2012 Community Cleanup

Who?: A Colony is 'hosting' our 2nd annual Community Cleanup. We've invited the parents and siblings of our Colony, to join us as we help "Take care of the world" right here in our own neighborhood. We have also extended the invitation to all of the other local Beaver colonies and Cub packs, so there should be a great turnout of scouters of all ages.

What? For the second year in a row, we've registered with the City of Ottawa's Cleaning the Capital program.

When? Saturday, September 29. We are asking for one (1) hour of help, between 10AM and 1PM. We know that family weekends are busy, we hope that asking for one hour of time any time within this 3 hour window will provide you with enough flexibility to be able to fit this into your day.

Where? We're setting up in the Mountain Meadows parking lot, off of Spratt Road here in Riverside South. We plan on cleaning the entire park, including the forested area in behind the retail strip, all the way to the fence line that separates the B.G.M. school yard from the park.

Why? Parks get messy, and Beavers like to help.

You may notice that this Saturday is also our Riverside South Community Association's, fall cleanup. It should be a busy day out in our neighborhood.

We will have cleaning supplies (Garbage bags, gloves, and paper compost bags) on site courtesy of the city program. As well as some juice boxes kindly donated by our friends at Moncion's YIG.

Please dress appropriately for spending an hour outside, closed toed shoes are recommended. Beaver hats are encouraged, full beaver uniforms are not required.

Week 2 Hike.

Click to enlarge

UPDATE: St Jerome is having a school BBQ tonight, and indicated to me late yesterday that we can't use the gym tonight. 

We'll meet in the parking lot instead, so please plan on being outside tonight rain or shine for not only the hike, but for opening and closing as well.

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Hey Folks ..........We survived Week 1 together, I hope your Beaver had fun. In fact, if they did have fun :) I know they are going to enjoy Beavers with us this year. The first night is not always the most spectacularly interesting of all nights. Learning our proper opening and closing routines, as well as introducing our selves and each other takes up a lot of time in our short hour together, time that could be spent doing something awesome.

Going forward: More awesome, I promise.

This week in fact, should be pretty awesome. Weather permitting we'll be going on a quick hike around our neighborhood. Our route is pictured, we ask that you dress appropriately for an hour outside. A water bottle might be a good idea too. We'll be doing opening and closing in the Gym, so pick up and drop off are same time same place. If' it's raining, we'll have a plan B prepared for in the Gym.

This coming Saturday (Sept 29) is our first weekend A Colony event, our 2nd annual neighborhood cleanup. We're going to setup in the Mountain Meadows parking lot at 10AM, and we ask that you and your Beaver join us to help 'Clean the Capital.' We're only asking for 1 hour of help, and we will be setup between 10am and 1PM on Saturday, there should be plenty enough flexibility to find the time in your busy family calendar. This blog will be updated with more information in a dedicated post, later this week.

Help Required - Scouts Canada policy, states that we need to have up to date emergency contact and medical information with us for every youth member that attends any of our events (Like the cleanup this weekend). I'll be printing off your child's information as we have it on file today. I need to ask each of you to you please have a quick look to check for accuracy. Once confirmed, this paperwork  will be packed up and brought with A Colony everywhere we go.

That's it for now, See you on Tuesday.

Opening Night 2012!

Quick update, our first meeting is tonight!

My apologies to any parents and beavers who may still be in the dark, we're doing our best to consolidate and balance in person and online registrations across 4 different 1st Manotick beaver colonies. As well, Scouts Canada's online system www.myscouts.ca is new for this year, and there have been some challenges around Colony administration on that front as well.

Bare with us, (Hopefully) we'll see everybody tonight!

In other news, just yesterday some one new stepped forward to join our leadership team! "Many hands make light work" .....I'll have an introduction to make once we get through the leadership application process.

Welcome Notice.

The below email was just sent to our current A Colony membership. Enrollment is not yet complete, and there are a couple of new youth to be added to our Colony, we'll have our membership firmed up prior to next Tuesday.

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Hello Parents, just a quick welcome email from the volunteer leadership team of your 1st Manotick Beavers, A Colony.

I'm going to jump around a little and put most of this into Q/A bullet points to save from writing a book, but I feel that it is important for all of us to get off on the right foot, to provide everybody with the same answer to most of the common questions. At the bottom, I'll be providing links to help find more answers as well.

Leadership - Today, we have 4 leaders. I was an A Colony leader last year and have taken over as our Colony 'Contact Leader' from Guy "Ringtail" L'Anglais who has moved on to a Cub Pack this year to continue Scouting with his youngest son. Returning to lead A Colony with me, are Bill Coleman, and Melissa Collins, who were also both part of our leadership group last year. New to A Colony is Sarah Strickey - the four of us make up your Beaver's leadership team. On behalf of all four of us, Welcome to A Colony :)

NOTE: Due to the fact that we have fewer volunteer leaders this year than in other years, A Colony is going to be slightly smaller to maintain proper ratio. Scouts Canada has a policy in place that stipulates that we can not exceed 5 youth to every leader, so with 4 leaders we are capped at 20 youth. ..........As you can see we're a little short on parent volunteers this year, if you are at all interested in stepping up and joining us ~please let me know. It is unfortunate that we have had to turn away youth in the neighborhood for lack of volunteer Colony leaders.

First Meeting? Tuesday September 18 in the St Jerome School Gymnasium. We meet from 6:15 to 7:15 every Tuesday. We'll be providing you with a calendar shortly so you can plan your family calendars accordingly.

Uniforms? Available online or at the Scout Shop on Baseline Road (Link below). Your beaver will require a vest, and a hat to be in proper Beaver dress for our weekly meetings. In a couple of weeks, we will be providing your beaver with his Colony Neckerchief and slide to complete his uniform. If you want to pick up a Beavers T-shirt that is available also, please go ahead, but it is not required for our weekly meetings (Beavers can wear whatever T-shirt they like under their vests). As our meetings do take place in a Gym, we like to have some big games and activities from week to week. Please send your Beaver with indoor shoes as well.

The Uniforms look different? Last year all Scouts Canada uniforms were refreshed, so you might notice a slight change from the old light brown vests and 2 tone hats to the new darker brown vests and blue bucket hats. Either style is welcome for our meetings.

Additional Costs? Between now and May, we'll be keeping your Beaver quite busy. Certain 'extra curricular' events will have a nominal cost associated with them. Camping trips, sleepovers, special events that occur outside of our weekly meetings might have an additional cost for participation.

Fundraising? There are 2 major initiatives in the Scouts Canada program plan for Beavers, that directly fund and benefit our Colony. Apple day, and Popcorn sales. You will be hearing more about both of these soon, and I will break down exactly how both programs impact the quality programming that we plan to deliver for your Beaver.

More information? We have a blog (Link below) and will use it to keep everyone on the same page. firstmanotickbeaversacolony@gmail.com is our Colony catch all email, that ends up in my inbox. I'm typically quick to return emails, please let me know if you have any questions.

http://1stmanotickbeaverscolonya.blogspot.ca/ > Our blog.

http://www.scouts.ca/ca/programs > Scouts Canada, programs overview. ........at the bottom of that page, there is a 'SHOP' link, where you can purchase your uniforms online.

http://goo.gl/maps/Bd4jw > St Jerome Catholic School, this is where we meet every Tuesday at 6:15

http://goo.gl/maps/2PBDt > Scouts Canada HQ, also the home of theScouts shop where you can buy the Beaver uniform.

Thank you for reading, and we look forward to meeting everyone Next Tuesday!

Dan Auns - Contact Leader
1st Manotick A Colony Beavers
613.327.23028 - Cell

2012 / 2013 Welcome

Just a quick formal Hello via our blog, welcoming everyone to a new year of Scouting.  Beavers who are already enrolled, will be hearing from us later this week via email with more info as we fill out our Colony registration numbers.

Our first meeting will be on September 18, at 6:15PM in the gymnasium at St Jerome.