Cambridgeskip

Interesting responses there... Strangely in terms of teaching history there is often the complaint made here that it centers too much on the second world war. There is of course little doubt that the two world wars were without the doubt the biggest event in British history since the Norman invasion of 1066. The first world war caused the biggest social changes and the second the biggest geo political changes and it's impossible to understand the UK's place in the world without understanding them. It even affects our scouts. We went gliding last summer at an airfield that was established a

Interesting experience with the troop last night that I thought I'd share..... So this term my troop has had an in take of 5 new scouts none of who were cubs before. It's quite unusual, the vast majority of ours feed through from the cub pack in our group with only a handful of "externals". So with them not having a cubs background we introduced a bit of scout history to the troop last night with a game of call my bluff. The hope being that the knowledge of the existing scouts would seamlessly get transferred to the newbies. Hmmmmm...... First how to do it. A big favourite game

Thanks for the thoughts chaps, some food for thought. Not sure what I'll do with them yet! It's a motorised glider (ie engine to get off the ground then it gets switched off) owned by our neighbouring scout county. They don't have any airfields where they can operate it from in their county so keep it at a gliding club just outside Cambridge, we had a couple of days with them last summer camp where the scouts were taken gliding, adults got to have a go at the end. Being handed the controls was somewhat scary even with the instructor sat next to me, I was quite surprised at how heavy hand

Er..... What's a one wheeled cart? Having the necker on most of the time is pretty standard, it's most useful at large scout campsites with lots of groups there, it makes identifying my mob at a distance easier. Back to the original post, do you have the option of staying at a scout summer camp but self programming so getting the best of both worlds? Or are you obliged to follow the programme that they offer?

How annoying! It's viewable in the UK. Youtube rules here are basically they have an agreement with the big 4 record labels so you can use it but you get adverts automatically applied. Photos here instead!

Organising your own summer camp in so far as not signing up to do a fixed programme is quite standard this side of the pond, although for most troops it doesn't mean full on green field camping. Typically it involves camping at a scout owned camp site, booking some of the activities that are available there for part of the time and self programming the rest. The only time we did it near enough from scratch was last summer when we did a cycle tour and camped at various places including a birds pf prey rescue centre, a sailing club and an airfield (there was a scout association glider and in

How do BSA currently handle things on international events? There are several BSA units on US military bases in the UK. If they use UK scout campsites or take part in district or county events in UK (as some of them do) then this is something they already facing and dealing with. Units that go to world jamborees deal with this already. In 2019 BSA are hosting, what are the plans for that? It's not a hypothetical question. It's happening already. The question is how?

You have taken that somewhat out of context. The factsheet is not there as part of any kind of award system, it is there to reflect the fact that scouting, at least in the UK, does not exist in a vacuum. Scout Leaders are trusted adults in the lives of young people and that means that young people may wish to talk to us about many issues, some of which will be personal issues. So in that context TSA produces material, some of it aimed at young people, some of it geared towards adults, to provide help and advice on a number of issues. Coming out is one of them. Also included is divorce, be

On this one I think I have to refer to the quote about our nations being divided by a common language. The term "promotion" in terms of homosexuality is a big red rag in the UK. It comes from legislation introduced in the 1980s which prevented teachers from "promoting" homosexuality and was there because people honestly believed that gays were trying to groom and turn teenagers. Complete nonsense of course. But that is why I took your comments why I did. If by promotion you mean telling people that it's ok to be gay and that they are welcome then frankly the UK Scout Association is gui

So yes, back in the room. To be honest I doubt our growth (and 9 or 10 years actually!) is specifically due to gays or atheists, atleast not specifically, probably more associated with girls though. Bit of background..... In the late 90s and early 2000s TSA saw a dramatic fall in members dropping from around 600K down to less than 400K in just a few years. The reason for that was mainly that it had stagnated. There had been no significant changes or updates to the programme since the late 60s or early 70s. It was stale and no longer reflected what the kids wanted. The only change h

Will happily do so later but right now off out with Mrs Cambridgeskip, catch you later!

Worth bearing in mind that sometimes to get things fixed you sometimes have to let them break properly. The nature of the scout leader beast is they tend to be very committed people who have difficulty sitting on their hands when they see a job not being done. I'm as guilty as anyone. When they see problems that are not theirs to fix they tend to go ad fix it. Volunteering for this that and the other. Before you know it they are stressed out of their minds and they are doing too many things to do any of them properly. When that happens sometimes you have to step away and let some of th

No. They send contingents to pride events. That is not promoting homosexuality or trying to turn anyone but about saying it's ok to be gay and you are welcome in the scout association as a youth or adult member. The reason for doing that is that many people in the gay community in the UK think they won't be welcome and it's about over coming that. The idea that there are hordes of gays just itching to come along and turn everyone gay is frankly laughable.

The biggest issue that I've found in the UK is that a lot of parents are already very stretched time wise. There is increasing pressure to work longer and longer hours. Many of them don't finish work till after scouts start time. Many travel with work a lot and time with families is precious. Also there are a lot more things to volunteer for. One of my ASLs is 74 and has been at the group since he was an 8 year old cub! The stuff of legend Talking to him he says that when he was a scout that was basically all there was to do other than school or church. Now there are a whole mirade of

Seriously? We'd have complete insurrection if the summer term didn't end with a massive water fight involving super soakers of every kind. Is this actually enforced anywhere? Or can you chaps get away with conveniently forgetting about it? Also the others, balistas are great fun! Although we did destroy a 40 litre water carrier once while using it as a weight on a trebuchet. Boomerangs are also awesome! for a while we had an Australian leader with out cub pack who is also a mechanical engineer. He had a huge collection of boomerangs and would bring them to camp. They were fantastic fun

Hello all Like I did last year it's time to tap you all up again for our troop's annual charity event, The Sun Run. It's an over night run/hike/whatever it takes, over 18 miles from the city of Ely, north of Cambridge, back to our HQ in Cambridge. We do it the nearest weekend to the summer solstice, starting off on the dot of sunset (21.24 BST) with the target of getting back by sunrise (04.38) This year it is in aid of The Teenage Cancer Trust who provide cancer treatment and more personal support for teenagers with cancer. As usual the scouts themselves have chosen the charity, i

A couple of things I’ve read recently have got me thinking about the “character building†side of scouts and what we do to develop “character†in them. In an ideal world of course life is fair. If you work hard, do your fair share, play by the rules etc. Things go well for you. And there are plenty of ways of encouraging that. The patrol that works as a team, gets its chores done ends up having time to do something fun before dark while the patrol that messes around doesn’t. We don’t live in an ideal world of course. Things happen in life that are distinctly unfair. The “

The memory that still makes me chuckle..... My last summer camp as a scout in 1993. The first evening after pitching camp we went for a tour of the campsite. Bear in mind that girls had only been allowed into scouts in the UK since 1991 so most troops, including mine were all boys. During the tour we noticed a troop of Girl Guides camped and knowing looks passed between me and the other two patrol leaders. On about day 3, with a few hours of free time, the three of us did something strange, we took a shower! We found some clean clothes, combed our hair and rerolled our neckers. We

In the UK it's pretty common for a group to have it's own building, probably around half of them do. Mine does! Others typically rent a space in a church hall or school or community center. And by that I mean they may have some cupboards to store things in and then get to use a hall a few hours a week. Yes there are some huge advantages to having your own building. You can store everything in one place. Groups at church halls typically have their camping gear in the garage or loft of the leaders. After camp you can have a kit explosion, drying tents and other kit in the hall rather than at

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s when we had whole sale changes to the programme here there was a proposal to drop the necker from the uniform. The result was close to insurrection from the kids! I don't know how it works with the optional one with you but for us each group in a district has their own colours. The kids take real pride in them particularly at district and county events when it becomes really quite tribal! The necker was retained. It is up to the individual scout what they use as a woggle. Some will buy one specially, some will keep their old coloured plastic one from cu

I think it depends on what you see as the purpose of uniform. Young people have a very basic desire to "belong" to something, that's the same where ever you are in the world. And that in itself is one of the reasons why scouting has grown for over a century and is continuing to grow. The uniform is part of that. It may well be that scouts are shy of wearing it in the street, and given the hard time they sometimes get for it I can't blame them. Yet that uniform, when they are at their meeting place or on camp means something. It's part of who they are and what they belong to. Now that's

If that text was being used to justify the continuing exclusion of one group of people from some roles in society and indeed in some parts of the world to bully, imprison and even execute those people then yes, I hope that people would enter into debate on it.

Does this not take Paul's letter out of context? It was written to the early church in Rome prior to Paul's planned visit. It was not intended for other people. And that has to be seen within the context of Roman culture. Rome didn't have a concept of homosexuality as we have it today, ie a loving relationship of equals between two people of the same sex. Instead it was all about an expression of what they saw as masculinity. A man was allowed and indeed encouraged to have sex with younger men in order to show his dominance over them, specifically taking the dominant role. It was not abou

Sounds familiar with a mixed troop. The girls are better at getting in right first time, the boys are better at fixing it when it goes wrong.

Stosh et al A question fo you, and this is a genuine question, something that I have never quite figured out. In the books of the law in the Bible there are all kinds of strange laws that we no longer follow. The most well known being no consumption of shell fish, or pork or wearing of mixed fibers. There's plenty more where they came from too. The majoirty of these laws are ignored by the overwhelming majority of Christians. Why is it that the law against homosexuality is one that you feel needs to be followed when so many of the other laws have been dropped?