Thanks to Isle of Wight Member of Youth Parliament Robert Selby for his latest report. Ed
24th April 2013
I arrived at the Council at 5pm.
The agenda for the meeting largely centred on a Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme presentation by Carol Taverner, who is a special project development worker. I was excited because I could tell the other youth councillors about my MYP training weekend in Swindon from the 5-7 April.
The presentation started and Carol explained what the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme was. It consists of three awards (Bronze, Silver and Gold), and it means you have to volunteer for a certain period of time and complete an expedition where you would camp with a group of people.
Bronze and Silver awards
I myself have completed my Bronze and Silver awards and in the process of completing my Gold, and I would encourage others to take part in the scheme, but I would stress that it is all about teamwork.
I would not recommend anyone to do it just for their CV or university application form (even though Carol expressed that incentive).
The presentation was meant to last for 20 minutes, but dragged on another 20 minutes, this was completely unnecessary and cut into the little time we have in meetings to make key decisions to improve the lives of young people. James Lush (councillor for Ryde) clarified if our involvement in the Youth Council contributed to completing the award, which was confirmed by Carol
Member of Youth Parliament update
I then gave my Member of Youth Parliament update. I had little time so I briefly explained what happened on the training weekend.
Myself and other MYPs from the London and South East regions met to be briefed in what our role is and the difference we can make to other young people. There was a series of workshops that we could sign on to, I picked one about representing young people (which put emphasis on different ethnic groups needs).
The second was about using social media to promote the UK Youth Parliament and campaigns. Overall it was an extremely rewarding experience and I thanked Andy for the opportunity.
Invaluable information
I also said,
“The most important aspect that I got out of it was networking with other MYPs and that I asked them about problems that they had faced and how they dealt with them, this was all invaluable information.”
For the next 25 minutes we went to our select groups. I talked with the other Education and Employment members to discuss the direction of the Isle of Wight Student Union (which was set up in the last meeting). We realised that we needed a step by step plan to get ourselves organised, like having a formal meeting outside the youth council to write a constitution.
I am confident that with enough support, we can hold elections to elect a president who would also be the leading spokesperson of the union.
I greatly enjoyed the meeting, we all decided that following meetings would start at 4pm so we had an extra hour to discuss matters. The meeting finished at 7pm.
