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.