In You Go ..................!

As a new recruit to the Scouting volunteer circle I love to hear of other peoples experiences so when I discovered John Hemming-Clark had written a book all about being a new Scouting volunteer it went straight to the top of my Birthday List (and yay, my mummy bought it for me).

Although John is a Scout Master in his role I couldn't help but think "that would be my Beavers" to some of the experiences he recalls..... I also can't help thinking just how pleased I am to be working with the younger section :)

I don't get time to read at home so the book came to and from work with me for the best part of a month, this was probably not the best idea as it involved many journeys sitting on the tram laughing to myself.

From tales of rogue poos to desperate wees, from Wellygate to Motor Homes, cheating parents to competitive helpers and impromptu fundraising and even the time he met a Bear, the book has it all.  And yes John (if you read this) - I did spend my lunch time at work trying to find the London Badge your colony won as I'm looking for a good one for when I take my kids (Beavers) away in the Summer - I was hoping there would be a set of Beaver requirements ...... before finishing the chapter on my way home!!



If you don't believe me here's a quick snippet of what to expect (from the In You Go facebook page)

Chapter 33 tells the story of a game that went wrong.....
Joanna, as well as being a top scout leader and first class GP, was also very sympathetic to the plight of those less fortunate than others. One day, whilst I was borrowing Little Annie for the umpteenth time I was chatting to Joanna about Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers. Vouchers were earned by shopping in Sainsbury’s supermarket; the vouchers could then be exchanged for items, mostly sports and play equipment.
“I never know what equipment to go for,” I complained to Joanna. “The small stuff we have already and for the big stuff we would have to collect vouchers equivalent to hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of shopping.”
“One of the best pieces of equipment we ever acquired,” she advised me, “was a blind ball. It’s like a football with a tinkley bell in it. You can blindfold the scouts and put the ball in the middle of the scout hut. They then have to follow the tinkling noise and kick the ball into a goal which also tinkles. It gives the scouts an idea of what it’s like to be blind as well as allowing visually impaired scouts to play a game with the others.”
“Great idea, we’ll get one.”
Then, as if to spoil her goody-goody approach, she added, “If you want to be really mean to your regular scouts, you can wander amongst them tinkling a bell whilst they’re playing the game. It gets them very confused!”
I was relaying this information to some other scout leaders at one of our regular leaders’ meetings when we were discussing new ideas for games.
“Oh, we’ve done that one before,” said Rick, a rather lively scout leader from the other side of the District. “We had some great fun with it.
“We went on a day trip to Bournemouth and found ourselves on a large patch of grass near the beach. It was banked up on all sides so was perfectly safe. We blindfolded the scouts with their scarves and gave them the tinkle bell ball. They loved it! After about ten minutes we were getting a little bit bored watching. The scouts had plenty of energy and enthusiasm left in them so we the leaders decided to sneak over the road into the pub. We were in there for about twenty minutes, just tucking into our second pint, when a very distressed-looking man ran into the pub and shouted, ‘Excuse, me. Is there anyone in here in charge of the scouts across the road?’ Needless to say we were all paralysed with fear. What on earth had happened? I put my hand up and said, ‘Yes, we are.’
“‘Come quickly,’ the man urged. ‘They’re kicking the Morris Men to bits!’”





Only a couple of chapters into the book I discovered John had another book already out - 1000 Fantastic Scout Games....... so I ordered that too.
   The book is packed full of various games to play for any occassion and can be adapted to suit Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.  It's given me some brilliant ideas to try out on camp and reminded me of some games I used to play as a Brownie which had been forgotton in the back of my mind.  Whether you want to play "Buzz", "Moon landing", "What's The Time Mr Wolf" or "Shoplifting" this book has something for every occassion.


Roll on July and the 3rd book ........ Sleeping Bags and Tortures ......  until then I shall have to continue to follow John on Facebook and watch as he tries to recruit staff from Curry's into his adult leadership team.

I've already recommended it to every leader (and non-leader) I know .

If you want to find out more visit John's Website, Facebook Page or Twitter Feed