Oh dammit

Created on December 10th, 2009 in Lifeblog

Oh dammit, originally uploaded by davelodwig.

Advantage West Midlands have a lot to answer for

Created on December 6th, 2009 in Lifeblog

Advantage West Midlands have a lot to answer for, originally uploaded by davelodwig.

When I was studying at the University of Central England back in the early 00’s the surrounding area was full of Victorian factories housing businesses. Now it’s all gone and mostly small heaps of rubble and rubbish have replaced them. And they’ve replaced them with what … Absolutely sod all is what.

Breakfast

Created on November 10th, 2009 in Lifeblog

Unit Leaders Weekend

Created on October 4th, 2009 in Jamboree 2011

This weekend I attended the first unit leaders weekend with my unit leader Stephen and Keith & Graham from the Birmingham / BSWE unit.  The venue was the very plushly appointed Barcello Hinckley Island Hotel, where after checking in I discovered that my accomodation was in an executive room although I suspect that all the rooms where executive rooms …

and yes my name was spelt wrong on my room booking and name tag.

First up we got to meet the members of the contingent management team and the contingent support team.  We had a presentation from two young spokespersons who had attended the 2007 Jamboree.  They where just brimming with useful tips on how to engage with the youngsters who will be making up our units.

Fika

We will be actively encouraged to participate in Fika …

Now calm down and put the yellow cards away, Fika is the Swedish term for coffee and cake with friends.  It’s Swedish for tea break one of my favorite hobbys.  I look forward to coffee and cake at unit meetings, leaders meetings and every possible ocasion.  I intend to devote my fullest attention to Fika.

Workshops

We took part in a number of workshops during the weekend

• Preparing for the WSJ
• Culture
• Fundraising
• Unit Leadership
• Selection of Young People

We now have a resonable idea of what we could expect to encounter at the Jamboree and how we are likely to get there.  We know we are flying to Copenhagen where we will be staying for a few days before the Jamboree and then travelling by coach and overnight ferry to our home hospitality then flying back to the UK a few days later.

Oh and we got issued our unit leaders handbooks.

Swedish Government Budgets for Jamboree

Created on September 21st, 2009 in Jamboree 2011

Via Twitter

The Swedish government will give 15 MSEK to the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden 2011 – announced in the state budget today.

So 15M Swedish Krona is something like £13.5 Million.  That’s the sort of government support of Scouting we’d all like to see more often.