The Scout Association of Belize

Summit of Presidents & Executive Directors of Central America

The Summit of Presidents and Executive Directors of Scout Associations in Central America was held in San Jorge Muxbal near Guatemala City on January 9, 2010.

Associations present included Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Panama.  Also present was Ronald Castro, President of the Interamerican Scout Committee.

The meeting started with the reading of the minutes of the last meeting held in Honduras in 2009.  Having approved the minutes and dealt with matters arising, Ramiro Duran from Belize was the first to give a verbal report on the current situation of Scouting in Belize.  In his report he noted that in 2008 there was a drastic decrease in membership but that a plan of action was put in place to increase membership by at least 10% in 2009. (Note: figures not in as yet).  He also reported that finance continues to be a hindrance in support of programs and training.  In closing he gave a brief report on the 5^th Cub Scout Encounter that was held in the month of April in Belize.  Associations that had participation in the Encounter congratulated Belize for a job well done and for providing a quality program for the young people of Central America.

                 Participants at the Summit

 Reports from other Associations followed which had similarities to the Belize report.  By all indications membership loss and shortage of finance seemed to be two of the major problems in our region.

Other main topics discussed were the up-coming Interamerican Scout Conference to be held in August in Panama, the Panamerican Scout Jamboree to be held in Mexico in July, the relocation of the Interamerican Scout Office from Chile to Panama by the end of April 2010 and Leaders Indaba to be held in Honduras prior to the Interamerican Scout Conference.

The Scout Association of Belize was represented by Ramiro N. Duran, President and Hilberto B. Riverol, National Scout Executive.

The next Summit is scheduled to take place in Costa Rica later this year.