And it seems so do a lot of other people too.

I’ve never been to any music festivals. For my August Bank Holiday I went to the Leeds Festival, but only after (most) of the punters had gone. Welcome to the world of tent salvage – a day out for us Scout leaders

It seemed to resemble something out of Mad Max.

A quite impressive statement on the world in which we live. The smell of burning, amongst other things, compounds strewn with belongings. Why bother to try to carry it home? Buy a tent, sleeping bag, and other stuff at Tesco, pitch it, enjoy yourself, then go home leaving it all behind.

We spent a few hours picking up a Polo-full of stuff. I have not finished checking it all out and moving it to scout stores yet (Need scout stores sorting out a bit first) and we will see the value of our finds sometime in the future. The problem is, maybe we should be more selective in the future, given that so much of the stuff is discarded because it is so cheap…

During the programme going out, we could watch and hear the production team talking to each other, the studio, and the reporters doing outside broadcasts. Just a few stories took up most of the programme (one lasted 15 minutes of the 30 minutes) but with bits from the presenters, outside reporters, and packages made earlier, I figure we still got to see all the action.

I thought it was rather cool, but then I am like that. The scouts didn’t exactly look bored, and seemed chuffed with the autographs they got!

The Scout camp I was meant to be at on Friday night got altered, removing the Friday night camping as it was too muddy on the site.

This didn’t really turn out to be a problem, as frozen mud is, well, frozen.

Instead we managed to camp on the Saturday night as the temperature fell to -10 centigrade. It was not too painful… my only mistake was putting my bivi bag closed over my head, which of course meant that my sleeping bag got wet, as breath condensed on the bivi bag inside.

Really wish I had taken my camp blanket! and I should have used Vicki’s superior sleeping bag….

As an aside, there is an award for indoor walls in the pipeline. I wonder if the Scout Association would be so kind as to put it in their activity requirements to save people having to get an SPA by default due to someone’s lack of ability to see the true meaning of “meet the following requirements, or hold SPA”

On My Honour, I promise that I will do my best
To do my duty to God and to the Queen,
To help other people
And to keep the Scout Law

Well, better late than never.

100 years ago yesterday, a military hero started an experiment to see if the idea he had to produce a training scheme for boys was any good or not. When he found that even mixing boys from different ends of the social scale it worked he set to work compiling a book (which was actually issued in instalments) which went on to become a best seller.

Oh, and led to the formation of an international movement.

Personally I hope that from all the publicity we also find more adults who can give time and skills to scouting. It doesn’t even have to be the proverbially “2 hours a week”

Having finished Harry Potter, I really ought to finish Scouting for Boys. Its a bizzare read. It doesn’t read like all those self improvement books we have now-a-days which are more narrative, its much more like listening to B.P. in a series of lectures, or more accurately chats around a campfire.

But like Ian Hislop recently said, its still relevant today, even 100 years on. Many of the basic issues that people see with society are still the same.

Last night, we thought we had made a breakthrough. I am finding it really hard adapting to the new age ranges that I am “working” with.

We had a moment of revelation. And the guys went off to bed. Two of us sat by the fire. Happy. Things reallywere turning out right.

Then we heard voices. All three had decamped from their tent and were playing on the rope swing. at 11pm.

Gone midnight, I crawled into my tent…..

The good news though remains. They have gone from very little to no map knowledge and ability, to being able to look after themselves on expeditions. the camp craft is about there too. They would certainly put most D of E people I have experienced to shame!

Last year the Scout Association reported 358,475 youth members (not including as youth members those leaders who are also counted as Network due to being under 25)

I couldn’t find up-to-date numbers for the population of the UK, but i found some figures for 2000 which gave 14,792,000 people aged 5 to 25. I guess population rises in time? or maybe does not change too much?

This gives 2.5% of the population being scouts.

But then i suppose many people are not members for the full time… Helpfully, we could compare figures for scouts (99,403) with those 10-14 (3,848,900) and thus again 2.5% are members. (proportionally membership is highest in the 8-10 age bracket.)

So why do a disproportionally high number of people that I meet doing stuff, and/or making something of themselves seem to be/have been scouts?

I wonder if scouts is having an effect on people, or if the membership of scouting is effectively self selecting to a certain type of person.

As an aside I can think of people who were involved in stuff at uni who had not been scouts. but were members of other organisations instead….

It is snowing right now. Its actually white on the ground. So tomorrow we are taking our scouts to Xscape to go (amongst other things) tobogganing.

Hmmmmm.

The weather has been a bit on the inclement side recently, but Saturday found me on the moors. Some explorers were getting some time on the hills, whilst a few of our scouts were getting some focused training as part of their preparation for a competition in a few weeks time.

Any ideas how i could sensibly show a map to you? Lets just say we started by parking our cars at SE 002 122. The explorers and scouts then went off (with the other leaders walking with the scouts) and I made my way by car, and foot to the first check point. When the explorers got there I took them through the first incident, by which time the scouts had arrived to have a go at that. I walked with the scouts for a bit, then headed to White Hill trig point, and after lunch each team got the second incident. then I met them at the end point. It seems I am not really used to the idea of having a car for this kind of exercise. I really should have driven up the road to the end point, and not walked…. oops… Oh well, Its all a learning exercises isn’t it?

Coming Soon

And now I am preparing for a 2 day expedition in a couple of weekends time. This will be the first time I have done that sort of thing in a few years. Expect to find me wandering around the countryside with a rucksack full of water this coming weekend!

The Incidents

Incident 1 – Move the suspect package.

I placed my rucksack liner and its contents (which has a really large carry loop at the top) slightly down hill. The team then had a number of fairly short lengths of cane, and some cord and string to attempt to grab hold of the package, and move it up hill. Obviously this package is suspect, and so you don’t want to get too close. I said 2 meters.

Making all the canes into a long pole was not strong enough, I was expecting some combination of a hook on the midpoint(s) of length(s) of cord, and that was the sort of thing that worked. The main point of the exercise was to give problem solving and team work. Once the team started talking to each other and working as a team they suddenly did it.

Incident 2 – Survival on the Moon

Yes its Ripped off a website, ok I know, and its something I had seen done in Peterborough. but its an exercises in both basic survival (as most of the same rules apply) with a little logic (to deal with things like the vacuum of space for example!

Update: I found a website with a number of survival scenario games.