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During my lunch hour today I had the pleasure of visiting the Benjamin Perry Boathouse. This excellent and continually developing feature is just one of a number of excellent resources that we have to support adventurous activities across the County. The Boathouse was recently successful in a bid to the Association’s Development Grants Board to fund new boats to expand the provision even further. The centre benefits from a prime location on Phoenix Wharf, below Redcliffe Parade on Bristol’s Harbourside. The building is set over two floors with the lower used for boat maintenance and storage and the upper as an Activity and Training facility. The large first floor room has beautiful views over the waterfront and there is a kitchen, small adjoining room, toilets and showers. I commend it to you and suggest that you consider building water based activities into your programme. You can find out more on the website. I also took the opportunity during my visit to meet with former Avon County Commissioner, Roger Starr who is now doing a brilliant job as chairman of the Boat Club which runs this facility. Roger and I have known each other for many years, first working together on the Programme Review and implementation of its resulting changes in the late 90s. I am greatly impressed by the team he has built at the boathouse – a band of brothers with many years of Scouting experience between them. They do an extraordinary job of refurbishing and maintaining the boats and promoting and the centre, for which we are greatly appreciative. And, I know they have a lot of fun too! I really enjoyed both the welcome and the brief tour during my visit today. I encourage you all to make use of the facility and to find out more about the various adventurous activities such as these which you might include within your programme. We know an exciting programme means more young people stay and join. This is what excites them about Scouting and this sort of activity can impact positively on their development in many ways. Have you been to the Boathouse? What did you think? |
| Created on Thursday, 25 August 2011 13:15 |
Dan's Blog Benjamin Perry Boathouse
Comments
since you ask for comments...
Have you looked at the activities section on the Avon County website?
if you link to canoing you will see 2009 courses listed and very little else.
I have a leader who wants training but have not received a reply to my emails.
The Benjamin Perry boat house is a great facility but the website needs to be updated.
I suspect a lot of training is arranged by convention and personal contact but that makes it vry difficult for new leaders- or even older ones like me!
Paul
There are three things I can say at this stage that might give you some confidence in the improvements to come soon.
1) Steve Smith (DCC Operations) has County support for "activities" provision high on his list of priorities which will mean improvements in this area. This will obviously not happen over night. However, there will be
2) Jools Granville (DCC Marcomms) has reviewing our internal communications (including online) as a priority. Additionally, Paul Brummitt is making gradual changes to update content. With new and expert volunteers on the case, I am confident of real improvement this year. Longer-run we will take a more comprehensive and joined-up approach to this area which will make life much easier for leaders.
3) I suggest that the leader wanting info on training for the time being contacts Steve Smith/his team directly as he will be proactive in addressing this particular enquiry in the interim: steve.smith@avonscout s.org.uk
In the meantime - I have passed on your comments to the DCCs and will keep you posted of progress.
Thanks again for your comment which is very helpful. We are committed to making these improvements.
A very quick introductory note from me as the brand new DCC for Marketing and Communications. I agree wholeheartedly with your comment - the out of date info is not,unfortunate ly, limited to the section you refer to - as I have found in the past couple of weeks whilst searching for info, and it's going to be a matter of priority to my team to get the website back under control. As Dan says,Paul our fantastic webmaster is already making some technical changes (he volunteers a huge amount of time and is a real asset to the county ) and in the coming months you will see a more relevant county website emerge.
Of course, the info on our site is only going to stay relevant and be kept up to date if the folk who provide it ensure it is, so we all will have a part to play. Your feedback therefore, is entirely welcome. Watch this space -I hope you'll like the changes that are on the way!!
As one of the Joint chairs of the aforementioned Avon scout and guide canoe club (asagcc). It is regretable that you have slipped through the net. As some kind of insight into the operation we (the club) are currently operating with a bare number of people (currenly we are running evening sessions and courses with approx 8 instructors!) From this small and very dedicated group of people we have managed to put through approx 500 hundred YP on the water this season). As you correctly surmise there is an adults course being filled at the moment. Which has been forwarded to county to distribute , but as I am not involved with the bookings for this course I do not know how many booking have been generated from the scouts as of yet. If you would like to receive futher information on this course please dont hesitate to get in contact with myself.