A Modern Parable

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Once upon a time there was a scout group.  It was a very enjoyable scout group, which ran many camps every year, and attracted many different people from a range of backgrounds.  It wasn’t massive, but it wasn’t tiny, indeed, much like Goldilocks‘ bowl of porridge, one could describe it as ‘just right’.

Then things started changing.  A number of people moved up to the 13+ Explorer Scout section, and at a similar time a new leader arrived, full of ideas, promising new things.  But the new Explorer Scouts were lazy and unenthusiastic.  They turned up, but made little effort to join in.

The leader grew disillusioned.  He began to put more and more time into university work, and less and less time into preparing activities.  Camps went from regular to rare to never.  Indeed, some nights only a couple of people would turn up.

People soon started dropping out.  When the younger scouts moved up they too quickly lost interest, and fell into the harmful downward spiral.

Eventually even the leader quit, work offering him placements in far flung places, and scouts offering him nothing but disappointment.

The group continued to meet without a leader, but, with no-one to fill in the forms and sign on the dotted line, they were soon forced to hunt for a new leader.  And no-one came forward.  After all, who’d lead a group who were notorious for not doing anything?

Eventually, with no leader, and few members, the group was disbanded.  Maybe some people went to other groups, but more likely they just left disillusioned with the entire scout network.  And that was it.  The end.

Sweden 2011

I was reading through Johz the other day, and I realised that there’s one major thing going on in my life that I haven’t mentioned at all. Next year, I am going on the World Scout Jamboree 2011. Yes, really. I’m not pulling your leg.
Now ‘jamboree’ is probably a bit of a scouty technical term, so I’ll explain a bit about what one of those is first. Basically, a jamboree is a big celebration of all that scouting has ever achieved. It’s a time for lots of scouts to go and light fires with two sticks of wood with lots of people from all sorts of other countries. Last year, the WSJ (That’s the World Scout Jamboree) was held in England, mainly because it was the 100th anniversary of scouting. This year, however, it is in Sweden (sponsored, I kid you not, by IKEA).  As a result, obviously, Abba tracks are suddenly all the rage among scouts.  Or at the very least, their leaders who think that playing irritating lyrics over and over and over and over and over and over and over and…

Sorry, where was I?

Ah yes, Abba’s repetitiveness.  You get the picture.

So why ‘jambo’?  Well, jamborees are all about fun and community.  Obviously, a jamboree is something extremely special – you will only ever get one chance to go as a scout, although you can try again to become a part of the International Service Team – and so I jumped at the chance to take part.  Also, I really want the chance to meet other people and to try new cultures and ideas.  This is especially important in scouting as, if I’m honest, I know next to nothing about scouts from other countries.  Then, of course, there is the chance to see Sweden, which I’ll probably never get to do again.  The Swedish models don’t come into it at all….  (much, anyway…)

So what do I need to do to get to Sweden?  Well, I’m most of the way there already.  I’ve been selected at a selection day, I’ve raised my profile, I’ve seen half of the group that I’m going with (although not the other half, as they’re in Western Europe), and now all I’ve got to do is raise £2300 pounds by summer next year.  Yeah.  It really is that easy.

So, any suggestions?  And while we’re at it, there’s a few things that you can do as well.  Don’t worry, they’re all free for you.  Firstly, search the internet.  Go on, just search.  It’s easy.  The link there (http://bswejamboree.easysearch.org.uk/) is to a search engine that, while it may not be as good as say, Google, is probably good enough.  Search around a bit on there, you know, find out the football scores, learn a new recipe.  Then save the easysearch page (make sure it’s that one, unless you want to be giving money to someone else) and…  Use it again tomorrow!  Every search you do raises about 2 pence.  The more people who do that, the happier I’ll be.  And the more likely I will be to write you a nice entertaining post about the people who went to the jamboree.  Also, you can find out more about the Jamboree here, and here.

Anyway, I’m off to see a man about a horse.  Well, I’m actually off to babysit, but hey, we can’t be right all of the time.  So see you later, hopefully.