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The new Fellowship website is up and running at www.scouts.org.uk/fellowship!

From the site you can find out about Fellowship, read stories from local and National Fellowships, download resources, read the latest news stories and articles, and find out about the Scout Fellowship Support Team.

Please let us know what you think of the new site, and if you have any suggestions for improvements, by emailing fellowship@scout.org.uk

For the next couple of months both the new site and the Scoutbase pages will continue to be updated. However, please be aware that in the not too distant future the Fellowship pages on Scoutbase will be redirected and you will only be able to access information through the new site.

This page is designed to let you share stories and examples of good practice from Fellowships across the UK.

If you would like to share your story, please get in touch at fellowship@scout.org.uk

Christchurch District Scout Fellowship are extremely busy and active, doing everything from craft to campfires, map-reading to first aid. Based at District level they provide support at both District and County events, and also to individual sections by running meetings making use of their skills. As if all that wasn't enough, they also run a busy and varied social programme for their own members!

To read more about what they get up to, and the enthusiasm they do it with, click here

Eastbourne District Scout (Fellowship) First Aid Team (EDSFAT) are a District Fellowship whose remit is to provide First Aid support to Scouting, at District, County, National and even International events! This summer they were busy at the 21st World Scout Jamboree - you may have seen their ambulance or Land Rover ambulance around the site. They also provide First Aid training for their members, and run First Response courses for others.

To find out more about this busy Fellowship click here

Blackburn District Scout Fellowship help out at a variety of events across the District and County, as well as organising social events for their own members. One particular event which they regularly help out with is the 'Christmas Experience' - when Father Christmas makes his base at Bowley Campsite for a week so that he can visit Beavers, Cubs, Rainbows and Brownies in the area.

To read more please click here

Ormskirk District Scout Fellowship are a thriving Fellowship with around 50 members, taking part in a huge variety of activities to support all sections across the District. At one memorable event in 2007 18 members appeared at the District Gathering as Professor Dumbledore and other witches and wizards!! During 2008 they will again be supporting a variety of District events, including a Dungeons and Dragons day for Cubs, the Beaver Adventure day, and the District Gala.

See details of their activities here

Berkshire Scout Enterprises is a Limited company and a Registered Charity set up and run by Scout Fellowship Members in Berkshire. Originally set up for the purpose of training young people to gain employment, it also has strong international links, and provides support to Berkshire Scout County.

You can find out more about Berkshire Scout Enterprises here or on their website

Grimsby and Cleethorpes Scout Fellowship have been meeting for 23 years and provide a variety of support to the District.

During the past year they have: held social events with Louth Fellowship; had a New Year dinner for 40; run a quiz for the cubs; helped with the Grimsby and Cleethorpes gang show; helped out at the St. George’s Day parade; spent working days and bank holiday weekends at Cherry Garth – the District campsite; helped a local Group run their summer fair; organised and ran a camp for Russian children; helped with the fun day at Raywell, and the Cleethorpes Race for Life; assisted with the cub chess and dominoes competitions; provided support for the recruitment day at Sainsburys; helped out with JOTA; run the Scout post at Christmas time; and helped out with various cub camps and brownie camps. Phew!

Find out more at www.gy-districtleaders.supanet.com

In 2005 Tamworth Scout Fellowship had the honour of being asked to oversee Tamworth District centenary celebrations. By the end of 2006 planning of events was well underway and a backwoods cook book had been produced by fellow members with the proceeds going towards the celebrations.

The first event, a trip to Euro Disney, took place in February 2007 attended by four Fellowship members helping to provide the necessary food for the coach load of hungry Cubs, Scouts and Leaders, very expertly arranged by a Group Scout Leader. This was followed by the District camp at Beaudesert campsite with 600 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Leaders attending over three days, for which 12 Fellowship members provided a BBQ at the disco. Then there was providing breakfast at the August 1st Sunrise Event, front of house and internal catering at the Gang Show for nine hundred people, over the four days it ran. Then we had the past leaders and helpers reunion, and we still have the end of year disco and fireworks party to go, PHEW.

This of course was in addition to our normal programme of catering for the District and the Fellowship AGMs, a District leader's shooting competition, St. Georges Day Activities, summer BBQ, Beaver funday, Cubs swimming gala, District carol service and our own social events and outings which always seem to end with having food!

With most of our members being retired I feel it is a job well done.

We were asked recently to let people know what our Fellowship gets up to, and what we get up to is a lot!

Thorrington Scout Campsite plays a major part in our support for Scouting around Colchester. Each January a party of Fellowship members 'spring cleans' the buildings; buildings which were many cases built by 'The Wednesday Team', another group of Fellowship members. Our Fellowship provides support for various Groups and Sections, for example manning refreshment and activity stalls, or providing assistance cover for St. George's Day events - we are just there for the many Groups in Colchester.

Many of our members are with the Fellowship in order to work at Thorrington, be members of the Gang Show, and again simply to be able to assist at Scouting events. Our members are keen and working towards long service medals, including our chairman Ray Roxby who last year was presented with an award for 60 years service!

We also have a healthy social life, holding monthly meetings to which we invite speakers and demonstrators, or else we may meet at a member's home to have bit of a do there. Last year we gathered for one meeting at Thorrington Scout Camp site for an evening of fun and friendship, members providing refreshments and entertainments or simply enjoying being together and having a chat. For a New Year event we meet at Thorrington for supper and entertainment, with another group of Scouters doing the catering and raising funds for their Scout Group.

Yes we are a happy band of people across the age range and very much enjoy what we do!

Christchurch Scout Fellowship is amazing! Are we old? Do we just meet for a coffee and a chat? NO Are we active? YES!

Our ages range from 25 to 80+ and we are a very active Fellowship. We support all the district events: this can be by running bases such as map reading, orienteering, first aid, craft work, catering, putting up tents, marquees, obstacle courses, making and running camp fires... the list of our skills and activities is endless!

We also help at County events, the biggest of course being Goose 2007 which incorporated Dorset's Sunrise Ceremony with around 4,500 young people present. For this camp we decided on caravans instead of tents and made a lovely campsite of 11 caravans (making ourselves very comfortable for the next seven days), right by the main meeting point and of course not too far from the camp bar! We helped to organise the craft bases, (wood turning, rope making, badges, bead lizards, glass engraving and painting, wood and leather burning, prayer tree, a commemorative mosaic and lots more activities), joining forces with all the other Fellowships in the County otherwise we would have collapsed from exhaustion.

Leaders ask us to help run meetings, so we take the craft team round the colonies, packs and troops making walking sticks, bird boxes and fabulous toast racks, burning wood, painting and engraving all sorts of glass objects. We will run a meeting at the drop of a hat, to cover for leaders who are ill. We enjoy paper trails around St. Catherine's Hill and have lost many a Beaver and Leader on what we thought where simple trails and tracking signs!

We hold a monthly meeting at which around 50 members attend, our chairman Derek Blake tries to keep tight control of us, as we arrange our social dates and book in Groups, District and County's requests for support. We do have a busy social side; skittles, walks, quiz's, visits to breweries and stately homes all tastes are catered for at the moment we are all eagerly awaiting our visit to Live 07 and the Christmas Dinner. We also have a couple of walks booked - some members walk and others meet us at the pub for lunch. This works well and is very popular. There is also the dreaded fund raising and we turn our hands to car parking for the New Forest Marathon (6am start!), Cream Teas, (the men are the waiters and the ladies prepare the tea and scones), Quiz's and raffles.

We have been know to hand out teas at some events, however we are well know for our slogan "we don't do teas"! This is because we wanted it to be known we are an active Fellowship with a wealth of Scouting knowledge. We count many ex-leaders, ADCs, DCs and a soon to be ex-CC amongst our numbers. So why, if we are so active, are we in Fellowship and not warranted leaders? We don't have the time! Our jobs and family commitments do not allow us to commit to regular meetings, anyway we've been there done that! But we are all still very keen and enthusiastic members and just because some of us are less mobile than we were does not mean we can't help out at camping competitions, base work, judging events and passing on valuable skills.

What would happen without us? Well some District events would struggle to run, the pressure on leaders would be greater, knowledge and skills would be lost.

What do I get out of Fellowship? I moved to Christchurch six years ago, and have seen this Fellowship develop and expand. have found friendship and support, my belief in Scouting has been renewed. I enjoy my Scouting and this enjoyment and friendship is then passed onto the young people and adults in Scouting. I have been in the scouting movement since 1983 and I certainly do not consider myself old (40ish), as some people picture Scout Fellowship!

We are welcome at every Group and every event in the County, we are hard working and fun loving, no challenge is too big as Goose 2007 proved, we are there to support Scouting in Christchurch and we enjoy every minute.

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EDSFAT is a Fellowship which supports Scouting, whilst also giving its members a learning experience and a fun time! It is now a District Fellowship that was formed more than 15 years ago and has migrated over the years to have its base within Eastbourne District. The Team membership is made up from Scouting people from East and West Sussex with some from even further away.

The Remit of the Team is to provide First Aid Support to Scouting events; we aim to support County, National and International Scouting events in addition to events in our Districts and other local South-East coast Districts. EDSFAT has a regular and on-going-learning-program with occasional large exercises to put the learning into practice.

Although the Team receives tremendous support from Eastbourne District, the Team does not receive any funding support from Eastbourne District and is totally self-funding. EDSFAT funds itself by, at this time, charging for attending events (generally that covers the cost of attending the event) plus general fundraising activities, to cover the costs of purchasing and maintaining the Team's equipment, throughout the year. To help with fundraising EDSFAT have, for a long time, helped supply First Aid equipment and High Visibility equipment to Scouting people - you may have seen the Team each year at the Gilwell Reunion. The Team has recently opened an online shop at on its website to try and expand sales to support its aims of supporting Scouting events. The Team have also built up expertise and a reputation for organising car parking at large events such as the annual Brighton end of the London to Brighton Cycle ride, Eastbourne Festival of Transport and the BBC Springwatch event in Brighton.

Members of EDSFAT were very heavily involved with both Eurojam and the World Scout Jamboree 2007. The Team donated the use of a large amount of its equipment and vehicles to the event and a number of key positions within the Jamboree management team were filled by members of the EDSFAT. A large proportion of the Eastbourne First Aid Team members attended the Jamboree as individuals with all providing assistance within the healthcare team.

EDSFAT also supports smaller camps in addition to national jamborees. In particular the First Aid Team has a very good relationship with the Cambridgeshire First Aid Team and our members have worked with them at events such as NorJam and CamJam.

The Team currently operate a range of vehicles that enable it to support events in the best possible way. The front line First Aid Unit (Ambulance) is an Iveco and carries two York 4 Stretcher cots, Oxygen and Pain relieving gas equipment, pulse oximeter (for measuring heart rate and oxygen saturation), a range of stretchers to use in the field such as Spinal Boards and Orthopaedic Scoop stretchers as well as basic and more advanced First Aid kits.

The second vehicle that the Team regularly uses is a Land Rover First Aid Unit. The equipment in the Land Rover is very similar to the Iveco. The Land Rover is regularly used at Hike events and allows the First Aid Team to get closer to the casualty often reducing the time the casualty is carried on a stretcher. The Land Rover also carries the Team's rescue stretcher which is specifically designed and suited for transport of casualties over challenging terrain and distances.

EDSFAT supports a number of large events, to help out at these events the Team also own a First Aid Trailer which acts as a treatment room, an Equipment Trailer for the transportation of general equipment including the Team's radio equipment, an Event Communication vehicle which can provide a mobile radio control point for events, whether onsite or elsewhere. Alongside these vehicles the Team can call upon member's own vehicles to provide Rapid Response Vehicles, Off-road Response Vehicles and a Logistic Support Unit.

The Eastbourne District Scout (Fellowship) First Aid Team is a very active fellowship and aims to stay at the forefront of providing First Aid support to Scouting events in the South, to this end the Team is working strongly with Eastbourne and surrounding Districts to encourage the young people to stay within the movement beyond 18. To find out more please visit our website at www.edsfat.org.uk

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During my time with Blackburn our fellowship has worked with various District events including Cub and Scout swimming galas, sports days, County Scout camping standards competitions, County Cub Fun Days, Beaver Scout fun days, and archery competitions. We support the District on training events, St Georges Day parades, AGMs, and some of our members have assisted at their original Groups for a few weeks at a time in cases of need.

We support the Father Christmas Experience at Bowley campsite when several hundred Beavers, Cubs and Brownies come for an evening's entertainment to the 'Experience'. The event runs for one week with approximately 30/40 leaders and Fellowships being involved each night. Some of our Fellowship also supported the County for the recent Centenary camp at which 1500 came together for the spring Bank Holiday weekend. Members have supported also supported Bowley as activity instructors, and some attended the Jamboree in 2007 as a member of the IST.

We also arrange social trips for our members including evening tours round the local BBC radio station and barge trips. Last year we arranged a coach party to the national coal mining museum in Yorkshire (We did not need to go through passport control from Lancashire to Yorkshire!). We had an enjoyable evening earlier this year when a local market flower seller came to show us how to make the bouquets that stand in a ball of water. Four years ago our Fellowship started a county challenge quiz night for the 7 District Fellowships. We hosted the first and each year the winner hosts the next years challenge.

For further details please see the East Lancashire County website www.eastlancashirescouts.org.uk

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Ormskirk Scout Fellowship has a steadily increasing membership with well supported regular meetings and events. The last year has been very active and enjoyable with support given to both Sectional and Social events across the District.

In June last year we took a trip back tot e 60s with the Cubs at their County Camp at Waddecar. Flower Power, The Beatles and even a yellow submarine featured - what a great day! This was followed with more sunshine and fun at the Beaver sports night at St. Anne's school. July was party month with the Beavers' 20th Birthday at Tawd, jointly celebrated with the Fellowship who were 30 years young. As the year went on we supported Hammy and Co. at the Soltice event, District orienteering and the District Swimming Gala. The Helme Shield followed the Gala and our District Team were truly excellent and deserved to win the trophy. December, brought the Beaver and Cubs Carol services and support for 'Operation Christmas Child'. Recently we have also catered for the District First Aid Course and Operation Moonlight (event though we "don't do teas"!), and supported the District Gathering, when Dumbledore and assorted witches and wizards visited Tawd.

We also have a varied social calendar which has included clay pigeon shooting, an annual barn dance, the Centenary Ball, which had a real party atmosphere, and a glorious Autumn walk in the English countryside.

See the Ormskirk District website here www.ormskirkscouts.org.uk

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Berkshire Scout Enterprises was formed in 1985 by members of the Scout Fellowship in the County, in response to growing unemployment amongst young people at that time. It is a Company Limited by Guarantee and a Registered Charity for the purpose of training young people to gain employment.

Originally the Company was Government funded and has worked with various programmes over the years. The current programmes are part funded by the European Social Fund and the V - Charity.

The company has been able to use its resources to support and sponsor Scouting activities locally, nationally and internationally over many years. For example it supported the UK Uganda Network for the first ten years of its existence, and contributed to provisions for 150 Scouts to visit Uganda for the Millennium and participate in community and social activities. As a result of this project the Company went on to support the Bulangira Disables Association in Uganda, and was involved in the setting up of the UK Africa Network.

The Company also provides services for Berkshire County Scout Council, including First Response and MIDAS training for Leaders and administrative support for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme. Building teams have carried out projects at Scout Headquarters throughout the County, and have undertaken maintenance and general work at the County Scout Training Centre and Campsite. Computers, equipment, sponsored vehicle hire and minibus use have been provided for County Groups and major camps such as WINGS. The Company is presently facilitating the employment of the Local Development Officer for the County Scout Council.

You can find out more about Berkshire Scout Enterprises on their website

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