Fingal County PL & APL Training Camp
Last weekend our newly appointed PLs (Patrol Leaders) and APLs (Assistant Patrol Leaders) attended a Leadership training course run by Fingal Scout County. This was to help them on their personal development to becoming effective leaders and to help them understand how and why new scouts might need their support. They were joined by scouts from Skerries, Balbriggan, Lusk, and Brackenstown.
The course started early on Saturday morning when tents were pitched.The scouters running the training gathered everyone together in the mess tent and showed them a video of Formula 1 pit crews and how in sync they have to be to operate as a team to show them how good things can be. The scouts were then split up into patrols.
Following this the patrols were set tasks of moving tables and benches and each scout took a turn as the task leader for the patrol to give instructions to the rest of the patrol.
The scouts were then given training on how to work with different people with different abilities in their patrol and they did a session on activity planning before breaking for lunch. The scouts ate in their new patrols and spent time getting to know each other.
Following Lunch there was a visit from the local Community Guards who talked about Team Building and how to have a great relationship with your team.
After lunch new task leaders were appointed and the scouts started to work on their pioneering by building some tripods. Things quickly escalated as suddenly random patrol members were stricken down with mysterious illnesses and needed to be cared for until emergency services arrived to extract them. The scouts used their Emergencies training to care for the casualties and keep them safe and comforted.
By now it was time to discuss what to have for dinner. The patrol had to cater for everyone (new braces and all). There was a lot of deliberation as the meal had to be cooked on lightweight Trangia stoves.The meal plan was then presented and one scout from each patrol was taken to the shops to buy the ingredients.
Dinner was Cooked
Dinner was eaten
Wash-Ups were done
As it was starting to get dark at this stage, everyone put on some warm clothes and headed to the campfire. It was a chill out campfire and nobody really wanted to get up and sing songs....... until Zoe from our group decided that campfires really need songs and got up and started singing. Eventually everyone joined in and a great time was had going through the repertoire of all the songs they knew.
Following the campfire, there was a wonderful surprise as Mick arrived back from the chipper with chips for all. Some scouts were set the task of getting everyone else into bed and then getting into bed themselves. Needless to say it took as while as the DMCs and chats were ongoing.
In the morning everybody ate breakfast together. Wash-Ups took ages as the task leaders from the night before had to nominate one person from each patrol to help the leaders with wash-ups.
Next was activity planning. Shane our CPC acted as a very convincing Beaver (eating sisal and everything) and we had to plan an activity for him and his ability. This was how to stand at alert and at ease. It was surprisingly difficult, but it was a lot of fun.
Lunch was sandwiches with a MASSIVE jar of Nutella.... YUM
Following this, we were told to get changed into our uniforms and break camp. We gathered our gear and put it into lines like we would on a patrol camp. It took 7 attempts to get the mess tent rolled into the bag.
We had some free time to hang out with the other scouts which was really great. We gathered to do some presentations to work on our public speaking and also did some drill so that we knew how to stand at alert etc. correctly. This exercise worked on two fronts allowing the PLs & APLs to make sure that they had the correct technique, but also allowing them the chance to give commands to a patrol and have them be followed.
While everyone was gathered together, we did a review of the camp led by Shane. Everyone said what they liked about the camp and what they had learned. David presented us with certificates to say that we had completed the training.
We made friends and had a bit of craic. We enjoyed it.
PLs & APLs of 89th Bremore
