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.

Find out who we are

The Exec

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Chair

Jack Woodward

What I've done
  • 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.
What I'm working on
  • 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.

Last updated 14/11/2024, 22:25

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Secretary

Grace Hinks

What I've done
  • This summer has been incredibly busy for me, and I unfortunately had to prioritise certain aspects of my role, but since my last report, this is what I have been up to:
  • Meetings: I have planned 5 Team Pink meetings since the last report. These have been less frequent than Team Pink would have liked due to our busy and often conflicting Summer schedules but hopefully they'll be more frequent soon!
  • Minutes: The publication of Team Pink meeting minutes experienced delays over the summer. These have now been uploaded to the website, and I sent an email to all reps and committees holding my hands up and explaining why these delays occurred to offer some reassurance and explanation.
  • Outstanding actions: I have been trying to keep Team Pink on top of all our actions. This has resulted in me creating a detailed spreadsheet to keep track of everything. Hopefully this will help all of us keep as up to date as possible going forward, and not let anything fall through the gaps!
  • Autumn 2024 Reps: I have spent time setting reps up ready for LOTRR. Due to Summer 2024 Reps not meeting quorum, it's a big one. I have trialled a new system to help spread the workload of setting up Reps by creating a document where Team Pink had the opportunity to write about areas they had been most active in, meaning the information at Reps has been provided by those most experienced in each section. Whilst there have been small teething issues you would expect with any change like this, overall I believe this has worked well in both reducing the stress for all of Team Pink in the run up to Reps, and ensuring that Reps is of the highest quality possible.
  • Emails: I have been keeping on top of my emailing, which has mostly consisted of approving forms, but, most recently, contacting the required parties in preparation for Reps.
  • My life: I have recently moved house and changed jobs, (very stressful), but am now settled in and ready to jump feet first into everything SSAGO once again.
What I'm working on
  • Mitigate delays: Over the summer, due to unfortunate circumstances, the most public aspects of my role, like publishing minutes, faced major delays. I am now in a position where no delays should occur, but to be certain I have created a plan to ensure that all delays are either minor or completely avoided.
  • Clear up the GDrive: The SSAGO GDrive needs a tidy, and I'm planning to spend some time organising it to hopefully help the current and future Team Pinks!
  • Updating factsheets: It has been noticed that some SSAGO factsheets are now out of date, and I'm looking forward to helping to update these alongside the rest of Team Pink.
  • Organising more Team Pink meetings: As usual, there's plenty more Team Pink meetings to come, and I am looking at ways to ensure the best attendance from Team Pink.
  • Miscellaneous: I have plenty of other things planned for the near future, including creating a helpful document on how to run a bar, updating the official complaints form, creating a pre-event email template and of course, plenty of emailing!

Last updated 17/11/2024, 19:46

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Treasurer

Katie Waters

What I've done
  • Since summer rally I have:
  • Met with rally committees to get them set up with bank accounts
  • and make sure they understand how to use the rally loan form
  • and to make sure they know they can find me any time they have a budget concern or question
  • I have worked with the rest of Pink to get the budget to reps which hasn't been the case for the last few years
  • Lloyds have finally prossed all the forms and I now have account access so I can approve all your lovely payments that make events happen
  • In more general pink jobs I have
  • Helped with the appointing of new project leads
  • date checked and replenished the First-aid kit for all your accidents on rally to keep you nice and safe
  • Attended Witan and come up with a hundred tiktok ideas of Lucy and actually made none of them - see aims
  • Approved along with team pink an application to the development fund- keep your eyes on the socials to see what
  • Made contact with West Sussex Jamboree after they reached out as they are interested in having SSAGO present next year and
What I'm working on
  • See one of my tiktok ideas through to completion
  • See some more applications to the development fund and see the impact it has on growing wider SSAGO
  • Get the details for SSAGOs stall at West Sussex Jamboree finalised
  • Keep SSAGO in the Green!

Last updated 16/12/2024, 16:44

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Publicity

Lucy Smith

What I've done
  • Since my last update I have been up to the following:
  • Instagram:
  • Over summer updating the instagram with summer camps from clubs.
  • Promoting assistant applications.
  • Promoting project lead applications and the projects in general.
  • Results day (see other section).
  • Promoting important days/weeks, including world mental health day, transgender awareness week, remembrance sunday.
  • Planning content to continue with over the next few months.
  • Freshers/results day:
  • Made posts and generated ads for results days. A total of over 11,000 people were reached by these posts! Continuing to aim posts at freshers, some of which have included an ‘intro to SSAGO’ post, and an upcoming event highlight post.
  • Tiktok:
  • Not been plenty active on here as at national events I have been busy with other things, but plenty of plans lined up for LOTRR so we can get some more tiktoks and reels out there.
  • General stuff:
  • Distributing publicity resources and guides to new clubs.
  • Team pink meetings and responsibilities etc.
  • Writing up a Witan article.
  • Keeping on top of responsibilities for my other two event committees.
  • Keeping on top of discord, answering questions etc.
What I'm working on
  • Aims up until Team Pink Rally:
  • Keep on top of instagram and facebook.
  • Generate more tiktoks.
  • Work with SSAGO events as well as other events to publicise opportunities to members.
  • Develop a strong SSAGO media/news team.
  • Work with SSAGO supports to publicise opportunities.
  • Work with Ben (Liaisons) to work on our relationship with Girlguiding.
  • Support events with any publicity queries.
  • Continue with team pink responsibilities.
  • Update handover doc where necessary.

Last updated 16/11/2024, 15:05

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Members

Anna Matthews

What I've done
  • Team Pink weekend: I attended Team Pink weekend in August where I helped with sorting, reducing and cataloguing the national event kit. I also had a lot of fun branding the SSAGO kit with pink spray paint! The national event kit was then passed on to LOTR rally. I also used this weekend to do SSAGO admin, in particular writing the Membership email.
  • New clubs: I have stayed in contact with our newer clubs and made sure they had everything they needed for Freshers week. I have also received a number of emails about setting up new clubs and have had a couple of meetings regarding this (details to come soon!).
  • Behind the scenes: I have also been doing lots of SSAGO admin behind the scenes, especially now that term has restarted. This has included supporting events with welfare, fielding requests for volunteers for Scout and Guide groups, and contacting new members.
  • Gilwell Reunion: I and other members of Team Pink represented and publicised SSAGO on a stall at Gilwell Reunion. The event was brilliant and it is definitely something we’d like to do again.
What I'm working on
  • Scouts Inclusion: I am currently in the process of trying to make contact and establish a relationship with the Scouts Inclusion team. The SSAGO strategy aims to introduce a new Reasonable Adjustment Policy by September 2026. The plan is to get advice from the Scouts Inclusion team to help Team Pink in developing this policy.
  • Membership: The next membership email will be coming out soon and with it I will be checking and approving clubs’ membership lists.
  • Projects: Every project has been assigned a member of Team Pink. I will be overseeing the Pride project and in the next couple of months I will be supporting the project lead in creating a direction and goals for the project. Team Pink have also received a number of emails regarding exciting international opportunities and I am looking forward to discussing these with the International project.

Last updated 24/10/2024, 19:04

The Assistants

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Quartermaster

Joe Barnes

What I've done
  • Neckers: We have neckers now!
  • Popup Shop: A pop-up shop was opened to allow people to buy neckers and badges. This involved a full stock recount and updating the catalogue on the website. Some orders are still outstanding from this but will be dispatched shortly.
  • Uniform Badges: We need to restock the uniform badges, the current design is decades old and is no longer in line with the updated Scout uniform badges - diamonds are for top awards, SASU badges should be rectangular like the network badges. I have suggested new designs and passed to Leon for finalisation.
  • New Merch: I have contacted companies with regard to getting new merchandise; travel mugs, bobble hats and sunglasses are on my list at the moment, but as always you can suggest ideas via merchandise@ssago.org
  • Viking Rally: The shop was open in person at Viking Rally, when I wasn't cooking hundreds of sausage rolls!
What I'm working on
  • New Merch: Continue getting new merch options into the Shop.
  • Re-open shop.ssago.org: I am in the process of contacting people with order issues and out of stock items so that the full SSAGO shop can re-open and be running properly in the next few months. New uniform badges will clear out about half of the remaining orders.
  • POS Efficiency: I'm working with Oli to make the shiny new electronic Shop system work more efficiently for us, including being able to use it as a more integrated till at Rally, which will make stock control much easier and mean that hopefully none of these problems we’ve had will happen again...

Last updated 23/02/2022, 17:14

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Webmaster

Oli Bills

What I've done
  • Event improvements: Q&A system, registration system, new booking features, app platform
  • General SSAGO things: Newsletter system, moving resources from Dropbox to Drive, better Reps system
  • Rally of Games: SSAGO app, SSAGO treasure hunt game, patrols and teams and other fun things for future events
  • AGM and EGM things: As always, elections continue to change and need to happen and I made sure the technology was in place to accommodate these
  • De-Olifying SSAGO: More automation, administration interfaces and making sure all SSAGO sytsems work when Oli was in Switzerland and preparing for the future, including migrating SSAGO tech to the AWS Cloud
  • Life outside Webmaster: I volunteered, slightly unexpectedly, at the Kandersteg International Scout Centre for Autumn 2022 as a pinkie! I also supported the Iceland event last July, the WinterKISC event this February and Kander100 this coming summer.
What I'm working on
  • New exec: Supoorting the new incoming Exec and any of their requirements and goals
  • New future: Continuing to work towards SSAGO technology being someone else's problem!
  • More web team: Continue to work to grow the web team to support the webmaster
  • Tidying up: Tidying up any remaining non-automated parts of SSAGO that require manual intervention, to make sure the infrastructure "just works"

Last updated 13/03/2023, 14:04

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Events

Rose Moran

What I've done
  • Supporting Events: I have now had introductory/getting started meetings with all of our new national event which were voted in at this years AGM and set clear goals for the next few months. Supported Birthday ball and Sports Day rally in the final planning stages for their events.
  • Events Templates: I have finished making a set of starter planning templates for each different aspect of a rally which the newest events have started trialling. The aims of these is to give events a clear structure and make them aware of what level of detail they should be planning at from the beginning.
  • Event Timelines: I have created a a more structured plan of what rally committees should be working on throughout the course of their planning time. To suit the various lengths of time events have to plan, I have made a clear timeline that splits this time across 7 meetings that Team Pink will have with the event. Each meeting will have a specific focus so that myself and the events can make the most of each meeting by being able to prepare in advance.
What I'm working on
  • Demo Event Website: From discussions with previous events, support on how to best understand and great a good website is something that is potentially lacking. Therefore, over the next few months I plan to make an example event page with all the feature you can utilise within an event website so that events can visually see how each feature works.
  • Event Timelines: I would like to make a similar timeline to help ball committees use their time efficiently and have a more clear structure.
  • Event Kit: Work with the rest of Team Pink to work out an effective system for sorting and logging SSAGO event kit.

Last updated 12/06/2024, 22:55

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Charities

Alex Banwell

What I've done
  • -Sorted some of the paperwork in preparation for an application to the charity commission
  • -Compiled a list of receipts and documentation for the independent examination of the accounts
  • -Worked on this year's accounts
  • -Sorted banking and insurance stuff
  • -Other miscellaneous team pink stuff
What I'm working on
  • -Register SSAGO as a charity
  • -Finish getting the most recent set of accounts independently examined

Last updated 06/12/2024, 10:35

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SASU

Ben Dickinson

What I've done
  • SASU Membership: I am continuing to add people to the SASU, processing DBSs and training. Please do let me know if you want to be added to the SASU.
  • Scouts: We have been discussing SSAGO's charitable status with the Scouts and will hopefully have some progress on that soon!
  • Guides: We have started an initial conversation with someone from Guides HQ and I will continue these discussions.
What I'm working on
  • SASU Membership: I will be keeping the SASU membership up to date, adding and removing people as required, and ensuring people do their training!
  • Compass Transition: The Scouts are updating their membership system, so I plan to be getting familiar with the new system and making sure all of the SSAGO SASU members are transferred across correctly.
  • SAGGA: I will continue to talk to SAGGA and attend their committee meetings.
  • Scouts: We are looking at where the SSAGO SASU would fit within the Scout's post-transformation structure.
  • Guides: I hope to restart our discussions with Guides HQ to build a relationship with them and start to work more closely.

Last updated 21/10/2024, 18:41