Applied to be a Scouts Volunteer

[Jaymzflood]

Aloha. Im in the middle of going through the motions of becoming a 14-18 year olds Scouts Volunteer. I used to be a youth worker and loved it because of all the outdoor activities we we took the kids on e.g; rock climbing, diving, canoeing, abseiling etc etc. Im just waiting for my local Scouts coordinator to get back to me about the options I have as a volunteer.

Has anyone done any volunteering with the Scouts or can tell me a little about what they do?

Thanks

 

[silentbob]

Good on ya! There are loads of folk on here who are, or have been, involved in the Scouts.
The age group you mentioned are the explorer scouts who get up to all sorts of stuff from silly games in their meeting place each week to expeditions in the UK or abroad. It really depends on how active/enthusiastic the leaders are in supporting what the kids want to do. Scouting is very much what you make it.
Check out the Escouts forum for ideas of what some groups get up to (but ignore the usual politics that appear on any forum!)
Lots of people on this forum also frequent Escouts.
Have a look at the galleries on our own humble site (link below) to see what we get up to at 1st Middleton - although our Scouts are the age group below those that you have mentioned.
Good luck - I hope you enjoy it.

 

[Jaymzflood]

Thanks for that Bob, ive checked your site out looks a great laugh. Ill have a browse on Escouts now. Im pretty excited, I missed out on doing most of what I do now as a kid because I had a nasy motox accident and was in a bad way for a good 5 years. Im 23 in 2 weeks, so Im only now revealing the kid in me ha! But Ive been a youth worker who has already done this kind of stuff, so hopefully if a paid job in the scouts comes up in the future Id have a pretty good chance of getting it, especially after volunteering.

 

[Mark W]

.... if a paid job in the scouts comes up in the future

The majority of adults in scouting are volunteers (my pay doubled this year, still nothing ).

 

[Jaymzflood]

best stick to carpentry then

 

[georann]

Hiya Jaymz, by the sounds of things youre becoming a leader/volunteer with the explorer scouts. Having been an explorer scout and young leader with a scout troop I know quite a bit about this sort of thing, feel free to PM with any detailed questions or advice! As far as what explorers do, they're just like scouts plus. All the usual scouty things, with lots more expeditions and hikes often to far flung places, lots of games, more arsing about than the scouts, and generally slightly more focused on the social aspect than the scouty aspect. My explorer troop (which was not connected to my previous troop from Beaver's to scouts and young leading, due to explorer availability in my district) was generally more about the teenage social aspect and so the "proper" scouting skills were slightly less often. That being said, I find explorer troops are crying out for people to keep those skills going so if you can help them out I'm sure they would be grateful.

Being a volunteer (assuming not a leader), you will probably be working alongside the leaders and participating in activities rather than organising and running them. However if you have skills to bring to the table, I'm sure you will be running your own nights in no time at all! Hey, we might even make a leader of you (as I have seen many times before from volunteers!).

Best of luck
Dan

 

[roger-uk]

As your 23 you might like to look at local "Network Scouts" - [18 to 25] where they do scout activities within that age group.

Welcome to Scouting - you will not regret it I started as a Leader 16 years ago with my 6 years old son - he's now a Leader with me and so is my 21 year old.

I am convinced Scouting should come with a government helath warning its so addictive.

Please remmember scouting is about having FUN for Leaders and Scouts.

 

[Jaymzflood]

Thanks for the info guys. Still waiting on a mail to tell me whats happening. Pretty excited. As a volunteer, do I have to pay for the residentials if I want to attend?

 

[georann]

Thanks for the info guys. Still waiting on a mail to tell me whats happening. Pretty excited. As a volunteer, do I have to pay for the residentials if I want to attend?

Theres no pay as a scout leader or volunteer and any activities or camps that the scouts pay for, you pay for. The only difference is if theres anything your troop spends money on out of subs in the way of activities then you will also benefit. Oh and you can also suggest any kit you think they should get and pay for with their subs and you might benefit out of that (I've been able to wangle many scout discounts with suppliers and added some kit for myself on the order at my expense with discounts )

 

[dasy2k1]

It depends on the residential in question. Leaders are generally free on many baring transport costs (the price the yp pay pays for the leaders) for more expensive trips the leaders generally pay something although this can be a fair bit less than the full price.

Leaders also get a handy 20% discount in cotswolds (scouts themselves get 10% on production of their group necker)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

 

[Maxip]

As a Scout Leader & Group Scout Leader, a few comments...

THANK YOU !!!! We need more people helping in the organisation to help us continue. As a volunteer, you will be expected to do some formal training (intro to Scouting, first aid) but not the leader training...unless you want to. Volunteers generally help with activity planning but don't necessarily run activities (warranted Leaders required for insurance / safety) but can do under supervision.
Equipment - Scouts & Leaders receive discount at many high street stores including Cotswolds, Blacks / Millets
Training - your District will have a training office to help here but generally, Scouts will fund 50% of 'personal' training courses as long as you bring those skills back into the organisation
Residentials - if these are formal Scout training courses, then this is fully funded by the Scout Association (that's where our capitation fees of £32 per person / annum go)

What the group will do it entirely up to the group / district and the leaders. We have a very active district (West Cumbria) where Leaders actively organise events / training / activities for the District and not just their group - as we're quite geographically separated from the rest of the UK, this works for us. Most (if not all) Leaders are really keen to hear new ides for activities, irrespective if you have the qualifications to do them or not. Scouting has changed (for the better IMHO) in that people are assessed for their competency in something, rather than formal qualifications. For example, I am Scout validated to take them canoeing but haven't held any BCU qualifications for 15 years because the Scout assessor felt I was competent.

Hopefully, you will thoroughly enjoy it and has been said already, join the eScouts forums as there is a wealth of knowledge & experience that can be accessed in a friendly way...bit like here then

 

[Mark W]

Equipment - Scouts & Leaders receive discount at many high street stores including .... Blacks / Millets

Not much use now.

 

[Maxip]

Not much use now.

Kind off missing the point of the post, but anyway.....

 

[Jaymzflood]

Woo hoo! Got my first meeting with the district co-ordinator on Friday at my local scouts. Its closer to me than I thought so thats a plus! Pretty excited.

 

[Col_M]

If there was a British Groups Abroad unit in Prague I'd be all over it, however there isn't I went all the way through from Beavers to Venture Scouts and a few of my friends are now leaders, I'm a bit jealous really as I'd love to give something back for the fun I had.

Former 24th and 9th/21st Plymouth

Not much use now.

They've been bought by JD sports so should continue trading.

 

[Miyagi]

Jaymzflood, I'm doing the same.

Going to see the Explorer Scouts in my locale next week for an interview.

Liam

 

[Jaymzflood]

Excellent Miyagi, got mine tommorrow. Cant wait