News Article - Asia Pacific Region Conference and Youth Forum

One of scouting’s greatest attributes is its ability to allow people to share their experiences and enthusiasm as equals, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity or faith. We are united by our common scouting values, allowing us to work together to ‘create a better world’. The recent Asia Pacific Scout events in Japan were a great example of these values in action, as people from across the Asia Pacific (and other international friends) worked together at the Youth Forum, the Course for Leader Trainers, and the Regional Conference.

These events were hosted and run by the Japan Scout Association, with Australians acting as staff at all three events. There were six Australian Rovers at the Youth Forum, and all six (plus another one) also attended the Regional Conference which followed. While the Conference was interesting, our real passion was for the Forum, where we shared our experiences, ideas and hopes for scouting’s future. Over 130 scouting youth attended the Forum, representing 25 countries in the Asia Pacific Region (plus Afghanistan and Saudi Arabian observers).

The events were aptly themed ‘Advancing Towards a New Scouting Century’, highly appropriate given the current Scouting Centenary celebrations. At the Forum we had many small break-out groups to discuss 31 separate themes, including:
• What is Scouting?
• Scouting’s Social Responsibilities,
• the Environment
• Youth Participation in Decision Making
• Information Communication Technology

The Forum created many new friendships, with people connecting where they traditionally may not, purely through our common scouting values. A number of very positive recommendations were put forward and endorsed by the participants, including requests for gender balance at all levels of scouting, youth involvement in decision making, environmentally ‘best practice’ scouting, and some great suggestions for programs in each National Scout Organisation.

Congratulations should go to Julie Creed (National Program Commissioner) and Aaron Wardle (APR Young Adult Group Member) for helping organise the conference program, to Patrick (NRC Chairman) for acting as the General Raconteur at the Youth Forum, to Nikketah (NYC Chair) for being elected to the APR’s YAMG for 2007-09, and to the other Australian participants (James Cuneo – QLD, Jason Govan – VIC & Jade Elliot – NSW) for the excellent work they did at the Forum.

The experience of attending an event like this will stick with you forever, possibly changing how you see the world. The World Scout Youth Forum will be held in Korea in 2008, while the next APR Forum will be in Malaysia in 2009. Through scouting we have awesome opportunities like these to participate, and we highly recommend that you consider applying for a Youth Forum in future. If you would like more info on the Youth Forum and Scout Conference, check out our full report on the Rovers Australia website.

The Australian Rovers at the Asia Pacific Youth Forum 2007 – Tokyo, Japan.

 

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