Cambridgeskip

Packsaddle - no idea, but it's one I've liked for a long while!

Never criticise a man till you've walked a mile in his shoes. Then when you criticise him you're a mile away and you have his shoes.

New Scout parent "Will he have to do his own washing up on camp?"

A lot of pride being shown for this leader this side of the pond. Atthe same time this was a truly ghastly event that really has left a lot of people stunned. It is a whole new level of brutality.

The way I would be looking it is whether he is keeping anyone else from joining? How limited are you on space? Do you have a waiting list of other boys wanting to join? If so I'd say his parents need to be told that he needs to attend regularly or you will assumer he has left. If that's not the case though then I would let him come along as long as he has paid up. The consequences for him will of course be that he doesn't earn all the badges or develop the skills everyone else does and no doubt he will realise that as he goes along and will probably either come along more often or, more likely

Sorry. that 3rd sentence should have said "minority of girls"

The view from across the pond.... So as you know scouting in the UK is fully mixed. However it is still male dominated, about 85%. It is unlikely to really move from that. The reason that the programme is different to that which the Girl Guides offers. The result is that scouts appeals to a minority of boys. They tend to be far more robust than girls who go to Guides and are far more interested in getting out there and doing the adventurous programme which scouts offers. In the scout section, 10-14 year olds, we get very little of the "boy meets girl" side of things. It does happen f

Some local units do all kinds of things, and some local units shouldn't be Boy Scouts if they don't want to do things as proscribed. Boy Scouts exists because all over the Western world at the turn of the century men took an interest in the plight of young boys who weren't even their own, and decided to invest in them uniquely. They came from every background, from rough frontiersmen to clergy to wealthy progressives to cult of body idealists, not because they were setting out to "discriminate" or segregate, but because they saw a need for a particular sympathetic creature, the boy, and pick

You may not agree with me but just bear in mind I wrote from experience of what actually happens.

You may not agree with me but just bear in mind I wrote from experience of what actually happens.

Different country but similar concept. My troop is not stuck in that rut and I think it all boils down to balance. There is a lot of truth in the old saying "if it ain't broke don't fix it" so if something is popular there is nothing at all wrong with doing it year it year out. BUT it must be balanced with variarty. Kids have a lot of options these days and a lot of new things they can try. If scouting isn't offering them something new on a regular basis they will go elsewhere. So be prepared to do something a bit left field sometimes. Every now and then just bin the official program

Thanks for sharing. You were lucky, in some ways, and unlucky in other ways, to catch the park when it's quiet. Being in Cambridge I am lucky enough to be able to take the scouts there quite regularly and it's often very busy. It has a certain magic all its own though. The amount of history there is staggering!

Ok then, by popular demand it would seem..... First of I think people are arguing semantics here. Yes homosexuality is about sex, but no more and no less so then heterosexuality is. If a new leader arrives at your group and introduces himself by saying "hello, my name is CambridgeSkip, pleased to meet you all. A bit about me. I live on any street, any town, I work at any company, I'm married to Mrs Cambridgeskip and you have probably already met my children, scout 1 and scout 2" then the scouts can probably deduce that the new leader has a sexual relationship. Same way they can deduce tha

Now then. I came close to writing a missive on this as I have practical experience of having gay and bi scouts and leaders in my troop. However I fear it may get boring if I write it all and I also fear coming across as some kind of arrogant European liberal. So if anyone does want to ask some practical questions feel free to PM me.

Re: tenting arangements. I have had openly gay scouts in my troop, both boys and girls. Tenting has simply never been a problem either for them, the other scouts, or the parents. They simply slept in a 2, 3, 4 or 6 man tent with 1 or more other scouts of the same sex and no one batted an eye lid. If someone was uncomfortable sleeping in the same tent as them I would simply have ensured that there was a descrete reshuffle. Trust me. Tenting is not rocket science. In practice you will find it is the easiest part of the change to deal with.

So anyway, as I said further up, I will now reply a bit more fully. I'll try not to express too much opinion as I don't think it's really my place to do so, but perhaps a few observations. The constitution - it seems to me that some people are putting the car before the horse here. It seems to me that as someone said it should be the "base line" it should set out basic rights and what the state can and cannot. In which case it seems to be that any given individual should be asking themselves "what should my basic rights be, what should the state have the right to do and not do and does th

Hmmmm..... plenty to ponder there. Alas I don't have time to properly reply right now but will in due course. In the mean time maybe something for you to ponder. I know only one person who owns a fire arm. He is a turkey farmer and has a hunting rifle which he keeps for pest control. And equally I don't know one person who fears our politicians. Laugh at yes, despise yes, can't be bothered with yes, but fear? No. Different culture I guess.

A bewlidered Englishman writes..... I've watched the dozens of threads about gun ownership in recent weeks unfold with plenty of interest but until now decided not to join in. At the end of the day it's USA's problem to deal with. I'll keep out of it. But...... I am confused. And please don't take this the wrong way, this is not some snooty Brit looking down his nose at America. This is just a Brit being confused. So three questions for you. Quite a few on here refer to the constitutional right to bare arms, alongside right to free speech, right to vote and also the fa

I don't ban phones from camp but we do have an appropriate use policy and we don't allow them to charge. A camp we did back in October saw photos appear on facebook while we were away. Lots of approving comments from the non scout friends of scouts. Got some great publicity there. More amusingly on a winter camp a couple of years ago a scout who had friended me on facebook posted that he was cold in his sleeping bag. I was able to comment on the spot, before his mum noticed, to put a hat, an extra layer and some socks on, as he had been reminded by me and his PL before he went to bed

The problem boils down to the internet. People have always trotted out utter nonsense. But 20 years ago it would just be some weird guy in a corner of a bar somewhere blithering on about his latest conspiracy theory. The regulars would humour him then call him a nutter when they got home. Now that weird guy at the bar has access to the internet and once something goes on the internet a lot of people, for reasons I can't fathom, decide that it has more credibility than if they were told it by a weird guy at the bar. Frankly I pity the people that trot this stuff out. They could r

View from the other side of the pond is the scout who pulled the knife is dismissed. Regardless of whether it was a one off, out of character etc. Threatening with a knife is serious. It is for the protection of the rest of the troop, ie what if there is a next time and that time someone gets hurt or worse? It is for the protection of the troop leadership. If there is a next time can you imagine the fall out if it turns out it had happened before and the scout was still there? It is for the perpetrators protection. How so? If he had done that outside of scouts he could well be l

I agree with the majority of what has been said here. But a cautionary tale, or part of one, it is not my place to divulge the entire story. Beware of eating disorders, anorexia and the like. They are a serious matter and more common in girls than boys but boys do some times suffer with them. Picky eating may not be a case of being obnoxious or fussy. I've dealt with a scout who I thought was just being fussy but eventually turned out to have much more serious issues. Missing a meal as a one off won't kill anyone but if it is happening on a regular basis for one individual keep

How about also introducing things that may be a bit "icky" but emphasise the whole outdoor adventure side of things? We've trained ours on things like cleaning and gutting fish to cook on a fire and skinning and gutting rabbits again to cook outdoors. We've also got them making their own cheese (Paneer cheese is a doddle, you just need full fat milk and lemon juice) We're looking at maybe doing pheasent this year (although that may prove a bit on the expensive side. Formalising it may be provide the stick (still necessary) but making it fun also provides the equally necessary carrot.

A note on the constitutional position of the monarch. The British monarch essentially wears a number of different hats and acts in different capacities while wearing them. The most important of these is head of state. Like in her other role she has no actual powers. Theoretically in the event of a hung parliament (ie no one party has an over all majority, as we have now) she can chose the Prime Minister however she would be obliged to chose the individual most likely to command a majority in the House of Commons. In practice what she would actually do is wait for two parties to form

Looking at the various threads that have kicked around on this subject (both on this forum and elsewhere) in recent weeks something that has struck me is that everyone seems to want a simple a solution to what is a complex problem. So far I have seen Too many guns Too few guns Single parents Computer games The economy Gay marriage Too little religion Too much religion American foreign policy Poor education The Republican Party The Democratic Party Rock music Gangster Rap Blacks Whites The list goes on and on and on. It strikes me that the best