Sorry to all those parents left wondering what was happening when their scouts were very late back - the scout procedures have an efficient way to deal with this situation through the home contact. Whenever we are away from the scout hut, you get a one day activity form with a home contact point, and if we are running late, I tell them, and parents can get an update from the home contact instead of the leader in the field who is generally frantically trying to get everyone together and moving along... Sometimes, it doesn't quite work as smoothly as intended and with dodgy mobile signals and hastily delivered messages via other leaders who also need to be updated it goes like:-
"we're all safely off the hill and heading home now but runnning about an hour late - please tell the home contact and get the message to parents!"
"we're all safely off the hill and heading home now but running about an hour late - please tell the home contact!"
"we're all safely off the hill and heading home now - please tell the home contact!"
...
you can see how it can happen.... (also, I cannot hear my mobile phone whilst driving (not that I would be able to answer it!) - apols to those that tried to phone me whilst I was on the road).
So - sorry to those that were left worrying. The weather was OK in Church Stretton and at the hike drop offs, but got very misty in the valley to the east of Caer Caradoc and it slowed things up (we also had a near 100% turnout for the event which is great but slowed things down a bit with 25 kids to organise).
I would like to say that the scouts all did brilliantly and the new patrol leaders and APLs all got their patrols up to the meeting point in pretty good time given the less than ideal conditions. There are times when I think they haven't a clue about navigation - they all tell me they know where to go and then rush off in random directions - but when they know they are being given some responsibility they do generally seem to respond well and take it more seriously - well done to you all, especially new PLs and APLs!
"we're all safely off the hill and heading home now but runnning about an hour late - please tell the home contact and get the message to parents!"
"we're all safely off the hill and heading home now but running about an hour late - please tell the home contact!"
"we're all safely off the hill and heading home now - please tell the home contact!"
...
you can see how it can happen.... (also, I cannot hear my mobile phone whilst driving (not that I would be able to answer it!) - apols to those that tried to phone me whilst I was on the road).
So - sorry to those that were left worrying. The weather was OK in Church Stretton and at the hike drop offs, but got very misty in the valley to the east of Caer Caradoc and it slowed things up (we also had a near 100% turnout for the event which is great but slowed things down a bit with 25 kids to organise).
I would like to say that the scouts all did brilliantly and the new patrol leaders and APLs all got their patrols up to the meeting point in pretty good time given the less than ideal conditions. There are times when I think they haven't a clue about navigation - they all tell me they know where to go and then rush off in random directions - but when they know they are being given some responsibility they do generally seem to respond well and take it more seriously - well done to you all, especially new PLs and APLs!
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