These are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold – Mark 4:20

In the world of enterprise development and in life generally we are perpetually reminded that the one thing constant in life is change. Sometimes we need to make minor adjustments but at other times we need to make a broad transformation, a  Sea-Change to draw from a phrase in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

I often introduce my existing and potential clients, in search of minor adjustments or indeed a Sea-Change to the SEA syndrome: the Systematic Evolutionary Approach. In this context, the term “Systematic” means that we must approach our task sequentially, one step after another. At each step we garner as much information as we can and use that information to determine the magnitude and direction of the next step, as we seek to achieve our objective.

Of course, we can also reflect on our history in the enterprise and in our lives and ensure that we do learn from mistakes made. We certainly do not want to keep on repeating these mistakes.  Given our historical reflections and the adoption of the SEA syndrome we should be well equipped to chart the future life of our dreams.

I often reflect on my past and indeed I have promised myself to go through the seven decades of my life, thus far, and compile a dossier, for what it is worth, of as much as I can remember about significant events in five year bands over that period. I am continually looking to the future guided by the positive belief systems of ambition, self-confidence, good relationships and spiritual security. I try to manage the negative emotions induced by anger, fear, worry and guilt. I adopt the SEA syndrome. If we practise SEA diligently, we shall evolve in an optimal manner towards our objectives.

Talking about dossiers, Mr Lisle Harrison, a former Barbados Scout Chief Commissioner, is preparing a commemorative document on the 57th anniversary of the Eighth World Scout Jamboree and to trace the fortunes of the members of the Barbados contingent since then. Lisle asked me to jog my memory and share what I can recall with readers on this anniversary date. The leader of the Barbados delegation was the late Reuben Sealy and the eight boy scouts who completed the delegation were Neville Badnock, Willis Cummings (deceased), Merville Greenidge, Francis Gregoire, Trevor Hassell, Emerson Howard, David Kinch and Basil Springer. Of the seven of us who are still alive Badnock, Hassell, Kinch and Springer are resident in Barbados.

The mission of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland is “to contribute to the education of young people, through a value system based on the Scout Promise and Scout Law, to help build a better world where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society”.

The World Scout Jamboree is a Scouting jamboree of the WOSM typically attended by several tens of thousands of Scouts from around the world, ages 14 to 17. The first World Scout Jamboree was organized by The Boy Scout Association in London. The Eighth World Scout Jamboree was held at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada, from August 18 to 28, 1955 and was attended by some 11,000 scouts from 71 countries and colonies.  This was the first World Jamboree to be held in the Western Hemisphere, indeed the first world jamboree outside of Europe.

The 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007 was held in Highlands Park, Essex, United Kingdom, and celebrated the Centenary of Scouting. The 22nd World Scout Jamboree was held in Sweden from 27 July 2011 to 8 August 2011.

What do I recall about the Eighth World Scout Jamboree? This was a major experience for 14-16 year old boy scouts most of us leaving the island and certainly the region for the first time in our lives. We travelled on Pan American Airlines to Puerto Rico through a thunderstorm and sitting in back of the plane. Then to New York overnighting at the YMCA (there was a murder in the building that night). Next day we went by road and train to Canada ending up at the camp site at Niagara-on- the-Lake. The city of the hydro-floral clock and of course nearby there was Niagara Falls in all its glory. We were under tents as is the wont in Boy Scout camps which we experienced in Barbados. There was one major difference the temperature variation. It ranged from 110F degrees in the shade during the day to 40F degrees during the night. Needless to say we were not prepared for such extremes in the diurnal cycle and many boy scouts, including some in the Barbados delegation, spent a couple of days in the jamboree hospital seeking medical care.

We returned home via Montreal where we visited McGill University and then Trevor Hassel and I stayed on in New York for two weeks sightseeing with my Aunt Iris Haynes and her late husband Ted. We returned to Barbados and within a month we witnessed, in contrast, a devastating event, Hurricane Janet!

The Jamboree was an awesome and spectacular experience of international interaction and camaraderie. The collective experiences at that tender age undoubtedly contributed significantly to what followed in our lives and what is still to come. Viva the Boy Scout movement. We all deserve the life of our dreams.