Scouts and Scouters on BCUK

[malcolmc]

I was a scout for a couple of years in my youth; liked the philosophy but not the practice. At that time the troop I was in was very geared to preparing blokes for National Service; a lot of emphasis on correct uniform and drill. I never was very good at unquestioning obedience and I did have a problem with drilling. If I had known about the Woodcraft Folk at the time I would probably been happier there.

Baden-Powell did have a lot of good ideas and I’ve always been comfortable with the underlying objectives of the Scouting Movement. It’s good to be prepared.

 

[Womble]

Joined as a helper in 2000, was an ASL by the end of the year, and running the troop by the end of the following year. Currently an ASL and have also helped out with Cubs and Beavers, and have "advised" on an explorer backwoods camp.

 

[jamesdevine]

I am Venture Scout leader here in Ireland. No official seperation re SL/ASL here anymore but for admin I would be the many point of contact.

Have been involved for over 20years since joining cubs.

James

 

[Big John]

I am Venture Scout leader here in Ireland.

You guys still got Ventures then? Excellent! Explorers is going well, but it's not the same.

I'm an Explorer leader, did Ventures for a few years before the change over, before that a Venture Scout, Scout, Cub (no beavers in those days!). Mum & Dad were cub leaders when I was a kid so we got plenty of camping & Scouting in and it just kinda carried on from there.

 

[jamesdevine]

For the moment anyway. It will change similar to yours in age range, but how they present the programme might be different. They do certainly seem to be going out of their way to avoid coping any other country approach.

At present technically ventures start at 15 and end at 21 this is nearly a 7year age range with all the issue of those under 18 and those over 18. so it needs to change.

What will happen is that we will have a group from 15-17 that will do the things ventures currently do and then a group from 18-21 which will be more like the traditional Rover scouts. There are good and bad sides to this change it needs to be done for legal reasons, but it can cut out some of the fun as many teens only start to really get what Vents are about at around 17-18.

Eitherway something needs to change. There are nearly 40,000 young members in Scouting Ireland and only a 1,000 of those are Venture Scouts so this age range needs a lot of work.

James

 

[TAHAWK]

Curious. Exploring is about dead in the U.S. Venturing is the emphasized program for older Scouts here.

Our Troop offers enhanced program opportunities for the older Scouts, keeping their interest. As a result our Troop-level leadership is older and quite experienced. Of course, that approach requires plenty of adult help. Lack of adult help is the great limiting factor for U.S. Scouting.

 

[Big John]

The main problems the change tried to address over here were a) Scouts leaving at age 14 'cos they got bored and b) Ventures leaving when they started uni 'cos they missed out on everything that was going on.

With hindsight I think the way they've split it works quite well (14 - 18 yrs in Explorers and 18 - 25yrs in Scout Network). We get the Scouts just as they're getting bored there and we keep them 'till they go to Uni. Unfortunately it was decided that the Network would be self-run, and this part of it doesn't appear to work very well - we have approx 100 Explorers in our district in 5 or 6 groups, but zero Scout Network.

We did try to actively encourage our older ones who have just left to set up a network and it looked like it was going to work, but it didn't, they still don't have quite enough motivation to do it along with learning to drive, going on holiday with their mates, getting jobs and sorting out university places. I understand it is working in the larger towns in Surrey, particularly Guildford.

The proposed age bands in Ireland sound very small, they'll only just be getting going when they have to leave!

One thing we have done to make Explorers work as well as it is IHMO, is doing it in Scout Groups, where it belongs! Not at a District level where you get clans forming from the different groups and in-fighting & disagreement amongst the Explorers (I've been in 2 districts - one of each!).

 

[Philbert]

I work as a Warden at the Northern Ireland Scout Centre Crawfordsburn. We volunteer one weekend in every four running the camp site and providing activities.

My dad was GSL since before I was born so I think I have been a scout all my life and have loved every day of it.

 

[Stew]

Unfortunately it was decided that the Network would be self-run, and this part of it doesn't appear to work very well - we have approx 100 Explorers in our district in 5 or 6 groups, but zero Scout Network.

We did try to actively encourage our older ones who have just left to set up a network and it looked like it was going to work, but it didn't, they still don't have quite enough motivation to do it along with learning to drive, going on holiday with their mates, getting jobs and sorting out university places. I understand it is working in the larger towns in Surrey, particularly Guildford.

I think the theory was that once the Network unit was up and running, the older members would help drive it along, passing that oomph down to the fresh faces.

The problem is getting to that stage where there's older members as well as the young ones...