Scout Association Memorandum 1980

Dear Rotarian,

With this Memorandum you should have received a number of pamphlets prepared by the Scout Association in this Area for distribution to persons who might be prepared to support that Movement.

The Scout Association has for some time had a form of membership known as Sustaining Membership, designed to make those persons, interested in supporting Scouting in a financial way, members of the Movement.

Many people are prepared to support the aims and objects of Scouting and the biggest problem is to find out who those people are and make them aware of the form of membership available.

We hope that you would do something to support Scouting by seeking out some of those who might be prepared to assist financially.  To this end you could approach people and firms in your locality who have the same classification as yourself asking them if they were prepared to accept an approach from the Scout Movement to become Sustaining Members.

To assist you in your task pamphlets have been prepared and a copy could be delivered by you to any person or firm which showed interest or sympathy for the Movement.

If a person or firm was prepared to receive such overtures from the Scout Movement then it would be your task to note down the name and address of the firm or person, and in the case of a firm, the person who might be given as the reference, and this list of names could then be handed back to your Club Organiser for this project who would in turn see that the total list from all members was passed to the Area Commissioner for Scouting, Mr. J. H. Holderness, P. O. Box 4, Hastings.

You are not required to collect any money from any person or firm which you approached and all you would have to do was to obtain the particulars of the address to which material could be sent by the Scout Association if the person concerned was sympathetic.

The Scout Association would then send membership application forms to those on the address list showing how they could become Sustaining Members and the particular privileges which such membership would accord to them.

At the moment the Scout Movement in the Waiapu Area which extends from Takapau in the south to Poverty Bay in the north on the eastern side of the main range has a list of about 400 persons to which material has been sent in the past and quite a number of these have been or still are Sustaining Members.

It is hoped by this campaign in which you would take part that throughout the Waiapu Area this list could be increased to between 2,000 and 3,000 of which perhaps one half might ultimately become Sustaining Members.

A similar approach will be made by the Scout Movement to other Rotary Clubs throughout the Waiapu Area with a view to increasing the Sustaining Membership address list.