Other international opportunities

Kia Ora! (that is the New Zealand Maori greeting)

I wanted to take this opportunity to mention a great opportunity that is
available in scouting. For the last few years, BSA has been having
international friendship exchanges where a small contingent of BSA youth
would be put together to be wined and dined (well, maybe not *wine*) by a
scout association in another country. Japan has been hosting two per year,
and last winter they had a scout winter Olympics at Kandersteg in
Switzerland. This summer there was a Philmont intl exchange where a group
of intl scouts teamed with a group of US scouts to do a trek.

The Intl Friendship exchange is subsidized by the host country, and the
typical fee for the US scout has been around $500 plus transportation to
Dallas. For a two week experience where the scouts of another country have,
as their prime motivation, the intent to show you the best time of your
life, that is pretty hard to beat.

In order to be selected, you must be nominated by the Council International
Representative. To be nominated, you have to fill out the attached form
(there is a youth form and adult form) and return it to me or to council.
We rarely know more than two months ahead when one of these come up, but the
last Japan Intl exchange was selected entirely off the existing list.

Now that you have up-to-date passports and are getting a taste of
international travel with scouts, I'm sure you can see that this would be a
tremendous opportunity if you get picked.

Cheers!
Don Roberts
Trek Organizer