Nick's Ramblings

One of the things my Scout Group has been considering for a while is getting a computer.

We’ve been really lucky recently as I’ve been able to get a couple donated to us, so there is no cost to the Group. They’re not new or anywhere near top of the range, but they’ll do what we want them to do!

As well as computers, the other thought was to get the internet at the hall where we meet. Again not much of a problem as we can get a connection for a reasonable price that won’t be a drain on the finances. Although I will say that we’re only going to have it for 12 – 18 months initially (depending on the contract) and then see if we actually get reasonable use from it.

Now we’ve got the computers and we’re getting net access comes the ‘problems’. We have to be sure that the PCs are totally legal with regards to the operating system they run and the programmes on them.

One of the PCs comes with fully licence Windows XP, but no Office and the other is a laptop which is licensed for Windows ME (Mistake Edition!), but will happily run XP. However it has no XP licence and we can’t really justify spending any more money! Ubuntu to the rescue! This Linux distribution has OpenOffice included, so we have an Office compatible suite with an operating system which is, for a user, not too difficult to master. OpenOffice is also going on the Windows XP machine, along with a few other free and Open Source programmes. The computers will be locked up so only an administrator (me) can add or remove programmes. This means we won’t be breaking any licensing rules – and quite rightly so!

The other thing we have to be very aware of, is content on the internet. If our Beavers, Cubs & Scouts are going to use the web when they are under our supervision, it is our responsibility to ensure that they don’t access anything that is, for want of a better phrase, dodgy.

And this caused me to do a bit of head scratching. How to filter what they can see? In school, of course, young people access the internet behind very strong filtering, but in the outside world it is open to everything and therefore a bit more tricky!

Until that is I was looking at Kevin’s blog the other day (thanks Kevin) and I noticed a button on there like this –

So I clicked on it (try it, it works here!) and found that they offer a filtering service and it’s free! Well, you can pay for extra services, but the cost is not excessive. The good thing is that it’s not set up on an individual computer, but on the router you use to connect to the interweb! This of course means that if we let a Scout bring in their own laptop or PSP, for example, and let them connect to the net, then they will be safe (well about as safe as you can be) from inappropriate content!

The great thing is that if you have young kids at home and you want them to be safe on the net, you can do this at home as well (and I will be in a couple of years time!).

As I mentioned before, the kind people at Random House have sent me a copy of this book to review, so here goes.

Although it is produced by The Scout Association and the foreword is by the Chief Scout, Bear Grylls, it’s not specifically targeted at Scouts. The idea is for any young person, Scout or not, to be able get up from the computer or games console and go out and enjoy the outdoors and do it safely. Indeed, although knots (always a Scouting favourite!) are covered, as Bear says

When we show you knots, we’ll only show you the most useful.

So the book covers what you need to know. It’s designed to be dipped into for the specific area you are looking at, although reading from cover to cover is an informative and enjoyable experience.

Of course, when I first got the book, I thought ‘Ha, there won’t be anything in there I don’t know! I’m a Queen’s Scout and a Group Scout Leader!’ – I WAS WRONG! Ok, that’s a slight exaggeration, I know I don’t know that much, but even the most experienced outdoorsy type (& that’s not me) will find new information to pique their interest, whether it information on camping, fire lighting or water activities.

The first chapter is titled ‘Being Prepared’ (snappy title, wonder where they got it from?) and this isn’t just about planning your activity, it’s about teamwork and your health. So even from the start, the book breaks down what you need to do to ensure you’re ready and safe for your outdoor activity and this concept continues throughout the book.

I’d use it to brush up on skills when I am next showing the Scouts how to do various outdoor activities. In fact it would be useful to have around on a meeting night just in case I needed to be reminded of something or find out something I didn’t know while going over an area with the Scouts.

I’d also recommend it to parents wishing to buy something for their Scout as a gift. There would also be the added bonus that the parents would be able to read the book and gain some idea of the outdoor experiences Scouting offers the child and help them when it come to, for example, preparing for camp!

I especially like the Quick Tips section at the back. Here’s a good one –

No Spiders

A dixie lid full of conkers at the door of the tent keeps the spiders out!

UPDATE: a translation of the very British terms ‘Dixie’ and ‘Conkers’ are in the Comments section!

So in conclusion, an interesting and very useful book for non Scouts, Scouts and Scout Leaders. I will recommend it to my Group’s Leaders and to the Scouts as an excellent source of reference.

A Complete Guide to Scouting Skills is published on 4th March 2010 and the retail cost is £14.99. I know it will be available on Amazon for £9.74 which is a bargain, and that also means that if any of my international readers are interested in getting their hands on a copy it’ll be easy for them to do so!

Chris at Jabbering and Adam at Woggleknot are also getting copies and will be reviewing the book themselves, so keep an eye on their blogs.

UPDATE 2: I forgot to add the link to the site with some sample pages from the book. It can be seen here.

Back on the 18th December 2007, I wrote about an Explorer Scout who had just spent a year living in a tent to raise money for a children’s hospice.

Unhappily, it appears this young man passed away a couple of days ago whilst walking in the hills in Scotland.

From the Scout Association –

Scouting saddened by death of hill walker

15/02/2010

The Scout Association is deeply saddened to confirm the death of Stephen Young, a trustee of Kent Scout County. Stephen’s death occurred on 15 February following an avalanche in the Cairngorm region of Scotland.
Stephen was part of an experienced, all adult group who were in Cairngorms as part of their annual trip to the region to expand their winter hill walking skills.
In 2007 Stephen raised £2,500 for a local hospice by sleeping in a tent for the whole of Scouting’s centenary year. His challenge had only been due to last 100 nights, but he decided to spend 365 under canvas to raise as much money as possible for the Demelza House Children’s Hospice.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Stephen’s mother, Judy, and his family and friends at this very difficult time.

A very sad loss and my thoughts and condolences are with his family.

A few days ago I got an email from the publishers of the forthcoming book ‘Scouting Skills: A Complete Guide’ asking if I’d be interested in having a copy and maybe doing a review. ‘Yes please!’ was the reply, so it appeared in the post this morning. I haven’t had time to read it properly yet, but initial thoughts are very positive. Maybe book reviewing could be a new thing for me?

You can take a look at a few of the pages here and I will give a more detailed account in a few more days.

Thanks to the kind people at Random House for the copy.

This is a poster that was produced by the Ministry of Information in 1939 and was to have been used if Britain had been invaded by the Nazis. We weren’t, so it wasn’t! However a copy was rediscovered in 2000 (read about it here) and has since gone on to be quite popular.

Despite the fact it’s a very ‘British’ type of statement (the country’s been invaded, but just get on with life!), it is a very good concept for life in general. A simple yet powerful statement!

Today, Monday 8th February 2010, marks the 100th birthday of the world’s second largest national Scouting organisation, the BSA. So, a big Happy Birthday to the whole organisation and to its many members! I’m sure that there will be a lot to hear and read about from my friends in the USA whose blogs and podcasts are in my links. Please take a minute to check them out – they’re all rather good!

However, it’s not just the BSA who are celebrating the impressive achievement of being 100 years old this year. I know of at least 3 other parts of the Scouting family celebrating their Centenaries this year. Of course there are oodles more, but these are just the ones I know of!

First of all the Guides are 100 this year. They were created by BP and his sister to cater for the growing number of girls who wanted to be Scouts, but Edwardian sensibilities wouldn’t allow them to do so.

Then there are the Scouts in Falkenberg Sweden who are 100 this year. They have already started their celebrations and you can read about them here (this is the link to the Google translation from Swedish into English. I hope it does them justice).

And last but not least, is 11th Stoke-on-Trent & Newcastle, 1st Kidsgrove Scout Group. They are just up the road from my Group, so it’s nice to have a local Group celebrating its Centenary this year as well.

So congratulations on all the good work these four organisations have done over the last 100 years and I hope you all have many more to come!

Of course, just to show off, my Group will be 102 this year!!!!!

The first part of the UK Scout Law states that ‘A Scout is to be Trusted’. This law applies to both young people and Leaders alike, no exception. SM Jerry has posed something similar recently when he talks about honesty and setting a good example.

So it is quite sad to read in our local newspaper that an ex Scout Leader from a local Troop has been convicted of benefit fraud and sentenced to pay back over £3000 and do 60 days community service.

The account in the paper has all the usual scouting clichés that are used when reporting something to do with Scouts.

Now I do not know him, nor to my knowledge have I ever met him, but there do seem to be a couple of points of interest here. First of all he was claiming incapacity benefit for a damaged back and was unable to walk without a stick, but was ‘caught’ doing Scouting activities like hiking. Secondly on the comments section of the online reports I’ve read, a couple of his ex Scouts have written to say what a good Leader he was and how much he taught them.

So it seems that, possibly, he mad some silly decisions regarding his claims, but was a good Leader. However he and to some degree his Group are now tarred with a bad name. Which is a shame as someone with a previously good name and has done good work in the community is now a criminal 🙁

I found this site the other day which allows people to create their own videos by using old archive ones. So I had a look and came up with some that showed local Scouts in years gone by.

There are, in fact, four videos here that I have stitched together.

The first is the visit by King George V and Queen Mary to Stoke-on-Trent in 1925. Although no Scouts are shown, it would be highly improbable that they wouldn’t be there for such an important visitor.

The second shows Scouts parading with their band in Dresden in 1941. There is a shot of some Guides at the end as well.

The next shows the VE Day celebrations on 8th May 1945, in, and I’m guessing here, Hanley. Some Brownies and Guides can be seen before the Scouts are shown throwing an effigy of Lord Haw Haw on a bonfire!

Finally, there is clip of the Scout Rally held at Port Vale’s football ground in 1951.

When I get chance, I’ll have a look at some of the old documents I am looking after to see if there is any mention of King George’s visit and the Rally. I’m quite sure that some of my Group’s Scouts and Cubs would have attended the Rally, so it will be interesting to see what I can find out about it. Watch this space!

I’ve recently found a few short videos of activities the Group has done in the past, so I’ve put them together and here they are.

They are not that great and not to be taken seriously, but are quite funny to watch!

It’s that time of year, where after the annual Census has been completed, it’s now time to pay up! For each Scout (& Beaver etc.) and Leader, the Group has to pay an amount to the District, which is then passed onto the County and finally the Scout Association at Gilwell. Each level takes there own ‘cut’, with the majority going to Gilwell and this money is what helps run Scouting at these levels. The total payable per member tends to vary between Districts as, although the amount charged by Gilwell is the same for everyone, Districts and Counties can charge what they want. This year we have to pay £25 per person.

This year my Group has recorded 74 members (up by 10 on last year!) which means we’ve had to pay £1850! Now we always pay as soon as possible as it means it’s then paid and out of the way.

We get our money back by getting the parents to pay in February / March after we have paid out our money. This means we are playing catch up with receiving the money and we always end up somewhat out of pocket (the Group pays for the Leaders, which is a contributing factor).

Getting money out of the people normally isn’t too much of a problem, but at times it can be. And this situation is not just specific to UK Groups. A forum post on the PTC Media forums was discussing the fact that some people seem very reluctant to pay.

It seems that some people think that because we are Scouts and a volunteer organisation (yep, my salary as Group Scout Leader is a whopping £0!!!) paying up on time isn’t as important than, say to the kid’s football team or paying for piano lessons.

If a family has some issues paying, if they talk to the Group then arrangements can be made. We all want their kids to benefit from Scouting and not have to remove them from the Group, but if parents refuse to pay up of ‘forget’ then hard decisions have to be made. It is not fair that the Group ends up out of pocket because of a refusal to pay.

Fortunately, all this is a rare occurrence!

The other day I got a comment on the post I made in February last year about International Scouting.

As those of you who come by here often are aware, I am fascinated by the fact we’re a worldwide movement and there are Scouts in virtually every country in the world. However, this comment is a little out out of the ordinary its writer, Sanda, is from Madagascar.

Now I’m the first to admit that I knew nothing of Scouting in that country and therefore, I’m really pleased that Sanda left a link to the Madagascan Scouting website.

I’ve had a good look around the site and now I know a bit more about Scouting in that particular bit of Africa.

I popped up to see the Troop tonight as we were pleased to have the District Commissioner join us to give out some awards.

First of all, he presented a Chief Scout’s Gold award to the first Scout in the Troop to achieve this award since we restarted the Troop in 2007.

Then it was three Chief Scout’s Silver awards for three Scouts who had achieved their awards before they left Cubs.

Finally, Don was presented with his Ten Years Service award.

It was really great to see these awards presented and I fell really proud of all of the Scouts!

In the UK, camping in snowy weather is somewhat unusual these days and we don’t get the same opportunities to do so as, for example, SM Jerry’s Troop. However, the Scouts from my Troop are currently at a weekend camp and are surrounded by snow. As should be expected, they have gone fully prepared for the weather and from what I hear they are all having a great time. I’m just rather disappointed that I wasn’t able to join them this time! I’m looking forward to the photos though.

As well as my Troop camping this weekend, another camp has gone ahead and has been reported in the national media. The country is having problems with the current weather situation with much transport disrupted and many schools being closed. However, the Winter Camp at Gilwell has gone ahead! The BBC sent a reporter there and it would appear that he had to be helped by a Scout when the batteries in his recording equipment ran out!

All this proves that if you are prepared for the adverse conditions, a fun and, most importantly, safe time can be had!

If you want to read more about being prepared for cold weather camping (albeit with a backpacking slant), I cannot recommend SM Jerry’s blog highly enough.

 

Every year, each Scout Group has to complete a census. This is information that the Scout Association asks for each year to find out the numbers of young people and leader in each Group.

Once the Group has filled in their details, the District then collates the information from each Group in the District and submits their information and the County does the same and so on. This then gives the SA an accurate indication of how many people in the Movement.

This year I’ve recorded 77 young people (Beavers, Cubs and Scouts) and adults in the Group. Now, this is the highest number of people in the Group we have recorded since the modern records we have began in 1971. We also have an increase of 14 people on the previous year which is quite impressive.

Some people may think that 77 people is a lot for a Group and some may think it is not many, but for us its about right. We can take a few more young people in each section and more adults (we never say no to adult helpers!), but for us there isn’t much more physical space in the hall, so many more would be difficult.

But another year on year increase in numbers is a good sign that our Group is doing well!