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.
Nicholas Bond
Hi, I’m Nick! I'm a Civil Engineering graduate (read "professional train nerd") currently working in a consultancy company in Bristol.
Since joining scouting as a Beaver, I've learnt rapidly that the more you put in the more you get out! I started in SSAGO as soon as I could, as a member of SUGS in 2017. Since then I’ve spent a placement year with UOBGAS during 2019, been back to SUGS for my final year at Swansea University, and switched to Southampton for my MSc in September 2021. In October 2022 I moved back to Bristol again, this time for a job. I’ve also been involved with Rali Cymru since it's first bid in 2018, so I’ve certainly been around SSAGO quite a lot!
As a member of Team Pink I hope to keep things running as smoothly as possible with my organisational skills. If you think something I'm doing could be improved, then it probably could - don't hesitate to get in contact, either online or at a national event!
November 2022
Report
- Life: Not *lots* has happened this past month or two, since I've been busy graduating, moving city, and starting a job. All has now settled again, and I've still managed to squeeze some things in recently...
- Autumn Reps: Over the past few weeks I have been doing the legwork setting up Autumn Reps.
- Emails: as usual, I've been keeping on top of my ever-growing inbox. Not to mention constantly approving everyone else's! Now that I have a regular 9-5 job I have limited times of day at which to respond and approve emails,
- NANs: I'm pleased with the number of NAN forms that have been crossing my inbox, even if I've not been the quickest in responding to them. They are generally completed well; a small clarification regarding timescales has been proposed at this Reps.
- Team Pink Meetings: I have been encouraging the return to regular meetings and ensuring agendas, minutes etc exist for each: I've also cleared a small backlog of minutes that had built up, which should allow me to be quicker moving forwards.
Aims
- Policy Tidy-Up: following Rali Crymru I plan to work with Policy Fixers to bring some consistency to the various policy folders spread around SSAGO.
- Project Revitalisation: much work has been going on since the membership reset to create Project Leads and get people involved in running things again. Hopefully we'll see an uptake in engagement from these soon, but there are still further projects that require attention.
- Archive: I still plan to have a discussion of the current state of the SSAGO archives with Charlotte, and how we can reinvigorate the Archive Project.
- Events: I will continue to support the Events Officer and our many national and regional events, to ensure they are all the best they can be!
October 2022
Report
- Life: Not *lots* has happened this past month or two, since I've been busy graduating, moving city, and starting a job. All is now settled again, and I've still managed to squeeze some things in recently...
- Emails: as usual, I've been keeping on top of my ever-growing inbox. Not to mention constantly approving everyone elses!
- Team Pink Meetings: Have been somewhat less frequent recently, so if you haven't seen any minutes, that's mostly why! I have been encouraging regular meetings and ensuring agendas, minutes etc exist for each, although not all have made it onto the website yet.
- Discord: It finally happened! Whilst some technical functionality is still to be implemented when our webmaster returns, the server is now slightly more streamlined and hopefully less intimidating for our incoming Freshers.
Aims
- Autumn Reps: As Rali Cymru looms (again), so does Autumn Reps - it's the next big thing I have to devote attention to.
- Project Revitalisation: much work has been going on since the membership reset to create Project Leads and get people involved in running things again. Hopefully we'll see an uptake in engagement from these soon, but there are still further projects that require attention.
- Archive: I still plan to have a discussion of the current state of the SSAGO archives with Charlotte, and how we can reinvigorate the Archive Project.
- Events: I will continue to support the Events Officer and our many national and regional events, to ensure we get the best possible rallies and ball!
June 2022
Report
- Emails: lots of emails! 'tis the life of a secretary... I haven't always been the speediest at responding, but that's often to give Team Pink the best chance to review things - better a thorough response than a rushed one!
- TSA & GG: I've been arranging and attending meetings with TSA and GG, regarding our relationship.
- Team Pink Meetings: I've started Team Pink into a pattern of "fortnightly meetings", which hopefully we will maintain to keep on top of our ever-growing todo lists. I'm yet to fully settle into the rhythm of publishing agendas and minutes of these but that should get better very soon.
- Summer Reps: I've also been kept busy with setting up the next Reps meeting, scheduled for Rally Of Games.
Aims
- Summer Reps: As the nearest thing, it's certainly where most of my Pink time is going right now.
- Projects: I'm pleased to say we are currently in the process of setting up a new project! I have a number of other projects on my radar for reinvigoration; they'll each need a project leader with a small team behind them to look after them, so watch this space!
- Archive: I plan to have a detailed discussion of the current state of the SSAGO archives with Charlotte, and what we can do with them.
- Events: I will be working with Ant and Leon to set up some SSAGO Support events, predominantly Wellies & Wristbands and Gilwell Reunion - if there are others you think we should look into, get in touch!
March 2022
Aims
- Exec Handover: I am working closely with all members of Team Pink to ensure the process runs as smooth as possible, given some less than ideal circumstances.
- Communication: I am already looking to improve internal Team Pink communication and organisation, the effects of which will hopefully be reflected through wider SSAGO. I am also planning to work with the Publicity and Webmaster roles to improve SSAGO's other online communication methods.
- Projects: Over the last few year of COVID lockdowns, many of SSAGO's projects have been languishing with members unaware of their existence. I would like to breathe some life back into them, introducing new members, new leadership and a sense of purpose to each one as necessary.
- Events: As part of an unexpectedly long-running event committee, I have gained some useful insights. Over the coming year I would like to help future national events to be the best they can be by further promoting knowledge sharing with and between them.