Scout Post 2016 Report

 

 

So How did the Scout Post Go?

 

scoutposts02Happy New Year from 1st Wenvoe Scout Group. We hope that you had a wonderful time with family and friends, or perhaps just enjoyed a bit of peace and quiet and some better than usual telly. Here in the Williams residence as I type this, we are still waiting for our delivery scout elves to text us with confirmation that they have delivered their bags of post. We then have to report back to the main sorting office that all our mail has been delivered. So it’s all go here at the moment. By the time you read this it will be a distant memory and you will all be cursing through dry January or just about sticking to that diet. Keep at it!

I know we all grumble that scout post is so early but if you take a moment to think about what’s involved you might realise that we really do need that time to get the job done. Last posting day in 2016 was 5th December and we had already started sorting on the Saturday and Sunday. One person drives down to the main sort in Pontcanna scout hut where all the Cardiff and Vale groups meet to swap post for each other. We hand out post to each area – Barry, Rhiwbina, Grangetown etc and they hand us our Wenvoe post which is brought back to our sorters in the community centre. We sort this into streets, farms and so on and by Thursday of that week (so, Thursday 8th 2016) we finished sorting and handed out bags of mail to our deliverers. That mail has to be delivered by the following weekend – which is usually the weekend before Christmas. That’s the latest the mail should be delivered by so you can see I hope why we have to sell stamps so early and have such an early day for our last post. You’ll just have to be more organised if you missed it! And by the way, it is only stamps sold in Wenvoe which benefit our scout group – so don’t buy them from anyone else!. Oh, and another myth, last years stamps are just as valid as this years, they don’t go out of date!

This year we had the usual cards from optimistic senders, ie just names, no, and/or incorrect addresses. So if anyone recognises: Vicky Haines in Draenen Wen (no number); Mr & Mrs Pugh 53 Heol Draenen Wen (no such number exists); Julie & Ray & family, Culverhouse X; Nicola and Martin (no address at all) and the last one, John Burles or Burkes, (again, no address well I’m sorry but our scouting telepathy skills failed us and regretfully we were unable to deliver these cards. The 53 Heol Draenen Wen card is a serial offender each year – so if you do recognise it perhaps you might ask your friends and relatives if they have your correct address.

It’s just a thought.

I say this because we do have a report back from the scout post organisers in February each year and sometimes we hear the odd grumble that post was not delivered and whilst that is no doubt true for a very small amount of post for one reason or another, sometimes it’s because the address was simply wrong in the first place.

We also had a fair number of cards for further afield which we cannot deliver at all, for example, Sidcup, London, Welshpool to give you a few examples. We put most of these in the Royal Mail as we have no other way of delivering those. It would be nice to think that the recipients pointed this out to the senders – but I suspect that is wishful thinking. Of course, this year we have had a few more houses to deliver to with the developments at Redrow and Bellway at either end of the village. I apologise to our army of sorters who had to suffer the Husbands ‘witty’ nickname for each end of the village which I won’t share here, save to say that the word ‘end’ featured in both… I know, I know, I’m sorry and no offence is intended, honestly.

Moving swiftly on, of course the real reason for this article is to thank the army of sorters, sellers, deliverers, exchange swappers, Ian who is still the ‘main man’ despite what the Husband thinks, custodians of the post boxes and of course our treasurer who has to count up all the fiddling small change. We couldn’t do scout post without you, it would simply be an impossible task so we value your help more than you could ever know. We are always grateful for help with post – which is a lovely Christmassy thing to do, so if you fancy popping down next year please let us know.

Sue Williams

PS – We have a card for a Mr and Mrs K M Rees, Southlands, St Lythans, CF5 6BG. No house by this name is recognised in the area. Contact wenvoe scoutgroup@gmail.com if you wish to claim the card.

 

 

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