Cranham Scout Group

Today’s theme with the Cubs was working as a team.

So we used the tried and tested technique of setting a challenge that a cub can’t do alone - that even two would struggle with. In teams of four, they would have to work together to get it done.

The challenge was simple: part of the hall was marked out and declared to be a river of shark-infested custard (with a shark fin added for effect). A few sheets of newspaper were arranged in a few spots to be slippery, muddy, islands. Each team of four was issued with two heavy aluminium planks, about five feet long (with the ends covered in carpet lest they scrape the floor), and a bottle containing twenty litres of water - which was actually medical supplies that had to be taken across the river along with the entire team. Needless to say, if anybody touched the custard, they’d be carried away by sharks; and even if the end of a plank dipped into it, the plank would be snatched away by the fast current.

So they had to cooperate as a team to extend an aluminium plank out to reach the nearest island, then manoeuvre themselves, the medical supplies, and the second plank around the small island to get the second plank reaching to the next island, then go back and retrieve the first plank so it can be used to get from the second island to the third - then repeat this process to get from the third island to the far shore.

The trick was to have two members of the tream crouching down and holding the plank, acting as a fulcrum, while the other two stand behind them and hold the rear of the plank to take the weight, then feed it forwards, holding it up until it reaches the next island or shore; but the important thing was that they’d manage to organise this between themselves. Of course, to begin with, we would have one person picking up the water, one person picking up a plank and trying to position it themselves, and the other two arguing about what should be done - but with a little hinting, they quickly cottoned on to the idea of discussing what to do as a group then deciding who would do what part of it. So each team started off slow, but after the first island or two, had worked out a process that they then followed to get the rest of the way efficiently. This made me very proud!

Today we looked into the Chinese new year with the cubs. Last year we talked about the traditions and legends behind it; this year, we continued the astronomy theme by discussing the nature of the lunisolar calendar, then proceeded to cook spring rolls.

We split the pack into three groups. Each group, with a Responsible Adult, then took turns to stir-fry pre-cut vegetables in a wok, then placed them onto a sheet of pastry and folded them into a spring roll, which they then took to another Responsible Adult who was manning the deep-fat fryer.

This was very popular with the Cubs, as they could eat the results!

All of this was only possible thanks to the hard work of Paul, who spent hours the night before preparing everything!

Well, the plan was to have a nice walk out onto the common to look at the clear skies and spot some constellations…

…but it was overcast. However, we were all ready to go out, so we went for a walk in the woods instead, and talked about astronomy in general. The lack of good sky took the thrill out of it, but we still got the job done.

Here’s the game we played with the Cubs yesterday evening:

MATERIALS: Money tokens (I’ll cut some paper up into triangles, each is a pound), blank sheets of A4 paper.

We split the pack into one group per adult available except me, each of which gets assigned a line of business: folding paper planes from sheets of blank A4 they buy, or mining sheets of A4 paper from a pile to sell (to do this, they need to buy a centimetre’s thickness of paper from me for fifty pounds…), or I (in the kitchen) will sell a drink or a biscuit for a pound each. The businesses need to buy their raw materials or mining rights, and they also need to pay their staff at the end of the ‘work day’ (every time I blow my whistle), who will ultimately spend their earnings on paper planes or drinks and biscuits. If I blow my whistle and a company doesn’t have enough money to pay all their staff (the cubs), then that company is bankrupt. They’re out! The cubs get to continue to spend any money they have earnt, but the company has ceased operating, so they won’t get any more.

But to start with, they have nothing, apart from the kitchen leader who will sell drinks, biscuits, and wodges of paper (’paper mines’). So they can’t even get started - so they need to come to me (as the bank) and borrow money. I’ll lend them loans of ten pounds, but for every loan, I will require a pound back every time I blow my whistle.

So the adults leading the mining companies will need to take out a big loan to buy a wodge of paper - and they’ll need to compete with each other to actually sell the stuff, as they need to have five pounds back every time I blow my whistle in loan repayments, as well as enough to pay their staff. They represent capital-heavy mining industry. I suggest they sell paper at about a pound for four sheets. I’ll give the mining companies just a couple of cubs each, since they don’t need much workforce.

The adults leading the paper plane companies will not need such big loans, as they just need to pay for paper and their staff. They represent light industry. They should buy their paper from whoever’s cheapest. The paper plane companies will get larger numbers of cubs, as they need to get folding! As I expect the supply of planes to far outstrip demand, I suspect the paper plane companies will soon end up in lots of debt, and may soon find that it’s cheaper for them to stop buying paper and just pay their staff to become salespeople, begging the cubs to buy the planes rather than drinks or biscuits…

The adults leading the company hold the company’s money, and prevent squandering of the company’s resources.

I’ll blow my whistle every few minutes. As the cubs start to accumulate money of their own, one pound per whistle blow unless their company goes bankrupt, they will be able to buy drinks and biscuits from me, and paper planes from the plane companies (which they will get to throw at the end). And any company can ask me for a loan whenever it wants; since I expect demand for drinks and biscuits to far exceed that for paper planes, the money should drain out of the market fast, so companies should find themselves depending on loans to keep going.

But - oh dear. I’ll suddenly stop giving out loans. It’s credit crunch time! Soon everyone will be out of a job!

Today we looked at Global Issues with the Cubs - and the issue we looked at was the ‘Credit Crunch’.

After a bit of discussion about what the crunch was (during which the Cubs rather surprised us with how well they understood things like fractional reserve banking), we played an economic simulation that illustrates the effect of a sudden loss of credit in a growing economy…