Scidom 2005 - The notes from the meeting

Wednesday 4th May 2005

Ramsden Bellhouse Village Hall,

Church Road/Glebe Road Junction,

Ramsden Bellhouse,

Billericay, Essex.

8.20 pm - 9.25 pm

1. Welcome and Introduction of leaders.

John Hanson welcomed everyone to the meeting. He explained that the meeting was being hosted by 1st Ramsden and Downham Scout Group due to the availability of its large headquarters buildings and its central location.

He then explained that the tea, coffee and biscuits would be free, however, there would be a collection pot for donations for the Village Hall Charity, which this year is the Leukaemia Research Fund. This charity is important to us as a few years ago, it claimed the life of one of our former Scouts and one of our present Cubs is recovering from Leukaemia.

John then introduced Janet Mann and Colin Lees - Scout Leaders from 1st Wickford; John Byron - Scout Leader from 4th Wickford and Richard Clark - from 2nd Billericay and the District Scout Leader who has spent the last six months organising the camp.

2. District Plant Sales

Billericay High Street, outside Peter Murray Insurance.

All profits go towards the cost of the District Scout Camps.

Saturday 7th May and Saturday 14th May

Richard asked all Scouts and Explorers who would be going to France to work for one hour on one of the Saturdays.

Pages with notes about the Plant Sales were handed out - for more copies of the adverts, click here.

3. Travel arrangements

Outward Journey - Friday 27th May

20.00 1st & 4th Wickford Scouts and Explorers arrive at Wickford to load onto Coach. (venue to be confirmed)

20.45 1st Ramsden and Downham, 2nd Billericay and 3rd Billericay Scouts and Explorers arrive at Ramsden Bellhouse Village Hall to load onto coach.

Please note, there will be no coach stop at Billericay.

21.00 Coach leaves Ramsden Bellhouse - next stop France!

23.00 Coach arrives at Dover for Ferry Crossing

02.30 (French Time 1 hour later than UK) Arrive in Calais

14.00 After 2 stops on route - one overnight, one early morning for breakfast, arrive at campsite (approximate times)

Return Journey - Saturday 4th June

10.00 Everyone departs the camp site.

Travel to Paris with one brief stop on journey.

19.00 (approximate time) Arrive in Paris for short tour of city and time to stop at a place to eat.

Sunday 5th June

03.15 Coach checks in at Calais.

04.10 Ferry Departs

04.30 (UK Time) Arrive in Dover

06.30 (approximate time) Arrive at Ramsden Bellhouse Village Hall.

07.00 (approximate time) Arrive at Wickford. (venue to be confirmed)

Text Message Service

During the camp and especially on the return journey, we will be using the 1st Ramsden and Downham Scout Group's Text Messaging Service.

To do this, simply text the 3 letters RAD to the number 60300

Within a minute, you will receive a text message back which will give you an up-to-date message about our progress.

This service costs 25p per text. We have tested it with O2, Vodaphone, Virgin and it works perfectly. One person who uses the 3 nextwork had problems.

We will update the message on our arrival in France, and then every evening. On the return journey we will update the message at each stop.

We will be using an APT coach from Rawreth, who are both local were the best price. We have 2 drivers to allow us to keep travelling through the night, excluding stops.

Luggage

Require one small day sack for activities and to take inside the coach.

Will also need a packed lunch (more like supper/midnight feast/Saturday lunch) for the journey.

One rucsac or sports bag for clothing, equipment and sleeping bag.

A list of suitable equipment will be added here soon, Click here.

Stout shoes for activities for climbing, hiking (but for information about stoats, click here)

Old plimsolls or deck shoes for canoeing

Old trainers or wellies or caving - to be thrown away after caving. May also need to throw away their underwear after caving - it might be muddy down there and it means we will not have filithy clothes for the rest of the week.

4. Sleeping Arrangements

4 people will sleep in a 5 person tent.

Explorers will have a tent to themselves.

Female Scouts will have a separate tent.

The remaining 24 male Scouts have been allocated to the following tents:

A list of tent allocations will be added here soon, Click here.

Security of Personal Equipment

Each tent will have Leader who will be attached to that tent, the Leader will be the first contact for the Scouts if they need help on cooking, tidying up etc!

Oldest Scout in each tent will act as Tent Leader.

Mobile phones: please don't bring them, they can be easily lost during activites or in the tents (have you ever seen a tidy Scout tent?)

There is a payphone on site which is cheaper than using mobiles, most Leaders will have mobiles in case of emergency.

Plates, knives, forks, are supplied. The tents have a 2 ring hob, electric fridge, small grill, electric lights and beds. We are asking for sleeping bags to make the tents easy to keep tidy and avoid Leaders and Scouts having to waste time dealing with dirty sheets at the end of the week when we are busy packing the coach to leave.

5. Food and Cooking

Richard then introduced John Byron, who will be the Food Quartermaster during the camp.

John listed 5 menus that the Scouts will be cooking.

They include:

Spaghetti Bolagnaise (Minced beef cooked in Tomato, Garlic and Onion Sauce)
Tagliatelle Mediteranean (Tuna with herbs and pasta)
Chicken Stir Fry (that is chicken, stir fried with vegetables and rice)
Piperade (Gammon Steak cooked with an omelette with herbs and vegetables)
Corn Beef Hash (Vegetables, Potatoes and Corned Beef)
These menus will be finalised when we arrive in France, they could change depending upon what produce can be bought in the local shops.

A full list of menus and recipes will be added here soon, Click here.

Breakfast

Continental breakfast eg. Croissants, French Bread, Jam, Flora, Pate, Cold meats, cheese.

They will also have to make their packed lunch at breakfast time, otherwise they will have nothing to eat until evening.

Snacks

There is a small shop on the camp site, where crisps and drinks can be bought.

6. Day Time Activities

Brief overview of the activities.

Richard explained that Neil Barnes, the District Explorer Scout Commissioner and Activities Guru had sent his apologies as he was unbale to attend this meeting. Neil will be supervising all the Day Time Activities whilst we are camping.

The 6 days of Day Time Activities are:

Canoe - on the wide Dordogne river, the Scouts will paddle down stream past some of the famous sites on the river. The will use Canadian Canoes (open and suitable for 2 or 3 people). We will stop for lunch at a suitable point on the river bank before being picked up by the coach.
Caving - we cannot use the cave system that we have used in the past as bats have moved in, they are a protected species so we have a new larger cave system to explore.
Walking - hike around the local area, stopping for packed lunch on the way.
Climbing - on one of the large natural rock faces, Scouts will have the opportunity to climb up a natural surface, then abseil down again.
Town visit + shopping + swimming. In the morning, the Scouts will help with the shopping for the Camp at a local supermarket and local shops. They will then have time to explore the local town in more detail, before returning to the camp site, where the site activities - swimming for example, will be open to them.
On Wednesday we will be spending a day visiting a local attraction. They will then stop at a supermarket as the plan their evening meal. Perhaps this year we will see napkins, candles and burnt chicken!

7. Evening Activities

John Hanson described some of the evening activities. We will decide what activities to do each night.

Quiz
Volleyball tournament
Incident Hike
Challenges
Cinema showing DVDs (if we have somewhere to site the projector

8. Money, Medicines, Passports, E111, Insurance

Clive Jeffree, a Leader from 1st Ramsden and Downham - will be running a Camp Bank. On the Coach, we will collect spending money up to 50 Euros per Scout. The Scouts can then gain access to their money once each day. This means that they should not have large quantities of money in their tents, or pockets. All money that they keep in the bank is guaranteed safe. We cannot make the same claim for Scouts who do not use the bank.

All Scouts, Explorers and Leaders will need a new E111 form. This form gives us access to free health care whilst in France. To obtain one of these forms, go to your nearest Post Office, fill the form in and take it back to the Post Office for stamping. We will collect these stamped forms on the coach, then give them back at the end of the camp.

In the week before the camp, Scout Leaders will issue two permission forms. One is the Permission to Camp Form. This is were you will be able to list any medicines that your Scout/Explorer is taking with them. Scout Leaders are unable to prescribe any medication. If your Scout suffers from occasional headaches, for example, you must supply us with the tablets/medication that you wish your son/daughter to take and in what circumstances. We can only follow your instructions.

Medicines can be handed to a Leader on the coach, we will then ensure that medicines are given at the appropriate time during the camp.

How the Scout Association's Insurance Scheme Works This information will be added later.

Safety Briefing A. Caving

Safety Briefing B. Canoeing

The collection for the Village Hall Charity - the Leukaemia Research Fund, raised just under £24. Thank you for all your loose change.

1st Ramsden and Downham Scout Group

for up to date information about the camp.

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