From the Chief Commissioner
Hi everyone, hope you are having a great month!
Over the last month we have continued to communicate and provide support tools around the Strategic Plan to our Groups/Districts and Regions, which I hope will allow them to create a local plan that aligns to the Branch Plan. Exciting Times.
This month we celebrated Ramadan, Harmony Day, Easter, School Holidays, and we had our first Region Commissioner Conference for 2023.
Our Branch Youth Council met for the first time and have established three patrols this year to focus on: Personal Development, Program Resources, Diversity and Inclusion.
BYC and RC’s working through Strategic Plan tools
From a Scouting perspective do not forget the following upcoming events
Cuboree 2023 – “Choose Your Adventure”
An activity camp for Cub Scouts held in Maryborough in September School Holidays. Closing date for registrations is today (14 April 2023) so jump on-line now!
LEAP23
A patrol – based camp for Scouts/Venturer Scouts run simultaneously in Brisbane and Townsville in June/July 2023, that focuses activities around, Leadership, Empowerment, Adventure, and Patrols. Join Now
The Purpose of Scouting is to contribute to the development of young people, in achieving their full physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national, and international communities. Without diminishing our Purpose, it is a full paragraph and when talking to non-Scouting members, sometimes we struggle to get all those words in the right order. So, we developed an “elevator pitch” which is a short sharp statement outlining what Scouting does.
“Scouting delivers to our communities, resilient young people who have gained leadership experience, are physically active and care for others.”
2023 has been designated by the Commonwealth as the Year of Youth and I had the opportunity to attend the 2023 Commonwealth Day Multicultural Service at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane.
This month we officially launched AJ2025, the Australian Jamboree to held in Maryborough from 6 – 15 January 2025. The Maryborough local council and community are extremely excited about this opportunity, and look forward to welcoming Scouting back to Maryborough, given we were there for AJ2013.
This month I attended the National Operations Committee meeting, where Queensland submitted 2 papers one in relation to Child Safety and one in relation to WHS. Both papers were endorsed and will now progress to National Executive Committee.
Bruce Saunders MP, District Commissioner Ken Ashford , Chief Commissioner Geoff Doo, Mayor George Seymore
Regrettably we have banned the use of improvised liquid or gas fuel stoves (including Penny Stoves) which resulted from an incident in Victoria. There is an article below that outlines the incident.
National Wellbeing Day was recognised by a Bushwalk through the grounds of Government House, where Her Excellency (and Chief Scout) Dr Jeanette Young AO.PSM led an enthusiastic group of walkers. I was accompanied by Kanushi and Angus – Cub Scouts from TMT and Cub Scout Leader Kathryn.
Kanushi, Angus, Her Excellency Dr Jeanette Young AO.PSM, Kathryn
Have a great month and good Scouting!