Cambridgeskip

A couple of years ago a Girl Guides leader sent me the post below, a spoof job advert for a Guide leader. It's very tongue in cheek but makes the point. It might be time for this to find its way to the parents who are making such ridiculous demands of you; JOB DESCRIPTION: Long-term team players needed for challenging permanent work in an often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent communication and organisational skills and be willing to work variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and sometimes 24 hour shifts on call. Some overnight travel requ

Our 2012 summer camp.... one patrol had a member, we'll call him Smithers, who had a habbit of going conveniently missing whenever there were any chores to be done. Gathering fire wood, cooking, cleaning up, You name it, Smithers would be missing and magically reappear when food was ready. PL and APL, having tried nudging him in the right direction, decided he needed a huge great shove. One morning, regular as clock work, Smithers vanished just as they were getting a fire going for cooking. PL and APL got everyone in the patrol to work like demons, doing everything faster than it had ever

First of all you do have to accept that scouts will be a higher priority to some than others. I my troop of 40 I reckon we have around 8-10 who turn up to absolutely every evening, camp, outing etc. We probably have 20 or so in the middle who are there for majority of things but not everything, 5-6 who are a bit flaky, there maybe only half the time and of course the 2 or 3 who we hardly see. But I think everything else has the same issue. Music groups, sport teams etc will have the same thing. The super scout there every week is probably the kid who only turns up to athletics training once a

One part of me is comforted by that quote. It's not just my country that has barking mad politicians. The other part of me is quite creeped out that actually all politicians might be the real McCoy nuts. That quote is truly priceless.

Perhaps I haven't followed US legal ranglings, but precisely what rights are homosexuals being granted that other "social groups" are not? I'm somewhat confused.

I think there's effectively 3 different questions happening here. 1. How do you avoid excess food? I don't know how things work in the USA but here in the UK all money is expected to be routed through the troop. So you can't have a situation where patrol members simply give money to a scout planning the menu and let them get on with it. So as adults we have a little more control. When it comes to planning a camp out we give them a template to fill in which comes up with the costs. Included in that is that we expect them to spend £5 per scout per 24 hours (ie 3 meals). They then b

Here in southern England we don't get proper winters the way you folks do. You have to get up to Scotland for that sort of thing! When we do camp in properly cold conditions (coldest I've taken kids out in went down to -8C over night, not sure what that is in F, sorry!) the one thing the kids often get wrong is that they put so many layers on that they completely fill out their sleeping bag. The problem being that you don't get as much dead air in there and it can actually make you warmer by removing a layer. I recomend that they keep a set of clothes for sleeping in and that set sta

Er.... Stosh..... New Zealand got independence from the UK in either 1852, 1919, 1926, 1931, 1947 or 1973, depending on how you read the history books. Whichever way I'm not sure what the link is. If there is a link though I'd respectfully point out the way our numbers are increasing.

Lions sounds a bit like Squirrels. This was a section for 4-6 year olds which was piloted in Northern Ireland but was not deemed a success so was never rolled out more widely in the UK.

Ah the joy of rumours! It sounds like, if this is true, that it would reflect the UK and Canadian models. Our ages work Beavers 6-8 Cubs 8-10.5 Scouts 10.5 – 14 Explorers 14-18 Network 18 – 25 Its been that way since 2003. The big driver behind that was as King Ding Dong said, we were struggling to keep older teenagers. The change to that age range (previously scouts 10.5-16 and venture Scouts 16-21) has had its pros and its cons. Pros We have kept older teenagers in increasing numbers. My district has gone from 15 scout troops feeding into 2

My troop has started replacing gas lanterns with LEDs. If you haven't used any recently then give them a try. The models that have become available in the last couple of years have been a revelation. They are light weight, the light given off is far more powerful than a gas lantern and because there is no heat the globes are plastic so far more dureable. Give it a try.

I can't comment on the BSA rules (obviously) but I would say go for it. As SSScout says it is the only universal bit of uniform across the world. Anywhere you go if you see a group of kids with neckers on you think "scout". In the UK the kids love them and get quite tribal about them. In any given district each group has their own design which varies massively. Some are one colour, some have a boarder, some are half and half, some are tartan. Back in my day as a venture scout my unit drew from 4 different scout troops. While it had its own design we used to cut the point of the necker fro

My pleasure, always happy to provide a few stories..... On campfires more generally they are a big part of the programme in Europe, and not just the UK. I've seen some pretty elaborate ways of starting them, my favourite involving stretching some fishing line into a climeable tree nearby and having someone up there ready to send something burning down the line into the fire to start it. Fantatsic fun! As for skits I'm a big favourite of the "Expanding machine" where various things get thrown over the top of some kind of barrier, typically a hung up blanket, and get thrown back bigger

So I guess I'd better share the ghost story that scared the screaming heebie jeebies out the Cubs then...... Bear in mind that I was first told this on a night hike when I was a student leader by a fellow student friend who is professionally Scottish. What an accent to hear a ghost story in! A few years ago, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, stood an old house. It had been empty a few years and was a bit of a fixer upper. After laying empty for some time it was finally bought by a young woman in her late 20s. She was a very clever and very driven woman. A lawyer with an Edinburgh law, she wa

About 10 years ago, in my cub leader days, I was approached by a couple of cub mums who said they were reps of a larger delegation that wanted to pass on a message....... could I desist from telling ghost stories on future camps please, apparently several cubs hadn't slept for days following the last camp for fear of dead dogs under the bed....... Naughty Cambridgeskip! (Or Cambridge Akela as I was then) Both this film and the Canadian book sound awesome! I had a big horror film/book phase as a teenager. These could just get me back into it!

I've not heard of this this side of the pond but I would be pretty uncomforatble with it. One of the big things kids get from scouts is being away from their parents and gaining a sense of independence. Making mistakes without havign Dad present to witness them makes them a lot easier to learn from. Get the adults out of the kids hair and let them get on with it.

Thanks, I really hadn't appreciated that. I'd seen a lot on here about families going along to cub camps but hadn't appreciated that it went as far as being in the same tent. I just can't imagine cubs without camping! Beavers (6-7 year olds) camp very rarely here but for cubs most will camp several weekends in a year, it's just seen as part and parcel of being a cub.

Agreed. If kids can carry it then they are welcome to bring something along to liven up their water but the fact is that is going to be very limited by the time they have packed everything else and there is a limit to how much a growing body should be carrying in a rucksack. They drink water or they don't go.

In terms of organisation and planning, basically we did it! We sat down with the PLs and talked about what was available within cycling distance and what they wanted to do. From then on it was a case of getting on the phone and asking the various venues when they could have us. It took a bit of juggling in order to get them arranged in an order that made for a reasonable cycling route. Most places are very scout friendly and were willing to pretty much bend over backwards for us! As for uniform it's pretty much standard on camp to wear any old t-shirt and a necker. A lot of kids prefer a

From my experience with cubs and younger scouts this side of the pond Webelos are probably just at the point where they can start doing this. For younger cubs it requires that little bit too much concentration. Keep it quite basic so that they can do it quickly and not have to learn more than a couple of knots. Something like Sedan chair. Aiming for things like bridges or catapults will most likely tax their concentration too much. They won't complete it so won't get to see what the work was all for. Am element of just running round the woods is always good but a few more structured th

Has it occured to reenactors to make uniforms out of something other than wool and/or do it at a time of year when it'snot 95F?

I quite like that idea. We're an old troop (103 years old!) so have accumulated a few traditions over the years. Another one like that could be quite fun

So as per another thread this years summer camp was a cycling expedition. Now while the temperatures in the uk in summer aren't quite what they are your side of the pond it was still pretty warm. of 25-30 C each day and very humid. For the most part the kids are quite good at looking after themselves in the heat. Hats, t-shirts and sun screen come as standard without any need for adult nagging. A problem we found though was making sure the kids drank enough water. They needed constant nagging and one lad needed an adult standing over him to get enough water in him. That's something I would go