FinalAnnReport 2004 _artwork - Hugha.co.uk

BSES EXPEDITIONS | ANNUAL REPORT 2004
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Alexander Matheson, Executive Director BSES Expeditions
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S INTRODUCTION
The last year has been both busy and rewarding for the Society.
Marketing initiatives have been at the front of our minds. The most
visible has been the introduction of Regional Open Days throughout
the country. These Open Days provided valuable opportunities for a
range of people - potential Young Explorers, parents, school teachers
and even Young Explorers who had already been accepted for an
expedition but still wished to discover more. The success of these days
has led us to plan more for 2005. We have also introduced a reward
scheme for our Star Schools which continue to provide Young Explorers
year after year, and a Bursary scheme to assist those Young Explorers
who have difficulty in fund-raising. The Society has been represented
at an impressive number of gap-year fairs and school open days, the
Outdoor Show and at the Head Masters’ Conference which took place
this year at St Andrew’s. The response to all this increased activity has
been a very encouraging number of Young Explorers for 2005. We have
also seen an increase in the number of people applying to be Chief
Leaders on our expeditions.
Three expeditions took to the field last summer; one of them
contained our first Young Leaders Fire. This Fire undertook the Basic
Expedition Leaders Award (BELA) which provides an important bridge
between the first taste of expeditioning and building up experience to
qualify as a leader. Much was learned about the organisation and
programming for the Young Leaders Fire and we will be repeating it
next summer.
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2004 saw the beginning of a drive to recover contact with our past
expeditioners. This will be achieved by picking one member of each
BSES expedition to become the point of contact between the Society
and all the other members of that expedition. If you would like to help
with this, please contact the Office immediately; we are keen to include
as many BSES members as possible in our 75th Anniversary
celebrations in 2007. The generous donation of a sophisticated new
database by the parents of a 2004 Young Explorer will assist greatly in
the management of membership matters.
There is one particular area in which members of the Society can do
a great deal to help, and that is to provide contacts to further our
fund-raising appeal. Our aim is to cover the annual costs of running
BSES so that expeditions can become affordable to an even wider
section of our target age group. This is a major initiative, aimed at
grant-making trusts, commercial companies and other benefactors: in
the longer term we hope to complement this effort by inviting legacies
to BSES. We need to engage the membership of the Society to
introduce us to grant-making trusts, livery companies, commercial
companies, and wealthy individuals who might be sympathetic to our
cause, with a view to sponsorship (of the Society as a whole or a
particular expedition) or donations. If you can assist us in our appeal by
introducing us to benefactors who would value our work in youth
development, please contact the Office.
Alexander Matheson
INTRODUCTION