Keep Scotland Beautiful support and resources

• Mentor support and guidance from our pool of experienced volunteer judges.
• Online Spring Seminar for judged groups - guidance and advice on the year ahead e.g. how to create a good portfolio, presentation, and planning your judging tour plus a chance to meet the judges.
• Regular, on-line live ‘cuppa & a catch up’ Q&A sessions, each focusing on a different topic. Previous sessions have focused on ‘keeping volunteers engaged and your group going’ and ‘support for your group’ – recordings are available. The sessions are informal and relaxed, with someone talking about a topic for around 5-10 mins (could be showing slides/video or just a chat) and then open up for your questions. We’d also love to hear from you in advance if you feel your group has something it can share.
• We will celebrate achievements through the year e.g. through our website/social media channels/newsletter etc.
• For judged entrants - Premier Award, Category Awards, Medal Certificates, Discretionary and Special Awards
• For non-judged entrants - Certificates of Recognition and Special Awards
• Annual celebration event - exclusively for Beautiful Scotland groups; a chance to go on tours, get together with groups across Scotland, share highlights and celebrate your achievements.
• Annual seminar - networking, celebrating and sharing inspiring stories. Explore our previous seminars.
• Regular e-newsletter full of inspiring stories, hints, tips, information and funding links - newsletter example here.
• We’d love groups to let everyone know through social media that they're taking part – for Facebook use @KSBScotland @rhscommunitygardening; and for Twitter use @KSBScotland @RHSBloom #BeautifulScotland #ourbloom in posts so we can react and help spread the word.
• A web page for each group.
• A Beautiful Scotland logo for your use to tell everyone you’re taking part.
• Each year we have an optional theme for groups to focus activities and events around. The theme for 2024 is 'Celebration and Cake'. You might want to celebrate your volunteer efforts, or perhaps you have a particular project you want to celebrate, or celebrate a particular area of interest such as your local wildlife or local heritage. We added the “cake” part to the theme as we all know that a slice of cake and a cuppa at the end of a long day of volunteering is a great way to thank our volunteers and bring people together. Whatever way you decide to celebrate in 2024, we can’t wait to see what you come up with.

As well as the above, we have a number of resources, guidance and advice which are available to your group throughout the year. These include:

• Our Beautiful Scotland web pages: In this section you will find useful websites, previous annual seminar presentations and a resources page which includes promotional material, reports, case studies and entrant support documents. To find out if there are any other groups in your area, which you could get in touch with to support or to work with to ‘join-up’ activities in your community, explore our It's Your Neighbourhood group pages.
• The standard mark sheet outlining the three pillars of Beautiful Scotland – horticultural achievement, environmental responsibility and community participation - with details on what to focus on under each, guidance and examples (or the Business Improvement District (BID) mark sheet with criteria and guidance