h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Firstly a bit of background info: I'm a member of a Venture Scout Unit which consists of a grand total of three members not including leaders. There are Scouts ready and interested in coming up to Ventures but currently we are doing very little which would make them want to stay. This needs to change otherwise the Venture Unit will cease to be. So what I want are suggestions for activites that can be carried out on one or a number of evenings.

To start people off, here are some of my ideas:
1) Participating in Robot Wars (Building a robot over a number of evenings as a project)
2) Self defence training

Snowman

What's a Venture Scout?

A Venture Scout is a Member of the Scout Association aged 15½ to 21 and Scouts are aged 10½ to 15½

Snowman

Start some roleplaying games? They'd be just about the right age at 15, and you can make live roleplaying a lot of fun.

That's me out of ideas for now, but if I think of any more I'll be back.

What about aving your unit as a whole participate in the Duck of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, that way you can work as a unit but leach someone else's programme and resorces! Many (if not most) venture units take part in some form. Contact your local DoE unit for details of The Award.

For my money i'd say 15 is the right age to begin involving yourselves in Political Activism, going on demos and actions, laying down in front of trucks and tanks, collecting food and medicines, canvasing door to door on Third World debt, the Zapatista movement, the Anti-war capain, GM crops, CND, the Anti-Capitalist/globalisation movement... but i guess the scout movement isn't ready for that is it!

(Though when i was running a cub pack a few years ago they did let me promote the Jubilee 2000 campaign - as it was backed by Christian Aid)

Whenever I hear of teenagers who are interested in politics, my mind is filled with the image of William Hague at the Tory party conference.

Is this what you really want for them flinch?

Snowman, what do you do at the moment?

My son's a member of a troop (?) in a fairly rural area, so they do lots of night hikes, camps, etc.

They also do a bit of shooting, which appeals to them quite a lot, and has the added benefit of being something where a LOT of responsibility and restraint is required (useful Life Lesson there). Recently, they went and did a basic scuba diving course (about £15 per head). It was at a dive shop which had a pool/tank out the back and they all thought it was v. cool.

The Duke of Ed's a good idea, though. How about windsurfing?

Also, bearing in mind the age range, try and get a few girls to join.

I like the idea of introducing Scouts to William Hague and Shooting at the same time.

I'm not sure the Scout association would approve of that either though.

I'm not sure they'd approve of introducing Girls as an activity either.

I've tried DoE outside of scouts with my secondary school and wasn't successful because I didn't know when it had to been completed by and then the 'finish date' popped up and took me by surprise. As for hikes one of the ventures is disabled, my brother as it happens, but we could do it on bikes, well he could anyway.

Snowman

Each part of The Award can be taken over as long a period as you wish, as long as you complete it before you are twentyfive. You can do a couple of sections and then take out a year or so before completing your other units. I've just signed someone up for his Gold who started on completing his silver at sixteen, and its taken him nine years to finish his skill and service sections! Most centres probibly tend to work in cycles, especially with expedition work, but it's a very maliable system - look into it again, there are minimum time frames for each award but not maximum ones.



Possibly another good reason to involve with the Award, i take people with disabilities hiking all the time, and not just flatstuff serious hills - that includes visually impared, wheelchair users and learning disabled kids. Don't disable someone by assuming they can't do something, or worse, by assuming that they don't want to. Desire is the strongest motivation of all.

With DoE I knew you could take as long as you wanted within the correct ages so I was surprised when I was told I had to get it completed by whenever it was and I'd only done the expedition. As for my brother, he's physically disabled so could easily walk a hike so it would be easier for him to ride his bike.

Snowman