How to start a Squirrel Drey
Everything you need to know to get started in opening your own Squirrel Drey.
Are you ready to open a Squirrel Drey?
Steps to opening a Drey
1. Talk to your Group Scout Leader and District Commissioner about opening up a Drey.
2. Take time to review the Are you ready to open a Squirrel Drey form.
3. Review and complete the Group Scout Leader online expression of interest form.
4. Once accepted you'll be contacted by a Programme Delivery Executive who'll introduce you to the cohort process and invite you to attend a Welcome to Squirrels session.
5. Review the checklists to support volunteers and help you to prepare for opening your Drey.
6. Continue exploring our website to learn more about Squirrels.
7. Find out more about the ongoing support we offer.
This handy Excel sheet helps you budget for the creation and running of a new Drey. It’s completely editable.
Tom's experience setting up a Drey in his group
‘I had a lot of support adding a Drey to my group and followed some key steps. I made sure I had solid support from my volunteer leadership team. Our Group Scout Leader filled out an expression of interest form so that Scouts HQ and our district knew what we were doing and how to help. Shortly after, we were invited to an online ‘Welcome to Squirrels’ session which was really helpful when thinking about next steps.
‘The more hands, the better, especially at the start. We worked through the Squirrels checklist to make sure we had everything we needed to set up. Luckily we already had a venue, but we needed to consider things like making sure we had enough leaders involved and deciding how we'd manage our budget.
‘After advertising to our internal waiting list, we immediately filled 24 places. We created an adult rota to make sure we had enough volunteers, and made sure those that wanted to be involved were DBS checked. And now we're up and running and loving it!’
Tom's top tip: Don't be afraid to go biweekly or on weekends, you might actually get more volunteers!