Cambridgeskip

One that my family play that I keep meaning to test on my scouts is a variation on charades. Each person player has 3 pieces of paper and has to write on them the name of a book, a film and a TV show respectively. Fold them up and put them in a bowl. The group is then divided into two teams. Someone from team one has one minute to take pieces of paper out the bowl and describe whats on them to their team and the team has to guess what it is. They can pass on one. The bowl goes to the other team and back and forth a minute at a time. When all the bits of paper are used you add up the scores. Then to round two.... the same bits of paper go back in the bowl and it works same as before but who ever is picking the bits of paper has to mime. The to round three and this time you have to describe it using just one word. Great fun! I just keep forgetting to suggest it to the scouts.

After one of the warmest Christmas Day's on record here in the UK (Was 12C here in Cambridge) it's now snowing with the temperature in my back garden currently showing as 0c and falling. The scientist in me, and one half of the couple that pays the gas bill, is looking at the washing line. At the far end it has ice on it. The end attached to the house is wet. Part way along is the border between the two. I'm pondering the amount of heat leaching out the house and should we be getting some better insulation?

Up and down yes, but not to the same extent as the last 170 years. If we start from approx 200,000 years ago which is broadly the age of the oldest anatomically human fossils, that CO2 levels have moved around between around 180-280 PPM. Since 1850 that has risen, pretty steadily, from 280 to over 400 PPM. Not only that but the change has been the fastest on record. An arbitrary point to measure from in itself but perfectly scientific if one is considering the effect of industrial human existence on CO2 and climate change.

I think it's generally accepted that the pre industrial revolution, so early 19th century, levels are the standard by which we should be measuring things as that is broadly what the levels were through most of human existence. Whether that is optimal is another question but it's certainly the level from which human interference started from.

Yes, it's an old keel boat! They are quite peculiar to the Norfolk Broads which is an area of tidal wetlands which extend quite a long way inland. Most of them are pretty old now. We do a trip on them each spring. It's great fun. As it happens re Swallows and Amazons.... there is a boat that once belonged to Arthur Ransome that is owned by a sailing club just down river from Cambridge, we've been up the club and sailed on her a couple of times. That was quite special.

That was from the mountaineering course they can go on aged 13+ in Scotland. They spend 5 nights sleeping at the scout mountaineering centre* where they do day trips from and finish with a 3 day/2 night high camp in the mountains. The photo at 1.28 was on the same trip. Those two scouts had just got to the top of their first "Munro" (Scottish mountain over 3000 feet), what the one on the left had taken her hood down for I have no idea. I was out in the mountains that day as well with another group and can vouch for the weather being a mix of snow and hail on 40mph winds. Pretty unpleasant and a recepie for instant exfoliation! My hood that day stayed up and my snow goggles on. *the mountaineering centre is wonderful. A disused railway station that got bought up by our neighbouring scout county in the 1960s and adapted to run mountaineering courses from. Wonderfully eccentric.

Certainly we keep scouts as hands on as possible. Scouts don't come along to be talked at! Yes sometimes they need some instruction on things before they get started but I work on the basis they should never be asked to be quiet and listen for more than 5 minutes at a time. It's not a lecture on quantum physics we're giving, it's how to use a compass or tie a knot or whatever it is. The pioneering was great fun and was the PLs idea. As part of our troop program we normally have a camp in early spring that is themed on a particular skill or activity. We've had in the past rock climbing, a couple of hiking/navigation camps but this time they asked for a pioneering based camp. Not sure what they'll go for in 2018 although I know they liked an idea from our neighbouring troop at 18th Cambridge who did a banquet camp where they spent all weekend preparing various dishes backwoods style and then served them to parents when they were collected Sunday lunch time. I like the idea as well but their choice to make, not mine!

Thank you! I'm blessed with a hugely keen group of scouts at the moment so there's always enough that want to do everything to make pretty much any event viable. I also have several who are as keen as me to get as many photos and video footage as possible of what they get up to so there's lots of material to put it together from. Incidentally the photo at 0:36 is what they left on my phone when I got some of them to look after it for me while I had a go on a climbing wall. Genuinely lovely photo that I intend to get printed and framed for my wall. I'd also recommend putting this kind of thing together as way of getting more adult volunteers involved. It's what we make them for, we're fighting kids off with a stick, it's the adults that we need to take more kids. So that who we're trying to advertise to. People want to volunteer for things that are fun! So show them!

It's certainly been varried! I feel exhausted! Next on my scouting to do list is to book gliding for a weekend in the spring.

I don't think there's one straight forward answer to that. partly I guess I can't imagine life without it. It's also fun. The stuff we get up to is just that, fun! The last camp I was on was quite relaxed in terms of program and we spent a weekend chewing the fat round the camp fire. Other times we've been climbing, canoeing, gliding, sailing. What's not to like? The kids are also great fun, they keep me young I think. They come and go. There are those that come along for a year or so and others that stick at it seemingly forever. And some ultimately do go from being those you helped grow up to being friends. Again what's not to like? Theres also the sense of being something wider, bigger and global. We have a twin troop in Canada. We've got a German leader visiting us next term. We've previously had links with Sierra Leone. That always feels good. So lots of reasons really.

Whether this belongs here or scouting round the world I thought I'd swing by and show off our troop review of the year on Youtube here. Seemed to go down well with the troop tonight! A very happy and peaceful Christmas to you all

Personally I think that your cub uniforms look better than ours!

I occasionally hammock. One night the wind shifted round to be at right angles to the hammock. I ended up getting sea sick from the swaying! Weird thing is I don't actually get sea sick at sea.

A view from across the pond.... First of all NJ Scouter is exactly right. That massed email or announcement to a room full of people very rarely gets results. You have to go and ask people in person and that is what gets you pairs of hands. In addition.... you have to give them something to do. Now that might sound odd but consider this. The scout movement is a much respected institution (despite what some might have you think) with many traditions and ways of doing things that, to the outsider looking in, including that new parent who may not have been a scout themselves, look frankly a bit strange. That parent who comes to help with whatever event it is may be standing at the back looking lost because, frankly, they are lost! It's that simple. So when they turn up to something tell them what it is you want them to do. And find out what they can do. It's no good asking them to review a patrol's hike route plans if they don't know one end of a compass from another. So tell them, I need you to count the cash at the end of the fund raiser and write it in that book over there. Tell them you want them to check what material is already in for the repairs weekend on your building. Whatever it is. And then say thank you! And afterwards go for a beer with them. If you just ask them to turn up and don't give them anything to do they will end up drifting away. And for old timers (does that include me? I've been doing this 20 years without any children of my own involved) be ready to let go. Yes it may be a labour of love but remember someone with fresh ideas may just have something there that will work.

Interestingly all the instances of dealing with helicopter parents I've had this year has been parents of boys. The dad who wanted to know why his son wasn't a PL yet. (He didn't get chosen by the PLC) The mum who wanted to know why her son didn't have his chief scouts gold and was left to do (why isn't your son having this conversation with me?) and various others. had no such issues with parents of my girls. In fact as a counter example I spent a few mins on Thursday chatting to one of my older girls about the last thing she needs to do for her CSG. She approached me. No need for mum or dad to be involve. Just an observation

Putting a neckerchief on someone is one of the times I take particular care with scouts, in particular the girls. I don't how it works with you but here it is pretty standard for the neckerchief to be put on the scout as part of the investiture ceremony. It's not compulsory, just a tradition that a lot of troops use. I tend to put the woggle onto the necker in advance, keeping it near the bottom. Place the necker over the scouts head and then leave them to move the woggle up. Physical contact with anyone of any gender though is something to treat with a little care. As the OP said not everyone appreciates being touched, even at times of great distress. Equally though I think it would be a sad world where it was eliminated from scouting altogether. I have had to do everything from help a tiny beaver scout reach the rope to break the flag to help a scout back into a canoe to comfort one going through some quite distressing personal problems. Be respectful of everyone's boundaries but lets not lose what is an important part of being human, let along scouting

Quite right. While most of what goes on week to week is local the fact remains that scouting hasn't been local since pretty much the first days of scouting. It is a global movement that doesn't belong to one single culture, religion, country or belief. And so it has been since pretty much 1908 or so. And more the better for it.

One of my scouts has got a place with the UK contingent for WSJ 2019. She's lovely! One of the most enthusiastic scouts I've ever had

I thought it was more like 40 million just scouts with a further 10 million girl guides?

Not true. The articles on this have all been spun to make it look like that. While it is true that transgender individuals who identify as female may now join the girl guides most certainly do not allow 18+ members to shower with those aged under 18. It is scare mongering nonsense. Furthermore I've yet to encounter a scout or hide campsite (we use each other's sites here) where the showers aren't individual cubicals anyway

Stosh, at the risk of thread creep, lets not forget who BP was. He was born and brought up in Victorian England and gained all his experiences from that time much of it serving in the military at the height of the British empire. The UK has changed. The USA has changed. The world has changed. What BP did or did not make of coed scouting at that time is irrelevant. More the question would be what would he think, should he have lived to whatever age he would now be, with a further century of experience? That century has seen women prove their worth in many different fields to which they were previously either official or culturally barred. I am guessing he would have been won round. However back to the main point of the OP, I think that he would be most concerned with whether the scout movement was continuing to serve the youth members. Whether scouts are being given the opportunity to lead, whether there are the actual places for them to do so (eg campsites and the like), as Ian said I think he would be deeply concerned with the state of the environment and would be championing scouting as a force for good in terms of looking after it. I think he would be deeply troubled by the state of mental health among young people in the western world.

Other side of the Atlantic but dues (what we would call subs) are pretty standard here. They typically cover everything that happens on a normal troop night (with some very occasional exceptions), capitation (ie national membership) and upkeep of our building. Ours are £90 per year, so about $100. Camps and other outings are charged separately. Capital expenditure (ie camping gear and other equipment) is paid for out of fund raising.

I'd reiterate Ian's comments. I have had plenty of girls join scouts having previously been brownies or girl guides but not lost anyone the other way. When I ran cub I had girls move up from beavers, I had girls join straight in but I don't recall anyone jumping ship from brownies.

I'd like to concur with Back and Pack and Schiff. One of the most important skill as a scouter is knowing when to say no. I suggest that time for you is now. The day may come when you can return but remember scouting is bigger than you are. The movement won't fall over if you decide that now is the time to focus on your family. Best of luck.

Thought I'd continue the fun theme..... Sometimes we spend time at scouts learning skills for high level adventure. Sometimes we learn about important world issues or do community service. Some nights we turn members of our patrols into zombies