Games - The Answer

[Eamonn]

I looked at our Ship's Meeting and I have to admit they seemed to be about as interesting as a Little Old Ladies Tea Party.

For everyday meetings we don't use the Land Ship and the ceremonies that go with it.

I'm now thinking that's a mistake?

The meeting starts well.

Whoever is in charge of the opening can start it just about any which way they please. As a rule they come up with the Pledge and either the Sea Scout Promise, the Venturing Oath (Which I still have a hard time remembering)

The end of the meeting isn't bad, I get my Skippers minute and pass on wise words of wisdom, some of which seem to go over a lot of the Scouts heads!!

Then the OD reads some words of inspiration. These are either very good or very bad!!

We are working on putting together a little book of the good ones.

The meetings last 90 minutes, the opening and closing take up about 5 minutes.

The Books say that we should have a business meeting. Most of the time spend on this is a waste of time. We just seem to go over stuff that we have decided, posted on the group page, e-mailed to everyone and we now spend 15- 20 minutes re-explaining it or listening to moans and groans about it!! (Mainly the dates that clash with something and someone feels unhappy that they can't attend!!)

We also have a 15-20 minute period for Instruction. These used to be good, but as the Scouts know more, finding new and exciting ways of getting this across has become harder.

We are still left with about half of the meeting with little or nothing to do.

We meet in the down stairs (basement?) of the local Elks. They have a kitchen and the room is set up for their weekly bingo. The room is very big. We only use half of it. We move all the tables and chairs out of the way and then move them back again. To date they have never complained. The room has a false ceiling.

To help fill in some of the time I started introducing some of the Boy Scout games that we used in the UK.

I was a little scared at first. I thought that our Scouts were way to old and these were not very cool. I was wrong they seem to really enjoy them and the Crews like the inter-crew competition.

Some are a little rough and tumble and I'm mindful that we have female Sea Scouts. I'm aware that we can't damage the building.

Most of these don't require a lot of equipment and are not rocket science.

The Boatswain is in charge of planning the meeting,we now add a couple of new games to each meeting. If I can explain how they should be ran he leads them or gets one of the officers to run them, if not I step up to the plate.

At the end of the meeting when everyone is moving the chairs back we evaluate the meeting and give each activity a star rating.

The rules and how the game was /is played is entered into the Ship's Log.

We have space in the elks to store stuff and have started a collection of "Game Stuff"; Bean bags, old boxing gloves, different sized balls.

All the Scouts now say that the meetings are more fun. We try and make some of the games instructional, some fall under the heading of "Team Building", but most are just fun and while I could pretend that they are about fair play, doing your best and all that type of thing, which they are!! The main reason for having them is to make the meetings more fun.

I have been really surprised that even our older Scouts really get into this stuff. I thought that they had done it all before. But it seems Troops are not doing this sort of thing -Which to be honest is really helping our meetings.

Scouts are leaving the meeting hot and sweaty, but happy.

Eamonn.

[FScouter]

Yes, it's the "interpatrol competition" that is the highlight of our meeting as well. Sadly, the boys don't know any games at all, other than the ones we've done before. I like team vs. team games rather than every-man-for-himself games because they can work together as patrols.

 

I've run out of new game ideas. At the PLC meeting, they always want to plan British Bulldog. I worry about broken bones and torn ligaments, but so far we've been lucky.

[Eagledad]

Not trying to change the subject, but now that you have been doing this older scout thing for a while, what are your opinions of the troop programs? Not just games, but the meetings and their agendas as well. How are the girls doing also?

 

Just curious.

 

Thanks

 

Barry

[Eamonn]

FScouter

I'll spin off and start a thread.

Who knows what's out there?

Eagledad

I don't know if what I'm seeing is the norm or not?

I of course expected the girls and the Lads who had never been Scouts not to know much about planning or running a meeting. Sadly it seems that none of the Scouts know very much.

When we first started the Ship all of the members were Boy Scouts. At our Organizational meeting, we somehow (I'm unsure how?)came up with the idea that the Ship would meet twice a month on Sundays.

One meeting would be a planning meeting and one would be an activity. Once we set our sights on the Regatta we changed this to a weekly meeting. Then we found that Sunday wasn't the best day.

Due to the small numbers at the start the meetings were not very good. I was doing everything!! The meetings were like Training Sessions. I covered a lot of the stuff they needed or I thought that they needed!! by making presentations (Some were really good).

One of my pet peeves has always been Boy Scout Troops that replace Troop meetings with Merit Badge Classes and there I was doing much the same thing and to make matters worse I didn't know I was doing it.

I'm a great presenter, but I'm not good enough to present for 90 minutes.

The Scouts were sitting around, listening to me, then they sat some more making plans and they ended up just talking to each other. The outdoor meetings were better at least we got them moving.

Once we got a real Quarterdeck up and running things got a little better, but there was still big blank spaces in the meeting plan.

My big fear was that they would find playing games just silly and that they would think I was treating them like "Little Kids". We (The QD) tried to make sure that didn't happen by at first saying that no one had to join in if they didn't want to. That still stands but so far no one has wanted to not join in.

The girls we have seem to be more focused on advancement. Most of the girls that have joined seem to be what might be called "Over Achievers" They are extremely bright and seem to have a "Anything Boys can do, we can do better" thing going on.

The other week we were playing a silly game where everyone forms a circle and there is a Scout in the center with a rope with a boxing glove tied to the end, he starts spinning the rope and as it reaches each Scout they are to jump over it, it they get hit they are out. The final two were a boy and a girl. All the girls were cheering the girl on "Don't let them win". The boys did take up the challenge and did start cheering for the boy, but only after the girls had started.

I'm unsure if it's my doing but the girls seem to resent the fact that many of the Boys have been or are Boy Scouts, it almost like they feel that these boys have some sort of unfair advantage and they want to "Rub their noses in it". One of the Scouts who is an Eagle Scout was having a problem with a bowline during a knot relay, the girls who all seem to have mastered it gave him a real tongue lashing.

At times I'm a little unsure of what to do or say. This summer we had to use cat holes. One girl walked up behind one of the boys who thankfully wasn't doing anything and asked him if he was peeing? He replied that he wasn't, this led to a conversation about how much she enjoyed peeing outside! A Scout might be brave, but this Scouter remained about four steps back and didn't offer to join the conversation

Eamonn.

 

[CNYScouter]

There is a very good Web site that has a large number of games and activities that can be searched by levels (Tigers through Scouts) or by Activity Type (quite, active or loud).

 

Most of the Scout level stuff can be used at the Venturing Level also.

 

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/default.asp

 

Look at the left side under Activites and Games

[Eagledad]

Well, Im not a Venture or Ship leader and I dont play one on TV. Ship Leader? Is that right? Anyway I have two friends who are Venture Crew leaders and I have to say that their experience is almost identical to yours Eamonn. The girls kind of run the crews and seem a little offended by any boy who has a scouting experience and attempts to use his skills.

 

My friends are also a little disappointed with the lack of skills that his Boy Scouts should know but dont. They also are unsure of where they personally should push and where to let things just coast. Their meetings are OK, but most of the enthusiasm comes more from the female side of the groups. Two thirds of the membership is girls in both crews.

 

Your part about the girl telling the boy how she enjoyed peeing outside only reminds me how raising my 16 year old daughter is much much much much harder than raising my two sons. I must say that everyday with my daughter makes me feel like I know nothing as a parent and Im starting over. After working with hundreds of teenage boys, it just doesnt seem fair.

 

I have a couple of questions: What is your personal vision for your ship and if what do you think would happen at a meeting if the adult leaders didnt show up?

 

I love this scouting stuff.

 

Barry

 

[Venividi]

"Their meetings are OK, but most of the enthusiasm comes more from the female side of the groups."

 

Take a look at a recent high school yearbook. My bet is that pictures of the leaders for the school's clubs & organizations will be mostly female (Organizations such as student council, yearbook committee, National Honor Society, Students Against Drunk Driving, etc., where leaders are elected from volunteer candidates). This seems to have been a trend over the past dozen years or so.