SSAGO News

Many SSAGO members celebrated Aber's 20th Birthday at ball this past weekend. We enjoyed some great food and drinks, party bags, cake and some dancing. We also celebrated the SSAGO awards and commendations

Best Volunteering commendation awarded to Hannah Paveley

Hannah has been an outstanding SSAGO member, juggling final year at university, co-chairing Oktoberfest rally, chair of BUSAG, as well as countless scouting commitments. As chair of BUSAG Hannah worked to make sure everything ran smoothly while ensuring the rest of committee were okay and managing to work closely with the Guild of Students. BUSAG have also had the biggest number of new freshers join in several years. Hannah's scouting roles span across Birmingham and Gloucester, and they include deputy county youth lead for Gloucestershire, district youth lead for Rea Valley, assistant section leader at 95th Birmingham Beavers and Scouts, being in the Scouts UK role pool, as well as being a patrol leader for Roverway 2024. Hannah is definetly deserving of the best volunteering commendation, well done Hannah!

 

Best Local Event commendation awarded to Midlands Freshers Camp 2023 

Midlands Fresher’s Guide to 00’s TV was an incredibly well organized event by SNoGS and was a fantastic start to a year of SSAGO events. There was an action packed schedule, every detail was well thought out and flooded with nostalgia, from face painting and temporary tattoos to turkey dinosaurs for dinner. A highlight of the weekend was some Robot wars inspired naval warfare, where each team made a set of paper boats and had to launch flaming cotton balls into enemies boats! The weekend clearly had a lot of planning and it paid off, a great weekend was had by all, well done SNoGS! 

 

Best Activity commendation awarded to DUSAGG- Indoor and Outdoor 2024

This years Indoor and Outdoor was ran by DUSAGG for local Scout and Guides was a triumph. With the reintroduction of Guides into the Indoor event for the first time since the 2000s, there was a huge increase in numbers which is always positive. There was event joint winners, one Scout team and one Guide team. This event has been in Durham City since 1977 and has been ran by DUSAGG for the last two decades, well done DUSAGG for another successful event! 

 

Best innovation commendation awarded to SSAGO Olympic Park Challenge

At the World Scout Jamboree in Korea last summer, there was an evacuation of the UK's contingent, and members of the International Service Team (IST) managed to compile a vast range of last minute activities for the young people attending to ensure they didn't miss out. It was a team of SSAGO and SAGGA members who rallied together to put together the operation is less than 48 hours, allowing almost 1000 young people to participate in a collection of silly and ridiculous challenges. The Olympic park team were working non-stop to ensure everyone attending enjoyed there time and they deserve some recognition for all their hard work. Thank you to the SSAGO volunteers who helped! 

 

Special mention commendation awarded to Ben Dickinson 

Ben started 2023 as SSAGO's first SASU manager, which is an important role for maintaining our relationship with the Scouts on a longer term basis. Come summer, Ben stepped in as interim members officer assuming he would only have this role for a few weeks. It soon became apparent that the interim period would last a bit longer and Ben stepped up. Ben threw himself into his new role and made many other members of team pinks time on exec more bearable. Thank you to Ben for stepping up when needed! 

 

Cutlery Cup awarded to Alice Baldwin 

Alice has been described as one of the friendliest people in SSAGO, she is always up for lending a hand. You may have seen her helping out at ReBar, Rali Cymru, or Oktoberfest, or on Rally of Games committee. Alice has also done a lot for her own SSAGO club, Salford, being treasurer 21-22 and chair 22-23. Alice also contributes to Girlguiding by volunteering at local guide groups and is currently celebrating the completion of her Queens guide award. Thank you for all your help Alice, a well deserved award! 

 

Committee Colander awarded to Portsmouth SSAGO (PUGS) 

Portsmouth SSAGO have had a difficult few years since the pandemic and this years committee has brought the club back to life with a healthy amount of members. This was thanks to all the hard work of committee member from behind the scenes. PUGS even had 11 members travel over 250 miles each way to attend Rally Through Time. PUGS also have 6 leaders who volunteer in Scouting locally, as well as one in Guiding. In summary, PUGS have faced some big challenges over the last few years but the current committee have worked tirelessly to boost membership and reach out to local units. Welldone PUGS, you have achieved some great things this year as a committee! 

 

Exceptional Service: Honorary SSAGO membership awarded to Reuben Cone

Reuben joined SSAGO in 2016 and got stuck in right away in Keele SSAGO. He stepped up as a fresher to be Club treasurer and in his second year was the Scout and Guide liason, and helped the club grow significantly from 6 to 20 members. Reuben stepped up to chain in his third year, and also chaired that years Midlands Freshers Camp. In his third year Reuben was also elected onto National Exec as Publicity Officer. He was then also reelected the following year again as Publicity Officer, and along with the rest of team pink, succssfully held SSAGO together through the first year of the pandemic. Reuben was also responsible for creating the committee colander! Once graduated Reuben still had the urge to run one last SSAGO event, co bid for Once Upon A Ball and was treasurer, and co chair for the event. One last event didn't last long as Reuben then bid to run Witan 2024! From committees, event planning, DJing, and hosting quizzes most of SSAGO probably know Reuben for something. And after his 8 years committed to SSAGO we think he deserves to be recognised for his commitment, so it's our pleasure to award him honorary membership!