The Bloggers
Showing 251–300 of 308 · page 6 of 7. Each title opens the post in a new tab.
What's that got to do with the price of kippers??? Er, sorry Scouting? Now as I've often said, party politics and Scouting are a big no no. However engaging our politicians with issues relevant to young people and Scouting is a sensible thing.
At the weekend I had a great time camping with our Cub Pack at Kibblestone. We had a great time and the weather behaved itself and there was no rain! As the days are longer and it stays lighter later, when we had our campfire it was still light.
It is with great sadness that I have heard of the death of Bill Webber. Bill was for many years the Divisional Secretary and held many positions within our old District, Burslem. He also wrote a regular column in the our local newspaper, which promoted Scouting to the people of North Staffordshire.
Back in October last year, I wrote about the 1st Gilwell Scout Group getting its own website. It should have launched at the end of 2008, but by the beginning of 2009 it had been delayed . As it's now May and nothing more has happened I thought I'd find out what was happening.
The UK's new Chief Scout was announced today and he is Bear Grylls ! Of course, he is only Chief of the UK Scout Association , as there has not been a Chief Scout of the World since THE Chief Scout, BP!
While talking to my Dad this afternoon, he showed me a couple of photos he'd dug out. These are for a small display that is going up at the Church's Hall which is 100 years old this year (youngsters! The Church itself was built in 1881).
After a long gap here is a short podcast to show I haven't forgotten about doing them! The topic I want to talk about has been held over, so this is a quick recap of what my Group has been up to recently and a few forthcoming things.
Couple of quick updates. I've recently come across a blog from an Assistant Scout Leader from Watford . So that's now two I know of in this country! I like his most recent post on fire lighting at camp – all so true!
Well, my union have apologised over their dodgy cartoon! It reads - Your complaint about the cartoon in the most recent issue of UNISON Labour Link has been passed to me - I am very sorry that you found the cartoon offensive, and I can assure you that there was no intention to denigrate the Scout movement.
They do not and should never mix. We can engage with our politicians to ensure that the things we care about, whether it be knife crime or the environment, for example, but Party Politics are off limits. The Scout Association have got it right in the past by getting Scouts to talk to the politicians…
As Scout Groups we rely on donations to keep us going. Whether they are directly from the parents or we get them by doing bag packing at the local supermarket. It's not just money we get given to us, but equipment as well.
The Scouts are currently looking at various criteria for camping to gain their Outdoor Challenge or Outdoor Challenge Plus badges. One of the areas they are looking at is there various types of stoves available. Last night they tried a Trangia , a Coleman stove , a couple of portable gas stoves and an old Primus stove…
A couple of years ago, when I was in our Group's Church , I was looking at the plaque on the wall which commemorates the Scouts from our Troop that died in the Great War (First World War). I decided to try and find out more about them as they were the pioneers of our Group…
The results of this year's Census have just been published and is shows that the number of Scouts and Leaders are up again! From the Scout Association's website - Scouting has grown for the fourth year running. Adult volunteering is increasing at the fastest rate for 23 years and there are now just as many girls…
Just back from our District's St. George's day Parade. It is quite impressive to see so many young people from both the Guiding and Scouting Movements in one place. When we were parading, we couldn't hear the band at the front for most of the time as they were so far away from us!
Happy St.George's Day! From the Scout Association - Over the next few days Scout Groups across the UK will be preparing events to celebrate St George, the patron saint of Scouting. Like Scouting, St George supports people of all backgrounds across the world.
This is the flag of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland This is the flag of England which is part of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Tomorrow, 23rd April, is St. George's Day .
My Scout Group is of an average size with around 70 – 80 Beavers, Cubs and Scouts at the moment and we've been finding getting information back to the parents can be trying at times! The traditional way is to send letters home with the Beavers, Cubs and Scouts for their parents.
I am very proud to say that today marks the 25th anniversary of my Group's Cub Leader becoming an official, appointed Leader. She started helping out with the Pack when my Dad & Mum ran it and took out an official appointment as an Assistant Cub Leader when she was old enough.
After I wrote about last weekend’s hike and camp with the Scouts and mentioned that my boots rubbed and gave me a blister, up popped this post on the Troop 483 Blog on keeping your feet happy. Wow that’s timing!
Last night, as it's the Easter Holidays, the Scout Leader decided to have a Patrol Leader's meeting with the PLs and Assistant Patrol Leaders. It was a shame that only half were able to attend as the rest were away.
Well hiking boots actually! We took the Scouts hiking for the first time this weekend. This was the first time they'd been on a serious hike and they also had to carry all their kit with them. Because this was the case, we split them up into two groups.
This afternoon I went to the funeral of my friend's baby daughter. She was carried into the Church by her 3 brothers in a small pink coffin which wasn't much bigger than a shoe box. The service was very simple and music was played in Church that was played as she was born.
A couple of months ago, I found out that each Group should have an Anti-Bullying policy. News to me I thought, but I knew we had to have one and it's my job to put together the draft for the Group Executive to approve, change or chuck out!
In a couple of weeks we are going to take the Scouts hiking and they will be carrying their own tents etc. Nothing too unusual about that really. They will be split into two groups and the older Scouts (12+ I think) will go on a longer route than the remainder.
Last night I went to see the Beavers and Cubs mainly because of the reason I've discussed in my last three posts. However I was also there because seven new Beavers were invested into the Colony last night. To see seven excited 6 year olds getting their neckers and badges is great!
Well last night at Cubs seemed to go well. The boys who lost their sister were there and seemed, albeit a little subdued, to be enjoying themselves. I saw the parents, but couldn't really speak to them properly, which was a shame, but they seemed better (probably only on the outside).
Thanks for the support, this was not an easy one I must admit. The first thing I did was to look at the Scout Association's Bereavement Factsheet (we have one for everything it seems). It wasn't quite what I was looking for, but gave the numbers of some professionals in this area, so I gave…
Over the weekend I was told that the young sister of three of our Cubs had passed away. She had been born earlier in the year three months prematurely and I don't think she'd ever left hospital. Very sad news and I know we're all thinking about the family.
Closing a Scout Group is never a good thing. It means that local kids have less places to go and things to do, there is a loss of something that has provided a service for the local community and there is the sense of failure.
I couldn't make it to the Troop meeting last night as I needed to finish some work due to the forthcoming inspection at work. Later in the evening I got a phone call from the Scout Leader. The first thing he told me was that one of the Scouts had had an accident and he…
Over the weekend I noticed that my blog has now had over 4000 hits since the beginning of last year! I've been writing here since April 2006, but until January 2008, I hadn't put any accurate hit counters on the blog.
As a movement the Scouts have a very good motto. It's short, to the point, meaningful and easy to remember – Be Prepared. I try my best to be prepared in everyday life as well as Scouting and most of the time I am.
Podcast number 9. This covers the Explorer and Network programmes which are quite similar and cumulate in the Queen’s Scout Award. Next podcast will be on the adult training scheme and Wood Badge.
When I got home from work tonight I saw there was a message on our answer machine. Before listening to it, I thought it would probably be my Mum telling me something before she and Dad went away for the weekend.
After sending a load of emails of to various people in my Group and the District I thought how much easier it is to communicate today. I can email any documents to my Leaders that they may need in a fraction of a second.
As I work in a school for children with special needs, I guess I am slightly more aware than most, about people with special needs, whether they are learning or physical disabilities. I’ve written about this before ( here and here ) and I am quite confident that if anyone with special needs came to join my…
Podcast number 8. Finally got round to talking about the Scout section of the UK programme. Explorers and Network section programme to follow soon (less than a month!).
Our Beavers and Cubs had pancakes at their meetings last night, as it was Pancake Day on Tuesday and most of them were cooked by me! Action shot The Beavers are too small to reach the cooker and to have them around hot oil is probably not a good idea either.
Today is my Mum's 65th birthday, so Happy Birthday! Not really Scouting related, but that doesn't matter!
I forgot to bring my lunch to work today, so had to pop out to the local shop to get some. My food cost £2.19, so at the till I handed over £2.20 and received 81p in change! I told the assistant he'd given me too much and handed back the 80p.
During the summer of 2007 members of our local Explorer Unit went to Canada to camp with some Canadian Scouts. This year marks the return visit by the Canadians. This camp will have been in preparation for 12 months when it actually happens.
I've just realised that it is nearly a month since I did a podcast talking about the Beaver and Cub programmes. The Scout one will hopefully be coming this weekend. I know that you've all been desperate to hear the next instalment!
During our Centenary last year, we decided to have a badge to commemorate the fact (you can see my original post here ). These badges were given out to all members of the Group and any old members we knew about.
Carol and I have just come back from a visit to London and one of the things we did was to visit Gilwell, the spiritual home of Scouting. Considering how often I visit London, I’ve never been before, so I decided to make amends this time.
Today, 22nd February, is Founder's Day for Scouts or Thinking Day for Guides and Girl Scouts. It marks the birthday of Baden-Powell and, coincidentally, his wife. Today is the day we remember BP, his life and work. The WOSM have issued a small video of BP to mark Founder's Day (it's quite amusing too!).
This week has had a bit of an international flavour for me. I've have an Email from Scouter Jeremy in Canada, a couple of emails from Lotta who is a Cub Leader in Sweden (and I'm going to send her some badges tomorrow), I had a good chat (hooray for Skype!)
Just recently we've been having issues getting hold of badges for the sections in the Group. Our local supplier hasn't paid their bills to the Division, so they haven't been supplied with any more badges. To get round this problem, one of the Assistant Scout Leaders in the District has offered to be the District's…
Scout Leaders are renowned for collecting Scouting memorabilia, especially badges. The traditional thing to do is put them on a blanket which is used when camping. There is always the competition to see who has the most badges or the most rare, but everyone is interested to see who has what.
Apparently, something is happening in the USA today……! Just after the American Presidential election was over, I noticed that the Scout Association had put out a story about the new President having been a Cub in his youth and so I put up a post about it .
