We are a unit that places great importance on providing a blend of traditional and modern (maybe postmodern) scouting, with camping and hiking mixed with skiing and snowboarding.
We meet on a weekly basis, mostly on Monday nights in Pucklechurch, but that depends on the time of year and the activity. During the spring and summer months we are often away from our base and often doing things over the weekends. There's more information on ths on our Contact Us page, which you can visit by clicking on the green button here.
Anyone between the ages of 14 and 18 can join Tohil. Many of our members have joined us as a progression in their scouting lives, others have moved in scouting from guiding and others have joined with no background in a youth organisation whatsoever.
It's our view that everyone has something to contribute and a wide range of experiences and background just makes the unit all the richer for it.
In certain circumstance we can admit people a little before their 14th
birthday. However, we cannot take anyone younger than thirteen and a half.
All members of the unit need to register with us as members and you can
download a membership registration form by click on the green button below.
We also use pioneering as team-building exercises as well as similar aims achieved through craft working, such as flag making and tie-dying and art works.
With a pretty even mix of boys and girls we find that we can draw on the different perspectives and strengths that everyone can bring to the project and enable explorers to teach and learn from each other.
We also hold the view that our work on the scouting programme is of equal importance to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme, with each member of the unit working on their Chief Scout's Award at the same time as the corresponding DoE Award.
Our programme is mixed and varied, but always contains amjor commitments to service in our communities. We seem to have cornered the market in car parking over the last couple of years! You can find out more about our past and current programme by going to the Programme page- just click the green button to go there.
When Explorer Scouting in our dictrict was formed each unit chose the name of a god as their unit title- we chose Tohil for two reasons.
Firstly because he is an important god in the Mayan spiritual heirarchy- one of the founding earth-creator gods with a particular interst in fire. Fire is a central element of many of our activities and camps and seems a good choice for that reason.
Secondy, who wants a load of old Greek and Roman rubbish when you can get something different- we like to think our ourselves as being pretty anarchic so another good reason for the name!
If you want to know more about Tohil and his brotther and sister gods, click on the green button.