Cambridgeskip

Interesting responses there... Strangely in terms of teaching history there is often the complaint made here that it centers too much on the second world war. There is of course little doubt that the two world wars were without the doubt the biggest event in British history since the Norman invasion of 1066. The first world war caused the biggest social changes and the second the biggest geo political changes and it's impossible to understand the UK's place in the world without understanding them. It even affects our scouts. We went gliding last summer at an airfield that was established as a war time bomber base. However many people often feel that lessor but nonetheless important parts of British history like the industrial revolution, the establishment of the empire, the English civil war the act of union aren't given sufficient emphasis. I suspect every country has similar debates about the most important bits of history! I do think it's important for kids to get some very basic grasp of scout history. The fact is that there are 40 million scouts across all but 5 or 6 countries on the planet. They are part of something massive and the opportunities to engage with scouts from across the world is almost endless. It goes well beyond their patrol or their troop. And that is an inspiring thought.

Interesting experience with the troop last night that I thought I'd share..... So this term my troop has had an in take of 5 new scouts none of who were cubs before. It's quite unusual, the vast majority of ours feed through from the cub pack in our group with only a handful of "externals". So with them not having a cubs background we introduced a bit of scout history to the troop last night with a game of call my bluff. The hope being that the knowledge of the existing scouts would seamlessly get transferred to the newbies. Hmmmmm...... First how to do it. A big favourite game with the troop is a version of Call My Bluff. For this you get the patrols to line up at one end of the room, field or where ever you are and at the other end you have some chairs, one chair less than the number of patrols. Behind each chair stand a leader. Another leader reads a question then in turn each leader behind the chair tries to convince the scouts that theirs is the correct answer. One from scout from each patrol runs down the room and sits on the chair of the correct answer. If someone is there already they have to sit on top of them. 5 points for the patrol of the scout on the bottom, 1 point for the others on top. So this time round it was on scouting history. Quiz and numbers going for each answer below. In some cases impressive, in some cases I could have openly wept....... 1. Who founded the Scout Movement? a. Bear Grylls 0 b. Lord Robert Baden Powell 5 c. Field Marshall Montgomery 0 d. Neil Armstrong 0 Not bad but lets face it an easy one 2. At which battle did he first have the idea? a. Mafeking 0 b. Trafalgar 2 c. Waterloo 3 d. The Bulge 0 Well at least Waterloo was on land. But Trafalgar? TRAFALGAR? 3. On what date did BP run the first experimental scout camp? a. 1 August 1914 2 b. 1 January 1939 0 c. 1 August 1900 1 d. 1 August 1907 2 At least they all got the 1 August bit. 4. Where was that camp held? a. The Isle of Wight 1 b. The Isle of Skye 1 c. Brownsea Island 3 d. Holy Island 0 At least Isle of Wight is in the same part of the world. Isle of Skye? *head butts keyboard* 5. What book did BP write after that camp? a. The Dangerous Book for Boys 0 b. Guiding for Girls 0 c. Scouting for Boys 5 d. Just William 0 Better. 6. In what place does Scouting For Boys Come in the all time best sellers list? a. 1st 1 b. 4th 3 c. 114th d. 57th 1 7. What happened next? a. Teachers at schools started setting up scout troops 2 b. Local police started setting up scout troops 2 c. Local councils started setting up scout troops 1 d. Groups of boys started setting up scout troops 0 So much for youth lead! 8. In what year did cubs start? a. 1916 4 b. 1914 1 c. 1945 0 d. 1978 0 Not bad. 9. What book was the cub programme themed on? a. The Jungle book 5 b. Just William 0 c. 20000 Leagues Under The Sea 0 d. King Solomons Mines 0 I would have gently rocked myself to sleep if they got that one wrong! Our cub leaders positively revel in their jungle book personas 10. In what year were girls admited to all age groups of scouts in the UK? a. 2007 2 b. 1986 2 c. 1991 0 d. 2000 1 To be fair they have all grown up with scouts always being mixed so no particular reason to know that. 11. In what year was the first World Scout Jamboree? a. 1930 0 b. 1920 2 c. 1940 0 d. 1910 3 I was impressed that any of them got that! 12. The next Jamboree is this summer in Japan, where was the previous Jamboree in 2011? a. Norway 0 b. Denmark 0 c. Finland 0 d. Sweden 5 Again quite impressed 13. In which year was 12th Cambridge (our group) founded? a. 1911 0 b. 2000 2 c. 1948 3 c. 1950 0 It's on our group t-shirts for heavens sake! And you don't have to spend very long in our building to know that it was definitely not built in the 21st century. (There's some debate whether it's even up to 19th century standards!) 14. Roughly how many scouts are there in the world? a. 35 million 2 b. 40 million 3 c. 10 million 0 d. 20 million 0 Not bad! 15. Which country in the world has the most scouts? a. the United Kingdom 2 b. Indonesia 0 c. Russia 1 d. Japan 2 At least some knew that it was in the far east.....

Thanks for the thoughts chaps, some food for thought. Not sure what I'll do with them yet! It's a motorised glider (ie engine to get off the ground then it gets switched off) owned by our neighbouring scout county. They don't have any airfields where they can operate it from in their county so keep it at a gliding club just outside Cambridge, we had a couple of days with them last summer camp where the scouts were taken gliding, adults got to have a go at the end. Being handed the controls was somewhat scary even with the instructor sat next to me, I was quite surprised at how heavy handed I could be with it.

Er..... What's a one wheeled cart? Having the necker on most of the time is pretty standard, it's most useful at large scout campsites with lots of groups there, it makes identifying my mob at a distance easier. Back to the original post, do you have the option of staying at a scout summer camp but self programming so getting the best of both worlds? Or are you obliged to follow the programme that they offer?

How annoying! It's viewable in the UK. Youtube rules here are basically they have an agreement with the big 4 record labels so you can use it but you get adverts automatically applied. Photos here instead!

Organising your own summer camp in so far as not signing up to do a fixed programme is quite standard this side of the pond, although for most troops it doesn't mean full on green field camping. Typically it involves camping at a scout owned camp site, booking some of the activities that are available there for part of the time and self programming the rest. The only time we did it near enough from scratch was last summer when we did a cycle tour and camped at various places including a birds pf prey rescue centre, a sailing club and an airfield (there was a scout association glider and instructors based there that we made use of), we made a "film" of it here (the sound track is a nod to the gliding element of the trip!) The kids did enjoy it as it gave much more scope for them deciding when and where they wanted to do things. However they did miss the interaction of meeting scouts from other troops and other parts of the country which is always something they enjoy. This year is back to standard, 7 days at scout owned campsite but only 1 and a half days of that is using the onsite activities, the rest is self programming. Our 2012 summer camp was similar to that. As we are in a fixed place this year food storage is less of an issue as we have gas powered fridges that we can take with us. They are small and won't take all the food we need for a week so we will probably get a second delivery of meat and dairy half way through. I don't know how feasible that is in the less densly populated USA! I guess a lot of it boils down to what do the scouts want to do. Sometimes you'll get a generation that want to be more social and other times those that want the troop to be more independent.

How do BSA currently handle things on international events? There are several BSA units on US military bases in the UK. If they use UK scout campsites or take part in district or county events in UK (as some of them do) then this is something they already facing and dealing with. Units that go to world jamborees deal with this already. In 2019 BSA are hosting, what are the plans for that? It's not a hypothetical question. It's happening already. The question is how?

You have taken that somewhat out of context. The factsheet is not there as part of any kind of award system, it is there to reflect the fact that scouting, at least in the UK, does not exist in a vacuum. Scout Leaders are trusted adults in the lives of young people and that means that young people may wish to talk to us about many issues, some of which will be personal issues. So in that context TSA produces material, some of it aimed at young people, some of it geared towards adults, to provide help and advice on a number of issues. Coming out is one of them. Also included is divorce, bereavement, eating disorders, and many others. All things that some and in some cases all teenagers will have to deal with. And yes. I have had a scout chose to me to come out to. As have other leaders.

On this one I think I have to refer to the quote about our nations being divided by a common language. The term "promotion" in terms of homosexuality is a big red rag in the UK. It comes from legislation introduced in the 1980s which prevented teachers from "promoting" homosexuality and was there because people honestly believed that gays were trying to groom and turn teenagers. Complete nonsense of course. But that is why I took your comments why I did. If by promotion you mean telling people that it's ok to be gay and that they are welcome then frankly the UK Scout Association is guilty as charged. And to be honest I'm proud of that. If I'm at full strength next week I'll have 38 young people through the door. Statistically speaking 2 or 3 of them either already know they are or will grow up to realise they are gay. Some of them will suffer bullying and discrimination as they go through life because of it. Running an organisation in such a way that they feel safe and welcome is something I am proud of. And running it in such a as to make them welcome includes not kicking them out on their 18th birthday. I prefer putting an adult application form inside their birthday card. As for your book, if these men abused children then they are not gay, they are pedophiles. It is that simple. Gay men are no more a threat to teenage boys then I am to the teenage girls in my troop.

So yes, back in the room. To be honest I doubt our growth (and 9 or 10 years actually!) is specifically due to gays or atheists, atleast not specifically, probably more associated with girls though. Bit of background..... In the late 90s and early 2000s TSA saw a dramatic fall in members dropping from around 600K down to less than 400K in just a few years. The reason for that was mainly that it had stagnated. There had been no significant changes or updates to the programme since the late 60s or early 70s. It was stale and no longer reflected what the kids wanted. The only change had been in 1991 when a local option was introduced for admission of girls. In 2003 there were wholesale changes to the programme, the age ranges and the uniform. The most important of those was the age ranges. Previously scouts went 10-16 and Venture Scouts 16-20. This was changed to scouts 10-14, explorers 14-18 and Network 18-25. I have neither the time or inclination to write what would be a small thesis in changes in society that meant this worked better but trust me it did! In addition the programme changed, the world jamboree in 2007 gave us great publicity and the introduction of a celebrity Chief Scout role helped PR no end. HQ also got more savy with PR generally. They are so much better at promoting what we do. If they need an adult on camera they try to make sure they are under 25, they show the good stuff and less stuffy events in formal uniform. And it works. In terms of girls, gays and atheists. We'll start with gays and it seems on topic! There was never a ban on gays in UK scouting. That's not to say they were always welcome, remember homosexual acts between men were illegal here until 1967! Nevertheless there was no specific ban. TSA was just silent on the matter and certainly there were gay leaders. It changed in, I think, 1998, certainly 90s sometime, when TSA first publicly stated that gays were welcome. There was some controversy at the time but it never affected membership as far as anyone could tell. Frankly the concept that any organisation would ban gay members in the UK is now considered outrageous. That's not to say there is no discrimination anywhere because there is. Sadly gays are still bullied, harassed, assaulted, looked over for promotion and yes, even occasionally murdered for being gay. But the concept of any kind of official ban is looked on with horror. Atheists - there has never been a specific ban on atheist youth members. What there has been has been a requirement to make an approved version of the promise to become a member. All approved versions referred to a deity of some description. Any kid that said they didn't believe in God was told if you don't believe then your duty to God is simply behave respectfully to those who do and if you disagree with them do so in a polite manner. Simple. For adults the situation was different. There was a specific ban on them becoming full members of the organisation although they could be associate members. What that meant was they could become a section assistant (like an assistant leader but didn't wear the world badge), campsite staff, serve on various committees etc but couldn't be in over all charge of a troop, pack etc. In reality the rule was ignored for decades. Most atheist leaders just wrote "church of england" on the application form, no one asked them any questions, they made the promise and were in. My understanding is that that sort of behavior is looked down on far more in the USA than in the UK. Over here it's just considered a way around what was mostly considered a silly rule. It goes on all the time elsewhere. Ignoring the rules and being generally passive aggressive in all walks of life is pretty much a national sport. My favorite is football fans who flatly refuse to sit down at games and prefer to stand up and sing. Aston Villa fans are known to be particularly fond of standing up on mass and making sure the stewards know that they can't eject them all from the stadium! I digress though. When the official change came 15 months ago it really wasn't a big deal, it just reflected what had been the reality for probably 25 years. It just removed the last thing I had to be uncomfortable about. While I am a Christian myself I could not justify excluding someone for being an atheist. It just seemed nuts. The girls issue has done more to swell the ranks, I haven't seen this years figures but in 2014 I think girls made up about 15-20% of membership. Now clearly that has helped swell the ranks compared to 10 years ago when it was more like 5-10%. It was 2007 when all groups had to accept girls, it was controversial at the time, people said they would quit if it happened. Very few of them did. Being inclusive I guess has helped in that there hasn't been any reason to criticise the association for its policies but to be honest I don't know of anyone that has said "ooh look, I'll join them because they're so inclusive". most say "ooh look I'll join them because I want to go camping, hiking, climbing and sailing". Does that cover it?

Will happily do so later but right now off out with Mrs Cambridgeskip, catch you later!

Worth bearing in mind that sometimes to get things fixed you sometimes have to let them break properly. The nature of the scout leader beast is they tend to be very committed people who have difficulty sitting on their hands when they see a job not being done. I'm as guilty as anyone. When they see problems that are not theirs to fix they tend to go ad fix it. Volunteering for this that and the other. Before you know it they are stressed out of their minds and they are doing too many things to do any of them properly. When that happens sometimes you have to step away and let some of those spinning plates fall over. Cancel a few nights of scouts, cancel a camp, ultimately resign. It's only then that you'll get more people stepping up to the plate to take things on.

No. They send contingents to pride events. That is not promoting homosexuality or trying to turn anyone but about saying it's ok to be gay and you are welcome in the scout association as a youth or adult member. The reason for doing that is that many people in the gay community in the UK think they won't be welcome and it's about over coming that. The idea that there are hordes of gays just itching to come along and turn everyone gay is frankly laughable.

The biggest issue that I've found in the UK is that a lot of parents are already very stretched time wise. There is increasing pressure to work longer and longer hours. Many of them don't finish work till after scouts start time. Many travel with work a lot and time with families is precious. Also there are a lot more things to volunteer for. One of my ASLs is 74 and has been at the group since he was an 8 year old cub! The stuff of legend Talking to him he says that when he was a scout that was basically all there was to do other than school or church. Now there are a whole mirade of sports clubs, music clubs and who knows what else. It's not just a choice for children it's also a choice for adults who volunteer. Back in the day scouts, guides or church was about all there was to volunteer for, now that's all changed. On my team at work there are about 35 people. I'm the only scout leader. But there is also a rowing coach, a football coach, a volunteer at a soup kitchen, a cycling coach, a samaritan and plenty more volunteering, mostly in roles that didn't exist 40 years ago. Ye we have problems with parents who just can't be bothered, that's life, you just have to wear that one, but they are in the minority.

Seriously? We'd have complete insurrection if the summer term didn't end with a massive water fight involving super soakers of every kind. Is this actually enforced anywhere? Or can you chaps get away with conveniently forgetting about it? Also the others, balistas are great fun! Although we did destroy a 40 litre water carrier once while using it as a weight on a trebuchet. Boomerangs are also awesome! for a while we had an Australian leader with out cub pack who is also a mechanical engineer. He had a huge collection of boomerangs and would bring them to camp. They were fantastic fun! Somebody somewhere is being a right kill joy.

Hello all Like I did last year it's time to tap you all up again for our troop's annual charity event, The Sun Run. It's an over night run/hike/whatever it takes, over 18 miles from the city of Ely, north of Cambridge, back to our HQ in Cambridge. We do it the nearest weekend to the summer solstice, starting off on the dot of sunset (21.24 BST) with the target of getting back by sunrise (04.38) This year it is in aid of The Teenage Cancer Trust who provide cancer treatment and more personal support for teenagers with cancer. As usual the scouts themselves have chosen the charity, it's very much their cause, not mine. If you do have 5 minutes and a few dollars to spare then do feel free to sponsor them (and me, I traditionally have the job of sweeper, bringing up the rear and dragging any struggling 10 year olds over the finish line), just click here Many thanks from Aidan, Anna, Marina, Charlie, Nick, Ben W, Willem, Niamh, Miranda, Alex W, Ben B, Jack, Tom, Finn S, Oscar, Xavi, Jude S, Emily, Kyia, Miluka, Sam , Max, Felix, Austin, Daisy, Fin H, Jonny, Esther, Issie, Eleanor H, Elo, Jude W, Gregor, Biba, Alex B, Rebeckah, Eleanor V, Mischa, Jake, Raph, Chiara, Ollie A, Ollie R, Luke, Hanneefa, Daniel, Kizzy, Orla, Leo, Max, Adam, Timoni and Yilong. PS Unless you randomly happen to be a UK taxpayer please don't click to pay gift aid as we won't be allowed to claim it!

A couple of things I’ve read recently have got me thinking about the “character building†side of scouts and what we do to develop “character†in them. In an ideal world of course life is fair. If you work hard, do your fair share, play by the rules etc. Things go well for you. And there are plenty of ways of encouraging that. The patrol that works as a team, gets its chores done ends up having time to do something fun before dark while the patrol that messes around doesn’t. We don’t live in an ideal world of course. Things happen in life that are distinctly unfair. The “adult†world that these kids will enter in due course has more of it than the childhood world that they inhabit. And my thought is what do we do that can help kids develop into the kind of character that has the resilience to take that on the chin as they become an adult? The kinds of thing I’m thinking of….. I met Mrs Cambridgeskip at university. That university will remain unnamed for reasons that will become apparent. While living in university accommodation she found herself next door to a particularly noisy neighbour who would make a horrendous racket till stupid o’clock at night. Now normally the university were good at cracking down on that kind of thing. This individual though was the son of a senior diplomat from a major power (again I won’t name the country) and his parents were known to make regular large donations to the university. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, absolutely nothing was done no matter how much she or I complained. Now that is unfair, it’s wrong, but…… it is as they say life. Stuff like that happens all over the place. You apply for a job you’re qualified for but the boss’s nephew gets it instead of you. You apply for a contract to supply someone only to find they give the contract to someone who is in the same masons lodge. You get the picture. Scouts should be fun and we should be encouraging kids to work hard and be rewarded for that effort so I wouldn’t want to do things that are harsh or end up rewarding sneekyness or dishonesty. But I do wonder if there is a place for introducing the concept that sometimes you will come off the worst despite being the best or will miss out despite being completely deserving and that sometimes all you can do is pick yourself up, dust yourself down and try again tomorrow. Thoughts?

The memory that still makes me chuckle..... My last summer camp as a scout in 1993. The first evening after pitching camp we went for a tour of the campsite. Bear in mind that girls had only been allowed into scouts in the UK since 1991 so most troops, including mine were all boys. During the tour we noticed a troop of Girl Guides camped and knowing looks passed between me and the other two patrol leaders. On about day 3, with a few hours of free time, the three of us did something strange, we took a shower! We found some clean clothes, combed our hair and rerolled our neckers. We looked vaguely presentable! Off we went to find the troop of Girl Guides..... and found them we did. We introduced ourselves, smiled, and tried to be charming. Within a couple of minutes of getting there their leader appeared out of their kitchen tent, with the largest kitchen knife I'd ever seen in her hand. She demanded to know who we were, informed us she knew exactly what we wanted and proceeded to chase us across the campsite still brandishing the enormous kitchen knife. We didn't go back. Still chuckle at the memory!

In the UK it's pretty common for a group to have it's own building, probably around half of them do. Mine does! Others typically rent a space in a church hall or school or community center. And by that I mean they may have some cupboards to store things in and then get to use a hall a few hours a week. Yes there are some huge advantages to having your own building. You can store everything in one place. Groups at church halls typically have their camping gear in the garage or loft of the leaders. After camp you can have a kit explosion, drying tents and other kit in the hall rather than at everyone's home. And of course you can make funds out of it. Our building is used by an after school club, they pay us rent. We've had dance troops, home school groups and all kinds of others rent it off us. Yesterday I went and replaced the last of our ageing gas lanterns with LED lanterns. Money we didn't have to fund raise. So yes it's great. However..... our building was built nearly 60 years ago and is showing it's age. It needs a lot of of maintenance and that costs money. Two years ago we had to fix a number of holes in the roof. That cost serious money. In the next 5-10 years the roof will need to be replaced altogether. That's going to be in the high 5 figures. It was built at a time before cavity wall insulation was invented so costs a lot to heat. We'd like to put in new insulation but that will cost another big amount of money. And then there's the more mundane things, when it needs painting we do it, if anything breaks we fix it, if it needs cleaning we clean it etc. That does of course give plenty of scope for the scouts themselves to take responsibility for things, but it does mean the leaders and exec committee committing time to organising and monitoring. So it is as they say a case of swings and roundabouts!

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s when we had whole sale changes to the programme here there was a proposal to drop the necker from the uniform. The result was close to insurrection from the kids! I don't know how it works with the optional one with you but for us each group in a district has their own colours. The kids take real pride in them particularly at district and county events when it becomes really quite tribal! The necker was retained. It is up to the individual scout what they use as a woggle. Some will buy one specially, some will keep their old coloured plastic one from cubs, some make one, some just use an elastic band or hair bobble. The friendship knot is increasingly popular. It's not "official" uniform but on camp I encourage them to push the woggle up one side of the necker for safe keeping and tie the two ends. It's much more practical! Some groups are more obsessive about uniform than mine, it's quite varied. I ask for shirt and necker on at flag break and flag down and investitures. On camp the necker stays on all the time. Other groups insist on uniform trousers and some, for reasons I can't fathom, black polished shoes. While the uniform trousers are quite practical it strikes me that if you are asking for formal shoes either you've got the wrong programme or you're going to end up with some really upset parents! As it is I like my scruffy little band

I think it depends on what you see as the purpose of uniform. Young people have a very basic desire to "belong" to something, that's the same where ever you are in the world. And that in itself is one of the reasons why scouting has grown for over a century and is continuing to grow. The uniform is part of that. It may well be that scouts are shy of wearing it in the street, and given the hard time they sometimes get for it I can't blame them. Yet that uniform, when they are at their meeting place or on camp means something. It's part of who they are and what they belong to. Now that's not to say kids are generally that keen on it being super smart. Certainly mine aren't, they're a right scruffy bunch. Fact is I take a little bit of pride in my scruffy looking rabble. This photo album is of general scout stuff in summer 2012. It's one of my favourite albums. As you can see badges in the wrong place, missing woggles, shirts untucked etc. The uniform is there though and in particular the necker. It's just worn the way they wear it. So yes it is still important, you just have to let the kids lead on it.

If that text was being used to justify the continuing exclusion of one group of people from some roles in society and indeed in some parts of the world to bully, imprison and even execute those people then yes, I hope that people would enter into debate on it.

Does this not take Paul's letter out of context? It was written to the early church in Rome prior to Paul's planned visit. It was not intended for other people. And that has to be seen within the context of Roman culture. Rome didn't have a concept of homosexuality as we have it today, ie a loving relationship of equals between two people of the same sex. Instead it was all about an expression of what they saw as masculinity. A man was allowed and indeed encouraged to have sex with younger men in order to show his dominance over them, specifically taking the dominant role. It was not about an expression of love but an expression of strength. This is not that different to the whole Sodom and Gomorrah issue. There are an awful lot of theologians that will tell you that this was not about homosexuality but actually about gang rape. Not only is this of course in itself something that I think anyone would oppose but needs to be seen in the context of the Roman empire being the enemy of the early church. Any actions that associated the early church with Roman culture would have to be opposed. What people forget about the Bible in general is that with the exception of the first 5 books it was not ever conceived as one text. It is a series of books of history, of law, of letters, poetry and preaching all written seperately and every one of the texts has to be seen in the context of who wrote it and why.

Sounds familiar with a mixed troop. The girls are better at getting in right first time, the boys are better at fixing it when it goes wrong.

Stosh et al A question fo you, and this is a genuine question, something that I have never quite figured out. In the books of the law in the Bible there are all kinds of strange laws that we no longer follow. The most well known being no consumption of shell fish, or pork or wearing of mixed fibers. There's plenty more where they came from too. The majoirty of these laws are ignored by the overwhelming majority of Christians. Why is it that the law against homosexuality is one that you feel needs to be followed when so many of the other laws have been dropped?