Moggie

I must admit that I assumed that's what you meant but still find yuor question confussing. What is it you want to know? I'll try to provide an opinion on what I think you're asking: Monarchies come in many shades just like democracies, from absolute through to constitutional. In the UK the absolute power of the monarch was first constrained by the Magna Carta in 1215 followed by Habeas Corpus, Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights all in the 17th Centuries. What purpose does the Queen serve? Well, in the UK the Queen is: Head of State for England, Wales, Scotland, Northe

I don't quite understand what you mean by absolute monarch, given how few remain in the world, or is your question really about monarchs in general? Cheers Gareth

"As an aside, I wonder if the gains seen in Scouts Canada and the Scout Association (UK) can be attributed to the fact that both now admit girls to their cub and Scout programs? I'd be interested to know whether the number of boys involved has gone up or down, as well as whether they are gaining members at the expense of the Girl Guides." From the SA website on our side of the pond- "This year Scouting has seen an increase in adult volunteers with growth up from 1.6% to 2.6%. There have only been two other occasions in the last 23 years where the growth of adult leaders has exceeded 2%.

"Expect the Australians to lose scouts and lose relevance." Why? Cheers Gareth

Basementdweller 1974 girls became eligible to join venture scouting, after that a slow progression of integration until 2007 when all groups (except some specifically closed groups) and sections became fully co-ed. This time scale was also discussed in this thread http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=343982#id_344381 Cheers Gareth

It might be wise to have little understanding of how the UK constitution works: The UK is a Constitutional Christian Monarchy, note no mention of secular democracy and the specific expression of Christianity. The Queen is Head of State, Head of the Established Church (Church of England and the Presbyterian Church of Scotland) , Head of the Judiciary, Head of the Armed Forces etc... There's a trend here ;-) So a promise to the Queen as Skip states is a promise to the nation. There is no general pledge of allegiance as is understood in the USA. They do exist and are used (joining the arm

boomerscout said "Always with the same group, and these groups naturally get smaller & smaller as the boys get older. Wouldn't you soon be too small to do much of a group activity?" Why do you assume the group get smaller or have I miss-understood your comment? I do recognise the the potential for a closed shop mentality, particularly with the adults, that's where you need a good Group Scout Leader (GSL). Ultimately if the programme is poor then both young people and adults vote with their feet. Cheers Gareth

Thanks for the replies, Cheers Gareth

Daft question from across the pond; Do US cubs only camp with their parents? if so why? Cheers Gareth

We use the the explorers all the time with the cubs and beavers. The interaction is different between beaver and explorer than between beaver and adult. Recently the Explorers planned and ran a brilliant incident night hike for the cubs. It shows the cubs that the stuff they are starting to do now is relevant and useful as they develop throughout their scouting experience. I think one way to look at the linear group method is: Beaver Scouts; introduce the concepts (for patrols read lodges, a little bit of nights away) Cub Scouting; give skill to the concepts (Sixes led by sixers and

This link should take you to a pdf file showing you where the badges go on TSA uniform, it's not supposed to a free for all, but equally we don't go about measuring their placement either http://www.scouts.org.uk/documents/Memberresources/Uniform_diagrams/Scout-uniform.pdf The core uniform consists for a scout: Neckerchief, Woggle Shirt (scouts, explorers and adults) Sweatshirt (Beavers and Cubs) Trousers (many scouts just wear jeans to troop nights) This link will take you my group website have look at what they wear, looks perfectly scout like to me ;-) http://w

In the UK we operate on the Scout Group principle (the situation is similar in many commonwealth countries). You can join the group at 6 as a member of the Beaver colony, progress through cub scouting and join the troop at 10 yrs old. At 14 1/2 you can join an explorer unit. The group is manged by a Group Scout Leader, and each section managed by its own scouter. I must admit we treat the attached explorers as members of our scout group rather than a completely seperate unit. Many towns have multiple units so choice can exist, (depends largely on finding sufficent adults who will give up th

Venture scouting in the UK went co-ed in 1976ish, this co-incided with but not as a result of the introduction of the Sexual Discrimination Act 1975. The rest of the time table is as Skip reported. In my group we had several debates about co-ed scouting; given that the choice to go co-ed is irrevocable you can understand the initial reluctance. In the end as a group we introduced co-ed in the scout troop first. This being based on the premise that if co-ed was introduced in the younger sections then girls by default were eligable for the older sections, plus we had (and still have) very ex

Prestwick, sorry my only deals have been with HMS GANNET, RNAS PRESTWICK. Couldn't say much else about the town. Sorry Gareth

Cucumber sandwiches, mmmmm with just a little add salt or a nice slice of ham. Cheers Moggie

Cricket, a game played in what is considered summer in the UK but winter by the rest of the world. It consists of two teams, one team will attempt to defend; using a piece of wood (bat), some sticks (Stumps) that have been pushed into the ground, each team has 11 men. The other team will attack the sticks with a ball from 22yards away with the aim of hitting the sticks and knocking two smaller sticks (bails) off that had been carefully balanced on top. This area is called the wicket. The Ball must bounce atleast once on its way to the sticks. If the defending player (batsman) success

"So, how do you chaps choose your next monarch?" Very, very carefully, usually after much discussion in a pub over a few pints. If the post is vacant and no suitable British subject can be found we usually ask some German ;-) Cheers Moggie

"So what happens if a boy willingly explores having a faith, but then decides it is not for him?" Young people under that age of 18 are still exploring and developing their spiritual self therefore an avowed absence of faith is only a bar for an adult appointment with the Scout Association Cheers Moggie

To quote Moosetraker "is to get something like UK where the older boys from the other programs are coming back to the younger units to be Leaders" This would be the Young Leader (YL) scheme (we're co-ed; so its young people to us rather than boys), it is an element that explorer scouts can choose to do as part of their development, from the TSA website: "The Young Leaders' Scheme helps Explorer Scouts to develop and grow as individuals. It allows them to make a valuable contribution to their community and give service to others. The scheme also helps them fulfil the service elements o

As UK scouter I'd echo much of what Cambridge skip has said, although I'd take issue with a couple points: Scouting skills have not been diminished but rather repackaged under the "everyday adventure" slogan,with a greater focus on participation. Whilst with explorer scouts its taken a while to get the dynamic between group and district right; particularly with rural districts where its harder for the district focus to be created for the young people; I agree that progress has been made. Having 13 yr old PLs is a challenge! If you look across the 6-25 groupings you see that original a

I would like to recommend this web site as a good source for project ideas - try the 1st April projects! http://www.pioneeringmadeeasy.co.uk/ regards Gareth

I wish fuel was only $6 a gallon here rather than $2.40 a litre ( that's about $12/gal) it is here in the UK. Cheers Gareth

This is The Scout Association (UK) factsheet on the World Membership Badge. http://www.scoutbase.org.uk/library/hqdocs/facts/pdfs/fs260016.pdf Cheers Gareth

This link will take to the World Scout Shop where that have a selection of scout branded Opinel and Swiss Army knives: http://www.worldscoutshop.org/sommaire.asp?sid=0ZGO7X0K64A7I7AMA0NP2XB5&langue=2&prcid=197&menuprcid=0%2C197&prcidm=197 Cheers Gareth

If you're interested the BBC produced an article on the NHS budget, they included many graphs but one that caught my eye compared spending on health care as a percentage of GDP. It would appear that most western countries spend roughly simillar amounts (7-8% of GDP) This link should take you to the web page http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11686396 Cheers Gareth