ianwilkins

Nice, very nice. Presumably, or hopefully, they've had the chance to sample the fruits of their labour by "camping" in the finished article. Good on him. Which reminds me, must think again about fitting in a "sleepover" in a local re-creation of an iron age roundhouse. Ian

Ask parent: "Are you going to be there every single time they need to put a tent up?" Answer will have to be no. "Then they need to learn how to do it on their own."

The dry version is big in Liberia. Hmm, we've got some rolls of damp proof course....

Buongiorno Giulia, If you are on facebook, I would recommend posting a similar message on 1st Facebook Scout Group. It has lots of UK people and mostly leaders but there are some people that will be your age, and from different countries around the world. Another option might be groups to do with the world scout jamboree. You might also be interested in JOTI/JOTA - Jamboree On The Internet/Air. That is in October http://jotajoti.info/and its whole purpose is to get scouts from different countries talking to each other. Oh, and your English is excellent! I've had to write this very c

Give him a adult appointment/leader enrolment form. That should get rid of him. If it ever happens again, you need to have a job to give the parent. Holding the permission forms, or making the leaders a cup of tea or something, you can pull him away with that, and then explain straight up "thank you for trying to help, but I'm trying to teach them to be as self reliant as us adults, so they need to do it themselves". Don't be subtle, it's a man you're talking to. Play him with a straight bat. Ian

There's a slow insidious problem in rugby in the UK, quite a few of the players wear thin layers of padding under their shirts, under armour I believe it's known as, and soft padded head protection. I squarely blame you colonials and your fancy ways. Ian (who will happily watch American football, rugby union, rugby league, would watch aussie rules but it's never on)

He did another good turn by allowing them to feel better about themselves by helping him no?

Excellent! I ran a camp for about 400 of the older sections in the UK, and at the end of the first night, a leader handed in £10 (about $15) he'd found on the floor. At the camp briefing the next morning I asked whose it was, had a few wags pipe up "mine" of course, but then as one lad was on a coach on his way to the theme park, he looked in his wallet and discovered he had just £10, when previously he'd had £20 in there. He spoke to his leader, who spoke to us, and we reunited him with his £10 (well, maybe not exactly the same note but...) I was in Windsor to watch the annual Que

I really do like the idea of the slowest scout setting the pace. You're a team, you're all in it together. I get cheesed off when I get reports back from hikes where the group have more or less split up, or the most commonest one, a bit like stosh's hike, the slow ones catch up with the fast ones just in time for the fast ones to have had a rest and be ready to roll, but unlike stosh, the slow ones need a rest too, but don't get it. The bad feelings fester. On the other hand, I have a feeling that people have a natural walking pace, which is a pace they can go for miles on no problem. The thin

That's just a quirk or chance of the language used when setting the things up in the first place though. UK had Scouts and Girl Guides, and USA had BSA and GSA. Though, my history may be patchy on this. All it meant was it was infinitely easier to open it up to girls in the uk, when there isn't such an obvious barrier. But I do take your point, there's nothing really to stop a motivated person to set up something that could share an umbrella with scouting, but had their own take on membership (or much else) specifics. It doesn't really have to be One Org to Rule Them All. Ian

Meanwhile in the UK, there's been a small ripple of publicity around girls in scouting this week, as it's apparently 25 years since they first allowed girls in all sections, and females are now 25% of the movement. National Census figures show 10 years of youth membership growth. Still long waiting lists in many places, and not enough leaders, but it was probably ever thus.

Seriously? No orienteering! What's wrong with orienteering? Perplexed.

Especially those blue police ones. Almost every street corner.

[waves] Hello!

Make paper geodesic domes. Can you make the both dark somehow? Maybe light painting?

Aaah, we also have "all mouth and no trousers", no, actually, I don't really understand why no trousers either, it just is, for someone who talks the talk, but when it comes to it, doesn't walk the walk. All fur coat and no knickers is I think a phrase for someone who acts classy/posh (fur coat), but isn't (no knickers). Anyway, I'd never mark anyone down for a lack of uniform/incorrect wearing of, but I'm in a different country on that, even when it comes to many in my own country. I have a motley collection of scruff bags, and I run a youth club (apparently), yet somehow I also have

That's quite a sweeping ban isn't it? I've seen most of the zorb ball type activities, and they surely have vastly different levels of risk.... We hire the little runaround ones, and everyone bashes into each other, sometimes there's the odd strain or tweak when a leg meets floor in the wrong way, or there's a a few tears from the little ones as they get jolted unexpectedly, mostly they just run out of puff in short order, as it's pretty physical. If you were going to ban one of them, it would be this one. The one where it's like a hamster ball on water? I've seen it running, alway

Scout spirit is something inside, not outside. What you are, not what you wear. Do you use the expression "all fur coat and no knickers"? Yes, it probably doesn't quite fit, but it popped into my head so... Ian

Thanks everyone. It's helped me put my thoughts in order. I suspect that at least one, if not all three, will have had their opinions on the subject, whether they got to voice them or not I don't know, I expect they kept their own council, and yes, I expect it wouldn't have improved their opinion of the leader to be browbeaten on a topic. I do prefer, for that kind of conversation, to let the explorers take the lead, maybe lob the odd thoughtful comment or question in, but otherwise let them work things out for themselves.

Saturday night, there's two leaders sat around the fire with three of the Explorer Scouts, so aged 14-17. Yours truly is one of those leaders. Not sure how we got onto the topic, but the other leader started banging on about a particular hot political topic over here in the UK, and it seemed that no one else could get a word in. If he had been in the pulpit, he'd have been banging the bible with his fist, and gesticulating somewhat. I fundamentally disagreed with his position, but I kept my own council, preferring to (literally) walk away rather than get drawn in. I needed an early night

Can we put the subtitles on and sing along? If so I'm IN! You could say The Sound of Music makes important points about loyalty to country, family, honour, finding your place in the world and so on, AND you get to sing Do-Re-Me! Ian

Simple...when they scales tip too far away from "fun" to "not fun" for too long. Maybe I'm being flippant or trite, but I think every example we've had so far, it's something/someone sucking the fun out of it. It's supposed to be fun, and it's supposed to be an adventure. Ian

Nice!

Yes, definitely have a big sell off of scout land, after all, it's not like there's a finite supply of it is there? Ian

A view from the UK: Girl scout cookies are part of the tradition, culture, and heritage, of the USA. It makes a good heartwarming "and finally" story. Boy scouts popcorn just doesn't have the same ring to it. Ian