Nick's Ramblings

On Tuesday I had to leave Scouts early as Carol’s Mum is in hospital and Carol had gone to visit her and I had to pick up Carol at the end of visiting time. So instead of my uniform I put on my Group T-shirt, which we wear for camps and when some identity is needed but uniform isn’t necessary, and normal trousers.

But last night I got to thinking, why didn’t I wear my uniform? I’m not embarrassed to wear it, all my friends and most of my work colleagues know what I do in my spare time. Perhaps I subconsciously didn’t want to be bothered with those people who mock and criticise Scouting and a T-shirt is less obvious, as long as you ignore the big badge on the front!

Thinking about it, I must be a bit personally embarrassed for not being me.

I suppose I shouldn’t really give a damn what others think if they are that stupid or narrow minded.

Bit of food for thought really. What does everyone think?

One of the joys of being in a volunteer organisation is that we have to raise our own funds, we don’t just get money thrown at us. Our Group doesn’t own its own buildings so we are not constantly having to raise money to pay for its upkeep. Having your own buildings are both a blessing and a curse as you have the flexibility of having the full use of the building whenever the Group wants, but they are a tremendous financial burden. The same applies to mini buses. We’ve had three at various times in the past and very useful they were too, but we didn’t use them often enough to justify them and we didn’t have a secure place to keep them.

But no matter what you own, you have to have a healthy bank balance to ensure that the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts have all the equipment they need.

This year we’ve been offered the opportunity to do some bag packing at Sainsbury’s the weekend before Christmas. Now personally, I HATE bag packing. This has a lot to do with the 13 years I spent working for Asda and the fact I spent my 30th birthday doing it on my day off! However, putting my personal grumbles aside, we cannot pass up this opportunity to fund raise in this way as I’m guessing that we will be able to make around £1500 or more over the two days! If this guess is correct then we won’t need to do any more fundraising in the coming year unless we come up with idea that’s going to cost a lot!

So that weekend will see me bag packing and hopefully collecting loads of cash for the Group, not my favourite way of spending a weekend, but the outcome will be worthwhile.

I’ve just read that Henry Allingham, the oldest man in the UK and Europe and the oldest survivor of the First World War, has been invested as a Scout with the 6th Brighton Group last weekend!

Photo lifted from the SA’s website

He became a Scout 100 years ago but had to leave after 6 weeks as his mother could not afford to buy the uniform! You can read about it here and here.

I hope the Scouts get to talk to this remarkable man who credits his longevity to –

cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women—and a good sense of humour!

He certainly is an asset to his new Group!

Yesterday I spent the day in Telford at a Group Scout Leader’s Conference run by Headquarters. It was for all the GSLs from the Counties of the West Midlands region.

First thing they talked about was the FISH philosophy, which was quite interesting and not some horrible HR thing as I thought it might be!

We then split off into workshops which covered various aspects of the GSL’s job and how we can improve our Groups. We also got to meet our Regional Development Team, which was good as I now know they exist and what their role is! The other thing they asked was what could HQ do to improve our lives as GSLs and how could communications be improved!

The thing that disappointed me however, was that there were only around 30 GSLs there and only one other one from my own District. Now although there was one event a couple of weeks ago in our area and there’s another in the new year, the numbers did seem a lot lower than they should have been.

What did impress me was that here were 30 people from 30 Groups from quite varying areas of the country giving up their Sunday and getting together get ideas to improve their Groups, improve the Scouting they offer and make things more enjoyable, interesting and stimulating for the young people in their Groups.

Now compare this to the woman who had a go a Scoutmaster Jerry last week. This type of person is not just confined to the US. Some people are quite happy to complain and disagree with Scouting, but they never seem to want to put anything positive into their communities. So you don’t agree with Scouting’s values and rules? That’s ok, but go and do something worthwhile with a youth club for example!

Anyway, back to the conference, I came away feeling quite positive and realising I have some work to do to ensure that we offer the right programme and that all the correct procedures are in place. My colleague from my District had the same thoughts as well. Now this doesn’t mean that we are operating badly and the section’s programmes are poor, it just means that there is some ‘tweaking’ to be done to ensure we are doing our best.

A day well spent I thought (although Carol was grumbling that I was off for another day away from her!).

At our Scout meeting last night, as it was Remembrance Day, we had a theme of Remembrance.

I’d put up the memorial certificates from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for our Scouts who had been killed in wars, we’d had bases where the Scouts tried to do everyday tasks but they were blindfolded or couldn’t use an arm and discussed how people adapt and we tried to play football by the light of a couple of hurricane lamps.

At the end of our meeting, I was to play a recording of the Last Post, read the poem ‘In Flanders Fields’, one of the Scouts would then lower the flag and we’d dismiss.

It was all going well and the Scouts were genuinely thoughtful about past wars, current conflicts and how people who return have to adjust their lives after fighting whether due to mental or physical issues.

BUT, when it came to the Last Post, I was to play the recording on my mobile phone, I couldn’t get it to play. Trying to get it to play, I pressed the wrong button and played a silly ring tone .

Well that kind of destroyed them moment. However the Scouts, to their credit, didn’t laugh too much and we finished as planned. I was mortified though! I thought things had been going too well.

The rest of the Leaders said the evening went well except for that little cock up!

Back in May I wrote that I’d been lent some photos of the Group in the 1950’s by the Scout Master of the time, Bob.

I’ve finally got round to scanning the rest and I’ve put them on the Group’s Gallery.

It’s fascinating looking at the pictures as when you look at them you realise that Scouting at its most basic levels hasn’t changed much in over 50 years.

We invested another three Scouts last night, with another two due in a couple of weeks time. I know there are another two or three Beavers due to be invested soon as well!

All great for Group numbers! We must be doing something right 😉

It’s a very British thing to do to talk about the weather! However, when doing outdoor activities it’s always necessary to know what you are in for. Of course here it’s mainly rain (especially after the awful summer we’ve had!) for which you need to always be prepared. With that thought in mind here is a song by Flanders & Swann which when you have read it will ensure you are ready for the vagaries of the British weather!

After a week away in Devon, I’m back!

Yesterday we came back from a week’s hols and I went out to see the Group camping at Barnswood. The Scouts were camping, the Cubs were sleeping indoors and the Beavers were out for the day. We were also sharing the camp with our friends from 99th Berry Hill.

The great thing is that these camps work well on so many levels. We share a camp with old friends from our old District from before the reorganisations a few years back. This means we keep old friendships alive and the Cubs especially, get to know new friends.

All of the Group’s Leaders go out which means that we get to be known by the kids not in our own sections. This ensures that when a child moves from Beavers to Cubs or Cubs to Scouts, they have at least met and know to some degree, their new Leaders. There are no strangers here! It’s also good for me with my Group Scout Leaders hat on to be able to see kids from all sections in one go. In fact, the Cub Leader made name badges with our names and titles on. One of the Cubs asked me what GSL was. So I told him and added that the other Leaders let me think I’m in charge!

The other great thing was that as the Beavers came out for the day, they did some games out and about around the campsite with the Scouts. One Beaver and one Scout were paired up and they played the games together. And from what I’ve been told the Scouts did us proud. When you’re 6 and 12 / 13 the age difference is great and a 12 / 13 year old sometimes won’t have a great deal of tolerance of their younger friend! But they did and the Beavers and Scouts really enjoyed it. A couple of the Patrol Leaders really excelled themselves as well, so I will make sure they are aware of how impressed I am at our next meeting.

In the evening we had the traditional camp fire as well as some fireworks as it’s Bonfire Night in a few days and one of Berry Hill’s Leaders did a bit of fire breathing (don’t try this at home kids!).

The only down side was that as Carol had generously shared her cold with me, I decided it wouldn’t be wise to stay out over night 🙁

Ah well, next year! But if you get the opportunity to take all your Group camping at the same time or Scouts camp with Cubs, do it as it’s great fun and you build up the relationships for later!

The Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) was founded in 1968 and is recognised as one of the world’s toughest tests of endurance and navigational skills.

Over the years races have taken place in mountainous terrains across the UK and in Norway and Switzerland.

Teams of two from all over the world are graded according to their experience and complete two-day courses of varying difficulty.

Strict rules on safety equipment have to be met before entrants are approved.

Organisers say the ethos of the event, which is always held at the end of October, is to be “totally self-reliant in the wilds.”

Those taking part have to carry all their own equipment, have no outside support and are not allowed any satellite navigation equipment or mobile phones.

All entrants are given a map detailing the route they must cover depending on their experience.

Entrants are told: “Your first source of help is your partner and if you retire you are responsible for getting yourselves back to base.

“In these days of 24/7 contact and total support this is an event to test and indeed help develop teamwork and self-reliance.”

This is from a report on the BBC. See the full report here.

This year’s event hasn’t gone quite to plan as the weather in the Lake District has been awful, with high winds and torrential rain.

However, only 12 of 2500 competitors have required hospital treatment for hypothermia and minor injuries. Although 1700 of the competitors were unaccounted for last night, most have set up their tents or found shelter and just waited for the weather to improve.

Interestingly, although the media are making a great fuss about this, there has been no tragedies or serious problems. The competitors have gone fully prepared for their event and have done the right things by stopping and camping or seeking shelter.

Sounds like the rules for Hillwalking (Terrain 2 Winter) to me. Be Prepared? They were!