As October rushes by, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Chair of General Council, pauses to think about black history, war, refugees and the campaigns that make Woodcraft relevant.

Black History Month
As October roles on so do the exciting activities of our movement. Many of our groups have been celebrating and remembering Black History as part of the ongoing Black History Month celebrations in October. Black History Month in containing the Diwali festival will be partly about celebration and many of our groups will using this opportunity for cultural and Black education. Much of black history is also about the fight for liberation against, all too often, white western powers and much of the pack sent out by our Open and Accessible working group focuses on that fight, I hope it will be useful in your groups.

Stop the War Demo
Imperial ambitions from the west have not gone away, now as ever motivated by greed and oil. This month also sees a national demonstration against the UK’s continued occupation of Afghanistan. I hope that members will be joining me and other Woodies at the demo. We will be meeting at the round café in Hyde Park at 12noon on the 24th October, we welcome families and children to march with us, playing games and singing for peace along the route.

Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Wars and conflict have horrific effects on young people, who can be faced with the only prospect of fleeing their homes. That is why I'm proud of our national campaign voted for by young people. It will be focused on Refugees and Asylum Seekers. All too often asylum seekers fleeing real danger and persecution are treated in the most disgraceful manor by our government. Where our groups reach out to including young asylum seekers, supporting families and campaigning for better treatment of our fellow human beings, they are making a real difference to people’s lives.

There is far too much activity for me to put down here camping season maybe over but we have the national Venturer Camp conference to look forward to as well as the continued work in our groups and districts in the build up to Yule and winter solstice.

in peace, Blue Skies

Lloyd
Chair of General Council

Labels: Venturer, Woodcraft Folk

Just thought that I would add short note. This weekend I will presnt to the Council of the Woodcraft folk the proposal for the next Venturer Camp 2010. The camps cater for young people who are over 12 to under 16, and last theme was Anti-Apathy. We held the camp and it was a great success, you can see some of the videos and info from the camp at www.venturercamp.org.uk.

We held a meeting open to all members which about 30 young people turned up to decided the future of the next camp - and in fact they decided it should focus on the future.

The idea of looking in the future - seeing what world we want to build and making the change to get there - it is a great theme. I hope that Council will approve the project idea and let us get on with it.

If you went to the last venturer camp and have any feedback or want to getinvoled in the next one then contact Dan the camp coordinator and I (the assistant) on vcamp@woodcraft.org.uk

Labels: Camp, Council, Venturer, Woodcraft Folk, youth

Venturer Camp is almost upon us and we have been working with a crack team to get the things together. Although I have some regrets that we haven't involved Venturers enough in the planning and design of the camp I hope it will still be a great success.

We today launched the almost complete website www.venturercamp.org.uk and we today launched the final bookings for the camp. Its not too late to book in (although you will have to pay the late fee of £105).

You will be in the next few days be able to get the information about the pre-camp and other events off the website, until then they are all downloadable from this website

PRE-CAMP

You will find attached a letter, and instructions for the Pre-Camp, it's only a few weeks away (14th - 15 June). The camp will cost £5 which we will take on the day to cover the camping fee, refreshments and also lunch on the Saturday. If you want to come (it would be good to make sure that a couple or reps old and Venturer from each district are there) then please give us an email (vcamp08@woodcraft.org.uk) just so that we can judge numbers for the food and the like.

For those of you who remember past camps at the moment this will be the size of other camps, however bookings are slow (we are at 500) which is the same as 2001, but we want to be bigger and people tell me they are still coming. If you haven't booked in then make sure you do soon, otherwise I will go crazy (and not in a good way) with all the late bookings! (and of course you need to be a Woodcraft Folk / IFM-SEI member to come)

Labels: Camp, Venturer, Woodcraft Folk

Hello everyone, well here goes with the latest instalment for camp.

The camp site has been now at last (yes I know that its taken ages) booked the camp will take place at Drum Hill the site is the one that was used last time and is not only out the way from noise and local residence it also allows us to secure the site off to make sure that only people on the site are the moment who are meant to be there.

The site is owned by the Scouts in Derbyshire and they are very nice. We have had two planning meetings (one in Brum and the other in London last week) and the pace is getting up.
Publish Post
Dan (the new coordinator) and I have both been to the site and also have been working on getting things ready. The bookings are coming in and if you haven't booked by now the cost has gone up for you late bookers to £105. if you want to find our more then you need to email us (vcamp08@woodcraft.org.uk) or download the forms fill them in and get your district to send to me with your money! exciting! Download the forms from the Woodcraft part of this site.

hope to see everyone there.

Labels: Camp, Venturer, Woodcraft Folk

Evan and I went up to a potential site for the Woodcraft Folk's Venturer Camp 2008. The project initiator (Evan) and the finance initiator (I) looked around what is new site that had been identified to other comrades (Jess and Owen) who in their search for a site had identified this as a potential goer. For more information about the site go to http://www.bibbysfarm.org.uk/

Its near Chorley in Lancashire, its a site that opened up 2 years ago and the site has been fantastically renovated. It is perfect in terms of its facilities, the only problem is its size. Evan will write a letter to them asking for them to confirm that we can use a farmers field next to the site. If this is the case then i think that we will go for it.

We are thinking that if we go for the site we could have a pre-precamp weekend in September. We will try to invite Venturers from around the country to start designing and developing the programme. The weekend could be the last one in September but we need to confirmed other details first. I guess that any interested Venturers should keep their to any announcements to what's happening.

If any Woodie is interested (any age) then get on and add yourself to the email group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/vcamp08 hope to see you there.

Lloyd

Labels: Camp, Venturer, Woodcraft Folk