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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.

Ben Dickinson

Hi, I'm Ben, I was part of DUSAGG but now an Indie member and I am your Charities Assistant. My job is to get SSAGO up and running as a registered charity. So far, we have a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) set up, but are waiting on a few pre-requisites before we transfer over.

If you have any questions about SSAGO's charity status, the constitution or just want to talk about the details of charity registration, drop me an email to [email protected]

Charities

October 2026

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  • CIO Registration: The Charity Commission has approved SSAGO's most recent application and we now have a Charitable Incorporated Organisation set up for SSAGO to tranfer to when we're ready
  • Bank Accounts: I have been working on finding the best bank accounts for SSAGO (both current and savings accounts), and started the process of opening the first of the CIO's new bank accounts.
  • Insurance: Charlie and I have been working on renewing our Memoranda of Understanding with Scouts and Girlguiding to ensure the CIO has insurance for its members. I have also been working with Ewan and Lara to get Unity policies covering the CIO where we currently have it for the unregistered SSAGO.
  • Club Affiliation Agreement: We have started work on the first club affiliation agreement, this is taking a while as we work out the initial issues but should speed up a lot once we have some signed

Aims

  • Charity Transition: We will hopefully be transferring to the CIO structure at the AGM assuming all goes well. Between now and then we need bank accounts and insurance to cover the new organisation.
  • Club Affiliation Agreements: Over the next few years we aim to have all SUs where we have a club sign a club affiliation agreement to formalise our relationship, and standardise the relationships as mucha s possible. This should make life easier for club committees too!

May 2026

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  • Registration: We submitted an application back in November and the Charity Commission are still considering it. This is much longer than previous applications so hopefully that's a good sign! It is just a case of waiting to see what happens now.
  • Club Affiliation Agreements: We have started the process with the first couple of clubs and are in the process of working out any issues in the agreement. These will likely all be unique to the SU so it isn't necessarily an easy process.
  • Handover: Having recently left the Liaisons role, I worked on handing over to Charlie who has got off to a great start to the role! I have also taken over as Charities from Alex and received a great handover there too!

Aims

  • Registration: My main aim for my role is to register SSAGO as a charity. We are currently looking at registering as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation as that allows the trustees (and SSAGO) the most legal protection.
  • Club Affiliation Agreements: We are aiming to have our first batch of these signed by the start of the new academic year, and then start rolling them out more widely. If your club has a good relationship with your SU, please let me know!

February 2026

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  • Handover: With my term coming to an end at this year's ball, I am well into my handover with Charlie. We are continuing to work together on all the tasks for the role, and Charlie will be able to take over smoothly!
  • The other handover: With Alex's term coming to an end, we have also had a handover ready for me to start as Charities Assistant at ball. I will be continuing my work on the MoUs, affiliation agreements and general team pink stuff in that role too!
  • Safeguarding: We have met with Scouts' safeguarding development team to have an introduction as well as discuss our safeguarding policies and practices. They were generally impressed by our safeguarding measures but provided a few bits of feedback which are being implemented as we speak!
  • Policy Updates: I have been working on a number of policy updates with the rest of Team Pink, both related to my role (safeguarding updates, including volunteering events in the nights away policy etc.) and unrelated (branding and publicity, Data Protection etc.). These are still being worked on and going to reps as and when they are ready!
  • Volunteering Events: We have been working with SNoGS to support their first volunteering event. This has ranged from providing a bank account for them to use for the event to getting their volunteers on the UKST. If your club are thinking about running a volunteering event, get in touch and we'll do everything we can to help!

Aims

  • Memorandums of Understanding: We are in discussions with Scouts and Girlguiding about updating our agreements with them to make them suitable for all orgnaisations as they currently are! We hope to have these sorted in the next few months
  • Club Affiliation Agreements: We are starting the process of signing agreements with each SU with a SSAGO club to ensure that everyone has the same expectations and understanding of the relationship. This will be a long process and likely take a few years, if your club would like to be one of the first to test this out, please let us know!
  • SSAGO Volunteers: We are trying to streamline the process for SSAGO volunteers to join the SSAGO UK Support Team (recently renamed from SASU). We have started this by making digital forms and are looking at ways to make it easier for SSAGO run volunteering events to get their volunteers added.

June 2023

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  • Volunteering Events: I have been adding SSAGOers to the scouts membership system, processing their DBS checks and making sure they are ready and able to support events with young people!
  • Agreements: I have been rewriting the agreements between SSAGO and the scouts and the guides.
  • Under 18s: I have been supporting clubs with new under 18 members, provinding advice and support around under 18s attending club activities, events and freshers camps

Aims

  • SASU Membership: I will be keeping the SASU membership up to date, adding and removing people as required, and ensuring people do their training!
  • SAGGA: I will continue to talk to SAGGA and attend their committee meetings.
  • Scouts and Guides: We are looking at renewing out agreements with scouts and guides to better reflect our needs and practies
  • Handover: Having recently appointed Charlie as my successor, I will be doing a handover with him to get him ready to take over at ball!

April 2023

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  • Mascot: I now have a mascot - Darren (or Daz) the Naked Mole Rat. I'm not too sure how I ended up with this as a mascot but here we are!
  • Compass: I have spent some time learning how to use compass, completing my training etc.

Aims

  • SASU Membership: I need to work with the rest of Team Pink to decide exactly who is and isn't a member of the SASU. I also plan to clear out members who should no longer be on there.
  • DBS Checks: I will work with The Scout Association on the DBS requirements for members of the SASU.

October 2022

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  • Getting Started: I have just started the role, I had my introduction meeting and look forward to starting everything!

Aims

  • Mascot: I need to find a mascot (suggestions welcome)
  • Compass: I will probably spend a decent amount of time working out how compass actually works!