Chipping Sodbury Scroll Issue 55 February 2010
Thursday 09th September 2010
Another year gone by and another decade is upon us! We are now only 4 years away from our centenary year in 2014, I am sure it will be round all far too quickly.
In December the explorers put on a Christmas dinner for all the leaders and exec committee at the scout hut. This year the explorers made use of the new camp cooker that we purchased last year and they set up a temporary kitchen in the garage. This was a good idea but I don’t think they quite realized how good the burners on the cooker are as it is the first time I have had burnt tomato soup! However it was a fun evening and I would like to thank all the explorers who made it happen.
As you are probably aware we now have two minibuses, we are keeping both at the moment, as they are both being well used. If we get to a point where we cannot afford to run both then we will sell the old bus and just keep the new one, but with such a large group as we have at the moment the two are proving useful.
This coming year we are hoping to be able to replace the floor in the hut. Several areas now starting to show bad signs of wear and the entrance to the kitchen has been patched up a couple of times. If anyone knows of a company who would be willing to quote us for the work we would like to hear from them. We understand that will not be a cheap job but we do have funds to pay for a proper commercial installation.
The group had a very busy and enjoyable 2009, I hope all sections will continue the good work and have a fun packed 2010.
Stuart Wilsmore
Group Chairman
What a term it was to Christmas! We started out with quite an ambitious programme, aiming to do both the Global and Community Challenge Awards and the Science badge. All of these require several different challenges for each award, so, what did we do? Here’s a brief outline.
We kicked off term flying around the world. The cubs made their own passports and visited several countries in all the continents; Japan, New Zealand, Iceland and Brazil among others. They learned a little about each country which ended in a quiz.
Charity featured highly in this term. Chil, one of our new leaders, carried out an evening on the toilet, although not literally you’ll be glad to hear. We looked at the history of the toilet and then at sanitation in third world countries. This led to the Pack sponsoring the building of a toilet for a family in Burundi.
The other charity evening required a bit of work at home for the cubs. At the meeting we talked about several different charities, including Make a Wish and Childline. The cubs were then required to find out a bit more about a charity of their choice and write a short piece about it.
In readiness for the Sodbury Challenge, a night hike for the older cubs, we did some orienteering around Yate. The cubs were given some reference points on a map, each with a different points total. They then had to visit as many as possible and be back by a certain time. They all seemed to enjoy walking in the dark and all returned safely although the watch of one group must have stopped! The disappointing thing was that there weren’t enough cubs that wanted to do the Sodbury Challenge so we missed out for the first time in several years.
As mentioned, we had wanted to do the Scientist badge but with the opportunity to run it at the Yate International Academy in the new year, we changed the plan and did the Emergency Aid badge instead, adding to the requirements for the Community Challenge. The cubs learned how to treat minor cuts and bruises, how to deal with burns and scalds and even had a go at rolling on the floor and being put in the recovery position. A fun but important couple of evenings.
We hadn’t done any craft for a while so, with Christmas looming, we made some pop-up Christmas cards. Lots of scissors, paper, stickers and glue and they all came up with some wonderful creations, hopefully enjoyed and appreciated by the recipients. It also ticks off elements of the Artist badge and Creative Challenge.
As I come to a close, I just want to say well done to Black Six for winning the Best Six competition for the term and a big thank you to all the leaders, Bagheera (Dave), Shere Khan (Rikki), Chil (Martyn) and Baloo (Chris) for all their support. I think we have a very good team in place and look forward to 2010.
Akela (Ian)
We have had a great winter program last term. We started off with the usual brush up on map and compass skills and drop hikes in preparation for the Sodbury Challenge, well done to the Scouts who took part. As a reward and a relaxing evening we had “Pop & Grylls” this was pop corn and Bear Grylls videos projected onto a large white sheet! This did not put off too many for the Survival camp. The scouts had to hike to a forest, build a shelter and survive on army rations, surprisingly all the sweets were eaten first! As a treat we prepared and roasted a rabbit on a spit, I was very surprised that all of the Scouts ate some and loved it! They all constructed super shelters and got a good nights sleep, unlike Stuart and I who opted for hammocks! To view all of the photos please visit the website.
After Half term we had another fun night “Dogs and Bangs” this was some fireworks kindly donated by Power Systems and hot dogs, we also played some traditional Halloween party games. Next back to a serious evening we had a talk on Scouts at War where we looked at what scouts did during the Wars and particularly the involvement of our group locally, again look at the website to find out more. This coincided with Remembrance parade which I hope helped the Scouts understand why we stand around a monument in the cold once a year, thank you to everyone who turned out.
We changed the programme slightly so that the Scouts could do the Entertainer badge, they had to write and perform something to the rest of the troop, and this was entertaining!! The leaders were challenged to perform for the scouts, and so the following week we did a ten minute nativity with no script, a few props and just two leaders! Do we get a badge??
We finished the term with a joint outing to the outside ice skating rink at Cribbs. There was a mixture of those who could skate and those who could not, I think by the end of the evening most could get around without falling over! There was no disputing that I was the best skating leader!
A big thank you to Nick Cook for his continued support and my assistant leaders Stuart and Paul, and a very big welcome to Ed Williams who has also joined us as a young leader from Explorers. I would like to also thank the scouts, except those who put ice down my neck and pushed me over when ice skating! I was still the best and enjoyed myself!
Darren Williamson (Daz)
Since returning from our lovely warm and wet summer break we have been very busy. To start with we did our usual training for the Sodbury Challenge. This involved a combination of work in the Scout Hut on maps and putting our work into practice in the great outdoors, well Sodbury Common. This year we were also joined by Yate scouts and the two groups work very well together. Come race day all went very well and Thursday Scouts did extremely well, Yate did better! Note to self amend their training for next year.
At the end of September we held a PL and APL training camp. Hopefully the PLs and APLs learnt a thing or two about organisation and running a patrol. We’ll see as time goes on.
At the end of October we held a cycling camp in the Forest of Dean. Again we were very lucky with the weather, well it didn’t rain on us whilst we cycled. On the Saturday we rode around the main family cycle route and then did a bit of off-roading on the FODCA trail. Everyone seemed to have a ball.
After the half term and up to Christmas the group was split into five working groups all taking part in different activities; Master at Arms, Model Making, DIY, Art and IT. All work groups did extremely well with all achieving the results we were looking for.
At end of November we held the wettest ever Frost Camp at Penn Wood near Stroud. The rain was truly biblical. However again we were lucky; when we did our hike the sun came out and we had a very pleasant walk along the Cotswold Escarpment.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. I’d like to thank Ben, Derek, Chris, Dan, Nick and Laurie for their help over that last year. As we are now a large troop their help is invaluable
Paul Mugenyi
Wow! What a busy few months we've had with the Beavers.
We had a visit from a local police officer from Chipping Sodbury Police Station. He brought a police van to the scout hut and allowed the Beavers to get in and take a look around, they all had a turn in the secure unit at the back of the van, from which we had a job to get them all out of! This was followed up by some questions from the Beavers ranging from "how many people have you shot" to "how many robbers have you caught". It was entertaining to all of us, including the police officer. We hope to arrange more of these visits in 2010.
We have had new Beaver Log Books delivered that allows each member to track their badge progress and to see what they need to do to achieve each milestone. They have proved to be quite an incentive and will be a great keepsake when they leave the Beavers colony.
They had fun decorating some Chinese lanterns that we lit and let fly away (with a bit of help from Nick - thanks!), in the hope that they would be found and we'd find out how far they travelled, unfortunately we haven't heard anything yet!
December was all about Christmas. We made some Christmas decorations and entered a Nativity display competition at the Chipping Sodbury Town Hall. Each Beaver contributed to the Nativity scene by making sheep (lots of them), shepherds, baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, stars, and cows and are proud to say we came 2nd with a box of chocolates as a prize! Well done to them all they should be proud of their achievement!
2010 will see us looking at the world around us, dinosaurs and a fantastic sponsored run!
Finally, thanks to all the parents that have helped out throughout the year, it's much appreciated.
Jo Lovell
It has been quite a while since I’ve done one of these so I thought I would update you all on what has been happening in the last year and look to the future.
The biggest item of the last year was the Nepal trip. During the first half of the trip we were able to put up daily updates of their progress. This attracted a lot of visitors to the website. At the peak we were getting around 120 unique visitors a day peaking at 4,800 hits on one day.
After the trip the long process of making the trip report began. The trip lasted 20 days and there were a combined total of at least 3,800 photos to sort through before we had the finished article. A big thank you to everyone who helped me to put it all together.
Also a first for 2009 was the Sodbury Challenge results being put online during the event itself. This allowed all the junior competitors who went home before the final team arrived back at 1:45am to find out who won the next morning. This gave a record 12,000 hits on the Sunday with another 6,000 the following day with people checking on the results and exploring the other parts of the website.
Now looking ahead to the future, we have now got to the point where the existing site cannot be expanded any further in terms of content and technically. As a result in December work started on a new website which will have all the features of the existing site improved along with several new features being introduced gradually after the launch of the site. At the moment I’m working towards a launch in the summer. More details to follow next time.
Ben George
Since the return after summer the Explorers were busy training for the Sodbury Challenge they alternated their weeks with map work in the hall and dump hikes in the local area. Their hard work paid off as they came first and third – so a very well done to both teams.
After the half term the Explorers split into two group to prepare for two different meals; one for the Nepal expedition attendees parents and the other for the Christmas meal. The Nepali meal and presentation were a great success and it was brilliant to see the parents enjoying themselves and sharing in their children’s trip. As for the Explorers they did themselves proud with a fantastic presentation. As for the Christmas meal this too was a great success. The Explorers worked very hard and produced an excellent evening. I’m sure they learnt a great deal and hopefully will take that forward to next year.
It just leaves me to thank both Simon and Rowan for all their help with the unit – Thank you very much.
Paul Mugenyi
