Author Archives: Administrator

Large attack on WordPress sites – but we’re safe

Posted on by
Reply

internet_patch.png.scaled500Some of you may have read about a large attack on WordPress hosted sites.  We use WordPress to run brooklynscouts.org.nz

Fortunately, we also use CloudFlare‘s (free) service to protect us from harm, reduce our traffic costs and speed up content delivery internationally.  Predictably, the CloudFlare team were on to this issue very early and implemented the required protection:

We just pushed a rule out through CloudFlare’s WAF that detects the signature of the attack and stops it. Rather than limiting this to only paying customers, CloudFlare is rolling it out the fix to all our customers automatically, including customers on our free plan. If you are a WordPress user and you are using CloudFlare, you are now protected from this latest brute force attack. – CloudFlare Blog full entry

If our site goes offline, it’s going to be due to an admin stuff by me – not by this sort of attack!

pics: Hall rejuvenation – weekend 1

Posted on by
Reply

Wow – what a transformation already.  With fantastic support from parents and youth alike.

Ably led by Rex and Erina, a team of 15 adults and 4 youth worked shifts throughout Saturday and Sunday to blast, scrape, yank, saw, slap and dab their way an huge way towards our first goal: repair and painting of the South and West exterior walls.

Thanks to: Rex, Erina, Chris, Matt, Mel, Perry, Julia, Lynne, Dave, Donald, Marion, Dinesh, Richard, Bob, Denise – and Alaigne, Harriet, Harris and Sam.

How bad were things? Not terrible, but we uncovered some moderate rot around many of the windows and a bad patch on the South-West corner.  Rex went into battle with rot killer, power saw, and years of experience and by Sunday it had yielded!  We are getting quotes for window repairs.

Next up is finishing the repairs, completing the top coats, and then doing the window and edging in Scouting purple!

direct link

Powell Hut Tramp

Posted on by
Reply

The tramp to Powell Hutt. Lead by Venturers Jack and Grayson the tramp featured seven Venturers and four older Scouts.

With great weather, stunning views and great company it was a highlight of the term for all involved.

We would like to thank the adults that helped make this trip an success: Oliver Mander whom provided leadership support to Jack and Grayson and also Terry Poll, Vic Scott and David Thornburrow. Whom provided rides for the avid adventures to and from the mountain.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Leader ranks swell for 2013

Posted on by
Reply

In case you haven’t heard, our leader ranks have been swelling in line with our youth numbers.  In the past 6 months we’ve had:

  1. David Thornburrow, join Duane as Kea leader
  2. Andrew Simes, join Bob and Denise as a Scout leader (as well as picking up Quartermaster duties)
  3. Oliver Mander, join Vic and Terry as a Venturer leader.

Fantastic to add their range of experiences to our leaders team.  And to see Brooklyn Scouts continuing to go from strength to strength.

Hall rejuventation – KICK OFF!

Posted on by
Reply

We are looking for helpers who don’t mind working at heights to help us out preparing, priming, and painting our 82 year old hall.  please register your interest by emailing Erina at [email protected].

We’ve not been kidding, our hall upgrade project is about to commence after the Committee approved the first phase of expenditure.

A comprehensive upgrade plan has been draw up targeting the basement area and storage, kitchen, toilet facilities and the heating/electrical systems. Phase 1 is the southern and western walls.  They’re not looking good 🙁

So, we are going to pop some scaffolding up and get busy. At the same time we will be undertaking repairs to the roof and window sills as required. We hope to get this done while our “drought conditions” extend into April…

Proposed dates and times are:

  • Sat 6th April 09:00 to 14:00 TBC
  • Sun 7th April 09:00 to 14:00 TBC
  • Sat 13th April 09:00 to 14:00
  • Sun 14th April 09:00 to 14:00

The first weekend is subject to us getting the scaffolding set up in time. Obviously both weekends are weather dependant.  Rex Collet & Erina Papp (Augusta’s parents and long-time supporters of the scout group) are coordinating the work and will provide updates when scaffolding/weather becomes more certain.

We sure hope you will be able to help out for at least one of these times – if you can, then please register your interest by emailing Erina at [email protected]. Thanks for your help to improve our scout hall .