Voyageur Council Venturer Advisor’s Forum

Meeting Minutes for September 6, 2005

Scout’s Headquarters - National Boardroom

Final

Attendees:

Name	Group	Name	Group
Jim Peverley	8^th Orleans	Catherine Snedden	7^th Kanata
Bill Bowman	1^st Nepean	Stephen Smye	1^st Wakefield
Wayne Clarke	1^st Orleans	Christian Bertchel	1^st Nepean
Mike Jowett	27^th, 29^th Nepean	Stewart Ross	Nepean Rovers
Malcom Volmer	29^th Nepean	Wally Gale	14^th Gloucester
Ray Renton	1^st Dunrobin	Joe Boudreau	1^st Greely Venturers
Jim Smith	227^th, 29^th Nepean, VRRRT	Jim Montgomery	1^st Glen Cairn
Laurel Rosene	1^st Glen Cairn	Carl Barrows	109^th Ottawa
Jenn Bradley	109^th Ottawa	Bob Viney	25^th Nepean
Robin Beardsley	7^th Kanata	Chelsea Corcoran	1^st Vars-Navan
Alan Griffin	112^th Nepean	Tim Taylor	123^rd Ottawa
Bob Dore	1^st Vars-Navan	Anne-Marie Simoneau	28^th Ottawa
Doug Proud	1^st Greenwood	Sean Freill	Nepean Rover Crew

Opening Remarks

- Welcome back, especially to the new faces tonight.

- The minutes for June went out last night … the key item in them is the whole year of dates on them.

Upcoming Activities

Venclimb:

Scheduled for Sept 23, 24 this month at the same place. Cost for the camp is $10. If it is pouring rain, they may not climb due to safety reasons and will do other activities but the cost will still be $10 to pay for facilities. For the outdoor activity form, the location will be Homecliff, Laframboise Farm. This is a self contained camp in a farmer’s field, please ensure to bring your own water.

- Note for driving this year: the road is VERY, VERY rough …the culvert is out so there is a 1 meter ditch in the middle of the road. Recommend most people to park on the road and walk in but watch for the Poison Ivy around there.

- Minimum gear for youth is to bring a helmet and harness, either a tie harness (i.e. 7 meters of web tape) or a fitted one (can get good ones around $38). Individual gear is to be marked with color combinations of electrical tape or whatever. Don’t use markers as it won’t stick and if it is a webbing rope marker, do it on the end, on a non load bearing position. Inks and alcohol do damage to the webbing.

- Friday night everyone arrives and sets up camp in the field. At 8 am the next morning, some go to set up the climbs while leaders stay with youth and practice ropes. Then they all go to the cliff and climb until about 3 pm when they return to camp. Sunday is the same thing but after a 45 minutes hike with youth to a different spot. They then climb until about 1 pm, return to take down camp and go home.

- This will be the 10th year for rock climbing for youth. Note that this one might be the last one in Gatineau Park as they may close many of the climbing areas there and our two places are on the list.

Venclimb Pre-Training:

- Pre-training climbing will be the weekend before, on Sunday, Sept 18. Will coordinate by email but coordinator is Megan James, email Megdiego0@hotmail.com. There will most likely be a meeting at 9 am at scout headquarters as they are starting to ticket people who leave their cars in the Champlain parking lots all day. Still to decide on where this will go, maybe at Laframboise farm. Will check with the local climbing schools and get an idea where they are and then confirm the week before … watch your email.

Crazy Canuck:

- Bill Bowman noted there is nothing new to tell, it was well covered in last minutes. Details are on the web site. Will be $12 a person and that includes dinner.

RoVent:

- Alan noted it is set for Oct 21 22 23 in same field that was used before. It is on the net now. Contact Jim or Alan. On Saturday there will be a senior section basic session. There is no cost for this unless the participant wants the CD and printed materials in which case the cost is $10. If there is inclement weather, it will be in Ye Old Kitchen. They will also have mentors who can be approached. The strategy is to take the trainers to the candidates as an additional program element.

Couch Rally:

- Information is available from Shane Nolan. Fliers are available at the meeting and it is on the web as well.

OPE Work Weekend:

- It will be on the last weekend in April. The information is already up on the OPE website. Will be the same format as before, however the number of participants that will be allowed to register may be lower, i.e. 125 or so.

VRRRT Report – They had a quiet summer. The Chair is Nolan Smith. The retreat at Whispering Pines was a lower turn out than expected but they had a great bocce tournament. They are running the Couch Rally and have provided an agenda for CRRRT. They are still a fairly new team and are still getting going. They do need a co-chair / treasurer so a second year Rover would be helpful if anyone knows someone who can help.

Service Corps – no report tonight.

JC Report – Gord Kelly arrived with the JC and the new Guide rep taking over for Tanya, Vicky Wallace. Welcome Vicky! Stephanie David is the new Guide PR. They are holding elections again for the Scouting PR. Andrew Lorimer is now the Scouting Co-chair. Melanie is the Guiding co-chair. Tonight they have figured out the events for the next few months and are currently organizing them. They did note they are planning to go to Saunders Farm for the October event.

Points from the floor – none tonight.

Venclimb Ground School

- Christian and Sean gave a good overview of the skills required that can in turn be taught to our youth. He also sent copies out by email.

- Topics included:

– The gear we would need,

– Harnesses, including tape web harnesses,

– Different carabiners and their uses,

– Different kinds of belay and rappel devices,

– Rock climbing shoes,

– Webbing, tubular and sewn,

– Different cords and ropes, and

– The life spans of soft goods and hardware.

Next Meeting – 4 October 2005:

- Alan will show us the museum for our non-business activity at this meeting.

- Recommendations for further themes and speakers are welcome.