District Camp planning evening (and social)

Around 70 adult volunteers, members of Romsey Scout District and their families, gathered at the Crosfield Hall on 24th February.  Their purpose was to enjoy a long overdue social with Scouting colleagues, as well as to get ahead with planning the next whole District Camp.

The evening began with a welcome from David Shill, the District Comissioner, to thank everyone for their hard work.  He noted that Romsey District seems to be as large as it has ever been, according to our January 2024 census and from records we can find.  That number included a small increase in adult volunteers, which is to be very welcomed as that has not been the case in recent years.  David was then pleased to present awards to some of those present, both for achievement and long service.  We then had a fun quiz, just three rounds to get everybody thinking, before a ploughman’s supper was served.

After supper, those who wanted to, adjourned to the side hall to begin planning for the District Camp, being held in May 2025.  With expected numbers around 550 young people, there are clearly a lot of activities to be planned and meals to prepare for.  Lots of useful ideas were noted, the benefit of having a great combination of both experienced Scouters and fresh eyes in the room.  The biggest challenge could be what to call it – all ideas welcome!

The evening then became an opportunity to relax, enjoy the music and have a sociable drink with like-minded individuals.  There was no charge for the event; it was not run as a fundraising opportunity and our volunteers were invited as guests.  However the raffle run on the night raised nearly £100 towards local Scouting – and will probably go towards subsidising the cost of the District Camp for our young people.

Previous District Camps

Romsey District has held a number of District camps over the years.  In (relatively) recent memory, we marked the Millenium with a joint camp with Romsey Guides in Whiteparish, originally named ‘Millenium Camp’.  It was rather wet but a great time was had by all.
In 2008, we decided to celebrate the centenary of Romsey District (set up only a year after Scouting was founded) with a whole District Camp at Broadlands.  We called that one Centenary Camp…  It was also rather wet and coincided with another event at Broadlands actually being rained off, although we stuck it out!
In 2013, we decided to do it again (we joked it was long enough for the bruises to have faded but we could still remember how we organised it!).  We called that one the ‘Elements Camp’ with each of our subcamps named for an element (the Explorer Scouts were the mysterious Fifth Element!).
We look forward to 2025!