The 39th World Scout Conference ends

The World Scout Conference, which takes place once every 3 years and which was held this year in Brazil comes to a close. This 39th iteration of the World Organization of the Scout Movement’s (WOSM) international event gathered 952 participants representing National Scout Organizations from 119 countries.

The conference is the meeting point of the governing body and structures of the Scout Movement; for instance the conference offers the opportunity to the subcommittees overseeing the governance, strategy and institutional issues to report to its members.

It also serves to guide the future direction of the organization, through constitutional amendments and resolutions that improve how the organization serves its members and continues to contribute to communities and the world at large.

One of the major outcomes of the Conference was the election of the new committee members who will now serve as part of the World Scout Committee. The World Scout Committe is the executive organ of the organization. Amongst the 6 newly elected committee members for the first time in its history the organization has elected a member under the age of 30 to its committee.

A World Scout Committee chairperson was also inducted during this conference. Mr Simon Rhee from Korea who was previously also serving on the Committee started his new term as Chairperson on Friday 14th January and will serve until the next World Scout Conference in 2014. Also inducted were the new Vice Chairpersons of the Committee Mr John May and Mr Wahid Labidi.

After many years of defining and redefining its cause the 39th World Scout Conference will be remembered for having come to a consensus on the definition of the cause of Scouting which is, Education for life. As an educational Movement, the World Organization of the Scout Movement aims to educate young people by teaching them life skills (soft skills) through experiential, involving, exciting activities through pedagogical tools.

União dos Escoteiros do Brasil, the host National Scout Organization that successfully helped deliver the 39th World Scout Conference, officially passed the baton to Slovenia as the next hosts of the World Scout Conference in 2014.

After 5 days of meetings, discussions, resolutions drafting and voting, ideas and best practices sharing, participants leave satisfied and filled with new ideas and contacts made over the past week. They all look forward to the next time they will meet again maybe at the 22 World Scout Jamboree that will take place in Sweden in August of 2011.