Scouting Around - Issue 14 - February 2017

“Above all else, Character” Lord Robert Baden-Powell

In Honour of Our founder, Robert Baden-Powell Upcoming Activities March 3-5 — Basic Outdoor Skills Training 4 — Cub Scout Leaders Meeting (Naparima) 11 — National Scout Rally/105th Anniversary Celebration 19 — District & Zonal Commissioners’ Meeting (Couva)

Chief Scout of the World: There’s no cooler title around.

That’s what they called Robert BadenPowell, founder of the worldwide Scout Movement.

Baden-Powell was born Feb. 22, 1857, which is 160 years ago. Scouts worldwide — roughly 40 million in 161 countries — celebrate his birthday each year as Founder’s Day. How did you celebrate founder’s day? In keeping with the spirit of celebration, here are a few more ideas to honour BP:

headquarters@scouts.tt 1(868) 624-7271 www.scouts.tt

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1. Learn a little about Baden-Powell Just who was Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell? Read and find out:  The World Organization of the Scout Movement’s profile of B-P is comprehensive and interesting. Check it out at https://www.scout.org/bp

2. Read his words of wisdom These three quotes from the Scouting legend speak for themselves:  “It is risky to order a boy not to do something; it immediately opens to him the adventure of doing it.”  “The open-air is the real objective of Scouting and the key to its success.”  “There’s nothing like ‘Being Prepared,’ is there? For what might seem possible, even if it may not seem probable.”

Check the following website to find your favourite: http://scouting.org/filestore/pdf/ Quotes.pdf 3. See his final message to Scouts Baden-Powell prepared a farewell message to Scouts that was meant to be shared after his death. He died at age 83 in 1941.

Read the complete letter at http://scouts.tt/ media/news/2017/02/23/bps-last-message/

Scout Week 2017 kicked off on Saturday 11th February with the Carnival Extravaganza. Held at the Scout Headquarters in St. Ann’s, groups from five scout districts participated in the Traditional Mas (individual and band), Costumed Bands, and Calypso competitions. The results are as follows: Calypso: 1st: Malakai Murrel – “True Professionals” 2nd: Gyasi Floyd – “Magic Suit” 3rd: Melex Murrel – “Hands Up and Praise” 4th: Jahmai Welch – “Another Cry” 5th: Guliani Floyd – “Maxi Dub” Costumed Bands: 1st: Diego Martin – “Fete Royal” 2nd: 18th Port of Spain – “Chinese Festival” 3rd: 29th Port of Spain – “Butterflies”

Scout named 2016 Youth Kayaker Josiah Clarke, Troop Leader of Third Trinidad Sea Scouts and student of Fatima College was recently awarded as the top youth kayaker in Trinidad and Tobago for 2016 at the FCB Youth Sports Awards held on January 27th at the Trinidad Hilton.

Josiah’s achievements that earned him the nomination by the Trinidad & Tobago

Traditional Mas (Bands): 1st: 6th Point Fortin – “Outta De Box” 2nd: Morvant/Laventille – “Sailors Ashore” 3rd: 13th Port of Spain – “Sailors in de Jungle Book” 4th: Cedros – “Traditional Mas”

PHOTOS of the Month Send your photos to program@scouts.tt to be highlighted here!

Photos by Tishawn Stoute

Traditional Mas (Individuals): 1st: Kadisha Mohammed – Pt. Fortin – “Dame Lorraine” 2nd: Marcus Ellis – 18th Port of Spain – “Midnight Robber” 3rd: Jayden Celestine – Diego Martin – “Pan Melody” 4th: Zane Regis – 18th Port of Spain – “Midnight Robber”

Canoe/Kayak Federation included placing overall second in the short course at the 2016 Annual Ortoire River Race and victory in the kayaking event at the inaugural Presentation Scouts annual Triathlon and Boating competition held last November.

He was also one of the top finishers in the Williams Bay to Five Islands return warm up races held prior to the Ortoire River Race and claimed victory in the Chatak Ceramic Christmas Eve Charity Race held at Williams Bay. He is now in training with other fellow

elite kayakers with the hope of representing Trinidad on the International stage in the not too distance future.

Six easy ways to channel your Cub Scouts’ energy Written by Mark Ray. Originally published on www.scoutingmagazine.org. December 2016

Cub Scout Leaders, have you ever felt like throwing your hands up and giving up on running your meetings or activities?

We understand the challenge of controlling hyper 7-11 year olds. Cubmaster Matt Janchar of BSA Pack 157 gave the following advice.

Keep Hands Busy Plan activities that engage boys’ hands — not just their eyes and ears. “You’ve got to have stuff that keeps the boys’ hands busy,” Janchar says. “It can’t be ‘listen to this’ or ‘look at that;’ it’s got to be ‘do this; touch that.’ ” At the pirate pack meeting, boys made rolling ships with hulls and sails they decorated. Stations around the room offered plenty of tools and markers so no one had to stand in line.

Control the Chaos Janchar’s pack-meeting toolkit includes pylons to show boys where to line up and caution tape to show which areas are off limits. For times when boys need to sit still, Janchar uses painter’s tape to create two large squares on the floor, each the size of an area rug. Boys sit on the floor within those squares while den leaders hover around the edges. “The Scouts all know that when a pack meeting starts, they’ve got to

be in a square,” he says.

Get Parents Involved With craft activities like making those pirate ships, Janchar says parental involvement is key. He’ll ask a couple of parents to be in charge of handing out supplies while others work one on one with boys at the den tables.

“If you’ve got other parents pulled in to help, that makes the pack meeting more fun because it frees up the Cubmaster to answer questions and troubleshoot, and control the flow of the activity,” he says.

Plan Projects Carefully Janchar thinks one of the biggest challenges in planning projects is figuring out how much to do ahead of time and how much to let the boys do. If boys finish too quickly, chaos will erupt. If the project has to be finished at home, parents won’t be happy.

One way to find the sweet spot: Test the project with your own son at home.

“You really want an activity Scouts can complete within the meeting — but not in five minutes,” Janchar says.

Have Outlets for Creativity The best projects allow Scouts a measure of creativity. That could mean decorating the

finished craft with markers or planning a more freeform craft that uses pipe cleaners and googly eyes.

“Really giving the Scouts a chance to customize something makes a huge difference,” Janchar says. “It engages them, and it engages their parents.”

Have Something Up Your Sleeve Regardless of the craft you plan, boys will finish at different speeds. Rather than make the fast finishers sit patiently — as if that could ever happen — Janchar plans additional optional activities.

At the pirate pack meeting, for example, he brought out a wooden racing track when he saw the Bears and Webelos were almost finished. That occupied a dozen of them while the other kids were still working.

The alternative to all this planning, of course, would be to have boys sit still like they might do in school, but Janchar argues that wouldn’t work. “The kids would be antsier than if you had them doing something with their hands,” he says. “They *will burn+ off more energy that way.”

And that means they’ll go home ready for bed — and for the next pack meeting.

Every year, on the 22nd of February, Scouts worldwide celebrate the birthday of the movement’s founder, Lord Robert Baden Powell. This year, ScoutsTT embarked on a week-long celebration of Scouting with its first ever Scout Week from February 11th-19th.

Scout Week is a time of celebration for ScoutsTT – a time to highlight the good

work our movement does for the community as well as our 105th anniversary, which was recognised on January 4, 2017. Across Trinidad and Tobago groups took part in activities including camps, expeditions, community drives and parades as part of the festivities.

Here are some photos...

Martial Arts training with Sons of Pioneers Air rifle shooting with Penal Adventurers

Physical Fitness training with Penal Adventurers

Couva District Parade

Clean up drive with Penal Adventurers Self defense training with Penal Adventurers

STRATEGIC PLAN

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Towards a New Scouting Adventure

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION

Bringing out the innate goodness and strength of young people— and helping communities do the same—should be our area of expertise. We should be passionate about youth development work, and sharing with our community the proven alternative of values-based learning and character development that scouting offers.

specific assets that support young people as they grow into successful, service oriented, responsible citizens. This means helping young people gain positive values, a sense of identity and belonging, social skills, and a commitment to learning, as well as helping to create positive, caring environments in their communities, schools, congregations, and neighborhoods.

Everything we do—from helping to revolutionize the way our adult volunteers work with young people; to championing the role of young people in their communities; to building cutting-edge and dynamic programs that help people expand their creative potential and provide the ultimate adventure - is designed to build the

Our vision is that our Youth Programs should be exciting, culturally relevant, and appealing to today’s youth, attracting them at an extraordinary rate and retaining them longer. Critical to achieving this is that our leaders become increasing creative and innovative in how they implement the program at the group level.