Remote contact
You’ll need
- Pens or pencils
- Equipment for JOTA/JOTI
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- There are loads of ways to take part in international Scout events. Lots of them don’t even need you to leave your meeting place! You could do this activity to prepare questions to take to an international camp, too.
- Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) and Jamboree on the Internet (JOTI) happens every year in October and is organised by the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM). Thousands of Scouts from all over the world gather on the internet or over amateur radios to take part in activities and learn about each other’s countries.
- Decide how you’ll take part in JOTA-JOTI. You could host your own event in your meeting place with amateur radios or devices connected to the internet. You could speak to your District or County about events they may be organising. Finally, you could check if there are any events being run by Scout Adventures.
- Whatever you do, it’s important to make sure it’s done safely. Make sure that young people are supervised by a Scout volunteer at all times.
Before you dive in
- The person leading the activity should open a discussion about international Scout events. Can anyone think of any examples? Everyone should talk about the kind of people they may meet, how they’d introduce themselves, what questions they’d ask, and the sorts of things they might have in common.
- Everyone should split into groups. The person leading the activity should give each group a ‘Remote questions’ sheet.
- Each group should read all the questions and decide if they’d like to change any. They should also choose a question to write in the blank space.
During JOTA-JOTI
- Everyone should take it in turns to ask lots of international Scouts as many questions as they can. Each group should note down the answers on their ‘Remote questions’ sheet.
- Everyone should remember to stay safe – and an adult should check that they are. Remember not to share any personal contact details with anyone.
After JOTA-JOTI
- Everyone should gather together as a whole group.
- People should take it in turns to talk about the people they spoke to and the answers they found.
Reflection
This activity reminded you that you’re a local, national, and international citizen as you met Scouts from across the world. There are around 40 million Scouts worldwide, and Scouts happens in almost every country. What was the most interesting thing each group learned? People might have learned about a Scout tradition, or an activity they’d like to try. What differences did people find out about? People might have heard about different uniforms, badges, and Promises.
This activity was also a great chance to practice communicating, especially if you spoke to people who didn’t speak the same language as you. If you met anyone who didn’t speak the same language, could you still communicate? How? People might think about gestures, for example, waving to say hello or goodbye, or others might’ve stuck to using simple words and phrases.
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Online safety
Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.
You might want to have language dictionaries or translation apps ready.
Try to make sure teams are well-balanced so people in each team can support one another. If people speak languages other than English, try to spread them between groups.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
It’s up to you what you ask the international Scouts. You could take it further by asking them to explain a game they often play and giving their game a go later on. You could also ask them to teach you their Promise.
You could plan action around the Sustainable Development Goals with Let's sort it out, Scout to Scout or share a digital project you've created.
Encourage people to come up with their own questions to ask. What do they want to know?