Happy new year!

This year the Christmas cards from Sweden give the right picture of the landscape, the temperature has been below zero for a few weeks and the snow is deep and shimmering white. A view that is very far away from the green open summer fields of Rinkaby, but totally right for a joyful and relaxing Christmas holiday.

The jamboree is coming closer, one and a half year to go, and it’s getting more and more fun!
2009 has been a busy year and the jamboree planning team has grown a lot and do now reach over 400 members. In an organization that big you can’t and shall not know about everything, so now and then I hear about fantastic ideas and plans I had no clue about, all guided by our idea of Simply scouting – this gives me energy and confidence.
But it’s not only the planning team how works with the jamboree today. All over the world scouts and leaders have started their journey and the first step is to decide to go to the jamboree. In the beginning of the new year we will open the registration and I’m very excited to see how many scouts that will come from your country.

I wish you all a happy new year and good luck with all your scout activities and preparations for the jamboree!

All the best,
Marie

African Regional Scout conference

The last day of the conference in Ghana – my first conference in Africa and a very well organized meeting. Even at this conference we were a big team from Sweden and the reason for this is not only promotion, the most important part is to meet and learn about the countries and cultures in the region. During the days here we have had the time to talk to almost all the countries represented and we also had a HoC gathering.

And finally, even in Ghana we gathered representatives from the youth forum to listen to their expectations and discuss their way of communicating. We thank you all who contributed, your feedback is very important for us!
Right now we are waiting for the closing ceremony and tomorrow it’s time to go home again. But this time we will have some time before the next conference – Arab region in January.

Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Conference

It’s time to sum up the days at the conference and the conclusion is that we are very happy and satisfied! It has been a week full of meetings, around 50 countries were represented, half of them from Asia Pacific. Our participation in the regional conferences mainly aims to promote the jamboree, but actually equal important is to meet the different cultures and talk to all the countries. We have learned a lot this week and we are already looking forward to next conference. Africa – here we come!

One of the top activities this week was a gathering with some 25 youths that attended the Youth forum just before the conference. Enthusiastic and curious they shared their expectations about the jamboree and they also helped us to understand how young people in this region communicate today.

We also took the opportunity to meet the heads of contingents or contact persons for the jamboree represented at the conference. A summary of the information given at the HoC Visit in August was presented and we got the chance to get feedback and build a dialog.
And during the week our Facebook fanclub has got close to 1000 new fans – are you one of them?!

Jamboree Council meeting

Tired, but full of energy, we are now on the train back from a very good planning meeting. It was the fifth meeting with the jamboree council and this meeting focusing on the participant experience. This is a perspective we always have to have in mind, but until now these meetings have focused on the overall idea, organizational structure, planning and follow up tools and clarifying boundaries and interfaces. So it was good to head light this perspective during the weekend.
I was excited before the weekend and now after I am very satisfied. It was a very positive climate and by being at the same place and having time to spontaneous meetings and discussions we together sort out a lot of questions and issues.

Thank you everyone for a good weekend!

JET meeting

Even September can offer warm sunny days in Sweden. Last weekend the executive team met and the sun joined us the whole meeting.

Half of the team - Nina, myself, Olle and Lasse

Financial support from the Swedish government

I'm happy to tell you that the 22nd World Scout Jamboree will get financial support from the Swedish government. It was announced in the state budget this morning.

The Minister for Integration and Gender Equality, Nyamko Sabuni, says that she is happy to be able to support an event that gathers tens of thousands young people from all around the world, engaged in social work and preventing racism.

We will get 15 million SEK during 2010 and with the money we now have financial support from the local government of Kristianstad, the regional government of Skåne as well as the national government in Sweden.

The press release from the Ministry could be found here (but is only available in Swedish):
http://regeringen.se/sb/d/11289/a/131945

First meeting with the Advisory Board

The whole world gathered in Kristianstad two years before the jamboree! To advise the jamboree executive team and the departments – that’s the role of the Advisory Board and the group consists of experienced people from all over the world. The group will meet with us three times before the jamboree and this time we met in Copenhagen and went by train up to Kristianstad which is one of the ways to travel to the jamboree in 2011. During two days we introduced the members to our ideas, concepts, organization and management principles. We got a lot of feedback and the group definitely gave us advice and helped us to identify areas we have to continue to work with. This first time the Communications department and Site Services department got the opportunity to present some of their concepts and get feedback from the group. And of course this included a visit to the camp site and an explanation about the design of the site. At this time there actually were some activity at the field because three different activities will take place this weekend in the area, BP Fellow event, Heads of contingent visit and Scoutforum whish is a inspiration gathering for the Swedish scouts. So we got the great possibility to look at the new toilets that will also be used during the jamboree and Alexander Wong from Hong Kong took the opportunity to test it or maybe just he rested his legs.

The Swedish Roadshow

The summer months in Sweden can be very warm, but they can also offer some rain. I've been around at four different scout camps this summer and I was lucky, the sun was shining every day.

The Swedish Roadshow has started this summer and we have been visiting about 15 different camps to tell scouts and leaders about the jamboree. It has been fantastic and the responses from you have been assume. I'm happy for all your questions and enthusiasm and I hope you will take the information back home to your local group and start your journey.

Princess Benedikte from Denmark is now invited to visit the jamboree in 2011

The princess visited the camp yesterday and spent a few hours looking at the sub camps, gave an interview in the camp radio, got information about projects in the association and visited the worlds scout jamboree exhibition. And of course I took the opportunity to invite her to Rinkaby and the jamboree in 2011!

Report from a sunny Blå Sommer

The sun is shining and happy scouts from 42 different countries are enjoying a very well organized camp in south of Jylland in Denmark. The jamboree team has had many observers at the camp and today I spend my second day here. Yesterday I followed the camp chiefs and today I have visited a subcamp and learned about their organization and way of working.

A real summer wedding

Three weeks ago I experineced the best day in my life so far, I got married with my Erik. It was a warm sunny day and everything was just perfect. We had our families and a lot of friends with us, helping making the day absolutely amazing. I add a picture if you are curious.

I chose to take Eriks lastname Reinicke.

Nordic Scout Conference in Kristianstad

About 90 people from all Nordic countries were gathered in Kristianstad this weekend, a meeting that is held every third year. The agenda included many different sessions, discussions and presentations, and the jamboree was the theme for Saturday afternoon. A few Nordic scouts are already involved in the Planning Team for the jamboree and during this session the meeting participants got more information both about the jamboree in general and about how to get involved in the planning in different ways. One way is of course to join the planning team, but scout groups from the Nordic Countries will also play an important role in hosting Camp in camps in the south part of Sweden and arrange Home Hospitality for the jamboree participants.

Of course the afternoon also included a visit to the jamboree site. The sun was shining, and the ground was dry even since it was heavy rain the day before. We love the sandy ground!

The day ended with a fantastic dinner hosted by the Kristianstad municipality at a local restaurang. As well Kristianstad as all Nordic countries give us a fantastic support and show there will to be involved and to work for big contingents and many visitors. We are so happy for this commitment!

So another great weekend in Kristianstad is over, but I will be back in two weeks at the extended council meeting were all department teams ans section heads are invited and we hop to be over 100 people!

Only 800 days until The 22nd World Scout Jamboree Sweden 2011 starts!

Meeting with JET presidium in Stockholm

Euro Arab meeting

This weekend I have the privilege to attend the Euro Arab meeting that this time is held in Åhus, just a few kilometers from the jamboree site. About 60 people from both the Europe and the Arab region are attending and the program has been full of workshops, presentations about projects and informal meetings. Yesterday we also did an educational tour to Malmö and on the way back we made a stop at the jamboree site, which was very much appreciated. It is something special to walk around on the empty field and try to imagine what it will look like with 30 000 scouts running around.


Today the jamboree team had a few hours to present the jamboree and to discuss a few questions where we like to get input from the different countries. The theme for the workshops were Faith & Beliefs and Contingent support, and a lot of interesting aspects and ideas were raised and the planning team will take them with us in the preparations.
Tonight we will enjoy a dinner which will be hosted by the municipality of Kristianstad, the number one jamboree town.

A day at the jamboree office

More than two years left until we will stand at the jamboree site and welcome the whole world. Some days it feels like an eternity, some days I'm very happy that we have some time left. The characters of the items we are working with today are both practical and strategic and they can differ between designing the jamboree site and develop a good registration system. And you realise that you need time and more time to plan a camp like this.Today I spend my day at the jamboree office and goes between different meetings with the personnel and members of the executive team. Simply, a normal jamboree day for me.