Team Pink are the team of the Executive Officers and Assistants who are responsible for the running and development of the National Student Scout and Guide Organisation.
Jack Woodward
Hello SSAGO! I’m Jack, your Chair for 2024/25.
I joined Scouting at 6 years old, and haven’t left yet - having worked my way up through Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, and being a young leader at Scouts, I’m now a Scout leader, Explorer leader, IST for the World Scout Jamboree, and Network member at uni (where it actually exists), and at home (where it doesn’t, really)! Given that background, joining SSAGO once I started university in 2019 seemed inevitable, and only being lightly involved was out of the question.
Since joining SSAGO, I've been a club treasurer and chair in Liverpool, been on two rally committees - co-chairing Rally of Games and generally assisting in everything for CentenaRally, chaired the Policy Fixers Project and helped organise a multitude of smaller regional and national events, including a fresher's camp and the last two IOW Revolution contingents. You may also remember me as SSAGO's Secretary for 2023/24 - I enjoyed being on Team Pink so much, I decided to carry on, but with more responsibility this time!
In my spare time, having completed my MPHYS degree at the University of Liverpool, I'm now avoiding having to leave SSAGO by doing a PhD in Nuclear Materials Engineering, also in Liverpool.
Chair
November 2024
Report
- International: Having now removed the International Officer Role, we've now had an abundance of contacts, and I've been leading on this. Primarily, this has been contact with the Irish Rovers and development of the joint event which now has a committee, and Shivaree - the Dutch proposal for a Jamboree style international Student Scouting event.
- Projects: We've been working on reviving the SSAGO Projects, and I've been leading on choosing the new Project Leads - those appointed are now on the clock to get their projects up and running, so we're hoping to start seeing them become more active!
- Scouting and Guiding Relationships: We've recently made contact with some of the senior staff at Girlguiding HQ, and while it's still in it's early stages, I've been leading the conversations. I've also been strongly involved in our ongoing conversations with The Scouts, on a variety of issues.
- Events: I've attended and supported a variety of events, including Witan, and representing SSAGO at SAGGA's Service Summer Camp - Essex International Jamboree (SAGGA were responsible for the Wet and Wild Zone)!
- Reps: This Reps, we're taking a number of steps that work towards meeting some of the long term aims in the SSAGO Strategy - moving the financial year, moving the membership deadline. We're also taking a number of steps that bring SSAGO back into line with good financial practice, and which haven't happened for a number of years - proposing a new national budget, and ideally presenting properly examined accounts for the last few years (unfortunately, delays in the examining process mean these will likely now be presented at the AGM).
- Assistant Recruitment: I took the lead on appointment of a new Quartermaster now that Joe has taken the decision to step down, and Bee's appointment has been announced with this reps. A Conflict of Interest prevents me from being fully involved with the appointment of the Web and Digital Assistants, but I have worked to move along the process as much as possible, where it has faced significant delays.
Aims
- Charity Status: We've been delayed on submitting a charity application by waiting for the Scouts legal team to sign off and say they're happy with us applying using the new constitution, but I'd like to have at least sent off the application before Team Pink Rally, and ideally have SSAGO be registered as a charity by handover.
- SSAGO Strategy: There are a number of aims on the strategy with deadlines before the end of my year, and I'm aiming to make sure that SSAGO meets those aims. There's also a few aims that, in retrospect, may no longer be in line with SSAGO's best interest, and I'd like to identify them, and propose any necessary amendments for the Team Pink Rally Reps Meeting.
- Assistant Recruitment: While a Conflict of Interest prevents me from being fully involved in the appointment of Oli's replacements, I would like to ensure the process starts moving more smoothly, and that the appointments can at least be decided on as soon as is reasonably possible.
- Scouting and Guiding Relationships: I'd like to further develop the contact we've had with Girlguiding, and establish a long term convention for ongoing contact, as well as clearing up a number of points about the relationship between SSAGO and Girlguiding. I'd also like to continue our current contact with the Scouts - we have a number of currently ongoing queries with our contact at Gilwell, and I'd like to see them all resolved before the end of my term.
July 2024
Report
- Handover: Completed handover, moving from Secretary to Chair - helped get all of the new exec up to speed and ready to go. Did the big handover meeting at ball!
- Assistant Review: Finalised our plans for what Team Pink looks like going forward - started the process of recruiting replacement assistants for those stepping down, and managed the stepping down process of those not continuing.
- Team Pink Weekend: Organised for Team Pink weekend to be an inventory of everything SSAGO owns - everything is currently in storage near Leeds, we have a booking for Bramhope, and will then be passing on anything rally need to the LOTR Rally committee, so they have it for the start of rally!
- General Chairing: There's been emails and queries best dealt with by the chair, we've had more complaints than would have been ideal, and all of the other minor things that come with the role!
Aims
- Assistant Recruitment: I'd like to get the process going as soon as possible, so we can choose our new assistants, and get them on board and part of the team as soon as possible!
- Meetings: A variety of delays and problems means we haven't yet had meetings with SAGGA, or the Scouts, since handover, so I'd like to make them happen!
- Camping: I'm going to go camping a lot! From county events, to my own unit's summer camp, to EIJ with SAGGA, to Team Pink Weekend, to Gilwell Reunion/Witan before freshers camps and other events start turning up in the new academic year - I've got lots of places to be between now and November!
- Minutes: There are a few sets of minutes from the Handover period, while I was simultaneously Chair and Secretary, that I haven't had the chance to clean up and publish, I hope to do that soon!
March 2024
Report
- Reps and the AGM: Finished off Oktoberfest reps, and set up Rally Through Time reps. Started the AGM process by contacting SAGGA, which took longer than expected. Stepped back from the organising of the AGM so I can run.
- Cleaning up actions: There's been a few things that got missed throughout the year, so I've been aiming to finish off my stuff, and make sure everyone else does too as we move into handover.
- Normal Functions: I've been catching up on minutes, making sure everything is published and up to date, approving NaNs, AAs and the odd LEN, replying to any member queries that I can.
Aims
- Handover: Get everything ready for a smooth handover - write up useful info I've learned, update the secretary handover guides where things have changed, etc. Hopefully have someone to handover to.
- Finish off actions: There's still a few actions I need to do, I'd like to get them done before handing over.
- Finish off Reps: Plenty of reports need writing up and other stuff doing as part of the reps process, planning to do that as soon as I possibly can.
November 2023
Report
- Emails: I've been sending and replying to lots of emails, from general queries to the notifications for the many camps and adventurous activities everyone has been getting up to this term!
- Events: I've been attending every event I reasonably can (plus a few it I reasonably shouldn't have made it too) and had a great time representing Team Pink! I've also been working on building multiple separate contingents for Revolution next year!
- Meetings: I've been organising and minuting lots of Team Pink meetings, plus going to event meetings where I can, and basically doing every other meeting you can think of!
- Complaints: Led Team Pink on managing complaints.
- WSJ: I represented SSAGO at the WSJ. Despite not being what anyone expected SSAGO (with SAGGA's help) was able to step up and help the UK contingent by organising the SSAGO Olympic Park Challenge!
Aims
June 2023
Report
- It has been an incredibly busy month and a half since Ball, both personally and with SSAGO stuff, so here's a brief snapshot!
- Finishing my degree: I've been through my last exam period, sat my last exams, and officially finished my Master's degree - now on to the PHD in October!
- Scouts 14-24 Redesign Project: I've joined the Youth Panel working on the Scouts project to completely redesign the Explorers and Network provision. While theoretically completely separate to my SSAGO role, I've talked about SSAGO enough that I'm being interviewed about SSAGO as part of the research phase!
- Emails: I have sent and received lots of emails, including lots of NaN forms and Adventurous Activity Notifications making clear that SSAGO is getting up to plenty now that tern has ended! Also dealing with lots of other things, including complaints and incidents, handovers/getting things set up for Treasurer, Indie rep and Associate rep, helping to co-ordinate WSJ merch, and some general queries that don't quite fit in a category.
- Switzerland: I have also visited KISC, met with Oli, both constructively for SSAGO and to have a lot of fun, and completely failed to not do SSAGO stuff while on holiday (mainly because a lot of stuff for reps wasn't done before hand - including this report, which I'm writing from Geneva Airport, before flying to Rally).
Aims
- Reps: I'm aiming to make the post event part of ReBaR reps go much more smoothly than the pre-event part, and now that I kind of know how much time it takes, I'm aiming to be much more on time/ahead of schedule for Reps at Oktoberfest!
- Scouts: I'm aiming to actually work with scouts at HQ level to build a positive relationship which should benefit SSAGO - I'm hoping involvement in the 14-24 Redesign Project will help with that, and that a SSAGO presence at Gilwell Reunion will also support that effort. I'd also like to start the effort of doing the same with GirlGuiding, but don't currently have as convenient a pathway to pursue that.
- SSAGO Policy and Factsheets: This was on my aims in my last report, and I didn't get a chance to even think about it, so I'm carrying it over. There's plenty of issues with out of date factsheets that need updating, and some policies that were originally based on Scouting policies that have since changed, and so could also do with updating.
May 2023
Report
- Getting Started: So far I've been to a multitude of handover meetings - online, in person, 1-1 and with all of team pink, a team pink specific training session, checked in with some events, and generally learned the ropes!
- Replying to emails, already: I've already started taking over replying to your emails about anything and everything, including NaN forms and the EGM results, (which I didn't make any mistakes at all with. If it looks like Nick is still sending you emails, you might need to clear secretary@ssago.org from your address book!
- Actually doing my degree: My Master's Thesis was due in 23:59 the Friday before Ball - it was submitted on time and I still made it to Lincoln in time for Handover and Ball!
Aims
- Meeting every event: SSAGO currently has 7 Nationally organised event committees elected and working to create the best events ever! Team Pink have been checking in with these, and getting the newly elected events ready to go over the handover period, but I'd like to have met all of the teams as soon as possible.
- Policies and Factsheets: Some of these are woefully out of date, and fixing them is a big job that always flies under the radar, but I'd like to make a start.
- Streamlining: As we start a new exec term, I'd like to streamline the way we actually operate as Team Pink, work out and operate a system that works and makes our lives easier, while making sure we don't miss anything.