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....

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 carefully so you don't show me up! :-)

Arrivederci!

Ian

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

Two teams played under their own rules.  But is wasn't football anymore or even Association Football.  It was American Football.

 

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? 

I'm surprised a mere mortal could pick up Thor's wallet!

 

@@Stosh, my Scout found $40 at our hotel in Disney World and turned it in. They found the owner and the resort gave my son a free no-line pass...which he turned down. His sister didn't forgive him for the rest of the trip. 

 

We received an invitation to the castle for dinner. We were told we "won" it in a contest. Had a three hour exclusive dinner with about 10 characters in a private room at the top of the castle.

 

At check out I was told by the GM of the property (an Eagle Scout) that he wanted tor reward our Scout and knew he would not take charity for his good deed. I tried to pay for the dinner and he simply said to make sure the Scout grew up to be an honest and responsible adult doing good deeds for others.

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 Queen's Scout Award Parade, in my uniform, and someone handed me a mobile phone they'd just found on a bench "because you're a scout". And yes, I managed to reunite it with the owner of course. It felt good. Why would you do anything else?

(and picking up Thor's wallet - very droll)

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 thing with putting the slowest near the front is whether they will feel pressure to walk faster, tiring themselves out quicker, and ending up struggling even more.

Aaah, hiking, it's all in the head.

I think the title says it all BOY Scouts whereas in the UK it's SCOUTS.

 

If I wanted to join Scouts I would naturally assume it was not membership restricted in any way, but if the organization was named BOY Scouts or GIRL Scouts, I would assume the membership is limited/restricted to gender.

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.

Perfect example. Same thing with orienteering courses. Go figure. Helluva lot of fun and yet, we cannot do with anyone in the Cub program. Winter camping is another. No Klondike even for the day.

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

Perplexed.

Because, really, @@Krampus, Britain is awash in police boxes.

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?

I've always referred to it as Banana Republic Generals. 

 

All show, no go.

 

I think if we were to go with the fur coat and knickers, it would get Americanized to trench coat and pants, and that would not be good. 

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 a (UK) award of merit, go figure, as you might say.

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, always in a large paddling pool type affair, I really can't see any significant risk from this as a supervised activity.

The great big zorb balls, I've been at Gilwell Park, our national HQ site, and they've brought a commercial team in to run it going down a hill they have there. The company set up a great big elastic/webbing net thing across the bottom of the field to stop the zorb, strapped two explorers into the zorb, then watched helplessly as the ball rolled down the hill, accelerating all the way, hit the net, bounced straight over, and carried on down the hill through bushes and scrub until it came to rest in a hedge. I hadn't laughed so hard in ages! The people inside were fine, but I guess if there had been a brick wall at the end, or the scrub had ripped the zorb apart or something, maybe they could have got injured. The organisers were wiping egg off their faces. Sometimes the great big zorb balls they just run them down an inflatable slide thing, a completely different case which is about as safe as you could get! Queasyness aside.

No, sounds like a group of people who have forgotten the difference between risk aware and risk adverse.

Oh, and I spent the weekend paintballing with my Explorers. They loved it. Sorry!

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 anyway.

Then part of me felt I'd let those kids around the fire down,

a) they'd have to listen to more of the same

b) they'd only get one side of the argument

c) they probably wouldn't feel able to put their position forward with no one else there to interject or stop this leader from banging on.

I like a bit of light hearted conversation around the fire, and I don't mind if we get a bit deep or serious either sometimes, but should I have done something different?

Ian

 you can show your boys The Sound of Music

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

Actually, over the years, we (along with other non-profits) have had a steady stream of land donations. Not sure how unusual Pennsylvania is in that behavior.

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