
obviously designed for those living in the South East....
Scout Leaders are forever telling their youthful charges to be prepared for anything. But judging by a list of the new badges designed to reflect the modern age, new-school scouts had better be prepared for days spent working as corporate spin doctors and nights focused on whittling down their carbon footprint. The Scouts have …
The sad part is that when I was in the Scouts we did fundraising. Not like they do today which is essentially just another slick marketing deal where you mark up some brand name good by twice the retail price and beg for money from people because it's for Scouts. No we went out and sold tickets for subs or grilled half chickens. Our leaders went out and bought the supplies. We made the subs and or chicken and we delivered/sold it as appropriate. Subs were always delivered, chicken was always picked up. I learned a neat trick with the chicken sales. We'd sell as many tickets as we could ahead of time. Markup was about 50% from our costs. We'd use all the money from pre-sales to buy as much supplies for the grilled chicken (roll and slaw tossed in) as we could. Then we'd sell the extras to whoever stopped by the grilling spot on the spur of the moment. Thus increasing our profit by 40-50%. Usually for 1 chicken sale, 1 sub sale, and our January candy sale plus regular monthly dues we could fund the troop for the whole year.
So it wasn't that we weren't learning it. We just didn't get a badge for it. And we did REAL work for it (with the exception of the candy sale which was pretty much structured like the stuff is today).
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You can see the full list of the new badges and their requirements here: http://scouts.org.uk/media/391795/New-Activity-Badge-requirements-2014.pdf
I can see fire safety, which involves a visit to a fire station, and pioneering, which involves making your own rope and knowing a few knots. I can't see any media relations or PR badge in that list.
Yup, they did then, they do now. And they do all the shooting, archery stuff. Our lot prepared and barbecued (and ate) squirrel last year (the squirrels came in bags though...). And a couple of weeks ago were dumped in a village a couple of miles away and had to navigate their way back to the hut using actual maps. In the dark. Great fun.
Here's all the Scout activity badges and their requirements:
http://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/search/?cat=56,135,156
For those no doubt looking for the IT badge it's staged, and those are here:
http://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/search/?cat=56,142
Remember the staged badges are staged and can be started in Beavers, so they start off very simplistic. It's pretty out of date in places, but there's nothing to stop you teaching them more than is on the requirements list.
Follow the links around and you can see the Core badges as well as those for the other sections. The biggest problem is not so much the badges, but finding people willing to offer up the time, expertise and facilities to do the more technical badges.
If you enjoyed the Scouts, or are just curious being a helper or leader is incredibly rewarding and not to mention enjoyable. You don't have to turn up every week, and you don't have to be a leader if you don't want to, or can't spare the time. If you have something you can teach, they'll work around you to get something organised, even if it's just a few evenings teaching basic coding.
Raising money for Cancer research would qualify as would raising money for other charities. It fits with the helping other theme of Scouts that has been around since the start and also brings it into the modern world. The fundamentals of camping, exploring and other outdoor skills ere still there as these are the optional Activity Badges to get higher awards.