ianwilkins

Thanks all. Interesting stuff. Turns out it was much as I thought from my cultural framework. Mostly Scout Law + Clint Eastwood, but it depends. Probably almost as vague a question as "what is scouting?"* * No, don't answer that.

Argumentative lil' fella ain't he? Good for him.

Genuinely, and I'm not, at least, I don't think I am, asking you to hand me a stick to beat you with... It's just I'm from the UK, and I'm curious, because I don't quite understand, and I'd like to understand more about where you're coming from... In the various girls in the BSA threads, there's a fair bit comments along the lines of "we're turning boys into men" "we're teaching boys to be manly", and so on. What do you mean when you say boy scouts is for turning boys into men? Or making them "manly"? Is it "just"* getting them to live the scout law in everyday life? Or is

In a Cub pack (aged 8-10 in the UK), of, say, 30 kids, they are split into "sixes", usually with, hey, around six kids in them. The "sixer" is the "patrol leader", and the "seconder" the assistant patrol leader". I'm not sure in reality how much power and authority they wield, it will certainly vary from pack to pack. https://members.scouts.org.uk/factsheets/FS170056.pdf Ian

These days we have the "yellow card". And all adults that have unsupervised access to young people have to have a background check. https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/3099/young-people-first-code-of-practice-yellow-card?cat=419,299,304 Basically everything that was supposed to apply to boys (and yes, we've had our share of unsavouries in the past, and no doubt some will still creep out the woodwork in the future) now applies to boys and girls. There's things like "no inappropriate contact" on that card. In the past I've had to comfort teary boys and girls, yes, aged 15-

First a little background. I was a Venture Scout Leader, which in the UK was co-ed from some time in the 70s, the other younger sections were not co-ed until after I was a leader, 1991 apparently. So I've not been a leader of single gender sections, but I've been around while they changed from "boys" to "co-ed". I'm pretty sure I'm not understating it, but I genuinely don't think the programme as documented changed at all, I mean, apart from changing references to "boys" to the rather more prosaic "young people". We always had badges like "home help", and ones that involved learning to

My pennyworth from my UK perspective... Seems like only a few weeks ago, okay, July is the earliest conversation I've seen, where you were being "consulted" about membership changes. And here we are three months later and it's a done deal? Yes, I can see why some of you have woken up a bit sore this morning. If it's any consolation, UK Scout Association have done the much same in the past. And yes, it upset people then too. Now, it's tricky for me, as I haven't been in a single gender group in scouting since I left scouts and joined ventures in 1986 aged 15ish. There's been a hell of

Crikey! How big are the reserves? Are BSA about to be litigated out of existence?

Hi folks, I run a(n unofficial) competition to find the best ten pin bowling team in scouting! It's for any section, from any country. The basic premise is, you enter, go bowling with your cubs or scout or whatever age range you work with, and enter your scores on the website. Then when the competition ends, we add up all the scores, and see who has won! The competition is run by age group/section, so there's a separate competition for cubs, scouts, and adults can join in too! It runs from December 2017 to end May 2018. Previous years we've had entries from all over the wor

I hope they get advised that it might be an idea to get one for the jamboree, or rather, two or three or four. Swapping neckers is a thing. Though there's a sliding scale of desirability, I'd guess that a US necker or a UK necker, or one of the other big contingents, would be low desireability, while one from, say, Senegal, would be extremely sought after. As the only UK group at our first foreign jamboree this summer, it was an eye opener! I certainly hope so. That's the plan for the UK contingent I'm pretty sure. I know the Home Hospitality at the last one, one of ours stayed wi

Something about the expression "Camping with the fam" just sets my teeth on edge. I'm sure it's not being lost in translation as "fam" is not an uncommon abbreviation over here either. Just feels like an embarrassing Uncle trying to be down wiv da kidz.

Even we Brits draw the line somewhere. The scouts do the run, the leaders wait for them in the pub. The UK Monopoly board has a list of places in London. As you intimate, there is an adults version of the Monopoly Run where you go to London and try and have a drink in each location. Some versions have you taking a picture in each location. We've done a non alcoholic one in London with our Explorers, actually, there were loads of teams from across the UK and if you were the first ones at a property you "bought" said property, then everyone that turned up after you were charge rent. All d

Meanwhile, in the UK, in The Scout Association that used to be called the Boy Scout Association but changed. Wednesday night we had seven new starters in Explorers. Three girls, four boys. We played some games, and talked about what they want to do this term. Last weekend we had 25 camping, 13 girls and 12 boys. Some hammocked, some were in teepees (well, strictly speaking Nordic Lavvu really, but no one knows what that is). On summer camp we were at the Spanish National Jamboree on the canary islands, and as it happened one boy and one girl (by chance) got selected for the hike

You could use C:Geo on a smartphone. It usually works for me, and it's free. Quite fun to get some trackables and set them loose. One of ours has done over 14,000 miles!

If it's any consolation, I find the same with my Explorer scouts in the UK. They sit down to do the programme, and it's all day trips and expensive stuff, and stuff they've done before. What could we do? Well we know we can do X because we've done X before. Let's do X. [time passes, we do X] Explorers is boring, we're always doing the same thing! Me: sigh! Ian

Yup, because the only time* BSA makes the news is when there's strife and angst over policy change. Or the bad leader in jail. Who'd want to join that? * Ok, there's probably some "Scout gets every merit badge" or "Eagle Scout fixes garden for the elderly" local "and finally" type stories but... Maybe the UK is chasing celebrity but with Mr Grylls as chief scout, he's got enough clout to get "scouting is a good thing" type stories into magazines and newspapers, and there's a few more "ambassadors" like Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton and Steve Backshall (ok, big in the UK) who al

Agreed. We took 57 this year to the Spanish National Jamboree, so we added in another 2000 they were interacting with. Fun! I think the largest unit I've camped with before that is 35 ish. Then again, I run a national camp for 400 every year, and you're right. In a small summer camp environment, you can cope with one or too, ummm, spirited? Wayward? Difficult? But yes, get a few more than that...and if they meet up and start working together...yes, it can make leaders lives difficult. Yup, we have that too, and yes, it does cause extra complications. I think I've had all

Yes, loss of the patrol method would be...a game changer. And not in a good way. I can't quite remember what happened in the UK, but I seem to remember Girl Guides, well, there were no doubt local rumblings and mumblings. But I think their HQ may have said something like "we've got the same broad goals but we're doing different things aimed at different girls" and probably reminded people there's more of them than scouts in the UK.

I went to a presentation last week about an expedition some of our explorer scouts and network did. Two mixed gender teams of 5, aged 16-21. 4 days walking 3 nights camping. Remote supervision (i.e. an expedition assessor would meet them either in the evening or morning and see how they were doing). They were described by the assessor as two of the best teams they've ever had. We've done mixed gender camping for years. We've done mixed gender hikes and camping without close adult supervision. We've occasionally had mixed gender tents. I'm not really sure what there is to

Actually, this thread has left me a little shocked. We're shortly going to select people to come to the world scout jamboree in 2019. I guess I'll have to hope that the attitudes shown is the exception rather than the rule amongst the boy scouts, and that as people will be from all corners of the world, things will be somewhat different.

I'm one of the organisers of an annual weekend camp for about 400 Explorer Scouts and Network over here in the UK, so aged 14-25, plus their leaders. Two or three years ago at the end of the evening's entertainment we turned the house lights up and a someone handed in a £10 note they'd just found on the floor. The following morning I did the briefing to everyone, I reminded them that a scout is honest, and that we had found a £10 note and would like to return it. Of course, a few wags yelled "mine!" instantly. But I insisted, if someone really thought they had lost a tenner, then

If wikipedia is correct, we in the UK started allowing girls in all sections from 1991 optionally (i.e. the leaders chose if they wanted to) and made it compulsory in all sections in 2007. How's that for a gradual move? Of course, when we got to 2007 there were still a fair few that had to be leant on, or they left, to comply.

Thinking about it, I suspect for us some of our mothers like their daughters to have a decent male role model in their lives too. I.e. their daughters get to interact with a decent male, you know, that isn't a feckless wastrel like their father. Not many of them granted, but probably some. Probably cold comfort but sometimes it feels (and is) like that over here too.

Well, if they want 100,000s of Girl BSA Scouts (?!?) they're either going to knock that on the head or be shaking the magic female leader tree very hard indeed. Yes, adults can be accused of things, and yes, it ruins reputations no matter what the outcome, there's always a bit of a cloud hanging over them I'm sure. I'm not sure why the gender of the child accuser makes much difference. And yes, it happens in the UK too. We're having a bit of a spate of historic sex abuse cases going to court recently, but as they're historic, back to when there were no girls in the Boy Scouts, it's all

Just so you know, in the UK, you know, where membership numbers are Over the other side of the pond, I've probably said, there is no requirement for female leadership, it's a nice to have. Parents trust their young men and women to me and my fellow leaders because their kids want to be there (mostly) and they trust us. It doesn't seem to matter that we're guys. Campouts, well, we had one the other week where there were 23 Explorers, 9 young women, 14 young men, and three male leaders. It's not a problem. If one of the girls have a delicate first aid problem, they'd come to us and we'd