On Saturday, November 5th, 2011, Darren Shum and Valerie Siu of the 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group held a Project Planning Workshop for the enthusiastic 33rd Kerrisdale Venturer Company.
The 14-17 year old Venturers were given an important presentation on the topic of Project management. Project management knowledge is indispensable in today’s world since everything that we do involves people getting together to accomplish things that matter to them.
The workshop portion of the presentation taught them the five main steps to planning a successful project:
- 1. Determining why and what you want to do.
- 2. Figuring out the key decisions need to be made.
- 3. Writing a detailed to-do list for ALL action items, small and big.
- 4. Time-lining and setting milestones.
- 5. Executing the action items set in the to-do list.
The best way of learning is by doing, and with this in mind, the facilitators used a brainstorming activity to get the creative juices of the adolescents to work. They asked Venturers to work in groups and come up with an outline of a realistic fundraising idea that they could carry out for their own Scout group.
With appropriate guidance, the Venturers successfully created a comprehensive project plan for hosting a hockey-viewing night. Valerie and Darren hope that the 33rd Venturers had as much fun as they did!