Scouting for All

I was an enthusiastic member of the Scouting Movement throughout the 1970’s working my way up from the Cubs to Scouts and with my involvement culminating in the Chief Scouts Award. 

It was a momentous journey in good local groups and thanks to the dedication and sacrifice of our volunteer leaders and helpers I did some great things. There were night hikes, wide ranging challenge games, sailing, the building and use of canoes, week long summer camps in the beautiful scenery of the English Lakes, Derbyshire Peak District and North Wales and regular weekends under canvas or in scavenged and self-assembled bivouacs around our local area. 

Such things as making fires, outdoor cooking, camp craft and survival tactics became second nature. 

Now in my 50’s I look back at those Scouting years with great satisfaction and pride. 

I also encountered the strange and unpredictable things known as Girl Guides. 

Living in a small town it was inevitable that our troop and the local Girl Guide group would cross paths. This was usually in a fully supervised and organised manner coinciding with such events as the annual St Georges Day Parade and Remembrance Day March, in charitable endeavours of sponsored walks and jumble sales and at regional or national annual camps or Jamborees. 

The thing that struck me most about the Guides, apart from the rather RAF blue of their tunics was the fact that all, bar none, had armfuls of merit badges. 

This suggested to us adventurous and outdoorsy types in the Scouts that the Guides were a bit boring and more concerned about staying in their meeting hut and striving towards ever more material affirmation of abilities and skills. 

The list of badges was extensive with, in alphabetical order, a sample including: Animal Active, chocolate, circus skills, confectioner, cook, craft, culture, faith awareness, film lover, healthy lifestyle, hobbies, independent living, music zone, party planner, team player, traditions and world issues. 

Although the titles sounded fairly superficial the actual attainment of each did obviously involve a structured approach and test of competence. In fact they did seem to be a bit of dumming down of Guiding given that in the not too distant past such disciplines as “air mechanic” (1910s), “electrician” (1930s), “telegraphist” (1930s) and “radio communicator” (1980s) had been available.

In comparison us Scouts did such things, either officially sanctioned or not, as cooking with alcohol, smoking home made cigarettes, setting fire to stuff, swapping specific types of magazines, playing rock music loud in the forest, not washing much in a week, poor food hygiene and some isolated incidences of anti-social behaviour. 

We did not knowingly cause any harm or significant damage to people, property or assets nor, importantly, get caught so as to bring our beloved Scouts into disrepute. 

After the age of 17 and being presented with my Chief Scouts Award I moved on to other things. 

In retrospect I would have been more than happy to be a volunteer and give back to the organisation a bit of what I had benefited from over my decade of membership. However, a house move to another part of the country meant that I did not get around to fulfilling this good intention. 

I subsequently lost touch with the Scouting Movement but feared for its relevance in a modern higher pressure socio-economic world and where an increasing number of youngsters favoured video games and TV to anything outdoors. 

The compliance with safeguarding of potentially vulnerable persons and problems with insurance seemed to have been a major disincentive to individuals to come forward and help out as leaders and helpers. 

I have therefore been thrilled to see a healthy resurgence of the Scouting Movement in recent years and with now, it is reported, a waiting list for joining local groups nationwide. 

Even the Girl Guides have acknowledged the need to be progressive, up to date and on message with latest trends and practices. 

This has been shown in the past few days with the launch of an initiative to propose a new range of skills and  merit badges for the 21^st Century.  So far around 15,000 girls have taken part in testing ideas for the new badge system, which will be set around six positive-message themes – “skills for my future”, “have adventures”, “be well”, “know myself”, “express myself” and “take action”. 

Awards for app design,blogging, vlogging and human rights activism are, amongst many others, set to complement traditional badge prizes. The modernisation programme will be launching in the summer of 2018 with new activities and badges introduced at different stages. 

The future for the movement looks good and I am very happy to hear it.