Cambridgeskip

That I'm claustrophobic! Went into an artificial caving complex with some scouts and there is nooooooo way I am ever doing that again. More generally that being outdoors is great therapy.

Been a little while since I last swung by here but I thought I'd drop in and share my new favourite scout photos. There have been many over the years that sum up a moment in time and this is the latest in a long line. So last weekend my merry band of men and women were away on camp. And the weather was horrible. I mean grim. It was always forecast to be pretty wet but even we in England, with our 197 words for rain or whatever it is didn't expect quite this. It started raining around 8pm Friday night just as the scouts were putting up tents in the dark. It proceeded to rain, with varying

A leaders bar is quite common at major events in the UK. We have a strict no under 18s drinking rule and adults who have been drinking are not meant to deal with the scouts directly and we have to maintain minimum adult to scout ratios with adults who have not been drinking, but yes a leaders bar is a thing. Gilwell Park actually has a bar in the main building and the pub quiz on the Saturday night at Winter Camp each January is the stuff of legend! Not sure about the rest of Europe.

This is one of my favourite scout photos. Taken on the way home from our 2016 summer camp. Not a great photo in itself but the memories! We were on a public service bus that stopped outside the campsite that took us to the railway station. The scouts themselves weren't too bad, they had all showered. The problem was their clothes. We'd cooked on fires all week and absolutely everything stank of wood smoke. An awful lot of people got up and moved seats to get away from us! Made me chuckle

Or as my grandad used to say, you can take a horse to water but a pencil must be lead. I’m here all week

I’d always say never criticise another person till you’ve walked a mile in their shoes. That way when you upset them you’re a mile away. And you have their shoes.

I think UK are being told uniform for travel, opening and closing ceremony plus off site days. Rest of the time the only uniform needed is their necker.

I'm seeing one of my scouts off on thursday night, she'll be with you some point on Friday. Look after her

To add to what Ian said... the thing to remember about much of Europe is population density. It is way above what it is in most of the USA. Where I am in Cambridge we are basically on the northern edge of the south east corner of England where we have around 15 million people crammed into an area about half the size of New Jersey. What land isn't urban is farm land. The West Midlands (centred round Birmingham), the English central belt (Liverpool-Manchester- Leeds - Hull) and the Scottish central belt (Glasgow- Edinburgh) are similar. So in the UK we don't have a great deal of really wild area

Over on this side of the Atlantic I spent 17 years working for HM Revenue and Customs, broadly the equivalent of your IRS. On tax fraud there was a much lower threshold for making it a criminal prosecution (as opposed to a civil matter settled out of court) for accountants, lawyers and in particular HMRC staff on the basis that they should know better. So certainly there are examples of different standards of justice out there. Should that be the case here? Certainly not in terms of being more lenient on an Eagle Scout. Should he be treated more harshly because of it? I’m N

Quick update on this one re scout 1. We had a skills tournament tonight. Patrols rotated round various bases where they were given various tasks to carry out based on typical scout skills. Pitch a tent in under 10 minutes. Light a fire to burn through some string. That kind of thing. The twist I tried was that the PLs had to be completely hands off. Couldn’t do anything. Only instruct. She made a really good job of it. She tended to speak to the scouts individually and not try to address them altogether. It was interesting to see how she’s developed her own style of being

So in a few minutes I’m off out the door for our troop’s regular act of madness, The Sun Run. In short a sun set to sun rise charity night hike. If anyone is feeling generous have click here http://12thcambridge.org.uk/blog/2019/06/03/run-for-your-life/ There’s more info and you can sponsor one of the two charities the scouts chose, Mind and Water Aid. Thanks in advance

I've not been to one myself but certainly I've heard of them. They are aimed at the traditional "Rover Scout" age of 18-25 which is still strong in some parts of the world. We call it Scout Network here. I think the last one was in Iceland if I recall right. A couple of friends have been to them and had a fantastic time, they come highly recommended.

Tow rag is my favourite

A quick swing by to this thread, work has been a bit manic so I haven't been popping up much! The chores rota I particularly like. It marries up with one of the other ideas I've given her which is to use props of some sort to draw attention away from her if she's finding it awkward. Small things like when water needs fetching pointing at the water butt. Similarly speaking to each member of the patrol individually rather than collectively, all about being effective without having to be the centre of attention, which I think is the root of the problem.

So last weekend I was on camp with my merry band of men and women and by the end of it two particular scouts had caught my attention, both for very different reasons. Both present things that need a little attention, and I have my ideas about what to do with both of them, but I thought I would see what the collective wisdom of this esteemed forum would through up. In both cases I was already aware of the issues but a weekend on camp really shone a light on them. Just as a reminder our scout section in the UK runs 10-14 year olds so the troop is generally younger, worth remembering for dea

Alas this is specifically for our regular Thursday evening scout night so no camp or hike to get them hungry! Some home made burgers could be quite fun for it though.

Thank you, I'd never stumbled across that one before!

So between them my PLs and adult leaders have come up with the program for the rest of this term. Entirely by coincidence we are going to have a cook out on fires at a local campsite on your very own 4 July (actually we wanted it on another date but had to shuffle dates around due to availability of adults!). I would like the PLs to decide on what the dishes to be cooked are but what I would like to be able to do is point them towards dishes that scouts in the USA would typically cook on a fire, preferably with minimal utensils. There's plenty out there to google but I'd rather get it from the

This is all so sad to read. The good news though is that while we saw similar nonsense this side of the Atlantic when scouts in the UK went coed in the 1990s it has, for the most part, fizzled out. Girl Guides eventually realised that there was no threat to them and the arguments fizzled out. I hope it works out the same with you as well. As for the references to safety in the GSUSA material, they really need to grow up. Everyone is aware of the court cases about sexual abuse at the moment but for any other youth organisation to use that as amunition is a dangerous game indeed.

In recent years there have normally been several sets of "exploding kittens" floating round camp. I don't know if that has made it to your side of the pond yet. It's quite addictive We normally take a volley ball net with us as well and sling it up in a convenient spot (remembering to take it down at dusk. There was that one time.....)

Over the last couple of weeks over here in the UK there have been a series of stories in the papers about the success of a new scout group attached to a state school in Bristol. So this means a scout group run as part of the school as opposed to a scout troop that rents space in the evening. While normally pleased to see the scout movement developing and growing I remain quite sceptical about this and remain to be convinced. I’m not dismissing it out of hand but I do have some question marks over it. I put these comments briefly on a couple of threads in various facebook groups but to mixed r

We’re definitely not at that point! All I have at the moment is hearsay from a group of teenagers without even having met the lad. As in the OP he gets a fair go same as everyone else, I’m just looking to make sure it’s handled with care. Thanks Barry! Precisely. I’m not prejudging, I am simply listening to the scouts and am taking their comments into account when planning for after Easter. I’m not planning on stopping him doing anything or denying opportunities, just looking for ways to subtly manage and potential problems. If it all turns out to be a fuss about nothing th

I thought I'd get some fresh thoughts from the other side of the Atlantic on something I need to ponder. First thing to remember that over here scouts runs 10-14, moving onto explorers at 14 or 14.5. So our scouts are generally younger. With a load of scouts going to explorers at Easter and a couple of recent quitters we are taking no less than 8 new recruits off the waiting list into the troop shortly.. None of them have been cubs, all are brand new to it. This evening I went through the new names with existing scouts asking who knew them, looking for scouts to buddy them for their firs

Ours can see the points go up (and very occasionally down) almost by the minute. We have a white board in the main hall and points are added as we go along. They literally see it being marked up and who is in the lead as any given evening goes on. I don't think you have the Young Leader scheme your side of the pond but we use a YL to specifically keep the points up to date as the evening or camp goes along. It creates some stiff competition!