame because Phoenix wanted - X Phoens - but part of me agrees it would be pointless having one per network as there aren't technically enough over the age of 25 (thats Phoenix's situation)

Mary there are hardly any over the age of 25 lol

the other way around it is if we join OATS or Avock.

Myself and Glenn are already members of OATS and have been for nearly 2 years now, and fellowship works really well for us.

I still like the idea of a Network Fellowship, but luckily for most of Phoenix, we havn't got to worry about it for a good few years yet lol.

Would be good to see what you all come up with

Ok firstly I would just like to say what a great idea this is and I’m available to help in anyway I can.

The idea of having fellowships is to put back into the community, which is important, but like alot of us do that already.
I run my own scout troop. At my age and with being female this is not been easy to say the least. My fellow networker’s, advisor and county commissioner not only have proved to be always there for general light relief but also they are readily available to help me with any problem I have regardless of how serious or trivial.
Without them I’m not sure my troop would exist.

Having a warrant is a huge responsibility I believe that we should not just be allowed to have a fellowship and/or network to turn to I believe it should be requirement for all carrying a warrant.

Also those "hangers on" that were mentioned are maybe "hanging" as they have not found a group they want to give their time to yet or may not be ready for it due to other responsibilities if we start throwing people out when they get to 25 we would be losing a number of potential great leaders.
Gone are the times the scouts is just for the children it is fast becoming a organisation for all ages we should be encouraging this.

We are short of leaders now if we don’t encourage growth with scouting we wont have a scouting association.

Going along with jennie here - we set up the OATS (old age tilbury scouts) fellowship once our successful venture unit ceased to be. The fellowship in our district was full of much older people (no offence if anyones reading this!!) and we wanted to continue to meet with people we already knew through scouting/ventures etc.

We have a remit to support scouting within our district with a particular focus to supporting tilbury group. Maybe if you go for a network fellowship you could include in your remit supporting scouting in essex with particular focus to supporting network?? We do all the usual socialising bits and run camps/fundays etc too.

Gaynor

Nice to see some good advice from a fellow fellowship member........

I don't know how you would go about setting a fellowship up......who would you have to ask??

As we're district based we went to the DC who took it to district exec. Also approached group so they were happy for us to fall under their umbrella if you like!

Would guess if it's county based fellwoship then to Rob? and ACC Fellowship - must be some committee out there for just this sort of thing!!!

Gaynor

God save us from another damn Committee.

Gaynor, Please refer to my post of the 6th Jan.

I will try and chat to Chris and Alastair sooner rather than later so watch this space.

Hope that helps.

(By the way thanks for the comment Vicky. Always nice to know I am of benefit to someone somewhere. )

Rob