Category: Scouts

Posted on

Leaders Meeting

One of my jobs as a Group Scout Leader is to hold regular meeting with all the Group’s Leaders. However, I haven’t been doing them recently. In fact the last one we had was 2002!

In my defence, other than myself there have only been around 2 or 3 other Leaders in the Group in this period, so they haven’t really been necessary. Today, we have around ten and this doesn’t include the Young Leaders. So last night we had our first one. We had an overview of where the Group as a whole and each of the sections are at, discussed getting Gift Aid from weekly subs and Leader’s training. One of the frustrating things is that we can’t start the new Leader’s training yet as all their paperwork has yet to go through (references are outstanding). On a positive note the Assistant Scout Leader is close to finishing his and gaining his Wood Badge and the Beaver and Cub Leaders did their first aid training last weekend. I can get the new Leaders to look at some of the online stuff in the mean time.

We also talked about having another family camp next year, which means getting the bookings made now and about having a BBQ for Leaders again in the summer.

Quite a productive meeting and yet it lasted only an hour and a quarter! I wish we could get some of the District meetings to do the same!

Posted on

Badge Blanket

Scout Leaders are renowned for collecting Scouting memorabilia, especially badges. The traditional thing to do is put them on a blanket which is used when camping. There is always the competition to see who has the most badges or the most rare, but everyone is interested to see who has what.

I’ve been using mine this weekend as I spent most of Friday night and Saturday asleep on the sofa as I decided to have a temperature and feel generally rottenSick!

My blanket is old, made of wool and a bit of an heirloom as it started out as my Grandpa’s from when he served in the RAF during WW2. He then passed it on to my Dad who used it when he went camping before he had a sleeping bag and he passed it onto me. As I used to have loads of old badges lying around my Mum suggested sewing them onto the blanket. It’s actually quite warm and great to wrap around myself when I’m at camp or dying of lurgi at home!

100_2538__Large_

Showing the Cubs the badges

The badges on it are some of my old Cub, Scout and Venture badges, some of my Dad’s, badges from places I’ve camped or visited and some badges from the Swedish Scouts I camped with in 1992. It’s due for some running repairs at the moment (well it is over 60 years old) and more badges to be added to it. In fact I’m going to have my Centenary neckerchief sewn onto it as well (that’s the multi coloured one I’m wearing in the picture). However, I have to come clean and say that I’m not doing any of the repairs or adding the badges myself, my Mum is! Now while I am capable of doing a reasonable job of it myself, it needs a ‘proper’ job and Mum is the expert! I want it to last another 60 years at least, so it needs the proper care.

Pride of place along with a Queen’s Scout award I acquired especially for the blanket a few years back, will be one of my Group’s centenary badges.

Posted on

The UK Programme – part 1

Podcast number 7. Here is the first part of the Scouting Programme here in the UK. I talk very briefly about the sections and then about the Beaver & Cub programmes.

320x224-black-on-white

Also, see if you can work out what I say in the introduction!

Posted on

Scouting & Technology

I realised the other day that I have had a PC at home for just over 10 years. My original machine had a massive 3Gb hard drive, 128Mb RAM, a Celeron 333Mhz processor and ran Windows 95. I thought I’d never fill that hard drive!

With the advent of home computing, the internet and other technological devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, Sat Nav and GPS it has made our lives much easier. I can type documents (so people stand a chance of being able to read them) and email them instantly to people in the Group, District, County or even HQ at Gilwell if needed, in a matter of seconds. It’s easier to create letters to parents, as I now just print them off using my laser printer. Photos are a lot more instant and easier to manipulate. It’s also a lot easier to keep all my records in one place on my PC and not have lots of ‘hard copy’ around the house (although Carol will disagree with me there!). That 3Gb hard drive would be easily filled these days.

The Group has a website with loads of info about us on it.

Over the last 18 months or so, by reading blogs, listening to podcasts, talking by to people by Skype, Tweeting and emailing, I’ve learned so much about Scouting and culture in other countries. And as a happy by product of that, I’ve made new friends.

BUT, we must never be solely reliant on technology, especially when out walking or camping. Mobile phones have a nasty habit of having no signal when you are in a remote valley in the middle of Snowdonia and your GPS’s batteries will run out when it’s a particularly cold and wet day in the Peak District. To ensure these issues don’t cause you major problems, the ‘old fashioned’ tried and tested methods must be adhered to. Always have a home contact when you are out walking, who has a copy of your route plan and a time you will be back at (not forgetting to tell them when you are safe and sound). Take a route plan, a map (preferably laminated or in a waterproof map case) and compass with you and know how to use them!

Technology is great and I love new ‘toys’ but never take for granted it will work!

Posted on

Gilwell Park Webcams – Er no not really!

Although the 1st Gilwell website still isn’t up yet, they seem to have put up a couple of webcams to see the comings and goings!

Well that what I thought until I noticed there wasn’t a lot of movement except for a bit of flutter on a flag. When I looked again the other evening it should have been dark, but nothing had changed. Then I realised they’d just put up a couple of short Flash movies constantly repeating!

Looking at them today, the whole of Gilwell should be covered in snow!

See here.

Posted on

Group Photos Have Arrived

Last week I posted that we’d had our photos taken as the whole Group. Well, I finally got my hands on them today. And very good they are too!

ABC_0023 [1024x768] 

The Group’s Leaders and Young Leaders (I’m the one right at the back).

We all clean up well don’t we?

You can see the rest of the photos here.

When I looked at the photo of the whole Group, it made me stop and think for a minute. The person that is ultimately responsible for all those people, Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Young Leaders, Helpers and Leaders is me! I need a lie down……!

Posted on

Future Podcasts

After putting out two podcasts in the space of less than a week, I’ve decided to pace myself a bit more and also plan ahead a bit.

One of the things I’ve thought of talking about is the whole Scouting programme in the UK. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that by revisiting all aspects of the programme, it will refresh it for me and help me in my role as a Group Scout Leader.

The second is that my perception of the people who read the blog and listen to the podcast are mainly from outside of the UK. So a question for you all out there, would this be interesting to you?
My thought would be to break it down into talking about Beavers and Cubs, then Scouts and finally Explorers and Network. Also I would probably talk about each of the sections as each country tends to do its own thing on ages, mixed Scouting etc.

The other thing that interests me is the use of language in the podcasts. I’ve noticed that I’ve slipped up a couple of times and said things like ‘me blog’ instead of ‘my blog’. Does this confuse or irritate? The other thing is if I were to say that we’d been doing x over a weekend and ‘now we’re all knackered’ would you know what I was on about (answer at the bottom)? These are examples of the way that I’d talk in ‘real life’, so I’m interested to know.

My plan is to put a podcast out once a fortnight or so and to keep them at a reasonable length of around twenty minutes.

I’m enjoying doing these podcasts and I hope people are enjoying listening to them and as I get more practise the quality can only go up!

Please let me know your thoughts on the above questions. Leave a comment on the blog or you can email me at the address given on the podcasts or at nawbus (at) gmail.com. If I’ve emailed you in the past, you’ll now know that I have at least three different email addresses but I use them for different things and for putting on here, Google’s email has much better antispam filters!

 

Definition of ‘knackered’. If I say I am knackered, it means I am tired. If I say that the radio is knackered, for example, it means it is broken.
Knackered comes from sending old and tired horses to be slaughtered in the knackers yard!

Posted on

Scouting Websites part 2 (Podcast)

Podcast number 6. Here’s the second podcast about Scouting websites. I thought I’d get this done while it was still fresh in my mind.

The sites I mention are – image

Posted on

Group Photos

On Friday evening we did something that the Group hasn’t done for nearly 50 years! We got all the Beavers, Cubs, most of the Scouts (not their meeting night) and the Leaders together and we had our photos taken as each section and as the whole Group.

One of the Beaver’s Dads is a professional photographer and he agreed without hesitation to take them. After he finished he also said that we could do whatever we wanted with the photos without and cost or copyright implications! This is very generous as professional photographers don’t normally give up their photos. Hopefully we’ll be able to arrange it so that Group members will be able to get a copy of the photos for themselves.

The only downside is I’ve got to wait until later in the week to see them!

The other thing we must remember to do is to make sure we put names to the faces. There would be nothing worse than the Group Scout Leader in 50 years time looking at these photos and not knowing the names of everyone there.

Posted on

Scouting Websites (Podcast)

Podcast number 5. I thought this time I’d talk about creating a website for the Group, Troop or Pack and include what I hope are some helpful tips.

podcast The sites I mention are-

Posted on

Barack Obama, Cub Scout

Apparently, something is happening in the USA today……!

Just after the American Presidential election was over, I noticed that the Scout Association had put out a story about the new President having been a Cub in his youth and so I put up a post about it.

Today ‘Matt’ has added a comment to say that the SA have done a press release to coincide with Mr. Obama’s inauguration. I thought I’d double check to see if it was a genuine story (no reason it shouldn’t be, but you never can tell), so I gave the Info Centre a ring and they put me through to the press people. It is a genuine press release and the chap I spoke to said they put it out to have a different twist to the inauguration and to show to potential Scouts the range of people that have been in the movement.

So at the risk of repeating what’s already been written as a comment, here’s the press release –

You don’t have to be a Scout to lead a country but it helps…

Today, Barak Obama becomes the latest in a long list of world leaders who gained their first taste of leadership at an early age as Scouts. The first US President to have been a Scout was JFK and since then eight Presidents have been either Scouts or Scout leaders.

President Obama’s Scouting began when his family moved from his birthplace of Hawaii to Indonesia, where he joined Gerakan Pramuka; The Indonesian Scout Association. Rully Dasaad, a childhood friend of Obama’s, picks up the story, ‘He was a good hearted kid. We played together every day during that time. We joined the Scouts together, [there] we learned how to use rope for building a camp tent, went climbing and did many other things…’

The story is the same across the political world with Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, John Major, Harold Wilson, Vaclav Havel (Czech Republic), Horst Kohler (German President) all cutting their leadership skills in the Scouts.

President Gerald Ford said: ‘I can say without hesitation, because of Scouting principles, I know I was a better athlete, I was a better Congressman, and I was a better prepared President.’

It’s not just Presidents that seem to have benefited from Scouting, 11 out of the 12 people to walk on the moon were Scouts including the first two people on the moon, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

The Scout Association spokesperson, Simon Carter, said: ‘It is no coincidence so many talented people have been Scouts or Scout leaders. With over 200 exciting and challenging activities available in the UK, Scouting provides almost unlimited opportunity for young people, and the adult volunteers who support them, to push themselves and develop the skills they need for life.”
About Scouting

• A more comprehensive list of Scouts who have gone on to be household names or leaders in their field is included at: http://www.scouts.org.uk/cms.php?pageid=1668

• Adventure is at the core of Scouting, and the Association passionately believes in helping their members fulfil their full physical, intellectual social and spiritual potentials by working in teams, learning by doing and thinking for themselves.

• In January 2008, The Scout Association introduced 40 new badges, including Snow Sports and Health and Fitness badges, bringing the total number of badges available to over 200. No other youth organisation offers such a range of challenging or exciting activities, available in a safe, supervised environment.

• Over 200 activities are offered by Scouting around the UK, made possible by the efforts of 100,000 voluntary adult leaders. This has helped make Scouting the largest co-educational youth Movement in the country.

• The last time the Movement showed a growth of this size was in 1987, when a whole new age range, 5-8 years (Beaver Scouts) was added to the Scouting family.

• One of the challenges that the Scout Movement faces is finding more volunteers to plug the current gap. At present there are nearly 32,000 young people on waiting lists.

• Adults working in Scouting contribute in excess of 295 million hours of voluntary work each year to their local communities.

• Worldwide Scouting has 28 million members both male and female and operates in nearly every country in the world.

One final thought, still nothing on the BSA’s web site – how odd.

Posted on

Do a Good Turn Every Day

As my job is an IT technician, whenever anyone outside of work’s computer throws a hissy fit, needs work or just plain dies, I get a call. It can be family, friends or friends of family!

But the thing is, no matter what I do, I never ask for money. Of course I’d never ask family or friends, but I suppose I could for friends of family etc. BUT, I never do. One reason is if someone asks for help, I don’t like asking for money (I am British after all and these kind of things are somewhat ‘vulgar’ don’t you know?) and the other is that people do stuff for me and never ask for payment, so why should I?

Occasionally I may get some chocolates (always appreciated), but that’s it. In fact the only time I can think I’ve had some money from anyone was when I sold a PC to my sister a few weeks ago as hers had died. But that was mainly as I was letting her have a whole new system. Another time I set up my sister-in-law’s new PC and she let me have the old one. Nothing much wrong with it, so I wiped it and it’s going to my Mum so she can manipulate as many photos as she likes, when she likes, without getting in my Dad’s way on his PC!

What made me think of this is that one of the cleaners at work has a grandson who has been give a nearly new laptop. It was bought in August by a man who passed away just before Christmas and his mother gave it to this young lad. However, it had no discs, manuals or any info about passwords so they couldn’t do anything with it! I’ve wiped it, done a new install of Windows and I’m in the process of running ALL the updates Sleepy and installing the programmes that he will need. But she’s asked me a couple of times now how much do I want and each time I’ve said ‘nothing’. This is partially as I’m doing it at work between other jobs so it’s not really taking up my time and partially as I’ve found that it’s always a good idea to keep well in with people like cleaners and caretakers at work as you never know when you will need a favour from them!

The point of all this (Finally I hear you scream), is that it reminded me of the Cub Scout Law –

A Cub Scout always does his best,

thinks of others before himself

and does a good turn every day.

OK, that was the version I learned when I was a kid, it’s now –

Cub Scouts always do their best,

think of others before themselves

and do a good turn every day.

The bit that sprang to mind is the ‘does a good turn every day’ line. Doing a ‘good turn’ has always been a part of Scouting and even though it’s not mentioned as such in the Law and Promise (the ‘help other people’ part of the Scout Promise is probably closest), it’s still a good concept to keep to in day to day life.

Imagine how easy it would be if everyone followed this simple law! Doing your best, thinking of others and helping them – WOW what an amazing idea!

So I’ll keep doing my IT support free of charge and helping others, but if anyone wants to give me the odd choccy, I won’t say no!

Posted on

Insurance

As with most things in life, insurance is necessary even for Scout Groups. As a Group we have bought, over the years, plenty of expensive kit. Tents, cookers, tables, craft stuff etc. all costs money and if there were a fire at the Hall, for example, then it would all need to be replaced. Therefore we have insurance!

Irrespective of whether the kit is insured or not, it can be replaced.

When Leaders are doing Scouting activities, they are insured by the Scout Association. But not for very much. However, Leaders can get additional insurance for a small extra cost.

Last year, our Group decided to take out this extra insurance for each of the Group’s Leaders. If people are going to give up considerable amounts of their own time to run meetings and events for our young people, then it’s not too much to ask that the Group increases their level of insurance. At £7 per person, it doesn’t break our bank.

If your Group appreciates their Leaders then give them the extra insurance!

Posted on

1911 Census

The 1911 Census was made available online on Tuesday of this week and I’ve had some fun looking through it.

So far I’ve managed to find the details of my maternal Grandmother and her parents and my paternal Grandfather’s parents (he wasn’t born then), but the other two are alluding me for the moment. It’s interesting to read a form that they filled in nearly 100 years ago.

While I was looking, I thought I’d look up our Troop’s first Scoutmaster. Although he only lasted a few months, he was our first Scoutmaster and I think I now know why he didn’t stay with the Troop for very long. He moved to a town a couple of miles away to be a ‘lodgeman’ which judging by the number of lodgers he had in his house meant he ran a B&B.

I also looked up two of the Scouts who were killed in the Great War. Aly (Alfred) and Colin Jackson were 16 and 14 respectively and they both worked on a pot bank (a pottery factory). They lived at a different address then to the one recorded when they were both killed in WW1.

It’s all fascinating stuff and it make the names seem more ‘real’. I now know where these people lived, what their jobs were and more about their families. I’d like to find out more about the Scouts, but it is quite a time consuming and expensive business, so the family records come first! However, I will keep dipping in every now and again to this interesting resource.

Posted on

A New Blog to Read

I’ve just come across the blog ‘Cub Scouting is Coool!’ which is by a Cub Scout Leader in Sweden.

I camped with a group of Swedish Scouts at the International Friendship Camp held at Kibblestone in 1992 and a great bunch of people they were too. So this will be an interesting blog to follow with another countries take on our great movement!