September was a great month
A Basic course for Leader of Adults, Cub Scout Leaders, Scout Leaders and Venturer Scout Leaders was held in Longreach with Leaders attending from Emerald, Winton, Cloncurry and Longreach. The two hour drive home for Tim from Cloncurry and the three from Winton would have been a trial driving west directly into the sun and then Tim keeping a look out for Kangaroos, Emu’s and pigs as he drove another 4 hours in the dark – something they try not to normally do “out west”. They are always telling me “make sure you are off the road before dark”.
All agreed that the course was worthwhile and appreciated the other trainers Melita and Karl who flew up from Brisbane, as they got to meet Leaders from other Scout Groups in Western And Central Queensland Region, but could also see the value in heading to the coast to complete Advanced training where they would be able to network with many more Leaders. For many of these they are looking at 9-12 hours driving to get to the course. Flying is not always an option unless they come to Brisbane.
L-R SL John Roworth, Trainer Karl Lingard, SL Russell Pickering, VL Mark Davis
CSL Damion O’Rourke, Betty Coupe, Tim Hearn, Dean Lafsky and Trainer Melita Goff
Middlemount Scout Group was opened last year and Leaders have started their training. Middlemount School welcomed me with an amazing number of year one to four students coming to listen and learn about scouting. We held an open afternoon with some pioneering activities and a craft table (note to self – don’t do paper activities on a windy day in a paddock) and a science table finishing with a BBQ. Middlemount will have their first section nights this term. From the response it looks like there3 will be 14 Joey Scouts, 10 Cub Scouts and 8 Scouts on the first nights. Plans to take the Scouts to Jota in Blackwater the following week are underway.
I was lucky enough to be able to run a Venturer Leadership course in Longreach as well. These were an amazing group of young people who had a lot of fun and got the most out of the course. During the formal dinner the oven blew up so they calmly worked out whose houses they could go to and bundled up armfuls of chopped up food, pots, utensils and still managed to pull off a very successful lunch which the Guest Speaker enjoyed immensely.
Gill Hall