We couldn’t live without a bunny, so here he is!
Donations
As I said in an earlier post, the Scouts decided to make donations to the Burma Cyclone appeal and the China Earthquake appeal. I got round to doing this last week, online through Oxfam.
After the donation was accepted, I got confirmation emails to say the money had gone through. However, last week I got two separate letters from each appeal thanking me for the donation. This seems a little unnecessary to me as, although it’s always nice to be thanked, it looks like a waste of resources. Surely the cost of the paper, envelope, printing and postage could be better used helping those who need it.
I’ve emailed Oxfam to suggest they just send out confirmation emails, so it’ll be interesting to see what they think.
Thank You
Since the end of our Family Camp the other weekend, we’ve had quite a few parents coming up to us and thanking us for the camp. We’ve even had a couple of letters of thanks.
This is most unusual as most times after an event, the kids are picked up, taken home and that’s it.
It’s nice to be appreciated occasionally!
Honey Bunny
26/03/2003 – 04/06/2008
RIP
The Diary of Horace Wimp
I was listening to the best of ELO CD today and one song brought back some memories. The Diary of Horace Wimp was a single that my Uncle Alan played me when I went to visit him once. I was only 9 or 10 when I went to see him for the day. Mum put me on the train and he met me at his station. It would probably be thought of as wrong to put a 10 year old on a train on his own for 45 minutes these day, but it was great for me and I enjoyed the experience!
Anyway, Alan had a huge record collection (not to mention a huge library of books) and I think he’d just bought the single, so he played it for me. It seems odd now that he had this, as I think most of his record collection was classical with a few comedy records (which I still have). I thought it was quite good (10 year old’s taste!) and we played it a couple of times and then went off and made lunch together and did other exciting things. It was always a treat to go and see him and I think I must have gone to see him on my own a couple of times.
The big shame was that about 4 or 5 days after having a family meal at our house for his 40th birthday, he committed suicide. That was quite a big shock to me (as a kid of 10) and my sister, although we didn’t find out until many years later he’d killed himself.
I often wonder how our conversations would have gone if he were still around. Still the memories are there and so are the records. I still have that single!
Family Camp
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……..!
Family Celebration Camp
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!
Burma and China
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.
Computers!
Eddie Izzard on how computers ‘work’. Please be aware that it’s very funny, but can be a bit rude!
The Local Newspaper
A few weeks ago, I sent a press release to my local newspaper asking for people to come forward who had been members of my Scout Group so I could get their memories and possibly copy and old photos they may have.
The first journalist ignored it, so I sent it to two others. The first one rang me to interview me and put a small piece in the paper. She didn't use anything I'd said however, just used the press release!
Then last week the other one rang me asking me for an interview. He asked me one question and left it at that. There was a small bit in last night's paper, but it had been mangled!
He called the Scouts a society and even got my phone number wrong! I do wonder about these journalists sometimes!
I’m a First Aider Again
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?
Busy, Busy, Busy!
I’ve got a very busy couple of weeks coming up. Tomorrow I’m on a first aid course as all Scout Leaders must now have at least basic first response first aid training. On Wednesday I’ve got the District’s annual general meeting. The following week I’m on a two day training course for work. Then it’s our family camp to celebrate the Scout Group’s centenary! Phew!
The amount of planning and paperwork for the camp is quite big as well, but the camp itself will be great!
I’m sure someone once said Scouts was only an hour or so a week!!!
Code of Conduct
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.
Spam (not the meat kind!)
When I started writing this blog, I turned on the ability to make comments on what I’ve written. Now, so far, all the real comments made by various people have been interesting and helpful, but of course there is the spam comments. These are the ones trying to get me to buy various medicinal products and other dubious stuff!
As soon as I set up the blog, I installed a spam filter and recently updated to Akismet, which is part of WordPress. The amount of junk I’ve been getting has steadily increased so that I was getting around 20 – 40 spam comments per day. I didn’t realise I was that popular! So, getting bored of having to delete all the junk (well I didn’t have to), I decided to up the anti spam protection. I’ve installed a nice plug in which now requires the writer of a comment to prove they are real and not a spambot.
Guess what? Since it was installed not another bit of spam!
to spammers!
Local Elections 2008
The local Council elections were on Thursday and were very interesting again. The local Labour party have lost more seats again, eight in fact. The council still is not lead by one party, but Labour are getting less and less. It’s interesting to note how and area can swing from one way to another.