Some random thoughts
I was presented with my Wood Badge last night at our AGM, so I’m now officially a member of the largest Scout Group in the world! 1st Gilwell is the Group every Scouter belongs to when they get their Wood Badge.
Me getting my beads from the District Commissioner
I was reading this post by Jerry of the Scoutmasterminute.com on the qualities needed for a US President. He was saying that if the President and politicians followed the (US) Scout Law, then he or she couldn't go too far wrong!
A very good idea I thought, until my mischievous side remembered seeing this –
Ralph Wiggum for President in 2008!
I decided not to post this as a comment on Jerry's blog as it would detract from his sensible comment. So I hope Jerry can forgive me for the slight mickey take!
Despite the fact I work in a special needs school, I'm not very conversant with the conditions some of the kids in the school have. Working in the IT department I don't really need to, to be honest.
However, last week I was informed by the Scout's County Office of a meeting concerning children with ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder). So I went along and coincidently it was at work! I have had a Beaver and a Scout with Asperger Syndrome in the Group before, but it helps to learn more.
It was an interesting couple of hours and I learned quite a bit. So when the next child comes along with ASD, we'll be better prepared!
It occurred to me last night that sometimes the simple things are the best.
The Beavers and Cubs couldn’t meet at the Hall last night as the Church were setting up for their summer fair. So we took them down to The Marsh to play some games (I say we, but what I actually mean is the other Leaders took them. I stood around, watched and chatted to the parents!). The weather behaved and it was a lovely sunny evening (the forecast was rain – unsurprisingly).
They played a couple of relay games, a quick game of cricket, did games with a new play parachute and finally had a quick game of football.
Nothing difficult, complicated or taking ages to organise there. The Beavers and Cubs (and Leaders and parents) had a great time and enjoyed running round and playing the games. What could be better?
I’ve stumbled across an interesting Canadian web site that hosts PDF copies of old Scouting books. This obviously has a Canadian slant, but it has loads of the Gilcraft books and books by BP himself. Well worth a look for Scouts of any country!
The photo at the top of my blog was taken on my then mobile phone, a Nokia N80, on a Saturday morning in November 2006. I was with our Cubs at Barnswood and took the photo after I’d taken some rubbish down to the bins. The sun was rising and I thought it was too good an opportunity to miss. I rather wished I had a real camera with me at the time, but you can’t really carry a camera around when emptying bins!
I took about 7 or 8 photos and thought I’d be able to put them together back at home to form a panorama. When I did, I used Photoshop and this came out.
Not bad I thought! I wasn’t too happy with the join lines, but still it gave the right idea.
Then today, I was looking up some other info for something I wanted to do in Photoshop and I came across a little programme called Autostitch. This takes the individual photos and combines them to form a panorama but without the join lines! Reading a bit more into the site, I found out that this application is incorporated into Windows Live Photogallery! So using that, I came up with this.
No join lines! So after cropping and resizing to the correct dimensions, I’ve now got the improved image as my header.
Scouts refuse to allow boy who won’t swear to Queen.
An eight-year-old boy has been told he cannot become a Cub Scout after refusing to swear allegiance to the Queen.
Matthew McVeigh objected to part of the Cub Scout Promise which includes the line, “I promise to do my duty to God and the Queen”.
His mother Tracy wanted the pledge changed on religious grounds to: “I promise to do my duty to God and my country”.
But Matthew was told by the 1st Neilston Scout Group in Renfrewshire that unless he took the official oath he could not become a fully-fledged Cub.
Mrs McVeigh, a Roman Catholic, complained the 1701 Act of Settlement specifically discriminated against her faith because it only allowed Protestants to take the throne in Britain.
She added: “Why should we make an oath to the monarchy? The monarchy actively discriminates against Catholics.
“It’s an absolute disgrace in this day and age. We are supposed to live in a multi-cultural age, but this just flies in the face of that.”
The Scout Association allows young people of different religions to replace the word “God” with other deities, and also allows people of other nationalities in the UK to swear to do their duty to “the country in which I am now living”.
But Chris Foster, spokesman for the association, said the rules stated that British nationals must pledge allegiance to the Queen.
He added: “It is simply UK Scout Association policy that all British subjects must promise that.”
Its rules state that scouting is available to all faiths and takes account of the different religions of its members.
In the case of the Scout Promise, which adds the words “On my honour,” at the start of the Cub Scout pledge, Muslims may choose to substitute the phrase with, “In the name of Allah, the Most Beneficent the Most Merciful”.
Mrs McVeigh, 29, a mother-of-three, said her son was an intelligent boy and did not want to make the promise “just for the sake of saying it”.
She added: “I was gobsmacked that the Cub Scout commissioner said that if Matthew didn’t say the promise he would effectively be out the door. He said he could still go along to trips, but he would not be insured.
“The Cub Scout Promise was worded way back in 1907 and, let’s face it, times have moved on. Matthew absolutely adores the Cub Scouts.
“I am not asking for special treatment, I would just like him to be a Cub Scout without compromising what he believes in.”
Matthew said the decision was “not fair”, adding: “I really enjoy the Cubs and don’t want to feel left out or different to everybody else.”
Fr Jim Byers, Scouting chaplain of the local Catholic diocese, said he had never heard of a case of religious objection to the promise in 20 years, but urged the Scouting authorities to look into the case.
Cubs have to recite the full promise, which states: “I promise that I will do my best, To do my duty to God and to the Queen, To help other people, And to keep the Scout Law.”
After reciting the verse they receive a badge, woggle and neckerchief and become a fully-fledged Cub Scout.
OK people, it’s simple. Scouting has a set of rules and one rule is that you make the Promise (or Oath). If you don’t want to, go away and join a youth club! Harsh, I know but that’s the rules.
Sounds to me like Mummy is putting words in the lad’s mouth. The eight year olds I know wouldn’t object to doing their duty to the Queen. I’m certain that there are no problems of this sort at our local Catholic Group just down the road from us. Mummy is now threatening to go to court as it infringes his human rights.
For what other Scouts think see here.
Mind you, putting things in perspective, this is quite petty, silly and unimportant when compared to the poor Scouts who lost their lives in the tornado the other day 🙁
Sad news this morning. Four Scouts in the US have been killed in a Tornado.
It’s very sad to think they were camping and having a good time and ended up being killed. All our thoughts and prayers must be with their families and with those who have been injured.
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.
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!
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……..!
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!
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.
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!
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?