Updates and Observations

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.