Cubs Win Indoor Challenge Again March 29, 2008 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff The 2008 District Indoor challenge was an egg race. Each team had to design and build a vehicle to safely transport it’s passenger (the egg). The vehicles had to travel under their own momentum having been launched from a ramp. Teams were additionally marked on teamwork and behaviour. Our team, which included one Cub Scout from 1st Rydes Hill St Mary’s Cubs were tied for the lead with the team from 5th Guildford, so it came down to a final distance race which we won.
Beetle Drive – 9th February January 20, 2008 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff Thank you to all the parents and Scouts that turned up for the Beetle Drive on the 9th of February. The event was a great success and helped to raise funds for new facilities in the Scout Hut.
Cub Report – January 2008 January 16, 2008 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff There is not much to report since the last executive meeting, due to the Christmas holidays. We currently have around 19 Cubs in the pack, with 4 moving to Scouts at the end of the month, and another 1-2 at Easter. There are 3 Beavers coming up at the end of the month and around 6 (at the last count) at Easter. At the last meeting of the term, we had a number of presentations. Firstly the Cubs presented Carole with a large card and two large flower pots (both of which they made themselves) to thank her for her 20 years as Akela. In addition to the winning six getting prizes, the three Cubs who’d done best in the 100 challenge also got prizes – each got a centenary woggle, the third place Cub got a carabina combination torch and compass, the two in joint place got an “adventure” compass. Finally one of the Cubs received their Chief Scouts Silver Award from the ADC. Another Cub has also obtained their Silver Award but they were not present at the meeting. We also had a very enjoyable visit to see Jack and the Beanstalk at the Yvonne Arnaud. We didn’t get to meet Peter Duncan, despite Chils many efforts – it would have been nice if the Surrey Scouts newsletter had announced the special Scouts days before we booked our tickets! However he did during the show mention all the Scout groups present by name, and also sang Happy Birthday to Akela, alongwith all the other children whose birthday it was! Onto this year, we’re waiting for the materials for the new programme to become available before planning too much of the years programme, but in the meantime, we’re doing a mix of activities that count towards the altered challenge badges – as Cubs now have to get six (opposed to three) of the seven challenges to get their Chief Scouts Silver award. In addition to the Be Prepared packs that Chil introduced last term, we’re also going to be having a monthly best Cub award. Each month we’re going to set a challenge based on the programme at the time, which along with behaviour, appearance and attendance will determine who gets the award. As you’ll see on our notice board the Cubs have also drawn up a list of Pack “rules”.
Cubs Win Handicraft Competition Again November 17, 2007 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff The district handicraft competition this year had the theme of the fair coming to town. The challenge was to design and build a model of a “travelling” fairground. We entered a team of 4, and an additional 2 of our Cubs formed a team with 1 Cub from 2nd Guildford. The standard of the models was very high, our team of 4 won, and our second team (with the Cub from 2nd Guildford) were runners up.
Beavers Report – November 2007 November 6, 2007 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff We started the term with 19 Beavers. 3 have moved up to Cubs. Of five new Beavers one has dropped out and so I will be investing 4 new Beavers next week. This term has been travelling “Around the World”. We have made passports complete with photos and have these stamped with each new country we visit. We have been to USA, Australia & India. We have made & eaten food from each country – always popular. We are currently in India talking about Diwali – making latterns – willow frames and tissue paper continents glues on to represent the world. We will visit Russia next as we support a charity “Love Russia”. Jim from Love Russia is coming to talk on 27.11.07. We are asking them to bring in “pants and a pound”. Jim will explain how the (new) underwear will be taken to orphanages in Russia for the children who often don’t have enough underwear. Next term will be my last as Yellow Beaver and despite letters to everyone currently in Beavers and on the waiting list only one parent has contacted me to find out what is involved. She unfortunately won’t have the time to run the colony but will help with some admin – badges etc. The planters at the front of the hut did well in the summer and now the right hand one looks messy. Next week I hope the Beavers will help to put the strawberry runners in from the left hand one. If anyone has any old bags of compost – we will need as much as possible to raise the levels as they dropped considerably after the Beavers planted them back in May. Just leave the bags (however big or small) next to the right hand planter. We bought six bags of compost in the spring to enrich & top up the soil I provided and it would be good not to have to spend out on more.
Explorers Report – November 2007 November 6, 2007 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff There are 6 Explorers at present and 3 leaders. This is quite a fall in numbers over the last year, with Explorers mainly moving on due to age and other overlapping activities. Our main event was to go to “Awesome 07” at Glanusk park in Wales. This was a activity camp run on a mini jamboree idea, only for Explorers. Examples on offer at the many numerous bases around the estate were climbing, kayaking, air rifle shooting, survival skills including skinning, preparing and cooking rabbits, a bungee run of which our most athletic member claimed the furthest distance. We rounded of this excellent camp with a short walk up onto the Brecon hills surrounding the site. We started of our Autumn term with a pleasant trip to the seafront at Hayling Island in what seemed like a raging gale. There has also been a trip to the diverse Camden Market in London. We base ourselves at the HQ undertaking various skills training and did some maintenance to the hut. But we try and be out in the local area where we have been expanding our nature skills, by pond dipping, identifying trees etc, star identification and map reading using the lay of the land. On Halloween evening we had a tour of Brookwood war graves, not for the faint hearted in the dark! All the explorers have gained experience cooking in the unlikely event of them leaving home, including making there own fruit cakes that were all edible. We are about to have a bonfire with Network, in so doing encouraging our older explorers to join them. We joined in the District centenary camp celebrating a 100 years of scouting on a wet weekend with all the other sections. We helped with the hike and cooking of course. There is a good atmosphere within the unit but we need new members 14yrs to 18yrs male and female
Scout Report – November 2007 November 6, 2007 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff The troop at present has 16 scouts. We lost four scouts at the end of the summer term. The troop had a successful summer camp in August returning to Plymouth. During the week the scouts went hiking, sailing, cycling and sea fishing. We even managed to catch loads of fish to barbecue in the evening. The weather was very good, one of the most enjoyable activities was the water fight and soap slide the scouts made up on the site. We held our own sunrise ceremony at camp around the Flag listening to the national event broadcast from the Jamboree site. As always scout camp had its own dramas and this year was no exception with the outbreak of foot and mouth having a direct effect on our travel arrangements. Since September we have been consolidating the things learnt at camp and making sure all the scout record books are up to date. I have now completed this exercise and will be making sure the scouts have all the correct badges. Two cubs have recently been invested into the troop. At the end of last time we had two canoeing sessions, and over night hike and campfire on site. We are now starting to look towards many of the 13-14 year old scouts moving on to explorer scouts. This coming week 5 scouts are going to Snowdonia on a walking and climbing activities as they start to share activities with the explorer unit.
Cub Report – November 2007 November 6, 2007 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff Carole having taken a break from Scouting in the trinity term, decided that the time was right for her to pass on the leadership of the Cub section. I would like to personally thank her for all her years of running the Cub pack, both recently and when I was a Cub there myself (which is 20 years ago in a month!) Fortunately we have found another leader to assist in running the pack, Barbara, who was formerly at 2nd Guildford Cubs. Barbara has recently completed her Nights Away course and will be completing the last courses for her Wood Badge early next year. Her pack name is Chil, which if memory serves must be the most popular leaders name in the last 20 years at Normandy! I should add as it may not have been reported, but I was awarded my Wood Badge at the Centenary Camp in May, and my warrant has been changed to CSL. David continues to provide valuable assistance every week as a young leader, and hopefully Alan will manage to persuade more Explorers in the future to assist. As of the start of this term we’ve changed the meeting time to 6:15-7:45 on Mondays. We currently have about 20 Cubs in the pack, two have recently moved up to Scouts, and I’ve just invested 3 from the Beaver section and 1 from the waiting list. We lost five over the summer, two because of school changes, the others were either because of other activities or a lack of interest in Scouting. Another 4 will be going up to Scouts in the new year and then another 4 at Easter, but I gather we also have quite a lot of Beavers to come up at those two times. We held a Sixers and Seconders camp on the last weekend of September, which was attended by all but one Seconder. The weekend involved them cooking their lunch both days on the altar fire, on the Saturday they cooked trout (which they prepared themselves) in newspaper with potatoes and vegetables, followed by baked apples. On the Sunday they cooked baked potatoes and chocolate/jam bananas. The weekends activities included, bivouac making, tracking, backwoods cooking, new wide games and indoor games, a campfire, learning lots of knots, and learning to put up (and take down) their hike tents! Additionally each sixer and seconder was set the task of concocting a ten minute activity for another sixer and seconder. They all rose to the challenge, and came up with an interesting mix of activities and were all far too complimentary about each other! We’re working towards a number of badges this term, namely the Local Knowledge and Scientists. Two of the older Cubs are also working towards their Chief Scouts Silver award. We visited Guildford Fire Station with Rydes Hill Cubs and will at the end of term be going to the Pantomime with them, in which Peter Duncan is starring. Before the summer holidays we entered 2 and a “bit” teams into the District Sports Challenge. We didn’t win the competition, but one team were the Hockey champions for the day and the “bit” team (with members from other packs) were the Football champions for the day. This month we’ll be entering two teams into the handicraft competition and hope to retain the shield. Next year we’re planning to camp somewhere other than the Scout Hut, and possibly in the summer holidays, opposed to the May Half Term weekend.
Cub Report – 2006/2007 June 29, 2007 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff We’ve put on a varied programme of activities over the last year, including: a walk (and a very well fought game of Capture the Flag) on Puttenham common, tracking, pancake making, blindfold trails, tent pitching, fire lighting (and cooking). To celebrate 100 years of Scouting we’ve been running a 100 challenge throughout the year, with 10 challenges being given out each month. 15 of the Cubs went to the District Centenary Camp in May at Henley Fort. We’ve won both the District events held this year, first we were joint winners (with a team from 1st Stoughton) of the Handicraft Competition at the end of last year. One of the facts that has come to light to celebrate 100 years of Scouting is that the majority of the men who have walked on the moon were in their youth Scouts. To celebrate this, the challenge was to design and build a model of a rocket capable of flying to the moon. The second District event we won was the Indoor Challenge. To celebrate 100 years of Scouting it had an international theme. On the day each of the 10 teams picked an envelope containing the name of a country. Their challenge for the competition was to figure out which photo on the wall was the landmark from their country, based on a description and to build a model of it. In addition they had to make the flag of the country, write out the Cub Scout law and promise 3 traditional dishes for the country, and to guess which country 11 different pieces of music came from. Our two teams respectively drew Malaysia and Italy. They built models of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The competition was very tight, and it came down to a tie breaker between three teams. After many tie-breaker questions one of our teams triumphed by the narrowest of margins. Last year also saw our first Sixers and Seconders camp at the start of October. All 8 Sixers and Seconders attended and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, learning not only new skills, but also trying out lots of new games and cooking their lunch on altar fires on both days. We’re currently in the middle of doing the Athletes badge (when the weather is nice), the Home Safety badge (when the weather isn’t) and also working towards the Fitness Challenge. In the next couple of weeks we’ll be taking part in the District Sports Challenge, and will be holding another Sixers and Seconders camp after the summer holidays. As always we could do with more help at meetings, we’re very grateful to the parents, in particular, who’ve given up their time to help this term.
Cubs Retain Indoor Challenge Shield February 25, 2007 (updated June 3, 2014) | By Alexis Shirtliff The 2007 District Indoor challenge had an international theme to celebrate 100 years of scouting. On the day each of the 10 teams picked an envelope containing the name of a country. Their challenge for the competition was to figure out which photo on the wall was the landmark from their country, based on a description and to build a model of it. In addition they had to make the flag of the country, write out the cub scout law and promise and 3 traditional dishes for the country. The final challenge during the afternoon was a music challenge where music from the 11 countries that had been chosen for the challenge (should another team have turned up on the day) was played and the cubs had to figure out which piece of music was for which country. Our two teams respectively drew Malaysia and Italy. They build models of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Both, like all other teams models were excellent, although extra credit does have to be given for the fact that they actually got the Leaning Tower of Pisa to lean and not fall over! The competition was very tight, and it came down to a tie breaker between three teams. Initially it was attempted to resolve this by asking all teams to guess how many scouts were in a particular country – unfortunately every time a team other than the three tied for the lead got closest. After 5 or so rounds the three teams who were drawn were called forward and asked to guess in which year scouting began in a particular country. One of these teams was our team who’d picked Malaysia. Again no one was exactly right (or within 2 years), so it was declared that the winner would be the team in the next round that picked the closest year. The answers were very close, but by a margin of 1 year, our team won, so we keep the indoor challenge shield for another year.