Cambridgeskip

The subconscious of some people must be a really scary place to live.

Certainly there are WOSM scouts in Russia. The only countries where there aren't are Andorra, Cuba, Laos, Burma and North Korea.

Trying to embed a video from facebook here but it won't seem to work, what am I doing wrong?

Thought I'd type a few observations on scouts tonight..... So tonight we had the scouts planning this term's patrol camps. Now it's worth remembering that UK scouts are 10-14, so a PL is typically 13 or 14, the average age is younger that your side of the pond. So while we camp in patrols when on camp proper patrol camps, with just the patrol camping with no adults with them isn't something we do as often as you. It is quite a big deal and something we might only do once or twice a year, Anyway, once they were settled and planning it was interesting to walk round and observe the different styles of how they did things. It was great fun! We had; Mr Chairman of the board..... things looked very formal! He sat at the head of the table, the patrol members down the sides, he asked questions of others and generally came across as king of all he surveyed. Miss This Patrol is Not a Democracy - Things looked very informal with various scouts sat on patrol boxes and throwing things at each other but PL made sure that the camp ended up looking the way she decided it was going to look, and got the others to think they'd thought of it themselves. This girl will go far! Miss and Mr Team - PL and APL working as a double act. Planning session looked chaotic and noisy. That's because it was chaotic and noisy! But all members of the patrol got their say and contributed. I was actually really impressed. Mr Accountant - obsessed with the numbers. Couldn't let a change happen without going through the numbers and how much it would cost yet again. Not quite sure what to do with his youngest scouts. Looked at them like they were from Mars. Mr Neurotic - obsessed with timings about where they would be and what time, almost like his life depended upon it. To be fair it was is first night as a patrol leader so perhaps lots to learn.

Wow. That sounds so strange. To be rejected as a volunteer here you basically need to have prior convictions for violence/sex offences/theft in all it's forms. That or a group exec who don't know what day it is. We do have some of those. A leader from my group has just tried to transfer to another group nearer her house. Despite being a woodbadged cub leader with 18 years experience she had to ambush an exec meeting to get them to actually acknowledge her existence. That was due to incompetence rather than suspicion though. To be honest a non parent leader is to be welcomed as in my experience they stay longer. While some parent leaders do become long term faces a small majority tend to move on when their kid moves on and so need replacing.

Maybe it's a transatlantic cultural difference but here in the UK I've never had any kind of problem in not being a parent of a scout. In fact certainly at my group the majority of adult leaders are not. To be honest I think there is an advantage in not being a parent. It means that the scouts see you a bit differently in a way I can't quite put my finger on. Is it really so unusual to have non parent leaders in the USA?

I've never actually banned anything, mostly because I've never had to. My mob are pretty creative when it comes to menu plans. Ive seen patrols cook their own bread from scratch on camp. Pretty impressive! I also one patrol make a perfect Spanish Tortilla for breakfast. I've seen the same patrol completely wreck one as well! That's not to say I wouldn't intervene. I think if a patrol were showing me a menu made up of poptarts and the like I think that words would be being had in the PL and APLs ear along the lines of "I don't have many fixed rules, don't force me to introduce them".

What Stosh said. Remember that for small local newspapers the whole thing is run on a shoe string, If you make their life easy, if you provide them with something well written, properly proof read and most importantly with good quality high res photos then what they have is something they can copy and paste into column inches without having to pay a journalist to write it. You get publicity, Everyone except sadly the journalists trying to make a living, wins. We live in a wicked world, but sometimes that can be turned to our advantage,

There's a similar but broader based book called Risk - The Science and Politics of Fear by Dan Gardner. It's a fascinating read. I've lost count of the number of people who look at me like I'm from Mars when I tell them that their child is more likely to be killed by lightning than an adult they don't know and that if they want to keep their child safe the absolute most important thing to do is teach them to cross the street safely.

Potentially adft question.... what are BSA uniforms made out of? UK uniform shorts are cotton so pretty unsuitable for hiking, canoeing etc. Even if it was, say, nylon based I would have thought standard kit for white water would be a wet suit, splash cag and boyancy aid??

Something to throw out there, how many of you have ever encountered French scouts? If you've not then do a google search for "Scouts France", what you see there is what you get. French scouts don't really do smart, or well turned out or formal. But they do do uniform. The shirts won't be tucked in, half won't be buttoned up, neckers are normally in friendship knots rather than in woggles. They frankly look a scruffy bunch of oiks, but they are unmistakenly scouts and they nearly always have smiles on their faces. The kids have taken ownership of the uniform. One might even call in youth lead. Just a thought.

Precisely! And on that note, one of my scouts is half German and when she visits family in Berlin goes to a German scout troop. Talking to her about that is fascinating. As I'm sure you can imagine German history makes them very very mistrusting of uniformed youth organisations. While scouts there do have uniform it is almost unheard of to be seen in it in public and indeed many scouts don't even own it.

I think that awareness of healthcare issues is a local thing. Cambridge is a small city, population of around 160000 plus around 30000 students. It does though have one of the country's biggest teaching and research hospitals in the form of Addenbrooks. In addition it is the heart of the pharmaceutical industry in the UK. Many of the kids in the troop have got parents who are doctors or researchers or have friends or neighbours who are. Hence there's a much higher awareness of issues surrounding health among them.

Qwaze, feel free to use and abuse those questions. I'm still waiting for some kids to submit theirs so I'll add to the list in due course.

LC, I think I'm being misunderstood here and apologies for calling you naive. It was un scout like. I do though stand by my point on how you promote scouting. I am not talking about hiding anything, I'm not talking about uniforms just for formal occasions. Of course not. What I'm talking about is if you are looking to promote scouting you have to treat it like anything, else you have to look at what "sells" and what gets people through the door. Let's forget scouts for the moment and think about other things. Imagine you're selling cars (I mean main stream car selling here, not specialist sites for motor heads!). There are important things like engines and gear boxes and all other kinds of things that are fundamental and of course people want to know about. But that isn't what you put at the top of the front page of your website. No, you put pictures of shiny cars that look good. Example here My parents are getting on in their years and now spend several months a year on cruise ships. They love it! What is important onboard a cruise ship? A good safety record and high levels of customer service are vital. BUT that is not what gets them onboard. Pictures of lifeboats or cleaners and waiters is not the first thing you put on the front page of your website. or your brochure. What you put is pictures of smiling people in sunny places and luxurious looking ships. Example here Same with scouts. The first thing you show and what gets the kids through the door and what you make it easy for them to find pictures of is kids with smiles on their faces having a good time.

So over here in the UK we have a TV show called question time on a Thursday night called Question Time. A selection of politicians together with a couple of journalists appear live on tv to field questions from the great British public. It's compulsive viewing and I know some of my scouts sit up late to watch it! Anyway we have a general election here in May and given this we have invited the candidates for the Cambridge parliamentary seat to come in at the end of March to filed questions from the scouts (aged 10-14). We've asked them to put their questions in advance, Partly to make sure we give the candidates the most interesting questions and also to make sure we filter out the comedians! Below are the questions submitted so far. Just wondering what people make of them. Personally I'm quite impressed with them! What do you think about stopping immigration? What is your parties strongest policy? What are your policies on making education more engaging for children? Are you going to get rid of any green areas for building? What are your views on current university fees?* Do you agree with the 20mph speed limits? How are you going to help schools that are under performing? Would you give them more resources? Why is homework important? What are you going to do about youth unemployment? What do you think of the voting age?** In each parties eyes, what would be their dream community be? Is the age limit to enter the army too low?*** Why are the NHS waiting times so long and how are you going to prevent them getting worse? What are you going to do about the unemployment rate/homeless rate? Why have the GCSE grading’s in core subjects changed so much?**** What do you think about making helmets whilst riding bikes compulsory? In Cambridge there are too many traffic lights, could you change them to a few pedestrian crossings? Overall, what do you most want to change? Should University be free? What are your views on gay marriage being legalized in the UK? Do you think that it is a good idea to pull out of the EU? Why? And if so how would it affect us? How tense is it during elections? If you win, what would you do to change the country? Why can’t we vote? Do you think we care about politics? Are you going to make more care homes for the elderly? *currently max of £3000 per year ** currently 18 although 16 year olds were allowed to vote in Scotland independence referendum *** currently 16 although they cannot be deployed to war zones till they are 18 ****exams sat at 16. Core subjects = Maths, English and Science

Of course uniform and formal moments are part of scouting. One of my proudest moments as a leader was when I took some scouts to Amsterdam. We went to visit the grave of a leader from our group who was a bomber pilot in the air force in the second world war. He was shot down and killed and buried in Amsterdam. The gentle and quiet respect showed by a normally noisy and rowdy bunch of teenagers that sunday morning in Amsterdam made me glow with pride. But. That respect and behaviour and respect came from already having bonded as a troop and thus appreciating those who had gone before them. That bonding came when they were climbing and hiking and kayaking together and in turn seeing that that was what their friends were already doing was what go them through the door in the first place. The photo of scouts stood quietly by a grave will not get new kids through the door. To think it will is frankly naive. What will get them through the door is photos of fires and rock climbing and kayaking. You don't have to drop the formal moments from the programme. What you do is think about what elements of the programme you actively use to promote your troop.

Reading through the various suggestions there is something lacking, the F word! Fun! You can have all the worthy community service events you want and a million and one photos in smart uniform and courts of honour etc. But that's not why kids or adults sign up. They sign up to set fire to stuff in the words, go climbing and kayaking and generally enjoy doing something muddy and/or adventurous. If that's what you and it's what sells then put loads of photos of you doing that out there. Far too many group websites, on both aides of the Atlantic, have a front page with a stilted photo of teenagers in smart uniform. There are a huge number of people, kids and adults that will see that, think "lame" and vanish off to Facebook. So make the fun stuff easy to find!

I'm going to comment on some of these. And I'm doing so from the perspective of being a scouter in the UK. In the last 15 years things have changed considerably in terms of demand for scouting and most importantly its image. One of the reasons behind that is that HQ have proactively tried to coach groups at the front line in how to promote themselves properly. So in terms of SS's suggestions..... 1. Yes. But don't expect it to work for scout age youth. Teenagers are not likely to read the local news paper. This channel is for recruiting adults and also for advertising to parents of potential cubs. And make sure it's positive. Don't make it "this unit will close if we don't recruit an adult". You say "this unit does these amazing things. We want more adults to make more of it happen" 2. Same as for 1. 3. If you are advertising direct to school age kids get the input of your scouts into how it looks. Remember that if you put out an image that is makes your troop look (insert current popular insult among teens in your area here) then the damage you can do is very very hard to undo. So ask the kids. Most importantly ask the ones that are "cool". Their view is important. 4. Same as for 3. 5. Yes. Nothing beats it, don't ever under estimate word of mouth. 6. Yes! We are rapidly reaching an era where if you are not on the internet you don't exist. And photos. Lots of photos. And make sure they are photos of doing fun stuff. Forget parades, flag ceremonies or other formal moments. Photos of rock climbing or kayaking are the way forward. Set up a Facebook like page, You can get plug ins to automatically put new page content on your facebook feed.. 7. Yes but again see 3. above. 8. What's a PTA? Anyway with formal moments if you are going to do them do them properly. Better to do that or nothing than a scruffy looking half measure with kids who look bored/don't want to be there. 9. Yes. With a phone number, email address and web address too. All very well knowing where you are but they need to know how to contact you. 10. No idea what a counseling office is? 11. See 1. above 12. Depends how much money you've got to throw at it. How much do kids in your area use the library? Might cost you a lot for minimal exposure. 13. Yes! Boy/girl lead is more than just the programme. Find out what they think and act upon it. 14. Again yes but for different reasons. Don't expect them to be worn outside scouts. But when you put photos on your website of kids doing the good stuff then having them in more casual clothes is a far more attractive image. 15. will listen in due course. 16. Most important thing on here. You can all the promotion you want but if there is no end product it will be a lot of effort for nothing. Programme is a must. 17. Yes no maybe. I'll be blunt. Take a long hard look at yourself. Do you personally appeal to teenagers? Or will a teenager look at you and think scouts sucks? Think about that before publicly idenitfying yourself as a scouter. This bit of our website has photos of our leaders. Take a guess who we most take the opportunity to push forward in public. Clue..... it's not me! 18/19 Different system here due to the group system but yes, make contact with the cub packs and get the scouts to do the talking to the scouts!

LC found a full length version of the film of Swallows and Amazons on youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE13WUjSkFM They've put in adverts so I'm assuming it's legal! Anyway, it's so middle class and English it almost hurts. I would add that the film version is far more "twee" than the original book was. Final point of note..... our troop went sailing last summer at a sailing club on a boat that was owned by Arthur Ransome who wrote the original book. Photos here http://12thcambridge.org.uk/scouts-summer-term-2014/

LC - my apologies for helping drag it off topic. Am happy to continue the discussion elsewhere. Back to the original topic (ish) a good book can really help inspire kids to get outside. As a kid I simply loved Swallows and Amazons. I don't know if it ever made it across the pond but its a story of a group of kids left mostly to their own devices on a sailing holiday in the English Lake District. It's a work of absolute genius and well worth reading.

Stosh, seriously? Seriously? It is some years since I studied science, but I did study Molecular Biology at university and still have a love of the subject. And I can tell you that yes, evolution is most definitely a science. It underpins the vast majority of what biology is all about. Canyou witness evolution in a lab? Yes you can. It's quite a common technique. Let's say, for whatever reason, we want to introduce a new gene into a sample of bacteria. This can be done by using something called a plasmid if I remember right. The DNA though won't end up in all the bacteria. So how do you purify out those that have taken it up? You include on the strip of DNA a second gene that provides some kind of protection against a given toxin. You introduce that toxin and kill off all the bacteria that have't got the DNA in them. In effect you evolve it out. Simples! On a larger scale, have you heard of multi drug resistant bacteria? 50 years ago they didn't exist. But along came antibiotics. Used widely they have introduced a strong evolutionary pressure on the bacteria population. The result is that the strains that were naturally resistant to antibiotics have become dominant in some places. Look at the human population. It has evolved so that populations that have been closer to the equator have more melonin in their skin (ie more resistant to UV light and less likely to get skin cancer) those closer to the poles have less melonin thus allowing them to absorb more UV light and not suffer from vitamin D deficiency. The examples in nature go on and on and on and I am seriously suprised that anyone, in the 21st century can say that evolution has not been witnessed in nature.

So this is something that I had to share. I'm assuming that you are all familiar with classic kids game hungry hippos. Well an enterprising scout troop has just turned it into a brilliant inter patrol scout game. This is genius We will definitely be trying this!

Fox slanting the report? Shurely shome mishtake?

On a similar note here are some photos from "back in the day" that we got hold of for our group centenary. Imagine photo number 3 being taken and appearing in public these days....... https://plus.google.com/photos/102300161421707243528/albums/5645958505148842033?sort=1