Voyageur Council Venturer Advisors’ Forum

Meeting Minutes for January 6, 2009

Scout Headquarters - National Boardroom

 

Al McPhee

1st Greely

Joe Vautour

25th Nepean

Alan Griffin

112th Nepean Rovers

John Dougherty

DAC Odawa

Alan Clapp

8th Orleans

John Stalker

Valley Highlands

Allan Yates

1st Merrickville

Malcolm Volmer

27th Nepean

Bill Bowman

1st Nepean

Marilyn Johnson

Opemikon

Brien Taylor

1st Greenwood

Matthew Janssen

OPE Crew

Bruce Morton

14th Gloucester

Mike Jowett

AC Nepean

Chris Prevost

3rd Bells Corners

Nigel Ward

1st Kanata

Chris Tyler

1st Manotick

Pat Megan

1st Wakefield

Christiaan Burchell

1st Nepean

Ray Renton

1st Dunrobin

Chuck Fraser

1st Glen Cairn

Sarah Szabo

Nepean Rover Crew

Cyndy Courtland

Carleton Place

Sharon Ley

7th Kanata

Dan Karwowski

1st Glen Cairn

Stewart Ross

DAC Recog’n Nepean

Dean Smith

2nd Orleans

Therese Desjardins

137th Ottawa

Doug MacKinnon

112th Nepean

Tim Redpath

1st Stittsville

Doug Proud

1st Greenwood

Wally Gale

14th Gloucester

Doug Zahody

3rd Orleans

 

Gil Lepine

4th Orleans

 

Greg Brost

1st Orleans

 

Greg McGinnis

2nd Russell

 

Jan Stodola

7th Kanata

 

Jocelyn Robinson

7th Kanata

 

 

 

Opening Remarks:

Wally opened the meeting by welcoming everyone back after the Christmas break.  He circulated the sign-in list, noting the request to indicate the number of venturers in each company represented by attendees at the meeting.

 

Past Events:

LaserQuest Lockdown – report given by Raymond Desjardins (Rideau area Rover Crew)

Very good turnout and great comments.  Possible thought for next year – two nights so more people can attend as 10-20 were turned away.  74 participated.

 

Boat Pro licensing course – report given by Mike Jowett

31 participants and 5 registrants that didn’t make it.  Great turnout.  For those who could not attend but were signed up for the course, they are automatically transferred to the upcoming February 28 course at HQ (see the VAF web site for information).  Those who left their names (overflow) but didn’t fully register must still register.  There are spaces available for the Feb 28 course, please contact Pam at council office.

 

Upcoming Activities:

 

Adirondack adventure (Jan. 30, Feb. 6/13/20 weekends) - Report given By Allen Yates

All 4 weeks are booked solid with 123 participants.  Snowshoes will be covered for all participants, thanks to 1st Merrickville and with contributions from 1st Greely.  Transportation is needed to get the snowshoes from Kanata to the site on the first weekend of the course.  If you can offer your assistance please contact Allen Yates.  Christiaan held a meeting with all trip leaders at the end of the formal VAF meeting.

 

 

 

Gatineau Loppet (Feb. 13-15) – Report given by Wally Gale

3 groups are participating and at this time that is about the limit.  Though interested parties should feel free to contact Wally.  An additional group from L'Association des Scouts du Canada will also be joining in this year – hopefully an opportunity to make a connection and exchange ideas. 

 

Wilderness First Responder (Jan. 9-11) – Report given by Doug Proud

WFR is running this weekend starting Friday with accommodations commencing Thursday night.  16 Participants are registered: 5 are youth.  This is a fabulous turnout.

 

RSVP (May 1-3) - Report given by Tamara Wilson from the Nepean Rover Crew:

RSVP is open to senior Scouts and Venturers, great linking event. Also open to Guides and Pathfinders.

There will be a dance Saturday night and Nepean Rover Crew is looking for offers of service to run Archery, canoeing, lifeguards, and other things. If interested please contact the Nepean Rover Crew. 

Enrollment forms will be available soon from Tamara or on the Venturer web site.  Cost is 20$ per participant (100% fully self contained) and food is included for OOS.  Registration forms and more information will be available at the February meeting.  As a reminder this is a self-contained, bring-your-own-food camp, and don’t forget your fruit for the fondue. (RSVP provides the chocolate).

 

Reports:

VRSC, Lost Children Report Given by Wally Gale for Perry Schippers:

Service corps will be once again volunteering its time at Winterlude, during the 2nd and 3rd weekend. 

There is a website up http://sites.google.com/site/lcswinterlude2009/

Wally sent it out via email and the information is available on VAF website too.

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.

From last month’s note we had too many people in the trailers and too many playing little games so keep in mind, it is there just warm up and then get back out. 

 

Senior Section Youth Committee

There was no report (SSYC not functional at present). Wally indicated that Neal Rice is the new Council Youth Commissioner and he is looking for options to increase youth involvement in activity planning. RoVent is an excellent example and youth should be involved in planning activities oriented towards them as reasonably possible.  As a further step in this direction, a show of hands indicated overall VAF support for increased presence of Venturers at the VAF meetings.  Venturers will also be included in the VAF email distribution list upon request – let Wally know.

 

Joint Council Activities Report given by Scott Skentelbery and Ruth Watson:

Winter camp (Feb. 13-15) information package will be available at the next meeting but will be out via email to JC members and posted on the VAF site before that. It will be held at Camp Woolsey, with a format similar to past years. Note that parking is limited at the camp and the more riders on the bus the better the cost. Those groups planning to drive to the camp should plan to arrive close to the same time as the buses to facilitate entry to the camp and car pooling would help to ensure availability of the limited parking spaces. 

 

The youth’s activity for this month: Museum of Civilization

January 17th 1-3pm

Students $10

18+ $12

 

Bob Dore (JC Venturer Advisor) indicated that numbers for monthly JC activity participants has been up.  The youth have had unique and innovative activities this year and they have been well received.  Some meetings have been attended by 70 youth.

JC website should be up by the end of the month.

 

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.

 

Training and Development: 

Woodbadge II Senior Section, Report given by Stewart Ross

Date for Kingston Jan 30-Feb1 for second weekend at CFB Kingston.  Trainers are still waiting to hear back from the participants about discussion items as they have had only one participant contact them.  An e-mail will be sent out from Stewart concerning any crucial details.

 

Woodbadge I Senior Section – Late-breaking news indicates this course is now scheduled for April 24-26.

 

Other Business: 

 

RoVent 2009 (October 16-18) – Doug MacKinnon invited all interested youth and/or advisors to the initial planning meeting - all welcome, the more the merrier – February 10th 7:30pm in the Buffam room.  All positions (with the exception of the chairman [Ben MacKinnon]) need to be filled.  

White water Kayak2 and other White water courses – Report given by Bill Bowman

There has been interest in organizing a white water Kayak 2 course as a follow-up to the Kayak 1 course.  We would need about 25 participants to make it worth while.  More information will follow.

 

White water course dates are now set, with Bear Creek offering WW1/3 training May 22-24 and Paddlers’ Co-op offering WW2, Kayak 1&2 and a small WW1 May 29-31.  The following are costs exclusive of additional GST charges:

WW1 cost $65

WW2 cost $75

Kayak 1 cost $95

 

Subsidies for High Adventure activities – Report by Mike Jowett

For a number of years now subsidies have been provided by Voyageur Council for VAF-initiated training/activities involving high adventure.  Mike indicated that we need to make a renewed request to Council for this funding.  He proposed that we improve the effectiveness of the existing system by requesting an envelope of funding that could be allocated each year according to VAF-defined priorities, as presented to VAF by a small group of most-affected members (organisers of high adventure VAF activities).    There was a show of support from VAF attendees to continue with these subsidies through the renewed request.  Mike asked that those who run VenClimb, Winter Adventures, and White Water courses contact him with subsidy figures from the past several years.

 

Guest Presentation:

 

Duke of Edinburgh’s Award – Presentation given by Karen Gormley (regional field officer)

The Duke of Edinburgh’s award was founded by his majesty Prince Philip, originally to encourage personal development and community involvement for convicts in the UK.  The program was so successful that it was expanded to youth (14-25).  The award program is active in more than 100 countries with over 6 million participants to date.  In Canada since being introduced in 1963 about 35000 young people have participated in the award program, with over 11500 engaged in Ontario.  Many of the youth come from Guides, Cadets, Scouts, or school programs.  The program has three award levels (bronze, silver and gold) The participants achieve the awards by obtaining personally established goals in areas of community service, skill development and Expeditions. 

 

Karen has worked closely with many Venturer companies in the Voyageur region.  She is more than happy to come to your meetings to do an initial presentation and follow-up check ups, to help the youth keep on track with their journals.  Some of the suggestions Karen spoke of include; having the Duke of Edinburgh as part of the meeting agenda (Last item) and having the secretary or advisor keep the journals.  Many of our venturers have already achieved the gold award (except for the journal entries) without realizing it.  Karen recommends that youth enroll at age 14 so that even if they choose to pursue the Duke of Ed award later they can then backdate all of their experiences to the date of their registration.  As an example of the value of obtaining this award, Karen indicated that some universities have acknowledged that given 2 candidates equally qualified for entry/scholarships, the decision will go to the one with the Duke of Ed Award.

 

While the Duke of Ed initiative works works as an excellent complement to schools, Mike Jowett pointed out that Scouting is also becoming directly involved in schools through the “Scouting in Schools” program.

 

Karen’s contact information is as follows, though e-mail is the best means of contacting her as she is often on the road visiting groups.

Karen Gormley:  613-232-0925 ext 231

KGORMLEY@dukeofed.org

More information can be found at file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Bill%20Bowman/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Low/Content.IE5/AG0IY1GA/www.dukeofed.org

 

Next Meeting: Tuesday February 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