Cambridgeskip

A response from the other side of the Atlantic.... I have had a very similar situation in that I had a 12 year old scout told me that he thought he was gay but wasn't sure. A tricky one. What I did was be as honest as possible with him. I told him that he was going through puberty and that his hormones would be all over the place for some years to come. He was at an age where he was discovering who he was, it may turn out to be gay, he may turn out bi and that some people have homosexual feelings during puberty but turned out to be straight. What ever way it was going to turn out was

For tents with wooden poles we have a branding iron for marking the poles and use blobs of paint to mark which poles make up a set. We've never marked the canvas itself as I suspect it may damage it (I'm happy to be corrected on this though!) On our more modern tents we just write on the labels on the various parts of it.

Based on that extra info from Lisabob then I think there is clearly an issue with the leadership here. If someone brings weed to camp once then frankly the brown stuff happens. The reaction, as soon as it was identified, should have been a firm and blunt warning that it will NOT happen again. Turning a blind eye is, in my opinion, actually even worse than openly condoning it as it means things are totally out of control.Sounds like the leaders here need some serious retraining.

A view from across the pond.... I think there are two seperate issues here. What happens at scouts and what happens elsewhere. In terms of what happens at scouts I'd say it is laid on the line. He doesn't bring drugs to scouts, he doesn't come to scouts while under the influence, he doesn't posses them while in uniform. On that front he gets one warning and one warning only. After that he goes. If he is selling them to other scouts then I'd call that not worthy of a warning, he goes as soon as it is found out. The sharing side is a bit more grey. If he is sharing with already willing

As others have said, quite a thread to plough through (although from the dates this does seem to have been resurrected from some time ago? Or have I misunderstood?) Anyway, speaking as leader (in the UK) with a lot of girls in the troop I can say there is nothing to fear. It hasn't meant that scouts has changed in terms of being any less outdoors based, if I was allowed (we have an agreement that photos of scout events are only publsihed on a password protected site) I could show you photos of girls cooking on fires, chopping wood with axes, white water canoing, camping, climbing etc etc.

I think there is a lot of sense above. Cambridge is perhaps 30 minutes drive from London Stansted airport. If I turned up there tonight with my passport and 200 in my pocked I reckon I could get on a plane to 20+ countries. Turn up there with 400 and the whole of Europe is my oyster and parts of North Africa as well. I am very lucky, it's just the nature of Europe. If someone turns up at any given airport in the USA with the equivalent of 200 in their pocket how many countries can they get to? Canada? Mexico? You might just get to Greenland on a cheap deal, if you're in Alaska you ca

Garrison - it is true that some people in Europe particularly do behave in a somewhat snobbish manner towards the USA. For the most part it is unwarranted and unfair. However it is worth remembering that the physcially smaller nature of European nations and how so many languages and cultures are packed into a small land mass means that it is part of the European attitude to compare and contrast ourselves with each other and inevitably that attitude spreads to comparing ourselves with other non European nations. My impression of the USA, although admitedly I have only been there once

I do hope it's not too late to add to this as I think that actually similar issues exist all over the world on this so I hope that some inout from the otehrside of teh atlantic may be helpful (if it's not just ignore it!) From what I can make out your Arrow of Light is equivalent of the UK's Chief Scout Silver withe Moving on Award requirements thrown in as well. Retention rates of those that move from cubs to scouts vary drastically, my particular group has a pretty good rate, others have better, some have worse. First to answer your specific questions Anyway, regarding your sp

Barry At the risk of going down a bit of a different road to the original topic it's worth remembering that until 2005 scouting in the UK was also losing members (I don't know about the rest of Europe). I can't really comment on whether youth organisatons losing members in North America is anything to do with them admiting homosexuals but I think in the UK we were losing kids because we had failed to move with the times on a number of issues. In around 2004 there was a whole sale shake up of scouting here from the uniforms, to the age ranges, to the award scheme and importantly HQ startin

All received this time, it looks really useful. Thank you!

Possibly I'm being a bit dim, but I can't see where to pick up private messages? They are not being emailed to me and I can't see where to fidn them on the site. Help!

ScoutBox - you're sure what could help? Slightly confused there! Did you PM me and it's not come through properly? Eamonn - thet would be Little Abington, we use it quite a lot, it's close enough that we can spend evenings there. It's due to have some new facilities put in some time soon and the village now has its own scout group that operates from there as well!

Ah fantastic, yet more welcomes! I will probably start diving in to more threads in the coming days but please feel free to grill me about anything your curious about re: UK scouting

PS - if any moderators are reading, living in the UK I don't have a US zip code to sign up so I "stole" one if you see what I mean. I hope that is ok.

A UK scout leader writes.... You know it's slightly odd the amount of attention this is getting both in the UK and here given that gay and bisexuals have been welcome in the scouts in the UK for many years now (in fact I'm not old enough to remember when they were not). Whether they have been made to feel welcome is a different story, certainly I think they have been at the various groups I have been involved in over the years. I'm sure that some people will find anecdotal evidence of individuals behaving in a manner that was not welcome, whether that was intentionally agressive or w

Ooooh lunch time is here and I can take a peak back.... I guess it's still pretty early across the pond *does the sums on his fingers* Anyway thanks for the welcome, a slight flesh out on me... Got enrolled into cubs when I was 8 by my mum entirely against my wishes (I was a procoscious child) when we lived on the edge of London (if news othe Potters Bar train crash in 2002 ever made it across the pond, that's the place) and they never managed to get rid of me! I went right through cubs, scouts, venture scouts and ended up volunteering as a student cub leader while I was at uni

Quick intro as work calls (I'm 5 - 8 hours in front of most of you) I'm a scout leader and formerly cub leader in the UK specifically in Cambridge (as the username suggests) Thought I'd sign up as I'm slightly curious about scouts in other corners of the world. Like I said, pretty short!