For me it was assisting at Cubs then the GLS announced at parents meeting the current Cub leader was moving to Scouts and I would be running the section! I could have kicked back but after a couple of years assisting I was ok with this and I think he knew I would be.
For yourself have a word with the current Cub leader, say you’re keen to become a Cub team member but not Cub Section Lead Volunteer, however you’ll need to be assertive on this point and make it a condition for taking on the role.
Not sure what the current leader has tried recruitment wise but perhaps using yourself (anonymously) to say there is at least one adult keen to help but not lead may encourage others to come forward, hopefully someone who is keen to take the lead.
I'm leading our "Expedition" this weekend. It looks like we're going to have to set up for hot weather!
Blakedean to Top Withins and back. Kids navigating by themselves with leaders shadowing about half a mile back.
Very torn as I am more than happy helping but dont feel the confidence to take on more of a main leader role - not in uniform yet. Appreciate the current leader is actively looking for replacements but on my own I just dont think I can do it. Was this a natural progression over time for those that were leaders - or was it just straight in to leading?
I kind of rolled into running a group, I was a helper in a big group, became a leader then when we spun off a new group I became the leader its a fair bot of work but it is rewarding
One suggestion would be to try and rope another parent in to be you admin fairy, you do the leading stuff and get them to do the admin, checking OSM for when badges are due, sending emails etc you have to get someone you can work closely with
Admin fairies are invaluable, we had a couple at district level and they absolutely kept the show on the road
What tents are you lot using?
We have lightweight “hike” tents and bigger “base” tents.
Our “base” tents are 6 man Berghaus Adaras and they are a pain in the arse. Too big to dry and quite flimsy (pole break frequently). Also, they are so big that the kids walk about inside them, so they are filthy and difficult to clean. We have 6 of them that are 3 years old and they are knackered. Also, one of our Cubs managed to piss in one and has effectively written it off!
I’d like to switch to something like the old Vango Force 10. Not too big, but strong.
Traditional Force 10s are about £450, but there is a new one at the suspiciously low price of £150.
Can anyone recommend something that will last more than 3 years and is small enough to be hung from the rafters 8ft off the ground to be dried out.
We’ve got traditional patrol tents too, but they weigh a ton and are difficult to dry.
Good question. We've got the traditional Icelandics which are great but as you say are hard to dry. We've also got some cheap Aldi family tents which I don't trust not to break (zips and seams have proved iffy) so me and another leader ended up taking our own tents for the Cubs to use last weekend, on pain of death.
Force 10s would be ideal if I can persuade the group to fork out for them.
We use good old fashioned canvas patrol tents and have probably even older canvas flysheets for dining/cooking shelters. Heavy but bombproof, and we're able to hang them to dry between rafters in the hut with some heaters blowing.
Our issue is drying space. We have a good sized store room, but the ceiling is low, so we can't hang anything massive. We can just about get one of the Araras up there, but if all six get wet we are stuffed.
Can always tell if my wife's Guide unit had a wet camp. We have tents pitched to dry on our front lawn. They have no other option.
Can you not hang stuff up in the main bit of the hut, rather than the store room? That's where all of ours go, they're dry in a couple of days with some fans blowing
We use a Community Centre, so the hall is in use all of the time by other groups.
Perhaps an idea that works for us could be tried: after camps we ask parents to volunteer to take a tent to dry. seems a good system, folks always happy to help.
It's going to be interesting to see how the next term goes with Beavers. The long term Beaver leader has stepped back so group leader picked it up temporarily. My daughter will move to cubs for September. I will likely stop with Beavers at that point now. Cubs I'm not so able/willing to help.
We’ve got bells that get a lot of use, a few larger (10-12 man) Vangos and some non- descript 8 man tents that came from Go-Outdoors.
Most of us aren’t keen on the Go-Outdoors ones so they rarely get used.
We have Icelandics that come out occasionally if we’re short of tentage on group camps/ nostalgia.
if they need drying we are lucky to have our own hall and a newly built store with hanging space. We find dehumidifiers better than heaters for drying.
@Harry- when you say “get one of the Araras up there” is that get up as in erected or just out to dry?
We hang ours over ropes like on a washing line so can get a few in a tight space and turn over at intervals in combination with the dehumidifiers.
Being canvas the bells do take a bit of drying but one advantage is that the base can be removed. I did a camp in Feb- the ground was wet when pitching and it rained the first night. It was then dry so we were able to pack the body of the tents and the wet bases were hung to dry n their own.
We have washing lines and pulleys in our store room, so can drag an Adara up onto the rafters. But only one at a time and even that is a squeeze as we have a box trailer that lives in there too.
If we use hammocks and tarps they get sent home with the kid for airing as they can be chucked over a banister.
That’s why I like hammocking- much less faff!
had a great district camp this weekend at our local site, a few hiccups with so many cubs but all the kids had a brilliant time, keeping them out of the sun and hydrated was w challenge! 
If any of you ever get up north, this is the best scout/cub etc camp for whole of Scotland.
My lads Scouts were at their local district camp this weekend, his first as an adult leader, so we'll see how it went. All we've heard so far is that it was chilly at night. Wrong phrase when the camp site is at Willy.
Did an audax the week before last that of course started at the village hall which is also the Scout hut. Scouts and the leaders were providing tea and biscuits at the start and finish for £1 as a fundraiser. It was their first year being involved and they were astonished how much they made from 70 riders, a lot of whom told them to keep the change. Had a great chat with their Squirrel leader who was thinking of offering bacon cobs next time - I'd driven 90 minutes to the start, I'm not the only one who would have paid generously for a bacon cob!
Hopefully they have a nice annual fundraiser going forwards. They are also on, or just off, a couple of main cycling routes out of Lincoln, on and off road. A pop up tea room would probably work for them as well.
Just done our “Survival Camp” this weekend.
The younger half of the troop stay in tents, the older half spend the first night in hammocks and the second in an improvised shelter.
Obviously with the weather we had to make a few changes, so we had the younger ones in a permanent tented “village” and the older ones in an improvised tarp shelter under our big parachute. We also had use of a covered seating/dining area permanent kitchen.
We were at Bowley if anyone knows it, using the Little Bowley area.
As leaders we have decided from now on that the kids can no longer take phones. We discourage it, but after this weekend they will be banned. Too many of them just sat around watching their phones and refused to engage at all. They knew in advance that it was a bushcraft themed camp and they also knew that the weather was going to be a bit of a challenge.
One kid burst into tears when we asked him to get off his phone and join in. He moped around for a bit then said he wanted to go home. We called his parents, and they said that they couldn’t collect him, so he was stuck with us for another 24 hours. Talk about cheap baby sitting! Same kid was also sent without a coat.
We’ve also got an issue with Crocs. Not from a style point of view, but from kids wearing them instead of boots. OK for a hostel based trip but not great on a campsite with fire and metal pegs sticking out of the ground.
Anyway. 23 of the kids would appear to have had a great time and learned something in the process. Damp fire lighting, hammock and tarp rigging for wet weather, parachute setting, improvised shelter building and waterproofing, fish gutting, and how to dry a damp sleeping bag.
Cool, we're doing ours the weekend after next. Just one night though, we're going to Boarfold near Glossop. They'll all be sleeping in shelters they build, for some it's their first camp which seems a brave choice... They'll be skinning rabbits, which will be new to me too.
We don't ban phones, but we do discourage them and to be honest we don't have too much of a problem. They know that I have a rule though - if I see a phone, I'm having it and they'll get it back at the end of camp.
I've got to organise something for a 'cooking on fires' evening next week, any ideas? Something pretty simple as we've got other stuff going on too, but I want to get away from the usual cheese toasties/s'mores/chocolate bananas stuff we've done to death...
I like apocalypse cooking. Get 4 cans of food per team. Remove labels. Make pyramid. Issue tennis balls.
Knock them down to win them.
Teams combine them to make the best meals, taste off to get to victory.
Meatballs, soup, stagg chilli, spuds, custard, prunes, anything goes…
We don't ban phones, but we do discourage them and to be honest we don't have too much of a problem.
That used to be our approach until this weekend.
At pack down we had all the kit in the open with tarps on top to keep the rain off. Tarps were weighted down with camp chairs.
One kid removed a chair so that he could sit down and play on his phone. Tarp blew away. Kit got wet. Kid was obliviously doom scrolling whilst this was going on.
So new roles and some new training needed. Everyone now needs to do first response. My FAW isn't quite enough and I'm told (all) face face to face training (in Croydon district i assume) is at the weekends. Can't do it then, so i guess that's the end of my short volunteering (2 years with the Beavers) bye bye.
Not very inclusive is it, or not to my mind. Hey ho. Someone else's turn.
I need to complete some training. online stuff tho. I work weekends and evenings so the face to face training never fitted in with my job so I downgraded my role to suit.
If it becomes more restrictive I'll probably cease helping out.
On a lighter note the Cub camp last weekend was pretty good. The weather cooled down and the showers were not a problem. We even packed away the tents prior to the heavy rain on sunday afternoon.
I'm just an adult helper, or whatever we are now called. Loads more training now required, a couple of on line clickety click fests but first response is in person (fair enough) . I'd do it but I can't do a day of the weekend, so that's it, I'm done.
I imagine that extra training will put off a fair few and having no weekday provision will make it impossible for many more. Shame.
Is there no flexibility with other dates to do the first responder training? I'm also a bit surprised that FAW is not sufficient, my understanding was that it was more in depth than first responder, although may not be child centric - when I've done FAW or refresher courses they've usually added child bits on the end of the last day. I get everything has to be done "right" but there's a real risk that good volunteers are going to leave, which is crazy.
Phones are a tricky one, I know a few groups where they are banned, and then the leaders get the joy of asking parents who contact them on the Saturday night because little Jimmy isn't enjoying it how the parents could possibly know that little Jimmy wasn't enjoying it.
MrsMC is threatening to step back from Guides again. She left her last unit as she ran it pretty much singlehandedly for 15 years, and got the chance to help set up a new unit in our village. They've just had a weekend away which she has had to organise singlehandedly, the other leaders keep arranging events but not figuring out whether they themselves can get there, so MrsMC ends up as a taxi service, and this latest weekend has thrown up a mess of parents not providing info on health and diet forms that suddenly gets mentioned 2 days before they go away. One parent sent a child without an inhaler, good job she didn't need it as it wasn't on the kids health form. I totally get her frustration, but they are a young group, and a lot of the kids (and parents) missed out on the basics of trips like this due to Covid.
In more positive news, eldest is enjoying being an adult leader with his new Scout unit, although they are desperately short of leaders for the number of kids coming up, and when he starts his "proper" job in September he may struggle to get there regularly as he will likely be travelling for work.
Faw doesn't include child cpr and the trainer i had for FAW annoying wouldn't cover it....i got the impression st John's were looking for more money boa more courses. Faw also doesn't cover sepsis. According to the scouts website those are the bits missing anyway. The sepsis bit can be covered with a bit of online training but not the cpr which has to be demonstrated fave to face.
I've asked a mate if Bromley do any weekday training, but honestly it feels like they (scouts) are making it hard for you (me) to help and I've got plenty of other stuff to do with my time. I might just help at girls and Boys bridge a bit more instead......I did a stargazing session with them which they loved so yep... i'll go do my sciencey stuff with them instead. @#£% scouting is kind of how I feel.
I had to do their child specific first aid course, apparently my forestry first aid wasn't relevant, I thought major bleeds, crush injuries and falls from height would be perfect based on my experiences as a scout 😂
Glad I'm not the only one to find the online courses a clickety click fest.
Doing bike skills with the cubs next week though 😎
@#£% scouting is kind of how I feel.
Understandable but a real shame. I'm 6 months in with no Scouting committees and the extra headspace has been a God send with my parents getting older, but last night was going through some pics for a presentation my lad is doing for his King's award and some amazing memories and experiences. Really helped shape him.
@timber - what are you doing for this? I considered similar but not sure how far my outdated TCL award will get me.
We did it over two sessions for our cubs. The first week was showing them basic bike maintenance and gave me the opportunity to identify and fix any dangerous bikes. The second week was a nice ride along a river path, we had one puncture and one grazed knee in a group of 25, which I thought was good going.
We did bike maintenance with the local repair cafe a couple of weeks ago to get everything sort of functioning (lot of BSO's). The riding session will be in the school car park.
Will probably start with some skills useful for the road like riding a line, looking behind, ride one handed to build up to signalling. Maybe do a figure of eight and finish with a slow race.
@timber - what are you doing for this? I considered similar but not sure how far my outdated TCL award will get me.
we had one puncture and one grazed knee in a group of 25, which I thought was good going.
Our cubs ride had one puncture, one set of brakes to fix pre-ride, handlebars & saddle to tighten up, one grazed knee and a grazed elbow - so a rip roaring success 🙂
did bike maintenance with my cubs last week
and we are doing a ride next week, quite lucky we can squeeze in a bit of flat off road
problem is that some come with bmxs - no gears and not enough seat post vs some on decent mtbs/ hybrids, the !speed difference between the 2 is big
Did the same as @ransos for our final evening/sausage sizzle/investiture. It's always low speed in the car park where grazed knees happen - must remember to include that in the risk assessment and introduce a minimum speed limit.
I'm thinking I'll give this lot another year (which'll be ten), take a step back, maybe become a trustee with a different group for a year or two (critical friend) then look at going back into uniform at Scout or Explorer level. Good to have a plan.
Our county bike unit usually do a basic check/repairs session and then a ride session. Helps that the guy who runs the bike team is also our chair of trustees! Following a joint cycle tour with a neighbouring counties bike team there is now a joint cycling specific Explorer unit, and a big group of capable young leaders keen to help with cycling activities in both areas.
The local council health ride group I help with do a couple of easy ride sessions with one of the local Guide units, basically an M check and a 5 mile pootle on the local canal cycle path. Think it helps Guides that we have a few female ride leaders that fits with the "this girl can" message. And always provide cake!
I spent last night sewing badges on my girls uniforms. They are ready for next week and start of term.
My eldest moves to Scouts in 6 months so I looked up the uniform. Cripes, £22 for a shirt!
Cripes, £22 for a shirt!
You were lucky, £25 + postage (Sea Scouts).
The shirts are indestructible so they will last your kid's duration in the troop.
We're back next week. Got a pretty packed program for the Autumn term. Taking three teams to The Beavan ( Home - The Beavan Challenge) and got a camp for the whole troop at the end of October.
Looking forward to it. We've had a load of them turn 14, so we've got five new PLs and five APLs to sort out. The October camp will be focussed on helping them in their new roles... so that they can leave us in 12 months.
Also got to try and raise £7,200 to send six of Explorers to Finland for 10 days next year for their Explorer Belt.
The shirts are indestructible so they will last your kid's duration in the troop.
His growth rate disagrees 😂 this is number 2 (so far and probably his last before he moves on).
His growth rate disagrees
This is why many of our scouts, understandably, start in massively, comedically, oversized shirts.
We started back this week too. A lot of new ones so we had 44(!) scouts on the hut on Thursday night doing a Ready Steady Cook evening in their patrols. Great fun, but I'm genuinely going to have to get some ear plugs, my tinnitus is still going batshit 36 hours later...
My eldest is a few days off 10, and my younger daughter just turned 8 so it's 2 at Cubs now. Knowing id need 2 uniforms i got a smaller and a larger when my eldest started so she's had a decent fitting sweater throughout. I'll do the same for the scout shirt. Assuming he likes it the uniforms should all get used by my youngest too (5 currently) . I just think the official uniform is a rip off though. For cubs I got the prefect colour items from general school uniform suppliers, polo shirts and sweaters, at a quarter the cost of the official items, and compared to the official beavers sweater i bought they've worn as well. Unfortunately I can't find a poly cotton shirt/blouse in the right teal/turquoise so it looks like I'm paying rip off prices next.
Proud dad moment, my eldest got made sixer last night. A little thing but should boost her confidence a little which is helpful.
I think the leaders have skipped a few older kids which seems odd to me i'd favour giving all the chance to grow up and lead a six (not that there's much leading really) but I'm not sure that is how they work it. Anyway, I'm pleased my eldest got that little boost and the day before her birthday.
And for 6 months we have a slightly easier evening as both girls are now cubs, yay.
Congrats to your little one.
it’s a double edged sword- if you go by age, you can end up with sixer with no idea and the 6 struggles or it can help them grow.
Mrs FB is a cub leader. Each year she runs a 6er & 2nder camp to help boost their skills & teamwork & gives those new to the role an idea of what is expected of them.
I’m and assistant scout leader and we do the same for PL/APLs.
