As the site continues to enjoy another year of growth, both in popularity and bookings our Site Manager reflects.
As I leave my third year as Site Manager and enter year four. I sometimes have to remind myself what has actually been achieved. It’s very easy to over look all the brilliant changes that have been made and how far we have come.
It is a slow process a lot of the time and it can become very easy to think nothing’s ever going to get done. However, with all the help and support from my amazing crew and committee and a little reflection. It’s actually overwhelming what a small group of volunteers have achieved.
2019 started off with the refurbishment work hitting the ground running. However pace slowed down as the year progressed due to losing our builder and coming across complications. Our leaders lounge and bedroom is half finished and we still hope to have it completed by the end of the year. It could possibly be finished now if we compromised on the skylights. However, I believe in offering my customers the very best and future proofing.
The last remaining three bunkrooms still await their face-lift. However this side is much more complex than the other side as we hope to have a fully accessible wet room installed. So several walls need reshuffling. We hope to have this completed with the main refurbishment now as this will make planning a lot easier and mean minimal impact to our customers. We are currently half way through drawing up plans and hope to have three quotes for the works before the AGM.
Our first big yearly event took place this year. I’m so glad to say it was an absolute triumph for the site. Comments and feedback from nearly everyone was so positive and the crew had a brilliant time. It was amazing seeing the whole site being used by so many young people. Mud Run 2020 will be taking place with a few small tweaks to hopefully improve on this year. Watch out for our promotion video!
As always, the crew continue to improve the site. Uncle Toms Cabin got a face lift on the crew work weekend along with a few repair jobs. Our new decking area for picnicking will hopefully be open for next spring.
Our second caravan is almost up and running to create more bed space for our ever expanding crew! A massive thank you to Mark and Susie Stewart for all their time and effort spent on the caravan.
Next year will start to focus on crew recruitment. Bookings are increasing year on year and I hope this trend will continue for the foreseeable. If this is the case then having just one or two crew members on each weekend isn’t going to cut it!
Our relationship with bushscout uk grows stronger and stronger! Our first annual survival camp takes place in October. I look forward to reporting to you all how successful this camp will be next year! A big thank you to Terry and Sam Longhurst and their team for all their support this year!
A big thank you to the best bunch of crew members any site manager to ask for. You all do an amazing job and you just have to look at our increasing bookings to see what a great job you all do!
Further Information
Following the Annual General Meeting the following reports were also published,
Chairman's Report
Site Managers Report
Financial Accounts 2018/19
