Cambridgeskip

Ours can see the points go up (and very occasionally down) almost by the minute. We have a white board in the main hall and points are added as we go along. They literally see it being marked up and who is in the lead as any given evening goes on. I don't think you have the Young Leader scheme your side of the pond but we use a YL to specifically keep the points up to date as the evening or camp goes along. It creates some stiff competition!

Bit late to the discussion but a couple of things to add. Like Qwaze said, small thankyous and comments for when scouts have done things well. An example we have a new adult volunteerinng with us at the moment. She's been with us a few months. Naturally the scouts have gone through the stages they always do with a new adult. First they were a bit wary. That's been and gone. They she was their favourite. That's been and gone. Now they're pushing her boundaries a bit. Standard. Anyway last week I noticed one of our patrol leaders quite specifically being supportive and giving her advice on how to get one of our particularly gobby ones to be quiet for a moment. "keep him separated from that one." I made sure to quietly nod and smile at him and make sure he knew he'd done well. We also have a year long inter patrol competition where they rack points up throughout the year. Some of the points are for those easy to measure things. Nights on camp, badges earned etc. We also though award points for random acts of kindness, helpfulness, team work etc. An example again from just this week. We are allowed to use the playing field of a nearby school during our meetings. While out on the field one of our scouts found somebody's door key. He picked it up and rather than handing it to me he thought to hand it to his PL as he knew her mum works in the office at that school. 5 points for that patrol, both helpful and showing enough thought to deal with it competently.

So myself and a couple of other adults at my group have been chewing over an idea the last couple of weeks that I thought I'd bounce off folks here. I did try getting a discussion going on a UK forum but alas it got side tracked into a debate on GDPR (data protection law over here). While GDPR is a concern let's put that on the back burner and talk more about where this might go. Anyway, I am lucky to be at a group that is now 108 years old. So it has quite a history! In that time thousands of people must have passed through the group either as youth members or as adult volunteers. With that in mind we've been thinking of starting a group "alumni" or "old boys" or some other similarly named program to be associated with the group. A little bit like many universities have. A program to stay in touch with past members, inform them of what's going on, show off photos etc from "back in the day", organise social events etc. Partly its because, well, why not? It seems like quite a nice thing to do what with all that history out there. Bringing people together seems to fit nicely with the scout ethos. Also though it is with a slightly ulteria motive or attracting fresh blood in terms of adult volunteers and even perhaps financial donations. I'm curious as to whether anyone else has ever tried anything like this? How did you go about it? How did it all work out? Any advice?

I think there is a natural feeling among humans to belong to something bigger than ourselves. That feeling is at its strongest in our teenage years which is why scouts and other uniformed youth organisations are so successful. Jamborees take that instinct to the ultimate degree. People want to belong, teenagers even more so. Jamborees let them do that.

Wanted to share this one, it's one about parents. Too often we hear moans about parents but I had a moment with a couple last night that just left me with a smile on my face. First to rewind the clock to my teenage years in the 1990s. I grew up in Hertfordshire, just north of London. The thing to understand is that what you chaps would call "high adventure" is typically run at county level here with many counties having a particular specialism. For hertfordshire it was mountaineering and for running trips they had their own out of county base at a place called Lochearnhead in the Scottish Highlands. The Station, is it is known, is exactly that. An old station on an abandoned railway line that got adopted by Herts scouts in the 1960s and converted into a base for high adventure. It is wonderfully excentric with many of its own traditions. People that go there tend to fall in love with it and come back year after year after year. Life took me to Cambridge, which is out of Hertforshire, but I stayed in touch with many old friends involved in running the station and a few years ago was offered the opportunity to start sending a small number of scouts to courses there. It was highly successful and they have allowed us to start sending more kids from across the district each year. Bringing it right up to date we had a briefing meeting last night for scouts going in the latest contingent this Easter and their parents. One from another group, who I didn't really know, turned up with mum and dad who had smiles all over their faces. It turned out they were both veterans from the station having been their regularly in their teenage years, a few years before me. They remembered it with huge fondness. And to say they are thrilled that their daughter is now getting to go and experience it in all its beauty and excentricity is one of the world's biggest understatements. They're not helicopter parents, they're not forcing her to go or planning on cramping her style. They get it that it's her opportunity to spread her wings. They were just so excited at where she was getting to do it. To come home to see parents that happy at what their children are getting up to was a genuine pleasure.

In addition Rainbows (GGUK equivalent of Beavers) starts at 5 instead of 6 and Brownies starts at 7 rather than 8 so they tend to get "first dibs" in those sections. I'm pretty convinced that's part of the cause.

Three colour neckers (like the UK national one) are an absolute pain to make neat and tidy. A tight woggle (slide) roughs it up so much. Do yours ever wear it "Dutch" style, with the ends of the necker going in opposite sides of the slide? Or with a friendship knot instead? Mine tend to do the latter on camp, sliding the woggle up one side to avoid losing it. I don't get too stressed about what style mine go for, in fact I quite like that mine look a little bit scruffy and grungy

I guess it depends on what you mean by a UFO. If you mean it in its literal sense, ie something in the sky you can’t explain then yes. I once saw something green zoom across the sky. And I’ve never read anything that explains what it was. However I don’t believe it was an alien. It was probably just one of the more rare types of meteor or similar that occur from time to time. If by UFO you mean something I suspect to be alien life then certainly not. And I would be very surprised if this planet has ever been visited given what we understand about the speed of light and the distances involved. thats not to say I don’t think life is out there. Given the mind boggling scale of the universe I think it more likely than not that life (whether intelligent or not) is out there. I just doubt we’ve ever encountered it. If we did though.... I’ve never been one to hang on the word of the 24 hour news channels. But if the headline tonight were we’ve encountered life elsewhere.... I don’t think you could tear me away!

Not really a scouting story but one doing the rounds here that I thought you chaps might be interested in is the Mi Amigo 75th aniversary fly past today over Sheffield and Cambridge this morning. For those who have never heard the story Mi Amigo was a US bomber in the Second World War based in the UK that crashed on its return from a mission over Europe in 1944. The story of what happened though is quite moving. Unable to make it back to its base due to damage it had to make a crash landing. Initially to avoid crashing into local houses in Sheffield the crew attempted to land in a public park. As they approached they spotted a group of young boys playing (or fighting! depending which version you read) and veared away at the last minute, crashing in local woodland. All on board were killed. One of those boys, Tony Foulds, has tended to the memorial to the crew ever since and following a chance encounter with a BBC journalist was able to get a memorial fly past by USAF and RAF organised. Most publicly it went over the site in Sheffield but later this morning I was able to see it from my house passing over the US military cemetery at Maddingley on the edge of Cambridge where some of the crew are burried, which is about 3 miles from me as the crew flies. Full story here. Quite a moving story.

Wow! I have never really been into that style music but even I found that extraordinary. That''s a couple of minutes very well spent.

Interestingly over the weekend applications to join IST as part of the UK contingent reopened at the weekend. No mention of shooting instructors specifically but it does look like they are running short. Quite right it's a big commitment. I would love to be part of it but throw in travel time and it's the thick end of 3 weeks, I can't commit to that kind of thing.

Thank chaps, looks like it should get through! Looking at the area it's in it's something we don't really have here. Looks like absolutely vast farms with virtually no one living there. The only areas we have that empty are the Scottish Highlands which is basically mountains and not much else.

Not really scouting related but this seemed the best place to post this. Mrs Cambridgeskip has to send a parcel to someone in the states that has bought something she was selling on eBay. The address she’s been given consists of the persons name, town, state and zip code. No street or house number. Quick google search on the zip code takes us to the middle of a field in the middle of Minnesota, nearest building looks like a farm. Nearest town is miles away. Does that sound right? Is the parcel likely to make it to the right place with just that? Ie is a name and zip code enough in a rural area? thanks in advance!

It can me a bit variable but 4-6 weeks is quite standard, although we may hang on longer if there is a particular camp or event where we want to carry out the investiture. and actually mass reciting of the promise is pretty rare! I don’t know of any troop that do it week to week. The only time it really happens is at St George’s Day events where there is often a promise renewal.

It's certainly something we do in the UK. The actuall process varies somewhat but it looks broadly similar. As a troop we try to do it somewhere memorable if at all possible. My favourite was on a trip to London we invested a new scout on the spot where Nelson Mandella addressed both Houses of Parliament, we also did one at Gilwell with BP's statute forming part of the horse shoe described below, but what it looks like is; The troop forms a horse shoe with the adult leaders standing in the open mouth of the horse shoe. The new scout is called forward. I ask them if they've enjoyed their time with us so far, if they are ready to become a scout and whether they know the scout law and promise. They should say yes to each! I call the troop to attention and ask them to all make the scout sign. The duty patrol leader (who is stood next to me) lowers the troop colours to horizontal and the new scout and I both place our left hand on the flag. The new scout recites the promise line by line after me, after which the flag is put pack to vertical. I put the troop necker round the neck of the new scout. We shake left hands, exchange salutes. The scout turns around and salutes the troop who return the salute. Sometimes it looks a bit less formal, there's a video on our youtube channel of when we invested some new scouts on a high ropes course, we stuck to the basics of the promise that time!

BSA have an opportunity in 2019, in the form of the world jamboree, to have some really good PR. While only a tiny proportion of your scouts (indeed any nations's scouts) get to go it is nevertheless a very big good news story that the national media will show an interest in. I do hope your national HQ has this firmly in their sites! On its own that does not produce new recruits. Local units have to do that and then have the program to retain them, but what it does is provide a positive backdrop for local units to work with to go out and start recruiting.

During that strange no mans land between Christmas and New Year I finally got round to uploading our troop review of the year to Youtube. Enjoy! I'm off to eat some more mince pies....

Money can't take back trauma. I don't think anyone would argue that it can. What it can do is help provide financially where that trauma has resulted in them suffering indirectly. Someone with suffering with long term mental health problems may struggle to hold down a job or start a business or may fail exams etc.

Happy to, although given what side of the Atlantic I’m on I’d suggest Skype as the way forward

Broadly the same as in urban areas! once again coming back to our population density nowhere is really very far from anywhere else. So some rural districts have multiple villages each with their own scout group and typically an explorer scout unit that sits in the largest of the villages. Some have their own bullilding, some will use a church hall. Just like in urban areas it varies quite a lot. The least populated areas are the Highlands and Islands of Scotland where most places are a long way from anywhere and to be honest I don’t really know how it functions there.

We’ve reached a point in history where if you’re not on the internet you don’t exist. Every unit to have an internet presence. It doesn’t have to be an all singing all dancing website, it can just be a Facebook page. Whatever it is it needs two things on it; 1. Photos or video footage of the scouts doing fun stuff. Forget courts of honour, award ceremonies and smart uniform. That doesn’t sell. Make it climbing and canoeing and the like. 2. An idiot proof method of signing up or getting in touch. If it’s an email address make sure someone checks it. If it’s a phone number make sure it’s not someone who works nights. Throw some effort at your online presence and you’ll soon have them queueing up.

So... there's several elements to that question. In terms of constitution yes, most scout groups in the UK exist as a charity in their own right with their own executive committee, who are trustees of the charity, own all their own assets and have their own money. When a new group is created it is typically done so by either the scout district or scout county where they identify the need/demand for the new group. Typically volunteers from district and county level take on the leadership and exec committe roles on a temporary basis until they can recruit parents or other volunteers to take those roles on. In terms of where they meet it tends to be older more established groups that own their own buildings and even then it's not all of them. Typically they rent space at a local community centre, a school, a church hall etc. Some meet at scout campsites that are owned by their district or county (remember how densly populated we are, some campsites literally back onto houses on the edge of or even in town. We are regulars at a campsite called Thriftwood which is on google earth here. See what I mean?) They get the space for so many hours per week plus get a limited amount of storage space. I used to be at a group that did that at a local church hall and we ended up renting a local garage to store most of our camping gear. My current group owns its own building but rents the land, at a pepper corn rent, from the county council. By county council I mean local government, nothing to do with scouts! How the buidling was originally funded I don't know. It dates back to the late 1950s. However where such buildings need large scale renovations (and ours desperately does) then typically funding is gained from things like the national lottery fund or other charities who give grants for capital expenditure. Originally I think these buildings were built using funds from generous benefactors. There is also the fact that the scout movement still commands huge respect and goodwill and many builders and contractors are often prepared to knock a bit off the usual price for a scout group with them often reminissing about good times they had as a kid Our national rules also help with this. When a new group is formed and affiliates to the scout association one of the rules they agree to is that should the group close down then all capital assets are transfered to the district. This means that buildings are not lost once they are owned. Similarly should the group not be able to recruit a chair, treasurers and secretary as required by law as a charity those roles in turn are taken on by the group scout leader (GSL) and if they don't have a GSL the District Commissioner gets the job, so this again helps stop valuable assets being lost. For new groups though it is rare indeed to own their own building, the only exception being where they effectively inherit it from a previously colapsed group. Most new groups are renting space. Happy to field further questions!

If you were to speak to one of my assistant leaders who is an atheist he’d say something along the lines of the following. Bear in mind I’m summarising his words from a long conversation one night. that it’s his belief that we are one small speck in a mind bogglingly vast universe. That the laws of physics and the fact that they created this universe fills him with wonder. That we are here only once. That the earth is the only place we have found, so far, where humans can live. Indeed where anything can live. That we are the only species who’s has developed intelligence to the point where we understand how fragile it is. That we have to share it with 7 billion others. So it naturally follows that the moral thing to do is to cooperate with each other. To look after the planet for the next generation. His world view is not self centric but actually that he is reverent to the laws of nature and they in themselves create a moral code that he acts upon.

While that exists I would add that in practice very few scouts actually use it. And mine have more opportunity than most! After Christmas I will have 43 scouts at full strength. As well as the UK I have scouts where they or their parents were born in France, Italy, Ireland, USA, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Poland, China, Netherlands, Columbia, Norway, New Zealand, Israel, Sweden, Egypt, Spain. In the recent past I've had Ghana, Chili, Estonia, Australia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Zimbabwae, Bosnia, Argentina, Denmark. There are probably others that I've forgotten! Basically most are quite happy to make a standatrd promise and not stand out and that reflects. i think, that the most important thing to most teenagers is the sense of belonging and the scout troop provdes them with that. Whether it refers to their country or their religion most are quite happy with a wording that brings them all together and will, frankly, say words for the sak of words.

Not at all. I think though it's worth expanding though. First of all the UK is not as religious a country as the USA. The rate of religious belief has been falling steadily for many years. While at the last national census a small majority had some form of religious belief it is not out the question that it will have fallen below 50% by the time of the next one. Second even for those of us (which includes me) with a religious belief we have never as a nation been all that comfortable talking about religion and faith. It's the kind of thng we might only discuss with our very closest friends. It's just not what we do. Evangelists of any faith are typically viewed with suspicion. Third we don't have the chartering system. While some groups are sponsored by churches, mosques etc typically all they do is provide somewhere to meet and possibly have someone from the church on the exec committee but they certainly don't "own" the group the same way your churches do. Interestingly my group is not attached to a church at all. We own our own HQ. And yet we seem to have a higher rate of christians in the group then our neighbouring group who are attached to a church who in turn seem to have an above average number of muslims. I don't understand either! So in that context religion and faith has never been a huge part of the scout program. There has always been bits and pieces of it in the program but it's never been dominant. And for all the parts of the award scheme where faith could be used they have the otion of using another element of their beliefs such as politics, morals etc. So over all no, they don't really miss out at all.