Chief Scout Award - 10 Month Review

I've been working on my CSA for about 10 months or so. At this point I thought I'd do a review of where I am and where I hope to go with it.

Community (including additional weeks)

For the last 9 months I’ve been working as a Scout Leader with the 23^rd Limerick. I set myself the target of promoting the ONE Programme within the Group, with particular focus on the Adventure skills and the Chief Scout Award. I think I’ve had reasonably success with this

•  Adventure Skills Training weekend for Scouters organised in March
• Assessments carried out for Senior Cubs, Scouts, Ventures and Rovers
• Individual Scouts given targets to reach higher levels and some venture scouts have started assess younger members of the group
•  Resources developed to help Beaver and Cub Scouts to support the Personal  Journeys in their Programmes
• 3 Beavers, 6 Cubs, 3 Scouts and 2 Ventures registered for and working towards the CSA with more expected in the next six months.

At this point I am almost completed with the 52 weeks. I have decided to use Scouting for the additional weeks. However in September I expect to have move to Dublin so I will have to discuss my goals with my mentor and new Group Leader.

Skills

I have chosen photography for my skill. I have decided on the following challenge:

•  Join the Dublin Camera Club and take part in the Beginners and Intermediate courses
• After the courses, I will attend the Tuesday night meetings and work with other members to improve my skills
• Prepare a portfolio of my photography work and organise an Exhibition of my photographs (on a theme selected with my mentor)

Most of this will be completed in the next few months.

Physical

I have chosen rock climbing for my phyiscal activity. I chose this for a number of reasons. A) to get fit, B) to improve my skills and c) to get over my fear of heights. I've a few sessions done with the UL Outdoor Pursuits Club but when I move to Dublin I hope to continue with the Gravity Climbing Centre. I have decided on the following challenge:

• Join the Gravity Climbing Centre and spend 1 hour a week climbing
•  Take part in at least 4 outdoor climbing sessions
• Learn how to lead
• Be in a position to start working towards my Single Pitch Award

Expedition

I’ve been looking at potential areas for my Expedition with Snowdonia being amongst the favourites. The route would take me from Conwy to Porthmadog (including climbing Mt Snowdon). Things needed to be done

• Recruit team
• Plan Route
• Pick dates

 Public Transport will be used to get to and from the expedition and a full training plan will be devised for the team.

Residential

I have signed up for the Cork Scouts of the World Award team – more to come.

Adventure Skills – Camping to Stage 8

So far I have reached Stage 6 (Internal Group Assesment) and I am working my way through the requirements for Stages 7 and 8 

Adventure Skills – Hillwalking to Stage 7

I am waiting assessment on Stage 6 and have begun working towards Stage 7 having already completed the 1300m objective. I need a bit more experience in mirco navigation and I have about 10 or so hikes to log

Adventure Skills – Emergencies to Stage 7

I picked this because I would be starting from scratch. I have recently attended a CPR Courses (with a certied course due to follow next week) and I am currently trying to arrange a REC3 course for Scouters in Limerick in September. Hope to get assessed by the expert in April.

Portfolio Work

So far I have written the Introduction section and began a page for each requirement explaining my challenge and motivation.

Conclusion

There is significantly more work involved in this than I imagine but I am progressing along at a good pace and hope to finish on target for September 2013. 

Going for gold!

One of the reasons for restarting the blog will be an attempt to record my attempt to get the Chief Scout Award for Rover Scouts and the Gold Gaisce Award (Due to an agreement between Scouting Ireland and Gaisce, work done for the Chief Scout Award can be counted for Gaisce). These are two awards I've wanted to attempt for a while and i'm finally going to get my act together and get it sorted.

So what am I going to do? Here's a run down of my activities for the CSA

Personal Skill: Many of you who know me will know my love for photography but I'm by no means an expert. My aim is to take lessons in advance photography and improve my skill over time.

Community Involvement: Well as I'm already a leader in my scout group so this is a no brainer really. However to make it challenging, I'm going to agree a project with my group leader to improve the group.

Physical Recreation: I'm not the most sporting type but I do love mountaineering and orienteering so I'm hoping to build up my fitness in this area by going for weekly walks/runs/hikes with the aim of being able to a) complete my expedition and b) compete in a provincial orienteering competition.

Environment: to be decided. Possibly organizing something to do with Leave No Trace or Recycling for Jamboree 2013

Adventure Skills: My aim is to reach level 8 in Hillwalking and level 7 in Camping and Backwoods in the Adventure Skills.

Expedition: for my expedition, I hope to take on an ambitious challenge of spending 4 days in the Scottish Highlands trying to "bag" as many Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000ft) as possible.

Residential: this has also to be decided but i'm hoping I'll have an idea for a project after i come back from Saudi Arabia.

I'll be posting more about each individual area as time goes on. My aim is to record my progress through this blog (alongside the required portfolio) through writting, photography, videos etc.