Joining 23^rd Lyttelton Scout Group

What does being invested mean?

Investiture is a formal ceremony to let the recruit join the worldwide Scout movement. Becoming a Meerkat, Cub or Scout is a serious commitment and means that your child promises to do their best to live by the Scout Promise and Law. It also means your child can join in the many and varied activities that Scouts offers and begin to work your way up the advancement ladder.

We hope that your child will have a lot of fun and learn a lot about themselves and their fellow Meerkats, Cubs or Scouts. Scouting will benefit your child for the rest of their lives and the more they are involved, the more they will enjoy themselves and reap the benefits.

You can take a look at our page "What is Scouting" for more info on Scouts.

Before you can be invested

1. You will have to buy a uniform which is worn for the first time on the day you are invested.
   Please do not buy the uniform until the Scouter (adult leader) has confirmed with when it will happen; usually 6 weeks (excluding holidays) after they first starting joining in
2. Complete the membership documentation and return to the Adult Scouter before investiture.
3. Pay the joining fee and at least your first term's membership fee before investiture.

What uniform must I get?

Scouts have worn uniforms since the start of scouting in 1908. While the standards and requirements have varied from time to time, the fact of a uniform as been a constant. Uniforms are worn for various reasons, apart from tradition. They give a sense of belonging; they are used to display the advancement of the scout and they equalise discrepancies between the backgrounds of the scouts. We have noted, in discussions, that our members are quite possessive of the uniform and are not keen to make substantive changes to the uniform.

It is part of membership of the troop that we require our scouts to wear the approved uniform. Uniforms vary from troop to troop in minor aspects as allowed by the regulations governing scouts in South Africa.

23^rd Lyttelton (Pretoria) Scout Group wears a khaki shirt, khaki shorts or long pants (the adult leaders can explain which), the official scout belt, khaki socks and proper school shoes.

If you are coming up from Cubs, then you will keep your same uniform and simply change some of the badges. That said, at the rate the children grow, it would be worth your while to buy a new shirt that they can grow into.

You will need the following

• Khaki Shirt
• Khaki shorts or long pants (See Scouter/Adult leader to confirm which)
• Khaki scout belt and scout buckle
• Khaki Scout socks (military khaki socks are good too)
• Brown woggle for scarf
• For Cubs - a cub cap
• Brown school shoes if possible but black is fine if that is what the school wears

Optional

• Purple Scout hat
• Purple Scout golf shirt
• Purple Scout hoodie
• A copy of the "My Scout Journey" book

You do not need to buy as we provide them:

• Badges
• Group Scarf
• Scout cap (scouts only)

What you should know?

To be invested your child should be familiar with the basic requirements of membership. These can be found on the Scout Wiki and in the My Scout Journey book. They should read and familiarise themselves with these requirements. There is no test so there is no need to study them or learn them off by heart. The Troop Scouter will discuss the requirements with them prior to investiture.

Becoming a scout means that they personally subscribe to, and will do their best to live up to, the Scout Promise and Law. As part of being invested you will recite the Promise and other scouts will recite the Scout Law. The Promise and Law can be found on the SCOUTS South Africa website.

Costs and fees

We charge a membership fee to cover the costs of running an exciting programme. 23^rd Lyttelton (Pretoria) Scout Group is part of Scouts South Africa and a non-profit and we (23rd) do not receive any government grants or income so are fully dependant on the membership fees and fund raising in order to continue to run programs and events.

Additionally, you would pay a once-off joining fee to cover the cost of the scarf, Scout cap (Scouts only) and badges. You will also need to buy a uniform as detailed above. There is also a red camp golf shirt with group badge for use on camps and activities which can be purchased separately from the group.

We run & attend a number of camps, hikes and outdoor activities. These come at an additional cost, but the fee is set out to cover the costs of food and camp fees. It is usually reasonably low.

Can parents come to an investiture?

Yes please, we encourage parents and family to attend. Investiture is a serious step for a child and we think that the Promise they make should assume significance in their lives. Having parents attend underlines the importance of this. An investiture lasts about 15-20 minutes and runs from just after 18h30. Should parents wish to take photos, we are very happy that they do so.

What actually happens in an investiture?

Your child is guided through each step in the investiture by Akela or the Troop Scouter and your Sixer or Patrol Leader, part of which will be to hear the Cub/Scout Law, and to recite the Cub/Scout Promise. After they have been invested they are officially a Cub or Scout and entitled to wear the cub/scout uniform.

What else do I need to know?

There are some important implications of an investiture that you, the parent, should be aware of.

• We require completed Membership documentation.
• We charge an annual membership fee which is prorated for scouts who join during the year. The Treasurer will advise you of the applicable amount which can be settled as single annual for a discount or monthly over 10 months.
  Should you experience financial difficulties, the troop has a precedure in place for applying the group to subsidise cubs/scouts. Please ask any scouter or committee member who will be able to put you in contact with the right person.
• There is a joining fee applicable to cover the cost of the badges, scarf and cap.
• We handle our administration on an online system called Scouts Digital. This is the official record keeping system for all scouts in South Africa. For access to the system we need a separate email address for each person. Both parents and scouts can access the system at any time on any device but the Cub/Scout must have their own seperate access.
  It is important to keep your personal information up to date, particularly medical information.

Keeping in Touch

• Our primary form of communication is through WhatsApp with some communication going through email.
  It is essential that we have an email for at least one parent/guardian. If the Scout has an email we will also email them. It is important that the email address is checked on a regular basis.
• We have a Facebook page, and Instagram account. Photos from events are often posted here. Please LIKE our pages!
• You will be added to the respective WhatsApp Group; if you find that you have not been added, please let the Scouters know so we can add you The groupis are useful for co-ordination of activities and sharing information.

Parental Support

23^rd Lyttelton Scout Group is a community Scout group. This means that we exist because the we serve the community and the community wants us to exist. As a community scout group we are entirely reliant on the support of parents to function. Your support can take different forms:

• Transport when needed;
• Assisting with hall and grounds maintenance at our regular work sessions;
• Any thing you are able to assist with, no matter how big or small
• Joining (or assisting) the Scout Group Committee;
• Helping run the Pack/Troop.

The last point is a critical function without which the troop will cease to exist. We thus appeal to you to assist at regular meetings, hikes or camps or to recommend someone you know who would like to get involved in working with the youth. We are particularly always looking for young adults (males and females) around the age of 20 – 30 years old.

A Balanced Life

We have noted that when some children join Scouts their lives are very busy with school activities and / or family activities. As a result they are not able to attend many scout functions and they often lose interest or become frustrated and leave Scouts. Because of the lack of interest, they can also become disruptive influences or merely a negative influence in the troop which affects other Scouts. To truly benefit from what Scouts can offer, a level of commitment is required. This may mean the child and the parents re-evaluating what is important and/ or enjoyable in the their lives and what the priorities are and making choices based on those priorities.

Scouts is not just 2 or 3 hours a week. There are many outdoor activities over weekends which is where the true learning, experience and enjoyment is to be found. A scout who is unable to attend most of this activities will not get the full benefit of Scouts and is unlikely to stay at Scouts. The troop also expects Scouts to make steady progress through the levels of advancement, attend badge courses and increasingly, as the scout becomes older, there will be an expectation that the scout will plan, organise and run certain activities. These are all time consuming activities and largely take place over weekend. The time consumed is not just for the scout. Parents and families may also have to adjust their lives accordingly.

We encourage parents and Scouts to evaluate the relative importance to them of Scouts and extra-mural activities and seek to strike a balance. Scouts offers a very different experience to that of schools but to fully gain the benefit it is necessary to give certain level of commitment and time to Scouts in just the same way that to get the benefit of the fine schools that surround us, there must be a level of commitment. It is important to remember that the commitment at schools is often more required than voluntary. The commitment to Scouts is entirely voluntary.

A few years ago, a prominent school in the southern suburbs surveyed their parents and asked what the school was not teaching their children. The most common answer was “Leadership” as a result of this the school instituted a week long program to teach leadership for a particular age group. Scouts, by contrast offers, as just one facet of our program, a continuous 7 years of leadership training and practise, individually tailored. While not every scout will become a patrol leader, every scout will get multiple opportunities to learn and exercise leadership. These opportunities increase with advancement levels as greater leadership and organisational skills are required at higher advancement levels.

We are confident that Scouts offers something that schools cannot but to get that something the commitment of time and effort is required. We ask that parents, families and Scouts evaluate their lives, the importance of Scouts against other activities and make a conscious choice, if that is the decision, to commit time and effort to Scouts.