Green Elm Elfins, Pioneers, and Venturers explain ... how they plan their term’s programme We start with the premise that everyone is involved in putting their ideas forward. The only rule is that the activity has to fit with the aims and principles of Woodcraft Folk. We usually do this in small groups, or individually if people prefer, and gather the info on large bits of paper or on pieces of card that can be moved around. People can also indicate any activities that they want to lead (whatever their age).
The next stage is deciding what to include and what to leave out or postpone to another time. Sometimes we've done this by voting using buttons as tokens, with everyone having a given number of buttons that they can 'spend' on activities. The activities with most votes are included in the programme. Other times we've had 'definitely would like' and 'definitely wouldn't like' tables: people can move cards with activities written on them onto different tables so that we end up with a table of activities that everyone is happy with. Anyone can veto something that they'd really not like doing and others can make a case for including it if they feel very strongly that it should be done.
The result should be a programme that everyone is happy about, includes activities that excite the people in the group and where young people are strongly encouraged to take responsibility for leading activities either individually or as a group (with adult support if needed/ wanted). The Venturers are also developing ideas for an Action Project.... Contact TREE for more information about anything here: tree@woodcraft.org.uk.