Joining Scouting at Sale Central

Sale Central Scout Group is an extremely popular and successful group. It is normal for each of the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts sections within the group to run at full capacity. This policy explains how prospective members are given priority and how to join a waiting list. All sections in Sale Central Scout Group follow this policy.

Please note that not everyone on the waiting list can be offered place.
Sale and District Scouts has more young people wishing to join than we have places available. If you live outside of Sale, you may be best contacting Greater Manchester West in the first instance via: county.office@gmwscouts.org.uk to ask about local Scouting provision near you.

Do not be discouraged if one of our waiting lists appears to be heavily subscribed to, Scouting is popular, and it is not unusual for a Parent to place a child on our waiting list shortly after birth.

Our Admissions Policy

New members are selected from the waiting list when places become available, according to the following criteria (in this order):

1. Children who are moving up from lower sections (such as Beavers to Cubs) due to age.
2. Children of Scouting volunteers in Sale Central Scout Group.
3. Change of night requests WITHIN Sale Central Scout Group (such as Thursday to Tuesday Beavers).
4. Children transferring from other Scout Groups.
5. Children whose home address is within Sale.
6. The year of birth of the child and the length of time they have been on the waiting list.

Children will generally join and move-up to the next section at the beginning of the term (September, January, and April) following them reaching the minimum age for the section.

How to join our waiting list

All enquiries for membership must be made via the respective Waiting list (at Sale Central, we have two venues, and each maintains their own waiting list). Requests made via Scout Headquarters or the Sale & District Scouts website will forward enquiries to the respective waiting lists.

Please join the waiting list based on the current age of your child…

What to tell us

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your telephone/mobile numbers
• Your child’s name
• Your child’s date of birth
• Your child’s home address

What happens next…

• You will automatically be placed on our waiting list.
• Section Leaders may, from time to time contact you.
• Please understand, Section Leaders are busy volunteers and may not always be able to contact you.
• Section Leaders from different Groups often communicate their waiting lists to each other, where an individual is found to be on multiple waiting lists then they will be removed from the Sale Central Waiting List. (This may sound harsh, but we prefer, and give priority to members from our local community).

If and when a place becomes available…

• You will be contacted by the relevant Section Leader.
• If your child does not get a place in the first section (such as Beavers) then they will remain on the waiting list and be considered for the next section (in this case, Cubs).
• Your original date of entry onto the waiting list will be preserved.

Please note that casual conversations with Scouting Leaders, or even seemingly formal agreements, regarding getting children on waiting lists are not relevant or valid. The only way to place your child on the waiting list is to formally add them to the respective waiting list.

Keeping your place

Good attendance, Parental interaction, good behaviour, prompt payment of fees and support of fundraising activities are the expectations for continued membership.

Appeals

Should a parent or guardian wish to appeal against a decision, they can make a case to the Group Scout Leader (gsl.salecentral@gmail.com) whose decision as per the Policy, Organisation and Rules of the UK Scout Association will be final.