In the spirit of young people taking the initiative and responsibility for having a voice the Annual review and AGM for Scout Scotland was organised by Ross Cooty, a 17 year old Explorer.
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He told Scout Radio that the event had a number of aims. The annual review being an opportunity to look back at the Scouting year in Scotland and what has been achieved , as well as AGM and workshops on activities in Scout Scotland. Ross had a clear message about what his hopes for the coming year are:
Looking at the year ahead I’d really like to see more young people involved in national decision making and involved at events like this and leading and developing their own skills and then bringing their skills to the table
The event was broad in scope and there was an opportunity for all sections to consider how young people could be more involved. Craig is part of the Scottish Headquarters Beaver Support Team said
The highlights of the last year are probably the movement into youth involvement more and more, young people in partnership with adults and getting youth more involved in the decision making in the organisation…Particularly in the Beaver section where we often make decision for them, without actually considering the fact that they could make some of the decisions themselves.
At the other end of the spectrum, Christina Sheffield is a 19 year old Network member and she was at the Scout Scotland event as part of a group from SHQ trying to recruit network members and promoting to the explorers what network can offer them. She highlighted that Explorers are being encouraged to make their own decisions without taking a back seat and that this continues on in Network.
We also spoke to Sorcha Kennedy, she is a MSYP Scout Scotland and represents scouts aged 14-25 in the Scottish Youth Parliament. She told us that she is in the process of collecting information from Scouts all over Scotland as part of a consultation and was at the Scout Scotland event because she believes in the importance of young people’s views being heard.
Young people have a voice and it’s important and everyone’s involved, I’d just say get out there’s so many opportunities, theres constant opportunities all over the place, just attend as many as you can.
If you want to find out more head to the website or look for MSYP’s Sorcha Kennedy and Molly Kirby on Facebook and Twitter, they encourage young people to get in touch with ideas or questions.