As a New Leader I’ve been advised that part of my initiation is to write an update on this year’s camp at Ardwhallin. I could sum it up in one word WET. However, the rain only added to the enjoyment, so we kept telling ourselves.

This being my first camp I thought it was very successful, everyone enjoyed themselves and a big thank you must go to Ali as her food and constant stream of hot chocolate kept everyone going. Rain didn’t stop play for us, we still managed to go on a Friday night hike with a quick game of hide, seek and slip in the mud in the plantation, followed by a spot of cooking which all the cubs took part in, and demolished.

Saturday we managed to complete the obstacle course, made all the more interesting when completed in hail and heavy rain, but following a change of clothes and hearty lunch we were off again on a short hike to build shelters in the plantation behind the house.

Everyone was given a special cub camp name but thinking about it we forgot to name Akela and Jacala, who for reasons that I’m sure they will be only too willing to explain, should have been named Frida and Agnetha. On the whole I felt it was an excellent camp and it wasn’t only the cubs that were tired and in bed by 7 p.m. on Sunday evening!!

Congratulations to the Amphibious Fish who managed to collect the most amount of points during the weekend.

We have a new Cub leader in Ruth Clarke, LukeD's Grandmother. Ruth, or Rama as she will be known, used to be involved in the Guiding movement and has now joined our team as an Assistant Cub Scout Leader.

We're also pleased that Iain MacMillan has taken over from Julie Reynolds-Sinclair as the Cub Parent Rep on the Exec, following Julie's decision to become a warranted leader.

Many thanks to Hilary for all her hard work and support.

Congratulations to Tabaqui, who got married this weekend. 6 of Cubs formed a Guard of Honour outside Rushen Church and even found out that Tabaqui is also the same person as Claire. Claire Hammill may now be Claire Cain but remains as Tabaqui for us....

See more photos here.

The Executive Committee exists to support the Scout Leaders in 1st Laxey, handle the accounts, and make major decisions.

We currently have a vacancy for the Cubs Parent Representative, as Debbie Hinks will be standing down at the AGM in July due to her son moving on from Cubs.

If you feel you would be willing to take over from Debbie please contact me. The role is to support me running the Cub Section, liasing between the Group and other Cub Parents, attending Exec Meetings (usually only 4 per year) and helping out with any other work of the Exec such as fundraising or adult recruitment. The role is thus not a particular time consuming one but is rewarding. Please have a chat to either myself or Debbie.

There are currently problems with all our CGI scripts on the website, due to reasons beyound our control.

This means you will be unable to login, unable to access the programme and many other functions. We apologise and hope to get this service back up and running as soon as possible.

The Scout Association – Isle of Man is launching an Island Scouts Photography Competition on the 1. March 2009. The theme of the competition will be ‘Scouting in Mann’ and there will be two classes, one for Youth Members and the other for Adult Members. There will be some great prizes for the photos voted the best in each class.

Full details about the Competition will be available on this Website from the 1. March, so get clicking away in anticipation! A poster for the competition can be downloaded here.

Jack Gair went home on 30 December 2008 at the age of 94. He was both a Scout and Cub Master at 1st Laxey and was responsible for re-establishing the Group in 1958 (it had closed in 1946). The Group continued under his stength and leadership until 1984. He was later awarded the Medal of Merit (shown below) for his services to Scouting. See also the Obituary on manxscouts.com