Cambridgeskip

I think you should use force with a great deal of hesitancy. When you chose that option you have to accept that young men and women are going to their deaths and that civilians will inevitably get caught in the cross fire. Perhaps coming from a much smaller nation militarily I see this from a different perspective but I can see very few military interventions by the UK which I think were justified in my life time. The Falklands was one, (although how the hell we pulled that one off is still a mystery) Kosovo the other. Possibly the first Gulf War although I'm still not convinced that all

It certainly is a stunning location. If you're not familiar with UK geography Northumberland is on the England-Scotland border, one of the most sparsely populated areas of the country. The lake is Kielder water, the largest man made lake in the UK and might even be in Europe. It's about 40m deep so yes, the water is pretty chilly! The site itself is one of the 8(ish) sites run at a national level so is one of the UKs flagship sites. Most camp sites are run at county level (equivalent of your scout council??) As it happens while we were there was also a non scout youth group there who were

When I was running cubs I had a leaders meeting at my house. Part of the leader team was a 16 year old explorer scout. She came in, helped herself to half the food in my fridge, pinched my favourite hoody and put it on "'cos it looks well cosy" and fell asleep on my sofa. I took that as a compliment!

Qwazse - You're very kind! That was taken at a kind angle and doesn't show the hair retreating around my temples..... The falconry was great, the site is 30 mins hike from a birds of prey rescue centre so the two places have a great relationship. Packsaddle - it;s an oldie but a goodie that track. Did Republica ever make it to the USA? They were huge over here in the 1990s. Eamon - One day maybe! There were many in the UK who were very anti before the change, nearly all are total converts now. We have a great bunch of girls.

Hello folks So with my group still not having a proper website (eventually we will) we've made out first foray onto Youtube with this production - Summer Camp - The (ahem) Full Motion Picture. If you've ever wondered what I actually look like, that's me at 4.05 on the left. Enjoy!

I think it depends on why you are asking the question. If you are specifically looking to develop the skill of using a tent and only what you can carry on your back then no it isn't. And there are good reasons for developing those skills, cabins don't exist everywhere. But I would look at scouting more widely. If you are looking to develop young people into being responsible citizens through adventure in the great outdoors then what is wrong with light weight back packing to the middle of nowhere to use a mountain cabin which you are expected to keep in good condition for the next lo

Just reading this thread with interest. What is exactly is a merit badge counselor? Is it a leader in the area with specialist skills or is it someone that is brought in from outside? How does it work? It's not a system we really have this side of the pond from what I can make out.

Sounds to me like this SM is not thinking carefully about what the difference between what the requirements and say and what that actually looks like in practice. Example, last night one of my scouts querried why he had not yet been awarded his Outdoor Challenge. Requirements are here if you're interested http://www.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/2661/outdoor-challenge/?cat=56,135,157&moduleID=10 Now you can see that one of the requirments is "Set up a suitable stove, and prepare a meal using a stove." I pointed out to him that he had yet to complete this. "oh yes I

Hello both! Thanks for the replies, I'm not ignoring you. I am about to disappear on our troop summer camp for a week (weather forecast - rain, wind, rain, drizzle, wind, rain. Did I mention rain?) so will PM you when I return.

With regard to girls I suspect it's quite simply that because in the form of Girl Scouts girls are seen ot have an equivalent organisation. Seperate they may be and with a different emphasis but the similarities and history are massive. Hence its just seen as like having boys and girls only schools. Seperate but equivalent. With regard to atheists I suspect it's a case of there being two kinds. The minority who will have nothing to do with a religious or spiritual organisation and generally have no wish to be part of it so the question never arises. The majority for who they don

At least you effectively only have 2 parties to chose from. In the UK the whole thing is a total mess. Because we have 2 major parties (conservative, Labour), 1 medium sized party (Liberal Democrats) and a whole bunch of minor parties we have a situation where I dont think in living memory one party has ever got more than 50% of the vote. So by default we pretty much always have a Prime Minister that the majority of those who voted did not vote for! In more recent years this has been exasperated by the drifting of the Liberal Democrats (our 3rd biggest party) to the left. Traditional

Good Evening (on this side of the pond anyway) Is anyone's else's troop planning on taking part in Jamboree on the Air 19-21 October? http://www.scout.org/en/information_events/events/jota/the_55th_jota_2012 We're planning on being involved and I'm looking for a group across the ocean somewhere to be lined up in advance as I am trying to add a bit of a twist to things. We're having a spy themed camp that weekend and I'm looking for some scouts from elsewhere to help provide some clues to my lot to help them solve a great mystery. Reply below or ping a PM if you are interes

I do like the fact that they will be using fire steels as well!

CA_Scouter - By your question I think this is a case of British slang that doesn't cross the Atlantic very well! "Cloth Ears" is quite a common nick name over here for someone that is never listening. You certainly wouldn't use it for someone who genuinely is deaf or partially deaf or that has learning difficulties. It's more for that one who just doesn't pay attention. More funny was "Go Pack". Go Pack is quite a common brand for fold away tables, benches etc that you may well take to camp. One lad, on the first day of a two week camp, managed to get the label off of a new table stuck to

I actuallyt hink that nicknames are very important at scout age. It is an age where individuals are discovering and developing their personal identities and to be adopted by a nickname is often a sign of enderement and acceptance amongst your peers. I was known as "Batman" when I was a scout (due to the amount of stuff I would have in my pockets, someone once said it was like Batman's utility belt, the name stuck!) Either at present or previously my troop has had Baguette, Sick Note, Daz, ASBO, Pyro, Chilly, Loopy, Cloth Ears, Mars Bar, Go Pack, Junior the list goes on. To a well meaning

Ok, so different side of the Atlantic and slightly different age range (10-14) but my troop is 35 strong with 5 patrols of 7, a few observations on a medium to large troop Good things Critical mass, there are nearly always enough scouts to make a given event viable. Compeition - there is real competition for PL positions simply because of statistics. With a small troop you could easily have a position where there is simply no one of hire enough calibre to take it on. Patrol competitions - always fun and you need multiple patrols! Bad Things When things go wrong they go

Moosetracker - It was basically a case of there never having been a publically stated policy until quite recently. I don't recall when it was but I think in the late 90s there was a first stated policy that sexuality was no bar to being a leader and that was the first ever mention of the subject. I was a Venture Scout at the time and I remember it being a generational thing. My parents and those of my friends were all a bit shocked but to the scouts themselves most of us had just assumed it was the case anyway. I have never met anyone that quit scouting because of gay leaders and I d

Morning Moosetracker, and indeed everyone else. Ah yes. Dear old Mitt. Didn't go down too well over here did he? Thankfully, for him at least, the country was so preoccupied with the Olympics for most people to notice him. Managing to upset the Conservative Prime Minister and Mayor of London who would normally be the Republican's biggest ally this side of the pond probably wasn't a bright idea but then I doubt it will cost him many votes on your side of the pond, if any at all. The Olympics are proving great fun. I've personally been to Badminton, Archery and this afternoon (or morning in

Moosetracker - the general acronym used is simply TSA (The Scout Association) Our friends in Girl Guides are generally referred to as GGUK.

Acco 40 Re: your observation on percentages boys and girls in Canada, was that based just on that event or more widely? It's interesting because my experience with coed scouting is that girls tend to favour less frequent but longer camp where as boys tend to prefer more regular shorter trips. If that is something that goes wider than just my troop it might be why you saw so many girls at an event like that.

"I have to thank you, Cambridgeskip, for making my day with your observation just now. You have an interesting mind." *Takes a little bow and blames the Olympic Beach Volley Ball" Seattle Pioneer - I think we agree with each to a certain extent. Boys and girls are generally different but not exclusively so which is why the majority of girls still want to go to Girl Guides in the UK and I suspect if BSA ever went Coed would still want to go to Girl Scouts in the USA. The answer could of course be for Girl Guides and Girl Scouts on both sides of the pond to offer a more adventurous pr

You'll tend to find that for the cub programme having girls will make no difference to how thongs work at all. At that age there is very little difference to their physical strength or maturity. At scout age it is different but not unmanageable. Girls typically hit puberty a good year or two before boys and so when you get to age 12 or 13 girls are typically taller, stronger and more mature. By the time you get to 15 or 16 though the situation has typically reversed. You get different things from them as well. I find that the boys tend to be better at inspiring others, of standing up

A couple of things about those two films. A lot of it was filmed at the one and only Gilwell Park. Gilwell is a little corner of paradise for kids. It's geography is extraordinary. While the streets around it are quite wealthy and middle class it is still only a stones throw from some of London's most deprived areas. The scene where they are sat round a fire is at a field called The Quick which is at the top of a hill facing west from where you can see Tottenham, where all last year's riots started. Similarly the street scenes were filmed in east London, very close to the Olympic sta

What SeatlePioneer said essentially. We've all had a bad day before. I once had an unecessary segreant major moment with some scouts who I apologised to later. But I have never laid a finger on anyone and find it unnacceptable for anyone else to do so. I don't know what your management structures are exactly in BSA but I think that given it is not the first time this has happened the issue needs to be escalated above the current SM. And that means both the actions of the ASM you referred to and the fact that the current SM needs support and/or training to deal with it.

Agreed. Some of the things our scouts talk about most when they come back from camps are things that were not part of the formal programme. It's more about the rope swing someone built in a tree, or the off the cuff wide game or the pink farie outfits 4 (all male!) PLs borrowed off some girls in another troop and insisted on wearing for 24 hours. (Had to be seen to be believed) Put kids out in the woods with not much to do and they can be more creative than most adults!