;

14 December 2000

to all members of Council,
County, Area & District Commissioners,
Headquarters circulation

Dear Colleague,

Uniform Review

The Committee of the Council held a special all day meeting yesterday, devoted almost entirely to the consideration of the outcome of the uniform review. We had the results of nearly 46,000 responses to the questionnaire in front of us, roughly two thirds of them being from young people; and we had also received a lot of relevant correspondence. The Committee is very grateful to all those who took the time to write in, and particularly to those Leaders who tried to ensure that we got a genuinely representative response from young members of the Association.

This short letter is designed to give you immediate information, and simply summarises the main decisions that the Committee took in the form of a table (see over). There are several significant changes from the original proposals as a result of the consultation exercise, one consequence of which is that it is not possible - at this stage - to circulate photographs of what our new uniform will look like. It is intended to circulate copies of studio quality photographs early in the new year (when proper samples will have been made up), together with a detailed summary of the results of the consultation. They will also appear on Scoutbase. The immediate priority is speed of communication of this summary of the Committee's decisions.

Arrangements are now being made for Scout Shops Ltd to place orders for supplies of the new uniforms, which should be available by the early summer of next year (2001): and a public launch of the new designs is scheduled for mid-spring. In the mean time, please circulate this information as widely as possible within your Counties, Areas and Districts (it will also be appearing on Scoutbase). Please also inform everyone that although the new uniform will be generally available from next summer, the change-over is not scheduled to be complete until 1 January 2003. At that date, young people may still continue to wear the existing uniform, if they wish to do so, until they change Section.

We are anxious that new Leaders, and the families of young members newly joining the Movement or 'moving up', should not feel that they 'have' to buy the existing uniform (supplies of which are in any case being phased out). You may therefore wish to encourage the second hand markets which already exist in many Groups and Districts. You should also be prepared to encourage Leaders not to delay investitures because of any lack of 'proper' uniform. Although full uniform is of course very much to be encouraged on such occasions, the Group neckerchief and the genuine intentions of the young people concerned are quite sufficient!

Yours sincerely,

John Bevan
Chairman, Committee of the Council