I’ve written this guidance to summarise what chapter 9 of POR (Policy Organisation and Rules) says about activity and nights away notifications, and to describe how those rules are applied in Cabot District.  It shouldn’t over-rule anything that’s in POR, so if you are in any doubt, POR applies.  This doesn’t cover risk assessments, home contacts or any other activity rules, which are all in POR.  

Nights Away 

POR says that for any activity which will involve a young person being away from home overnight, the DC MUST be notified at least 7 days in advance.  If the activity does not take place on a Scout owned or operated facility, then the host DC must also be notified 14 days in advance. 

In Cabot, the easiest way to send this notification is to use the County’s online system (click here).  This generates an automatic email to me with all the information on it.  If you don’t have internet access, or prefer to use another method, then you can use the Scout Association’s official “Form NAN”, or any other form with the same information on it.  You can send this by post, fax, email, text, carrier pigeon or whatever.  As long as it reaches me 7 days before the event, that’s fine.  

Other Activities 

POR says that every single activity you do (including regular meetings in your HQ) must be approved by the DC, and that the approval will normally be by an informal system. 

In Cabot I don’t want to separately approve every activity that every section does every week!  To strike a balance between managing the risks and reducing the paperwork, I will give a blanket approval to any activity that meets the following criteria : 

1) It is not adventurous.  There is no hard and fast definition of what is “adventurous”, but factsheet 120084 (available on Scoutbase or from me) gives a good list.  Basically, if you think your activity might be adventurous, it probably is

 

2) It takes place within the boundary of the City of Bristol.

 

3) The person leading the activity has a current appointment as a Leader or Assistant Leader in Cabot.

 

4) The person leading the activity has a wood badge or has the approval of their GSL to do the activity.

 If your activity meets all of those criteria, then you don’t need to notify me, just go and enjoy it!  Don’t forget though that all of the activity rules in POR still apply, such as the need for a risk assessment, InTouch etc. 

If your activity doesn’t meet all those criteria, then you need to get my approval at least 7 days in advance.  The easiest way to do this is to use the County’s online form (click here), which generates an automatic email to me with all of the details.  You can also notify me by phone, letter, email, text or any other method, as long as I get the information. 

 Steve Smith, District Commissioner, 23rd June 2009.