After months of talking about it, endless planning and reminders, Wayne Bulpitt arrived in Solihull on Saturday afternoon!
Opening our afternoon of celebration, he talked to us about the Vision for 2018 – offering challenging every day adventures to young people of all ages and enabling them to develop as individuals, team players and leaders. He also talked about effective leadership and management of adults and the importance of having the right person in the right roles.
A hard act to follow, yours truly took to the stage and talked about what we need to achieve in Solihull – clarity of roles, taking a proactive and flexible approach to adult training, an increase in youth participation on group, district and county teams, flexible volunteering and succession planning and most importantly, a happy team that shares best practice and actively recognises and rewards the contributions its members are making.
The presentations that followed were fantastic and showed the incredible, diverse activities being delivered by groups. I was wowed by 2nd Balsall Common beavers having their sleep over at the sea life centre and 11th Solihull cubs kipping on a ship (HMS Belfast). I was seriously impressed by 6th Shirley Scouts and their gliding (congratulations to Jack for standing up there and presenting!), impressed by tales of International friendships by Tim and happy to go up a mountain with the Darwin Explorers now that they’ve had their mountain rescue training! These and other stories were pulled together and put in a booklet which looks amazing (thank you Jason for collating!) – I get the impresson that several groups will be using this idea back at their HQs!
We took Wayne for dinner and I suspect that the staff of Cafe Rouge are still wondering if they’ve served a celebrity……they cottoned on quite quickly that our guest was important and you could hear their brains ticking over trying to work out who he was – especially when we asked staff to take a photo of us!
Heading back to the church it was standing room only as 104 young people lined the pews awaiting their DoE awards and Queen Scout Awards. Congratulations to everyone who got an award that night; I was particularly impressed with those of you who are still Scouting at University. I know how much hard work and dedication that requires as you try and balance a new life away from home, studying, making new friends and finding time to Scout.
Tim Emmett blew us away with his jaw dropping presentation – oh yes, I felt inspired but not quite ready to tackle a whole rock face whilst dangling from a rope – I can only dream of being that brave!
On Sunday I went to the Remembrance Day parade at Solihull – a first for me as I’m usually at the Shirley parade but just as impressive. I have to admit that I get overwhelmed at this event; a mixture of being fiercely proud to represent Scouts, the solemnity of the occasion and remembering (as I’m sure many of you do) those we have lost in battle and those who are out there serving our country now.
I’ve had an amazing weekend of celebration and remembrance and really enjoyed hearing about the fantastic things that are happening in our County (please share more – contact the Media team!) – we’re already talking about a second booklet with all the great things you’re doing. I took the opportunity to meet lots of new people (thank you to those who came and introduced themselves to me – great to put faces to names!) and there was a real buzz at both the afternoon and evening sessions as everyone got together to share experiences – I’d love to see more of that – what about you? We’ve also let more people know about Scouting in Solihull – Wayne has included us in his blog (www.scouts.org.uk) and an ex Scout turned reporter spoke to Wayne and I at the end of the evening so keep your eyes open for a piece in the local news! Thank you to everyone who helped to make this event such a success – high five Solihull County!!
Posted by katy in Life as a CC. Tags: Wayne Bulpitt; Vision 2018; awards; Tim Emmett
