Cambridgeskip

There is no set way of doing it in the U.K. How my troop does it is that when one or more PL is moving onto explorers the PLC (including those leaving) collectively select their replacement. Patrols are more of a way organising the troop than a troop being a way of organising the patrols! More the point though is that this kid just didn’t understand the idea of youth members having any say on who the youth leaders are

Some ponderings from across the Atlantic.... This week at scouts one of my younger (11 year old) scouts brought a friend along. Nothing all that unusual in that, it's how we've had new sign ups in the past. However this time it wasn't a friend who was particularly interested in joining, he was just staying with a friend for a couple of days so tagged along for the evening. So far so good. I had a bit of a chat with him and he was particularly curious about the patrol system and in particular the concept of patrol leaders. It just did not compute with him that we have older scouts in

Quick question, last night I was trying to access my PMs from the mobile version of this site but for the life of me couldn't find them! Can anyone point the right direction for them specifically from the mobile site?

This one is at the actual Kings Cross station in London where it is in the Harry Potter books. The staff originally put the sign up as a joke and it became a tourist attraction in its own right. We passed by on a trip to London and one of our new recruits asked to be invested there. We attracted a bit of a crowd!

Good afternoon all! Been a little while since I frequented this part of t'interweb Anyway just doing the rounds and posting my troop's review of the year. Been a strange one. Started in semi lock down and ended up somewhat normal! If you've got 5 minutes then enjoy

Never knew that! Things you learn. That said I generally try to avoid most things royal related.

Yes it will become the Kings Scout Award. Not quite sure what you mean about facing right or left??

At the risk of this getting political…. We had the same head of state for over 70 years without so much as anything inconvenient as an election. I think the U.K. could learn something from the USA on that front.

We're luck enough in Cambridge UK to have a small local airport, not suggesting you come over hear (although there is a convenient runway!) but if there is one near you it is a fascinating visit if you can arrange it. We do it every few years and the scouts all love it. Highlight is normally the maintenance hangars, seeing planes in pieces having various things done to them. The owner is also a troop old boy so does it for free. Alas we've never been allowed in the control tower. Reason being Cambridge is close enough to London Stansted that it is the first choice divert airport if they h

Hi all We've just had a family leave our group and move from the UK to Boulder Co. They have found a scout troop for their older son to start with there but are struggling to find a cub pack for their youngest. Anyone here from that area? Can you recommend a pack at all?

Small incident with my scouts last night that really made me smile. we had an evening punting on the river in Cambridge. For those unfamiliar it’s peculiar to Cambridge and Oxford and a handful of other places with shallow rivers. Anyway as we could only put 5 scouts on each punt it didn’t quite work out as punting in patrols. So we asked the scouts to organise themselves into groups of 5. So far so good. But we’ve got that one scout who is a bit of an outsider. Goes to a different school to the rest, comes into scouts from quite a long way out. Doesn’t fit in quite

This story doing the rounds really is tiresome. Let's be clear, no one, certainly not children, have been banned from saying anything. The document is a style guide, pure and simple, issued as guidance for anyone putting out written comms to ensure consistency. To be honest I didn't even know we had a style guide till this story came out. Although if you work for any organisation of more than a few hundred people you probably have one that you've never read. The only people who look at it are marketing people. It's a load of stuff and nonsense and part of the whole tiresome trop

Indeed! I think she was just too polite to say it

Thought I'd swing by and share this. A short video made by one of my scouts for the teach a skill part of her Team Leader challenge award. Enjoy! (Warning, it's not for the squeamish!)

A UK scouter writes.... Having a celebrity chief scout is by no means the only factor behind rising numbers in the UK. There was far more to it than that. In the late 90s scouts in the UK was dying on its feet! Broadly because it had stagnated. While there had been the odd tweak here and there there had been no significant changes to the program, uniform, branding, or anything at all really. In 2002/3 there were wholesale changes inclduing age ranges, uniforms, award scheme, branding. Having a known face is great, but it wasn;t the be all and end all of the turn around.

Evening all (Or it is over here anyway!) so swinging by and saw my name in lights so thought I'd respond..., Anyway I think the first thing to note here is that this membership "surge" is really just recovering members that were lost during covid. Kids sign up to scouts because they want we offer. Which is basically being with your friends outdoors. The rest is just noise. When during covid we had to move online, and even when we were face to face it was inititally quite restrictive, a lot of kids quit. And if you look at news stories from this time last year it was reporting a huge drop.

Now that is a great idea! Not sure how the hospital will react to us trying to get one into her. No harm in trying though!

We don't really have ranks as such here. The nearest we have are the Chief Scout awards. So within each age group there is a Chief Scout Award to work towards Beavers (6-8) Bronze Cubs (8-10) Silver Scouts (10-14) Gold Explorers (14-18) and Network (18-25) Diamond, Platinum and Queens Scout. So my scout is working towards her Chief Scouts Gold. To do that she has to complete all 9 of the scout section challenge awards plus any 6 activity badges (what you would call merit badges) of her choice or 6 staged activity badges at an appropriate staged level (staged award

So I'm after ideas.I have a 12 year old scout currently in hospital. I won't go into full details as that's not appropriate but it's not covid. She's had a week in ICU and will now be on a general ward for several weeks after which it is going to be months of rehab.She is an absolutely mad keen scout. Not one of the comes along but it's nothing special types. She's in the sign up for everything, covered in badges brigade.So we're looking to try and provide some kind of program for her that she can do in hospital and/or at home. So involving stuff either she'll have to hand or we can easily get

In the spirit of Christmas I wanted to share something quite heart warming that I've picked up on at scouts over the last few weeks which culminated last night. It's about two girls in the troop. The first one we'll call Jane. Not her real name. Jane is a proper, grumpy, hormonal, adolescent. She is every teenage stereo type. Doesn't say much, particularly to adults. Is stubborn, mutters under her breath, can be a bit rude when she wants to be, answers back a lot. Can't remember the last time she arrived in correct uniform. Is normally burried in a hoody somewhere. Can come across as

So sad. I don't know what it's like in the states but a child in the UK is orders of magntidue more likely to be abused by someone in their own household than anybody else.

Can bylaws be changed? It seems so strange to me to turn away willing and useful volunteers

Silly question but why not? Again I know I type from another country but whats wrong with an adult without a kid in the unit? My troop doesn't have any parent leaders at all, in fact I don't even have any kids of my own at all. Is this a specifically BSA thing not to have non parent leaders?

Typing from the UK so the culture is a bit different but some things to consider. Do you really want every parent involved? Fact is some just wont be suitable. You are looking for someone who is enthusiastic, a team playing, willing to understand and follow rules, willing to get dirty, willing to allow kids to learn by doing and not just hover them. Not everyone is the right person. Decide what it is you need someone else to do. It's very easy to say "I need help", but what do you need help with? Fund raising? Driving a van full of camping gear? Running a Den or Pack evening? Teachin

There's some really interesting stuff there from Barry. Here in the UK scouts is fully coed and what Barry says rings true. While of course there are exceptions as a very broad brush comment girls tend to be better at getting something right first time, boys though tend to be better at fixing it when it goes wrong. So put them on a pioneering project and the girls may well come up with a beautifully lashed contraption quicker. However watch for those projects that suddenly don't work and it tends to be the boys that figure out the work around. That is not to say coed scouts doesn't w