Syndicate teams – co-operation and competition
Syndicate team activities take place throughout the year, starting with Outward Bound team-building tasks during the induction programme. You work in syndicate teams for some of the programme’s core elements, such as the New Venture Challenge.
But the teams – who are named after fells in the nearby Lake District – also compete throughout the year for the Sir Chris Bonington Shield, awarded to the team which collects the most points over a series of different challenges.
There are several elements to the competition, which was introduced to provide opportunities for leadership and new experiences beyond the classroom. Some are pure fun – like the Lancaster Trail – designed to get you better acquainted with the Lancaster area, its rich culture and history, a treasure hunt which tests your collected abilities to solve clues and map-read, or walks on some of the local fells, such as Clougha in the nearby Forest of Bowland.
The Charity Challenge – helping not-for profit organisations
Olga Klimovich outlines how her syndicate team undertook an IT audit for the international charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for their Charity Challenge.
The selected charities have been varied, and have been both national and local. For example, one team worked with the Bendrigg Trust, a charity providing activities and facilities for disabled young people. The team updated an existing orienteering game, designed to help visitors to the Trust’s residential centre to find their way around the site, and devised a new game. Another team organised fundraising both on campus and in the city for Lancaster and District Homeless Action, and also negotiated with Millets and Oxfam for sleeping bags and tents to augment the organisation’s supplies.
Recent Charity Challenges
- Working on preservation of a special mossland habitat in a wildlife park in Bolton
- Developing a strategic funding plan to help a Cumbrian school to develop a new IT centre
- Advising Scope Lancaster on methods of inventory management and control for its charity shop
- Helping to increase promotional activity for a local cancer charity which supports patients in the community
