Voyageur Council Venturer Advisor’s Forum

Meeting Minutes for May 6, 2008

Scout’s Headquarters - National Boardroom

FINAL

Name	Group	Name	Group
Alan Griffin	112^th Nepean	Jim McQuaid	112^th Nepean
Alan Yates	1^st Merrickville	John Dougherty	Odawa Area
Alex Aronec	Carleton Area Rovers	John Stalker	Carleton Place /Valley H.
Alex Gazaleh	OPE Com and Crew	Malcolm Volmer	27^th Nepean
Bill Bowman	1^st Nepean	Marilyn Johnson	Camp Opemikon
Bruce Morton	14^th Gloucester	Mike Jowett	Nepean Area
Catherine Snedden	Carleton Area Rovers	Matthew Janssen	Carleton Area Rovers
Christiaan Burchell	1^st Nepean	Neal Rice	Nepean Area
Cyndy Courtland	Carleton Place	Perry Schippers	2nd Gatineau & VRSC/LCS
Chris Tyler	1^st Manotick	Phil Gazaleh	Council Youth Rep.
Dean Smith	2^nd Orleans	Ray Renton	1^st Dunrobin
Doug MacKinnon	112^th Nepean	Stephen Smye	1^st Wakefield
Doug Proud	1^st Greenwood	Stewart Ross	Nepean Area Senior Section
Eric Hansen	-	Tim Harbinson	137^th Ottawa
Greg McGinnis	2^nd Russell	Tim Taylor	123^rd Ottawa
Jan Stodola	7^th Kanata	Thérèse Desjardins	137^th Ottawa
Jim Smith	27^th Nepean	Terry Rimmington	1^st Rockland
		Wally Gale	14^th Gloucester

Opening Remarks:

Andrew Patterson (Carleton Area Commissioner) took the opportunity to thank Catherine Snedden with the Commissioner’s Award of Excellence for her contribution to 7^th Kanata Scouts, Ventures and Rovers as she will be leaving scouting at the end of this year.

Past Events:

Venclimb 2: (Christiaan) The event had 9 participants, and went very well, participants loved it and got a lot out of it. While the fall Venclimb session gives a taste of the climbing, this spring session is really about how to do it with a lot of theory and knots. Christiaan thinks he was able to find a couple of candidates to help him out in Venclimb in the fall. He expects the session to run again next year as it was so successful and there is still the deal with Marilyn to train the rock staff for OPE as well. Participants at VAF said their youth are now comfortable taking out their own groups, although they still need supervision from an adult who took the course but really the youth had it all down pat and the skills to do it on their own. Alan’s kids are now keen to go to different places. Note: Carabinners and thin slings were left behind if anyone is looking for them.

OPE Work Weekend: (Tim) Thanks to all who participated on the weekend. The amount and quality of work was impressive. Warden Betty was very happy and extends her thanks for a job well done. Comments from VAF: the food was well worth the $10.00, and it is a great opportunity for the Venturers to contribute to Scouts Canada.

RSVP Camp: (Jim) The camp did happen, and it was a very good weekend with no real incidents. The weather held for the Saturday and the youth came out smiling. There was pioneering, canoeing, archery, and a scavenger hunt. Some comments were made about other groups finding the noise at the dance to be an issue but there are thoughts already in place to try and deal with that in the future.

Upcoming Activities:

ROVENT: (Neil) He noted they have booked the Attic at OPE for Rovent so they can accommodate more people. Action: looking for interest in buying and selling stuff between groups in camp. Items are to be scouting appropriate and be people themed. Please indicate your interest to Neil.

Some notes on camp this year:

• Since the catapult testing usually goes slow, they are going to test 2 or 3 at a time. Especially as they expect more groups this year.
• This year they will be providing all the flour bombs, including the bags, marking flashing tape for groups, flour, etc. It will be built into the cost of the camp. So the organizers are looking for donations of plastic grocery bags that are used for fruit and veggies. It is a balance between safety on one hand i.e. can see into the bags, and ensuring people pick up after themselves, i.e. they will be marked.
• There will be a supervised bomb making area, and also providing supervision for the area where the bombs are stored after they are made.
• Awards are going back to wooden awards with crests so they can be mounted on staffs, etc.
• Onsite registration will be back at the teepee as they have found it too hidden when at Clements.
• The story line this year is based on the princess bride.
• The next planning committee meeting is on Tuesday May 27^th at 7 pm at Scouts HQ. They had about 18 youth and 6 adults so good there is a good turn out.
• This committee is considered to be a sub committee of SSYC although they are working on their own (see SSYC update).
• A Service project will get done but have not discussed it as yet.
• If there are any comments, the planning is going on now so please provide your input while they can accommodate it.

Ropes Course Training Opportunity: (Marilyn) CUI Challenges Unlimited Inc. installed the ropes and course at OPE, do the inspections and do the training for the ropes and courses in Muskoka Woods. To run the sessions, the leaders have to do a Level 1 and then go for so many hours, and then do a level 2. They also need that level 2 to run the high ropes so that’s why there are no high ropes at RSVP. So since Muskoka Woods is such a long drive, Marilyn has arranged for CUI to do a Level 1 training from May 22^nd to the 25^th. This is a Thursday morning through to 5 Sunday afternoon. CUI is sending an instructor to run the course with up to 10 participants at once. Note this course is normally $650 plus transportation and hotel. Marilyn can put it on for $5000, with lodging in the Health Center and $50 per person for meals plus a couple of new harnesses ($4000 is for the instructor). So with some grants from Council, training committee, and other areas, she has got the $500 fee per person down to $100 per person. She has 5 spots remaining after 4 summer crew members and one member from the Y so she will take registration on a first come first served basis starting tomorrow morning. The lower age limit is 18. A youth 17 can take it but can’t write the exam until they are 18. As a further note, the instructor, David Humphries will pick those he feel can learn the rescue techniques from the level 2 course and train them so OPE can run the ropes course under very strict conditions. Since it is the senior sections who use the course for RSVP and Rovent, she is coming to VAF to look for participants and get the word out to email Marilyn with a request to join.

White Water: (Bill) Pre-training, had 75 people in 8 groups, and Mike Miller did a fantastic job again. There were also some youth members who jumped in and filled some gaps to help out. Bill was asking for photos and he will get them up on the website. He did not get a lot this time.

White Water 1 is completely full and has a waiting list so let him know if anyone is dropping off.

Black Bear campground has been secured for camping thanks to Tim for WW1. Bill has been there and it is fine. Some tent trailers are ok, although the vast majority will be tenting. Start time on Saturday is 8:30 am at the river (although to be confirmed) with all events usually over by 3pm on Sunday. He expects about 80 people on the course with 45 bringing up equipment.

White Water 2 is also full with a short waiting list. Bill has gone over the limit as they had some space in the kayaking and they could take a few more participants. So there are now 20 people in kayaking and 10 people in a little White Water 1 session running the second weekend. Only 5 OPE canoes coming up so far. Jim is organizing a shuttle for WW2 so he is looking for numbers who need the shuttle.

The Community Action Grant was all used up, $800 on WW1 and $300 on WW2 so it helped the Ventures for the course.

Bill noted that he sent an email out to everyone who registered so if you did not hear from him and expected to, then let him know.

White Water 3 (Stephen) is also full with no waiting list though. They expect to be camping in same spot as WW1 and also plan to start somewhere on the river on Saturday morning but the exact location won’t be known until they see the water levels, etc.

Bill expects to bring photos to next VAF.

Reports:

VRSC, Lost Children: (Perry) Perry noted they are asking people to remember they are looking for volunteers for Canada day and for the Exhibition in August. Please let your groups know and if anyone wants to sign up, send an email request to vrsc.lcs@gmail.com.

Senior Section Youth Committee (SSYC): (Phil) Phil talked about the history of creating the forum to plan events, however it would seem that many events are already being planned or sponsored for planning such as Rovent and RSVP. So the SSYC venue has been dissolved for the remainder of the scouting year and will reconvene in the fall to get representative input into what kind of forum the youth would like, and to ask how the council can help them. Note, the Couch Rally will be planned by a committee of youth reps, and will likely be back into the one day format. Phil expects to have more information on that at the next meeting.

Joint Council Activities: (Andrew) As a reminder, the May event is the JC Spring Camp from May 16^th to the 19^th. Most groups have registered this evening. Youth will know where the drop off points are by Friday. There is a bus leaving Scout HQ at 6:30 on Friday, returning at approximately 1:30 on Monday. Please be here at 6 pm Friday if you plan to take the bus. Note there are only 35 spots on the bus with equipment. Also NOTE no combustible material is allowed on the bus, e.g. no propane or naphtha so you will need to find another way to get it to camp.

Also they are finalizing the touches on the June Semi Formal event. It is to be held at the South Central Community Center, at 266 Sunnyside on June 20^th from 7:00 pm to 10:30 pm.

Training and Development:

Voyageur Council Whole Leaders Conference: (Various speakers) The event held a couple of weeks ago in April went very well and was highly recommended by those that went. They found lots of things aimed at Venturer levels. The next one is expected to be held in a couple of years.

Boat Pro Course: (Mike) They held a successful course in April but won’t be running anther course until the fall. The fall course is expected to be open for adults as well. Mike Jowett is looking to VAF for suggested dates, so let him know if you are interested and when. So far the VAF meeting concluded that November is the best month as long as it is not conflicting with Woodbadge 2 courses.

Wilderness First Aid training: (Doug) Doug noted he has some interest in advanced training, to be held over 2 weekends, although not necessarily back to back. There is also interest to do First Responder, which is an additional 4 days. He needs a minimum of 8 participants and is only limited in upper numbers by the size of the facility. Doug expects to find out the dates but is targeting November or early December for Wilderness Training and the latter part of January and the first week of February for First Responder. At the next VAF meeting Doug wants to confirm dates so he can start to book the companies. For those interested, please let Doug know what looks to be the best time so he can start to do some serious booking for the events.

Venture Executive Workshop: (Wally) Francesca Viney passed the information along to Wally that she expects to organize a VEW course to be held sometime in November 2008 so we can look forward to more information at a later date.

Section specific Woodbadge 1: (Heather Chilvers DCC Training) They are hoping to do a Woodbadge 2 in a family camp during the summer (August) of 2009 at OPE with all sections (except Rovers). If a WB2 curriculum became available for Rover Advisors, they can easily slide it in as well. The VAF meeting showed overwhelming support for Woodbadge 2 for the Venturer section. So Heather will put it on her agenda. This will probably be run in the winter but will consider sometime in November pending training availability and readiness. She noted that Trainers need to have 1 month to prepare for a number of candidates so if not enough have signed up 1 month before the session then the trainer can cancel it. She noted this as she hears many time from those that would sign up a week before the event so she asked that we please respect the deadlines, e.g. get your name in a at least partial payment to confirm interest. The winter format could be three weekends, or a series of workshops and then one full weekend. She is looking for VAF preferences. It’s a 60 hour training course so add meals and breaks, runs 85 hours. Note, at the meeting, the 3 weekend format seemed be the preferred style. Heather will keep Wally posted so he can communicate to VAF possible Woodbadge 2 sessions for indications of interest..

Other Business:

Working on the Crew Cabins (Alex) Those organizing the building of the crew cabins would love some help and are looking for volunteers. Help is needed with everything from skilled help for framing to even just carrying the lumber down to the site. For those that volunteer, the Crew will pay for food and try for accommodations where there is room in the camp. They are also searching for special skills such as a Trades Electrician (as they are an OCA camp). If you are interested in donating your services, please let Darrell know at ucanemaildbart@rogers.com. as per the email Wally sent out or check out the camp site at Opemikon.org.

Golf Tournament (Wally) Note that there is a Golf Tournament on Wednesday June 11 organized by Marilyn. This is an annual event with the proceeds this year going to OPE. Cost is $100 and location is Manderly on the Green.

Fall Adventure Challenge (Bill and Alan) Alan proposed a change in the venue for the Adventure Challenge to align with the Merrickville Centenary celebration this coming fall. The proposal is to keep to a single day event on Saturday October 4^th with the option to camp overnight. It will continue to include events such as mountain biking, canoeing, orienteering and portaging. They are looking to get into the Quebec climbing wall, and have possible use of a nearby quarry (to be confirmed). There will also be some smaller challenges to liven things up. The feast is to be outside so they are thinking of something like a pig roast. Alan noted they are trying to keep to the same cost as last year, e.g. $10-$15 including a crest. There will be camping on the Lion’s Club camp ground (yes, tent trailers area allowed). With all of the younger youth camping on the fair grounds, the Lion’s Club campground for the Venturers will be relatively isolated. Bathrooms are expected to be open for use but need to be pristine at the end of the camp.

Alan and Bill’s question to VAF is whether this was of interest to proceed with the planning? Answer was YES, a new venue would be interesting so Alan and Bill will continue planning for this fall. Now they will need some help on the day of the event so start thinking …

Next Meeting: Tuesday June 3, 2008 at 7:30 pm

The June meeting always creates a draft calendar of events for the next scouting year so please bring your dates or tentative dates for events you know about or are organizing.

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.