Welcome to our website.

We are the 1st Kimpton Scout Group from the village of Kimpton In Hertfordshire, UK.

Although we are a relatively small village we have a very active Scout group!

We currently have a Beaver Colony (6-8 years), Cub pack (8-10.5 years) and Scout Troop (10.5-14 years).

We offer Fun activities, adventure, challenge for young people and rewarding opportunities for adults to get involved. 

We meet at the Kimpton Memorial Hall on Monday and Thursday evenings during term time although are often out around the village.

If you would like to join our Scout Group or would like further information please follow the Waiting list link or click Contact Us to e-mail us.

We try very hard to keep our website up to date so why not have a look around and find out what we have been up to!

Please feel free to sign our Guestbook to share your comments.

Hi Everybody

In my January 09 letter I mentioned the desirability of filling in a CRB form. I won't go through it all again, but if you have not yet filled in a CRB form then please do look at the letter which is copied below. A number of CRB forms have been handed out to parents over the last 6 months but hardly any have been completed and handed in. This could become a problem if you are asked to help in certain circumstances - so please do get CRB cleared! If in doubt as to what to do, contact me or any leader.

Click Read more to see the rest of the letter...

continued....

The Beaver Colony, Cub Pack and Scout Troop are all booming. Soon a number of Scouts will be moving on, having reached the age of 14. We hope they will want to join one of the two Explorer Units in our District - one in Wheathampstead and one in Harpenden. Many boys and girls from Kimpton have done so, and enjoyed a fantastic few years with the range of activities available - such as overseas expeditions, hill walking, mountaineering, and many other social events too. These ex Kimpton Scouts will be replaced by Cubs moving up, who will be replaced by Beavers moving up, who will be replaced by young boys and girls on our Beaver waiting list. These changes are managed carefully and superbly by our excellent group of Leaders - to whom we owe a great vote of thanks for all the work they do. Thank you all.

As you may have already heard, we have booked a camp site for our Family Camp this year (weekend September 17th to 19th). This was thoroughly enjoyed by around 120 of us in 2008. (A final reminder! CRB checks are mandatory for all adults attending Scout Camps and the checking process can take some time, so................).

Hope to see you there

Bob Finch

Acting GSL

January 2009

Hi everybody,

Having just completed our Census Return for end January 2009 I thought you might be interested in some statistics (don't panic, not very many). We now have 25 Scouts compared to 16 a year ago and none the year before that. We have 30 Cubs compared to 22 in 2008 and 18 in 2007. Beavers are relatively constant, with 26 now and 24 in each of the previous years. This is a 31% growth in the year. We have waiting lists for all sections but I am sure all will agree it is important to maintain a manageable growth pattern.

A few words on CRB (Criminal Record Bureau) checks. Some people regard these checks as cumbersome. For instance, a person who finds time to be a teacher, a youth leader and a cub leader will have to fill in the CRB forms three times to obtain three separate CRB certificates. One for each job! A long-promised review of the checking system should emerge this year - which may or may not simplify it - but should prevent the need for multiple CRB certification.

Meanwhile - here is the current system as Kimpton Scout Group uses it.

Naturally all the leaders will have CRB clearance. In addition we ask parents and guardians to complete a CRB form as well. This is because we hope that parents will help from time to time with Beaver/Cub/Scout evenings - perhaps with a wide game, or a cook-out, or for example making bird boxes for an environmental badge. It is necessary in Scout Association rules that anyone who is over 18 years of age who might be left alone with a child must be CRB cleared.

Another reason is that Scout Association camp sites demand that any adult who stays overnight is CRB cleared. In September 2008 we had a family camp with about 120 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and parents and we intend to hold a similar event in due course.

So, if you are a parent or guardian of a Kimpton Beaver Cub or Scout you will be (or will already have been) asked to fill in the forms to obtain CRB clearance. There is an explanatory booklet that goes with the forms and I am always available to offer assistance if required.

I should add that the completion of these forms is entirely voluntary, and if you do not want to complete them you don't have to give a reason.

Yours Sincerely

Bob Finch

Acting Group Scout Leader

February 2007 

It is early February so we have just completed the annual 'Census' for the Kimpton Scout Group. This showed that our numbers are up from 50 in January last year to 72  this year!

Terrific, Brilliant. Thanks to all the leaders, boys and girls (and parents) who helped make this happen.

The not quite so good news is that, for every person on our 'census' return, we have to pay a 'capitation fee' to Scouting HQ. So this leads me to money. Where does the money come from to support Kimpton Scouting? How does it work?

We have three main sources of income

Firstly the 'subscriptions' that are payable each term. These, plus some fundraising such as the book stall at the May Festival, pay the annual running expenses of Beavers, Cubs and Scouts. Examples are the cost of the Memorial Hall for meetings, the badges, insurance, subsidising outings, the Scout Association 'capitation fee', and other general running expenses. We try and keep the 'subs' to a minimum. See below.

Secondly we have a source of funding which is the 'Scout and Guide' fundraising group. This runs at least two events a year - the Annual Quiz, usually around March, and the Scout and Guide Ball in the autumn. From these events we fund any significant items above the normal running costs. Examples might include new tents, or a new set of scarves to mark the 100th anniversary of Scouting, or a subsidy to help make a Kimpton Family Camp affordable for all.

Thirdly we have a fund which pays for our share of the council tax, insurance, electricity etc for the part of the Memorial Hall which is for the exclusive use of the Scouts and Guides. This includes the two separate equipment stores for Scouts and Guides and a meeting room for the leaders (and others) to use. The source of this money is the money left over from the many years of fundraising towards our own Scout and Guide building. This project was abandoned in favour of building the extension on the back of the Memorial Hall and there is enough money left in it to pay for 3 or 4 more years of the running costs mentioned above. After that we will have to find the money by fundraising events (or increasing subs).

Do get in touch if you have any questions and if you have not had a look at the Scout and Guide premises at the back of the Hall ask one of the leaders to show you around.

Bob Finch

Acting Group Scout Leader

August 2006

The Beaver Colony and Cub Pack meet regularly with varied and active programmes, and the Scout Troop has been reformed and will open in September 2007. Do have a look around the website to see what they are up to. We are fortunate in having the superb capacious Kimpton Memorial Hall for our meetings, which is arguably the best Scout meeting venue in the District. In a self contained extension to the Hall we have a Scout and Guide meeting room and caged enclosures for all our equipment. We are also extremely lucky in having a number of keen and dedicated Leaders, including many Young Leaders (ie aged typically 17 to 21 years) who help regularly at both Beaver and Cub meetings and no doubt will do so at Scout meetings in the future.

There has been no Scout Troop for some years now due to lack of Leaders. We are currently restarting it because there are a number of boys in Kimpton who, after enjoying their 5 or so years in Beavers and Cubs, their Scouting life in Kimpton has come to a premature end. If you would like your son to join the Kimpton Scout Troop please contact either myself or, preferably, the new Scout Leader Mark Hubbard There is more information on the Scout Troop page.

In order to take some of the pressure off the Leaders and allow them to concentrate on running meetings, organising badge work and outings, we do need more help from parents and other interested adults. This is particularly important now the Scout Troop is about to open. Our 'Parent's Committee' currently has only two members - the Chairman and the Treasurer. Some of the jobs we need help with include - Committee Secretary, someone to do PR, a Quartermaster to look after our equipment and help with fundraising. If you can spare some time to help we would be most grateful. 

Bob Finch

Acting Group Scout Leader