Twister + Record Cards + Investiture = An Impossible To Title Blog Post

Tonight was a bit of a mash up for the scouts as the radio station we were planning to visit never got back in contact with us. M'eh, it happens... you plan things, you try to arrange them and for some reason the planets don't align and it doesn't go ahead.


This is why we have back up plans.


I will admit that it was Mim that came up with this particular back up plan. (Yeah, buying a house really takes up a lot of your time... they should come with a health warning or something)

Also... be careful of giants

After a quick game and introducing a newbie (a cub moving up- huzzah!) we got on with one of our activities for the night. OS Symbol Twister! We taped 16 OS symbols in a 4x4 grid on the floor, one grid for each patrol.... and then we randomly shouted out hand/foot and symbol combinations.

Sprogs should not be that flexible.

Both hilarious and disturbing at the same time, arms and legs all over the place.... one tiny little scout cowering completely underneath her PL. Slightly more disturbing when one of the sprogs asked "where's my left foot...?" *facepalm*

Once they had finally all fallen over Niall and Jason went on to do 4 and 6 figure grid references with them, while I pulled one of them aside and went through their Record Card, and it was a good thing that we went through it, as we had found that she had completed a couple of challenge badges.

The end of the night came along and I got to present a whole host of badges, most of them challenge badges.

And what's more I got to invest a PL.

Yes, I invest my PLs. It isn't normal practice, but I've found that it helps give them some confidence in taking on the role and it helps the others recognise the authority that they have. The investiture runs like any other investiture, but with a modified promise that I came up with.

Patrol Leaders Promise

On my honour I promise, 

That I shall lead my patrol to the best of my abilities,

And that I shall remain worthy of the position of Patrol Leader,

For the sake of my Patrol, my Troop and the Scout Movement.

It doesn't seam like much, but my scouts have taken it all to heart. You should have seen the beaming smile he had when I told him that I was going to invest him as a PL.

One of these things is not like the others

1) What we had programmed
2) What the kids were expecting
3) What we actually did

... one of these things is no like the others, can you guess which?

I'll give you a minute

...

No, you're wrong, it wasn't 2, it was number 3!

We were supposed to be getting the kids to do bivvy building at the local campsite this evening; well, that's if you actually believe the programme plan we write up completely. Unfortunately my foreplanning kind of went out the window and I forgot to get letters etc out to parents in enough time for them to sort out travel arrangements... so something had to be done in the hall.

So the last minute plan of wonders was *drum roll* ... FIRST AID. More specifically, bandaging up someones legs so that you are using one leg as a splint for the other, and then getting them to make stretchers out of stuff from the cupboard (mainly rope and poles- so it kind of tested their knots skills as well).

I was expecting them to enjoy dragging each other round and the stretcher part... but was slightly surprised at how much they got into tieing each other up (and getting tied up). Not sure if I should worry about this!

But this wasn't the only trick I had up my leave. At the recent Patrol Leaders meeting I challenged the PLs to take a more active role in running things, so added to the Duty Patrols duties was to run the initial game, and then next weeks duty PL was to run a 15minute basic skills session (knots, first aid or map and compass). My PLs agreed to this challenge and this was going to be the first week that it was put into effect. Thank goodness it went well- I think it was a big confidence boost for the PLs involved. We'll see how that progresses.

Next week should be interesting. The other big challenge I set the Patrol Leaders was to run an entire night. And I mean the entire night; flag break, inspection, games, basic skills, main activity, packing away, flag down.... EVERYTHING. We haven't given them an entirely free rein tho, we have told them that we want them to cover the parts of the orienteering badge that can be done in the hall (we told them this about a month ago, so in plenty of time). I wonder what they have planned. Or for that matter if they actually have any plans!

I can't wait!

One last thing. I would like to publicly thank Dirty Scout (one of my best mates) for coming down to help out as I was short on leaders that evening and she did a fantastic job with the kids!

Structure

As mentioned before, we recently changed the structure of the troop.

Here are some condensed notes:
Running Order

• Flag break
• Duty PL recites Scout Law
• Inspection
• Get changed out of uniform
• Program
• Get changed into uniform
• Flag down
• Prayer
• Dismissed

Points System

We wanted to really encourage the patrols to work together as a team, so we created the points system, so all the games and activities they would do (as well as inspection) could gain them points for their patrols. At the end of the scouting year we would award the winning patrol with a DECENT prize (you know... not just a bar of chocolate and a certificate you printed off last minute at work, but something they would actually like!). We also made the point to make sure that this was not used as a punishment for bad behaviour.

Patrol Leaders

A lot of responsibility was going to land on these sprogs shoulders. We told the troop that they were the new point of contact between the scouts and the leaders. If they had problems they should go to the PL, not us (except for in the obvious exceptions), and we would give instructions to just the PLs for them to pass on to their patrols. They would also make sure that their patrol was ready for inspection and that the patrol boxes were present and correct at the start of each night.

At the end of the 'launch night' we invested the PLs into the role of Patrol Leader. We've found that it has really helped with giving the PLs that bit more confidence and authority with the other scouts.

We also went through all the ceremonies with the kids, explaining them all etc. The rest was all fairly standard to be honest... it wasn't major changes, but they have made a huge difference!