Interviews, Interviews and Interview!!!

Hello everyone!!! Scouty people, non-scouty people, tall people, short people, brunette people, blonde people, anybody at all!!!

Random Quote of the Post

"At a time when efforts are being made to eradicate discrimination between the sexes in the search for social equality and justice, the differences between the sexes are being rediscovered."

~ Carol Gilligan

Too often am I being asked "Why are you a scout... you're a girl!" Let me say one thing. Girls can be adventurous too! I would say I was a tomboy and still  partly am now. I'm sorry I don't like sitting at home spending hours doing my make-up and hair wanting to look pretty for boys. But I'd much rather be on a camp, getting down and dirty with nature. That's my nature. I love going camping. The idea of lying in tent and the possibility of being anywhere in the world beckons to me. Going climbing, caving, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, sailing, rafting excites me. I'm sorry if you do not think that a girl can do those things but we CAN. And we WILL. 

The reason I'm saying all this is because it has been brought to my attention recently that people still question why girls can be scouts. Scouting has evolved and we must accept that girls being allowed to join is part of the evolution. Feel free to leave your view on scouting and how its evolved in the comments section below.

Now back to the main story...

The Main Story XD

So this week end I attended a Scouts Speak Up course at Youlbury scout camp near Oxford. We were given the chance to learn how to speak to the media and grabbed the first place straight away.

3 people from my unit went (Me, Alex and Ollie) and it was great fun.

We rocked up Saturday morning reading and rearing to go. And as you expected as soon as all the scouts saw each other... AWKWARDNESS. However soon we were all chatting and asking "What unit are you from?" and "Can I see your badge?" 

We then pitched out tents, got our work packs and gathered inside the main building. We then watched a short video and a presentation on the Jamboree.

Then the fun began!

We were split into folder colour groups. (Blues were obviously the best aha). Our mentor was Jon who has previously been staff for the World Scout Jamboree, so he had lots of helpful advice for us.

Team Jon!!!

Our first practice interview was a radio interview and guess who got picked to go first?

If you guess me then... you right.

At first I was quite nervous however once Stuart, another leader, started talking I relaxed and started talking. Now, I'm a talk-a-tive person and I found it hard to talk for the whole interview. However after watching a few other people's one's I quickly got my self a list of helpful hints to improve my interview and answers. The biggest piece of advice of the weekend... SMILE!!! You' be amazed how a smile can really make a interview so much better. 

Try recording you self answering what you favourite outdoor activity is without smiling and then smiling. It's mind blowing.

We then had a delicious lunch and went on to newspaper interviews.

Here we sat back to back with another leader, who works in Public Relations, and had a conversation like we were on the phone. This was completely different to  radio interview but I preferred this method. We had to try and get the necessary information and detail across to her without blabbing on for ages. I believe I did fairly well but I needed to explain my personal experiences in more detail and link it to other activities such as WSJ. It was great fun!

We also did presentations that day to our groups which we had prepared before the camp and got feedback on them.

On Saturday evening we played wide-game Cluedo and made S'mores by the camp fire.

The next day we woke up bright and early for a 8.30 start.

That morning we first did some TV interviews. Embarrassing doesn't even cover it aha. We had significantly improved from the previous day by taking on and using the tips we were given. Watching back the interview really helped to improve our techniques and seeing were we could change what we said to make the interview even better.

After lunch, we did our final presentation in our units. Ollie, Alex and I managed to keep under our 2 minutes time limit and manage to get all the information across  that we wanted to. Sadly this was our last training activity at the camp.

We all came together for a final talk, whilst switching contact details in our booklets. We took our tents down and said goodbye to the new friends we had made. It was sad to think we may not see them again. (Trying to find them amongst 30,000 other scouts at the Jamboree may be a bit hard!)

The weekend was a great eye opener as I never realised how hard interviews were. I want to thank all the leaders who helped us as they were amazing. There tips were very helpful and I hope to pass them on to people in my unit.

I will also soon be attending another Unit Training Weekend in October so keep a look out for that post. Please, please, please! Pass the word around of my blog as it help to promote information the Scouting Association and the World Scout Jamboree. 

For more information check out my Get Involved Page. Thanks!!!

Training Weekend No. 1

    Long time no speak everyone... I haven't really had much to blog about recently however I have lots to blog about now!!!!

    Now you may be wondering what does she have to talk about now? Well the weekend just gone was my units first ever complete Training Weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    So here's how it went...

_________________________________________________________________________________

The BeKeHaBu Unit

    We all turned up on the Saturday morning, some nervous and some excited , including me. We gathered around our leaders and the parents were given some information on the Jamboree and our Training Weekend. After the brief intro we we and found a site to pitch our tents. My new friend Mimi decided to pitch our tents next to each other so we could help each other.

    The tents went up fairly quickly and we soon gathered back around and the main area and sat down to eat our lunch as a unit.

    Quickly the topic of a unit name appeared, mentioned by the leaders. Many ideas came about such as Besties Forevsies, Unit 76, Pick n Mix and BeKeHaBu. However one would rise above the rest on the Sunday.

    We set off on a hike through the Ascot countryside. After reaching a clearing in a slightly wooded area we were given the task of using GPS's to locate Geocache's.
    (A geochacing is an outdoor recreational activity, in which the participants use GPS device's or other navigational device's to seek and locate containers called Geocaches or caches.)

    Expecting to find a small box with a signature pad in, my group and I were surprised to find this little fella hooked onto a tree.

Bear Geocache

    After hunting down the Geocaches we returned to the leaders and headed for home.
    Once back at the camp site we wrote down some of the unit name ideas we had. When everyone was back at camp we sat around the main area and were split into 4 groups to cook our tea.

    Our group leader Ed went and got our 6 ingredients from the table of food. We quickly decided to create porkchops in a cheese sauce with roast potatoes, fried mushrooms, corn on the cob and for desert we had rice pudding and banana's. Yum!

    After eating our tea and cleaning upwe had some free time. Mimi, Rob, Ed and I sat around the camp fire together and practices some music together such as Pompeii, Radioactive, Mr Brightside and even Let It Go. We were asked to bring a musical instrument to camp so Mimi brought her voice as did I, Rob brought his guitar, and Ed brought his Cajon drum box thingy... it was very cool aha!

    Everyone gathered around the camp fire and earlier we had been asked to create a small performance to perform at the camp fire. Most groups performed and then our little music grouped performed some songs for out unit.

    We sang lots of scouting songs including Boom Chika Boom, The Quartermasters Store and Never Get To Heaven.

    Some people stayed and talked around the fire and slowly we all went to bed.

    The next morning we all woke up and the lovely leaders had cooked us all breakfast. Including a rather interesting Japanese drink. Yes... Miso Soup! Dun Dun Duuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!

    The breakfast was lovely however I can not say I'm a fan of the Miso Soup> I found it tasted like extremely salty dough however I will find a way to like it as it is a very important part of refuelling your salt levels in Japan next year.

    Once breakfast was over we helped tidy up the site, this consisted of removing leaves, weeds and blockages from the drainage ditches and cleaning the toilettes.

    At the end of the day we were all sad to go home and in fact wanted to be on the jamboree now.

_________________________________

The weekend was great and I had lots of fun and can not wait for the next one later this year!!!