COVID update
Like all other activity centres, Longcraig has had to temporarily stop activities and any meetings with our members, until instructed otherwise. That looks like being for a while further yet, as Scotland very slowly climbs out of Lockdown one small step at a time. There are a number of specific issues relating to activity centres, and to water activities in particular, that make it a particularly more difficult task to get back on stream.
However, in the background, we have been looking at how we present activities to our guests, and young people in particular. Which of our operating procedures needs to be updated? What changes do we need in and around the building at Longcraig Pier? What changes do we need to make to our boats and equipment?
Some of the feedback from the survey we requested responses to last month will help us with this, alongside a whole load of work that has been going on in our own background, homes, back yards, etc.
Longcraig will be back just as soon as we are allowed to, we just don’t know exactly when! But see our other articles this month which provide some welcome additional facilities changes which will help towards our re-opening.
World Oceans Day
World Oceans Day slipped us by on 8th June but their website has a host of helpful information and lots of resources available, which can be used as part of your Scout Programme for all ages and sections. Even when we can’t get out on actual water, there is a lot that can be learned at home or by the many online Scouting sessions that are up and running around the Region.
Please take a look at the website and if you would like any support or further help you can give the team at Longcraig a shout and we will see if we can help. The Oceans are still there, and we will be back on / in them in the near future!
LONGCRAIG – Can you help us operate the ‘Longcraig of the Future’ after Lockdown?
Over the past weeks we have identified a number of specific roles that we are keen to publicise and to attract ‘volunteers’ for.
Media and promotional generation.
One of the activities we have focused on is updating, rationalising, and improving our PR material, in all forms. We’ve now defined what different sets of material we want to move forward with, and are seeking someone with digital creative skills who could help us create eye-catching material to cover both recruitment and to attract new customers once we are fully open again. These would be both digitally generated material, which could be printed, web-based and also for use on social media and other platforms.
If you have a skill or an interest in this, please get in touch at getinvolved@longcraig.info.
Support for Young People
As you will read elsewhere, we are working behind the scenes to resurrect an Explorer Unit based at Longcraig, providing both some support for Longcraig as an activity centre, and also a programme for Explorer age young people, wo might have a particular interest in water-based activities. We’ve identified a potential Explorer Leader to head this Unit up and coordinate what goes on, but to make it fully functional and practical we seek one or more Assistant Explorer Leaders to join this team.
These people would also by default become part of the Longcraig ASU but could focus purely on the Explorer Unit or could take part in other aspects of the Centre as well. We’re very flexible!
If you have a skill or an interest in this, please get in touch – getinvolved@longcraig.info.
COVID support
When Longcraig opens, we may well have to do things slightly differently, as part of our response to help keep the virus at bay.
One possibility is that we may well need a few more people around the Centre when we are operating, to help with potential cleansing, disinfecting, preparation and stow away, not to mention having to keep our young people at safe distances as well! We anticipate these will be very much shore-based roles, and will provide what may become a very necessary extra part of the running of an activity centre in the future.
If you have a skill or an interest in this, please get in touch – getinvolved@longcraig.info.
Facilities upgrade
The Regional Executive Committee agreed to approve the first stage of a programme for improvements and modernisation of the facilities at Longcraig covering our changing, toilets and showers. Whilst these have come a long way from the initial facilities back in the 1970s and 1980s (for those who can remember) the
Re-imaging of original toilet at Longcraig
current facilities were built around 1990 and are showing their signs of age as well as not being entirely appropriate for the 2020s and beyond.
This first stage involves the applications for Planning Permission and Building Warrants which are a necessary first (two) steps in doing any building upgrades. This is now under way and we hope will take us to a position where we obtain both of these key clearances from City of Edinburgh Council so we can then take the next steps to contract with builders and get the actual work done!
That will of course require a second stage of approval from the Regional Executive and we all hope for and encourage their support in this step later in the year.
Ian Harrower
Longcraig Active Support Unit
ian.harrower2@virgin.net