Prancing on Ice - 5th go Skating 

The following information pertains to the Scouts ice skating trip on Friday the 13th January 2012:

Location: Chelmsford Ice Rink

Start: meet in the queue at 19:30 - 19:45

End: 22:00, in the lobby

Cost: £7.10, plus any money you need for drinks, snacks, etc. Please bring the money with you on the night

Dress: no Uniform, just wear your scarf for getting in. Some people like to bring gloves, just in case they fall.

 Parents, can you please either wait with your child and pay for them, or ensure they are dropped off with one of the leaders, with their money. Thank you.

5th Billericay Scout group presents a Christmas Quiz night.

The quiz night will be held on Saturday 19th November 2011, starting at 7.15 pm for 7.30 pm start at the 5th Billericay Scout Hall, Greens Farm Lane, Billericay.

There will be prizes for the winning team and the format will be bring your own food and drink.

Tickets are £5 per person and can be obtained from your section leader or by calling 01277 658557.

There will also be a raffle for a bit if added fun. 

Please note that teams are limited in size to a maximum of 8 people.

This is always a great fun night for the family, hope to see you there.

Wow, another year over, where does the time go. This year has been a brilliant year for our Troop, with regular activities such as the annual ice skating trip to some new ones like the 'Have a go, Gang show'. This year we also grew in numbers, and next term the Troop will start term with over 30 Scouts. I will come onto next year in a moment though. As the troop has grown so much in this year, I thought I would refresh ourselves of some of the great things the Scouts have done this year by choosing the best from Each Month:

• Scouts cooking a curry night (Sept)
• Making Life size robots from recyclables (Oct) 
• Escape from Colditz Night Hike (Nov)
• Paint a Christmas pottery decoration (Dec)
• Ice Skating (Jan)
• Have a go Gang Show (Feb) 
• Part 3 of the St Peters way Walk (Mar)
• Forrester weekend Camp (Apr)
• Orienteering around the Meadows (May)
• Car Mechanic badge (June) 
• Crystal Maze (Jul)
• Summer Camp (Aug)

Ok, so summer camp wasn't quite in August, but it was close enough and was so enjoyable that it had two months worth of fun in one week. That reminds me I must say a massive thank you to Claire, Neil, John, Gareth and both Matts for being such great supports throughout the week. Their support, involvement and leadership made the week as successful as it could be. Whilst on a thanking spree regarding camp I should also thank all of the Scouts for being model Scouts, on several occassions I recieved reports from the campsite and other troops about how well behaved and disciplined our Scouts were. Well done guys. apart from the Scout who was frog marched into the showers to have a wash by his parents I hope we managed to return all of Scouts home, a bit wiser, a bit bigger, a bit happier and a bit more confident. Regaling their parents and relatives with stories of daring adventures and excitement. Jack, one of our PLs has produced a YouTube video of camp, which I think you will all agree shows the fun time they all had. Here it is:

Just in case you are wondering, the wood construction in the film was a 4 hour pioneering project we gave the Scouts to build a draw bridge across a ditch. It worked brilliantly as you can see. The other fun stuff we did at camp was hiking, archery, grass sledging, orienteering, wide games, camp fire (with dodgy singing and songs), mountain bike riding, visiting a nearby town, swimming, low ropes, whittling, building fires and most importantly making new friendships and remaking old ones.

We took 22 Scouts to camp this year and next year we want to up that to 25. I suspect that won't be hard as next year is one of our big camps at the Essex International Jamboree. Information on this will be coming our at the begining of term as we need to prepare quite a long way in advance. Next terms programme will also be published shortly and the Patrol Leaders (who do a fantastic job through the PL Council we hold every week after Scouts, helping us tune the programme to best we can make it) have requested an old school style programme covering off all those things we used to do in the olden days.

Having written this blog, I think I have answered my own question at the begining, in that time flys by when you are having fun. Have a great summer break and see you back on 9th September 2011.

The key bits of information regarding the Genesis Scouts Summer Camp 2011 are as follows:

• Drop off is 12:00 lunchtime on Saturday 23rd July (having had lunch)
• Pick up is 12:00 lunchtime on Saturday 30th July.
• Arrival/departure will be in Relaxed Unifirm as per our uniform policy here (http://www.5thbillericay.co.uk/index.php/genesisscouts/policies/27-uniform)
• Drop off / pick up is at the campsite (http://www.broadstonewarren.org.uk/) directions can be found on their site.
• Kit should be as per the Week long kit list, outline in our policies here (http://www.5thbillericay.co.uk/index.php/genesisscouts/policies/36-kitlist)
• Pocket Moeny should be as per our pocket moeny policy here (http://www.5thbillericay.co.uk/index.php/genesisscouts/policies/120-camp-pocket-money)
• Contact with us is as per our InTouch policy here (http://www.5thbillericay.co.uk/index.php/genesisscouts/intouch)

Leaders at camp will be Ian, Claire, John (part time), Neil, Gareth, Matt (H) and Matthew (M).

Camp scarfs will be red rolled into the 5th Billericay group scarf. The group yellow scarf sits on top of the red scarf when rolled (top tip: iron the scarfs flat first, then lay the yellow one on the ironing board, place the red on on top centred horizontally and lowered by an inch vertically[yellow one sticking out at the top], roll the yellow one over and iron in place, now roll along the edge of the yellow scarf and iron, repeat until near the bottom).