Cambridgeskip

Marmite in a pasta sauce and a spoonful of sugar if using tinned tomotoes

I think there's an awful lot to be said for this. There is a very human desire to feel like you belong, and that sense is at its strongest in the teenage years. Scout age kids are always going to look for something where they feel like they are part of something that is bigger than they are. How do you go about nurturing that? If anyone can ever find the perfect formula and bottle it they would end up very wealthy indeed. There are things you can do. As @@Stosh said above, a good program where they have ownership of it is very much something you can do. Other things you have less control over, like if they are actually friends with those in the troop. If they don't get on they don't get on and there's not a massive amount you can do about that. And sometimes that bonding experience that makes them feel like they belong comes out of nowhere, for no apparent reason. It could just be random game that breaks out somewhere, or a stupid joke that everyone remembers, a terrible meal on camp that everyone laughs about later, but often they are things that if you tried to recreate them they just wouldn't work again. One thing that my troop is lucky with is our age, founded 1909 (we think, some say 1911, but either way we're old!) we have a lot of history. We have lots of old trophies and photos hung up everywhere. It helps with that sense of them being part of something bigger. A lot of this is intangible though, as above, if I ever figure out how to bottle it I'll be a very rich man!

Over all I would be surprised if he wasn't. That said it's not as straight forward as a BSA jamboree. To begin with it is pretty standard for the head of state or head of government or other senior representative of the host nation to be asked to speak at some point. The Japanese prime minister did in 2015, the King of Sweden did in 2011, Price William in 2007 and the king of Thailand in 2003. However.... this is the first jamboree that is being jointly hosted by multiple countries and given the Canadian and Mexican input they will have to consider the protocols to make sure that all 3 are included in that respect. Finally while POTUS is honorary president of BSA he is not honorary president of WOSM, so there is no obligation in that respect and ultimately this is WOSM's call. My guess is that he will almost certainly be invited and probably speak but the format may be different to your national jamboree.

But it won't be Brooklyn. This will be a jamboree populated by scouts from around the world. It's a totally different environment to anything else you will encounter anywhere. I'll give you my own experience. 2005 I took a group of scouts to the European jamboree which was held less than hour from Cambridge. For how close it was it may as well have been on another planet. On arrival we found ourselves camped next to a polish unit. They spoke not a word of English between them, we spoke not a single word of polish. The other side of them were an Isralie unit. English better but most spoke Hebrew as their first language. The other side of us were a big Italian unit. One of their adult leaders had a working knowledge of English. Their scouts could manage hello and goodbye and a few other pleasentries. Thankfully one of our scouts was English Italian bilingual and did some interpreting for us. The other side of them were an Irish unit who came a from a staunch Protestant/unionist working class area of Belfast. You couldn't find an area of the uk more different to liberal middle class cambridge. Across the track from us we're a Ugandan unit (yes at eurojam) who promptly started trying to sell us paintings of animals from Africa and later burst into traditional African song and dance. Next to them were the Swiss unit who's girls proceeded to beat our boys at rugby later in the week and the other side of them the Portuguese who would form massive human pyramids at every opportunity, and we're talking 5 or 6 layers high, standing, with no safety net. And that was day 1 of 13! And it very quickly killed off any bravado but not the friendship or curiousity of everyone Later in the week we met the Norwegians the French the Mexicans the Koreans, Hungarians, sweeds and so it went on. If I recall there were 64 nationalities there. There is simply no comparison with any other gathering either within or outside of scouting

That's not what I meant What I meant was that there will be a much greater proportion of girls. Some countries it will be a 50-50 contingent. That in itself cuts out much of the novelty factor. It's one thing cat calling the girl on her own. Quite another the one in a much larger group. And the melting point takes away a lot of the bravado because suddenly that group of scouts you just encountered are not from your own country where you have a broad idea of how they'll react. They speak a different language come from another continent, react differently, are entirely different. I've watched it in action. Major international events like this are a totally different experience to anything else.

Nevertheless I think you'll Find a world jamboree a very different experience. The melting pot of different cultures puts pay to an awful lot of nonsense. And frankly there are some cultures where cat calling or groping would likely find the culprit landed head first in a rubbish bin or knocked out cold by the girl involved. I've seen both Swiss and Irish scouts in action and they don't suffer fools gladly

Your girls will probably find the world jamboree rather different. The minimum age is 14 rather than 11, hence a higher maturity level, also as most countries are coed the number of girls will be that much higher making them less of a "novelty" I had 3 girls go to Japan in 2015 for the world jamboree there and none of them had any problems and infact were very complimentary of the Americans they met there!

It would surprise me if he didn't. In 2015 the Japanese Prime Minister attended, 2011 the Swedish King and Queen, 2007 Prince William. I can't find info for 2003 in Thailand but again it would surprise if there wasn't a very high level dignitary of some sort. While it is being run by the 3 North American nations it is ultimately being held in the USA and I would be very surprised indeed not to see the President attend, probably jointly with reps from Canada and Mexico.

Clearly his speech was controversial when addressed to an audience that I assume was 90%+ American. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2019 (when I assume he will make an appearance) when the audience will be 90% non American.

Thank you, it looks like it's going well already. They were at Niagara falls today. They'll be seeing Toronto on Wednesday including the Bluejays game in the evening. I am very jealous!

The red white and blue neckers are our national one as opposed to our troop necker of royal blue with a sky blue border. Neckers are pretty standard here on most scout events even when not in full uniform, a case of wear them unless told not to.The scouts were quite keen to get hold of the UK neckers as they do look really good!

A few threads getting people hot under the collar I see so I thought I'd share a scouting experience from earlier today to make you chuckle. It's how to give me 30 seconds of panic..... So.... my scouts have just landed safely in Canada for a two week expedition. Sadly I couldn't make it this time round but I am the designated home contact for keeping parents up to date. This is a natural role as I did a lot of the admin before hand from collecting money to sorting out the international paper work to checking passports etc. Our leader in charge though managed to freak me out by sending me this photo from London Gatwick airport. Why would it freak me out? 5 of our scouts hunkered down waiting for their flight to be called...... Trouble is the scout top right is not meant to be on the trip! What the blazes was a scout I had no record of signing up, had no money in from, no permission form from, had no host family for the home hospitality leg for doing on the photo? Did we actually have a stowaway or had I managed to seriously drop the ball somewhere along the line? Simple explanation, she happened to be passing through Gatwick with her family heading to a family holiday and had come over to sit with her friends while waiting. Should have been obvious but for about a minute I was one freaked out home contact thinking we had a stowaway.....

Now obviously you know the rules and regs better than I do. Although I would happily bet you a beer (should we ever meet in the flesh) that actually no, you can't stop a venture crew operating like that if they have the backing of their CO. Either way though what I'm trying to do is predicting the kind of thing I see happening if BSA only go half way there. Eg pep I g up only cubs to girls or lowering the venturing age or whatever way round or combination you can think of. It strikes me that it's a do or do not moment because otherwise you have a situation where the rules are only paid lip service to and everyone knows it's absurd. I see it as a case of do or do not for BSA. Half way will lead to chaos. An example from this side of the pond. Until about 3 years ago there was no atheist version of the promise. Officially atheist adults were not meant to be full members although they could be associate members. So at my troop we had a couple of adults who were on paper troop assistants. In practice they operated as assistant leaders. What you would call an ASM. They wore the uniform, did all the training had the commitment levels. We even invested them (completely against the rules but like I said, easier to get forgiveness than permission). The scouts themselves had no idea that Jenny was atroop assistant and Roger was an assistant leader. They didn't care either. Now this kind of thing went on nation wide in every group in every district. Eventually the rules changed partly through being the righ thing to do and partly because it was patently absurd to do anything else. Jenny is now an assistant leader officially. The kids still don't know the difference and still don't care either.

of course BSA own it but that goes without saying. Let me put it another way. A given crew decides that they are going to operate in such a way that they are divided into smaller groups. You could call them patrols. You could call them teams. You could call them whatever you like. Those groups select their own youth leader. You could call them a PL. You could call them a captain. Again, you can call them whatever you want. No skin off my nose. Those youth leaders make decisions collectively at crew level but most of what it is done is at patrol/team level. Furthermore they decide they're not really fussed about the venturing awards. Instead they look at what is required for the various boy scout awards. And they decide to do it. Now maybe they don't actually get the patch or whatever that goes with it. But nevertheless that's the stuff they do on a week to week or camp to camp basis. They do whatever it takes that to any outside observer what they are seeing is boy scouts with girls involved. Is there anything in the rules as they stand that says that a venturing crew can't operate like that?

That's not really the question. The question is would there be anything to stop it happening in terms of rules and regs? People will always look for ways round things (I normally work on the basis of its easier to gain forgiveness than permission) and its one way I could see it happening. A given group calling themselves a venture crew but operating as a scout troop so that they could be coed.

A question for you... as a bit of an outsider..... One or two people have talked about reducing the venturing start age to 11 with girls joining that and not scouts. Is there anything to stop a venturing crew arbitrarily adopting the scout program, operating as patrols, following the training, even awarding ranks and badges on an unofficial basis? As an example my troop here is twinned with one in Canada. When we have had joint camps together (2013, 2015 and one starting in a few days time) we have awarded each others scouts badges they have earned in the other country. So some of my scouts have Canadian badges on their arms. Some Canadians have UK badges on their arms. We didn't ask anyone, we just did it.

But surely there can be such accusations whether or not there are female leaders present? And indeed if it is just an all male event as well? I don't really see the difference in the levels of risk on that side of things. From experience here the adult leaders (men and women) where the great outdoors is not there thing rarely do anything other than beavers or cubs. Those leaders who are really up for a bit of the great outdoors are spread across all sections. You might find that if girls were admitted on mass to all age ranges that you'll find a lot more women than you expect getting involved.

Ah you mean Inspector Morse! It did seem to be a rather dangerous place didn't it? Could have been worse. In the 1980s there was a police series set on Bergerac set in Jersey. An island with a population of around 100K. He was investigating a murder every week. Terrifying! As above the Gondola is propelled with a single oar, the punt is pushed off the bottom with a pole. What's always good fun is when a novice gets the pole stuck in the bottom and fails to let go, leaving them dangling off the pole and slowly falling in. Great fun! In fact it's a sunny sunday afternoon today, I may have a stroll down to the river to watch the chaos unfold.....

A smoke shifter.

Most water activities it is specified for us as well but as above, there's no rules for punting as it's so obscure. And that is helpful because in all seriousness my risk assessment says that for those who can swim (currently everyone) what I am most concerned about should they fall in is not drowning but being hit by another punt. The river is busy, the punts are heavy and difficult to manouvre. I would want any scout in the water to be able to swim out the way quickly and not be slowed down by a buoyancy aid.

So I thought I'd introduce you to the impossibly British pass time of punting. It's form of boat found almost exclusively in Cambridge and Oxford where the shallow and slow moving rivers plus students with too much time on their hands makes its possible (you don't get anywhere fast), basically a rowing boat that you propel by pushing off the bottom with a large stick. It's something most scout troops here have as a summer evening event and we were at it on Thursday night. It is such an obscure activity that the scout association doesn't actually have any rules on it, unlike pretty much every other water sport. A few photos here. Plus this one. We try to invest our new scouts in some interesting places, standing up in a punt on the river was quite fun for this lad! IS there anywhere in the states where you do this?

Going to have to go with Stosh for the winner on this one I think!

Yes, no, maybe, perhaps. Worth considering a few things here. Dunkirk was possibly the darkest hour in the UK's history. While the story of the Dunkirk miracle has persisted it is a work of propaganda. The period April-June 1940 was an unmitigated disaster for the British military. At Dunkirk we came perilously close to losing the army. As it was while most of the troops did get home most of them returned with only the boots they were stood up in and their personal weapons. They left behind all the tanks and artillery which in itself was the bulk of what the British army had in 1940. That summer there was little doubt that Germany would attempt an invasion and those men would be needed to resist it. The Battle of Britain air battle that stopped that happening was itself a properly close run thing and it was only the massive error of the German airforce switching to bombing cities rather than airfields that changed it's course. Have little doubt what a dire position the UK and indeed the world was in. If the UK has been defeated there would have been no chance of an allied invasion of France and Germany may even have been able to divert sufficient resources to defeat the Soviet Union. In which case what would the world look like now? Of course we'll never know, but nevertheless it took a situation that desperate to get sea scouts into the war like that. There hasn't been a situation like it for the UK either before or since. If we were in a situation like that again who knows? (although the advent of nuclear weapons would probably preclude that position ever being reached) Second my understanding is that the scouts involved at Dunkirk were senior scouts (15-18 year olds) so even the youngest were not that far off the current minimum age for joining the armed forces of 16 anyway.

Interestingly here, despite "boy" being dropped from scouts in 1961, my own group going coed in 2005 and the whole association going coed in 2007 my own group is still technically called 12th Cambridge Group Boy Scouts as per its registration with the charity commission. I suspect most other groups are the same. I have some sympathy with arguments about boys needing their own space, I can see the potential costs in terms of refitting toilets and showers but frankly this stuff about changes of name, reprints etc really is nothing to fuss about. When it comes to the new edition of anything search for all references to boy in the master file and change to scout or youth. Job done in under an hour.

Photo taken on camp at the weekend at Gilwell. No idea what was actually going on here but I think if ever a photo needed a caption competition. The scout with the dish on his head is on his first camp and the girl doing the pointing is a patrol leader...... Have fun!