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Give us some idea as to who can join scouting.
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All youth (male or female), ages 5-7 BEAVERS,
8-10 CUBS, 11-14 SCOUTS, 15-17 VENTURERS,
and adults 18-26 ROVERS, and 18+ SECTION LEADERS,
are welcome to join the Scouting Movement.
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What is Scouts Canada's Mission Statement,
the principles of Scouting and what Methods
and Practices does Scouting use?
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All of these questions are best answered on the
Scouts Canada website.
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Some of us know nothing about Scouting. Tell
us some of the background.
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Scouting all started with Lord Robert
Baden-Powell, a British Army Officer who
served in South Africa during the Boer War.
During the war he had discovered that boys
could be relied upon for things like
delivering messages, and "scouting"
around making detailed observations to see
what the enemy was up to. A training manual
he had used with his soldiers he later adapted
for use with boys. After this "Scouting
for Boys" was published, and the first
camp was held in 1907, the Scouting movement
soon began to spread across the world,
taking on a life of its own without much
direct effort from the Founder. On this
website, you can see more details in the
glossary.
One more site about Baden-Powell that should
not be overlooked is
http://pinetreeweb.com/B-P.htm.
Scouting is as much about character and
personal development as it is about learning
scoutcraft and outdoor skills. Since November
1998 it has been completely co-educational,
offering the same opportunities to female and
male members, at all levels from Beavers
(5 to 7 years of age) to Rovers (18 to 26).
The necessary privacy and sensitivity required
to accommodate both genders has not proved
difficult to achieve; public schools have been
at it for years.
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Give us an idea about what our children/youth
will be doing.
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Scout sections hold a weekly meeting, lasting
from one to two hours depending on the age
group, as well as outdoor activities whenever
possible. These can include field trips, tours,
camping, and hiking. Even Beavers can expect
to have at least one adventuresome outing
during the year.
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What are the direct costs in time, and monetary
expense?
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Direct costs include annual registration
(which provides insurance coverage), uniform,
occasional fees for special activities to cover
expenses, and some personal camping equipment
like a sleeping bag and a backpack.
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What are the fees?
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Registration fees are subject to annual
increases. For the up-to-date information,
contact the
provincial Scout Office,
the Group Committee,
or any leader.
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What are the weekly dues?
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These vary widely, so you must ask the
leaders. Many sections offer the option for
parents to pay for several months or a year
at a time. Dues are used to pay for program
materials and activities.
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What is the cost for a youth uniform?
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The uniform for Beavers consists of the vest,
woggle
and hat. For other sections, the minimum
includes a shirt and(for youth) a sash, woggle
and epaulets. In any case, the total should not
exceed about $30 to $35. For actual prices per
item, please contact one of the Scouts Shops
mentioned on this
page. At Easthill, one
neckerchief
is provided without charge to each member, and
replacements are provided at cost.
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What do you do at a meeting?
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A regular meeting in the regular meeting room
will usually include a beginning routine or
ceremony, and a variety of activities that
include learning new skills, crafts, and games.
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Is there a health form to fill out? Once only,
or for every event?
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Parents are required to ensure that the leader
has an up-to-date
Physical Fitness Certificate
for each youth. This usually means filling one
out each September, and then updating it
whenever needed.
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Are forms available on-line?
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Some forms are available on-line, as you can
see by visiting the
link
on the Scouts Canada website or a quick links
can be found on our
site. On-line
registration is not yet available
on-line, although discussions are underway
to make it a reality someday.
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What forms must leaders fill out for activities?
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For a nice table indicating the correct forms
to be filled out for any particular type of
activity click
here.
Otherwise in general:
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What leader-youth ratios are observed?
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For meetings, the ratio is 1:5 for Beavers,
and 1:6 for sections above Beavers. For camping
events, the ratio is higher.
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What kind of screening and training is available for
leaders?
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Before an adult can register to be a leader
(a program leader or a Group Committee member)
the individual must obtain a Police Record
Check (PRC), be interviewed by a pair of
interviewers, and then begin to serve a
three-month probation. The Scouts Canada
website contains
details
of this process.
Following the initial interview, the new
Scouter can take training, beginning with the
Basic,
nodule. The Fraser Valley website maintains a
calendar of
training events
available to leaders.
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What kinds of controls are there in place
to ensure that all activities will be
completely safe for the youth, some of whom
are merely children?
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The next time you read in the paper about
someone who got lost in the woods, or went
out boating in bad weather and had a near
tragedy, you are witnessing what happens when
people don’t know how to evaluate the
risks, and probably didn’t have proper
training to begin with. What we in Scouting do
is to separate the risk and danger inherent in
an activity from the excitement and enjoyment
it is supposed to provide. We achieve this,
first of all, by doing an adequate amount of
training before the activity, and then provide
supervision during the activity, so that
eventually what we end up with are experienced
youth and young adults, who know what the
dangers are and won't take unnecessary risks.
Finally, we have a set of
guidelines
that specifies what kind of supervision is
needed for the many acceptable and popular
Scouting activities. The booklet also contains
a list of risky activities that are not
appropriate for Scouting. Our procedures are
ultimately dictated by the realities of the
insurance industry and by legal ramifications
in our increasingly litigious society.
See risk management
in the glossary.
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But they still won't be completely safe.
There are still risks!
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Now that we are living in the twenty-first
century, the dangers the world poses for us
have not disappeared; they have merely moved
from where the early settler, the Prairie
farmer and the deep-sea fisherman encountered
them to where we now find them - in our cities,
on our highways, and on our commercial airlines.
That's why we continue to street-proof our
children, and lock our cars and our houses at
night. The only thing that will ultimately
defeat us is an unrealistic belief that we can
ever be totally free from danger and risk. We
won’t be free of danger any more than we can
ensure our continued good health simply by
having eradicated many of the bad diseases
of the world.
What Scouting attempts to do is to ensure a
link from our children/youth to the outdoors,
and to society, while providing challenging
supervised activities that teach skills, mold
character, and produce citizens.
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