SSAGO News

The SSAGO Committee (now renamed Team) went on a successful Team Building weekend, to Youlbury Scout Adventure Site, near Oxford...

Two weeks ago, seven members of the National SSAGO Committee travelled to Youlbury Scout Adventure site in Oxford for a weekend of Team Building fun, challenge and adventure.

While not arriving until Friday afternoon, the first trip to Sainsbury's proved tricky while trying negotiate menu ideas for three different types of people, and Joshua and Vicky having to take Anona with them.... No SSAGO meet up would be complete without a campfire which was warmly welcomed which kept us occupied until Frances arrived at 11pm...complete with a tent to assemble in the dark! But the team stayed up to help her, ohana means family :P

On Saturday the National Exec held their meeting while the Assistants, ate scones and plotted their revenge before departing on an Anona guided walk to Oxford- alas without a field of wheat to run through. Team building continued in "Thirsty Meeples"; board game cafe. The staff was great at helping us select some fun games. One in particular called Word Slam involved in splitting into two teams (naturally we chose Exec Vs. Assistants). Like charades we randomly picked up a card which had a selection of words on, after rolling the dice we narrowed it down to one word/phrase/object. Then one person in each team (who were the only people allowed to see this word) had to use a range of cards e.g. adjectives, colours etc. to communicate to their team what the word was. Lauren and Oli got "Dora the Explorer"; which resulted in Oli selecting "Small women child do journey, literature"; but the assistants did not get it! Nor did the execs on the other side of the table, so after quite awhile the answer was revealed. A game we would highly recommend - very fun!

We enjoyed a Wetherspoons meal, at "The Four Candles"; before Anona gave us a guided tour of Oxford including seeing the Bodleian Library and Christ Church where they filmed Harry Potter. Highlights include Vicky having a staring competition with Dobby the Elf and being "told off" by Josh for some vandalism and Indian Scouts asking for a photograph with Team Pink!

We then had a lovely evening walk back to the site and more campfire laughs, not forgetting further plottings to take over the world.

On Sunday we had a well timed fry up (unlike Saturday’s seven course breakfast), with each item being cooked with a different method: bacon on a disposable bbq, hash browns in a Dutch oven (carried all the way from Southampton!) and scrambled eggs in a portable stove.

A perfect way to build a team is to make them swing on a big swing… right? Well that’s just what we did, with most of the team never experienced a 3G swing it was a great opportunity to try something new. Least to say the person who’s done it before screamed the most… It was great fun!<

After packing down our tents (or hammocks for some) we attempted (and succeeded) a team pink pyramid including some mascots! Before leaving the site we grabbed a souvenir site badge and ice cream, Lauren in particular got excited about her unusual flavoured Calippo, Strawberry and cream mix!

And that completes our world domination planning *cough* i mean *cough* team building weekend of fun, pink and food.