Am feeling a little overwhelmed today, but that's typical on a Wednesday, its my cub pack night. We're off on a bike ride, and i'm scrambling to make sure enough adults (crb'd adults mind u) are coming with us to meet the required scout supervision ratio (its 1:8), plus sorting out Permission Forms etc.

Am being hassled to produce my Explorer programme, which was mostly put together by the explorers themselves last week (major feat!) and issue updated lists of members so our District can chase them for their subs payments....plus this new seat belt legislation is obviously going to affect our scouting activities, as many of the parents car pool to get their kids to and from events away from our hq..

Did i mention that i was a cub leader? sorry. I'm a cub leader, an explorer unit leader (older scouts 14-18yrs) and, for my sins, a group scout leader (which means loads of paperwork and hassle basically).

Sometimes i just wanna throw my hands up in the air and say 'Someone ELSE deal with this for a change!' I find the politics and paperwork part very irritating, but mostly manage to keep going, consoled mainly by the idea that i dont do this for money (good job cos i dont get any), the glory (what glory?!) or the prestige (like cleaning out the chemical loos on camp - i get all the best jobs!).

I do it for the kids. To give them something they will remember for the rest of their lives (try this: ask any bloke if they were in cubs/scouts and 90% of them will smile and say yes), to show them new ideas and places, and maybe even to teach them a couple of things (like how to save someone's life with cpr) that may be useful to them in later life.

And that's all that keeps me going sometimes!!

Ok rant over... :)