its that time of year again...

and the cub/beaver christmas party has been and gone, amid slight strangeness (which included an offer of a slightly left field fitness training session for the local explorers) the leadership team christmas dinner (held at Wing Wah all you can eat buffet.... less formal, no need to get menus beforehand.... etc)eaten, and the scout fancy dress do still to come.... and no one will be allowed to come as "a Scout" or "a leader" unless of course they themselves do not fit in that particular category.... and again we have been questioned over our usual tradition of inviting YLs on our leaders do.. my answer of course being that they paid, they behaved, and they do a valuable job.... and in our opinion are very much members of the Leadership team... YLs of course, are one of my favourite topics.... I think that the danger we have with them is more along the lines of under using rather than over using them.... true, they should not necessarily be given the really difficult and dangerous jobs to do (unless of course they are the qualified climbing instructor and the leader is not...) but they should be given responsibility... and in my opinion that means involving them in the planning meetings, the socials, and everything else... having YLs involved in the planning meetings is always a good thing.. as they are nearer to the target age of our programmmes, their input is especially valuable.... and having a few extra people suggesting things to do can never be a bad thing.... and if that means taking some 14 year olds down the pub (or gods forbid holding the planning meetings somewhere else) then so be it.... they are part of the team, and they should be made to feel that they are such... then we'll get even more hard work out of them, and we leaders can slouch of to the chippy.... that is, get on with doing the more involved, specialist tasks..... and that brings me on to a related subject.. I think we should all attempt to have at least one youth member at every meeting... even up to district GSLs meetings, or meetings of the county team.... I'm sure that our DC, the esteemed Nev will vouch for the fact that a certain young PL from our group has.. how shall we say.. contributed constructively at a few of our District GSLs meetings.... but that's by the by... I'm very much afraid that sometimes, but only sometimes, we all forget who we're actually there for... but anyway, have a good christmas, hanukah, eid, yule, non demoninational festival or whatever you happen to be doing this time of year..... and next time, I may wax lyrical on my proposal for an experimental programme with explorers, which should hopefully alleviate some stress on leaders and all sorts of others... so until next time, keep on Scouting!!!!!!!!!!