Voyageur Council Venturer Advisors’ Forum
Meeting Minutes for February 3rd, 2009
Scout Headquarters - National Boardroom
Wally Gale |
14th
|
Jocelyn Remus |
7th
|
Allan Yates |
1st Merrickville |
Mike Jowett |
AC Nepean |
Malcolm
Volmer |
27th
|
Dean Smith |
2nd
|
Bruce Morton |
14th
|
Tim Harbinson |
137th
|
Brien Taylor |
1st
|
John Stalker |
Valley Highlands AC |
Brian McAuley |
7th
|
Tim Redpath |
1st Stittsville |
Doug Zahody |
3rd
|
Alan Griffin |
112th Nepean |
Doug MacKinnon |
112th
|
Doug Proud |
1st
|
Dan Karwowski |
1st Glen Cairn |
Chris Tyler |
1st Manotick |
David Laramee |
2nd Russell |
Greg McGinnis |
2nd Russell |
Bill Bowman |
1st
|
Al McPhee |
1st Greely |
Dengfeng Zheng |
1st
|
Nigel Ward |
1st
|
John Dougherty |
DAC Odawa |
Alan Clapp |
8th
|
Joel Martin |
8th
|
Ray Renten |
1st Dunrobin |
Stewart Ross |
DAC recog’nNepean |
Jan Stodola |
7th
|
Christiaan Burchell |
1st Nepean |
Stephen Smye |
1st Wakefield |
Opening Remarks:
Wally opened the meeting by welcoming everyone. He noted that the agenda would be
reasonably ambitious since it includes a special presentation by Allan Yates
concerning his Venturer Company’s white water trip
down the Noire River.
Past Events:
Wilderness First Responder (Jan. 9-11) – Report given by Doug Proud
WFR ran Thursday night to Sunday with16 participants
registered, 50% of them youth. Everyone obtained their certification.
Compared to the pre-requisites, this course included more scenarios, bigger
injuries, scene management and evacuation procedures, and basic Search and
Rescue. This is a fabulous turnout. And it can be offered again - a minimum of 8
participants are needed.
The first of four weekends went off without a hitch,
with 20 participants. It was a beautiful day for the hikes. All 4 weekends were
booked solid at the opening of registration last month with 123
participants.
Upcoming Activities:
There are 3 more weekends coming up and if there are any
questions feel free to contact Christiaan. Those who
cannot attend may be able to get refunds, though more information on that will
be forthcoming.
A really good place to stop for food is the Cascade
Motor Inn -
has a 16oz steak for $16.00 US. From the comments made the youth
loved the food, and polished off the steak, sides, and soup/salad. Reservations
are encouraged.
There is still some room available for those interested, particularly to help at the day station (Penguin Station), for Saturday. This is a great activity for youth who would be interested in a few volunteer hours if not taking part in JC Camp or other activities. Please contact Wally for more information.
Boat Pro Course (
Feb 28)-Report given by Mike Jowett
The course has 16 people
currently registered, with 14 spaces still available. If you are interested
Please contact Pam at Council. The cost of the course is $25.00. The cost of the manual is $10 for paper
or $4 for CD version - the manual is optional.
Course
Description "Boat Pro is a Transport Canada, Canadian Coast Guard approved
course leading to the procurement of a Pleasure Craft Operators Card (PCO) upon
successful completion of the exam. The course offers a full day of
instruction followed by a one hour exam. This card is recognized by Coast Guard
Michael
Jowett can
be contacted via phone and email at (613) 225-2770 or majowett@rogers.com
Camp Opemikon Work Weekend (April 24-26) - Report on behalf of
Tim Taylor
Please get your registrations in ASAP with the number of
youth so that planning can take place. As of right now we have 140 people
enrolled. The cost is going to be $10.00 per person. All meals from Friday
mug-up to Sunday lunch are included.
This is a great linking event for Scouts-Rovers. More information can be found at http://web.ncf.ca/ad554/Work%20Weekend%202009.htm
or by contacting Tim Taylor by email
(quappelle264@gmail.com) or by phone
(819-561-1613)
Camp Traill –Troop Summer Camp- (June 12-14)- Report given by Mike Jowett
The Council is
running a summer Troop camp at Camp Traill wilderness
camp. The registration package will be
available on the Council website soon. The camp will feature
canoeing, rock-climbing, hiking, archery and many others. The camp is situated
on 300+ acres of wooded wilderness near Charleston Lake in Athens, Ontario.
There is a need for Offers Of Service (OOS) from the
youth and leaders to help with areas such as archery, rock climbing, canoeing,
and most of all Lifeguards. OOS
will pay $15 for everything and get a t-shirt and crest. Please watch the
Council site for more information and upcoming meeting minutes.
White Water
Weekends (May 22-24, May 29-31)
- Report given by Michael Wall & Bill Bowman, & Stephen Smye (WW3)
White Water 1 & 3 are scheduled for May
22-24. White Water 1 requires the pre-training scheduled for the Sunday of OPE
work weekend (free of charge). The
cost is $66.63 per person plus $3 camping fee and limited to 80 participants.
Also if you need to rent canoes the rental fee is $51.25 per person which
includes transportation and damage insurance. White Water 3 is limited to 30
participants mainly due to the solo boat requirement and the cost should be
slightly more than last year. More
details on White Water 3 will be available at the next
meeting.
White Water 2, Kayaking 1 & 2 and a small
White Water 1 (to facilitate camping for groups with members taking the other
courses the same weekend) are scheduled for May 29-31.
Course registrations will open on March
3rd with the final deadline being May 5th.
Course |
Maximum |
Prerequisite |
Cost |
Canoeing WW1 – wkend 1 |
10 |
Pre-Training
Course |
$66.63 + $3
camping |
Canoeing WW1 – wkend 2 |
10 |
Pre-Training
Course |
$71.75 |
Canoeing WW2 |
60 |
Canoeing WW1 |
$76.88 |
Kayaking WW1 |
20 |
Canoeing WW1 |
$97.38 |
Kayaking WW2 |
10 |
Kayaking WW1 |
$97.38 |
The canoe or kayak rental fee is $51.25 per
person. This includes
transportation to the site and damage insurance. There are some canoes available
from OPE but need to be transported to the site and you are responsible for
damage.
See the VAF web site for additional details and more
information will follow at next meeting.
Reports:
VRSC, Lost Children Report Given by Wally Gale for Perry Schippers:
The Lost Children’s Services of Service Corps will once
again will be volunteering at Winterlude on the 2nd and 3rd weekends. There
is a website - http://sites.google.com/site/lcswinterlude2009/. Please pass to your groups and
scouts. This is an excellent linking event. There will be warm
liquids to warm you but please dress appropriately. There is no need to be able
to skate, you can walk or skate. This is a very good event for good publicity
and good will with the community.
Joint Council
Activities Report given by Scott
Skentelbery and Ruth
Watson:
The youth went to
the Museum of Civilization in January, 20 youth attended. There was good fun for
all. Prizes were handed out.
Next month
(February) the youth decided to have an additional event other than JC Winter
Camp. There will be a bring-your-family skate on the canal. Meet at 6 pm on Feb
20th at the picnic tables at 5th Ave.
Winter camp (Feb. 13-15) registration
was held during tonight’s meeting and the bus transportation is organized.
JC Venturer Advisor Bob Dore then gave the following report to
the VAF as follow-up to his frank and constructive talk with JC attendees about
some issues:
1)
Bob received a call stating that some of the youth from
JC were involved in unacceptable behaviour at
Harvey’s. Those who stood by silently are open to criticism as well.
2)
Youth are encouraged to bring ONE friend to a camp ONCE
to learn about Scouting but after that the guest must join the group to
participate.
3)
Couples need to park their physical displays of
affection during all JC gatherings.
Bob was able to talk to all the youth in a very humorous way. In other news, twice as many JC youth (68%) showed up in uniform this month, up from 38% last meeting, apparently due to Bob’s rant about this topic last month. Way to go!
Bob also indicated that he is still looking for a JC
Venturer Advisor to take his place for next
season. There are a couple of possibilities and anyone interested should
contact him.
Approximately 65 attended the JC meeting.
Training and Development:
Woodbadge II Senior Section, Report given by Stewart Ross
16 people were awarded their Senior Section WB2
recognition. For those who have not done so the Advanced Outdoor Skills will be
offered May 8-10 at Whispering Pines.
The 2nd weekend for the course was completed
at Scout HQ Jan30- Feb 1. Candidates felt the
course went well - they had the chance to network and to talk about issues based
on scenarios, and were impressed by presentations proved by the fellow
candidates. The members of the course would like to send a
special thanks for the efforts and diligence of the Opemikon Rover Crew who catered and looked after some of the
behind-the-scenes which make this level of course a benefit to
all.
So congratulations to the following Scouters: Cyndy Courtland, Therese
Desjardins, Todd Eaman, Tim Harbinson, Mike Jowett, Ray Lafamboise, Chris Little, Doug MacKinnon, Pat Megan, Mark
Milan, Bruce Morton, Tim Redpath, Perry Schippers, Jan Stodola, Debbie
Warden, & Doug Zahody.
Woodbadge I Senior Section – April 24-26.
Information is available on the council website, Cost is $6.00 and will be held at National HQ. For
more information please contact Michelle Niefer
at either (613) 257-1333 or mniefer@sympatico.ca
Other
Business:
RoVent Planning – Report by Doug
MacKinnon
Youth and/or
Advisors interested in getting involved in planning next fall’s RoVent weekend are invited to a planning meeting scheduled
for Tuesday, February 10 at 7:30 pm in the Buffam Room
at Scout HQ. This will be the
kick-off meeting and the committee will meet monthly
afterwards.
Subsidies for
High Adventure activities – Report by Mike Jowett
After having
collected information from all groups that run high adventure activities in
Voyageur Council, Mike will present a proposal for a stable budget of approx
$3000 to $3500 to Council. This money would be used to subsidize the cost of
running high adventure activities. It would be up to the VAF to decide where to
allocate the money. Wally encouraged members who routinely run and organize high
adventures to become part of a subcommittee that would propose where the money
is spent and how and then provide their proposal to VAF. More information on
this will be reported once it becomes available. It was noted that senior sections’
registration has climbed from 3.7% to 4.93% from 2001 to 2008 in our council.
Senior sections are the only sections that are subsidized and it appears that
this is due in large part to the expensive high adventure components.
Scoutfest 2009 - Reported by
Wally
Scoutfest is a day-long conference to be held in Smith
Falls. It works on a 6-period rotating course schedule in which you can take
choices of seminars each hour ranging from Colony games to Ceremonies. Many
topics could be of interest to senior section advisors. The cost of the day is $22.00 and
includes hot lunch, guest speaker, crest, and door prizes.
Enrolment forms are available at HQ or on
Council website.
Couch
Rally
In response to a question, Tim Harbinson will look into where we stand with the Couch Rally
- whether the Rideau Area Rover Crew is going to plan it and when and if it will
happen this year. Maybe this
opportunity could also be forwarded to the Council Youth Commissioner. A few comments suggested that this event
might best take place in the fall.
Special Presentation:
White Water Canoe Trip (Noire River, QC)
Presentation
given by Allan Yates of 1st Merrickville
Venturers
Allan gave a great presentation on their white water canoe trip. He also provided impressive paper and DVD copies of related documentation including a DVD video of the trip. The trip will be posted soon on the web at http://www.1stmerrickville.ca/venturers/index.htm and since his notes are 30+ pages long I will try and give a brief over view. Please feel free to contact him and have him tell you all the funny stories about the dolphin and whale surfing.
Overview:
A seven-day white water trip down Quebec’s Noire River, from Sunday July 12th to Friday July 18th. The length of the river was 93km with a total of 3 portages with a grand total of 410m. There were 2 Advisors and 4 youth. Total cost was $756 or $189 per person but with fundraising all that was paid was $50 per person. There were 26 class 1 rapids for a total length of 1,852m, 20 class II at 2,375m and 4 class 3 rapids for a total of 345m. It was noted that the river has a very nice wilderness feel and is far less travelled than the Dumoine, only three other parties met on the river. The advisors and youth brought whale, dolphin and dinghy inflatables, and during off times surfed down the rapids. (Note: this did look really funny going down the river towing and portaging them, but the fun paid off.)
Lessons Learned:
The river travels much faster than flat water, especially at high water levels.
Don’t use garbage bags to water proof they generate to much waste to burn.
Tie in EVERYTHING!
More snacks from scratch.
Inexpensive tents keep out neither water nor flies.
Make sure all participants are adequately trained - WW2 minimum.
If it does not fit into the pack or barrel, then it does not come. (Portages with loose items are a pain.)
For more great tips and the full details and very funny photos and video contact Allan Yates or Bill Ricketts.
Note that this was a wilderness white water trip requiring proficiency in white water and related rescue, along with preparedness for wilderness emergencies.
Next
Meeting: Tuesday March 3rd, 2009 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 you find any omissions or errors, please contact
……
Scouter Jocelyn Remus-Robinson at cascahawk@gmail.com or
613-592-4738