#youshapekent County Team Day

As Deputy County Commissioner (East Kent) I had the unenviable task this year of organising and running our County Team Day for 100 people at Sandwich Technology School on Saturday 6th June.

The theme of our conference this year was Youth Shaped Scouting (with a hash tag for the day of #youshapekent) and we chose for the first time to have young people hosting the day in partnership with adults.

With such a mix of roles and experience attending it is always a challenge to provide exactly the right content pitched at the correct level to suit everybody. It is also difficult to have sufficient quality time to prepare all the presentations but all things said we feel we certainly achieved our key aim for the day which was to put the idea of Youth Shaped Scouting into the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Throughout the day we looked at how to make the Beaver, Cub, Scout, Explorer & Network sections, districts and counties all more Youth Shaped. Hannah Kentish the UK Youth Commissioner visited from Headquarters and gave a speech during the afternoon. She said she was “Delighted to see Cubs, Scouts and Explorers running sessions on #YouthShaped Scouting!”
 
I just wanted to give a special mention for the young people and adults/networkers who helped me to host the day. I couldn't have done it without them – thank you guys! The Scouts were Maddie, Chloe, Angus, Harry, Thomas, Ellie, Giorgos and Tom.

The Explorers were Tom, Adele, Jack, Genevieve, Eloise, Callum, Ella and Will. Plus the five wonderful Cubs from Thanet – you know who you are! All of the young people were all a real credit to their districts, their leaders and Scouting.
 
An extra special mention for Maddie Merriman who personally chaired a meeting of our district commissioners from all round Kent in the conference room and also for Genevieve Scullion who stepped up to the plate to represent the District Commissioner for Dover (who was unable to attend) for the day.
 
I have of course passed on our thanks from Kent Scouts to the headteacher and trustees of the school for letting us use the venue, to the caretaker for coming in on a Saturday and last, but certainly not least, to the school catering team for feeding us. (For some scout leaders I am told the wonderful school pudding was a walk down memory lane!)
 
To keep up to date with how Youth Shaped Scouting progresses from here on in Kent you can follow us on Twitter @youshapekent
 
Yours In Scouting,
 
Alan Noake

Deputy County Commissioner (East Kent Cluster)