Images: Scottish Cycling
Date: 15th March 2022

Last Sunday saw Scottish Cycling’s Young Peoples’ Panel meet in person for the second time in Stirling.

After monthly zoom meetings, it was welcomed that the panel would all be in one place for a day of planning, evaluating and development, as well as getting to know each other without a computer screen in the way.

The day started off with a couple of energisers out in the much welcome spring sunshine, to both break the ice and encourage cooperation. After getting the brains into motion, the members headed inside to get started on planning the panel’s biggest current project – the Young Ambassadors. This project is created by young people for young people, and aims to facilitate and amplify the voice of young cyclists in clubs in Scotland. The panel plan to roll this project out in clubs in the autumn but there’s a lot of planning to do before them.

This does not intimidate the panel however, and after splitting into smaller groups they began working out the finer logistical details of how this project will be launched and then implemented. Everything from promotion to recruitment and training to managing the Young Ambassadors was discussed, and when everyone came back together as a group, an extremely well-thought-out plan was taking shape. Bringing each of their unique experiences to the process, this project bodes to be inclusive, diverse, and effective for bringing together Scotland’s young cyclists.

Youth clubs should watch this space for more information on how to set up a Young Ambassador in your club.

After the panel had fool-proofed their plan for the Young Ambassadors it was time for a much-needed lunch break. The panel were joined by Scottish Cycling CEO, Nick Rennie for the first time since they were recruited last summer. It was a great informal environment for Nick to chat to the panel and for them to get to know him and his role a bit better.

Feeling refreshed after a walk around the adjacent Stirling University campus, Nick talked the panel through the current Scottish Cycling strategy. The strategy lasts four years and we are about to start on the final year of this rotation, so it was valuable for Nick to hear the panel’s thoughts and feedback on this to inform the final year and to begin thinking about what the next strategy should cover, with a view from young people in the sport. This was also a great learning opportunity for the panel, many of whom this may have been the first time they had been involved with any kind of strategy development - a real win-win situation.

The final section of the day which was a personal development exercise for the panel. On the last occasion when the panel were altogether on a residential trip to the sportscotland centre in Largs they shared some opportunities for development with us and we have made it a regular focus to work on these opportunities.

This meeting’s focus was public speaking, which led on from the previous virtual meeting in which the panel critiqued a couple of examples of celebrities public speaking. To start off this exercise, the panel were asked to think up their own tips for being a good public speaker. From everyone’s answers we collated a main list of 10 top tips, including things like making eye contact, using appropriate hand gestures, and taking your time.

Before this in-person meeting, the panel had all been given a different random topic to give a short presentation on and the panel rose to this challenge. The topics covered everything from a current news story (Matthew chose the Madbird scandal) to what your personal mascot would be (pasta for Molly) and something that is popular, but you don’t like (Nutella for Jake). Each member of the panel smashed their presentation and had clearly taken on board the tips and advice they’d created as a group. The aim was for the panel to practise their public speaking skills in a safe, informal environment to gain confidence for future occasions, and it looks very likely they’ll all be effective public speakers of the future.

This exercise brought the panel to the end of the day and with a few wrap up bits, it was time for the panel members to head back home across the country. Throughout the whole day the panel were engaged, hard working and effective in expressing their views and opinions.

The projects they have in the pipeline are innovative, exciting and look to create valuable progress in amplifying the voice of young cyclists as well as developing themselves as individuals. We’re expecting big things from this panel in the coming year!

If you or your club has items or issues for the YPP to discuss or to ask their advice, please don’t hesitate to get in touch on youngpeople@scottishcycling.org.uk