On February 11th, our Rovers headed up to Mt.Seymour to enjoy an awesome day of snow tubing and hot pot. The day was filled with laughter as everyone bonded over the fun events, while traversing the snow. This blog recaps the experiences of Alex Vu, the project manager for the event, and her time up on the mountain with her fellow Rovers.
Q:How was planning and executing this project different from the previous projects you have led?
“This is the second project our Patrol has organized so far. The first was a Community Service Project where we collaborated with OtherHalf Stem Cell to help raise awareness and get more people sign up as stem cell donors. Even though our Patrol had to do a lot of planning to ensure our volunteers had a great experience, the schedule itself was assigned to us by OtherHalf. This time, with an outdoor activity located up on a mountain, it required planning from A to Z.
Luckily, the event fell on a long weekend and many people had free time. Since the event was supported by numerous people, we managed to get a group ticket price and consequently, a significant discount. To make sure everyone had fun, we tried to put ourselves in a participant’s position during planning. From transportation, to the activity, to the dinner location, everything had to be as convenient as possible. At the same time, the participants were super supportive. A great example would be their willingness to carpool with other members so that nobody had to take transit to the meeting location.”
Q: For those that didn’t get the chance to go, how would you describe the day?
“21 of our Rovers headed up Mt. Seymour at 1:30pm. When we got to the tubing area, there were 4 lanes that we could choose to go down; ranging from slow to fast. Once at the bottom, you could either choose to hike back up, or have your tube hooked up to a machine that would pull you back up the mountain.
While being towed back up, you could also admire the beautiful sights of both the surrounding mountains and snow, as well as the city below. After an hour and a half of excitement, we retired to the lodge for a few steaming cups of hot cocoa, and any other beverages our Rovers decided to bring.”
Q:What was your highlight of the day?
“There were actually two highlights for me: the weather that day, and the hot pot dinner we had right after. The weather was perfect. It was sunny and not windy at all, which is quite rare during this time of the year. Thanks to this splendid weather, we were able to take a lot of excellent photos. I remember just three weeks ago when my home group, 138th East Vancouver went snow tubing themselves, the weather was far from ideal. It was quite a rainy day, and up the mountain, it was cloudy, foggy, and even snowed a little too.
It was pretty funny because when this event was announced at our crew’s monthly conference for everyone to sign up, I saw people nodding their heads when hot pot was mentioned. This dinner was also a highlight for me because everyone seemed really satisfied with the dinner after spending some time up on the mountain. Hot pot is definitely the right choice after a few hours surrounded in snow!”
Q:What is one learning experience that you would take away from this project?
“I believe I have enhanced my project management skills after this event. Once we started in-depth planning, we found that the project was not as simple as it looked at first glance. One important thing we learned with the help of our Deputy Group Commissioner, Scouter Sam, was how to ensure the proposed outdoor activity aligned with Scouts Canada BP&P (By-Law, Policies and Procedures). Another takeaway from this event was to put ourselves in other people’ shoes if we wanted to have a successful project. For example, we thought everyone would know how to dress properly for the activity, but having realized that some of us were new to this type of activity, a “Cold Talk” or winter-prep meeting was added to the planning process to make sure everyone was well-prepared.”
