Voyageur Council Venturer Advisor’s Forum

Meeting Minutes for November 7, 2006

Scout’s Headquarters - National Boardroom

Final

 

Name

Group

Name

Group

Al Mcphee

1st Metcalf

Jim Peverley

VAF Chair

Alan Clapp

8th Orleans

Jim Smith

27th Nepean

Alan Griffin

112th Nepean

John Stalker

1st Valley Highlands

Bill Bowman

1st Nepean

Ken Shore

137th Venturers

Bob Hickson

Voyageur Council

Laurel Rosene

1st Glen Cairn

Brent Craig

Heritage Area

Leah Elwell

Rideau Area Rovers

Brien Taylor

1st Greewood

Malcolm Volmer

29th Nepean

Catherine Snedden

7th Kanata

Mike Jowett

Nepean Area

Chris Tyler

1st Manotick

Phaedra Glushek

28th Ottawa

Christiaan Burchell

1st Nepean

Phil Edens

VRSC / LCS

Dan Karwowski

1st Glen Cairn

Randy Miller

2nd Russell

Dave McOnie

104th Ottawa

Ray Renton

1st Dunrobin

Dean Smith

2nd Orleans

Russ Jones

36th Ottawa

Don Stalker

1st Valley Highlands

Steven Smye

1st Wakefield

Doug MacKinnon

112th Nepean

Stewart Ross

Nepean Rover Crew

Doug Proud

1st Greenwood

Tim Redpath

1st Stittsville

Eric Hansen

VRRRT

Tim Harbinson

137th Ottawa

James Eaton

27th Nepean

 

 

Jim McQuaid

112th Nepean

 

 

Jim Montgomery

1st Glen Cairn

 

 

Opening:

 

Duke Of Edinburgh: Karen Gormley spoke on the purpose and qualifications for the Duke Of Edinburgh Award.  The registration fees are $20 to start with a $10 renewal fee each year.  If you have lapsed, you can re-register for the $10.  Karen is willing to come out to do a presentation to any group who makes a request.  Call or email her and although she only works three days a week, she is very flexible in her schedule.

 

Presentations:  Presentations were made at the meeting as follows:

 

  • Stephen Smye: Awarded Part I Crew.
  • Russ Jones: Awarded Medal of Good Service.
  • Christiaan Burchell: Awarded both Part I and Part II Crew & Company.
  • Awards as per previous event: Part 1: for Malcolm Volmer; Jim Smith, John James, Lauren Kennedy; and Part II: for Bill Bowman and Sean Freill.

 

Events Past:

 

Rovent:

Keep on bringing the challenges, it was nice to see new themes, and the costumes are looking better.  There was good food, and everyone had fun at the siege.  They had about 250 people there.    Some thoughts for next year: maybe the planning committee should book out all of OPE itself or out of OPE to minimize crowding, as it is nice to see it getting big and better.  The Docks came in the fastest they had ever done.  The next meeting is on November 22nd at 7:00 PM in this room.  It is also on the VRRRT website.

 

17th Annual Scouts Canada Food Drive:

It was very successful and brought in approximately 74000 pounds of food, up from 62000 pounds last year.  The weekend also brought in $12,300 in cash up from $11,200 last year.  Remember the cash uplift is about 7 times the normal cash value due to way food bank gets food.  The teams had everything sorted on the day we took it in, and they were done by 6:05 pm.  Work crews were maxed out but it worked well this year.  This was the first time in 8 years they did not have a big lull in the middle.  One of the drivers from Purolator noted that he was looking forward to come back next year.

 

Thanks to Phil for organizing with the city and council and for promoting a positive contribution to the community and a positive reflection on scouting.  Thanks to Max Keeping and Carol Anne Mehan for the publicity.

 

River Keepers:  Thanks to Glen Cairn, 123rd Ottawa and 1st Dunrobin for their help.  There is credit on the River Keepers Website.  They had hot chocolate from Bridgehead and Pizza from the Newport Restaurant.  The teams got garbage from the island and some surrounding parks.  Water was at spring level so they did not get out as much as they hoped and it was also really windy but they pulled through.  More info can be found on ottawariverkeeper.ca.

 

Venclimb:  They are now at 600+ dollars.  Thanks to all who paid up.  Outstanding action is the approximately $300 between the access fund and donation to Laframboise.  There will likely be $200 as per the normal carry over to next year.  Jim is still waiting for crests.  Also get requests for payment of equipment to Jim Peverley so they are in for payment this month.

 

Events to Come:

Remembrance Day:  Information is on the events calendar on the Voyageur website.  Meet at 9:30 am at Sparks and Elgin next to the post office. 

 

Note that membership in all units all up: Policevent, Medvent and Lost Childrens. 

 

Candlelight Ceremony: Tonight as the date had changed (originally tomorrow) but info was late coming. 

 

Winterlude: Planned for the weekends of the 9th to 11th and 16th to 18th in February for Winterlude, i.e. the middle 2 weekends.  Paul will have more info at the December meeting.

 

Adirondack Adventure: is coming in February.  Christiaan expected to have more information by the next meeting.

 

Midland Mid Winter Mini Moot: Midland Venturers and Rovers will be running this on February 2nd to 4th.  Information will be on the VRRRT website.

 

Winter Camp Opportunity:  Dean Smith noted there is a weeklong camp in Algonquin park for which they encourage other groups to come out.  They go in the first week of January between New Years and the first week of classes.  They start at New lake and push off into the wilds.  If any leaders are interested, see Dean or Nick.  Remember your group needs to be very motivated as it is a serious trip and the weather can be tricky.  The camp is for 5 nights.  Dean has a little PowerPoint slideshow if anyone is interested after the meeting.

 

OPE Work Weekend: Tim has provided a handout for the OPE work weekend coming up.  There is 150 max allowed.  There is a write up at the back if interested and Jim will send an email out this week as well.  The weekend will likely be filled up before the end of February.

 

Venture Cabins:  There is an advertising flyer for the Venturer cabin at the back.  Still some weekends this winter are available to book and although Venturers have priority, it is still first come first served.

 

Kayaking for WWII:  Stephen: has a request from his own group’s youth for a kayaking class at WWII.  He would like the VAF to socialize this with their youth to see if they would like to try this out.  There are trainers with Paddler’s Coop if the interest is there.  Depending on the skill and interest, they can set the skill level of the course.  It would be the same weekend as WWII in the first weekend of June, so the same company would be doing the training with different instructors and on a different part of the river.

 

Leadership Training: Asked to run a focus course for youth attending CJ, a one day course on Feb 17th and they are only doing the course sessions for what they need for the Youth Leadership training.  They are hoping to have it at the national office.  If any groups have youth who are good leaders, they would be the targets for this course.  The focus course is taught by youth.  Cost of course is $10.

 

Youth Training:  Stephen noted that he has a new company executive and that maybe it is time for a VIEW, Venturer Information Executive Workshop, or training course.  There is no course scheduled but Stephen would like to measure interest and see if one could be organized.  Maybe run it at the same time as Woodbadge I.  (Several raised their hands as interested).  The question is timing.  Let Stephen Smye know if your company is interested.

 

Joint Council: October event for Saunders Farm was great and well attended.  November event is Skating in the Bell Town Dome.  Directions will be sent out on the JC mailing list on Nov 25th.  Starting to talk about winter camp.  If leaders have any questions, contact Bob at bobdore@rogers.com.

 

Next Meeting:  December 5th, first Tuesday of the month.  Theme is dehydrated cooking.

 

Reminder for next meeting:  The scout shop will stay open for the December meeting so be ready for Christmas shopping.