Month: May 2008

At the end of our first family camp, I talked to a few of our parents and guests. The general opinion was that it had gone well and everyone enjoyed themselves. But it was interesting to hear some of the comments.

One father told me he was a bit bored in the first hour or so of the camp and had wondered what he had let himself in for (this is the time when we’re all running round setting everything up!). Then when the programme kicked in, he said he didn’t get chance to look at his watch again and really enjoyed himself.

Another asked how we managed doing a similar camp with just the Leaders and no other help! And another said that she didn’t realise that there was so much involved in a camp.

It’s nice that the parents have now realised that camps and activities don’t just ‘happen’ and they are a lot of work.

But the most common comment was ‘when are you doing the next one?’. So I guess we must have done something right!

That was the first family camp we’ve ever done and in view of the parent’s comments, not the last! I’m just typing up a questionnaire that our Cub Leader wrote to get the parents reactions and thoughts so the next one is better. Of course, the one thing we won’t be doing next time is making it free! Being 100 is a very special occasion and demanded we do something special. However if we start planning for our 200th birthday now……..!

Just back from our family camp to celebrate our Group’s Centenary! It was a great weekend and I’ll post more soon, but for now a couple of photos.

The whole Group.

1st Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle, St. Andrews Porthill’s Leaders in their snazzy new t-shirts!

I was talking to the Scouts last night about the cyclone that has recently hit Burma and the earthquake that has struck China. They all agreed that despite the fact they may have bad days at school and their parents can be annoying, they have very easy lives and are lucky that they will never have to suffer like the Burmese or Chinese.

I mentioned that there were problems getting aid into Burma and that the Burmese Government was being……. and I got stuck for a polite word. Then one of the Scouts piped up ‘Selfish’, which I thought summed things up perfectly. This came from a 12 year old! Now if a 12 year old child can spot this, why can’t the Burmese Government?

Anyway they all decided that we would donate £15 from the subs to each of the relief efforts.

Another of the Scouts came to me after the meeting to ask if we could collect door to door. Good idea, I said, but unhappily unsafe. At least it proves they were thinking of others less fortunate.

On Sunday, I completed the Scout’s First Aider First Response course. It now means that in an emergency situation, I should know what to do!

In Scouts it is now part of the five year warrant review. If you are not first aid trained, you do not get a warrant. Well, technically, that’s not quite true, as if you are on a forthcoming course and your warrant is being reviewed, then you get your warrant. It’s also a condition of getting your Wood Badge.

Of course the funny thing is that a first aid qualification lasts for three years, but a Scout Leader’s warrant is for five. So in your warranted period, you have to do two first aid courses!

This isn’t a bad thing however. I’ve been a first aider at work three times (this is a 4 day course) and a first aider at first response level three times so far. Every time I’ve done a course, something changes! Apart from the changes it’s good to do refreshers as you do get ‘rusty’.

It’s only a fairly recent change to the ‘rules’ that all Leaders must have some form of first aid training. I wonder if it’s the same in other countries? Anyone from the USA care to comment?

We had a chat with the Scouts on Tuesday about their behaviour and how we expect them to be at Scouts. We talked and made sure it wasn’t a telling off session and they seemed to start to understand.

The thing that really brought things home to them was that they realised that in 2 – 4 years time when they wanted jobs, they can’t just mess around and not expect to get fired! The other thing was I remembered that last year they wrote out their own Code of Conduct! So we reminded them of this and they have now promised to behave better!

Now we can start looking forward properly to our Centenary Celebration Family camp at the end of May.

I got a phone call from one our old Scout Masters (that dates him immediately!) the other day. He was the Scout Master from 1949 to about 1954 and he invited me round for a chat.

It was fascinating hearing of Scouting from over 50 years ago. He also gave me a pile of old photos to copy.

 

Camping in 1951

The Cubs and Scouts with our local Guides in 1951

It's really interesting to look at these photos and see what the Scouts of the past got up to and actually looked like. The earliest photos are from around 1949. So along with the couple of photos I have of Scouts in 1913 & 1916 (although not in uniform), I only have a gap of around 30 years to fill!

15/05/2009 UPDATE: I've just realised I never put the link here for the actual gallery of these photos. You can see them all here.

Scouts on Tuesday went quite well again. The Scouts were not badly behaved, a bit boisterous perhaps!

I think the Scoutmaster Minute idea from the BSA is a very good one and something that we’ll keep doing.