Mobile phone in scouting

Let's start with the big statement... Banning mobile phones from scouting meetings, camps & activities is quite common. It is even included in some "Code of Contact" lists; you might even notice something about it in another post of my blog.

They are however, a fact of life. Many of our scouts have mobile phones, one might say surgically attached to their hand, so we can safely assume they are here to stay.

To put it another way, you could safely bet that our scouts will always have this tool in their pocket. So why ignore it or ban it?

Using it responsibly, learning about it's limitations and advantages, can be of a great benefit for a young scout. We know that we can not rely on the mobile as the only source of communication. Come to think of it we can not rely on it for light, navigation, entertainment and all those things it offers, mainly because of it's short battery life and when it comes to young owners, the cost of the monthly contract, which is most of the times limited by the parent to only a few pounds a month.

So it is important to "Be Prepared" even with the latest phone gadget in hand!

A mobile phone is more than a communication device, it is a tool. One can imagine it as the modern day Swiss army knife; no it won't replace it, unless Victorinox makes a phone...

In-Touch

The In-Touch system does not limit the use of any communication method, let alone mobile phones. 

It does however allow us to define our own methods and ways of communication and we can set boundaries. Allowing mobile phones in tents and activity sites, when we have already established the method and boundaries of communication might compromise the in-touch system.

If mobile phones are permitted then we are the ones who must consider if they are safe to use, stored appropriately and how responsible is the leadership team for loss or damage. Also the in touch system becomes too open without control and boundaries.

For example some sites that offer activities will not allow mobile phones to be switched on during the course of it. Some activities might even damage a mobile phone or a phone might be lost. This can be quite costly when some phones cost over £200. If we decide the risk is high we might need to inform the participants.

All these must be considered in your in-touch system as a factor. 

For more information on In-Touch please download the appropriate fact sheet [FS120075]:

https://members.scouts.org.uk/factsheets/FS120075.pdf

Last but not least, during a residential we seek of ways to increase the sense of adventure. A mobile phone can hinder that sense of adventure. Being contactable and entertained in a very private way can bring the scout out of touch with is happening around them, in the patrol or the troop.

Practical Ideas for the Program

I realise that it is easy to focus on the threats and difficulties a mobile phone brings to the scouting experience. As a communication device is invaluable in times of crisis, provided it works and it is reliable. 

Activities that bring high tech into the mix must consider the fact that not all scouts are owners of that level of technology. It might be that very few have phones with certain capabilities. 

Plan with care so that no one feels excluded from an activity just because their hardware is not compatible or non existent!

Discussions

Our scouts are young enough to ignore what this technology has replaced; we will also benefit from their outlook on this subject and we might want to introduce alternatives to what a phone does

• Discuss all practical uses of a mobile phone, what functions and applications does it have.
• Include the problems and shortcomings of those uses.
• Explore alternatives to those uses.
• Can you think any threats or dangers of this technology?
• Has it change our society? how?

Security
Reinforce the use of a good password and not sharing it.
Explore the social networking and sharing your location, plans, information and likes dislikes.

Navigation

GPS and Navigation software is now on most smartphones. One might feel that this is enough preparation for a quick hike, all is there a small screen in the palm of your hand. This can turn to a dangerous false sense of security!

• Use a hard-copy OS Map in comparison to a mobile phone app, either Google maps or the bespoke OS map application. 
• Use a compass and compare it with a compass application.
• Experiment under different conditions, day light, night, dry or wet conditions, on your own  or shared two or more scouts around the map. What is the difference what is easier.

Camera & Audio

Personally I think that the use of a mobile phone as a camera is valid and is generally recognised as photography; there are photographers that create very important art and document important aspect of every day life and they do it with a mobile phone. 

• The use of a mobile phone for Photography and Video is not exactly what the Photography Badge is designed for, instead look into the Digital Creator badge.
• A bluetooth speaker can be a mobile Disco with the scout D-J via their mobile phones.

Scouting Apps

There are plenty apps out there that hemp us deliver parts of our program in scouting some of the ones I have used are:

• OSM Anywhere - mobile phone companion for Leaders - Just 'Add bookmark' 
• First Aid by British Red Cross - Android
• St John Ambulance First Aid - Android
• OS Locate - it works a bit like a compass - Android
• OS Maps - maps app for walkers and ramblers - Android
• My badges - the scout association personal log and guide to badges - Android
• c:geo - for taking part in the Geocaching game - Android
• Tiny Flashlight + LED - This one has the LED light and other fun features - Android
• Morse Code Trainer - Call me old fashioned, I learned a lot using this - Android
• Evernote - I use this to store notes for all the games and songs I know - Android

Accessories
Having a phone with you brings the need for a few extra stuff you will find very useful.

• Charger and cable; I prefer the detachable USB cable.
• Battery Pack - for 2 or three extra charges.
• Cover to protect screen or whole phone.
• Waterproof Transparent case.
• Insurance.

Factsheet
Finally as these devices are also used for texting and social networking please conceder the existing fact sheet [FS103011]: http://members.scouts.org.uk/factsheets/FS103011.pdf

What is the salt & pepper of your program?

Stags was my patrol!

Every now and then I have a memory flash about stuff we used to do all the time when I was a young scout and I'm not talking about trying to find a coin at a phone booth to call home...

We used to scrum and yell a shout, throw our bag and stave "over there", all the time, before we start a game or run and activity. That took a bit of time, it brought us together as a team and was a constant pain to go fetch the bag and stave from "over there" at the end of it...

Without going into the Patrol System in detail, I would like to focus (and recall from my youth) those elements that supported the identity of our patrols, what made it fun and helped develop and embellish it, even define it.

Just think about it, a patrol has properties even if it doesn't have one single member in it:
It has a flag, a symbol, a shout, a rucksack, a corner, a name, a history, lots of awards, roles and certainly a character. Oh yes, it also has members, it has a PL an APL and Scouts and like a house is a home for a family, this is also true for the patrol, it must feel like a home to it's members but also supply the benefits of the house as a structure.

It is easy to forget those elements of scouting when we concentrate on staple and planned activities that "we must cover" or "work towards", like badges, camp, hikes etc.

We are good organising fund-raising, camp fires, hikes, visits, games and themed activities; but I'm talking about the small things that linger and repeat all the time, the salt and pepper of our camping and scouting lives.

Here's a quick list:

• a patrol shout! haven't heard any patrol going mad loud about starting or finishing an activity yet.
• a patrol totem, stave or beast! where does it go, who wants to have it?
• a patrol bag or box. Who's in charge? what's in it?
• make a gate for camp and other gadgets or pioneering. Why our tent/site is better than yours!
• have a night shift of patrol guards! They want our stuff!
• stories, encourage storytelling as a skill! Tell us, what happened?
• altered lyrics of a song... it's our job to tell them to keep it clean, it's their job to try...
• encourage made up scout-words that mean nothing outside scouting... woggle is a good start!
• keep the ash of the last camp fire to take back home for the next camp. - as a prize?
• fold the flag after flag down - an honour to the scout who helps with ceremony.
• whistle codes - encourage them to use coded whistle signals and they won't think it's a toy.

To extend this list just observe your scouts; what have they developed in their patrol? any nicknames? have they named the totem? the stave? have they developed a way of telling time in a weird way? do they do a dance? do they shout a yell?

If they decide to wear their scout belts with the arrow upside down, it's their thing!

Of course there are limits, some we see and they don't; still, it's their game that we are invited to, common sense can apply of course and if the altered lyrics or the nicknames are offensive we certainly can step in and discuss. They know that and we know that.

You can not plan those things in your program but they are there, they are invisible, heavy and influential, sometimes more than the things we plan and execute. Some develop organically if we encourage them. They actually develop in every child's play when we don't interfere.

And as they develop and pass from one generation to another our troop gains history, culture and legend.

Grab your Compass & your Maps

With so many resources out there, including the scout fact-sheets and the Ordinance Survey guides to map reading and orienteering, there is no need to write the method of working with a compass and a map here; However, as we have now run 2 nights of orienteering I can report the way we have implemented it in our group.

Both nights called the use of a SILVA style compass. Scouts love to wear a compass and they tend to develop an obsession on finding the magnetic North! It is important to build on this and find more uses of this basic tool.

For this we needed to de-construct the complexity of dealing with the map/grid/compass/hike by going out with a map and a compass and working both of them together and trying to deliver all that to lots of scouts at the same time.

So if you have found this direct approach difficult to deliver here is a new suggestion that will fit in your program as it is under 1h 30m each and it focuses only on parts of the whole use.

Night One (indoors). "Lydia's Adventure"
This can be found with a quick Google search under the challenge 100 website or the OSM.

Get challenge100.org.uk BrownseaAdventure here!

It is split in some PDFs a copy for scouts, a copy for the leader and some route cards ready to print and use!

It is basically a desktop, pen and paper exercise. We used Compass and Map to fill in a route card that follows the story of Lydia, a scout leader who went to Brownsea island and somehow got lost.

At this point the magnetic needle of the compass was ignored, we only used the direction of a travel, the index on the rotating disk and the distance/ruler part of the compass. Once our compass was oriented on the map's north we could test the bearings and distance finding the next point and the location of poor Lydia.

We learned about grid references, bearings and the importance of a route card. We discussed the importance of observation and of reading a map rather than looking at it.

Night Two (outdoors). A night walk out on the grid.
We used a compass and a notepad. We also used our scout stave and glow-sticks to aim ahead on our journey.
It would have been easier if we had a sighting compass but a normal compass worked ok too.

This was an exercise on the Grid alone, outdoors; we learned about pacing, bearings and taking notes.
The magnetic needle of the compass came into play; North was where it always is and we just needed to find where everything else lay around us. We only used the direction of travel, the index on the rotating disk but we wrote our pace on a notepad. We drew our own map!

A team of 3 scouts can split the roles to the one who stands as a target for the bearing taking, one who takes the bearing scoping the staff holder and one who paces the distance between the bearing taker and the target. Someone is also responsible on keeping the notes which are basically 3 columns:

e.g. on the notepad we wrote:

#  Bearing        Pace
1. 180 degrees, 50 paces
2. 270 degrees, 75 paces
3. 360 degrees, 20 paces (or just "N")

You can add a note of what you see and other data, time and even weather conditions. If you are confident, say you run this during the day, you can make it a race. The winner can be the one who walks the longest in the shortest time, the one who mapped the whole route more accurately fastest from start to finish or other ideas like that. We run the activity at night so we tried to stay together, give pointers and help figure out the method...

The outcome of this list can turn to a plotted route on paper or the map, all the legs of our hike took no more than an 1h on a dark cold night, enjoyed by all of our scouts.

Conclusion
We took the compass and we used it in simple ways without trying to do all the functions of the compass at once.
The first night we used the map with a compass but no need to read the needle.
The second night we used the compass with the needle again without setting the map (i.e. trying to read one).

This gave us a couple of test runs on how to tackle the map setting and map reading on the grid third and final challenge. Setting the map on the grid, the number 1 requirement to use both is now self evident to all our scouts. Taking accurate bearings, keeping a constant pace, tuning in the environment on the grid and by reading the map. It all clicks as it is previously experienced without making a fuss or a lesson out of all this.

Friendship in Scouting

I want to share my reason why I love training as a scout leader, keep studying the scripts in a way...

I now do a refresher for the wood badge in the Scout Section and doing Module 13, I read this:

"...adults and young people join scouting primarily for the
adventure, fun and friendship, and they leave if they don’t get it."

I love the simplicity of this statement!

In my personal experience, I think most leaders are doing a great job in the adventure part and also in the fun part; I can certainly see that those two areas are significant in our planing and preparation for activities and for the program but what about the friendship?

This is in my mind the most difficult one, queue the Scout Law:

- A scout is friendly and considerate.

According to the law, we scouts, at any given time, must be convinced that our fellow scout is a friend who is concerned about us. In the past there was also the phrase that the scout is a brother to all other scouts; this older wording is still there in essence, if we choose to phrase it so is there for us to use it.

What a challenge! How do we tackle that when we generally see friendships between our young and adult members develop naturally but we also see issues, sometimes even a constant friction between some members.

Here are some thoughts
because I do believe that when we know what to look for it is easier to find it.

We are bound by a promise to keep the scout law, that means that we must make a constant effort to think of a fellow scout as a friend and to be considerate. This is the starting point, we cultivate friendships to a patrol and troop; we don't have relationships to friendships.

A scout believes in the good intentions of others and listens to what his friends, fellow scouts, like or don't like and acts accordingly.

When they resolve any issues between them, then their friendship is hardened, tried and tested.

This can be issues of behaviour or even practical issues; planning an activity, working as a team e.t.c.

So that's exactly what we must encourage to happen; allow them to cultivate friendships between them.

How can we practically do that?

In scout leader minute at the end ceremony, we can remind all that we are friends.

In Scouts own we can use this subject to instil the approach that we start from friendship and build up.

During resolution of issues, encourage the word friend, friendship and concern.

Look and identify a good friendship or gesture and praise it.

Distinguish between bad behaviour and bullying. Bullying is not tolerated and has no space in a friendship and therefore in the troop or pack.

Run a program about friendship, what other friends they have and do they know that all scouts are friends and have consider each-other.

Include this sense of friendship, what friends do and don't do in the code of conduct.

Scouts Troop Forum - Code of Conduct

It was great to see so many scouts returning to our regular meetings from their summer holidays. So starts Winter 2014, a new term and it brought us a new scout too who looked happy and active and participating, how great is that!

We started with the flag break, which went weird, it looked like the flag was knotted to a strong hold and didn't want to break away, it was funny!

Some Trust Games
We started the evening with three trust game, aiming to team building, trust and cooperation.
Three small quick games were planned; Toe to Toe fall back, that was done with in very little time, back to back from seated to stand which only a few managed to do so we might try that again soon and last was the Helium Stick, which took awhile to start it up and work it out but they soon got the hang of it...

These three games took a short time to complete, shorter than I thought but they worked out really well for a quick warm up. Scouts had to hold hands, stand close to each-other and cooperate so doing it as a team is was an excellent warm up for the rest of the meeting.

The Troop Forum
By 20:10 we started the main activity, we had 4 stations with a headed flip-charts on each:
Good Stuff
Bad Stuff
What We Want To Do
What We Want From Our Leaders

We split the troop on 4 teams, a marker each team to visit and write what they think on each piece of paper.

A leader was at each station and helped them to decide what to write. We did not control the outcome but we did regulate the quantity and quality of what was written so they don't fill the poster in one go and leave some space and content for the next team.

This took about 30 minutes to complete, the things they came up with were clever and novel, they took the work seriously but also had a lot of fun putting leader's name on the Bad Stuff list, well one leader's name but that was "joking"...

By the end of it we had 4 posters full of statements, wishes, issues and praise! we put them all on a table and we sat around it to go threw them and discuss some more, we explained what was the meaning of this activity and that we will now write a code of conduct per patrol.

The Code of Conduct
We could define it as simple list of positive statements about how we come work play and leave our regular meetings. It should also show us the way to apply the Scout Law in our Troop Meetings. Another way to see it is a manual in which we define how a specific and regular Troop Meeting is attended. Some facts define this, for example our hall is rented, not ours, the time we have together is limited and the evening of the week we meet is set, so we need all of us to think and agree what is the code that will help everybody take the most out of it.

To highlight this, a Code of Conduct for a Camp would be a different one. So would be the Code of Conduct for next year too. What is important is the process of deciding it for the old scouts to figure out what worked last time and the new scouts to understand what we are and what we do and how the law applies. The only thing the adults have to do is ask questions, what about? how is that? where is best? etc.

The fact we all sat and thought it out is enough of an agreement, we will type it out and share it with all but that should be enough. I personally dislike the word "contract" and producing it distributing it for signature etc. no need, not scout like and just plain lame!

The Scout Law is always governing this as it does every scouting activity; it is good to make it clear and reference the law with every opportunity. So if in our code of conduct we state that we need to be punctual and on time for our meetings we can also remind ourselves of the Scout Law where it says:
6. A Scout makes good use of time...

Scout Run Games
One of the points that came up in the troop forum was playing games the scouts like and not the same games over and over again.

So when our senior scouts suggested a couple of games we were quick to give them the initiative and go for it. Both games were excelent and even us the leaders enjoyed playing them.

The first game was "Pink Nickers", a musical chairs type game, run by Lilly.
All the scouts sit on chairs around in a circle facing out, one scout is in the middle and calls out various characteristics that identify our scouts, for example; name starts with S, wears black shoes, has long hair e.t.c. Every scout who posses that characteristic must stand and quickly run around the circle of chairs and sit down again. The last scout is out and turns the chair facing inside the circle and the game continues.
When "Pick Nickers" is called, all scouts must run around the circle. The last scout facing out is the winner.

The second game was "Inky, Pinky, Ponky, Wonky", a Splat type game, run by Jess.
The scouts stand on a circle and with their left hand behind the right hand of the scout on their left.
This way the right hand can slap five to the left hand of their fellow scout to the left.
We start by slapping the phrase "Inky, Pinky, Ponky, Wonky" going around clock wise, and calling a number from 2 to 10, e.g. 5 which continues the slapping to the countdown, 5, 4, 3, 2 and on 1 if we slap the other scouts left hand they are out if they are quick and we slap our own we are out and if we also are quick and avoid our hand we continue in.

Both games were explained well and run well by our young scouts, very impressive as this shows the team has come together!

That was the end of our evening with a flag down ceremony, which went as funny as the flag break! what was wrong with our flag? maybe it wanted to be on a few more weeks of summer holidays...

1st Scout Camp

Camping is the most essential scouting activity and last week we had our first camp of our new scout section for the 1st Jennett's Park group. It was only for 2 nights, the 21st to the 23rd of March, two cold nights but packed out activity days.

It was in part a group camp, with the distinction that the scouts would camp a bit further away from Cubs and Beavers and mostly run their own program.

Camping at Earleywood was always going to be a muddy/wet affair but the weather was not too mad. Cold nights, yes, a fair bit of rain, hail and small wind storm but most of the day time and Saturday was dry and we even had sunny spells.

Most of the kit and equipment, mainly for the kitchen mess, was borrowed from 2nd Crowthorne and the Explorers. Leaders then filled in the gaps of essential kit we needed. All in all we had everything we needed for a weekend camp!

This was the camp that we all got invested into our new group, raising the demographic up by 1400% being the newest invested scout section for 25 years in the District! We now all wear the red and yellow neckers and soon the group name and other badges will be stitched on our uniform.

Our main activity was planned to be a pioneering project but we did not have time to do this because we got involved with backwards cooking, fire-lighting and an impromptu wood chopping frenzy!

We were lucky to have a friend in scouting, our DC who goes by the name of Hagrid and knows a thing or two about fires, got us to prepare our ember fire grills and the grand fire for the Saturday night group event around the fire circle.

Picking sticks of all shapes and sizes, getting the fire-lighters, kindle and wood to cook, preparing the food and cooking it for lunch does take a lot of time and group work. We also set alight a tilley lamp, but with the vapolux working we managed without the tilley.

Dinner was Leader's special spag bog, very good indeed! none of it would be possible without the amazing impromptu cardboard box cooker screen (patent pending). Who would have thought that the gas rings, as heavy and pro looking as they are, they would struggle to boil a pan of water!!! We knew this because breakfast took a bit too long to prepare that morning.

Saturday night was all about the camp fire circle. What Song? if you prepare only 5 6 songs you will ask this question about 10 times. As a new group with lack of older scouts who "know about these things" we have quite a restrictive repertoire but this is something we can easy fix. Did anyone notice? Nah! Beavers and Cubs had their songs, we scouts had ours, the night went just fine, with loud voices and good fun around the very hot fire, in contrast to the very cold night.

We went to bed with our pink hot-bean teddies straight from the microwave oven and a cola bottle full of hot water... at least I did... Thanks Cubs!

Sunday looked dry so we did run both wide games we had planned for. A Scavenger hunt, with a cryptic message attached to it and the very successful rope trail, where the scouts in pairs, one blind the other guiding, had to negotiate a route marked with string through a small copse of woods.

Lunch time was catered by our amazing Cub Leaders, who invited us to join them for a sandwich and hot drinks. Then it was time to strike the tents and pack it up before the rain comes back again. No such luck. I must've rained for 5 minutes and made a wet mess of all tents and tarps. Drying them up was an electric affair...

Parents came and scouts went and the campsite empty of scouts but with still some tents unpacked and drying. Two nights away is a squeeze to run with inexperienced scouts, some of them knew how to strike a tent but some didn't manage to focus on the job and with time ticking away you have to work hard to get everything packed away, especially when the tents must return to their owners that night.

Leaders worked from pick-up time, that's 14:30 till 17:30 on site to pack up and clean up, leaving it better than they found it. It was past 19:00 at night when the kits were returned and with tents still drying in a living room.

We did sleep well that night!!!

P.S. A big "Thank You" to the scout groups who helped us make this camp happen so early in our scouting experience. without your kit and support it wouldn't be possible! Thank you.

1st JP Scout Group - Troop Meeting number One!

It is very exciting when you are witnessing the beginning of something good.

JP Community Centre

Indeed on the 28th of February 2014 we saw the start of the 1st Jennett's Park Scouts Troop.

We met at the Jennett's Park Community Centre at around 20:00 on the night of that Friday, right after the end of the Cub's meeting.

All the members, including Leaders and young alike are still to be invested and make the promise. We started with the flag break and a couple of active games, table football, pass the ball and out main activity was Pioneering a bridge with bread-sticks and strawberry laces and also erecting a free standing tower with newspaper and tape.

Bread-stick pioneering is a delicate matter, not only the bridge needs to be able to hold itself up, the bread-sticks tend to crack under a tight lace or knot! Building segments and putting them together with a sequence of sheer lashings seemed to be the preferred way to tackle the bridge structure.

Building a free-standing tower with newspaper and sticky tape was again a team effort. My team used tightly rolled newspaper as the building segments of the structure, a scout actually said that we need an Eiffel tower approach, very impressive!

We ended the meeting with a couple more games, "It's a bomb it's a bomb it's a B.O.M.B Bomb!" and Ladders! where things did not get any competitive at all, not much!

What was talked about mostly was the upcoming camping weekend, 3 meetings and we are off to camp, that says something!


The meeting closed with a flag ceremony and a few words from the SL. simple and meaningful.

I love it that the first blog entry of my new troop is short simple and sweet. As characters develop and work is done this will be blogged here, a review of what went on, a resource for future programmes and a testament of what we started.

The Scout's Staff

Won Tolla's staff

I remember back then, when I was a young scout, with investiture came a necker, a woggle, the group's badges, including a small bronze badge for the Beret and there was also a stave!

We did not get to keep the stave as ours but we could now hold the patrol's stave; it had a little flag with the patrol's beast on it, the name of my patrol was Stags (Ελάφια - Elafia) (or Deer but I prefer Stags)!

We also had other more simple stave we used to carry around all the time on hikes, camps, parades and events. The older scouts probably had enough of "them sticks" but we the younger scouts loved to hold on to them as if they are our pets!

So what's in a staff? why stave? well... Only an adult would ask this! Don't you know? Children love sticks!

There are loads of sites about the scout's staff, the history and it's uses. I just did a quick google search and found plenty, one of them is this: scoutingrediscovered.com

Historical, practical and aesthetic reasons are all valid, BP considered it as part of the uniform and it's uses are many, even as a hike staff or a patrol flag pole being the most obvious.

I see the staff  primarily as a training device and a memento of a scout's life. Eventually these years will pass, childhood is very short indeed but on the scout's staff we have enough room to cover it! Once it captures the imagination of a young member we see a long-term commitment on that stick.

A scout is a naturalist, knowing what to pick and what to cut, working in a copse, is a good start to learn about preservation and pick the perfect stave. Then comes the practise with the use of a knife, the design of the stave, making it more practical, finding ways to hold dry matches and a length of chord, adding markings for inches and feet.

Keep yourself occupied at camp, by preparing a stave, taking the bark off and making it smooth and carving it. Sometimes it turns to a totem of animals!

During ceremonies the pose of a scout holding a staff adds to the imagery, as it looks iconic and very photographic! Don't we aim to attract attention to ourselves through the media and general presence in our community? It's better with a stave!

A few scouts with stave can help out with "guarding" a parade or a function; the stave can be held as makeshift corridor or gate, open/close barrier, on entrances and exits when we need to control the visitor's flow.  I remember during Easter in Greece our parish church of St. Lucas in Athens asked us to help out with directing people from one door and out from the other and we put stave holding scouts for hours to act as gates. Believe me, some days it was very necessary to control that as the crowd can be sudden and strong in numbers! This can be practised at camp when each patrol puts "guards" of it's gate and periphery from other patrols.

Sourcing the stick

Getting a staff can be as simple as a walk in the woods or even better the copse but it's worth asking because in UK woods and copses have owners or at least people responsible for them.
If you happen uppon a good stick and you happen to have one of these folded saws then just be reasonable. So what kind of wood did you find, Hazel is the most common, good enough for a staff and good enough for a scout, Ash and Rowan and Blackthorn are also strong and good to work with, but the reality is, get the stick you find! Avoid dead wood, that's wood that's been on the ground and you happened to find. This wood's been getting wet and weak, it will snap so it simply won't do!
Want to know more about which tree gives what stick? Check this guy out!
www.thestickman.co.uk

When you find it cut it a bit longer than you need it to be, you'll need to trim the ends if they split.

If you need them quick find alternative sources, ask around! I got 20 7foot sticks of hazel, straight as they come, from the bloke who takes care of my neighbours garden. I asked him about it, mentioned the scouts and I found them on my doorstep a week later, bound them 5 a bunch and hanged them in the garage to dry. Less for him to take to the tip, more for me to carve!

If you feel that you have to pay for staves, don't! However, the Greek scout shop has them very cheap!
Greek Scout Shop - Staff

Preparation

If you want to make a long lasting strong stave to have and to hold it's best to allow it to dry for a few weeks or months with the bark on as it dries slower and better that way. I never bother to make it straight, I don't know how, I found instructions and blogs about steaming it and hanging it etc but it's too much of an effort and I decided I like them as straight as mother nature intend them to be.

For a scout activity, 20 sticks just cut from a copse a week or a month ago and a pocket knife is enough to get it going. I wouldn't add more effort to dry or straighten them either.
Remember that knife work is with risks and we need to minimise them...

Once the bark is off, then with some sandpaper make it as smooth as you can, the hand that holds the stave needs to have a comfortable feel on it!

Here are some ideas to make it a bit more special:

• Mark feet and inches, start from the bottom marking 12 inches, then mark every foot above.
• Drill a hole at the top, to put a lanyard or a small flag.
• Drill another hole 90° right under to the one above to scope right angles.
• Carve out a small place for a compass. Have it on top and level.
• Coil a parachute chord on it as handle but detachable for 30 feet chord you might need.
• Cut a notch for every camp or hike you went to.
• Conceal a compartment for dry match or other small things.
• Put a hook on top for grabbing things.
• Put a walking stick rubber foot at the bottom, it protects the wood.
• Decorate it with animals or a scene like the old sailors used to do.
• Add the scout symbol as a brass sign for walking stick and staff.
• Burn / brand your name or the Morse code or the name of your group.

Knife work

We all know knife work is serious business, warning lights go off with the mention of a knife but it doesn't have to be a difficult or taboo subject, scouts use knifes, they learn how and preparing a staff is a good platform to learn.

Folded Saw

If I feel I can not handle 20 cubs and 20 knives with the manpower available I would change the scenario and organise a parent and child event where they can supervise their child with the knife or have it as a station for 2-3 scouts at a time.

Knife work is fun when it is done responsibly, teach them the right way to work with the knife, keep it sharp and show them how to sharpen it.

Work away from the body and the legs, inner thigh, tummy or other scout. Always have a first aid kit visible as a warning and as a requirement. People will notice you wear one ready to use it, it makes you look the job and it reminds them of the sharp end.

Risk assess the activity, if it has a knife risk assess it.

Conclusion

So how useful is a staff to a scout? Well, far less useful than it is to a scout leader! You can take your scouts to a long adventure for that piece of stick; from finding it, to making it straight, dry and cleaning, whittling it or branding it with a hot branding iron, adding gadgets to it and functions...
Eventually the time comes when they use it, on a hike,  ticking off camp-nights on it; the stave is a companion to a scout for the years to come so better start them early!

Remote Emergency Care - REC 2 / The Program

From the very beginning of the course it occurred to me that first aid, adventure and being prepared are all inseparable, plus an excellent program idea source if I have ever seen one!

They say adventure starts when your plan doesn't quite pan out as expected, not to tempt fate but this does sound pretty much spot on.
First aid also starts when the unexpected takes a turn to the worst and being prepared is not so much about being a prophet but accepting that this can happen and plan for it.

I've once heard that you prepare for the rain by taking an umbrella, no reason to spend to much time preparing for a lovely sunny day is it? (Do wear your sunscreen!)

So week in - week out, in scouting, we help young scouts to have this outlook over things... So if we aim to help them learn First Aid just by doing the DRsABC(DE) and highlighting the use of the necker as a triangular bandage we might miss the opportunity to make it a more holistic experience. After all lessons in scouting become knowledge out there in the field when we do scouty things, not in an academic way or by sitting in a class.

A Short Story

When the hiking party got caught out in the rain, a couple of scouts felt a bit tired and the moral quickly started falling. Hypothermia was high in the leader's worries and it looked like they had to decide; Do we keep going or do we stop here?

The young leaders immediately saw the opportunity; Set up a tarpaulin, look for dry space to light a camp fire, make some hot chocolate and get us all warmed up. Then we go over our maps, maybe have a team go find a phone signal up the nearby hill, see what needs to be done as we have enough time to alternate the route but if we all feel strong and in high moral 2 hours ahead is the shelter, easy to reach if we are all up and happy again...

Soon enough, the rain stopped, the group packed their stuff and they all got ready to move on, two hours later they arrived at the shelter, didn't even register they did something extraordinary, extraordinary people as scouts are.

The Program

I can see a program stemming from the above case, and it all hinges around First Aid Training without a triangular bandage in sight although By all means do incorporate more calamity if you wish.

Scouts should know what to do with just a simple "let's stop here and put the kettle on!". Soon a couple will set up the tarpaulin, another the fire, the kettle and at the same time they can all chill with a few silly songs, thinking about backtracking or going ahead based on what is happening now and not underestimate the condition of the one or two fellow scouts.

If you are prepared for this scenario, aren't you prepared for an adventure?

As a first aider and Leader I can see the benefit of assigning jobs to scouts who are prepared to do them.

It raises morale, gives me time to deal with the casualty and have all the help I need looking after the group as a whole.

A scout program must incorporate all the elements and activities that help to achieve this level of readiness.
To put it another way, my first aid pack is one side of the equation, the group's readiness is the other.

Remote Emergency Care - REC 2 / part 2

Sunday 8:30 in the morning we are on our way to day 2 of training, it should be the one step up from module10 and REC1. It was clear and cold, a fantastic day for outdoor activities, we expected a lot of training scenarios and we got them.

There were people with embedded glass in their hands, cuts, burns, sprained ankles, broken legs, fell climbers on top of each other, epileptic seizures, chocking, hypothermic and a lot of shouting for help.

"I tried to pick the pot up to move it..."

It was all enhanced with the make-up of realistic wounds, blood flowing and things sticking out... Oh we did enjoy today's training!

Each one of us would alternate between casualty and first aid crew. We all played our roles without trying to laugh it off as "not real" and the weird thing is that in my mind I can only describe what we did based on what the scenarios were staged and developed as and not as a bunch of role playing acting exercises. I felt that we were making first aid efforts and decisions. Now that builds confidence!

Time to put together a simple first aid kit, something that will easily be expanded for a group of 10 and it will have scope for a 1h or more emergency care. This must be coupled with prepared and trained scouts, if one scout needs care the whole group will need to adapt their roles to assist evacuation, on that we can be trained to a high standard. In fact this might even make first aid programmes fun to run, I bet young members love bloody and gory details in their first aid training. Add to that bevy bag casualty lift and move, you got a load of fun first aid achieved!

If you are an adult or young leader in scouts, guides or any other youth based organisation, do seek and get trained in REC2, you'll love it!

Our training course was organised by Berkshire Scouts and run by the very competent and herself an explorers scout leader, Julia Pich. If you scout anywhere near Hertfordshire Do contact her!

Her services can be reached at www.juliapichtraining.co.uk

Now, where do they order that badge from...

Remote Emergency Care - REC 2 / part 1

Live from the REC2 training weekend, this is part one of the two 8h training course in First Aid, where Aid comes First!

This is as close to a log diary as it gets, I do not want to forget some thing so i make notes of some stuff that were discussed in today's session.

REC is a first aid course that trains you to be prepared and equipped for when the emergency situation occurs in a remote location, where the ambulance is not likely to be there on time, a considerable longer time from an urban environment.

It also seems that the position of the body will be in a more random or awkward place. Getting there, assessing and caring for the casualty is a challenge. I guess in an urban setting, most casualties tend to be flat, on their backs one swing away from the recovery position, just about enough time for the ambulance to arrive.

Oh wait, we dont call it the recovery position any more, that assumes too much, that the casualty will recover for starts... We call it assisted airways position, basically we make sure that if there is a breath in their body, there's more chance for another one...

I won't go into the technicalities of "how" and "what" you do or "why"; do the course to get them from the horse's mouth. I will write a couple of ideas, especially the scouting aspect of it.

When we hike, we tend to use dirt tracks, the ones that go bit off the back of farms and through little copses, some woods, over another farm or field, we still hear the car noise from the nearby A or M road, right? We are in the nature but not off the grid, safe in the knowledge that if the ambulance won't come on time, the helicopters will! Can you tell I was a cubs leader?

The 7 to 15 minutes that it would take for an ambulance to go where the postman can deliver post, becomes... 45 minutes? Maybe less provided you can move the casualty closer to the main road but do you move casualties? Not in the emergency first response context. Thats a long way around of saying; REC2 is much more basic that you think, much more common and close to familiar scouting grounds.

With a group of scouts, ramblers, walkers, tourists, call it how you want, it's not only the casualty you will need to care of but everybody else, you don't want more casualties under your care because while you are tending the wounded scout the others may get wet, cold, scared, even suffer from hypothermia feeling horrible and helpless! So you might need to know how to set them safe and ready for a long night till help arrives.

Get your patrols to practice a first aid program or activity that one or two "casualties" are cared for by the first aider but everybody knows how to react, e.g. where the first aid kit is, how to call for help, how to prepare a shelter and a brew and how to evacuate. This will help moral and keep spirits high as everybody has a job, while the patrol or troop is stranded waiting for help to arrive.

Got ICE number and name on your mobile phone? I let you google this to find out what it is.

And finally, do you know where you are going to be and how it's called or how to reference it on the grid or post code address if you have to call for an ambulance or mountain rescue or coast guard?

When you prepare a hike get those things in with your first aider, they will love you when you tell them exactly where they can find you. 

Oh there's more than this but I won't script the whole course here now, am I? For starts, I got one more day to go through tomorrow...

The IKEA Scout

We moved! We unpacked (65% of the boxes!) and I have become IKEA's Chief Assembler!

As I was assembling I realised that there is no need for any language to pass on the message of what to do or what not to do. IKEA manuals have mastered the ancient art of hieroglyphic reference...

For example, take the IKEA Law:

The first cartoon definitely says Be Prepared!

With the Scouts Law in mind:

1. A Scout is to be trusted.
2. A Scout is loyal.
3. A Scout is friendly and considerate.
4. A Scout belongs to the worldwide family of Scouts.
5. A Scout has courage in all difficulties.
6. A Scout makes good use of time and is careful of possessions and property.
7. A Scout has self-respect and respect for others.

Can you see it? It's all there!

Next to translate B.P's Scouting for Boys in IKEA manual hieroglyphics...

Scouting without Scouts

Although I am not yet attached to any group, having resigned from my old one, I can't say scouting is not in the agenda for the next few weeks. So in a good old blog fashion, were you don't just write about how to build a friction bridge or a review of a meeting night, i will attempt to lay out the agenda of whats ahead in my scouting life.

October. Second meeting with the County IT team, this is a social and work pub session with those who volunteer to help with the Berkshire Scouts IT issues and work. I only have met the team leader so I am curious to see how the rest of the team looks like, will it give us a kick start for something a bit more structured? let's hope so!

November. At some point in November I will meet with the cub scout leader of the 1st Jennett's Park scout group, this is my future group if all works out OK, with the move to the new house and all. Again, meeting new people, a new team, a new group!

End of November we (The Family) move to JP and that was a long time coming. I know loads of people have horror stories that span months when it comes to sell buy and move house, I can't say it went nasty with ours but it still took us about 5 months to be able to say when we might move... Hopefully.

December. I finally booked an Advanced First Aid Course, a 2 day (16h) training course that leads to a full first aid certificate, once the course has been evaluated. I was looking for one of these courses for a few years now, hopefully the one the Berkshire Scouts are running will go ahead in December. It'll be a weekend and it'll be great!

So scouting for old boys, I know without the young ones it's not much scouting as a leader role goes but it's a break, it will give me ideas and soon enough I will get back to "proper" scouting!

Before I start filling in my AA form I need to have a new proper home address first!

My farewell to the 47th

The time has come to announce my resignation from my role as an Assistant Cub Scout Leader.

After almost two and a half years scouting with the 47th Reading Scouting Group (St. Paul's) due to my family's relocation I decided that I can't commit to the commute to the meetings, on top of my day's work and commute.

I have taken so much from the amazing leadership of the other scouters, the enthusiasm and love of the young members and the scouting we all did together. We all became friends and we all had fun, exploring and doing things scouts do, without a doubt that we kept our promise. We did what we did under the scout law and we did make our founder proud. No doubt in my mind that the group will continue to do so.

As this is a review I will try to cram the most of the past few years.

In 2011 my daughter joined Beavers at the 47th, so I guess I started as a parent, it is a category of scout group membership if not official very real indeed! I shook the left hand of the GSL as an old scouter and I was recruited in my original role as a Sectional Assistant, knowing full well that I am joining a scout group but also feeling like I return to the scouting movement. The way my GSL approached and followed through my recruitment was text book!

Within weeks I realised that I have the chance to get so much more out of it if i commit a bit more and pick the role of Assistant Leader. These roles and the different paths seemed a bit complicated, the training looked attractive enough to commit but also wide and distant to complete.

So starting with the group for the year 2011-2012 my main priority was to learn the ropes, get trained and develop a sense of direction and comradeship with the team and the young ones. Sure enough as the months went by I figured out what the Training Modules are about  and how to tackle them. A big help in that was my then Training Assistant, Barry who is also the GSL of the group. Also the county, Berkshire scouts are running training courses, it made life so easy! It was almost a case of booking modules and then booking Validation Sessions.

What happens between the two, the Module training and the Validation Session is real scouting. Once you follow a module you can then imminently see the content appear in your program and planning. Your meeting nights and scouting activity now has all the elements you need for validation revealed to you to record and make examples of.

During training you also meet other leaders from various districts and sections from a wide array of ages and backgrounds. That makes you feel that you have nothing to worry about, we are all there to offer what we can, there is no scout type, we are all scouts unique as we are uniformed! weird eh? It was great to meet all these fellow scouts, it made us all feel instantly we belong to a batch! a generation!

But training apart, which for me is a comfortable place, scouting is about the young members, the games, the activities and the skills. I did not know I would enjoy songs and skits so much, taking games and adapting them to themes, preparing props and soon enough making that same preparation an activity for scouts, taking me out of the doing for them, to leading them to do.


My daughter joined the Cubs, so the period 2012 - 2013 we scouted together, father and daughter, scary but it turned out we work together just fine! she is a clever girl, she knows when we play the game and when we are back to family mode! I was half way finishing my wood badge and also making camping happen.

I made it my task to lead our camping expedition, originally planned for October 2012 but then cancelled to be rescheduled for May 2013. I wanted to consciously control all stages of the planning so that I learn and move closer to my Nights Away permit. In doing so I also wanted to help the other leaders to do the same! We must all train and help each other do their training in the scouting system, the same way we share experience we also must share the training effort.

Camp went awesome; cubs loved it they didn't want to go home! Our long lists of activities and timetable run through with many items working just fine while others just didn't need to happen. Some parts of the organisation had some mistakes and needed a bit more attention, it doesn't matter, just make a note, remember for next time! The important thing is that there is a next time!

Leaders had a lovely time too, I slept for most of the week when we returned; I was knackered but happy.

Summer 2013 came with the news that we would have to move. Sad to leave my group and as we expected to do so by the end of August there was no more scouting for me with the 47th, or so I thought...

My daughter and I had a few more biscuits to eat at the 47th and there was a surprise waiting at the end!


As the move was delayed I continued scouting for the first term of 2013- 2014 and I was happy to see many of the old cubs coming back to our meetings, some moved up a section and some were new members.



On the 14th of October 2013 I had the honour and privilege to invest three new cubs into scouting and also, the same night, I was presented with the wood badge and beads by our DC in front of all the cubs, leadership team and some parents, a moment I will never forget!

I consider the 47th as my scout group, my cubs and my team. In Whitley the families have a scout group that has 100 years of history and from what I have seen their children are in good hands!

Keeping it personal as I review my continuous scouting experience, I will report from the new group soon but I will keep the 47 after Won Tolla for ever to always remind me the 47th Reading Scouts!

HEATWAVE

Long time no see! We are near to the end of this term, as we approach the Summer Break, almost like the end of a scouting year, depends how you count it, I tend to measure a year from September!

The weather is Hot and the park near our HQ is very inviting for wide games, the water relays, with the outdoors being the main theme of almost every meeting.

I have noticed that parents tune-in to the weather especially well when it's rainy and cold but for the Summer season, things tend to get a bit simpler. No worries, Summer calls for less clothes!

Sometimes the transit between the seasons is slow in scouting mainly because of the uniform and the regular meetings indoors, in the Scout Hut. So I think it is a good idea to have a few general guidelines ready and to let parents know that being summer and being scouts we will be mostly outside and possibly playing with water a lot!

Do this as a cover-all statement, as the seasons change, not like a letter for a particular event...

This way you can rely on their educated common sense to send the young scouts ready for outdoors, even when you have not planned a visit to a near by field for a wide game, obviously if the field trip or the visit does warrant an activity notification and an information form this is covered already.

The beaver and cub jumpers or the scout shirt are too hot for games outdoors on a 28C hot summers day! Can they bring a t-shirt to change to for games? Especially if there's water relays and games involved and the weather is not that hot!

High factor Sun screen is necessary, even on nice cool days outdoors. Remember, we can not apply it to our young members and we expect them to have it on before they arrive at the HQ, covering parts that the t-shirt wont cover.

A bottle of water is good practice, although Scout Huts have water and cups, it still shows initiative and good thinking. Also imagine, if during a heatwave the HQ has the water cut off, you need to drink to play! I realise this is not practical but imagine if you manage to convince all scouts to have a bottle of water in the backpacks!


A hat is always a great idea, this is like saying that appropriate shoes for games are also a good idea.


Scout huts need to have a good 1st aid field box, something to pick up and go, it will patch a grazed knee quickly and get you back to the game without delays.

In my experience a small kit with:

• Nitrile gloves
• Sterile water
• Sterile gauze to clean small cuts and wounds 
• Selection of wide plasters or adhesive tape 

all these are more than enough to cover the grazed knee. For anything more than a graze, you'll probably stop the game and seek further 1st aid or assistance anyway, so don't take this as the basic first aid advice.

Extend your knowledge to the young Scouts, highlight three things:

1. Equip: Sunscreen & Water, have them, use them!
2. Plan: Avoid working hard on hot hours of the day
3. Care: Keep an eye on elderly, family members, neighbours, they might suffer.

Also, pets must not be left in hot small confined areas, like cars.


Finally, I spend sometime refreshing my first aid and I use the Red Cross application on my iPad, excellent app but the info is also available on the Red Cross website, I submit this link for Heatwave advice. Be Prepared for Heatwave

That's all! Scouting is Outdoors, get going!

Activity Review - Cooking Kebabs (BBQ)

On Monday 26th of June we had a BBQ Kebab theme with a Global taste for our CUBS.
Some weeks before a letter went out and the cubs arrived with loads of spices and herbs, massalas and marinades for their kebabs! The focus was a cooking/global program.

So the target was to base this on a meeting time of 1h 30' and to cater for the variety of cultures and vegetarian diets. If in doubt don't forget to ask those of different dietary requirements in advance for suggestions, they know best. Also ask for allergies!

Food hygiene and safety was assessed,  we also took the opportunity to pass these on to our cubs on the day. Finally this was an outdoors activity, we all know that fires are not to be lit indoors, don't we?

When we run this the excitement and the reception from our cubs was very good, still as an adult leader I felt that something was not quite right, mainly because we had only 1h 30m to run this and nothing was really safely cooked before the closing ceremony, meaning we had to give the kebabs to the cubs "takeaway" at the end of our meeting...

Our leaders worked really hard to produce and supply us with the activity and I feel we must repeat this very popular activity, a bit more improved!

So here are 10 points, I am sure there's more to add but i guess 10 is a magic number!

1. Wash hands, preparation areas and utensils.
2. Prefer Chicken, Beef and Lamb, buy in pieces or cut them in advance.
   Courgettes, onions, mushrooms and peppers are good for BBQs too.
   Check fish products, they must be well preserved, check for various diets.
   Avoid Pork and sausages for cultural or religious diets.
3. Make clear that no BBQ food is to be eaten uncooked.
   Chicken and Pork if used, must be cooked thoroughly before tasted!
4. Make clear that each meat preparation must be separate.
   e.g. no chicken and beef pieces on the same kebab stick.
   Meat must be handled one type at a time, plan ahead!
   e.g. start with beef and lamb, wash, moving to chicken, wash, pork last.
5. Prepare a strong fire, preferable on small disposable BBQs Small BBQs keep cooking time to a minimum. Have one BBQ per Food Type to avoid cross contamination i.e. avoid one per six. 
6. Cook meat separately from vegetables/vegetarian food, it is also a cultural need.
7. Add a challenge to light the fire with 1 match or a light steel!
8. Add a global twist with marinades and spices we can prepare the food with.
9. Have a team to prepare the salad and the dips, sides etc.
10. Work out a rota for washing up, drying up, cleaning up, gathering rubbish etc.

We decided as a team to undertake the cost of the BBQ, most of us turn up at the HQ straight from work and school and we are always hungry, scouts are always hungry!

The cost was £2.50p per leader (i am not saying how many leaders and cubs, it was proportional) but we did not have small disposable BBQs, we had a big one and it was a squeeze to cook around, the fire was too weak and the grill had mixed food with all sorts, not the best set-up but it kinda worked at the end.

Last, don't forget the dessert, marshmallows and fruit kebabs are instant gratification! they are consumed even before they find themselves stacked on skewers!

So as I said this is not an exhaustive list, if you thought of a point I forgot to make then this blog did it's job!
Ah yes, here's one, where there's fire, there's a bucket of water nearby! Right?

Cub's Camp - We Survived!

I wrote this as a return from Camp log, took me weeks to post it due to work, i will post it today with some other old ones, just as I go on Holidays for a week or so...

We Survived!

Oh come on! It was never a case of survival! Easy to say this now, however when you go about planing the
event, surviving it is what seems to be the aim and purpose.

But now it's all over, cubs are back with the parents and we are in the process of review and reflect.

I am not going to bore you with the 4 pages review I wrote, I could just paste it here and blog's done and updated but what's the point in doing that when here is the place where I write about my experience?

What have I learned then... now there's a topic.

It is the yeast of the previous camp that makes the next one rise! In my case it all started with a good excel sheet used by the E-Scouts Friend from 2nd Bracknell.

I stop the planning here, it should be a simple case of who's sorting out what by when, All you need is a list of jobs, a list of people and the time they need to be done, a time table is your best tool.

A Team of 5 adults worked fine for us and you can delegate one role for the Planning stage that changes to another role for during Camp, for example "Program Zones & Badges" during Planning and "Program Coordinator" during the Camp.There are other roles but you get the gist of it.

That's planning, but preparation is another matter. Get the team to do their own prep work, if something doesn't work out, and you can't point to someone else to help out, don't do it! Honestly guys, simple is best, you got your games list, some balls, flying disks, maybe even pioneering poles and rope and plans, done! do not sweat the rest if they don't pan out as you expected them to pan out.

One word about Reccie, reconnaissance of the site. Do it Alone or with just one helper, the more the worst, as you tend to rely on someone else if they have seen locks, taps working, tables chairs and they might say yes without having it in their list ticked or at all. I am not saying you should distrust your team but the responsibility is yours to know if you have counted 5 tables or there are only 3! And It is the principle of the eye witness, you can rarely trust the eye witness to tell you details. In short. Do the reccie yourself, be certain you work down your list and don't add unreliability to this crucial task!

Pin down your wake up and lights out times, let me guess, 7 in the morning and 10:00 at night.

Add breakfasts lunches dinners and supper by the camp-fire, done!

Then you got ceremonies, gather wood and tidy up for inspection and free time! During camp there are not enough words to praise the Free Time concept.Cubs Love It! The make their own games, their own stories, just sit back and watch over, when it starts going sour, throw a game or a challenge in!
Blow on the whistle a Morse code message and ask them to figure it out!

Stick a hike and some cubs cooking (remember to cover the outdoor badge requirements otherwise you'll feel like you wasted an opportunity) and what you got left with is 3 to 4 hours of activities needed! this is where the theme comes to play with inspiration and imagination.

Parent's Briefing about our Camp

Much more hair but you get the gist!

This could be a short blog entry because all parents came and attended the meeting!

That alone is enough to make anybody in the camp planning team happy.

So how unprepared was I the "leader in charge" when it came to this?

A Lot! Fact is I decided against producing a parent's pack because during the past few months a lot of literature and communication was produced and distributed, so everybody had all the info they needed to know and hold to, right?

Well... Wrong!

Unfortunately there is nothing better than a hard copy of the program (timetable), the menu, the rules and the other areas covered in the presentation.

People receive emails and they do read them but do they keep them? you don't know if they do!

Going paperless is great but when we physically meet, we need physical evidence of our communication too! It's not bad to cover all angles of communication either.

During our scouting year we use many forms of communication:

• email - direct, targeted, informal 
• website - open and accessible 
• newsletter - concise, distributed 
• "next event" letter - by proxy (scout), distributed, short 
• presentation - direct, personal, interactive 
• handout - functional, impersonal, completed 
• a chat - direct, informal, personalised 

I'm sure there is a more scientific list of ways of communication and their attributes somewhere but it makes the point that we use many different ways to talk to the parents, directly, indirectly, by proxy (the scouts) etc.

So to understand the strengths of each and maintain 2 or 3 channels of communication is not wasteful, is necessary and we do it already.

So back to No hand outs for the Parents; at least I had a list of items to cover.
Well, yes but I didn't compile the list for the presentation, I just had the one for my planning, I knew it well, it was ticked, it invoked statements and answers just by looking at it!

It worked out OK but I am also good at ad-libing, most of the times... I should do myself a favour and make a proper outline of my presentation, with points to cover to know I covered them.

I know I covered them but I struggled a bit. What should have been a 15 minute presentation, it was in fact close to 30 minutes of me talking about 4-5 subjects, one or two prompted by my GSL.

It went well, but it could be easier!

Best part was when we presented to the parents the Code of Conduct, the rules discussed and written by our scouts, their sons and daughters.

I read, "Always keep your clothes tidy and folded in tents!" and then I said, "Daniel suggested that, I think...", to which his mother exclaimed, "Really!?"

Yes we were all impressed!

A Hole in the Ground

If you always wanted a foldaway shovel, also known as Entrenching tool but didn't know exactly what to do with it, here are some ideas.

Small holes that can be dug with a trowel or an entrenching tool, they are about 6 to 8 inches deep and not too wide. On grass or turf, cut out a piece, keep it upside down and watered, dig the hole and before you leave site, cover hole with soil and turf.

Dig 6''-8'' Deep

Wet Pit

Dig about 6 inches in the ground, keep the soil on the side. Use this hole to empty waste water. Replace soil and cover.

Grease Pit

A small hole, covered with lots of twigs and grass! Tip waste fat or grease in the hole. The “nest” will hold the fat together and you can then burn it at you camp fire.

Catholes

To dispose of human waste, they must be located at a reasonable distance (at least 60 m) from water sources (rivers, lakes, etc.), to avoid possible bacterial contamination of water via precipitation, as well as away from trails. It is recommended to avoid concentration of catholes around campsites. Filled catholes must be covered with a reasonably thick layer of soil, to prevent access by animals.

Make sure you check restrictions of the area you are using as site may have specific rules and methods of disposing all of the above waste!

Text for catholes, which was added here for completion purposes, is from the wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathole

It Is Rocket Science - A Camping Theme

So what is Rocket Science? A very fine balance between explosion and propulsion? Lots of action under pressure?

During Camping with the Cubs we got 3 type of Rocket activities to play with. The theme of the camp is War of the Worlds, a Martian invasion described only too well by H.G Wells and manipulated so that we can stick in some space stuff and some good old down to Earth science, like good ol' scouts do.

So here are the 3 types of Rockets we have prepared for the young Martians to invade or escape Earth with.

Space Race

This is the activity found in the Instant Scouting magazine (supplement of the scouting magazine) in which balloon rockets are threaded on lines and delivery a payload.

Scouting magazine can be found at http://magazine.scouts.org.uk/ and you can see the relevant issue online here, just pop to page 10!

We will adapt this to have 4 lanes and get some racing competition game going on!

Fizz Rockets

This is the activity we found at the NASA JPL Website [Link to resource]

First I had to find a bunch of old fashioned film canisters. Ask politely at your local independent photographer or developer studio, mention the good cause Scouts use them for and chances are you'll go home with a bag of the stuff.

Then I had a look around our local pharmacy and found some good offers on effervescent Vit-C tubes, orange flavour, each has 20 disks in it! I bough two but one proved to be more than enough!

I made a simple rocket shape as per the instructions, no diagrams, just roll some paper and stick tape to make the fins and the cone nose.

First effort was a comedy flop! Filled up the canister with water and popped a full Vit-C orange drink disk in the canister. A few seconds later it went off with a weak and sad plop. I thought it was funny if not miserable! Then I thought, less water more expansion chamber. So I tried that and it really exploded!

I lost the rocket as it flew somewhere up on the roof, it might be in the chimney! What remained on the floor was the rest of the Vit-C pill still fizzing. So I made another one this time using 1/4 of the pill and it still worked just like the second attempt.

I think a tube of 20 orange effervescent disks should give us 80 goes! What I will prepare is a rocket kit, printed on not too heavy card! Cubs can decorate that before they cut it and make their own rockets.

The rocket engine (film canister), the fuel (fizz disk) and the propellent (water) will be given to them with instructions, see what they make of it!

Water Rocket

I followed one of the many instructions available on the internet but mainly i adapted them to my resources and material. There are literally dozens of instructions out there, but I will describe the one I put together.

The full assembly

I used only 1 length (about 1 meter) of PVC pipe tubing, heated up to make a bulge where the bottle needs to sit water-sealed on the pipe.

The lock and release mechanism

Launch mechanism is based on an arrangement of zip lock ties.

Pump valve from an old bicycle tyre, threaded through a cork at the end of the PVC Pipe.

I added a water stop valve at the top of the tube to stop water entering the system.

This single pipe of a launcher is mounted on a wooden frame for vertical launches.

Lift Off

I tested the launcher many times and it works. I don't have a pump with a pressure gauge on so I went by guess.

For the program, all we need are a few 2lt bottles and some sturdy light material for the fins, I used the polystyrene round base Tesco Pizza comes with, good packaging material excellent fin making material... We also have some old plastic boards that are light, sturdy and easy to cut.

I got a video of the launch and it looks great but I lost the rocket at school next door, I have put an "If Found" note on it I hope they return it.

This is not a problem during Camp as we have a huge field to land on!