Cambridgeskip

The times when an adult should raise their voice are few and far between. As a general rule it should involve having to get someone's attention very quickly, probably in a safety related moment eg "mess tent is on fire, everybody out," or "put that axe that you were swinging around now." An adult having a "bark" on them that they can bring out is useful in such situations. As a general rule though any kind of balling out of a scout by an adult should be done with a level voice, once all the facts are known and understood and normally away from the rest of the troop. As per Stosh's comm

That is such a shame. We get a little bit of that here but not very much. Certainly I've never encountered it and I started helping with cubs when I was 16, 23 years later I'm still around! Certainly as an organisation TSA actively encourages younger adults to get involved. It provides a breath of fresh air and enthusiasm and new ideas compared to the likes of me. Any parent giving me or any of my team a hard time for being a non parent leader would be invited to either put up and shut up or find a different youth organisation for their child to join. I simply wouldn't put up with it. Then I d

I am curious as to why you think that will be the case? I don't get why it follows that bringing in new adults will create the environment you describe? Different country I know but the none of the adults, be they men or women, create drama or seek to change things to make it a "safe space". The only thing done in that respect is certainly we won't tolerate any form of sexism, same as we won't tolerate any other form of bullying, but scouts now with boys and girls looks broadly like scouts did when I was one 25 years ago and it was just boys. Maybe it's because the vast majority of our

I have a feeling we're saying exactly he same thing here! I think the only difference is that when organisations tell a kid this is character building they aren't really that fussed, they just want to do the character building stuff because it's fun. 12 year olds don't sign up to learn how to camp independently with their friends because it shows they are a great leader or team worker or whatever. They sign up to do it because it is great fun. New recruit started last night. She's about as young as they can be to start the scout section, only tuned 10 a few days ago. We had a wide game

I think you're right for younger ones, cubs with you and beavers/cubs here. When it comes to scouts/venturers/explorers though the gate keeper is the child themselves. Mum and Dad may from time to time say enough's enough, you have to chose, we can't afford to do everything, or it's getting in the way of school work but ultimately it is the child making the call and it is them that you are selling to. It's an unusual 12 year old who turns up because mum and dad think it's good for them. And your average 12 year old doesn't really care about character building stuff. He or she likes lig

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the headline high adventure type stuff. It's pointless because you can;t do that every week or every month and the kids get annoyed that they don't get what they wanted. I'm talking more about plugging that week to week low level outdoor adventure. Basically kids outdoors with smiles on their faces. These are three of my favourite photos from various camps with cubs and scouts. And this a short bit of video. Not a mountain, white water river or glider between them, albeit they are all things we've done. No big stuff that's going to get parents thin

I agree with you to the extent that that peer to peer stuff, taking responsibility etc is great for personal development and should certainly be what scouts are doing. What I'm not convinced by is whether plugging that is what gets them through the door in the first place. From a marketing perspective I think the emphasis on outdoor adventure is where to begin, and introduce them to the patrol method when they get through the door. Think of it as like reading. It's a rare 11 year old that reads Dickens, Austen or Steinbeck. Most are perfectly capable but you need to get them into the l

Matt - That is a genius idea, thank you!

For WSJ you'll probably find they all get given an event one, colour coded between youth and adults, that will be compulsory to wear while there. So teach someone how to tie one may be a good question!

So.... I've been asked to be an out of county member of the panel that is selecting participants for WSJ 2019 in another county here in the UK. It's being done over a weekend in October so plenty of time to prepare. One part of it is an interview. There's a good deal of guidance about what to look for etc which of course I'll be sticking to but there does appear to be room to be creative at this stage with questions. So as host country I thought I'd get some ideas from yourselves as to questions to ask. I can't guarantee to use them as I may well yet be given more guidance to follow! But f

My scouts have a great expression for any adult who is just embarrassing when it comes to doing that. "Home wiv ma downies". One of the most scathing put downs I've ever heard! (thankfully not directed at me. So far.)

As Ian said, it's a glorified urban scavenger hunt. The phone boxes are indeed becoming difficult to find. In some ways we're lucky being a tourist trap because it's about the only place you see them these days, the iconic red phone boxes have been retained in a few spots like Cambridge. Other than that they've nearly all gone. This version is only a couple of hours, a normal scout evening, just meeting in town rather than our HQ. Cambridge city centre is pretty compact! There are longer versions you can set up, just depends on the time you've got. List of what they were asked to find

So just for fun... some piccies! LAst night was an annual favourite for the troop, the Monopoly run! The patrols are let loose in cambridge city centre to try and find various things from car park height limits to what is in certain shop windows etc. Along the way they have to get some photos. Patrol as human pyramid, patrol in a phone box, member of the public wearing a scout necker. One of the first things the PLC put down when planning the year, there would be insurrection without it! This year we picked up a couple of potential new recruits along the way, simply by having a pub

That's good to hear! Our HQ can sometimes be a bit corporate, it's nice when they are a bit more human

What he said! At the end of the day you can't put up with this and neither should the rest of the cubs have to. Get the parents involved and if they don't sort themselves out those cubs are history. Harsh but sometimes necessary. Remember as well that cubs should be preparing them for scouts. They can't go behaving like that in scouts they need to be learning now.

Just passing again.... seeing as I seem to have caused the thread I guess I should say I hope I didn't offend anyone with the original comment..... Certainly wasn't the intention. As you were.

Wow! The $125 is about £100 at today's exchange rate, which compares broadly with the £90 my troop charges. That covers nearly everything we do on a Thursday night and some of the less expensive weekend stuff (District incident hike, district archery competition), plus national capitation, camps come extra. $350? Seriously? That is starting to sound properly expensive. Not surprised some parents are starting to make choices.

I think Ian makes a very good point here. There is a very human and very natural desire, when faced with a big problem, to look for simple causes and simple answers to those problems. Rarely do those simple causes and answers exist, especially when looking at the decline in an organisation as large as BSA. Fixing those problems, whatever they are, doesn't mean having to change the core of the program. Since I joined as Cub in 1986 the UK Scout Association has changed in many ways. Age ranges, badges, uniforms, girls, PR, it's all changed. But at the end of the day what my scouts do on

Yes! Sorry! Example, we have two 18 year old female ASLs who we have because they have been with the group all the way from Beavers to Explorers and out the other end

With regard to the UK I would be very hesitant to link the drop in numbers in the 1990s with going coed. I was a scout at the time and what put most boys off was the fact that it had stagnated and its image sucked. I used to get a hard time at school for being a scout and no one cared that girls could now join. I was teased for the dreadful uniform. Yes we lost some adult members over it and most didn't come back but an awful lot more adults have come on board who wouldn't have if it was single sex. That took time but it didn't eventually happen.

I sent 15 scouts (couldn't make it myself) to spend two weeks with our twin troop in Canada (one on camp, one on home hospitality). They came back without having caused a diplomatic incident Loads of photos here, my favourite one here taken just after they'd all got hooked on baseball at Toronto Bluejays.

Pretty similar this side of the pond. Most scouts like to email. When I reply I CC parents. Quite rare for them to phone! In terms of the system in the OP surely this is counter productive? I'll admit it, sometimes I ignore the phone. (and occasionally specific people!) When I do I would rather they left a voicemail rather than kept calling me. If I didn't pick up first time it's for a reason. ie I don't want or can't talk to them right now!

Matt From having read the various threads on this subject and broadly stayed silent I would agree with you that this aimed at coed and not family camping. Like you I see this "family" term as no more than a euphemism for going coed. I would also add that from experience this side of the pond fewer people will actually quit over membership changes than do so in reality. That's human nature, people say they'll do things then back away when the reality bites. BUT - don't think nobody will. Reading though the various threads there are clearly some who are very passionate about this and

Quite simply it varies from country to country. Some have fully mixed troops, including mixed patrols, some have separate boys and girls troops. I could't name any but I believe some have boys and girls patrols in the same troop. So pick a country and have a look!

Marmite in a pasta sauce and a spoonful of sugar if using tinned tomotoes