Scout Network

[6] Throughout the 1990s, the Scout Association had been losing 30,000 members each year and so a new programme was developed to be implemented in the new millennium.

[8] Running from 1996 until 1998, this second working group, and the subsequent year long trial afterwards, created a blueprint for a new section that would "comprise a collection of motivated individuals, willing to initiate and participate in activities and opportunities created or accessed by themselves" called "The Scout Network" and run nationally.

[8] The outcome of these trials was that the section was of great benefit, especially for enabling social interaction between members who had other roles within Scouting either as leaders or Venture Scouts, but that the proposed 'choices' programme did not work in practice and that to initiate activities and "achieve interaction between members" smaller groups would be needed rather than a national structure.

[8] Many of their recommendations would form part of the eventual Scout Network section and the structure it would take.

[8][9][10] The new section was officially launched in February 2002 with all Venture Scout Units switching to the new system by December 2003.

[18] Scout Network has consistently experienced significantly lower levels of membership when compared to the rest of the movement.

[22] The report recommended a digital space for Scout Network members and a number of nationally delivered high quality events on a community, adventure and international theme.

[24] A series of virtual badges were created through the website allowing members to earn them for completing activities.

The eight zones were outdoors, skills, physical recreation, community service, environemt, international, relationships and values.

[37] If a number of the Scout Network are all working towards the same goal, this is encouraged through the formation of a project team.

[24] The activities of the Network are now classified as either a project, long term in nature with a clear goal, or an event, happening on just the one occasion.

These seven statements are also common to all members of the Scout Association from age ten and half upwards and, with the promise, reinforces the values of the movement.

[59] Until its discontinuation in 2015, Network members could also earn the Partnership Awards for working on large-scale projects with another group.

[63] Following the 2006 review, a Scout Network identifying badge was added to the uniform to tell members apart from other volunteers, located on the right chest.

[68] Scout Network publications at this time also used the Highland Gothic typeface for headings, with Frutiger used for body text in line with the rest of the association.

[68] In 2013, revised guidelines were produced which allowed for the logo to be extended to the right, emphasising the arrow, and introducing a six-degree angle to publications in line with the rest of the association style.

Publications moved away from pictures and instead featured an artwork style that the association described as being "Editorial, sophisticated, expressive".

[71] Publications either continued the use of the previous artwork or used the new image style of the association, with the Google Fonts typeface Nunito Sans used.

[73] The signature activity of Intense was the 'piano bash' where teams raced to cut up a piano and fit the pieces through a letter box.

The Apex Challenge events range in duration from a day to a weekend and consist of teams of Explorer Scouts or Scout Network members navigating between a variety of adventurous activity bases over a wide area, usually in Yorkshire, Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire.

The 2018 event at Bramham Park in West Yorkshire attracted nearly 400 participants and involved kayaking, mountain biking and tomahawk throwing as signature activities.

[80][81] There are multiple Monopoly Runs each year that take place in London based on the board game of the same name.

[82][83] The Network Gathering is held around Easter annually at Great Tower Scout Adventures and lasts for four days.

[88] Former events include the aforementioned Intense, the Sedan Chair rally held until 2013 in Buckinghamshire and EVO in Hampshire.

The King's Scout Award badge
Scout Network badges on camp blanket. On the left is the 10th Anniversary badge, while on the right, top to bottom, is the Moving on award for Network, the 2006 design Network identifying badge and the 2015 design Network identifying badge.
The campsite of the 21st World Scout Jamboree held in 2007 in the UK.