Hot News 7th April 2004

Choose your Topic from below:

• OUTSTANDING WOODBADGE PROJECTS
• TRAINING TEAM INVITATIONS
• TRAINING TEAM STRUCTURE

TRAINING TEAM INVITATIONS
Selected members of the two former Associations have received invitations to join The Training Team and their replies are now being processed. It is hoped to have the Team organised and ready to implement the new Woodbadge Scheme after the summer break. There may be some initial discussion and consultation amongst the Team before "all systems will be go".

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1. Donal McGahon to work with the Duty Patrol on administration and support for Training in general

2. Sheila Haskins to work with four working groups on the revision of the Woodbadge Scheme

3. Gay Davoren to be responsible for liaison with the Provincial Training Co-ordinators and for general support and assistance to the members of The Training Team

4. Cliona Flood to develop "Management" Training - this is intended for Group Leaders, Commissioners and other senior personnel

Cathal Walsh will continue to lead the Training of Trainers Courses and Tony Caffrey will be Training Administrator, assisted by Terry Cullen.

The Duty Patrol continues in slightly different form with Donal McGahon, Tony Caffrey, Terry Cullen, Alan Carroll, Kevin Fahy, Brian Hughes, Tommy Keenan, Desi McAroe and Martin O'Brien.

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Adult Leader Training has always been a priority for Scouting and so it is with the new Association - Gasogá na hÉireann/Scouting Ireland.

The two previous Scout Associations had schemes providing for the award of the Woodbadge to Scouters when they completed their training. The two schemes delivered the training in different ways but the overall content was almost identical.

Scouter Training in Gasogá na hÉireann/Scouting Ireland will be done in accordance with the principles laid down by the Interim National Management Committee and these can be read at www.scouts.ie/?Page=training.php

We want to share with you the short, medium and long term plans that are being put into place.

Short-Term

It has been agreed that Scouters in each of the predecessor Associations will continue to be trained in their existing schemes until the end of the present Training Year in June 2004.

The timetables for both Associations can be found in this site.

Because the new Association has not yet decided on titles for Scouters or Sections, the old ones are used in reference to Courses.

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Medium-Term

Members of the new Training Team, under John Meikleham, are designing and preparing Courses to meet the principles laid down by the INMC. Much of the material already exists but it is necessary to reshape it to fit new needs.

The delivery of certain training locally will require the creation of a system of training members to deliver such training. There will also be a need to set up reporting/recording systems and to work out ways of checking that quality standards are being met.

It is hoped that this design work may be completed by Summer 2004 but it will be appreciated that it is a heavy task because we want to get it right.

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Long-Term

Once the new Scheme is designed and put into action, there will be a need to liaise with the Programme Teams to see what changes are being planned in regard to Section programmes and to make sure these are properly communicated within training experiences.

There will also be an ongoing evaluation of the way in which the scheme is working and how effective it is providing to be in supporting new (and old) Scouters.

One last but very important point. The new Woodbadge scheme will be designed to give you appropriate credit for any training you have done. This means that you can proceed smoothly on to achieving your Woodbadge without having to repeat any major part of your training.

Look forward to seeing you!

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