Paul Marshall’s Web Site

Last night was the Goyt District AGM, and whilst it was the 1st district AGM I’ve ever attended, I did seem to play a rather prominent role!

Firstly, I was the only ADC type person who attended, and provided a report… so I had to stand up and tell everyone how well Explorers have done over the last year. Unfortunately Viv forgot to mention that she needed this, until a couple of hours before the meeting, so I didn’t really have much time to prepare. Fortunately it seemed to go fairly well, and I’ll be more prepared next year.

Then came the shock of the night, I was awarded my 10 years long service award! I’ve actually been a leader for 12 years, but Scout HQ have lost 2 of those years, so I wasn’t expecting this certificate for another year or two, but for once HQ where super efficient. The only bad part about the long service award, is that they’ve changed the design, and the badge now has the number 10 on it….just so everyone knows how long you’ve been doing it for!

Finally, I was presented with my Commissioner warrant (nice yellow coloured one) which meant I had to renew my promise again.

I think I spoke more than anyone else, at the meeting!

1st Marple’s very own Barbara Preston has her picture in the “St George’s Day Award Recipients 2008″ supplement of this month’s Scouting magazine. Nearly caused me to fall off my chair!

Normally for me, this isn’t an unusual event, given that I seem to spend my life with Scouts! However in Macau, it definitly seems unusual. I had found out before I came out here, that there are actually Scouts in Macau, but I was still surprised to actually see one in full uniform.

The most notable thing about the uniform, was that the cap they wear, is very similar to the one I used to wear when I was a cub…all those years ago!

Well I survived my 3rd Scout camp of the year! I’m absolutely knackered, from the late nights, early mornings and constant hassles of looking after about 60 kids. Despite numerous problems with various people, the camp was a success and the Explorers seemed to enjoy themselves.

Well another Easter Camp is over, the lads all seemed to have a good time. Despite the fact that I only managed to make 1 night this year, I still enjoyed myself. Although even now i’m still suffering from the Rounders match I played with Matrix & Rangers on the Saturday afternoon (at the time I thought I was going to die!).

Well Gang Show is finally over for another year. As usual everybody has had a great time, loads of beer has been consumed and lots of songs have been sung! This year was slightly unusual in that I missed 2 1/2 shows, but I had good excuses for them all!

Now all I need to do, is to catch up on all that missed sleep!

Just got back from London, where I’ve spent the weekend with the Explorer leaders & Marple Rangers. We travelled down by train on Friday, spent Saturday morning at the service, which was held at Webminster Abbey (which was actually very good for a Scouting service), and then Saturday afternoon was spent travelling London, which involved a visit to the Royal Observatory at Grenwich.

Anyway had a great time, consumed a few pints, and didn’t get much sleep!

Well tonight was the 1st time in the 4 years that I’ve been running Explorers, that I’ve had to send a lad home part way through the meeting. I just didn’t really appreciate a small object being thrown at my head! I think all the lads where surprised when I sent him home, as there was a bit of a shocked silence after I told him to leave!