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| Youth Camps and Exchange Programme in Switzerland | ||||||
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| YE Seminar Bangkok 2008 | ||||||
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| Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, I have been asked to give you a presentation on “Best Practices in Organizing Camps and Exchanges” I do not claim to be “God’s gift to Lions youth camps & exchanges” and therefore shall only speak of the Swiss experience that I have acquired. Switzerland is divided into three districts (Centro, East and West) Each year, in turn, 2 districts organize a youth camp; the other district organizes the National convention. We thus receive 70 youths divided in two camps Within the districts, each zone in turn organizes a camp. . In order to fulfill international diversification we try not to accept more than two youths from the same country in the same camp at the same time. Some exceptions are made for some countries where we also send more students. Camps are organized each year by different persons in different places. To facilitate the work of the organizing committees, the Governors Council has set up certain rules and procedures by which everyone is to abide. A camp’s budget has to be presented and approved by the Governors Council Camps accounts are to be provided by the end of September following the camp Camp’s organization committee: 6 to 8 persons, each of them is responsible for a camp’s sector Finances: Swiss MD contributes with US$ 80’000 additional expenses are financed by the organizing clubs and/or sponsors Camp announcement has to be made early • Information is sent to Oak Brook by mid-September • Leaflets are prepared and published by mid-September • They are distributed during the European Forum in October preceding the camps. • Camps are published on the Swiss Lions web site www.lionsclubs.ch in October Based on the experience of previous camps’ organizers an information document has been prepared. It is not exhaustive but it lists numerous things that are useful to know to prepare a camp. A detailed copy of it is available upon request. • Camps websites have to reflect the corporate image of Lions Club International • Swiss camps websites are hosted on the Lions Club website of the respective organizing districts. • Information on camps and youth exchanges is also published on the Swiss Lions Clubs MD 102 site. Youth exchange organization: Selection of candidates: They should be out-going, ready to cope with the unexpected and self reliant, they must understand and be able to speak English, and most of all, they should not consider youth exchange program as a travel organization but as a mean to meet, understand, and sympathize with people from different nationalities and cultures. Acceptation of candidates: No receiving YEC should accept any application unless signed by the out-bound youth’s YEC. This would prevent youths from shopping around and causing embarrassment to all involved. Some countries do not pay attention to this point and it results in youths cancelling a space in May after having been accepted elsewhere without the consent or knowledge of the responsible YEC. This was one of the main topics discussed during the 2007 European Forum. All European YECs unanimously voted and accepted this measure. We are hoping that the Board will discuss it and amend the by-laws accordingly. Dead lines: Deadlines should be set-up and adhered to by all countries. • November December: All camps and exchanges should be published • March 31: Application forms should be received and forwarded by email this enables the receiving countries to look for host families. Duly signed hard copy files can be sent later on but before May 31st. Not more that 2 copies, it is no use to send 4 or 5 copies, the planet will be thankful for that. • April 5th: Email acceptances should have been sent to the applicants YECs regardless of whether we already have a host family or not. This would enable the youths to book plane tickets at a cheaper price. • May 31st: All in-coming youths should have been informed and assigned a host family. It is not acceptable that a youth and his parents ignore where the youth will be staying a couple of days before leaving his home country. • We must insist on Youths and YECs to respect set-up dates of arrival and departure, Lions delegates should not have to go to the airport 9 consecutive days to meet in-coming youths. Electronic communications: should be used preferably to postal mail, it is cheaper and faster. All emails should be answered or acknowledged within 48 hours, this saves time and needless reminders. Youth Exchange what for? • Understanding and tolerance: knowledge induces tolerance and understanding if not friendship. If by organizing a camp we succeed in having two youths from adverse countries understanding or even liking each other, we bring a small but valuable contribution towards international peace. Young people of today are the men and women who will rule the word tomorrow. • A recruitment tool: Too often Youths have not been properly informed of either Lions organization or goals or youth exchanges purposes. Their expectations are limited to just having a good time. During orientation meeting, they should be reminded about their role as honorary ambassadors of their countries, their community and families, their behavior reflects directly on them too. Orientation meeting also allows for presenting the opportunities offered by the LCI; getting youths interested in some of our other programs and join a Leo club thus becoming a valuable member of our organization. If only one out of 10 beneficiaries of our exchange program became interested and decided to join a Leo club we would achieve a nice progress towards recruitment. An exposure to social work and services?: Young people today are more sophisticated and better traveled than they were before. What should Lions YE offer today that they cannot get on their own? Youths today are very concerned by ecology, poverty, education opportunities, health, globalization, and many other worrying subjects. We could consider offering camps that expose youths to volunteer services. Australia is proposing work camps, this type of camp has a lot of appeal for some youths and they were very enthusiastic in registering for specific tasks. Norway also has a program dedicated to youths aged 20 to 30, that they send to Africa to accomplish various tasks, it is a totally different approach to Youth camp and Exchange but it is, in my opinion, worthwhile considering. Norway sent 5 students to Africa last year and is sending 13 students to Uganda this year. The 13 youths will become Lions in LC Bergen Student. They received over 80 written applications for this project called AIM (Aids in Meeting). I am sure that Norway YE representative will be very pleased to give you more information In conclusion, I believe that we should work faster, make full use of electronic communications and may be explore new alternatives or opportunities in camps and youth exchanges programs. Thank you for your patience | ||||||
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