Scouts Participate in Earth Hour

This past weekend, the Council Commissioners and the National Leadership Team of Scouts Canada gathered just outside Toronto to work together to move our great organization forward. I am pleased to say that the meetings were very productive and that there are great things ahead for Scouting in Canada.

As many of you know, Earth Hour took place Saturday evening. As we gathered for supper, we celebrated the event. The folks at the restaurant were nice enough to turn the lights off, light some candles and we also brought glow sticks. We were happy to take part in this event to reaffirm our commitment to the environment.

As Scouts, we were environmentally friendly long before it was cool or trendy. We have many years of environmental stewardship experience behind us and will continue with our environmental initiatives in the years to come. We have ensured that we are "leaving no trace" when we go on outdoor adventures, and that we continue to promote environmental activities in our programming.

I hope that you all took the time this past Saturday to celebrate Earth Hour and, if not, it's not too late! Why not run this week's section meeting outside and educate our youth about Earth Hour and the environment, clean up around your community or hold a recycling drive. We should all do our part to help our environment.

I look forward to Earth Day coming up next month. That will be yet another opportunity for us all to do our part.

Until next time, Good Scouting!

We are changing the world! Action Area 4 - Meaningful Youth Involvement

There has been so much progress with our SCOUTING NOW Action Plan for Canadian Scouting, and I intend to use this blog to post periodic updates on our progress.

I want to talk about what's already been accomplished in terms of achieving real youth involvement.

At Scouts Canada's Annual General Meeting, members of our Nominating Committee were elected and appointed. TWO youth were elected, and TWO youth were appointed -- the majority of the committee are youth members! This has never happened in the history of our Movement in Canada. Congrats to Neal, Alex, Apoline and Kaylee. And thanks to Glenn Armstrong for being so supportive of engaging younger members in this process.

Also at the AGM, Jessica Page was elected to the position of Vice-Chair - Strategic on the Board of Governors. As Jessica is still a youth member, she is now the youngest person to ever have served as an officer of the corporation. Another great milestone!

It is also worth noting that as the new Board of Governors was elected at the Annual General Meeting, the average age of Board members dropped by more than NINE years!

The Area Youth Commissioner welcome package has been released, which helps focus the AYC's role.

In addition, most areas in the nation now have AYCs in place.

We're also working to connect more youth to international opportunities. There will be an international project in Africa later this year, and youth across Canada were invited to apply.

There has already been lots of great progress, but there is still a great deal of work ahead.

Achieving meaningful youth involvement is all about balance. If we're not attracting and welcoming new blood that can be mentored and supported by our experience volunteers, then we are dying. A continuous injection of young leadership is essential for our survival.

For more information on our vision for greater youth involvement, check out the Action Plan at www.scoutingnow.org.