Next Month: Time for Adventure

Whoops, we've been a little quiet on the blog for a while! Our members have been busy at school and college studying for exams, working part-time, and fundraising like crazy to pay for their Jamboree fees and equipment. We're incredibly proud of them and they've all done a fantastic job so far coping with the demands of the Jamboree on top of their already busy lives. 

The time has flown by. We started the adventure with the Jamboree Roadshows in September 2013 and, in what feels like no time at all, we've become an awesome team, completed all our training camps and received all our UK Contingent kit. It is with some serious excitement that we can now say we are going to Japan NEXT MONTH! 

We're hoping to have facilities to update the blog while we're at the Jamboree so, technology-in-a-field permitting, stay tuned. We can't wait to share the adventure with you.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us along the way; we couldn't have got this far without you.

Jambo Countdown: 500 Days to Go

エキサイティング
('Ekisaitingu' - exciting!)

There are 500 days to go until the 23rd World Scout Jamboree opens in Yamaguchi City on 28th July 2015! In 500 days' time, Unit 42 will already be out in Japan and will have spent a few days either exploring Tokyo or living with Japanese families.

To celebrate, I've found you lucky things some 500-themed facts about Japan.

Around 500 AD, Japan was rapidly becoming one of the most civilised countries in the world. They borrowed script, artistic and architectural styles from China, and Buddhism was starting to take off. Around this time, Japan was seeing agriculture overtake the hunter-gatherer method of finding food.

The 500 Series is a Shinkansen high-speed train operated by the West Japan Railway Company. They are capable of travelling up to 200 mph. The Japanese often employ people to push passengers on to trains: the average delay to rail services in Japan is 18 seconds.

National Route 500 is a highway connecting Beppu, Oita and Tosu, Saga. Its total length is just under 100 miles.

The #JamFam is complete!

Andy is the 40th and final member of the #JamFam to confirm his place

Unit 42 are MEGA EXCITED to announce that our #JamFam is finally complete! Andy will be joining the team as our brand new Assistant Unit Leader ready for our first Unit training weekend in April.

Andy is 23 and is a cast member of WAGS Gang Show. We're expecting amazing things from him for our Unit's dance to the Jamboree song!

We're so pleased to have Andy on board and we know he can't wait to get stuck in either. It's going to be an incredible adventure.

So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

Unit 42 is saying sayounara to our Coventry patrol, who are off to join Unit 72

During February, the UK Contingent received some Super Exciting News: the whole of the UK had been given extra places to take even more deserving young people to the 23rd World Scout Jamboree. Yay! From the extra places, both Warwickshire and Coventry Scout Counties were awarded a whole shiny new patrol each. Double yay!

The new patrols mean that Unit 42 is changing a bit. We're now no longer the 'Warwickshire & Coventry Unit' but rather a whole Warwickshire Unit made up of four patrols and four Leaders entirely from Warwickshire Scouts. Unit 42's current patrol of Coventry Scouts will be joining the new patrol from Coventry, and other patrols made up of Scouts from Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Jersey, in the newly formed Unit 72.

We're going to miss our Coventry #JamFam and we wish them the best of luck in their new Unit.

Mike, Steph and Shaun are SO EXCITED to be welcoming our new patrol of Warwickshire Scouts to Unit 42 later on this week. It's a crazy family and we hope they'll love being a part of it just as much as we do.

We'll see you there!

Unit Training Day

Saturday 15th February 2014; 7th Rugby Scout Headquarters; 31* of the best Scouts and Explorers in Warwickshire & Coventry; four excited Unit Leaders; one amazing Unit in training.

We started the day with some obligatory speed dating

Speed dating for 31 takes a while, so the leaders made some mischief

Air horns are fun

Yesterday we had our Unit together for a whole day, and it was brilliant. We started off with the obligatory round of speed dating and it turns out that using a really loud air horn is a Super Fun Way to mark the time to change over and also to make half the Unit jump several feet into the air every two minutes.

We tried to get the "serious stuff" done early on, so the Unit split off into groups to write their Code of Conduct to apply to all the training events and for the Jamboree itself. I had a minor disagreement with Jordan when he insisted that "No swearing (unless necessary)" ought to be a rule and he did not back down when I tried to argue that it's never necessary! My three favourite rules that made it into our official Unit Code of Conduct, in no particular order, are:

• Don't do anything your mother wouldn't want you to do
• No domestics
• No finding loopholes in the Code of Conduct

Banter points to the Unit for that. Bravo.

After lunch, everything descended into creative 'organised chaos' as they split into groups to write sketches using randomly assigned themes, characters and key words. The pictures below say it all, and I don't think any additional words can do them justice. Wigs are fun, some members of the Unit are incredibly creative, and some of them are downright odd.

The day ended with a question and answer session to settle any concerns the guys had had since the last time we met. We introduced the Speaking Dave (our minion mascot who each member had to hold to indicate that it was their turn to speak) and the Stupid Question Hat (because if you're going to ask a stupid question you deserve to have to wear a silly hat).

Team Jamboree had a brilliant day with the Unit and we can't wait to all get together again soon!

We like crazy photos of Mike

Even writing up the Code of Conduct was amusing with this Unit

Ethan makes a delightful Snow White and Mike is a terrifying 'dentist'

This group took a ride to Japan on a rocket

This brilliant story time sketch saw Hurricane John take over the Eiffel Tower

The Leaders couldn't resist the fancy dress bags

Unit 42 are 'Incredible'!

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* We do still have a Unit of 36 but some of them were off skiing on a school trip. Needless to say, Team Jamboree were very, very jealous and hope they had a fantastic time.

Fundraising: Tesco, Stratford

Mike bought me sushi for lunch. It was fishy. I didn't like it.

What kind of Scout Unit would we be if we didn't do a few sessions of good old supermarket bag packing? Today, we held our first session for the Unit. It was fantastic to speak to so many people in store about their past experiences with Scouting, and to share a bit of our adventure with them. The Unit members who came did a fabulous job, and loads of shoppers approached the leaders by the door on the way out to tell us how smart everyone looked and what a good job they did packing their shopping. Guys, you are fantastic, and we love you. Well done!

Jamboree love goes out to Ron and all the staff at Tesco in Stratford for letting us invade their store for the day. We had a brilliant time!

We are proud to present... Unit 42!

This evening, the Unit were together for the first time for an information evening with their parents. Check out how fantastic they are!

We love you already; it's going to be a fantastic year-and-a-half.