Scout's Canada wins $100,000 funding from Pepsi's Refresh Everything Project

The votes are in and Scout's Canada "Send more children and youth across Canada to Scout Summer Camps" pulled into first place after an 11th hour surge.

Thanks to everyone who voted on this!

Click here for the full list of finalists.

BTW The refresh project continues with more funding. Check it out there may be other worthy causes worth your vote.

New home for the 433rd!

Our old home of 40 years at St Luke’s United Church at 516 The Kingsway closed in June 2010. We’d like to thank the congregation who sponsored us through all those years.

Beginning in September 2010, the 433rd has relocated to Islington United Church (at 25 Burnhamthorpe Road just north of Dundas Street). IUC has graciously offered to sponsor our group continuing their 50 year commitment to Scouting. We were fortunate to find a congregation with such a strong commitment and excellent facilities that include two halls.

Thanks to everyone at Islington United Church!

2010 Tri-Area Scouting Hobby Show

Read all about on the 433rd Blog!

Pirates on the Grand!

A quick report on our recent Pirate Venturer canoe trip.  See here for more info.

433rd 2009-2010 registration and information updates

Please checkout our main web site for registration and event updates for the 2009-2010 season!

More updates will be coming throughout the season.

Upcoming Camps and other Event Dates 2008-2009

See Upcoming Camps and other Event Dates 2008-2009

2009 Hobby Show Date and Details

The 2009 Hobby Show Date and Details are posted here at the main 433rd blog.

2008 Weston Santa Claus Parade

Mark Sunday, November 23rd, 2008 in your Calendars. Once again we are marching with St. Nick in Weston. For more information see 2008 Weston Santa Claus Parade.

If you are looking for the OTHER Santa Claus Parade, they're over here.

2008 Christmas Tree Sales begin soon

Click here for more information on Christmas Tree Sales.

Padua JOTI "Light of the Peace" Video Project

A Scout Group in Padua contacted me during JOTI (see my First JOTI). They want to make a video greeting of peace for the Light of the Peace event and are asking for some help.

They are hoping to get short video or audio greetings from Scout groups around the world by November 16th so they can put together and post the final video before the event on December 13th.

The example text for the greeting is:

"Ciao Italia, Ciao Padova, we are [your name or group/association name] from [your country]. We also join your message: Together Scout to Live the Peace"

Padua is located in the Italian province of Padova.

If your group is interested and can put together and post a video you can contact them at joti@avsc.it.

I'm told they can handle a variety of formats including avi, mp4, mpg, mov, wmv, and ecc.

The 433rd will send be sending a message!

On another note, wouldn't it be nice if some of the spacecraft outreach programs would consider something similar. It would be much more interesting than just sending lists of names.

Scout Scarves, 100th post

For my 100th post I wanted to talk about something at the core of Scouting. The humble but ever so useful neckerchief seemed a perfect choice.

(The 433rd's colours are featured in the headline image of this blog. Our web site has more details on Uniforms & Badges under each section. For Cubs see here. )

Scouts are widely recognized by their uniform and the colorful neck wear. Neckerchiefs and Woggles (or slides) identify Scouting groups and roles. Go to any large Scouting event and you'll see a sea of coloured neckerchiefs.

While many people don't give Scout scarves much of a thought, they are very practical and have a large number of uses. How many uses can you think of?

The most obvious use is identification. Each groups colours are more or less unique. I've heard that some Scouting organizations register their colors centrally. I know the 9th Benoni in South Africa (see Linking with the 9th Benoni Cubs) made a minor adjustment to their colours to avoid a conflict with a group in Germany. While I know there are local groups with colours that are similar, I'm not certain if Scouts Canada maintains the same degree of uniqueness. Also, the Boy Scouts of America have some different neckerchief traditions (see here).

Woggles (aside from providing quick release) identify the section or role of the wearer. Each section has a colour: red for Rovers, light blue for Venturers, green for Scouts, yellow for Cubs, and brown on blue for Beavers. Leaders who have completed the Wood Badge Part 1 have a brown woven turks head woggle. And those completing the Wood Badge Part 2 get the special Gilwell neckerchief and wooden beads (See Wikipedia on the Wood Badge).

Another important use is first aid. Scout Neckerchiefs are intended to be used as triangular bandages and slings. This point was reinforced at our last swim up camp when one of our Cubs broke his arm. When we brought him to the hospital in Midland one of the staff there commented that they had never seen such interesting and colourful bandages!

Other obvious uses include blindfolds and armbands (for games), masks, and signals.

Below is a list of over 40 uses taken form the Pinetreeweb Scouting web site. Some of the uses may overlap a bit but the list is still impressive. For the full list and more background information please read Pinetree web's Neckerchief article.

1. As an International Morse signal flag.
   
2. For sending messages by Semaphore code.
   
3. In knot-tying practice.
   
4. For Troop and Patrol identification.
   
5. As a reminder of the Scout Good Turn, (single knot).
   
6. As indication that wearer is not a Cadet, but a Scout.
   
7. As a substitute for a belt.
   
8. As a shoulder mat.
   
9. As a smoke mask.
   
10. As a blindfold for Scout games.
    
11. As a dressing for a burned face and neck.
    
12. As a sweat band for confining the hair.
    
13. For identifying contesting teams.
    
14. As a swatter in playing games.
    
15. In the three-legged race, to tie legs together.
    
16. In games requiring contestants to be hobbled.
    
17. In game called "Badger Pulling," to make binder for heads.
    
18. As a night cap or ear protector.
    
19. As a muffler for storm or blizzard.
    
20. As a cover for a pail of water.
    
21. As a loin cloth or bathing trunks.
    
22. As a triangular cap bandage.
    
23. As a napkin.
    
24. As an apron.
    
25. As a table cloth.
    
26. As a dust cloth or cover.
    
27. As a "Hobo" bag.
    
28. For a tump line to carry a load.
    
29. To lash poles or staves together.
    
30. As a smoke signal.
    
31. As a red flag on projecting end of load.
    
32. As a patch for a canoe, when properly treated.
    
33. As caulking for a leaky boat, when properly treated.
    
34. For distress signal, lighted for a "flare."
    
35. As a pad for the head in carrying heavy loads and wherever needed to prevent chafing.
    
36. As a padded glove for the hand, to prevent blisters.
    
37. As a blindfold for rescuing a horse from fire.
    
38. To pad portions of harness to prevent chafing.
    
39. To tie up square packages.
    
40. For fastening ends of the blanket roll.
    
41. For making life line or guard rope.
    
42. For making rope ladder.
    
43. For making boat sail.
    
44. For making emergency clothing

Originally the 433rd had a tartan scarf. When I was a Cub, I was part of the (now defunct) 16th Humber West which also had a tartan scarf. Then it was common for Canadian groups to use unique tartans for their scarves. Tartans provide an almost infinite variety for group colours. Tartans are also interesting both to weavers and mathematically[1]. Unfortunately, difficulty in getting certain tartans has caused many groups to move away from them.

I'd like to dedicate this article to Colin (one of our cubs) who knows first hand the value of a neckerchief.
-----
[1] . Professor Ralph Griswold of the University of Arizona investigated "Digital Weaving" in an IEEE paper and a series of articles in the Icon Analyst beginning at issues 53 through 66.

Background Checks and Scouting

Like many organizations Scouting requires leaders and volunteers to go through regular background checks. This is part of Scouting's due diligence to protect our members.

From time to time I hear questions from parents and prospective volunteers about Scouting background checks, such as how well they work or what to expect from the process.

For the most part these processes operate behind the scenes and are invisible. However, when the processes don't work as expected they can create a lot of disruption or worse. Another problem is that they don't always work as people expect. This leads to perceived to failures.

Background checking is a tool with limitations. How well we understand these limitations will give us a realistic perspective and can help head off problems.

In general, there are a number of types of background checks and many of them are performed regularly:

• Governments use background checks for security clearances. These range from simple to very complex and the checks at higher levels can be very intense and intrusive.
  
• Businesses use a variety of background checks: employment history, credit, criminal, some even use checks for money laundering and financing terrorists. Criminal checks catch things like convictions. One disadvantage is that they are unlikely to turn up anything on someone who has never been caught.
• Organizations that work with youth or the elderly need something more. It's called a Vulnerable Sector Background Check. All Scouting personnel get one every few years. These checks go beyond the criminal background checks. Exactly how far, I don't know, but I am told that it includes things other than convictions. They specifically look for pardoned sex offenders, charges without convictions, and they may include information on mental health that may be in police records. With these you have a better chance of catching someone earlier even if they don't have a prior conviction.

While there are a number of companies that provide these background checking services, both Criminal and Vulnerable Sector checks can also be arranged easily through most police departments.

One thing to understand with any kind of test of this kind is that there are three possible outcomes:

• Accurate results.
• False negatives.
• False positives.
  

A false negative is when some gets a pass but shouldn't. Periodically checking raises the chances of correcting these. False negatives are both worrisome and hard to detect. In fact they get detected when someone gets caught and then it's discovered they were not picked up and should be. These aren't common or the media would be full of such stories. And it is important to remember this only has a chance of working if the person has had some previous problems.

A false positive is when someone gets flagged and shouldn't. These are more common. In fact you are reasonably likely to see one if you wait long enough. If it's you or even someone you know, it will be stressful. Careful handling, discretion, and sensitivity by everyone involved is required. The person flagged will have to step aside for a time until a followup check is made. That usually involves more information, a trip to a police station and possibly fingerprints. Once everything is checked out these are usually cleared up. And always, the information should be handled as extremely sensitive and rigorously protected.

I have seen a number people caught by false positives. In general, they have been caused by lack of accurate information, coincidence, or identity theft. And all worked out correctly.

There is a darker side to background checks which raises some privacy and human rights concerns. It's not always clear what other information can turn up and how that could affect both individuals and groups. When minor or unrelated history is turned up, taking a zero-tolerance policy may do more harm than good. Not only will an individual be affected, but an organization may loose a valuable person.

To sum up, Scouting background checks are going to make our youth members safer. Understanding the process and its limitations will help everyone involved to get these working as smoothly as possible and deal with the inevitable hiccups.

2008 Scouts Registration

A new Scouting year is upon us and the 433rd is getting geared up.

Check out Registration Night - September 9th!