Voyageur Council Venturer Advisor’s Forum

Meeting Minutes for March 7, 2006

Scout’s Headquarters - National Boardroom

Final

Name	Group	Name	Group
A Simoneau	28^th Ottawa	Joe Boudreau	1^st Greely Venturers
Al McPhee	1^st Metcalf	John Bradley	137^th Ottawa
Alan Griffin	112^th Nepean	John James	Nepean Rover Crew
Bill Bowman	1^st Nepean	John Stalker	1^st Valley Highlands
Bob Viney	25^th Nepean	Lauren Kennedy	69^th Ottawa
Catherine Snedden	7^th Kanata	Lawrence Tyler	1^st Richmond
David Gall	1^st Richmond	Malcolm Volmer	29^th Nepean
Don Stalker	Nepean Team	Phil Edens	VRSC / LCS
Doug MacKinnon	112^th Nepean	Ray Renton	1^st Dunrobin
Doug Proud	1^st Greenwood	Rod Wilson	AC Rideau
Eric Hansen	VRRRT	Roger Aston	3^rd Ottawa
Ian March	3^rd Ottawa	Steven Smye	1^st Wakefield
Jim McQuaid	112^th Nepean	Stewart Ross	Nepean Rover Crew
Jim Peverley	8^th Orleans	Wally Gale	14^th Gloucester
Jim Smith	VRRRT

Opening Remarks:

For this evening, we will go through the business reports and then Bill Bowman will give us a demo on GPS and GPS software.

Events to Come:

VRRRT:

• Eric Hansen spoke, elections are next month. They are also planning for next year. One thing on the agenda is that VRRRT is open to final year Ventures to vote on the executive and become a member of the executive as part of their first year as a Rover. Any Ventures going into Rovers are invited to the AGM in Kingston to be held on April 8^th, at Fort Henry. A dinner will be provided by ‘servants’. Cost is about $20 per person. It all happens on Saturday to allow for traveling. Further information via email notice.
• The annual calendar will look something like this: October is ROVENT, Nov is Remembrance Day (always invited inside the fence); December is helping blow up Christmas trees; February is Winterlude (they would like to make this an annual official event for VRRRT); March is Camp Slush; April has the elections; May is RSVP camp, and June is the VRRRT getaway. Their intent is to come around to the Venture Companies to talk about Rover membership, and to this end, are trying to get youth out to activities to encourage membership. Note their records are only showing about 14 Rovers outside of the known large crews, i.e. the OPE crew. If you know of Rovers who may not be on their list, let them know.
• Alan Griffith noted the CRRRT meeting in is in Toronto on the 17^th-19^th of March. Ventures are taking part if anyone is interested in going.

Service Corps:

• Phil spoke, Winterlude went very well, and thanks to all who participated. The first weekend was busy with excellent weather and good days for skating. They had approximately 20 cases on Saturday and 15 on Sunday.
• They are now working on getting the main web page up properly in the next couple of weeks. The intent is to have all registrations through the web page after that although they will accommodate people who are without web access.
• Canada Day and the Central Canada Exhibition will be coming up … please see the web page.

OPE Work Weekend:

• Tim called Bill and the word is that it is very close to full. 20 spots still (were) available (although it is full now). To recap, it is the last weekend in April to get the camp ready for the season. Jim will send out Tim’s contact info to the VAF for questions.

White Water Canoeing:

• White Water I - Bill played a video from a previous year to give the VAF an idea of what you do and see at WWI. The Saturday is a lot of work in the current, and then Sunday is more on the rapids. Bill also noted that if you have wet suit, it helps for WWI as it can save time vs having to get out of the water and change if you accidentally dump.
• The Pre-training session is mandatory for WWI, and is held on the on Sunday of the OPE Work Weekend. This year they will be starting at 10:30 am to let people get home earlier. Mike Miller will give a safety presentation in the morning, and then in the afternoon they will do a couple of hours on the water. Everyone is welcome to come to the OPE catered lunch ($3.50 per person) or bring their own. Regarding pre-training equipment, OPE has all the canoes, although they are a little short on PFDs for the Venture sizes so if you have one please bring it along. The same holds true for the paddles, i.e. some may be short for this age group.
• WWI has a number of registrations but has lots of room for now. If you want to bring along senior scouts, this would be a good linking activity.
• WWII - is already booked for 25 out of 35 or 40 spaces so it is filling up too. Note you can do WWI and WWII in the same year but you need to take I before II. It can actually help if you do them the same year as you are all primed and ready. If you come back cold the next year, it can be tough to get back into the groove.
• WWIII - Steven said the routine is to do a ½ day in tandem, then move to the solo boats. They take to more difficult water. Steven was looking for interest at the VAF as no one had officially registered at that point. WWIII is more on technique and playing in the solo boats than WWII, i.e. how to use the river, how to be a little more elegant. Participants will also get an ORCA certification. ORCA I means some proficiency in solo and tandem boats. Some leaders got 1a or 1b. It gives a badge for the sleeve and something for the resume.
• Look to the VAF website as it has a lot of information on all three sessions.

Commonwealth Sunday:

• It is this Sunday (March 12^th). Alan wants it to be good one, i.e. good scout participation. Saturday is the practice session as in the cathedral it can be a little more difficult due to the arches. A handout is at the back table with times.

RSVP Camp:

• Lauren is on the committee for RSVP. Traditionally this is a camp for Rovers, Venturers, Scouts, and Senior Guides. Before the Rovers ran the entire program but this year they want to have Venturers or the senior branch of Girl Guides run the Sunday activities. They would also like to have 2 Companies to take on task of organizing activities so volunteers are being solicited at VAF. They are open to the types of activities; they just need to know what they are. The group will provide one Rover as a resource person and as a connection between the RSVP team and the Company.
• They are hoping to have MedVent for First Aid support.
• The event is on the first weekend in May, the 5^th to 7^th. Early registration is extended until March 31^st. Registration forms were on the table at the back at the VAF. Also interested parties can go to www.vrrrt.org and the forms are there as well as on the Events page.

JC Report:

• The March event will be a Laser Quest lock down. There are currently 54 people coming on March 25-26 from 11 pm to 6 am (final registration was 70 people). To contact organizers, email the joint_council@hotmail.com. Let them know how many people and whether you are paying at the event or another way. The cost is $30. Note: Gord needs more advisors.
• This will be the same format as the Mini-putt event held earlier. There will be unlimited game time and they have booked a party room if youth want to sleep so bring sleeping bags. Youth can also bring their own food if they wish.
• The event next month (April) will be a dinner and a movie tentatively at Silver City but more details will follow.

Other Business:

• The RCMP scuba club runs the Scuba Experience and it is free. It was on Jan 22^nd and one of the VAF groups did it this fall. They highly recommend it and plan to do it again next fall.

Next Meeting:

• April 4th, 2006. The main topic will be information on the OPE Work Weekend and the White Water registration. Tim has arranged to have OPE canoes in Ottawa if you wish to use them instead of the ones provided by the outfitters for the White Water sessions. It will save money but you have to transport them yourselves and they don’t come equipped (e.g. WITHOUT paddles, PFDs and throw bags).

• Note that if anyone wants to see what the events are for the VAF, look to the website maintained by Bill Bowman at http://www.ncf.ca/~ad554/

Presentation of the Evening:

Bill Bowman talked about the benefits of uploading and storing GPS data on the computer. He uses a couple of programs: TrackMaker, and EasyGPS. These are free programs that also have professional versions with other features if one is willing to pay. Bill subscribes to a canoeing group www.myccr.com at which they have all kinds of forums for GPS users.

TrackMaker: Bill likes this program as it gives a graphical presentation of the data. It can present a UTM graph of waypoints and when the mouse is over the point, the data is reported. Using a mouse is an easier way to see the data than trying to scroll around on the GPS with a rocker pad.

This software can import map images, e.g. Bill has successfully imported the Adirondacks. Although to import, one has to have to have a map that has a scale e.g. topographical maps are ideal. He uses these to create and store tracklogs.

To start a tracklog for a hike, record a waypoint at the start, then leave the GPS on as the hike progresses. You will see a little breadcrumb trail on the GPS as you go along. That is the tracklog. When you go home, hook up the GPS to the computer, scan a map and scale, and combine with the tracklog to see where you went on the map. Bill found if he left the GPS on all day, the nickel hydride batteries worked well for approximately 2 days and he still had ½ a charge.

The advantage of this tracklog approach is that you don’t have to keep track of waypoints and logs on the GPS. Just upload and save in the PC so you don’t lose them. For reuse, dump it back on the GPS. This tracking works well when the GPS is mounted on the dash in a car or in a canoe as it is generally wide open and the signal for the GPS is strong. Bill has successfully stored sections of maps of interest (as a jpeg file or gif) and it works fine. Bill has used the Fugawi maps on a DVD that costs about 100 dollars.

In a practical example, Bill used his GPS and the logs with the software for the Crazy Canuck Challenge in the fall for roads that were not on maps. Then they could plot these roads on a map for others to use.

EasyGPS is a simpler program to use, it does not involves maps but does provide a table of waypoints. Bill got into it through Geocaching (where one hides little treasures and posts the coordinates online). Using EasyGPS, one just types in on the keyboard and uploads to the GPS. A lot of applications have a lot of waypoints and it is hard to enter these on the GPS pad and much easier to do it on the PC. One can also can keep the data on the PC for future reference, i.e. save as loc or gpx file.

Question: What is Bill’s experience loading the maps the other way, i.e. from PC to GPS.

Answer: It depends on the memory for the GPS. Also, if the map has many contour lines and other features, it can get cluttered on the GPS. Some companies put out software to load to a PDA and then from the PDA to the GPS. There are also standard topographical maps designed for a GPS. Look to ones from TopoCanada and Garmin.