Go Jamboree!

This weekend was D-weekend. Meaning Distribution weekend, not in anyway related to the D-Day of World War 2. Although the logistical nightmare it must have presented to the UK Contingent Management and Support teams must have been similar.

Unit Leaders and IST arrived at Gilwell Park from Friday ‘til sometime Sunday. The general atmosphere reflected the excitement, nerves, expectation and adrenaline felt by everyone over the course of the weekend as they collected kit, catch up with old friends, made new ones and put names to faces.

Go Jamboree! was present over the weekend and various members were found beneath our flag, or the collapsing dining shelter, depending on who you asked. A Hello and Welcome was offered to everyone who came over and even those passing by!

The Mod Team didn’t really expect that many people to join us but, by the end of the Saturday many Go-Jammers and random wanderers by ended up camping with us. It was a brilliant to meet the people behind the avatars, finding out what everyone was really like in real life and meeting potential members along the way.

The IST and Unit Leader dinner left some things to be desired, (maybe we were practicing a British tradition of queuing in preparation for the Jamboree?) queuing at a Burger van is a far cry from chumming it out in a huge mess tent together. The IST party was amazing (after yet another queue for the bar that is) and widely enjoyed by everyone, from the excellent band who played during the course of the night to the rowdy selection of camp fire songs towards sung on different tables towards the end.

Kit collection for IST occurred on Sunday morning with more queuing into The Lid, which was converted into some kind of giant Scouting Argos, complete with collection desks and hordes of runners collecting kit from boxes around The Lid. This could only have been topped by how full of Jamboree kit it was, before being given out to Unit Leaders the day before.

All in all a great weekend – The Jamboree Starts here!
Links:

• UK Contingent Resources page
• The Official World Scout Jamboree IST pages

This month the GoJamboree! Forum reached 20 000 posts. The honour of posting the 20 000th post went to Samwise, who is also one of the top tent posters resident on GoJamboree! (May 07). She celebrated by making another post!

The GoJamboree! Forum has seen several changes in terms of layout and character, and has a dynamic population made up of members; who now represent all aspects of participation in the 21st World Scout Jamboree. From Day Visitors to Participants to Jamboree Organising and Delivery team members.

In recent weeks the number of users joining has also been drawn from a greater breadth, from all over the world. There is now a GoJamboree member in each of the different Scouting regions of the World, and the membership now covers the majority of the counties in the UK contingent to the 21st World Scout Jamboree.

The forum accumulating this latest milestone is also testament to the longevity of a forum whose initial idea came from one dark night in a seriously cool blacked out tent at EuroJam 2005. The forum began in a sense then, with a few friends getting together and wanting to keep in contact in the following months and the run up to the 21st World Scout Jamboree (in 77 days at the time of writing). It has subsequently grown in a framework for sharing thoughts, making contacts, developing idea, getting advice and building friendships in the run up to this event. Here’s to the next 20 000 posts!