Category: Scouts

For some time now the BSA have produced adverts to promote Scouting in the the USA and I found out about them by reading Scoutmaster Steve’s blog.

However, I’ve often wondered why we never did the same (cost I guess), but it appears that we now have an official YouTube Channel.

It looks like they are putting up some of the positive coverage in the media and also some in house produced videos. It’s only just started, so there isn’t a lot there yet. Take a look!

Today in 1941, BP passed away.

Leading on from my last Podcast, a few things have come to mind.

One thing I completely forgot to talk about, was what I had achieved in the last year as a Leader.

First of all, I earned my Wood Badge! This was many years coming but well worth it.

I then had to take on the running of the Scout Troop from April for the rest of the year. A bit of an interesting experience to be thrown back in the deep end after almost three years of not running the Troop, but it seemed to go well. The Scouts carried on coming and at the beginning of this year the numbers are up and the kids are enjoying themselves. So I am passing on a reasonably healthy section.

All the Leaders planned the Family Camp which we had in May, but I had the ’pleasure’ of dealing with most of the organisation and paperwork. And I’m pleased to say it was a great weekend. A true example of teamwork in action.

My blog seemed to be read by more and more people as the year went on and lots of people have been kind enough to make comments. This in turn has lead to me gaining new friends from all over! I also had the great honour of being asked to appear on Jerry’s Scoutmaster Minute Podcast. That was a very enjoyable experience and we talked for three times longer than the actual show lasted! Hopefully we’ll be in a position to have another chat this year.
This, of course, lead to me doing my own Podcasts which people seem to be enjoying. I just hope I can keep coming up with interesting topics from a UK perspective.

On the Podcast I talked about me completing the annual Census and paying Capitation fees. On Tuesday, I had an email from our District Commissioner saying we were the first Group to complete the Census again! I understand from  our treasurer that the Capitation cheque is going off today, so we should be first with that as well. Of course, I’m now going to have to widen all our door frames so I can get my head through!

On the subject of Census etc. I asked whether Scouts in other countries do anything similar and I was told. You do! But here’s the thing, I always thought that each Scout organisation in each country, although members of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement, did things their own way. And to an extent they do. The BSA has strange terms like ‘Webelos’ and ‘Dens’ which sounded most odd to my ears. Where as I go on about Scout Groups and Group Scout Leaders, which are just as unusual to American Scout’s ears.
BUT, no matter what ‘regional’ variations we may have, at the basic level we’re all doing the same thing. We all are trying to, as the The Scout Association’s Purpose of Scouting puts it –  ‘promote the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, social and spiritual potentials, as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.’

As an example, here is the Scout Law as originally written by BP (third revision actually), the current one from the UK and the USA.

Tonight was the first time since April I wasn’t in charge of our Troop. Our Assistant Cub Leader has now officially taken over as Scout Leader. The Assistant Scout Leader and I dropped a very subtle hint to him about taking over as SL at an Exec meeting back in October and he warmed to the idea and agreed!

Now obviously, he’s come up with some new ideas and does things slightly differently from how I would do them. It’s also different from how the previous SL did things, but that’s good. Change is good. Even tonight when it was mainly a games night, just to get the Scouts back into Scouting gently after the holidays, he came up with a couple of ideas that I would never have thought of!

I hate to say this, but the whole atmosphere was different tonight as our most ‘challenging’ Scout wasn’t there. We understand he’s left to join the Air Cadets and we’ve all said that we hope that it is the making of him. They are a lot more strict with discipline than Scouts and that is to be expected in an organisation with very strong links to the military. I feel sad that we weren’t able to help him calm down and become a better person (a horrible phrase I know but I can’t think of a better way of putting it!), especially as he was always very keen to do all the activities. However, I wish him good luck and hope he enjoys his time in the Cadets.

The Troop has a new (and better) Leader (I’m the first to admit I’m not the greatest SL), it’s a new year and it’s a new start for the Troop. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in store and I’m sure the Scouts are going to have a great year.

Back in October, I heard that there was to be a new web site for the 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group / Troop 1 Gilwell and put up a post about it.

The new site was to have launched at the end of 2008, but it seems to be a bit delayed. I got an email today with an update, so I thought I’d post it –

Happy New Year to all the Members of the 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group!

 

We are excited to let you know the Gilwell Park website will be ready for viewing by the end of January.

 

Apologies for the delay as we hoped it would be ready by the end of 2008 but we have had some technical complications and these are now being dealt with.

 

Just to let you know that so far we have over 1000 Members of the 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group registered from over 15 different countries. Don’t forget to tell all your Wood Badge friends to sign-up too.

 

We have had the first snow fall of 2009 here at Gilwell Park so click below to take a look…

 

Many thanks,

The 1st Gilwell Park Team

I’m looking forward to seeing this site as it’s for EVERY Scout who has completed their Wood Badge training, as they are members of 1st Gilwell.

Take a look at the snow pictures that were taken this morning. They make the place look really wintry, although I suspect some of my North American friends will think that there’s hardly any snow at all!

Bucket or Kitchen Science is where you can do scientific experiments without having to have lots of specialist equipment. As the name suggests, you only need stuff that is in the kitchen or just a bucket!

These are the kind of things that can be done with any age group in Scouting and the ones that tend to cause explosions or are really messy are the best! Of course some of these are best not done in your meeting place, but on camp due to the levels of mess and the fact that caretakers aren’t too keen on having their windows blown out!

My favourites are the Custard Experiment, Water Rockets (a favourite of the Cubs as well) and putting a mint into a bottle of pop. You can see loads of these type of experiments at this excellent site.

What got me thinking of this was a conversation I’m having with Scouter Jeremy or Hawk Eye (his name when he has his Beavers hat on) from Canada. We started emailing just before Christmas after Jeremy had contacted Cubmaster Chris’s show about Beavers and if they do the same in the States. I sent Chris a few comments, he mentioned them on his show and Jeremy asked Chris if he’d let me know he wanted to get in touch. So a Canadian asks an American for contact details for a Briton! Don’t you just love international Scouting?

Anyway, back to the point, Jeremy’s Beavers are doing a month of science stuff and he’s made a great video of the putting a mint in a bottle of pop experiment.

So here’s Jeremy in best Mad Scientist mode!

So have a go next time you’re out camping and show science is interesting and fun!

At the weekend we went to the 50th birthday party of one of our Group’s helpers. I’ve known him and most of his family since I was a kid and it doesn’t seem that’s he’s 50!

All the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts love him, what he doesn’t know about walking, climbing, caving etc isn’t worth knowing and give him an axe and a dead tree on a camp and he’s as happy as Larry (bit of a standing joke that!).

But that’s the thing, in his and our minds he’s much younger and doesn’t act ‘old’ (I know 50 isn’t old, but there’s a point here!). He goes out and enjoys life and passes his knowledge and skills on! And that’s got to be a reason to not be old!

Happy Birthday Don.

Last night I did something I haven’t done for a very long time, I was late for the Troop’s meeting!

I’d eaten something for lunch that obviously didn’t agree with me and by the time I got home from work, I was feeling quite sick. So I got changed into my uniform, had a warm drink, sat on the sofa and promptly fell asleep. Carol had gone Christmas shopping with her sister straight after work, so didn’t wake me. I woke up, feeling much better, about 3 minutes before the meeting started!

So I jumped in the car and got to the hall about 10 minutes after the meeting started. This was not a problem however, as the rest of the Leaders had just got on and started – no worries! One did say that he thought I was coming and hadn’t said I wasn’t coming this week! They realised something was up as I hadn’t phoned to say I’d be late or not coming.

But the thing is they just got on with it, they knew what we were doing this week and did it. Good assistant Leaders are worth their weight in gold, so look after them. I couldn’t ask for any better – thanks chaps / chapesses!