What No DE??

[Eamonn 61]

The British Scout Association has undergone a lot of changes over the past year or so.

While nobody is saying it out loud for a while membership was declining and things didn't look good.

While I really don't have that much knowledge of all the workings of the Association only what I dealt with first hand which was 20 years ago!! And what I have heard about the new changes.

As we all know Scouting seemed to sprout up by itself. The book Scouting For Boys hit the streets and soon boys were asking church leaders and teachers to become Scoutmasters. One of the earliest mentions in Baden Powell's diary about seeing any form of an organized unit is a note where he inspects a troop from Wimbledon. He had spent some time in Wimbledon in a windmill mill writing Scouting for Boys. The windmill is still there and has a plaque saying that he wrote there. (I went to school not far from there!!)

The early organization was a little haphazard. Commissioners were appointed and BP had an office in London.

As the movement grew it followed along County and Borough lines. None of which had any professional staff the only staff were National Staff. In 1969 the Uniform changed and Boy Scouts became just Scouts, and just about everything changed. Still there were no professional staff at the District or County level. There was a membership fee of about five pounds and while there are no unit charters each Scout Group had to be registered with the association. Leaders had to have a warrant to be a leader.

At the District level the top guy was the District Commissioner,who didn't have a commissioner staff as we know it just a bunch of Assistant District Commissioners. I never found out what the District Chairman did. He was normally a well respected old chap who had served for a long time. Our District had a real nice old Lad who had camped with BP and had been honored by the Queen with an M.B.E, He was a retired judge.

The District was very much a self contained unit. Our District had its' own Scout Shop ran by a volunteer only open on Tuesday night. You could order uniforms and anything from the Scout Shops catalog. If you needed patches you saw the Badge Secretary, again a volunteer who was in the District Headquarters on a Tuesday night.

Looking back it seems as if we had a lot of District Competition's. There was:

The District Night Hike

District Olympics.

District Swimming Gala.

District Five A Side Soccer.

District Orienteering.

District Cross Country Race.

And the big one was the Campcraft Competition.

Cub Scouts had a weekly inter-pack Soccer game along with some of the events listed.

I had lunch with the Director of Communications at Gilwell Park (All the London Offices have now moved to Gilwell Park.) He tells me that the Association has changed and is trying to become more visible and is seeing that it has to have a better business outlook just like any other big charity. To this end there are more professional staff, mainly at the Regional level. These people seem to look after one section of the Association: Beavers (Tigers) Cub Scouts ...

Membership has started to go up but Scouts is still number two. Girl Guides is number one.

Many Groups are co-ed. And the little Beavers can join at five and a half.

The staff are very busy getting ready for Eurojam in 2005 and the World Jamboree in 2007.

Eamonn

[scoutldr 732]

Soccer? I thought you Brits played "Football"??? And what us yanks call football is really a form of Rugby?