Farewell Claudia, Group Leader

It is with deep gratitude and sadness that we bid farewell to Claudia, our Group Leader from 2006 to 2020. Claudia will be remembered for her fortitude, patience and perseverance shown while leading the 1st Leichhardt Scout Group to the vibrant, active Scout Group it is today.

A party was held for Claudia on the 19th September celebrating 20 years of service to the group.

Claudia had the following to say on the night:

Thanks for organising this party – it’s great to see everybody.

I became assistant Cub Leader in 2000 when my daughter was 16 and in Venturers. My son had by then been a Cub, Scout and Venturer and had left. He loved Scouts especially the camping. He turns 40 next year and has a daughter called Evelyn – the name is back in fashion.

I was friends with Sally Torr and we took over the Group from Margaret Bligh who had been Group Leader for years.

Sally was Scout Leader and Group Leader, Evelyn Humes was Cub Leader and I was assistant.  I’ve forgotten who the Venturer Leader was but we must have had one. 

We were a struggling Group with tiny numbers – there were 4 Scouts at one time and 8 or 9 Cubs. We couldn’t afford to lose any youth members. I remember one girl in Cubs who was a bully. It was a real problem and impossible to change her behaviour and we had to wait until she left.

The parents committee wasn’t very functional.  The treasurer didn’t get around to doing the books and we had no accounts for about 4 years. Aikido became our tenant in the 2000’s and we used the rent to improve the hall. We’ve painted the hall, demolished buildings in the back yard and laid a lawn and replaced the gate – recently.

In 2006 Sally left Sydney to live in Bourke. It took me a long while to get over her leaving. I took over as Group Leader as well as being Assistant Cub Leader.  Evelyn retired and Susan Grant took over with Ken as her assistant. As we had 2 Cub Leaders I stopped being a Cub Leader and became Group Leader only. Then Susan left and Ken took over. At one stage we had 6 Cub Leaders – luxury!

After Sally, Paul and his girlfriend Tammy, who were from Melbourne became Scout Leaders. He was a risk taker who took the kids on region camp when there was a high wind and no other groups went. They went back to Melbourne.

Then we amalgamated with 1^st Petersham Scouts who had closed and the Petersham Scouts and their Leader, John Thomasson, joined us. He left in February 2009 on the first day back after the Christmas break – on the spot.  Fons from Haberfield came and looked after our Scouts for a while. Noel was a Leader but not a qualified one so we needed a qualified Leader. I’m always grateful to Fons, he ran Leichhardt Scouts on Monday nights and Haberfield on Fridays.

We had heaps of crises and I used to think we lurched from one to the other.

When we met old Scouts they’d often talk about the old days when things were great. Leichhardt was the biggest group in the region, Leichhardt Scouts were tough etc etc. This could be a bit annoying as we had challenges surviving. One of the advantages of the Group is our fabulous hall. We’re very lucky.

For a lot of my time we used paper forms and I did a lot of photocopying. We gave out activity consents and notes to parents. This created problems with storage and privacy which still is a concern today with activity forms thrown out and turning up in rubbish dumps. I remember when email came. Very shortly after I couldn’t imagine how we operated before emails.

State office has done an amazing job of updating the organisation. It eliminated a lot of paperwork previously done by the Group Leaders.  We used Dibbs for a while, it was very complicated and you needed to spend hours to get results. Then Caremonkey – Operoo came along. Before online systems we had to keep the membership list up to date manually which was time consuming. We could not have increased our membership to today’s numbers without the online systems. We also got online membership forms and online financial accounts.

No matter how many improvements they made, the work never seemed to take less time. The Group Leader has to keep all the balls in the air – a big responsibility!

I had to learn the new systems which was good for me as I didn’t have a job. I was working when I started but gave it up and later I did an arts course part time.

Being involved with Scouts added to my life. I think it’s a great organisation for children to belong to and I like the fact that all the adults are volunteers. People often tell you what a positive influence Scouts has had on their lives.

I met lots of people especially Leaders and committee members who I otherwise wouldn’t have met. We’ve lived through divorces, changing schools and troubles with kids. I love the fact that we’re all about running Scouts and don’t discuss current affairs or political opinions.

When you read the history of Scouts you realise that the importance of childhood has changed since Scouts was founded in 1908 and in its heyday in the 1930’s – 1960’s.  There were few youth organisations then apart from school. It’s still a unique organisation.

I know there are different things to deal with now which, lucky for me, I’ve escaped. I hope 1st Leichhardt keeps going and remains strong, thanks to all your efforts as without you it wouldn’t exist.