Celebrations may boost growth and development

Sometimes you can measure the success of a local scout group with its history and the impact that its was able to deliver to community through decades.

Three weeks ago one of the five Skopje’s local group (the MM Brico) celebrated 50 years of scouting.

More then 200 people attended the celebration: local authorities, TV and press, parents and scouts, friends etc.
It was a huge success!

Why are such celebrations important?

• Strengthening the local level: It is at local level that the most important action takes place; there, each young person is provided with a learning environment (activities, procedures, traditions, structures, atmosphere) that enhances his/her full development.
• Opportunity to get involved: The celebrations are a fantastic opportunity to get involved in exciting programmes and show their society what Scouting is all about. They intend to make the most of this unique year so that with the help of the NSO they can develop better Scouting for more young people in more communities around the city and the country.
• Showing the value of volunteering: Voluntary activities play such a unique role in society that they have sometimes been described as the glue that holds all spheres of society together. They can articulate unmet needs in the community and the organisation of services to meet them. Volunteering fosters community integration and cohesion by encouraging friends, colleagues and neighbors to work together through the sharing of a common concern.
• Underline that quality in scouting: Quality in Scouting applies to everything we do. This will require earnestly to put our members at the heart of what we do therefore understanding what is important to our member is vital: we must listen to them and act on their feedback to improve the “customer experience”.
• Helping to measure the success of the local group: If measurement were a stool, it would have three legs: monitoring (the regular observation and recording of activities), evaluation (independent objective examination of the observations made during monitoring in order to facilitate better decision making) and impact assessment (the long-term evaluation of results). On a timeline, these three ‘legs’ could be seen to represent the short term, the medium term and the long term. All three legs are capital and are a “must”.
• To celebrate additional 50 years (this means a centenary) we need growth! Celebrating the successes of a local group could be considered the programmatic start for the local group successes in the future.

By the way:  The Brico group’s Facebook page is: www.facebook.com/brico.scouting

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