Sergey Sirotkin, President of the All Russia Narional Organisation of Scouts talks about Scouting in Russia at the October 2001 Network Russia meeting

ARNSO website

It is exactly a year since ARNSO were accepted to WOSM and a lot of compromises had to be made. During the last ten years of Russian Scouting various Scout groupings have been merging, not everyone involved in Scouting in Russia is a member of the Organisation of the Scout Structure, but they are members of the movement.

Approximately 50% of people involved with Scouting are members of the ARNSO - he hopes that it will only take another year to persuade those outside the organisation to join ARNSO. He visit 2 regions each month to speak to different Scout Groups.

Now there are about 10000 members, and hope to get to 15000 which was envisaged when joining WOSM.

Ways of increasing contacts between Scout groups in Russia and the UK

Q. Sergey was asked if he would give his support to a study visit being organised for October 2002.

A. He confirmed he would and thought that it would be a good idea to liase and find a team of Scouts in Russia who want new links from an area and have leaders who speak English. He said he would think about a number of groups that would benefit and thought that it might be better to think about the visit being in November when the School holidays start. He would like to know if there are any specific areas that those on the study visit would like to attend

He suggested there were areas in Siberia were it would help the Russian national movement if the network came involved in those areas.

Q. Sergey was asked what kind of activities and camp sites would be available in the Siberian area. H

A. He replied that he would like to see examples of what we do as this would benefit the Russian leaders. In November most of the activities would be inside due to the weather.

Q. Sergey was asked how many leaders could be accommodated on a study visit.

A. He replied that it depends on the place where you go, he suggested 5 to 20 and depends on the financial considerations.

Q. Sergey was asked how he would encourage other scout people and groups to join ARNSO.

A. He answered that he uses personal contact and tries to talk to them.

Q. It was suggested that The Network could help - different Scout Groups have different sources of information, and sometimes there information is wrong.

A. They would welcome direct contact with a friends, you in the Network, they may think this contact makes them a member of the World Scout Organisation or they are not interested in anything other than their own contacts and direct scouting. They will need to hear the benefits of joining the national movement so that they can continue doing what they are doing and maintaining contact with their friends. He accepts some people feel much happier outside the official organisation and don’t want to pay fees to the World Organisation, he accepts everyone should have a choice.He does his best to encourage everyone to be a member of the organisation.

Q. Bill asked if there was a contact number we can refer people to so that they can have a contact with someone in ARNSO.

A. Sergey offered to put a statement on the network website.

Q. Sergey was asked what could be done for ORUR scouts to bring them into the national movement ARNSO.

A. Sergey explained that every region in the ARNSO movement (21 regions in total) has there own autocracies, each region can 5 confessional organisations, the structure was recommended by WOSM. ORUR members are invited to join, there have been negotiations but they find no reasons to join, every year we try to resume discussions.

Q. Sergey was asked about other countries that have strong links with Russia.

A. 80% of Russian School children study English so when they come to choose which countries to establish contact England is chosen although now they are looking further afield to France and Spain. Germany is his personal choice because he learnt German at School. Sergey explained that English scouts helped us more than others. He was concerned that there was no contact with neighbouring countries such as Sweden and Norway.

Q. Sergey was asked about the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church.

A. He responded that they are one of the confessional groups in the organisation and the leading confessional group because they are the largest in number.

Bill thanked Sergey for the address and for answering all questions so openly. Bill assured Sergey of continued future support for ARNSO.

networkrussia.org.ukwww

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