Next Month: Time for Adventure

Whoops, we've been a little quiet on the blog for a while! Our members have been busy at school and college studying for exams, working part-time, and fundraising like crazy to pay for their Jamboree fees and equipment. We're incredibly proud of them and they've all done a fantastic job so far coping with the demands of the Jamboree on top of their already busy lives. 

The time has flown by. We started the adventure with the Jamboree Roadshows in September 2013 and, in what feels like no time at all, we've become an awesome team, completed all our training camps and received all our UK Contingent kit. It is with some serious excitement that we can now say we are going to Japan NEXT MONTH! 

We're hoping to have facilities to update the blog while we're at the Jamboree so, technology-in-a-field permitting, stay tuned. We can't wait to share the adventure with you.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way; we couldn't have got this far without you.

Jambo Countdown: 500 Days to Go

エキサイティング
('Ekisaitingu' - exciting!)

There are 500 days to go until the 23rd World Scout Jamboree opens in Yamaguchi City on 28th July 2015! In 500 days' time, Unit 42 will already be out in Japan and will have spent a few days either exploring Tokyo or living with Japanese families.

To celebrate, I've found you lucky things some 500-themed facts about Japan.

Around 500 AD, Japan was rapidly becoming one of the most civilised countries in the world. They borrowed script, artistic and architectural styles from China, and Buddhism was starting to take off. Around this time, Japan was seeing agriculture overtake the hunter-gatherer method of finding food.

The 500 Series is a Shinkansen high-speed train operated by the West Japan Railway Company. They are capable of travelling up to 200 mph. The Japanese often employ people to push passengers on to trains: the average delay to rail services in Japan is 18 seconds.

National Route 500 is a highway connecting Beppu, Oita and Tosu, Saga. Its total length is just under 100 miles.

The #JamFam is complete!

Andy is the 40th and final member of the #JamFam to confirm his place

Unit 42 are MEGA EXCITED to announce that our #JamFam is finally complete! Andy will be joining the team as our brand new Assistant Unit Leader ready for our first Unit training weekend in April.

Andy is 23 and is a cast member of WAGS Gang Show. We're expecting amazing things from him for our Unit's dance to the Jamboree song!

We're so pleased to have Andy on board and we know he can't wait to get stuck in either. It's going to be an incredible adventure.

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

Unit 42 is saying sayounara to our Coventry patrol, who are off to join Unit 72

During February, the UK Contingent received some Super Exciting News: the whole of the UK had been given extra places to take even more deserving young people to the 23rd World Scout Jamboree. Yay! From the extra places, both Warwickshire and Coventry Scout Counties were awarded a whole shiny new patrol each. Double yay!

The new patrols mean that Unit 42 is changing a bit. We're now no longer the 'Warwickshire & Coventry Unit' but rather a whole Warwickshire Unit made up of four patrols and four Leaders entirely from Warwickshire Scouts. Unit 42's current patrol of Coventry Scouts will be joining the new patrol from Coventry, and other patrols made up of Scouts from Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Jersey, in the newly formed Unit 72.

We're going to miss our Coventry #JamFam and we wish them the best of luck in their new Unit.

Mike, Steph and Shaun are SO EXCITED to be welcoming our new patrol of Warwickshire Scouts to Unit 42 later on this week. It's a crazy family and we hope they'll love being a part of it just as much as we do.

We'll see you there!

Unit Training Day

Saturday 15th February 2014; 7th Rugby Scout Headquarters; 31* of the best Scouts and Explorers in Warwickshire & Coventry; four excited Unit Leaders; one amazing Unit in training.

We started the day with some obligatory speed dating

Speed dating for 31 takes a while, so the leaders made some mischief

Air horns are fun

Yesterday we had our Unit together for a whole day, and it was brilliant. We started off with the obligatory round of speed dating and it turns out that using a really loud air horn is a Super Fun Way to mark the time to change over and also to make half the Unit jump several feet into the air every two minutes.

We tried to get the "serious stuff" done early on, so the Unit split off into groups to write their Code of Conduct to apply to all the training events and for the Jamboree itself. I had a minor disagreement with Jordan when he insisted that "No swearing (unless necessary)" ought to be a rule and he did not back down when I tried to argue that it's never necessary! My three favourite rules that made it into our official Unit Code of Conduct, in no particular order, are:

• Don't do anything your mother wouldn't want you to do
• No domestics
• No finding loopholes in the Code of Conduct

Banter points to the Unit for that. Bravo.

After lunch, everything descended into creative 'organised chaos' as they split into groups to write sketches using randomly assigned themes, characters and key words. The pictures below say it all, and I don't think any additional words can do them justice. Wigs are fun, some members of the Unit are incredibly creative, and some of them are downright odd.

The day ended with a question and answer session to settle any concerns the guys had had since the last time we met. We introduced the Speaking Dave (our minion mascot who each member had to hold to indicate that it was their turn to speak) and the Stupid Question Hat (because if you're going to ask a stupid question you deserve to have to wear a silly hat).

Team Jamboree had a brilliant day with the Unit and we can't wait to all get together again soon!

We like crazy photos of Mike

Even writing up the Code of Conduct was amusing with this Unit

Ethan makes a delightful Snow White and Mike is a terrifying 'dentist'

This group took a ride to Japan on a rocket

This brilliant story time sketch saw Hurricane John take over the Eiffel Tower

The Leaders couldn't resist the fancy dress bags

Unit 42 are 'Incredible'!

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* We do still have a Unit of 36 but some of them were off skiing on a school trip. Needless to say, Team Jamboree were very, very jealous and hope they had a fantastic time.

Fundraising: Tesco, Stratford

Mike bought me sushi for lunch. It was fishy. I didn't like it.

What kind of Scout Unit would we be if we didn't do a few sessions of good old supermarket bag packing? Today, we held our first session for the Unit. It was fantastic to speak to so many people in store about their past experiences with Scouting, and to share a bit of our adventure with them. The Unit members who came did a fabulous job, and loads of shoppers approached the leaders by the door on the way out to tell us how smart everyone looked and what a good job they did packing their shopping. Guys, you are fantastic, and we love you. Well done!

Jamboree love goes out to Ron and all the staff at Tesco in Stratford for letting us invade their store for the day. We had a brilliant time!

We are proud to present... Unit 42!

This evening, the Unit were together for the first time for an information evening with their parents. Check out how fantastic they are!

We love you already; it's going to be a fantastic year-and-a-half.

BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire

Listen here!

Steph, Katie, Skye and Dom in the studio

Skye, Katie and Dom have done a fantastic job shouting about Scouting on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire this afternoon. On air with Vic, they told everyone listening in Coventry and Warwickshire about the Jamboree and the adventure they are embarking on between now and July 2015.

Huge amounts of respect to the guys for being so calm and collected, and for putting such a great image of local Scouting out there for everyone to hear. Special credit goes to Skye for her notebook full of every possible question we could be asked and her eloquent, 'on-brand' answers!

Lots of Jamboree love and hugs to Luke, Warwickshire's media chief, for giving up his Sunday afternoon to give us all a run-through, and to Nigel, our regional media support, for getting us the on-air slot. Even bigger thanks to the guys and their parents for getting to the studio on time while I was getting lost on Coventry Ring Road and running full-pelt through the city centre in my uniform to get there in time to be on the air.

Cotswold Outdoor Weekend

Taking over the shop floor at Cotswold Outdoor

We spent this weekend with Cotswold Outdoor in Coventry, who are one of Scouting's corporate fundraising partners. They kindly let us take over their store to run a Christmas stall for the Unit funds and to do some Unit bonding.

The Unit came in waves across the weekend to spend some time together for the first time since they found out they made it into the Unit. We took some paracord and the guys did a brilliant job of making bracelets and keyrings to sell alongside the cakes that some seriously talented parents made specially for the weekend.

It took serious self-control to not eat these ourselves

Big Jamboree love to Cotswold Outdoor and Leekes for housing us for the weekend, and to all the parents for supporting us. It was great to see the guys from the Unit and we can't wait until we get you all together properly again!

Welcome to Unit 42

Welcome to the world, Unit 42!

Massive congratulations, excitement and general Jamboree loveliness to Aiko, Aisling, Ben, Celestine, Charlie, Dan, Dillan, Dom, Dylan, Ellie, Ethan, Geena, Grace, Hannah, Harriet, Helen, Holly, Iona, Jaiker, James, John, Jordan, Katie, Lily, Lois, Matt, Matt, Mattie, Matty (whose silly idea was that?), Mike, Niamh, Ollie, Becca, Skye, Tristan and Zoe.

We'll be calling you all Dave until we've learned all your names.

Selection Weekend

In the cold but beautiful weather at the end of November we had our selection event to choose the participants for our Unit.

116 Scouts & Explorer Scouts from all over Coventry and Warwickshire came to Rough Close campsite over two days to take part in a series of challenges from which we hoped to be able to choose our perfect Unit. We didn't make it easy for them.We had them building pioneering projects and crawling through mud; we had them trying to communicate with people they'd only just met through the walls of a tent, and we put them on the spot to amuse us with long histories of random objects they picked out of a bag.

The patrols for the day got to know each other very quickly with our icebreakers

Every single Scout who came to the selection day was fantastic - it got to the point that I was considering refusing to choose only 36 and just trying to sneak an extra 80 people onto the plane in July 2015. How hard can it be?

Everyone really got into the spirit of the weekend and embraced Japanese culture to the extreme

We saw 116 amazing young people that weekend. Coventry & Warwickshire Scout Counties hold an incredible amount of potential and if we'd had more places we would have happily agreed to take everyone to Japan. 

Eventually, at half past ten on Sunday night and with the help of Dave and the rest of our selection staff (whom we love very, very much), Unit 42 was born. 116 had been painstakingly narrowed down to 36 who were then sorted and organised and stacked every which way we could think of to make sure that we had a perfect, balanced Unit. 

We'll be meeting as a Unit for the first time in January but, for the lucky 40 of us, the adventure starts now. 

To everyone who made it into the Unit: we can't wait to get this started with you.

To everyone who applied, but wasn't successful: don't give up. It was great to meet you and you made our decisions that weekend very difficult. There are so many other fantastic adventures to be had in the future. 

To our selection staff: thank you so, so much for giving up your weekend. We couldn't have done it without you. We owe you!

And finally, to Ben: the next time event shelters need putting up first thing in the morning, you're doing them all by yourself.

What path will you take?

Will your path take you to #japan2015? There are only ten days to go until you find out!

Our first Unit Leader Training weekend!

Networking lunch with other ULs and the CST

The UL team before our first briefing session

This weekend Mike, Ben, Shaun & I had our first Unit Leader (UL) training weekend at Warwick University. We had everything from Q&A sessions with the Contingent Management Team (CMT) and Contingent Support Team (CST) to workshop sessions about programme ideas for Sections in the run-up to the Jamboree.

The four of us met for a breakfast meeting on the campus to talk a little more about selection weekend and other bits and bobs. Then we headed over to the conference centre for lunch. We had a chat to some of the CST and some other ULs - it's really interesting to hear how other Units are running their selection processes and to compare progress. After lunch we had an introductory session where we heard about the progress the UK Contingent have made so far, and we met the Management Team. We heard some inspirational stories about how previous Jamborees had changed the lives of the young people who went to Thailand and Sweden (no pressure, Team!), and we also caught up on some admin stuff.

We had a much-needed coffee break after all this: the enormity of the work we have to do over the next twenty months was starting to sink in! The atmosphere was buzzing.

Each of us then split off to go to different workshop sessions. They covered everything from communications to a crash-course in Japanese culture, and health & the climate. We definitely won't be short of things to do at the training weekends and there is an awful lot for our Unit to take in.

We had some really useful Q&A sessions with the CMT and CST. Look out for the introduction of the 'stupid question paddle' at meetings and training from now on - it was a personal favourite of mine.

There was a formal dinner in uniform in the evening. Special thanks to the CST members who spent their whole training weekend making origami peace cranes for the tables. We were also given some EXCITING PRESENTS:

Who wants one?!

Chatting to other Unit Leaders and CST was fantastic and we picked up some great tips and news. It was so much fun that we didn't get to bed until nearly 5am (shout out to Lincolnshire and CST member Jon).

'Strictly Come Camping'

On Sunday we had the anticipated Unit kit demonstrated to us by a semi-naked Byron Chatburn (the UK Contingent Leader, no less), a giraffe (Pikachu wasn't available apparently), a sumo wrestler and the hi-viz highlander. Kit does include a sweaty neck towel (seriously, it's going to be THAT HOT) but we're not sure about the Union Jack undies.

We've been given an awful lot of information this weekend and the CMT & CST did a cracking job of putting it all together for us. Thankfully, it's all been put together in my most favouritest present of all: the Unit handbook.

The Unit handbook!

It's going to be my bedtime reading for the next two weeks so that, by selection weekend, I'll be a fountain of knowledge on everything we know so far about the Jamboree.

5814 Miles

Check out the Jamboree site as it looks on Google Streetview! It'll look a bit different when we get there...

Also, when you look on Google Maps, Japan looks faaar. Like, really far. I never thought to look up how far away it was when I applied. For reference, Yamaguchi City is 5,814 miles away from Coventry.

I think I'll be taking a book for the plane.

Super Easy Fundraising

It's super easy to contribute to the Unit Jamboree fund without spending a penny more than you normally would. All you have to do is start at our EasyFundraising page when you shop online. Your shopping won't cost a penny more and the Unit will get a donation for every transaction you make!

Every penny really does count so please remember us when you shop, especially when you do your Christmas shopping.

Click here to head to our EasyFundraising page to start earning for Unit 42 now!

Thank you, you lovely, lovely people.

Fundraising has to Start Somewhere

After selection, make sure you tell everyone you know that you're going to Japan. My grandma's friend has given me a donation towards my Jamboree fees! Every little helps! But I won't be splitting this donation 40 ways with the rest of the Unit, if you don't mind... :-)

23rd World Scout Jamboree Song

In case you need another excuse to get excited about the Jamboree, here's a recording of the Jamboree song. We want you word-perfect by 2015! I particularly enjoy the way they've managed to squash the word 'Jamboree' into two syllables. I'll be singing this for the rest of the week now. #Whoooooaaaaaaoooh...#

Planning for Selection

We're about half way through planning the selection weekend for participants. We have a whiteboard full of ideas, bits of paper full of to-do lists, a spreadsheet full of names and a table full of biscuits. 

In just over a month's time, this weekend will be a reality and by the Sunday night we'll be ready to choose the 36 young people we'll be sharing the next 18 months of adventure with.

Right now, though, Team Jamboree are busy experiencing sugar crashes and overdosing on caffeine to get everything sorted for our applicants. Also I went to the shop and bought cheestrings. And ate them all.

#Dave

Time's Up!

It's 18:00 on 13th October 2013. We've upset Mike's postman quite enough over the last month and the deadline for applications has officially passed. Everyone in Team Jamboree is very excited about the level of interest we've had. Over the next couple of weeks we will be getting together to go through all the applications and to plan the logistics of the selection days. We'll be needing a LOT of coffee but it's great to get started; the Jamboree experience feels very real for us now that we know that thirty-six of the people behind the applications currently sitting in Mike's house will make up our Unit for the next year-and-a-half. And we will, of course, be the best Unit in the UK Contingent: standard.

July 2015 seems far too close already and time is going to fly by - we'll be boarding that plane before we know it! Watch this space.

The Adventure Begins

Team Jamboree had a seriously busy couple of weeks in September putting the information roadshow together and touring it around both Counties. We had a good turnout at each of the roadshows and now the real work starts as the applications have started to come pouring in.

Once all the applications are in, the four of us will be spending a weekend together fine-tuning the selection days. I cannot wait to meet everyone who has applied and begin the scary but exciting task of building the Unit that will be together for the next 18 months.