Cambridgeskip

Well indeed there is normally a panto horse or cow (I was the back end of the cow in a school production of Jack and the Beanstalk! I was later bestman at the wedding of the front end of the cow. True story!) but there is more to it than that. It is normally two hours of pure slapstick silliness based on a classic children's story. Our local panto this year is Alladin. Cinderella and Jack and The Bean Stalk are also both common ones. The main male character is always played by a woman and the main female by a man. A character called Buttons (unlucky in love nice guy who gets friend zoned by the girl) is normally shoe horned into whatever story it is. There's plenty of "he's behind you" and "oh yes he is/oh no he isn't" and general audience participation. The very best ones normally get some satire in there as well. Frankly the script writers must be spoiled for choice this year with the amount of world wide nonsense to satirise! Have a look on Youtube, there's loads to get an idea of.

Highlights of the term are The annual monopoly run. An evening of chaos as the troop are let loose on an unsuspecting Cambridge public to complete various tasks round the town centre. Christmas trip to the local pantomime (I understand this is a peculiarly British thing so nudge me if the concept needs explaining) Inter Patrol cook off. Not sure what format this will take yet, a couple of the PLs are planning it. Although I am personally a fan of getting some tins. Taking off the label and getting each patrol to take one blind to include in their recipie! Ooh I'm 'orrible to them

If it is anythnig like this side of the Atlantic the reminders will need to go on for longer than that. 27 Years since we had local option, 13 years since my group went for it and 11 years since compulsory coed we still get expressions of surprise that girls can be scouts. Despite girls featuring one way or another in pretty much all publicity the message has still not fully got through.

The biggest danger to any child in the western world is traffic. It simply wasn't a thing in BP's day. These days it is the single biggest killer of children aged 5-16 in the western world. When my scouts do something unsupervised by adults it is them being hit by a car that is top of my list when it comes to things that leave in a cold sweat. I'm not saying don't let kids off the leash, just teach them to cross the road safely first!

I started writing this post with quite a lengthy response to quite a few of the comments above. Then I deleted it. Instead I thought I’d post this link. http://12thcambridge.org.uk/blog/2018/08/26/summer-sun/ Its the photos from my troop summer camp which also included the cubs from our group for half the week. as a group we have a well above average number of girls. (For those not familiar with my comments on here I’m British so used to fully coed scouting) They come to us because they like what we do. So summer camp this year meant hiking, caving, rock climbing, pioneering, a trip to Alton towers (rollecoastertastic!) and would have meant mountain biking if not washed out by 60mph winds and torrential rain. we have issues with leader training and finding enough quality volunteers as well. But hopefully the photos show you the problem does not stem from girls wanting to change things. I don’t quite know where the issues stem from. But don’t blame the girls that want in. Or their parents. That’s not right and it’s not fair.

I think one thing worth adding to Ian’s comments is that prior to scouting becoming coed here the scouts association traditionally had quite a strong relationship with Girl Guides. From everything I have read here it was, and indeed still is, stronger than that between BSA and GSUSA. The point being that many events were, and indeed still are, joint between the two. Where I grew up in Hertfordshire, just north of London, it was almost unheard of for county events to not include Girl Guides. Similarly in the more rural areas of the country it was not uncommon to see official joint scout and guide groups. So when the change happened there were people who were already well used to girls taking a full part on scout events, just wearing a different uniform. make of that what you will but worth noting. Beyond that what Ian said and feel free to pick my (and I assume Ian’s) brain on how things are and what the practicalities are all about.

I think you're over thinking this. A scout has asked to be known by a different name. Unless the parents specifically phone the SM to object to using that name just go with it. If the parents contact you to object then deal with that then. At that point a conversation with them and the scout involved is needed. Until then I'd advise simply don't worry about it. Frankly if some other scouts left because I respected the wishes of another scout then I'd be sad to see them go but there's a lot of kids out there who can replace them. I currently have a scout who prefers a different name. It's not a gender issue, she simply doesn't like her name and prefers something else. A real name as opposed to a nickname. So I use it. I have her legal name on record in case I ever have to take her to hospital and they need to find her medical notes. I've never even asked her parents.

If BSA don't provide guidance then your only real option is to wing it but try to do so with some humanity. First up if the scout wants to be known by another name then just go with it. It's really no different to those who develop a nickname and it sticks with them. I've had Jude known as Pod, Matthew known as Baguette his sister Marina known as Mars Bar, George known as Pyro. When I was a scout everyone called me Batman. That's just life. Second I think that speaking to their parents is also a good idea. Importantly though I would tell the scout involved that that is what i plan to do. Trust is going to be a very important factor here and making it clear what you are going to do is part of that. Just telling you something that is likely to be deeply personal and difficult to deal with means they trust you. Don't do anything to damage that trust. I don't think that conversation with their parents needs to be a particularly in depth one. A case of summarising what their child has said, making sure that they are aware, and asking what you can do in the mean time to make their life easier. Come across as open and you may find that they voluntarily give you some helpful background. Beyond that sit back and let the scout get on with being a scout. They are just a kid, not anything to worry about.

It may sound basic but make sure you get enough sleep. The days will be long and busy and you'll probably have the opportunity to take part in all kinds of stuff 24 hours a day. If you're not getting enough sleep in though you'll probably find yourself keeling over 3 or 4 days in! That doesn't meen being a recluse. Far from it. This is your chance to meet like minded people from across the planet. Take the opportunities! Just don't be that scout who ends up in hospital after a few days with exhaustion. Take a set of flip flops for the showers. You won't regret it! A particularly ridiculous hat is always fun, helps break the ice with people especially when you can't speak each other's language. Take an open mind. You'll find that scouts round the world get up to the strangest things. Find out what they are and bring them home with you. Eat! Eat everything put in front of you. Not just for the calories but the chance to try food from across the world. You may get a bit fat but it's well worth it!

It's not just about big ticket events though. I also mean that summer camp where you make friends with someone from 50 or 100 miles away. Or you go on your own to a specific course with scouts from all over the place. Or you develop that fun rivalry with the neighbouring troop from across town. All things that are just easier and more common in a large organisation. It's not the only reason of course to chose an organisation. It;s in response to someone asking what opportunities someone might miss out on.

Whatever the attitude of your particular troop the fact remains that going to a much smaller organisation does, by definitition, reduce the opportunities to go on the national and international events. My troop love the events where they mix with scouts from elsewhere. They don't want to do it everytime by any means but there's a PLC on 3 Sept. I know that the first thing they'll put on the program is Winter Camp. Winter Camp is a weekend jamboree style camp at Gilwell every January. For me it's a nightmare. It's normally a total mudbath and the logistics are hardwork, getting 3000 people on and site. But the scouts love it. The program is an absolute hoot and on top that we normally camp as part of a district contingent so they mix and mingle with scouts they've never met before. They always come home with new friends. Horses for courses I guess.

I'd suggest that the larger scale of BSA/WOSM lends itself to being able to access more events at a regional/national/international level. From what I have heard of Trail Life the more week to week stuff is perfectly capable of looking like a regular scout troop. What its members may miss out on are those opportunities to mix and meet those from a wider area. It's a long way from the be all and end all of what BSA offers certainly, but it is something that is missing.

A memory from over 20 years ago.... As a scout and venture scout I had been on a series of mountaineering courses run by my scout county in the scottish highlands which covered, among many things, avalanche awareness and how to assess a given slope for avalanche hazard. I went on a trip to the Cairngorms in Scotland with my university mountaineering club one February. The group I set out with initially seemed competent. The first steep slope we encountered they took a long look at and dug an avalanche pit and we all agreed that it was safe to head up. So far so good. Note that this was a north facing slope. Later in the day we came to another slope, this time east facing, which we needed to traverse. If you have any avalanche training you'll know that the aspect of the slope, ie what direction it faces, is one of the most important factors in assessing risk. Also that traversing a risky slope is inherently more risky than going up or down it. In addition to this it had every visible risk factor imaginable. There were no rocks sticking up, so clearly deep snow, was on a leeward facing aspect, it had a funny looking off white tinge to it, made a strange "woomping sound" under foot and slaps about 4 inches thick were sheering off. In all it looked pretty dangerous. I pointed this out to the group I was with but they were convinced that they had done all the risk assessing they needed to do earlier in the day and merrily set off across it. I chose not to, instead I took a detour and met up with them later. Now the fact is that they got across that slope perfectly safely. However... according to the scottish avalanche info service that whole slope colapsed a couple of days later. Thankfully no one was on it when it happened. It was clear though that some of the club members, many of who had, at least on paper, a hell of a lot more experience than me, really seemed to have missed the point on risk assessment.

We see this in the UK quite a lot as well. Our highest mountain Ben Nevis, modest by your standards (4400 feet), is very easily accessible from the town of Fort William unlike many of the more remote mountains. There is also an easy to access and navigate path to the top which was built in the 19th century to service an old observatory that was built at the top. The combination of the two means that we get many people hiking to the top who simply don't understand the potential dangers. The summit is lost in the cloud typically 300+ days a year and is typically 12-15C colder than the town of Fort William. The result is that moutain rescue are continously coming to the aid of people who go up poorly equiped and not experienced. The point about the cloud is particularly important. To get from the summit back to the path you need to walk on a bearing and take a dog leg to avoid Gardyloo Gully. A few photos should show why you really REALLY don't want to stumble across it unwittingly! Other get cold, wet, get hypothermia, twist ankles without proper boots, you name it it happens. Learning the basics in something like scouts or guides could really save people an awful lot of pain and Fort William mountain rescue team an awful lot of time and money!

Question out of curiosity... do troops, packs etc in the states tend to have mascots? A few groups over here have one and I just wondered whether it happened elsewhere? My lot have Dafydd the dragon, photo from summer camp here. He's well loved and is at his most popular with home sick cubs although the scouts like him as well (who tend to be a bit rougher with him, he's a bit scared of the PLs) Anyone got anything similar?

Put enough teenagers in one place and I guess this kind of thing happens. Real pity it had to end up in the national press rather than just being dealt with internally.

So.... following an expansion of the group in recent years and some attrition in our older tents I convinced the exec committee to release their grip on the purse strings and buy some new tents. We have some very nice tents that we like, namely Vango Omegas, you can still buy them so we bought some more. If it ain't broke don't fix it. As we like to say this side of the pond. Cheapest source of them is Amazon. 8 new tents. About £1700 spent. This evenings scout program wasn't going to fill the whole evening (second half of pottery for creative challenge involving firing their creations. Ye Gods.) so got them to check through and put up the new tents. No fewer than 3 out of 8 came out the bag with bent poles. Thankfully some mixing and matching was possible to make 7 fully functioning tents with only 1 being returned to the seller. It does though serve as a useful reminder to check kit before camping. A week on Friday these tents are due to get their debut!

Certainly this side of the pond adults, and I mean adults in the widest sense, parents, teachers etc discourage risk taking. Non scouting adults are often genuinely shocked at what we not only allow but actively encourage scouts to do. I met a teacher once who was literally speechless that we have 10 and 11 year olds using axes. Doing something that is a bit risky, where there is a bit of peril to it, is something that I find boys in particular really respond. The best example I can remember was building a pioneering monkey bridge. It was something they enjoyed doing it as a mock up on a field, but when we did it over an actual small stream, where they might get their feet, (or more!) wet if they did it wrong suddenly got them properly throwing themselves into it.

David I can assure you that I for one was not seeking to attack a religion. I am Christian myself, why would I? The simply point I was making was about life experience and how I found reality somewhat more straight forward and easier to handle than what I had expected.

I find this a really interesting experience and kind of ties in with my own experience, the first time I (knowingly) met anyone who was transgender. I would have been about 21 at the time. I'd just finished university and was looking for my first "career move" job. In the mean time I had a whole series of short term jobs that kept the pennies trickling in. And I met a varierty of interesting people in the process! One of those jobs was I had a few days as temporary staff working on the railways here, specifically in the buffet car on intercity trains between Newcastle and Glasgow. I quite liked that job, while the pay was awful (it was before the days of the national minimum wage here) I am a dyed in the wool train geek. Absolutely love railways! On my first shift I got asked to take the driver his coffee. Before I took it down the buffet car manager took me aside and quietly warned me that the driver was a pre op transexual. Born male, in the process of changing to female. She just wanted to make sure I wouldn't be freaked out by it. Walking down to the driver's cab I had to confess to being curious more than anything. As above I had not knowingly, at that time, met anyone who was transexual. I didn't know what to expect at all. It was all, I thought, new. Anyway I knocked on the cab door, she said come in, and in I went. It was a pretty quiet shift, frankly we'd been twiddling our thumbs in the buffet car, so I hung around a bit. I'd never ridden in the cab of a train before and was loving the experience. We got talking about railways generally and she pointed out some really interesting (to me and fellow train nerds!) stuff about the route and how it operated. By the time I had to go back and actually serve some customers (what I was actually being paid to do) I had forgotten that she was transexual and she was just a fellow train geek. There was nothing new to it at all. It was a formative experience. I don't pretend to understand what it's like to be transexual. I don't understand either the biology or psychology of it. What that experience did help me understand though was that someone who is transexual is just another human being. Their gender, unusual though that may seem to us who are, for what of a better word, "normal" is only one aspect of who they are. They have their interests, and their families, and their sense of humour and their preferred food and sports teams and things that irritate them. Same as the rest of us. I don't understand why someone is transexual, but neither do I understand why anyone would actually eat mayonnaise (condiment of the devil) or treat golf as a sepctator sport. But they do! So I just try and take it all in my stride now. The official (for now) separation of gender is BSA obviously adds a complication for you on your side of the pond. I can see how you have some additional practicalities to work through on that front. I honestly don't think though that it isn't something a spot of common sense and lateral thinking can't handle. My troop here is coed although we mostly have single sex tents on camp. We haven't (knowingly) had a trans scout in the troop yet, but I will worry about the practicalities as and when the day comes.

On the BP front, no idea. Sorry! As for myself, no garters or tabs for me. If it's too hot for long trousers then it's too hot for long socks as well! Besides my legs are so hairy (my family call me The Yeti) they keep me nice and warm anyway.

Alternatively many of us may well have met someone transgender without even realising it. It's still not an easy thing to admit to and many who are trans either don't admit to themselves are just keep quiet about it.

Ah the memories. Pretty difficult to choose! A few that spring to mind, my Queens Scout parade, we got to taught to march by The Irish Guards who were on ceremonial duties at Windsor Castle at the time. The regimental sergeant major accused me of marching like a thunder bird. I was truly dreadful at it! His comments made me laugh and find it even harder. Being elected scouts scout of the year when I was about 15. I was getting a hard time at school at the time. Basically the working class kid at a very middle class school where I struggled to fit in. My scout troop mostly had the same background as me. Being acknowledged and appreciated that way at the time meant a lot. Getting lost on a night hike one summer. We decided to stop and wait for first light to find where we were. We all fell asleep and woke up getting soaked. Turns out we’d stumbled onto a golf course where they turned the sprinklers on at first light! One of the most touching moments from my cub leader days... the school most of my cubs went to had an annual day where each pupil could bring one of their parents in for lunch. One of them found that neither of her parents could make it due to work commitments. She asked me to come in for lunch instead. I’ve never been so flattered! She went all the way through, is now 19 and an assistant cub leader and I’m proud to count among my friends.

Agreed. Looking at the girls in the UK who decide to be scouts rather than girl guides, they come because they want to be scouts. They look at it and that is what they want. The uniform is a little bit more formal than that of girl guides, the program is that much more adventurous. If they didn't want that they'd go to girl guides.

When my group turned 100 a few years ago we organised a reunion of as many old boys as we could. We ploughed through old records, put up posters in the local library and churches, advertised in the local newspapers. We ended up with quite a collection of them! Best of all one of them volunteered to go back as an ASL. In terms of something to keep we did a special edition group t-shirt.