Pioneering, 22 January 2016

Hello Guides! (:

For today’s 集合, we had a pioneering session! The year 2s and 3s were split into 3 groups and the year 4s (apart from the Patrol Leaders and the Company Leaders) were a group on their own. They each had to complete a structure within the given time limit. The following are accounts from members of the various groups!

Group 1:

We were required to build a tower that was not taller than 3 metres . For this activity, Group 1 built a tower with an extended platform which doubled as a bench and part of a ladder to reach the platform at the top of the actual tower.  To build our tower, we started by building the main frames which were 2 trapeziums, with yellow spars, red spars and green spars. We tied a red spar across the two yellow spars horizontally as the base and two yellow spars across diagonally as supports as well as two green spars across horizontally for the platform and railings. We made a carbon copy of it for the other main frame as well. After tying the main frames, we erected them and joined them with yellow spars tied diagonally across the two main frames as supports as well as red spars tie at the bottom across horizontally to complete the base. After ensuring that the main tower was able to stand on its own, we were split into two groups with one group working on completing the main tower and the other group working on the extended platform.

Around this point, however, we realized that we had run out of rope and work had to be put on hiatus for a few minutes while some of us went around to the other groups to take more rope. Thankfully work resumed very soon and we were not affected much though we could have been more accurate in calculating the amount of rope we needed. As we worked, we realized that our structure was somewhat slanted and unsymmetrical due to the fact that one side was leaning in more than the other. We loosened a few lashes to try to improve the situation but we couldn’t totally make the structure symmetrical which resulted in a slightly shaky structure. We could have prevented this if we did timely checks to see the structure from afar. Also we were not able to complete our structure within the allocated time which we could have if we had tied our lashes tighter as much time was spent retying lashes, utilized manpower slightly better as there were instances where many people had nothing to do and maintained our sense of urgency throughout the activity as we slowed down towards the completion of the structure. We also had to be reminded constantly to report the timing which could be improved on since many of us wore black watches but were always waiting for someone else to report the time which goes to show that we need to take more initiative in doing things.

Despite all these, I guess we could say that our structure came out pretty well since we were able to sit on it without it crumbling to the ground and were able to snap a few photographs with it. Also we did not have much conflict which came surprising as we expected some squabbling. On the whole, though we still needed to improve on the usual time management and sense of urgency, our structure was pretty successful despite minor changes in appearance due to measurement errors.

 

Group 2:

When we were broken off to take our logistics, we dispatched our Year 2s to take the 麻布袋 while the Year 3s went to take 10 紅木, 8黃木, 23 青木 as well as 8白木. After that, we 集合-ed at the MRL and shortly after, we began to work on building our structure.

We split ourselves into 2 groups-- one of the two groups would be working on the main frame while the other group would be working on the ladder which is attached to the tower. By around 30 minutes, we were finished with our basic frames. Next, we 起-ed the structure and started to tie the lashes that would connect both main frames together. These included attaching 青木 and diagonal 紅木s to the structure to stabilise it as well. Next, we rafted a platform on the structure with 青木, but faced a minor issue while doing so as we predicted that we would use lesser 青木, and hence we ended up not having enough 青木 to raft the full platform. Hence, we altered our structure and rafted from both sides, then attached a 青木 in the centre of the gap between the two sides of the rafting, mainly for safety purposes. Finally, we attached the ladder to the tower. However, another problem arose as the ladder's intervals were not equal and not spaced out properly, resulting in huge protrusions. Since we had more time on our side, we decided to 重打 all the lashes of the ladder to make it more feasible and aesthetically pleasing.

We managed to finish the structure even before the time limit, leaving us with much time to 重抽 any loose lashes. Overall, we all felt quite pleased with the structure as it was just as how we expected it to be, and because we finished it in time as well. When we were told to 拆 the tower, we were also quite fast and finished 拆-ing the structure, 搬-ing the 木, and 收-ing the 麻繩 within the time limit.

All in all, Group 2 felt that it was good practice for us to try and vocalize more during 集合, and we were also extremely satisfied with the structures that we have built.

 

Group 3:

For pioneering this week, my group was tasked to build a tower which was no taller than 3 metres. After a few proposal submissions, we managed to finalise a structure with 2 rectangle main frames and a cross between them, as well as 2 ladders connecting them, one tied directly to the frames and the other a slanted ladder. We were first given 15 minutes to collect all the logistics we needed. They are: 4 黑木，4黄木，4深蓝木，2青木，11红木, 16 白木 and 麻绳. Once we collected our required logistics, we were given a total of 2 hours to finish the structure. Firstly, we layout the 木 in the shape of the main frame and started to tie them together. Then, we carbon-copied the frame to make the duplicate. At first, we were behind the scheduled timing but once we completed the second frame, we ahead of time which was a blessing. Next, we proceeded on to 起 the structure, little did we know that there were some errors in the building of the main frame and we ended up having to 倒 the structure to amend it, causing us to lose a lot of time. Once we solved the problem, we 起-ed the structure and tied the 顶角.

Due to the wrong choice of 木, our structure had problems standing vertically and kept on tilting towards the centre of the structure. We later learnt that it was because of the fact that the 黑木 was too long and the 白木 顶角 was too light and unsuitable to hold the 黑木. Following which, we started to tie the 深蓝木 as part of the diagonals to make the structure more stable. At the same time, some of us were tasked to build the slant ladder with 白 and 深蓝木. We then build the ladder on the across the frame and started to raft the platform with 红木. The platform was actually meant to be 白木 but due to the width of the structure being too wide, the proposed sparse was too short to fit across and we substituted it with 红木 which was too long, leading to a very ugly and long protrusion on the other side, as well as the fact that it was too heavy, causing the structure to be very unable when we climbed on it to raft them together. It got to the point that when we 拆-ed the structure, when we climbed onto it, it swayed from side to sided and require people to continuously 顶 at the bottom. By this time, we had already ask for many time extensions and I felt quite ashamed that we could not complete it in time as the adjacent group had built a similar structure within the time given.
 

Overall, during the debrief, the seniors and YAs said that it was a job well done and an ambitious one indeed. However, we needed to take note of a few key points from this experience such as choosing the correct logistics to build the structure, how to make the structure more stable by allowing more 木 to touch the ground, as well as other issues such as low parole morale towards the end and the lack of a leader who could speak up well and oversee the whole execution of the structure. Through this pioneering session, I have learnt a lot from the proposal process to the overall building of the structure, and it was an enriching one overall.

 

Year 4s:

We were given 15 minutes to retrieve our logistics from the backstore. However, the situation back there was a bit chaotic as there were 3 groups of year 3s who were also retrieving logistics too and many people were shouting. And many people in our batch were a little unclear with what we were going to build for that day so it was really noisy and we were very very slow. I think what we can improve on is familiarize ourselves with the proposals. I realised if we do not know about the structures we are going to build and just rely on others to give us a set on instructions of what to do, then things will be done at a very slow pace.  Plus we 过时 and didn’t ask for time extension. I think next time we should also constantly 报时 so that we can keep track of time.

There were other stuffs happening such as we didn’t have enough 麻绳 at first and we wasted quite a lot of time and the logistics weren’t enough for us after the year 3s retrieved theirs. But I was quite glad that our batch decided to make use of the time (when we were waiting for 麻绳 to arrive) by asking the ones who did the proposals to explain what they are going to do so things can be done faster. And also the measuring of the frames were very constant so the frames were quite rigid.

However, because of the lack of logistics given, we had to improvise our structure and so it was a little rush to improvise and get things done quickly at the same time. But after we built the main frames and putting diagonals, it was super stable and rigid and we were extremely happy because things weren’t going right at first. But still, it rained and so we had to go back to the shelter and stop whatever we are doing until the ponchos arrive for us to continue building. On the bright side, our lashes became tighter due to the rain (although it was harder to 拆掉) so anyway we proceeded to build the stairs and I was honestly quite happy with the results because the stairs looked kind of cute and finally we built our monkey bars. Though we were tying in the rain but everybody was putting in their best and it felt heart-warming to see us giving it our all!

 

So that was the end of 集合! We hope everyone has learnt something new today and practiced their lashes more with this given opportunity!

Cheers,
Michelle
47^th Batch Secretary