Co-operation in the New Millennium
The ELSA Youth Meeting 2000. Mullsjö Sweden

Gina Waggott:

Like our fellow BSA Member Kevin, my plans to go to the Youth Meeting in Sweden were very last minute and, at best, very disorganised. Luckily for me and my travel buddy Hedley Phillips (also a BSA member), ELSA's sense of organisation was at the other end of the spectrum.

The preparation for this years meeting had started way back in 1998, mainly due to the funding involved - as a student, I was only too pleased to have a subsidised hotel and half my travel costs refunded! Spending a week with other young people who stuttered in such a gorgeous location was also too good an opportunity to pass up... and it was with great excitement that Hedley and I arrived at the hotel, albeit a day late (my fault - long story).
This was initially one of my worries - that the group would have already gelled on the first day and a half and that wed feel a little awkward joining in after the schedule had gone underway. How wrong could I have been? I hardly put a foot through the door of the hotel when I was greeted by a multitude of happy, outgoing, warm people. My doubts and worries vanished and I began to prepare myself for a great week.

As Kevin has already mentioned, the hotel was luxurious and the staff were also very friendly, even after cleaning up our beer cans every night (no, no, we DID attempt to clean up ourselves, but nobody expected to find cans in the saunas, pool, outside under trees... you get the idea.)

The schedule of events was varied and I can confidently say that I got a lot out of each exercise. There was a heavy emphasis on group work (to match the theme of the week - Co-operation in the New Millennium), which also provided us all with a chance to get to know each other better, though we hardly needed to be asked! The highlights of the week for me were the drama and art exercises, not least because it allowed for a bit of childhood regression... and uproarious laughter.

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