Cambridgeskip

Dont forget your Boy Scouts goes to 18 where as ours goes to 14. So to make a direct comparison you need to include our explorers which runs 14-18 latest numbers (as at 31 Jan 2018) were released last week. Total across all ages now up to 638K. I've not seen a breakdown by age group though.

Can you phrase it slightly differently? Group mergers happen here and usually what you get is the two numbers separated by a back slash. So in Cambridge we have an 11th/9th (pronounced eleventh nineth), and a 6th/17th. Theoretically we have a 7th/23rd/13th but in practice it's too much of a mouthful and as they meet where the 13th always met everyone just calls them the 13th! Can you be known as 5th/36th or something similar? I've seen groups here that when they merged different sixes (what we call Dens) and patrols maintain the traditions of the predecesor groups. Different neckers and flags, that kind of thing. Is that possible? But yes, I understand how history matters. My own group is 107 years old and has traditions so old no one even knows where they came from anymore.

And as an update..... I've done a draft of a souvenier/promo film for those that were on the course. It's a draft version so it's unlisted on youtube, so you'll need this link for a look. The snow hole in/out scene is for real by the way. While there was some cutting for getting it down to length there was no funny stuff with putting people in and out between takes, they did get that many in there

Way back in 2007 when WSJ was in the UK I took some cubs for a day trip to the site here. Access for day visitors was restricted. They were not allowed into the actual camping areas themselves unless they knew someone there who acted as their guide. They were though allowed into most of the communal areas like faiths zone, global development zone, all the various things set up by national contingents to showcase their country etc. How it will be with you I don't know but it would not surprise me if it was similar.

I'd add that in the UK boys and girls tenting together is still relatively rare but is increasing. Hop across the channel to mainland Europe and it is far more common, especially in Scandanavia.

The trouble is that the world has changed, beyond recognition, since those texts were written. Two world wars, the rise and fall of Communism, man has been to the moon, universal suffrage, the admission of women to professions like law and medicine that wouldn't have been dreamed off 100 years ago, the internet. All these things have been massive changes to the world. Someone from 1912 would probably struggle to recognise the planet if you brought them in a time machine to today. The same will probably be true if you were to find yourself in 2021. Next month I will go to my cousin's wedding. She's 29 and a fully chartered accountant. She is finance director of the company she works for. Our joint late grandmother wanted to become an accountant when she was in her 20s, that was the 1930s, and she wasn't allowed simply because she was a woman. She had the necessary qualifications. It was simply being a woman. I am not making a direct comparison with what was an outrageous piece of sexism and the argument that teenage boys and girls are different because there is no comparison. My point is that arguments about things being done a certain way in the early days so should continue to be done that way don't hold water because the world has moved on, massively.

There are some all boy troops that are theoretically coed but simply don't have any girls. This is partly a hangover from "local option" days. Groups that went coed became known among parents as the groups that would take girls and still have a higher proportion of girls because of that, even a decade on since everyone going coed. Hence other groups don't have as many girls an some have none. There are a few where, according to annecdote, girls are simply not made welcome so never hang around. Not acceptable. As per another thread groups have the option for running separate boy and girl troops/packs/units but if they take that option MUST run it for both sexes and MUST provide the same opportunities. In practice these are rare, certainly there are none in my district, I've not even heard of one in my county. The vast majority are groups sponsored by conservative mosques or synagogues. Also it is permitted for what are called "closed" groups which are those that are officially part of another body and is only for those who are members of that body, typically it's a private school. They may be single sex if that body is itself single sex. So a boys school can have a boy only troop, a girls school a girl only troop. Again I have yet to ever encounter such a group although I'm told a handful still exist! Your welcome on the video. There's plenty more on our channel here. Feel free to have a rummage

Comment sections are a pretty poor guide to how the public is reacting. They inevitably attract the negative. Take a look at trip adviser for your favourite restaurant, you'll find a surprising number of people giving it terrible reviews. That's because people are more inclined to post something when they have a bad experience than a good one. Boy Scouts is not over, it's just changing. In twenty years time most people will be surprised it was ever single sex.

You raise some interesting points that I'd like to address from many years running coed scouts in the UK Will girls being around influence how boys behave? Sort of. And by that I mean in a good way! It doesn't stop boys being boys. The noise and the fart jokes and the banter are still there. It does though take the edge of certain things. You made specific reference to taking a pee. I actually think that is a fantastic example. Whether there are girls around or not I think it would be polite if, while on a hike or a camp, when a scout needs a pee they slip behind a tree or some bushes and do it out of site (and of course downhill from camp and well away from any water supply etc) of other people! Having girls around encourages that kind of polite behaviour. Does it stop the horse play? Certainly not. This is one of the videos on our troop youtube channel. I've always loved it. They didn't realise I was filming till the last few seconds. Shows what the kids are really like with the boys and girls mixed up together. They're just a gang, as patrols and troops were always meant to be. We typically have separate boy and girl tents on camp but half the time they end up mixing up when it actually comes to it. Are boys and girls different? Yes of course they are. They have physical differences they hit pubity at different times, there are some character differences. Is there are an argument for having single sex activities? Yes there is and I fully respect many of those arguments. I think it's particularly strong, for examples, in sport. While I don't think there's a moral reason as such for coed scouting I do actually see it as better that way. Why? Scouts is not an end in itself. We are not taking them camping for the sake of learning to camp, fun though it may be. The outdoors, patrols, hiking, community service, they are just the method by which we are preparing young people for life. And life is coed. The last bastions of male only professions have tumbled with only some specific religious leadership roles remaining. Wherever today's scouts end up working, whatever profession or vocation they go into, it will almost certainly be coed. When they go to work they won't be separated, when they go to university they won't be separated. So why separate them now? Learn how to manage or be managed by someone of the opposite sex when they 12 and it becomes less of a problem when they are 22.

I don't think all girl was ever an option except in very specific situations* At first, from 1991, it was either all boy or coed. From 2003 all new groups had to be coed then from 2007 all had to go coed. And I use the term "group" quite specifically as it is something you don't at present have, a group here conists of Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers (Ian, let's not do the complications of how explorers run, let's keep it simple!) run under a single unbrella and you can have multiple troops, packs etc within a group. My group currently has one beaver colony, two cub packs and two scout troops, all fully coed. There is the option of having a boy pack and a girl pack and a boy troop and girl troop etc. However the emphasis is on the AND. If you separate the sexes you MUST have provision for both. In practice this is normally only seen at groups sponsored by mosques or synagogues. *Very specific situations are "closed" groups which are formally attached to single sex institutions like a single sex school.

I'll buy you and Mrs MattR a beer next week!

As it happens looking at this I think the "Scout me in" is the only part of this that I would be very wary of. Marketing is a two edged sword at the best of time, marketing to teenagers even more so. As soon as you introduce a slogan for something that is most definitely not "cool" it can be used as a stick by the bullies to metaphorically beat kids that are scouts with.

I'll have a £5 bet on the announcement being; 1. The name of the organisation will change from Boy Scouts of American to either BSA or Scouts or America 2. The 11-17 program will change its name from Boy Scouts to Scouts. Simples!

As per Ian's comments, once these places are gone they are gone. I don't want the history your side of the pond is but here many scout campsites are the results of generous donations by often wealthy and benevolant landowners back in the early days of scouting, either as a gift or at a very generous price. The days where that kind of things happens are mostly long gone. And as populations rise and demand for housing goes up land becomes ever more valuable. We sell it off at our peril.

How do you know there wasn't a female assistant there as well who just isn't referred to in the article?

It's what I'd expect. 27 years since the UK went fully coed and we get almost identical comments under any story that involves a girl in scouts. Youve got decades of this to come. Enjoy!

Seriously? This is shocking. For the most part students at university are legally adults. The occassional child protege genius, but the overwhelming majority are adults and surely should be being allowed to make their own decisions and take their own risks? If the club is causing damage to the enviroment, or becoming a nuisance to the public or such like then there may be an argument for the central university to intervene, but I don't see it as their place to tell their students that they cannot organsie themselves to do an activity based on risk.

Had 10 mins to full tonight so we ran something you might find useful for teaching knots. Played as an inter Patrol race. each patrol has a length of rope. Each member of Patrol holds it in one hand and one hand only. If at any point in proceedings they let go, use two hands, swap hands or anything else involving not having that hand on the rope the Patrol is out. PLs come to see adult who demonstrates a knot once. And once only. PL returns to Patrol, adds his hand to the rope and they then have to tie said knot without anyone letting go. best to start off simple and build up. The tangle of humanity they got into doing a highway mans hitch had to be seen to be believed!

My new scouts always love learning how to use hand axes (hatchets) for splitting logs. Not the most vital skill but one of the most fun!

I wish I was a glow worm, a glow worms' never glum, 'cos how can you be gloomy when the sun shines out your bum?

Sadly the nature of these things is that they don't come cheap. As a group we are lucky in that we have enough money we can assist those families who struggle with the cost although there are still limits.

So is ours! Hence these kinds of trips in the UK tend to be organised on a district or county basis. Scouts and explorers tend to sign up on an individual basis, albeit you tend to get little clusters who go along from particular troops or units. To give that some context my district, Cambridge, (which is big as districts go) has a total of about 1000 youth members and 200 adult volunteers in various roles. My county, Cambridgeshire, (which is small as counties go) is about 6500 in total. This trip is run by our neighbouring county, Hertfordshire, who have about 15,000 members (youth and adults) in total and they will take a few from out of county as well. Hence we got to send a contingent along. The Cambridge contingent was a total of 12 from one scout troop and two explorer units. Does that make sense? The place it's run from is itself wonderful. I think I've mentioned it before. It's run out of a disused railway station. It was an old railway line that closed in the 1950s. Hertfordshire Scouts, who were already sending scouts on mountaineering trips to Scotland identified and acquired the site in 1962 and developed it from there. In a couple of the photos you can see what I mean. The station buildings themselves are now the dining room, kitchen, office etc. The platform itself gives a nice shletered area for things like a brew when the scouts get back off the hills and for practicing with kit before taking it out. The accomodation is log cabins built on the old track bed. If you are a railway nerd like me it's absolute heaven!

It's a bit further than "around", it's 10 hours drive to the Scottish Highlands!

Some of my scouts are just back from what I think you would call a "high adventure" trip to the Scottish Highlands. A mountaineering course run by our neighbouring scout county. I've put a load of their photos on our group website and some of them took some cracking pictures! There will be some video footage in due course as well. Just thought I'd show them off. I was there as staff, mostly on cooking, toilets and bins but did get one day out on the mountains in stunning weather. Anyway photos here. Enjoy! Edit - should probably add the photos with the spinal stretcher were a demo when the local mountain rescue team came in to do an evening talk with the trainees. They aren't for real!

Different side of the Atlantic but I'd agree with the broad thrust of this thread. If you are running a great program with the team that you have then you have the right number of adults. It's that simple. Don't let anyone else tell you that you must have more adults. Currently we have a teamof 10 adults with 37 scouts. Sounds like a lot but it doesn't tell the full story. 3 of them are away at university so we only see them during university holidays, 1 has a job as a sales rep so we see him if he can make it. Another we share with a Girl Guides unit so we see her alternate weeks. A couple of others work some evenings so over all we probably only have 4 or 5 adults on any given evening. If all 10 of us could make it every week we'd have nothing to do. So yes you need the number that works for you. Don't forget though that it's better to be lining up replacements before someone eventually moves on. So yes keep it at what works, but do start warming up a few replacements for when that day comes.