We’ll be back together in just under two months, and we’ve got even more updates to share with you. From checking you’ve got dates in your diary, to letting you know what we’ve been up to, what’s next, and sharing a little more about the next pre-event, read on for more!
What have we been up to?
We’ve been working hard with the information you shared with us last month. Kit orders are in with the suppliers, and we’re hoping for the first deliveries in a few weeks. We’ve also submitted our programme request to Kandersteg and should be hearing back any time now – we’ll then work on firming up the programme, based on what is available.
It's been delivery central across the Core Team’s houses! We’ve had a delivery of badges, twenty boxes of holdalls, and are expecting a delivery of some more badges, and tents soon, before the rest of the merchandise arrives a few weeks after.
Before Christmas, you shared with us tent and patrol preferences, and we worked with hundreds of virtual post it notes, several spreadsheets and lots of crazy arrows pointing about the place to make sure that everyone got at least one of their choices, and that as many of us got more. We’ll be sharing these at the next pre-event, as we’re still working on the finishing touches, checking that it all works with the programme.
We’ve also had confirmation on some details from our coach company. Drop-off and pick-up will be at the Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council Offices on Gibson Drive, Kings Hill. We’re asking as many of you to car share as possible to help us manage traffic, and we’re also asking adults to walk, or be dropped off, if at all possible, as there’s only a very limited capacity for leaving cars. We are anticipating drop-off to be at around 5:30pm on Friday 26 July, and will confirm more details nearer to the time.
What’s next?
Permission to Travel
Earlier this week, you received the permission to travel request, which includes a link to part of the Registration Portal. Permission to Travel is your permission to take your young person abroad and needs to be given by anyone with parental responsibility for your child. Within that declaration, we also ask for your permission to act ‘in loco parentis’ should we need to, such as for authorising urgent medical attention, should we not be able to contact you.
Thank you to everyone who has completed this already - about half of you have. If you haven’t yet started the process, please do so. If you’ve not yet received the confirmation email after submitting, it means that the second signer hasn’t finished the form yet. We’d like for all these forms to be in by the end of March, but are hoping to be able to tie up this request sooner, as we’re getting ready to focus our attention on finishing preparations for pre-event 2.
Data updates
You may remember back in September, we asked you to click through into the Registration Portal and check and confirm Tom’s personal details, particularly the health and welfare information. We’re going to be asking you to do this again in the first two weeks of April, so that we can make sure we’re setup to look after and keep everyone safe on the next pre-event.
If there’s a bit more we need to know about Tom to make sure that they’re happy and healthy when with us, our Welfare Team will be reaching out to you soon. If they do get in touch, please work with them to make sure we’ve got all the information we need.
GHICs
The eagle eyed among you will have seen the Global Health Insurance Card mentioned on our FAQ page. We say:
“Previously known as a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), the GHIC helps certain people to 'access medically necessary state-provided healthcare when you're visiting an EU country or Switzerland' - it works in tandem with our Travel Insurance.
We'd recommend everyone applying for (and bringing with them(!)) a GHIC to help us should healthcare be required.”
If your young person doesn’t already have a GHIC, please apply. It’s free, and we’ll be asking for you to submit info from these in the not too distant future.
Pre-event info
We’ll be sharing more information, including arrival slots, nearer to the time, but for now, we can confirm our rough, planned arrival/departure times at Lower Grange Farm:
Arrive: Friday 2 May 2024 – 19:00-19:30
Depart: Sunday 5 May 2024 – 13:30-14:00
We will be using the trip tents, so Young People will not need to supply their own tents. We’re also hoping to hand out kit at the end of the pre-event. A reminder that we expect full attendance at pre-events, especially as you’ve had the dates for over a year now!
Next Payments
If this applies to you, in the next week or so, you’ll receive an email letting you know how much you are still outstanding on your payments. There is a payment due from Young People of £150 by 31 March, and then the balance due from Adults and Young People by 31 May. Everyone should have paid up in full by the end of May – if you anticipate an issue with this, please let us know. Thank you to everyone who is keeping up with or is ahead of the payment plans!
Things we’re reminding you of
24 April – Family Meeting (7pm) - Zoom
3-5 May – Pre-event 2 – Lower Grange Farm
2 July – Family Meeting – Lower Grange Farm
Many thanks,
The Kandersteg ’24 Team |
