End of Weekend Report from the youth Participants

Our report for the weekend was divided up into three sections. These included; What we thought of the weekend, what we learnt from it and our hopes or the future.

What we thought of the weekend

Everyone one of the youth participants on the weekend all seemed to echo the same response when this question was put to them, which was that it was great fun. It was very well organised and everything worked very well. Most people commented on the friendship that was built up over the weekend but it also seemed to be there from the very start. People didn’t seem to notice the differences between the associations when the uniforms were taken off . I think that the numbers for the next conference should double after this years success.

We would all like to congratulate David Monaghan and his crew for all the obvious hours of work that must of gone into the planning and running of the weekend. We all think that it was worth it.

What we learnt from the weekend

I think that all the things we learnt from the weekend was about the other associations in Ireland. I feel that most of the youth participants on the weekend arrived with limited knowledge of the other associations; how the are run, award systems, numbers etc etc. After quite a few conversations lasting long into the night I think we all learnt something different about each other. I think we also learnt that there are a very little variation in the overall aim and guidelines between the associations and that we are really all going along the same path, in the same direction and with little recognition of each others existence. (And all girl guides don’t paint jam jars!!!!)

What we hope for the future

The future for the scouting and guiding associations in Ireland is healthy if the weekend is anything to go on. All the youth participants seemed to leave on the Sunday positively motivated and looking forward to the future of their associations.

I think that the main response was of communication between the associations. If this is built on and maintained we can start to bridge the gaps between us all. This communication must not just stem from a national level but also a local point of view. Venture or Ranger groups living in the same area but not in contact with each other or indeed aware of each others existence is not acceptable. If our goals and aims are closely linked then so should our groups.

Also all Venture and Ranger national event calendars are very full but this does not mean that some of the events can be merged or run jointly together even for a once off. SAI and the IGG are running a belt together this year. This is positive move forward and should be learnt from.

The CAT Project

The Cross Associational Team (CAT Project) was set up over the weekend to supply a need of a youth run and led team of members covering all bodies between the six associations in Ireland.

This all started on the Saturday night (while we were not singing to karaoke!) when we were asked by David Monaghan to present a report of the weekend to the leaders on the Sunday afternoon on what we thought of the weekend and our hopes for the future. About 20 of us gathered in a room in Enniskillen Scout den and started to brain-storm for our presentation.

So after few hours and one of the most interesting discussions I personally have been in we had come up with a few ideas and all of us had learnt a great deal about each other. We then decided that instead of us all splitting up at the end of the weekend and leaving it at that, we should set up a youth body made up of delegates from the weekend that would meet up every month or so and talk about the future of our associations and where they are heading. Also one of our long term aims was to organise a conference weekend for the youth members, along the lines of the one we just attended.

Here follows a brief summary of our aims and goals for the future of the CAT Project resulting from a brief meeting we had recently.

“To form a communications body between

the six associations”

We rattled our brains and came up with a few good ideas for how to set up our communications body.

Þ Firstly we intend to send a letter to the “head” person in each association requesting support and out-lining our aims

Þ To have our own youth conference to bring the organisations together and to build up ideas and help

Þ Advertise ourselves in all available and relevant publications and to possibly create our own CAT magazine/web page.

Þ Have monthly meetings among ourselves and to represent CAT on a local level

Þ Set up a mailing list between as many people as possible so there can be no excuse not to invite people to anything your troop get up to.

Þ Finally organise some inter-association events and invite everyone possible through magazines and our mailing list.

The CAT project is a committee of equal participants and we need everyone to get out there and do some P.R. We then elected Sinead Whealan and Rachel Williamson as our treasurers.

We will meeting again soon and hope to organise a full weekend at the end of the Summer.

Derek Byrne

NVFC