ianwilkins

If I understood what you're saying, yes, it would be food for thought. Something lost in translation I think, sorry for my lack of understanding. I think what 'Skip is saying is that when he does get drama queens, of either gender, turning up, they either change/act differently, as his troop is not the place for drama, or they leave, for the same reasons. The rest of the kids just carry on in scouting. Why kids leave in the UK is for all sorts of reasons, not sure many of them are gender related. I have no evidence either way though. Yes, boys and girls are different, but you know what? B

I've looked at that link, and it seems once again we're not just "two countries separated by a common language". They look more like what we'd call drop scones, or maybe scotch pancakes, and it might just be me, but serving it with sausage [shudder]. Pancakes, proper pancakes, as I know them (so they must be right), are more like a French crepe, simply served with lemon juice and sugar. Though I have developed a taste for chocolate spread (proper chocolate by the way), or nutella, and maybe whipped cream, or a bit of toffee sauce, fruit, and other fancy ways. UK tradition is just lemon ju

If you are on that facebook, post the same request on 1st Facebook Scout Group. I'm not its biggest fan but for this type of request you should get plenty of responses.

It's not really the same though is it? Having been there at the start of Explorer Scouts in the UK when all sections went co-ed (as opposed to just Ventures previously), I've seen the type of girl that is brave enough to come along and be in a unit or troop with no other girls, they are more than happy to do everything that's expected of them, to do all the activities available to them, they want to throw themselves into it, they want to be part of it. Anyone suggesting the programme got watered down for them would have got very short shrift. So it didn't really change, if it doesn't really ch

This is what I don't get. Maybe, if they give it a go, and everyone approaches it in a positive manner, then it could easily still be fun, and they don't need to give up something they enjoy at all. "Leaving" is the same as "giving up", surely there's something in the scout law about that. After all, Venture Crews have fun right? My Explorer Scouts have fun too. The girls will probably surprise them, I'd imagine the first intake are going to be super keen, what's not to like about that? To leave without giving it a go seems, well, what would you say if a kid didn't want to try rock climbing in

Mate, they put up with me and a couple of others that aren't even in the same *country*, I say crack on.

UK Slant... 13. Getting rid of berets 14. Banning "pegging out"* 15. Getting rid of patrol tents** 16. The Adventurous Activities permit system*** * Hazing, basically, but not necessarily the new kid, just someone who had usually annoyed the Alpha Scout, or was generally the victim. Tied out to four pegs and various jams (jellies) sauces food slops applied. Acceptable in the 80s. ** Great big green canvas things that slept the whole patrol in. And they're still used by some. *** That means, for example, you can't go climbing without being trained and checked

I don't mean to be critical, but I tried to sing along to your version and I couldn't make it scan at all. Ian (also an REM fan)

Meanwhile in England...

Some Dutch don't like the Germans either. Or maybe they are fed up with Brits thinking they're German as Dutch sounds a bit German if you don't know either language that well. They bridle somewhat. You can normally tell they're Dutch as they'll have something orange on. Or if you're on a campsite in France, probably better to assume they're dutch. I'm convinced Holland must be empty in the summer as almost every campsite we go to is chockablock with Dutch. I seem to meet nice friendly people wherever I go from whatever country. I think there's a parable about that, or maybe an apocryphal

[spits tea all over his keyboard and screen] Six HUNDRED dollars! Plaques and other engraved things are a good idea. Or you could buy something for the pack, and put a name plaque on it, and have a photo with the cubs and the thing framed for the cub master. To be facile, if they liked cooking, a new big metal ladle with "Bob's ladle" down the handle. One of our local huts has "Sue's Kitchen" but then she was the group scout leader and it was In Memoriam so slightly different. There's some nice stuff in the world scouting shop.

FYI, and out of interest...UK HQ directly employ about 300 people full time for about 450,000 young people. Though counties also employ a few people, we have at least one admin person, and staff to run campsites, in our County that's 13,500 young people and 3,500 volunteers, and about 3 employees, excluding campsite staff. UK wide volunteers, there's about 100,000 of us. Sometimes it's a bit creaky, and things don't happen as fast as an employee would get them done but...we muddle through.

Or just have no one-to-one between any leader and young person, no matter what the gender. I.e. there's always another young person or adult there. It doesn't really matter what flavour everyone is.

Maybe BSA aren't as bad as you think they are.

A fire always improves morale, and is therefore necessary. Our Portuguese chums had some pretty bad forest fires this year, they grow an awful lot of the worlds cork oak there, so it's *very* important. Apparently their fires were in a hole on the beach not more than 12" diameter. If the flames were more than flickering out the top, the fire was too big. When they came to us, we were in 400 acres of British woodland (close to the original woods that were the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh's wood), to be cliched, it wasn't the driest summer we've ever had in the UK, and over the winter th

We do that too, and it seems to need an awful lot of very important and vital poking and prodding.

As a mum? I'd worry about it, and feel a little sad for my son. From the details given, it could anything on a scale from the other scouts just being in the middle of a game and not wanting to think of a 3 handed game, to them deliberately excluding your son because he's special/different/they don't like him, in the middle there's being a bit selfish, or a bit un-scoutlike. Truth is somewhere on that scale. If your son's not bothered by it, it's not really a problem. Maybe if there was an opportunity not long after I may have had a quiet little word with the two boys, but only if I'd obse

Half eleven? Time for a snack. You're running a bit late for morning elevenses, but we'll let it slide, and if it's half eleven in the evening, then it's decision time, go to bed, or get the beers and bad food in, possibly start dancing. As for the telly choices, looks like "Sunday evening telly" to me, mostly gentle drama, no gore, no swears, no sex, nothing wrong with that of course, there was one called Kingdom with Stephen Fry in the lead role that was similar to those sorts of things. I'm sure I've got a book in me, scouting anecdotes and the like. Crikey, I could do a half hou

All things being equal (i.e. we've booked and put a deposit down) we have one night's camping for my explorer scouts at Brownsea Island in the summer. Looking forward to being on "hallowed ground", walking in the footsteps etc, though I've been told not to get my expectations up too much by some, if memory serves you can't have open fires there anymore, but it should be an interesting start to the summer camp. We also go to Gilwell Park most years, in the summer, they have a camp with about 4500 Explorer scouts attending, and a great big heap of activities, and not much sleep. The little

Well everyone's heard of Boy Scouts right? Am I right? There you go then, the scout "brand" is just behind a popular fizzy soft drink and a fruit based tech company. Possibly. It must be an amazing brand because everyone has heard of it. I really can't see how that fits in with Asian Licensing but hey, write your speech...something something leverage something something synergy etc etc for 10 minutes or so job done.

Wise words you speak.

Yes, it's how we stop the sky cows from escaping. Handy tip: When camping in Britain, always check you aren't in a field under a herd of sky cows, they can make a right mess if they "pat" your tent.

Then your boy needs to talk to their leaders and say "if you do have a girls den, my programme must not change". Like the anecdote says, if you change the programme to accommodate some perceived difference, then it might not suit the majority. Girls will be joining because they want to do "Cub Scout" things, if those things go away, yes, expect membership to hemorrhage. WisconsinMama's experience of mixed hockey chimes with my experience of my boy playing cricket, they had a couple of girls on the team, not enough to make a whole team, they all played to the same rules, and the bowlers di

No idea, I vaguely remember her saying something about "the Americans helping" when they started up, but nothing more specific than that.

I got given this badge at the Spanish National Jamboree. The leader didn't have the greatest of English (but way better than my Georgian!) so I think the story goes was that she was involved in setting up scouting locally, or maybe in Georgia (yes, we're not talking the state here). Looks like they got some help from BSA. She said, and I did understand this bit, that this was the very first custom made badge produced by/for Georgian Scouting after they formed in the 1990s. I was rather touched she gave this to me.