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A board meeting in the Big Apple
ByJohn MayToday I finally managed to attend a board meeting of the National Academy Foundation in New York. It was held in the board room of Sandy Weill’s office on a very high floor of the General Motors building, on the South East corner of Central Park. An extraordinary view from the windows – which nearly…
24 tips for surviving the long, long journey to the World Scout Jamboree
ByJohn MayIn just a few weeks’ time, thousands of teenagers will be traveling to West Virginia in the USA to attend the World Scout Jamboree. They’ll be flying in groups of around 36 young people, with each group accompanied by four long-suffering and truly wonderful volunteer adult leaders. If you’re one of those teenagers, or one…
Call it what you like…
ByJohn MayIn France they know it as a ‘foulard’; in German it’s a ‘halstuch’. In Mexico and the Spanish speaking word it’s a ‘pañoleta’. But where people speak English, they often can’t quite reach agreement about what to call it. I’m referring, of course, to that triangular piece of cloth that a Scout rolls up and…
Jeju Fantasia
ByJohn MayThat’s what it was called – an evening celebration, put on by the organisers of the World Scout Conference, to help us all enjoy the culture of the island and South Korea generally. What a wonderful evening. I sat at a table with many of the Australian delegation, some of whom are very old friends….
Leadership versus Management
ByJohn MayOver the past few years I’ve been getting increasingly concerned about some of the language that folks in the voluntary sector are using. In particular, there has been a creeping reliance on the terminology of the workplace. In the organisation in which I volunteer, it’s commonplace now to talk about ‘line managers’, ‘targets’ and ‘key…
Thoughts at the start of a new term
ByJohn MayAs so many children have started back at school today, I found myself reflecting on the story of one child I taught, many years ago. Let’s call him Christopher. He was in my Y6 class in the late 1980s, back when we called them 4th year juniors. He was attention seeking, usually using poor behaviour…

