The Executive Directors of the World Scout Bureau – the six Regional Directors and the two Executive Directors in the Central Office – under the leadership of the Chief Operating Officer and the Secretary General, had their biannual meeting in Cartigny, Switzerland from 7 to 11 May 2012. The Executive Directors’ Meeting is a key occasion for the top management of WOSM to meet, discuss and plan their actions for the coming months. It is important to have this chance to get together at least twice a year to address the key issues.

The first Messengers of Peace Network training started yesterday in Singapore with an informal dinner hosted by The Singapore Scout Association. This morning an opening ceremony was held to welcome the 60 participants from 35 countries who will be trained over the next three days. The goal of the training is to create online community leaders for the Messengers of Peace Network. The participants of this training will form part of a nucleus of community leaders who will help kick start the momentum for the MoP Global Network.

During emergencies, timely response by Scouts is a call of service. Today, Scouts are known to help during unfortunate events especially when disaster strikes unexpectedly. Scouting’s role in responding to emergencies was reinforced by members of WOSM through a recent World Scout Conference resolution 17/2011 in Brazil (January 2011). The Conference through the resolution urged all National Scout Organizations (NSOs) to respond urgently to any national/international emergency such as natural and man made disasters and to be able to coordinate with sister organizations, and hence, always remaining prepared to respond in an effective manner. The Resolution also encourages the World Scout Bureau to work in partnership with aid agencies to provide coordination, and technical & professional support to NSOs.

Many countries in Asia-Pacific are vulnerable to natural occurrences, especially those situated in what is called the ‘Ring of Fire’. In the past two years alone, disasters overwhelmed several countries in the region, and often tested the Scouts’ sense of duty and ability (being prepared) to act quickly and responsibly. This article is a focus on experiences from NSOs in the Asia-Pacific Region.

World Scouting is happy to present two very exciting products related to Scouting which have been launched in recent weeks. A well-known personality in World Scouting, Dr. Eduard Vallory (Spain) has published his book ‘World Scouting – Educating for Global Citizenship’. The book has evoked a tremendous response from personalities such as members of the World Scout Committee and former Secretary Generals of WOSM alike. The Scout Association of UK has launched an exciting Scout Game App for mobile phones called the Scouts Secret Island Adventure. The adventure video game, which also features their Chief Scout and celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls, is available for Apple and Android devices.

JOTA-JOTI 2012 Logo Contest took place over March-April and had a tremendous response in terms of participants sending their designs from all over the world. Overall 142 entries were received from 34 countries. Highest number of entries (26) were submitted by Scouts from Indonesia (Gerakan Pramuka), our largest National Scout Organization in terms of membership.

Volunteering is a key aspect in Scouting, not just the adult volunteers contributing to achieving the Scout Mission by supporting the education of children and youth in our Movement, but also all the young volunteers doing the countless good deeds as part of their daily Scouting activities. With over 7 million adult volunteers and millions of other young volunteers, Scouting is definitely one of the leading volunteer organisations in the world. For this reason and more, United Nations Volunteers (UNV), is one of the key partners of WOSM. The UNV programme is the UN organization that promotes volunteerism to support peace and development worldwide. World Scouting is hence happy to support this excellent initiative by UNV – Volunteer Action Counts, to help make all volunteer actions (small and big) in the area of sustainable development count at Rio+20.

97 year old Mr. Raymond Aubrac (France) and 25 year old Ms. Siranouche Germain (Haiti) have been Scouting’s jewels, and heroes in their own right. Aubrac, a national hero of the French Resistance was a Scout and a key Scout Leader with Les Eclaireuses et Eclaireurs de France, died on 10th April 2012 in Paris. Siranouche was WOSM’s external representative from Association Nationale des Scouts d'Haïti. She suffered a sudden and severe attack of asthma and passed away on 11 April 2012 in Port-au-Prince.

World Scouting is very sad to lose Siranouche and Aubrac, two of our valued assets, and we pass our sincere condolences to the respective families and National Scout Organizations.

For many years, the National Scout Organization (NSO) of Israel – The Israel Boy and Girl Scouts Federation – has recognised that while there are a number of Scout Associations inside the NSO, the Federation has the capacity to try and break the barriers between the communities and create better understanding among young people in the country.

In the backdrop of the Rio+20 - United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) to be held in Brazil this June, União dos Escoteiros do Brasil (UEB) is organising a series of activities and games for their Scouts under the initiative ‘Kudu – Escoteiros Fazendo Eco’. ‘Kudu’, which was launched on Saturday 31st March 2012 after the Earth Hour. This initiative will increase awareness in the local communities on the contribution of Scouting to sustainable development. Through 'Kudu', UEB hopes to take the buzz around the UNCSD Rio+20 to all corners of Brazil.