Open Weekend

Put simply, an Open Weekend is an opportunity for as many Scouts and Leaders to come together for a summer weekend and camp whist doing various Scouting and sporting challenges.

The event would be run at Bailwood by a central team and supported by Explorer Scouts from the District who would be allowed a free camp in return for their on site support. 

Timings 

The event would run from Friday 5.00 pm onwards for camp set up (with an option for groups to come up on the Thursday evening to set up camp) and the event would finish after prizes being awarded at 1.00 pm on Sunday. 

Cost 

£1.50 per member per night, plus a small team supplement of £10 per group to help towards central equipment costs. 

What are the likely challenges  

Scouting 

• Tent pitching 
• pioneering 
• fire lighting 
• compass challenge 
• knots.

Sporting 

• 5-A-side football 
• cross country 
• horse shoes 
• tug of war 
• archery.

In addition, there will also be an independently judged challenge and trophy for the best camp gateway.  

How does it work 

Friday night will be bedding in with a Leaders Meeting with one person from each group to attend to iron out any last-minute changes.

Saturday will see the teams competing in all events starting from 9.00am with the finale around 5.00 pm to be the cross country. Teams of six people will be put forward by each group for each event with an age range of 10-14 in each team.  If a group has less than 6 Scouts it will be no problem as we will look at other groups to support the small ones with additional bodies. 

The central team will be responsible for rostering all events.   

Explorers would support the central team getting teams to sessions and making the camp fire for the Saturday evening. 

Th gateways will be built by the Scouts (no help from Leaders or Explorers) during Saturday and judged after dinner. 

Sunday will see the Tug of War (All scouts will be weighed and a total per team will be advised) as the final event before groups will be allowed to strike camp prior to prize giving at 12.00 noon. 

So, what do the Leaders have to do? 

The primary purpose of the Leaders at the event will be to cook and wash up for your group and to ensure teams are where they should be at all times.  The Scouts will be busy on events so leader support is vital. 

However, an event like this cannot run without leaders from across the groups supporting the challenges themselves.  We would therefore need volunteers to run each of the Scouting and sporting events. The central team would run cross country, tug of war and archery so we have a need for a minimum of seven Leader volunteers to make the event work. 

Interested parties for running challenges and an indication of intention for your group to attend the event should be forwarded to Ian Stocks at ian.stocks@talk21.com or 07481 763851 by 17th June 2023.