Hi everyone,
I heard last night that we will be delaying the switch to the new digital systems.
Instead of the end of November as was planned, we will instead now move over in mid February.
We will still be Early Adopters, the other 90% of UK Scout Counties will move over at the end of April.
Reason for the delay
The digital systems have been built and are ready. They have been built as lots of different parts – the Welcome System, Membership System, Learning System, Awards System, Permits System etc. All of these parts will appear as one complete system on scouts.org.uk.
The delay is because in testing, the systems weren’t quite working together as seamlessly as they should. This has now been fixed, but more time is needed to extensively test and ensure the fix has worked.
This would have probably only needed an extra month, but that would have taken us into the end of December and the Christmas break, and then as you know at the end of January we have Census. So it’s been decided the safest thing to do is to push back until mid February.
What we can still change
This delay gives us a bit more time to work on important changes…
1. Compass Clean – we’ve made good progress on this, but we still have more to do and we need your help. Please can you log on to Compass and check that your record is correct. Make sure your email is correct (if you have a Scouting email make sure this is shown as your ’Scouting enquiries’ email and have a separate personal email shown as ’Volunteering’), and that you have something down for your Ethnicity and Religion/Faith. Also please ensure your training records are up to date and recorded on Compass.
2. Teams and roles – the extra time we now have will allow us to work more on the make up of the new teams at Area and District level which will support the Groups and Sections, and for people to get their head round this important changes.
3. Volunteer Culture – we can also use the time to ensure we are aware of and practice Our Volunteer Culture: making sure every volunteer knows what’s expected of them, what support is available to them, and how we work together to deliver amazing Scouting.
What needs to stay the same until transition in mid February
There are a few things we need the new digital systems for, so we need to keep doing things the old way until they launch…
1. Training – we need to keep using the existing Training Scheme. However we need to realise that the Wood Badge will become optional from February so don’t make people do this unless they want to. Every adult volunteer will need to complete Getting Started, preferably before the new system goes live.
2. Appointments – new volunteers will be required to be added on Compass, complete their DBS check, and attend an Appointments Panel meeting with 3 members of the Appointments Committee and have this recorded on Compass right until the day we transition in mid February.
What we’ve got to look forward to
While some may be disappointed by this delay, I believe it’s the right decision. We don’t want to give you anything other than top quality digital tools to help you in your role.
To give you an idea why it’s worth the wait, take a look at these videos of the new system in action.
Any questions please email transform@clwydscouts.org.uk
Thanks for your patience,
Moz
David Morris
Transformation Team
Clwyd Scouts
07779 272340
clwydscouts.org.uk
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