first wed night expedition training

Yep, went well.
There were only 8 people, who were all interested in learning. So that made it a fair bit better and easier than a normal monday evening.
Went through the grid ref system and how it works through the entire UK, basic trangia usage, map signs and 6 fig grid refs.

no one faffed around, there were no behavioural issues, just good, solid learning from beginning to end.
I reckon that lot will be able to rock on out expedition-wise very easily.

just need to make sure that everyone is able to do their own thing, instead of leaving it all for someone else to do.

Climbing supervisor

Was up at gilwell over the weekend, finding out about their new procedures and how it all affects volunteers and what we can and can't do.
One very good thing is that the current "anchors" around the climbing wall are going to be replaced with proper anchors.
There is going to be a 3 tier instructor system as well, which is a little too involved to go into as I'm doing this on a train, suffice to say it sounds entirely reasonable to me, though I'm sure there will be a number of people who will want to have their tuppence worth and will spout nonsense about it.

However, neil was also there, and assessed me for my climbing permit, which was good. I'm only qualled for scouts as opposed to scouts and guides, but I can take up to 10 kids on 3 systems to any scout wall in the uk, which iis good.
Important thing to remember is not to be in the system at anytime as far as you can manage.

district exec

well, what a palaver.
semantic arguements about the exact age kids should be made to go into explorer scouts, and if they dont like it they can leave scouting.
Seems a tad harsh to me, though thats apparently the party line these days.

D of E assessors are going to change as well, as of april 2010 there will only be 27 people who can assess people in the nation- for scouting, and we have to be trained by them, and have a supervised assessment with them before we can assess our own people.
not that we can assess our own people, we're not allowed.

whatever happened to just going out there and having fun?!

Wierd

Never really thought about it before, but haven't slept well recently.
Not because of work, but because of constant stress about explorers.

It may be self imposed stress, (or it might not), but its beginning to get me down.
Odd.
I'm meant to be really enjoying it, but all I can think about is everything I've got to do- its like having an unpaid second job with more stress and less reward.

tents

Spent the afternoon at the hut, sorting out the tents, counting pegs, fixing poles, and generally cataloguing what was and what wasnt there.
seems like there are a lot of pegs missing, though we do have a number of tents which seem to be in 1 piece.

Also made some records as to how long gas and gas cookers will last.
seems that a full 4.5kg gas canister weighs 10.8kg and uses 350g per hour.

Planning

Yep- a planning evening ensued yesterday, it being half term and all that. 

5 of us descended on an empty hut, me being 10 mins late as I took the bus. (I HATE buses, I could have got there faster had I walked)

The most useful thing of the whole evening was the year planner which is now ensconced in the hall, with all the relavent dates marked out with sticky colours and felt tip. Excellent. 

Camps sorted,

evenings sorted.

Extra hiking and expedition planning evenings sorted.

Outs are also sorted all the way down to the Summer, Nice. 

A very productive evening- now all I need to do is actually plan the flipping camps. 

International Night

In a big push to get badge work out the way, this Monday was International Night. Each patrol was given a country just before Christmas that they had to research

The countries we gave them were:
Sweden
Slovakia
Sri Lanka
The Seychelles

The information each patrol had to research on their county was:
Flag
Population
Religion
Scout uniform
A main meal (to be cooked on the night)
3 random facts about the country the leaders did not already know
Language (Hello, Goodbye and 1 to 10)
A game

The evening went off really well.

After a few quick active games (Ladders followed by Crust, Crumble and crumb). We started the cooking.

After our last cooking evening we realised that washing up was the big problem, so each patrol had two tables. One for cooking on and one for washing up on. This worked very well as long as we reminded them what the washing up table was there for.

Once the cooking was complete each patrol gave a report on the country they had been given to research to the rest of the unit and then invited everyone to try their food.

The leaders were all very pleased with the amount of work the explorers did (See Tim's post on the evening), and even with the added pressure of our guests the explorers excelled themselves.

Sri Lankan Tamarind Fish (Mackerel) Curry being prepared

Slovakian Dumplings with cheese sauce

Tandoori Chicken and Tamarind Fish (Mackerel) Curry with yellow rice

Roti Bread being prepared

Once all the food had been eaten and the remaining washing up finished, every one changed back into uniform. One of our guests, Andy Maxted (GLS County Commissioner for Network Scouts) presented three Jack Petchty Achievement Awards and one Queen Scout Award.

Me receiving my Queen Scout Award

The Badge and Certificate