Voyageur Council Venturer Advisor’s Forum

Meeting Minutes for April 1, 2008

Scout’s Headquarters - National Boardroom

FINAL

Name	Group	Name	Group
Alan Clapp	8^th Orleans	John Stalker	Carleton Place /Valley H.
Alan Griffin	112^th Nepean	Malcolm Volmer	27^th Nepean
Andrew Peverley	Carleton Area Rovers	Margaret Little	1^st Aylmer
Bill Bowman	1^st Nepean	Mike Desjardins	OPE Rovers
Catherine Snedden	Carleton Area Rovers	Mike Jowett	Nepean Area
Christiaan Burchell	1^st Nepean	Matthew Janssen	Carleton Area Rovers
Cyndy Courtland	Carleton Place	Neal Rice	Nepean Area
Daniel Schaffler	1^st Vars Navan	Ray Renton	1^st Dunrobin
Doug MacKinnon	112^th Nepean	Rod Orchin	14^th Gloucester
Doug Proud	1^st Greenwood	Stephen Smye	1^st Wakefield
Greg McGinnis	2^nd Russell	Stewart Ross	Nepean Area Senior Section
Jan Stodola	7^th Kanata	Tim Harbinson	137^th Ottawa
Jim Smith	27^th Nepean	Tim Redpath	1^st Statesville
Jim McQuaid	112^th Nepean	Thérèse Desjardins	137^th Ottawa
John Dougherty	Odawa Area	Wally Gale	14^th Gloucester

Opening Remarks:

Slides were available after the meeting for the Winter Adventure and the Gatineau Loppet if anyone wanted to stay and see the pictures.

Past Events:

Interfaith Service: (Alan Griffin) Alan noted that it was cancelled this year as it fell on the same night as the big storm in March. However it will be at the same time next year, the first weekend of what is usually March Break. This is an excellent opportunity for stronger youth (carrying the flags is heavy work) to take part in the lovely pageantry of an interfaith service. If interested contact Alan Griffin.

Upcoming Activities:

Rovent Planning: (Neil Rice, Nepean Area Youth Commissioner) Neil spoke at this meeting as a representative of the Rovent Committee chair. The planning committee for Rovent has started and any youth are encouraged to come to these meetings. The next one will be on Tuesday April 29, at Scout HQ at 7 pm. Rovent this fall will be on October 19^th to 21^st. Neil asked for an Advisor in the meeting and Mike Jowett will mentor the volunteer. Doug MacKinnon volunteered. The planning committee will be getting registration packages out in next month. Interested participants can also contact the committee at campoperovent@hotmail.com or Neil Rice at high_king_lance@yahoo.ca.

OPE Work Weekend: (Bill Bowman spoke on behalf of Tim Taylor) Everyone who responded to Tim’s request for participants should have received an email by now. Please now reconcile your numbers to more exact figures and let Tim know if there is a change from the original estimate. The key thing now is for the snow to melt to allow the work to begin.

Outdoor Awareness Skills Session: This session was cancelled due to lack of response. The Carleton Area Rover Crew was going to run a camp for 30 senior scouts and younger Venturers on basic outdoor skills, e.g. General ground canoe knowledge, Canoeing, Trip planning session, General Equipment Repair i.e. tents, stoves, Trail Cooking and light weight packing. This may be rescheduled in the future if interest permits.

Venclimb 2: (Christiaan) We are a go for the weekend of April 18-19-20. The cost is $40 and includes food and accommodation at Camp Opemikon. There are a couple of people who have expressed interest but now payments need to be made to solidify their position in the course. It is a 2 day training course at Ope to learn how to be autonomous while climbing. Experience is required, i.e. the youth should have climbed a bit (at least one Venclimb type event) as this course will be more about the techniques and safety aspects. There are 6 spaces left and Christiaan needs to know by April 14^th (Monday) to let Ope know final numbers. The course fee includes $30 to the camp and $10 to Christiaan for course material and fees. Similar courses got for $250-300 for those commercially done. Christiaan can be reached by phone at home: 613-274-3900; cell 613-868-8008; or email xiaan_b@yahoo.com.

RSVP: (Wally) There are no further details but all the information is on the VAF website.

White Water Sessions 1 and 2: (Jim) They are all set with the only outstanding issue is where the camp site will be at Petawawa; they are still working with the base. Paddler Coop and Bear Creek are both fully up to speed. Bill noted that if we want the White Water 1 session during the White Water 2 course, we need to sign up now as so far there has been zero response. The Kayak session is a go however. Bill also noted that White Water 1 is 2/3 filled up with still a little room left in White Water 2. The sign up sheet for Pre-training was passed around plus a request for more help (Ray and Andrew volunteered).

* It was important to note that this year, everyone needs to give a lot of thought as to how the transportation worked out last year to the put in and take out. We need to organize that in a collective effort to avoid anyone stranded or left behind at the take out as in previous years.

White Water Session 3: (Steve) There is not a lot more to report on this, planning is well underway. Steve had 6 registrations at the start of the meeting and after walking around the table collecting forms and payments, he had well over 20 out of the 30 spots. First come first served so if you intend to go, get your paid registrations in.

Reports:

VRSC, Lost Children: No report.

Senior Section Youth Committee (SSYC): No report.

CRRT: (Wally) Wally heard from Eric that this group is basically no longer. Also Eric is aging out in June and available effective immediately for any senior sections.

Alan did note through his contacts in the round tables, that in August, there is a rover crew coming from BC to Ottawa for a visit and tour. He will bring more info at the next meeting. The BC contact is Brian Carr-Harris contact and the crew expects to be in Ottawa from Aug 23 to Aug 29.

Joint Council Activities: (Andrew) Since there has not been very good responses for events recently the April event (Laser quest) was cancelled. The next event is the May camp on the May 16-19 long weekend. There will also be the semi formal in June with a Dungeons and Dragons theme. The registration date for camp is the next JC meeting on May 6. The JC will also do another email campaign.

The May camp is 4 days long from the Friday to Monday. Friday night starts with some fun icebreakers. On Saturday there are games during the day, and a talent show, campfire and dance on Saturday night. On Sunday there are more games and good times. Monday is for clean up and pack up. The location is always Camp Opemikon.

Training and Development:

Voyageur Council Whole Leaders Conference: (Wally) The email was sent out to the VAF and as a reminder the session is on April 19^th in Smith Falls. Please sign up if you intend on going as there was only 64 registered last week and they need 110 to break even. This is a conference for all section leaders with a number of workshops around how to increase your skills as a leader and a good social session. Note as Tim found, please choose what you want by time slot despite what is on the internet. Registrations were asked for by April 4^th.

Boat Pro Course: Mike noted that the boat pro course had 20 applications as of last Friday. He also noted that while this one was for youth, he did speak to Power Squadron to run a course in the fall as well for adults.

Trainers Conference: (Mike and John) There was a guest speaker from National to talk about changes that are happening in training, for example Group Commissioners will also be required to have training as section leaders do now. The Service Team 2 will likely disappear, and there will be more workshops in that type of thing. Course outlines will change a bit. It was found they were taking a very open approach to the idea of training structure and approach; better than in the past. Results will be posted on the national website under Training.

There was talk of new standards for Woodbadge one. Stewart noted some things missing, e.g. handbooks for trainers and leaders. There was also talk about developing a pool of senior section trainers. Note that we have Woodbadge one for Senior Sections scheduled for Rovent and the content is expected to be affected by the changes.

Note Woodbadge 2 is not likely happening this year. The idea was to try to do one residential one year and one in the city the next year. But nothing planned. They will be working on all the course material for the new course outlines.

Venture Executive Workshop: Wally noted that Francesca was willing to put on a VEW, i.e. she would pull together a training team and set up a VEW if anyone here is interested. VEW training sessions are to help Venture aged youth to run their own Venturer Companies correctly and properly. The session is targeted to the executive team only for them to learn their respective jobs. It was noted that it is the same kind of information provided in WB1. This will likely be a 2 day session. A show of hands around the table on behalf of their youth indicated an 80% interest level. The feedback for Francesca was to go ahead and put in the effort to put it on next year in the fall. November is usually slow and maybe a good time.

Canada Wide Science Fair: (Wally) VAF has been approached by Arnold Smith, a rep from the Canada wide science fair, looking for volunteers at the Venturer / Rover or Leader level to meet people at the airport and train station on May 10^th to welcome delegates to the fair this year. They are expecting to have shifts of 5 or 6 people starting in the morning and going to the evening. This Science Fair is held annually and is hosted by Ottawa University this year. The idea is to meet the delegates, help them with their luggage and projects to the bus, and act like a kind of welcoming committee. This is open to anyone or small groups to participate together. For further details, go to the website cwsf2008.ca. There is also the possibility of helping out during the week but go to the website to see as there is a section for volunteers. Also Wally will send an email out tomorrow.

Voyageur Council Beaveree: (Doug) Doug noted that this was happening on May 10^th and that they are looking for offers of service to help run programs. They are looking at potentially 300 beavers with a Cross Canada adventure theme.

Next Meeting: Tuesday May 6, 2008 at 7:30 pm

The Chair for the Venturer Advisor Forum is Wally Gale at vafchair@rogers.com. Please contact Wally for any notices to distribute or ideas on future topics.

If there are any omissions or corrections in the minutes, please contact Catherine Snedden at csnedden@forethoughtsystems.com

Also view current and previous copies of the minutes and other VAF notices at http://web.ncf.ca/ad554/ or contact Bill Bowman at wbowman@ncf.ca to get information posted to this website.