Scouting Statewide April 2003
VENTURING ON . . . news from Venturing SA
On reading the last issue of Statewide, I was happy to see the smiling faces on the cover of Venturer Scout’s having fun at SuperSplash. I was however surprised that we did not have a write up of how much fun and frivolity we all had on that weekend. Over 200 people attended the weekend. This was made up of Venturer Scouts, Leaders, Activity Leaders and helpers. The weekend was held at Milang Caravan Park and what a beautiful setting it was. The facilities were great, the weather was fantastic (although Sunday morning the weather was becoming a bit dodgy) and the activities were well run and everyone was having fun. It was a great way to finish of the year for everyone. It was a shame that not more Units attended the weekend. This is the annual end of year breakup for the Venturer Scouts - let’s promote it more this year so more can enjoy the weekend. We had Units from as far as Whyalla and Mount Gambier. This was a new concept weekend and we are getting together a team of people who will be willing to help organise this year’s SuperSplash and although the Jamboree will be a month after SuperSplash - we are still having the weekend as a weekend as it is all about the Venturer Scouts enjoying themselves. So don’t listen to any rumours that it will be a day activity - the Branch Venturer Council decided that we will be having a weekend event. Congratulations everyone on a fantastic weekend and for all those extra hours spent on organising the whole thing. Thankyou to all involved.
Next exciting thing that happened in January was the Venturer Leaders Gathering. We hit an all time high on attendance with an average of 26 each night. The theme was Scottish and everyone was put into clans to work on the program, which was loosely based on the Queen’s Scout Award. There is just so much creativity and enthusiasm in our Section and the Leaders who attended showed us this. They created castles out of cardboard boxes. Made shields, swords and came up with rites, chants and dances. We had the Highland Games down at the beach in the afternoon where the clans tossed the caber, made sandcastles and hurled the haggis!!! Costumes were all around for dinner and much merriment and bantering occurred. The aim of the day’s activities was to obtain the “Golden Goblet” which was presented to Cathy Stijve’s clan after the dances etc were presented. Sunday morning began with an hour of relaxing Tai Chi exercises and proceeded into a group debrief then lunch and home. The whole weekend saw fantastic team building, idea exchanging, caring and sharing but most importantly we all enjoyed the “F” word - FUN!!! Thankyou to Michael Woodward and the Clan Leaders, Rob Anderson, Sam VanderWingaardt, Steve Knapper, Graham Mann and Cathy Stivje for the support, enthusiasm and the assistance you all provided in the months leading up to and on the weekend. I was very pleased to have the help and support from each and every one of you - thanks for being part of our team. Thanks also to everyone who attended the weekend - it was nice to see some new faces and also some not so new! There are still a few people who haven’;t paid for the weekend - if you can do this in the next few weeks’ that would be great. Remember that this was a training weekend and your group should pick up the tab - so you shouldn’t be out of pocket for the $50. You might get a friendly reminder from Jo Scheifers soon if you haven’t paid.
Next year’s conference will be held in June due to the Jamboree.
Queen’s Scouts for 2003 are - Jordan Mann, Andrew Tremain, Lisi Phillips, Anne-Marie Oswald, Tim Welch, Mark Gurd and Melissa Zander. Congratulations to each and every one of you. You have all worked extremely hard to obtain this award and I am looking forward to the Queen’s Scout Dinner and the Act of Loyalty to seeing you all again.
HELP WANTED:
1) I am looking for a Contingent Leader for the SA Venturers attending the Australian Jamboree in January 2004. If anyone is interested please contact me to register you name. You will be responsible for approximately 50 Venturers and you will be part of a very exciting team within the Venturer Sub Camp. Please have a think about this and let me know if you would like to take on this position.
2) I am looking for someone to organise the Venturer Information nights. If you would like to organise these - we have two a year - and be the contact person for the evenings - I would like to hear from you. You can still do this while being a VSL or AVSL - it just needs to have someone co-ordinate the evenings and perhaps come up with some new and innovative ways of presenting the information. They have been run for the last three years and it is a great way of getting the Venturer Scouts together and also to give them the information first hand.
Please have a think about the help wanted - and I look forward to seeing you all around the place.
Yours in Venturing
Kate Ryder - Branch Commissioner Venturer Scouts.
