By Chris Whitehead

Regenerate, which took place this weekend was the first event of its kind in which fourteen 16-25 year olds had the chance to voice their opinions on how to improve Scouting in the London region.

After a Q and A session with Adrian Wray, the UK advisor for Scout Network, the socialising began with a barbeque which was followed by a ceilidh.

In true scouting fashion, a camp fire was provided by 6 members of Chingford Discrict Network, and all participants also took part in archery and team building games.

On Sunday, the participants discussed how to improve the image of Scouting and make sure the old stereotypes are replaced with an up-to-date image that shows what Scouting in really about. The group then split up to discuss the topics assigned to them at random. These included "What are the needs of the 18-25 age range in Scouting?" and "Discuss Scouting as a co-educational movement".

Jack Petchey joined the event in the morning and whilst listening to what others had to say, also made valuable contributions to the discussions. We also spoke about youth engagement within the Jack Petchey Foundation.

Yvonne Archibald said "I enjoyed sharing my experiences in Scout Network with others and learnt a lot from what others had to say. I think we came up with some really good answers to some of the problems we discussed and I hope that the comments we made in our discussion groups get listened to."

Everyone was encouraged to take two action points away from the event, and when participants meet again (hopefully at Gilwell Reunion- details will be posted here), we will see what has been achieved.

When closing the event, Dean Milton, Regional Commissioner for London said. "I would like to thank everyone for giving up their weekend to be here; and in return, my promise to you is to act on your comments where ever possible, and where appropriate to pass them on to others"

A brief report of what was discussed can be found here.