Callum Kaye won’t be applying to be the International Commissioner (IC) for a second term in the coming weeks, for a few reasons. As part of transformation, the job has been retitled and reshaped into “UK Chief Volunteer for International”. Callum is also unavailable for the role because, at the recent 43rd World Scout Conference in Cairo, he was elected to a three-year term on the World Scout Committee, a position which requires its holders to forego national roles in favour of impartially representing its 176 Member Organisations.
The conference, with the slogan “A New Adventure”, approved a strategy for the next 10 years, a triennial plan to work towards that strategy until the next conference (in London in 2027), chose Taiwan to host the World Scout Moot in 2029, and Denmark to host the World Scout Jamboree in 2031. A refreshed brand and logo for World Scouting were also launched at the conference, with the slogan “Ready for Life”.
The election was the culmination of 6 months on the campaign trail for Dr. Callum, an NHS consultant who’s been volunteering in The Scouts since 2003. With his national term coming to an end, he felt it was time for “a new challenge.”. With the World Scout Conference coming up, he thought it was “now or never” to throw his name into the hat for consideration. Callum’s nomination was endorsed by The Scouts and his campaign was launched on Founder’s Day.
The campaign lasted some 6 months in total. “It was busy,” Callum explains, “with town hall meetings with NSOs (National Scout Organisations, WOSM’s voting members)”. “I met with European Region’s IC’s at a pre-World Conference event, and spoke to delegations from WOSM’s four other Regions [Asia-Pacific, Inter-America, Arab, Africa] over zoom”. Meeting with World Scouting’s diverse membership, he noted that NSO’s had similar issues to those experienced within the UK. Issues like “recruiting and retaining volunteers, youth programme, and keeping older young people in the movement” were common themes Callum encountered on the trail. There were a few surprising issues as well. “I thought I knew what issues NSOs were concerned with”, Callum explains, “but even on the last day, having campaigned for a while, delegates told me how spiritual development was very important to their organisations”.
As a member of the Scout Association Callum follows in a proud tradition of service to Scouting at a world level, with Craig Turpie (Chairperson), John C.C. May (Vice Chairperson), and the late Garth Morrison serving on the committee in this century alone.
No stranger to Reunion, Callum has noticed that the weekend is “getting its energy back” since Covid. It’s his last week as a member of the national leadership team, and Reunion is a “tiring, but enjoyable” place to end his term.
The new committee elected its Chairperson, Daniël Corsen of Scouting Antiano (Curaçao), (and Mori Cheng from Hong Kong and Julius Kramer from Sweden as Vice Chairs), during the conference, but the role will begin in earnest with an induction in Indonesia – a country with 25 million scouts – and first proper meeting in Malaysia, at the World Scout Bureau in October.
Looking back on his time in the IC role, Callum notes that his term was slightly extended due to Covid, which also provided a few challenges; the 16th World Scout Moot in Ireland, and European Jamboree in Poland were cancelled. With regard to Euro Jamboree, Callum recalls being the face of the zoom call that announced that cancellation to the UK Contingent. “I anticipated a lot of negativity before that call, but speaking with the ACCI’s, I learned the power of transparency, and received a lot of support and understanding about the difficult decision that had been made”.
An open call will be launched in the coming days to find the next Chief Volunteer for International, and Callum thinks it’s a great role to take on.