Here’s the lowdown…
We want the way that people can get involved in Scouts to be simpler, easier to understand and more appealing to get involved, especially to new volunteers. This means we're changing from a complex national system of over 400 volunteer roles to a new, much simpler system.
During the late spring of 2024, we’re introducing changes to the way we volunteer. These changes are about making volunteering with us easier, more fun, and flexible and really fit with your skills, interests, and free time.
Not only is this good for you, but it will also help us attract more volunteers, and help all our current volunteers feel like they want to stay. This way, we will also stay relevant and inclusive to adults and young people from all backgrounds and remove any barriers to becoming (and remaining as), a volunteer at Scouts.
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To make flexible volunteering a reality, we need to change how we do things. We’re moving to focused teams-based volunteering, which means there will be clearer roles and opportunities to do things for everyone. We will be using new team descriptions which include a short list of team tasks, which will be shared amongst the members of your section team. It will be down to your team to agree who does which tasks, based on everyone’s skills and availability.
There are two types of roles in our new teams, Team Leaders and Team Members. Each team will have at least one Team Leader and everyone else will be a team member.
What this means for your leadership team
Most people in your team will now be called Team Members. Your team will also have at least one Team Leader (this can be a shared role). Your Team Leader(s) will help guide, support, and facilitate your leadership team and will help everyone agree who will do the different things on the team’s task list.
Referring to people as Team Members or Team Leaders is much easier for everyone to understand – especially when we are talking to people about getting involved. It’s important to remember that this doesn’t change the scouting name you might have when speaking to young people, parents and caregivers – for example, you can still be called a 'Beaver Leader' or ‘Cub Leader’, ‘member of the Beavers Leadership Team’ or ‘Bluebird’, ’Akela’, or ‘Skip’ etc.
What this means for you
There will no longer be a distinction between Section Assistants and Assistant Section Leaders. Your Section’s Team will be made up of Section Team Members and Section Team Leaders(s), (and Young Leaders). As a Team Member there is also some really easy online learning that you will need to complete in a way that fits around you. There’s nothing to be concerned about, this learning is fun and is designed to support you and will help you continue to be a great member of your team. There's more information on this later in this guide.
