In April 2006 I started this blog as a bit of an experiment to see what all this blogging stuff was about. Since then I have managed to write 500 posts which I’m quite impressed at!
Back then it was very general, but now it’s just about Scouting. I’m also quite pleased about the podcast I also put out, although I’ve not been doing them for a while as they are a bit time consuming and I now have a 5 month old daughter – something had to give!
Although 4 years and 500 posts have passed, it’s interesting to note that the first post was on my, sadly long gone, hand held IPaq pocket pc and I’m writing this on my new smart phone. Hopefully this will mean I can make some posts from our family camp this weekend.
Finally, thank you to everyone that reads and comments here!
Internet Safety
One of the items on my weekly update email from the Scout Association caught my eye this weekend. The SA in association with Microsoft are running an online training session on internet safety for young people. This is aimed at Leaders who can then pass it onto parents so they are aware of the dangers on the internet.
I must admit I find it quite interesting that a lot of parents don’t know about what is out there on the net. Unfortunately, there are so many traps and pitfalls for young people to fall into on the net, it’s difficult for parents to keep up. I hope this session, which I’ve signed up for, will cover a lot of these areas.
It’s open to any adult of the UK SA and the details are here.
On a lighter note, the picture used to accompany the information (below) is worth a chuckle. It’s a picture of a laptop from about 1996! Nice and up to date then!!
After the session, I’ll post my thoughts.
Scouts Helping out During the Second World War
I came across this video of Scouts of the 2nd Kenton Scout Group, North West London, who set up a help bureau in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War.
It’s really fascinating to watch. Enjoy!
Local Numbers
A couple of weeks ago the Scout Association released the figures from this year’s census and the reported that the youth membership was up by 3.45% year on year. These figures are very promising and show the greatest year on year increase since 1972!
Then last week my County, Staffordshire, released its figures. Overall across the County the number of youth members are up by 1.8%. Not as good as nationally, but still an increase. My own District, Newcastle, shows an increase of 2.8%, which, again is below the national average, is still an increase. Other Districts show increases above and below the national figure, and, unfortunately, some decreases.
One interesting thing is that all of the Districts in the County (11 of them) show they have young people on waiting lists. In fact, when the census was taken in January, there were 362 young people waiting for places in Beavers, Cubs or Scouts across the County. And that’s kind of sad that there aren’t places available for them. Generally speaking, there are not enough adults in the various Groups to be able to accept these young people. This could be down to actual lack of adult help or just that the Group is ‘full’ and cannot physically accept any more kids.
Hopefully, Groups across the County will be able to recruit new adult members and ensure that these young people who want to join are able to do so without much delay!
BP’s Hat!
If you want a piece of really special Scouting memorabilia, tomorrow you have the chance to buy, at auction, Baden Powell’s Scout hat!
According to an article on the BBC, Gilwell sold the hat some time ago and now its owner wishes to sell it on. Of course this is a great opportunity for the collector of Scouting memorabilia, but it does beg the question ‘WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??????????’. Why on earth would they sell off one of the most recognisable symbols of Scouting? The SA really ought to buy it back!
It will be interesting to see where it ends up.