Bear Force One in Avon

Posted on 27 June, 2011 by Kiff

{as the downdraft start to blow}

I wonder if we picked the right spot for the landing pad

{the thunder of helicopter blades, the squeals of cubs, a party tent blows past, followed by three beavers and there leader tumbling in the down draft}

Maybe its a bit close

——- ooo ——

Bear Sandwiches for Bear

Since Bear Grylls became Chief scout we have had Bear in the Air (you can read some of my thoughts here and here), this is two weekends a year when the Chief tries to get round to visit as many of the movement in an area. On the 7th & 8 of May it was the turn of the South West to have the Bear in the Air visit and we in Avon ran “The Bear Hunt”

But to get to the landing of Bear Force One we need to roll back a little to Mid November 2010, the County of Avon were plodding along quite happily, and I was aware because of my role knew that our Chief Scout was due to visit the South West in May 2011 and we would tie in the with County Jamboree and be shown round in much of the same way that Peter Duncan visited our County Jamboree in 2007.

All nice and easy.

Then suddenly there would seem to be a problem, there is a mix up with dates Bear in the Air is not the last weekend but the first weekend in May – errr Oh SH*T, 5 months away your not going to move an event which has been in planning 18 months, with dates gone out and everything, by 3 weeks. Some serious thought goes into to what has to happen do we find some cubs camping on that weekend and give them the shock of their lives by landing a helicopter next to their tents.

We as a county decided that we would put on an event that would give the greatest access to all young people. Our brief if you want to call it tha was to arrange a fun fill St Georges Day celebration that the young people would remember anyway and the addition of Bear would only make it more special.

The plan was for a two location event, the Main event would be held as Ashton Court and the Explorer section would have water based activities provided in Bristol Docks aswell.

The day was a great success I was the event co-ordinator for the docks element of the event and we had over 200 young people (Explorers or Linking Scouts) taking part in activities such as Canoeing, Sailing, Rafting and Pulling. Bear made an appearance down at the docks and was as inspirational as ever engaging well with you young people while we sailed him round the docks in a RIB.

The key for me was the comments from the day.

One young lad paddling past the RIB in a canoe looks up and said

“Bloody Hell its Bear Grylls”

To me this means we got it right, he was there because of the canoeing and the activities and was shocked that Bear was present.

Another great conversation went

Explore – I really enjoyed it when you ate that raw snake

Bear – I didn’t

The only downside to the event was I stuck to protocol and did not ask Bear to sign anything, despite a number of fellow adults not doing that. Sometime I am to dumb for my own good.

TTFN

TTFN

Kiff

©ChrisMeadows2012

Hello Reader – Are you new to Jabbering All Day Long can I suggest that you check out our Starter for Ten Page which will hopefully give you a guide as you take your first couple of footsteps around this site.

Avon County Winter Challenge

Posted on 14 February, 2011 by Kiff

Hello Dear Reader

About a month ago I made a post about Rising to the Challenge.

Well the event that I was talking about ran over the weekend of the 29th/30th and we had 20 teams enter, a vast improvement on the 4 that entered in 2010.

There was 120 explorers at the event which for a county of 1000 explorers is pretty good seeing how it was the second year and even established event only manage 300.

I guess the question your asking is was the challenge to hard, and the answer is no the majority of teams found ways to take photos of all the letters, some of the most interesting included

an A made from a natural tree arch with someone holding a stick across.
a V made by some one standing on their head
an O made with a Hula Hoop
a N made with two people and a gate
a S made with snow drops
a C made with cones on head
an O made with an Orangutan
a U made by the shape of branches in a tree (naturally)
a T made with a Telephone Box
a S made with the Sunrise

these have been uploaded to Flicker and can be seen here.

I have received a number of comment from people on the day and since the event saying that it was a great event and they will be looking out for it next year. So the idea of the challenge bring people back for more.

I am not one to brag, but I did feel very smug when we met for the judging meeting and the vast majority of the team had completed the challenge.

Well better start planning next year to make it harder

TTFN

TTFN

Kiff

©ChrisMeadows2012

Hello Reader – Are you new to Jabbering All Day Long can I suggest that you check out our Starter for Ten Page which will hopefully give you a guide as you take your first couple of footsteps around this site.

Rise to the Challenge

Posted on 7 January, 2011 by Kiff

Hello Dear Reader

drawing The other day I had a conversation where the phrase “that might be too hard for them to complete” was used.

It was with reference to an explorer event we are running this year. The event is a night exercise where explorers must complete 15km hike and arrive at a location for 7:00am for breakfast.
It is up to them to plan their route, decide what time to leave etc the closer to 7:00 you arrive the higher your points (that is the easy bit).
However as a further challenge while on route they must take photos, last year we gave them item e.g. A sigh with the letter Y on it, a phone box etc. this year I suggested that we should make them take photos which make up the word AvonScouts so A= Arch etc. and you are not allowed to us the same photo twice.

It was after suggesting this, I got the comment above.

My response was “well it separates the Men from the Boys” (yes yes, I know there are girl in scouting but separate the People from the younger people does not really have the same ring.)

My point was why does everybody have to complete everything, this activity is about planning, your given the task, your given the destination, your given your time to complete. You need to

Plan a route that covers the distance,
Work out how long it will take you then work backwards to get your start time.
Think about what you might need to complete the challenge why not bring an Addvarkk with you so you can take a photo. (there is nothing in the rules that says you can’t – remember rules should never be broken but sure as hell they can be bent)

It struck me that some people have an innate fear of letting young people fail, and I am not sure why that it. It was this persons belief that every group had to complete every part of the task.

Has Scouting and society gone so far along a politically correct route that every young person must never be allowed to fail. I have read stories of people not running competitive games because it means someone has to lose – well yes that is life.

‘Games without winners and games without losers are those games where no one can say at the end of the day: “I am the winner and you are the loser!” The best thing about games without winners or losers is that the group can simply have fun and can laugh about things together without success or failure playing a role.’

this is a quote from a website called Youthwork Practice

Quote like this depress me, we need to install the fight the hunger the need for a challenge into young people so that they go out there and grab life by the horns and live it. For god sake live it don’t sit on the couch and play it.

It is that hunger to go that one step more that inspires heroes I mean:-

Did Edmund Hillary say no its ok base camp is far enough lets not go on who really wants to reach the top.
Bear Grylls did not say mmmm I have been to the top of Everest that will do, no he said I want to powerglide 10,000ft higher than the summit.
Ranulph Fiennes had lost two fingers on one hand, suffered a heart attack and had a double bypass and at the age of 66 is still looking for adventure.

There is something inside these people that makes them what to go that extra mile to fight for that they want.

If everything is just given to young people, if they always think they will win. How can we possibly prepare them for things like their first job interview if they don’t understand competition, if they don’t understand that there are 10 other people who will do anything to get that job and they need to fight for it.
Ok don’t get me wrong I am not saying that every game we play should be british bulldogs (man that was a fight for your life at times) but I also shudder to think that we never give young people the change to lose the chance to fail.

Thomas Edison said when asked about failing to make the light bulb 700 times

I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.

It all sound really negative but think about it this way if you set young people a challenge, there is a chance that they will fail but there is as equal a chance that they will shine and exceed expectations. Maybe we don’t challenge the young people because it put us outside of our comfort zone and force us to rise to that challenge.

comfort_zone1

So how about in 2011 we try challenging Ourselves once in a while

TTFN

ESL (YL) and other bits

Posted on 8 October, 2010 by Kiff

young-leader Hello Dear Reader

So what have you got planned this Weekend, I am heading to Manchester to participate in the Explorer Scout Leaders (Young Leader) Training weekend being run by the Scout Association.

Umm…. but Chris your not a ESL(YL) are you???

And I you would be correct I am not, but I believe the Young Leader scheme is a great scheme and something thing that I would like to understand more about. I think if it is done well it can provide a young person with some key tool for later in life, not just in scouting but in business too. However if it is done badly it could put young people off ever considering being a Leader as and adult.

If we look at the young leader scheme from what I can see (will know more after the weekend) it offer a chance to

So in order to better serve the explorer leaders in the county, I thought I would go get trained (plus it means I will complete my 5 hours training per year – in one weekend YEAH)

In other Scouting News unless you have been is a coal mine or fasting from the internet you will have probably seen that the scout association have released a video on to You Tube called Think You Know Scouting.

I am very interested to hear you thoughts on this video post them in the comments below

TTFN

Avon/Hannover Twinning Diary Part 4

Posted on 22 September, 2010 by Kiff

Hello Dear Reader

It has been a long while coming be here is the final part of my recent trip to Germany with the scouts

Incase you need to catch up you can find parts 1, 2, & 3 at the links provided. So where had we got to, yes Friday.

Friday 30th July

This was quite and important day for the scouts from Hannover this was the day they actually finished the E1 through Germany, the last walking group finished there walk at lake Constance however the very last section was to walk from the lake across the German/Swiss border a grand total of about 1km.
Before this walk took place we gathered in what appeared to be a band stand in the park in Constance. We hosted the Mayor of Constance at this little gathering where we discussed the journey to get to Constance and presented awards to people in each of the age groups in scouting who had walking the most km of the E1. This was followed by all the groups doing a freeze frame showing their journey.

Marks the End of the E1 in Germany

It is interesting crossing a border within a town there were no guards, no patrols there was a passport control but it was closed. I mean it all looked pretty official there was even a barrier across the road but it was just empty, the real comedy of the whole thing was if you walked round the corner then there was a large playing field where you could effectively stand with on leg in Germany one leg is Switzerland.

Border Control

Following the photo of everyone on the border we had a picnic lunch in Switzerland (giving everyone much amusement in saying I am just popping to Switzerland for lunch)

The last part of the day was spent exploring Constance and finding presents for family etc. before heading back to the campsite.

Saturday 1st August

After all the excitement of the day before, Saturday was spend on the campsite. We played a huge wide game in the woods behind the campsite and followed this by having fun in the site swimming pool. The pool had a slide and it was a lot of fun to see how many people we could get to slide down the slide at once I think we got about 20 people in a constant stream down the slide into the pool below.

In between the fun in the pool and the fun in the woods we started to pack up our kit and tidy up to make the Sunday and easier day.

Sunday 2nd August

The morning of Sunday was organised chaos, there was a large amount of tidying up and there is a fair amount of canvas to put away and the gateway had to come down and the bits of trees taken back to the woods. All this before 14:00 as there was one bus from the campsite to the station and we had 2 min between the arrival of the bus and the departure of the train.

Gate Way

Once everything was packed away and the campsite was cleared we held our closing ceremony and there was the usual mix of badge and knecker swapping.

Despite our tight timeline, German efficiency won through with and we were on the train with 2 mins to spare.

The train took us with one change all the way to Zürich where we caught a bus to the Airport, a plan home to the UK and finally a Bus from Heathrow back to Woodhouse Park. I know that end sounds like I rushed, it but there is very little to say about it, apart from while we were on the train to Zürich we saw the most awesome waterfall (picture below)

Waterfall from the Train

I enjoyed the whole thing it proved to me a number of things

I am not a fit as I thought I was
Language is no a barrier to Scouting and Friendship
Scouting really does mean you can throw together 15 young people and make a trip work in 3 months

Well I think that is enough for now.

TTFN

Where Did Kiff Go

Posted on 20 September, 2010 by Kiff

Hello Dear Reader

How the devil are you?

I said it was only going to be away one week and it turned out to be two, and for that I am deeply sorry.

See I came back from my Holiday to Italy (calling at Pisa, Lucca and the surrounding Tuscan area. It was a wonderful time that included a nightmare windey road, an electrifying toaster various wildlife and a lot of wine but more of that another time) to find that my diary was not only full of work

Badge of the 1% club

stuff but scouting stuff as well.

On the 14th September I attended Avon County Queen Scout Award Reception, which included doing some presenting of certificates.

This event was held by the county to recognise all those members of Avon who had gained their Queens Scout in the last two years (we missed a year in 2009 ohps). The event held in the Cathedral in Bristol and was attended by Mrs Mary Prior MBE JP Lord-Lieutenant of the County & City of Bristol, The Very Revd Dr David Hoyle, MA Dean of Bristol Cathedral and Councillor Christopher Davies Deputy Mayor of Bristol.

It is something that I feel is very important to do, Within Avon we present each young person that gains this prestigious award with a certificate and a commemorative bristol blue glass. It is extremely important to recognise, as one of the recipient on the night said, the top 1% of 1% – which is very true.

A clever bit of maths for you. The archives show that since the Queen Scout Awards conception in 1952 there have been about 50,000 awards presented I have been informed that we can estimate that since 1952 there have been approximately 5,000,000 scout invested in the UK (don’t ask me how to work this our I am crap at maths) so 50,000 in 5,000,000 is 1%

Current population of the UK is 60,000,000 and there are approximately 500,000 uniformed member in the Scout Association 500,000 in 60,000,000 is 0.8%

So getting your Queens Scout really does put you in the top 1% of 1%

Over the weekend of the 18th & 19th September (ok it was Saturday night to Sunday am) I attended the One Night Stand (ONS) an Explorer event run by one of our districts but is open to the whole county. ONS this year had a spooky theme and in a last minute ditch to fit in, I bought one of those Halloween face painting kits and painted my face white, put talc in my hair and when as a Ghost. (sadly none of the other adults dressed up so instead of fitting in I stuck out but there you go)

And on top of all that it was my first week back at work it was all a bit crazy, so I am sorry you got neglected but I am sure you will all cope.

On two entirely separate notes

I came back to find 67 spam comment on my blog that was, 4 whole pages of junk I had to wade through and delete, I have never felt so popular.
I also came across a very interesting post by Nick on Safety Culture which I though you all may like.

hopefully normal service will be resumed from here on in

TTFN