Voyageur Council Venturer Advisor’s Forum

Meeting Minutes for February 6, 2007

Scout’s Headquarters - National Boardroom

 

 

Name

Group

Name

Group

Alan Clapp

8th Orleans

Jim Peverley

VAF Chair

Alan Griffin

112th Nepean

Joe Boudreau

1st Greely

Al McPhee

1st Metcalfe

Ken Shore

137th Ottawa Venturers

Alex Gazaleh

Opemikon

Laurel Rosene

1st Glen Cairn

Bill Bowman

1st Nepean

Leah Elwell

Rideau Area Rover Crew

Bob Dore

Joint Council

Lawrence Tyler

1st Richmond

Catherine Snedden

7th Kanata

Malcolm Volmer

29th Nepean

Chris Tyler

1st Manotick

Mike Jowett

Nepean Area

Christiaan Burchell

1st Nepean

Nick Wise

137th Nepean

Cyndy Courtland

Carleton Place

Ray Renton

1st Dunrobin

Dan Karwowski

1st Glen Cairn

Stewart Ross

Nepean Rover Crew

David Gall

1st Richmond

Tim Taylor

123rd Ottawa

Dean Smith

2nd Orleans

Wally Gale

14th Gloucester

Doug MacKinnon

112th Nepean

 

 

Doug Proud

1st Greenwood

 

 

Eric Hansen

Rideau Area Rover Crew

 

 

Gilbert Lepine

4th Orleans

 

 

Jim McQuaid

112th Nepean

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Opening Presentation:

 

Presentation on the National Capital Region YMCA | YWCA Canoe Camping Club (YCCC):  Laurel spoke about the club, founded in 1952, and that it has a lot of overlap with the scouts program, especially at the Venture level.  She gave an overview of the history and membership, the types of trips they go on, locations, the white water program, and other activities such as cross county skiing, canal skating, hiking, biking, pot luck supers, yoga, fishing, and the newsletter.  They have training programs, e.g. pool safety sessions, paddle primers, introduction to tripping, ORCA, Sea Kayaking, etc.  More information can be found at their website,  www.yccc.ca.  The club is open to anyone over the age of 18.  Open House is March 30th 2007 at the Y on Argyle.  Flyers and pamphlets were at the back of the VAF meeting.  Overall it was felt that this gives Venturers a good opportunity to increase their paddling opportunities.

 

Next YCCC event on the schedule: Feb 28 for food prep and packing.  All events are on the Y site www.yccc.ca

 

Also there is a “leave no trace camping” session coming up from Parks Canada on March 7th  from Joanne Ranger.  Jim will send the flyers out for that with the location and times.

 

Laurel is proposing we see if scouting can join as a group.  The registration deadline is March 30th, so if we want to join as a group, need to hammer out something by then.

 

Follow up from other notes:

 

 

Events to Come:

 

OPE Work weekend:  Tim now has 182 applications for the OPE work weekend.  The approved limit is 100 although he is still looking to bump up to 150.  He will look at the list of projects to see if they need that many folks.

 

Winter Mountain Adventure in the Adirondacks:  They are planned and ready to go.  The first one was the weekend after the meeting.

 

White Water I, II, III: Everything is set for all three courses.  It is up on the web site now and groups can register.  WWI is for beginners, those who have not done it before or for those not confident in their skills.  The prerequisite is flat water and safety training session given on the Sunday of the OPE Work Weekend.  Lunch is $3.50 if wish to come up for that.

 

For WWI: Bear Creek Outdoor center is the new group leading this session.  They have a lot of top notch instructors, and it is on the same venue at Petawawa at Big Eddy.  Book the training and the fee for the campground through Bill and can book canoes and paddles through Bear Creek or bring your own.  There are 7 OPE canoes available for rent.  The deal is when the group books with Bill, cheque is made out to Bear Creek Outdoor center.  However all payments are final as there are no refunds if you find a canoe elsewhere.  Also note that many groups use this session as a linking activity to prepare scouts for Venturers for next year.

 

WWII: This will be on the Madawaska on June 1-3 the following weekend after WWI and III.  The outfitter, Paddler’s Co-op, is a dynamic organization and previous participants have been pleased with the level of instruction.  There is a Kayaking option as well.  This does require confidence before you get on the river however.  The prerequisite is WWI even if it was just taken the previous weekend.  The course is scheduled for one day at Palmer Rapids and the second day the groups go down the river.  The instruction is given on day 1 and continued on day 2 on the downriver run.  Note that groups require a shuttle for day 2.  Details are in the handouts at the back of the room.  Also see the web site for photos from last year.

 

WWIII:.  This session is held on the first weekend with WWI, and is run by Bear Creek but with different people.  It is an ORCA course.  You will get an ORCA level I canoeing if successful and maybe your solo as well.  Stephen Smye organizes this particular course.  It is the same deal as last year with GST 1% less.  They are also suggesting a wet suit for WWIII as in solo boating you will dump, so be prepared.

 

RSVP:  Francesca spoke on behalf of the Nepean Rover Crew who running RSVP this year still at Camp Opemikon.  The registration package is ready and out for submission.  The plans are for the same activities for Saturday as last year, e.g. round robin, archery, high ropes, pioneering, fun and games.  On Sunday there is a scouts and guides own and another wide game.  Francesca has some handouts but information is also on the web.  The camp is for Pathfinder level Guides and Venturers.  It is open for 3rd year scouts as well.

 

Training:  There were seven people in VAF room who were in Senior or Part II.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.  There is also another Part I on the 20-22 of April.  The information is on the training page.  It will be running in conjunction with a conversion course for those transitioning up or down in levels.   There is also an advanced outdoor skills portion of Woodbadge II offered around the same time (also see training page on Voyageur website).

 

 

Reports:

 

Joint Council: They wrapped up the winter camp and it went really well.  Now that they have the submissions on crests, the crests will be ordered.

 

The February event was mini-putt on the 23rd.  It is free for Advisors, but $35 for the youth.  The arrival was targeted for 9 pm, play then around of golf.  Dinner and breakfast is included and pick up is 9 am in the morning.  It is at the Putting Edge just off of Merivale.

 

The May camp is on May 18th to 21st, the long weekend in May, at OPE and it is booked already.  The theme is Pirates.  The group is starting to take crest designs and they are looking for volunteers for youth and people to head up camp and activities.

 

VRRRT:  Still quiet and Eric is taking on the chair for CRRRT as well.  The focus is getting back morale for VRRRT.

 

The Couch Rally crests showed up last week.   Now because it is a central event, it will also be a Rover Moot, a day for the rally and a weekend for the moot.  They will also put on a trial camp in June to work it out before the fall.  They even have groups outside Ontario that now want to come out to the Couch Rally event.

 

Coming up, There are many web sites that are dead as no one knows now to take care of them.  They are working to Algonquin college to have a lab for a weekend to teach youth how to maintain the website and get them back to current status.

 

 

New Business:

 

Voyageur Youth Rep: Phil Gazaleh is the current youth representative.  There was a report on the back table outlining his report to VAF.  He spoke at the meeting to let us know about what he is doing.  Specifically he has tried for months to reach out to the youth to find out what they are doing and what they want him to do.  There are not enough channels however so any help is appreciated. In his report he stated the Advisor’s role:

 

Phil and Senior Youth are currently covering issues like the Rover Manual, recognizing youth for their achievements, involving youth in the planning process for events, looking opportunities to engage them in council wide evens, looking for opportunities to run camps for younger youth. 

 

Phil noted that Ventures are aging out and many don’t want to continue in Rovers but want to continue in Ventures.  They are also having problems with Rovers aging out who don’t want to be leaders but still want to be involved in scouting.  This weekend there will be meeting with all the youth reps that currently exist to get input from everybody.

 

On the Venture age out – he is trying to find out their interests and meet their needs so they will stay in scouting.  Also looking to set up a Company President’s forum to keep tabs on what other groups are doing.

 

Encourage the youth to contact Phil and tell them what’s on their mind.

 

Contact is: Philip Gazaleh, DCC-Youth for Voyageur Council, at:

dcc-youth@voyageur.scouts.ca

 

 

Offers of Service:  The focus course is a mandatory course for youth going to CJ.  The course is happening next weekend on Feb 17th.

 

Rovent:  If you want to be involved in planning for Rovent, contact Phil or Mike.  It is booked for Oct 19th next year.

 

VAF Area Program – New Chair required:  Bob Hickson spoke about how this forum is working well together.  He is getting good feedback on the success of the program.  Thanks goes to Jim Peverley for being a fantastic chair.  But now Bob is looking for a new chair.  If you are interested, then please call Jim or Bob with your interest.  The Job is to focus and keep the meeting going, and plan and arrange for meetings and presentations.

 

Wilderness First Aid:  Doug spoke and at the back there were some forms on a 2 day wilderness first aid course.  Is there an interest here for a wilderness first aid at the forum?  … the answer was Yes!  The cost will be in the range of  $160 per person per 2 day session.  They are looking for minimum of 8 people and location (would need to add rental fee to the stated cost).  The course would cover the standard First Aid then the Wilderness training.  There would be a certificate of completion for the wilderness component to show the extension over the standard certification.  Contact Doug Proud if there is an interest.

 

Next Meeting:  March 6th, 2007.  The FIRST Tuesday of the month.  Speaker will be from the Ottawa River Keeper.

 

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 to get information posted to this website.