The future of the three city centre Scout Districts, which has been uncertain for a number of years, has been decided by the County, but there is still confusion at the ‘grass roots’ about the proposed changes.

The last time the issue was discussed, some years ago, targets were set concerning the management of groups within the Districts, the District teams and recruitment of leaders. None of the Districts have met these targets and so it was felt that the time had come to look towards the future and make significant changes to the present system.

At present the city of Oxford is split into three Districts: Isis in the West being the largest, with Cowley and Headington covering the South East and North East respectively. This is set to change following a meeting last month betwee n the District and County Commissioners, at which the Field Commissioner was present. Recently, however, there has been some dissatisfaction with the way in which the decision has been taken, following earlier meetings of the three District councils at wh ich a different plan was presented as the County’s preferred option.

The Commissioners recommended that the three city centre Districts should be replaced by one District covering the same area, and it was proposed that a working party would be set up to establish the new District which would come into b eing by 1 April 1999 at the very latest.

Following this meeting, all that was required was the passing of a resolution by each of the existing District Councils to wind up their Districts and adopt the new plan. This should have only been a formality, and indeed both Headingto n and Isis Districts passed the motion. It is thought, however, that Cowley District intends to oppose the County’s propsals.

About a fortnight before the final decision was taken by the Commissioners, meetings were held simultaneously in each of the three Districts, at which three proposals were discussed in order to provide the District Commissioners with so me feedback for the final meeting. The proposals were:

Option 1: Headington, Cowley and Isis Districts would be replaced by one new District covering the same area.

Option 2: There would be a single District within the City boundary, and groups outside the boundary would be transferred to neighbouring Districts.

Option 3: The area covered by the three Districts would be split into two new Districts.

At each meeting, it was made quite clear that the County had already rejected the first two options. This meant that by changing their minds later, the County chose an option which had not been properly discussed by those most affected by the change.

There was much heated discussion at the meeting in Headington, at which I was present. Although this was mostly off at a tangent to the main issues, the prevailing feeling by the end of the meeting was that the third option was preferab le. According to a source in Cowley this view was shared by their meeting. With the County and two of the Districts originally in agreement, there must have been very strong opposition from Isis for option one to be eventually chosen above option three.

We are now in a situation where, although it has been acknowledged by everyone that there needs to be a change, there is substantial disagreement about the means of implementing the change. For some reason, the County has gone against i ts original decision and decided to create one very large new District, but it will be much harder to do that without the formal agreement of all three Districts. The County will probably try and overturn the decision in Cowley, but it is possible that Co wley will choose to remain as it is, whilst the other two Districts merge.

Perhaps the most sensible course of action now would be for the Districts to meet again and have a full discussion about the three options. It may even help to have a meeting with all three Districts together although it would probably take a miracle for everyone to reach a consensus.

Looking at the map of the Districts, it is understandable why the County initially had reservations about the first option. The combined District would be very large, and finding people willing to take on District appointments could be a problem. At present, none of the three Districts have a full complement of Assistant District Commissioners for each section, and most of the other District posts are unfilled. At the meeting we were told that the County Commissioner, had people in mind who would be able to form the two District teams required by option three, although there was some doubt as to whether they would be happy to work in a much larger District.

The second option is unfeasable since the neighbouring Districts which would be affected are already quite large and the outlying groups which would have to be moved are among the largest in the area.

The main problem with the third option is finding a suitable boundary between the two proposed Districts. Most of the people present at the original meeting in Headington wanted assurances that all of the groups in Headington District w ould remain together and it was suggested that a simple merger of Headington and Cowley would cause the least upset. This may be true, but a combined Headington-Cowley District would have 15 groups compared with 9 in Isis and would cover a much larger are a. The most sensible option, which was strongly favoured in Cowley at least, would be to extend Cowley and Headington Districts westwards and distribute the Isis groups between the two. That way, the two new Districts would have the same number of groups and the two very large groups in Isis would be in different Districts.

From an impartial view it seems that Isis probably has the most to lose if the third option were to be chosen, whilst Cowley, with the most complete District Team at present, has the most to lose with the first option. Wherever the exac t boundary would be drawn, Isis, as the largest District, would probably have had to have been split in order to create two balanced Districts. Clearly, Isis are unhappy about this prospect which is why they fought so strongly, and succeeded, against the third option.

It is perhaps understandable that the leaders in Isis were reluctant to see their District split. After all, the leaders in the other Districts were also concerned that their groups should remain together, although ultimately only Isis was really under threat. The relationships that are built up between leaders who have worked together in the same District for many years are very valuable, and it can be difficult to break the sense of attachment that may exist between the groups in the District. This is, however, a short term problem. In fact, the sense of attachment which makes splitting a District a difficult decision to take may very easily lead to factionalism which would be potentially very damaging to the new District.

It is easy to lose sight of the fact that Scouting really exists for the young people in the movement and that the purpose of a District is to provide effective support for its groups. As the most localised level of Scouting above the g roups it is probably the most important level of the hierarchy to get right. The average Scout, or even the average leader, has little contact with the County, much less with Headquarters, but a well run District is able to provide the direct support that is often a vital contribution to effective programmes in Colonies, Packs, Troops and Units. It would be a great shame if the effectiveness of the new District structure in Oxford was undermined by short sightedness on the part of some leaders.

It will be interesting to see what the District structure will be in Oxford in five years time. If the County succeeds in creating a single District now, it may wall prove to be too unwieldy and end up splitting into two Districts after all. It is, however, important to try and look positively towards the future since the establishment of the new District should be a significant turning point in the life of Scouting in Oxford, and hopefully one for the better, provided a better level of agreement can be reached within the Districts. As has been evident in the recent developments in Ulster, there are situations were a degree of compromise by all parties is the only solution.

Headington District Cubs and Scouts parading on St Georges Day: what does the future hold?

Welcome back, I hope everyone has had a good vac and is ready to enjoy a term of fun and frolics in the sun!

I don't know if I should point this out but I have actually managed to avoid ever writing a "Postscript" article up until now. I feel utterly ashamed at this and wish to plead forgiveness for this horrendous sin!! However, reading this you will probably realise why I have never written an article as I just waffle on for ages with nothing really to say blah, blah, blah, waffle, waffle, gibber, gibber.…..

I hope everyone has got the "all new" termcard (well the design's new anyway!) and that you are all going to come and enjoy as many of the events as possible.

Of course the Annual Dinner should be happening at some time this term because it occurs annually as the name suggests but I'm not quite sure when yet. Perhaps Ed can help me on this one?! [You’ll just have to wait a few pages – Ed] This will be followed by the infamous Punt 'n' Picnic the next day come rain or shine!

I'm hoping that we will be able to go to the CUSAGC Garden Party and Punt Joust. If you are interested in going please e-mail me (sarah.rendall@sjc.ox.ac.uk). There's also the SSAGO Rally which will be in Nottingham this term.

Anyway I'm sure everything will go very smoothly (although when has that ever happened before?!) and that we'll all have a great term (even if you have got finals, ha, ha, ha!!!).

New Editor, New Postscript

Apologies for the use of a tired cliché that would have been more topical this time last year, but it does at least sum up the position of this journal in a succinct way. Now that I have taken over as Chief Executive Editor (as w ell as News Editor, Sports Editor, Features Editor… sorry, I’m becoming more and more like Chris), I intend to produce a finely tuned blend of a range of diverse publications. For example: the serious journalism of the Telegraph, the wit and satire of Pri vate Eye, the scandal-mongering and sensationalism of the Sun and the smuttiness of Viz (not always popular with our older readers). There may even be some of the scoutiness of Scouting and guidiness of Guiding.

Only time will tell how far this gets put into practice, probably in inverse proportion to the class of my degree. But Postscript is not just about indulging my editorial fantasies, so hopefully I’ll be receiving lots of articles for th e next few issues.

A Landmark Issue

Maybe 300 issues is more of a landmark than 301, but I just missed that one. Nevertheless, this millennium dome of landmarks is marked by the following of a suggestion made 201 issues ago.

You ought to have noticed by now that the editorial is not on the front page. If you’ve ever read a quality newspaper or magazine, chances are that the editorial was not on the front page of that publication either. A daily, full colour Postscript may still be a little way off, especially while I’m doing my finals, but you’ve got to start somewhere. And so in the words of A.J.Brook, writing in the 100^th issue of Postscript, the editorial is now ‘tucked away inside ready to hi t the unwary reader’.

This means that I’ll be looking for articles to take pride of place at the beginning, and as an incentive, I will give a packet of Jelly Babies to the writer of the chosen article in each issue.

Changes A-Foot

I said pretty much all that I had to say about the Oxford Scout Districts merger in the first article, but I would just like to add a couple of comments here, as it is all too easy for us to dismiss this problem as being irrelevant.

It is, admittedly, true that the changes are only directly relevant to the small number of members who are involved with Scouting locally. One possible consequence, however, if the new district is run more efficiently than the present d istricts, is that it will be easier for people in OUSGG to get involved with local Scouting, either in terms of regular service or one-off events.

However, even members who are not affected by the changes in Oxford may find themselves faced with similar problems to deal with if they end up working at District, County or even higher levels in the Scout (or Guide) Association.

Who needs management consultants when you’ve got Scouters or Guiders?! Which brings me to my last topic…

Efficiency

The fact that I received Sarah’s article before we were even half-way through the vacation is surely a testament to her efficiency. Even this feat, though, paled into insignificance when, flicking through some old Postscripts, I found i nformation about the 1996 Annual Dinner in the Michaelmas 1995 mid-term issue. This year, however, being the masters of suspense that they are, your Annual Dinner team has decided to leave it until now to unveil the plans for the dinner (see page 10).

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll get some revision done before editing the next issue!

Programme Ideas

Dear Editor,

As some of you will know, I have for some time now been working on a giant list of programme ideas to aid future Chair-Elects with their programme planning. The list is still in an early stage of development, but since Hugh apparently t old a bunch of people about it at the SSAGO Training Weekend, and told them it was available on the Web, I thought it was time for its publication.

The list can be accessed as a link from the OUSGG Web Page. I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone with any ideas which could be added to the list could let me know about them, and if anyone knows of any useful links to other sources of pr ogramme ideas, I'd like to hear about them too.

Yours efficiently,
Chris Seward,
Jesus

Fraudulent Letters

Dear Sir,

I think that it is absolutely disgraceful, the way that second rate publications such as the Oxford Student print letters which are quite blatantly fake when they don’t have any others to print. Surely they don’t expect us to fall for t hat, do they? We are Oxford students after all.

Yours faithfully,
R. Punter

Tribute from the Founder

Dear Sir,

Thank you so much for my copy of the 300th issue of Postscript. As I read the carefully crafted text, edited with such flair and style, I felt moved to write this letter. Postscript has always been top among my favourite publications, b ut the 300^th issue was truly sublime from start to finish. Keep up the good work.

Yours in Scouting,
R.S.S. Baden-Powell

My journey to our little home from home was to prove rather more exciting than I had anticipated, as the weather had taken a rather snowy turn of events. I knew I was in trouble when I had to stop and bash the snow of a signpost to wher e I had to go. However, I ultimately arrived at the camping barn to find OUSGG had already assembled, although Chris was noticeable by his absence. In the event OUSGG turned out to be Joanne, Jeremy, Hugh, Matthew, David and Adrian, who is apparently a sc out leader from Oxford. He had come directly from another camp and was heading off to join yet another camp after the trip. I can only deduce from this that he was somewhat 'keen'. Possibly certifiably so. After a generous portion of spag bol we headed fo r the pub. The reasons for this were numerous, I could mention good company and fine drinks, but principally we wanted to get the hell out of the barn which was as cold as something very cold.

In the morning we emerged into a veritable winter wonderland. A thick fall of fresh snow lay everywhere, it looked just like a scene from a Christmas card, except there were no reindeer or fat men in red suits. We decided to hide the ke y to the barn, however, it was rapidly noticed that a trail of footprints lead straight up to the hiding place, and wasn't this a bit obvious. So we decided to wander about randomly to hide these tracks, a task for which OUSGG is singularly well equipped. The days walking followed the Manifold Valley, which is a noteworthy local cycle route/walk. However, in order to make it a bit more interesting we walked on less well-trodden paths on the hills beside the valley, although we did drop into the valley to pass through an old railway tunnel. Lunchtime saw the group split, the woos group chose to have lunch inside the Manifold Valley visitor centre, which turned out to be a room with posters on the wall, before heading off to do a large loop. The hard group chose to eat outside, where we braved the constant threat of having ten pounds of wet snow slide of the roof onto us, before strolling directly back along the floor of the valley, which may be interpreted as the easy way home. Of course, we had to go to a tea shop, and there was one at the bottom of the hill where the camping barn was, so the two groups agreed to meet up there. The hard group got there first and proceeded to observe the lady running the tea shop comment to a local that she 'hoped to close up soon'. Naturally we spun our visit out as long as we could, watching her slowly slide into gloom. When the other group arrived and ordered their tea too I believe she lost the will to live.

That evening we abandoned our delightful, if somewhat chilly camping barn and ate at a pub, after spending a while driving around apparently at random. The pub we chose had been advertised as 'hiker friendly', however the, er, lady who ran the establishment seemed not at all keen on the idea of smelly hikers having anything to do with her premises at all. We eventually formed the theory that the adverts may have been a cruel prank played by someone, although who could have had cause to play such a joke on a lady with such a sunny disposition and welcoming countenance defies me.

Next day we again split up. One group headed off to do I know not what and I never saw them again, so you'll have to ask them if you want to know what happened. I should, however, mention that Chris deigned to join us that morning, and thus managed to avoid sleeping on hard boards in a cold barn. His loss. He was wearing purple, if I recall correctly.

However, the other group, set off into the field in pursuit of a most unusual piece of local fauna. Rumour has it, that there is a colony of escaped wallabies living around a ridge known as 'The Roaches', so we set off to investigate. I t was a beautiful day, and the winter weather of the previous day had somehow transformed into summer. The snow had, for the most part, melted, and the sun shone with all its might. We soon came across a dismembered shop window dummy, and even on several groups of climbers ascending the roaches by various routes. However, we saw no wallabies. That said, we had an excellent days walk, and even encountered a couple of horseriders as we descended back towards the car. It should also be pointed out that the a rea is a favourite place for pop stars to get away from it all and relax, indeed the Spice Girls were even inspired to write their number one hit "Wallabee" after visiting it.

All in all, a great trip, and a welcome break. I'm sure I speak for everyone who attended in commending the organiser.

The Roaches: home of the wallaby

It will soon be time for the highlight of the social calendar in Oxford, the OUSGG Annual Dinner, followed by that equally important tradition, the Punt & Picnic. After much searching, we have found a suitable place to have the dinn er and so we are now able to give you some details about the two events.

The Annual Dinner will be taking place on the evening of Friday 15^th May (3^rd Week) at Somerville. The menu for the dinner will consist of the most popular dishes for each course from the following list (vegetarian alternatives will also be available):

Starter
Ogen melon with Parma ham garnished with fresh strawberry
Strips of smoked salmon on a bed of mixed leaves with a mustard dressing
Celeriac, Stilton and apple soup

Main Course (all with vegetables and some form of potato)
Roast sirloin of beef with Yorkshire pudding and horseradish sauce
Chicken breasts stuffed with mozzarella and ham
Escalope of veal served with oyster mushrooms and a whisky cream sauce

Sweets
White and dark chocolate mousse
Brandy snap basket with fresh fruit and cream
Tiramisu
Traditional Dutch apple tart served with fresh cream

Coffee and mints

Unfortunately, dinners don’t come cheap these days, so we will be charging £26. The cost does include sherry beforehand, wine with the meal, and port afterwards. If you do not wish to drink anything alcoholic, please indicate this on th e form and the cost of alcohol will be refunded later.

At 11 o’clock the next day, by which time everyone should have recovered, we will meet somewhere on the Cherwell to spend a couple of hours punting with a picnic lunch. The cost of this will be £4, making a nice round £30 if you want to come to both (which we hope you will).

If you want to come to either the dinner or the punt & picnic, please could you fill in and return the attached form to Chris, by Monday 3^rd Week at the latest, with a cheque for the total amount made payable to Chr is Seward. Full details will be sent before the dinner to those who are coming.

If you would like to come to the Punt & Picnic, we would appreciate it if you could try to book punts from your college if possible. Please let Chris know by email if you are able to do so – we would need them from 11am onwards, ide ally until 2pm or later.