Correspondence

🌍 Wansdyke Beaver & Cub Jamboree 2026 – Planning Update 🌍

Following our first camp meeting - it's time for Leadership Teams to start planning for the Beaver & Cub Jamboree!

📅 5–7 June 2026

📍 Chelwood Scout Campsite

🎨 Theme: International – choose a World Cup country for your Group (first come, first served – let Tina know!)

🖥️ All key info, updates, and documents:

👉 https://jamboree.wansdykescouts.org.uk/

Please get into the habit of checking the website, there's already lots of useful information on there for you! Including a summary from the Meeting.

📧 A full detailed email has also been sent out to Team Leads – please check your inbox. A copy of this is available on the website.

🔔 Action now: Please share this info with your teams, and get them joining this community if they haven't done so already. OSM Shared Event invites coming soon.

Thanks for your support – let’s make this a great event! 🙌

Sent to: Section Team Leaders (Where defined on the new system, otherwise an alternative representative), Copied to Group Lead Volunteers for awareness.

Hi All,

I hope you're well, and starting to put plans together ready for this summer's Beaver and Cub Jamboree at Chelwood from Friday 5th - Sunday 7th June 2026. The planning team is working hard to make it a great event.

You may have noticed in your OSM Sections, that a new event has recently been shared with you, and as per 2025, this is the way that we have decided to track information & attendance for Young People and Leaders at the event. (Additional Parental Helpers will be tracked using a different system and sent to groups soon).

The event will be from Friday Evening to Sunday Afternoon, and everyone (Both Beavers and Cubs) are invited to join us for the entire event, however we appreciate that this might not be suitable for all, so a Saturday&Sunday option is also available. The cost will be the same for each option.

For many of you, using OSM events will be familiar. For anyone less confident, I've attached a guide for using the functionality and how to launch the event to parents. There are also a number of notes on this document, so would appreciate it if you could all review the document prior to amending the event in OSM.

Important: 

When accepting the Shared Event, please ensure:

• "Let organisers email attendees & waiting list" is ticked

• "Let organisers download personal details" is NOT ticked. 

Although this email has been sent to all sections, please coordinate within your groups to ensure that the information is consistent and correct for your set-up. For example, if you have decided to only offer a 1 Night event for certain sections due to leader availability, make sure this information is correct.

Badge Competition: As usual, we're running a competition to design the Badge for this event. We've attached the form within the OSM invite, but also attached to this email. Entries to be sent to Angie by Friday 27th March please. You may wish to email out separately/give out the forms to your sections - up to you!

A few key points;

• Please update the Parent Portal description with all information relevant to your group/section. All text surrounded by XXX is to be removed. 

• Add any additional columns that you feel are necessary - district won't see the contents.

• Double‑check that the email attendees and waiting list box is ticked, and organisers download personal details is not.  

• The confirmation deadline is set to be 03/05/2025.

• Send out information on the Badge Competition.

• Don't forget that all the Jamboree Information is available on the website: https://jamboree.wansdykescouts.org.uk

If you need any support, can't find the shared event, or have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to Tina or myself.

Kind Regards,

Will

Sent to: All Beaver & Cub Team Leads (or Section Rep where no TL identified), Group Lead Volunteers & District Representatives.

Hi everyone,

Following our first Camp Meeting, it's time for Leadership Teams to start planning their attendance at the Wansdyke Beaver & Cub Jamboree taking place this summer. Below are some key updates from the Core Team.

Key Details

• When: Friday 5th to Sunday 7th June 2026

• Where: Chelwood Scout Campsite

• Theme: International - Each group to select a Country from the World Cup to be their theme. Inform Tina your choice - first come, first served! 

• Who is the Core Team? Tina Curtis, Will Holmes & Will Summerill.

Single Point of Truth

We know how difficult it can be to track information across inboxes and group chats, so - just like WanJam - we’re using a dedicated website as our single point of truth. The site will host everything relevant to the Jamboree: general event information, risk assessments, important dates, copies of all correspondence/announcements and much more. If it’s been shared with Leaders, it will appear on the website first.

Information will be live and updated regularly, so please make a habit of checking the site before getting in touch - though of course, if something isn’t there, the Core Team is always happy to help.

It's already been populated with lots of useful information, including a summary from our first camp meeting. Jamboree Website: https://jamboree.wansdykescouts.org.uk/

WhatsApp Community

To reduce the volume of emails, we'll be using a WhatsApp Community during the planning of this event. We're asking all Adults who are attending to join. Information about how this works, along with the joining link can be found on the Information for Leaders page on the website.

Our Plea to You

As ever with big events, they don't happen without the support from Groups, Team Leads and their Leadership Teams. Please help us by reading correspondance, taking action by any stated deadlines, and helping to support your teams to deliver the event.

Our promise in return is that information will be shared as early and as clearly as we can. However, as this is expected to be a big event with many moving parts, sometimes the specific details may not be available as early as hoped. We appreciate your patience - we’re all volunteers, working together to make this a great experience.  

Action Needed

For now, please share this information with your teams - the event details, and links to the Jamboree Website and WhatsApp community. 

Over the coming weeks, you should see the OSM Shared Event invite appear in your Sections. More details on this shortly. This is what we're using to manage event attendance. 

Date for your Diary: Our next camp meeting is Tuesday 31st March 2025, 8:15pm at High Littleton Scout Hall. 

Finally, thank you for everything you’re doing - and will do - to make this event a success! This is very much your event as well as ours, so please let us know if you’ve got any suggestions that will make it even better. 

Kind Regards,

Tina, Will & Will

Core Team - Beaver and Cub Jamboree 2026

A precis of the meeting is included below; all of this information has been disseminated into the Info for Leaders/Adults pages.

• The meeting reviewed a number of points from the 2025 Jamboree, and areas for improvement, all of these were discussed, and the Core Team will be reviewing how best to improve these areas.

• The Date & Location for the Camp was noted.

• Camp will be centrally catered. Although a detailed menu was not discussed;

  • Agreement that Full English Breakfast, with Cereal offering was good.

  • Pizza for Lunch was a hit, provided no toppings! Sandwiches will be available as an alternative.

  • Pasta Bolognese suits most. Otherwise, Pasta and Cheese.

• A number of ideas for the Theme of the Camp were discussed, World Cup, International, Skills, Back to Basics. A vote was held, and International was agreed. However noting the World Cup, all Groups to pick a country that are playing in the event. 

• Badges - The 40th Birthday of Beavers and 110th Birthday of Cubs were discussed, and noted that District will not be purchasing these Birthday Badges. It was agreed that a specific Camp Badge was wanted, and therefore there will be a Badge Competition. 

• Communications were noted, with the issue of Core Team messages being lost in a Group Chat. It was agreed that similar to WanJam a WhatsApp Community will be used, with an optional Leaders and Volunteers Chat, which can be joined if desired.

• Agreement that both a Full Weekend and a Saturday/Sunday only option would be offered. Even though this can create issues on the Saturday, some YP are not ready for 2 Nights away. A discussion around options for not-staying overnight was held, and agreed that Leaders can manage this if they like, however the Costs will be the same.

• Friday Evening - Review of the Wide Game & Supper arrangements will be undertaken, noting that Leaders were appreciative of the early Supper for Beavers, however their wide game was too late.

• Saturday - Generally programme was good, however consideration to be made for a time slot system for the 'Big Ticket' activities. Looking to bring in more activities, groups will still run a themed base.

• Sunday - Was too long, with no planned activities after the colour run. This year event will finish around 12pm. Colour Run was agreed to occur again, review process to prevent bottlenecks.

• Campfire - Arrangements for the Campfire are likely to change in comparison to 2025 due to greater attendance, plans TBC.

• Safeguarding - Agreement that all Adults on site will require a DBS.

• Young Leaders -  Welcome to come along

• Parent Helpers - Welcome to come along

• Note that the Core Team will provide the following

  • Shared Event wording

  • Kit List

  • Risk Assessment for the Event - Groups to be responsible for Risk Assessing their activities - including Free Time!

  • All important dates in advance - see Important Dates.

  • Nights Away Notification will be completed Centrally.