Borough of Poole Sea Cadets is going from strength to strength as evidenced by our recent Annual General Meeting.
VIPs Rear Admiral Nick Lambert, a former UK National Hydrographer and now President of Poole Sea Cadets, and Deputy Mayor of Poole, Cllr Steven Hayes visited our AGM to present a whole host of awards to individual cadets.
District Officer, Lieutenant Commander (SCC) Lindsay Bassett RNR joined us to help make our evening special.
The evening, which boasted a large attendance from parents and volunteers, commenced with a report from the Commanding Officer, Sub Lieutenant (SCC) Reece Oliver.
He explained that Lee Hardy OBE had stepped down as Chair of the Trustees during the year and was succeeded by Bob Cripps. Lee was thanked for his conscientious work and dedication during his time in office.
Reece went on to cover the many activities undertaken in the previous twelve months and revealed that there are currently sixty cadets with a waiting list of thirty-five.
The Unit it was reported is financially stable with conspicuous grant funding success, from sources such as Sport England and the Connaught Trust, which had allowed the purchase of new equipment and the staging of the annual summer camp for which there was “sincere gratitude.”
The idea is to foster aspiration amongst the cadets and the raising of this significant funding helped to drive relationships in a challenging atmosphere.
It was revealed that although a year earlier planning permission had been granted for a new headquarters building, there had been weighty cost changes. No building work has yet been initiated, but the Trustees of the Unit are still fully committed to the process as are the remarkable team of volunteers and supporters.
Due to careful management of the finances, there is no longer a financial deficit.
The collective effort of the volunteers had allowed specialist training in areas such as transport, administration, and catering. The cadets had sailed offshore, achieved success in RYA qualifications and taken part in shooting.
They performed extremely well in Poole and Ferndown’s Remembrance parades. Cadets had achieved Gold status in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, gaining invitations to Buckingham Palace, as well as eleven Bronze’s, and studied successfully for many BTEC qualifications. There had been fifty-six cadet promotions, and four cadets had achieved the rank of Petty Officer.
The band had, as ever, been a cornerstone of activities and were warmly congratulated by everyone present, all of which was a huge credit to our bandmaster Petty Officer Kevin Steele.
Poole had fully played its part in wider Sea Cadet activities both regionally and nationally by amongst other things hosting several regattas on beautiful Poole Harbour.
At the conclusion of the reports Reece revealed that he would soon be standing down as Commanding Officer after seven successful years in post. He was loudly cheered by the cadets in a spontaneous reaction which revealed how well the Unit has appreciated him.
