Re: Active Scouts

>I am Scoutmaster of a young troop (11 to 12 year olds). We camp every
>month and the boys love it. As the warm weather approaches, I am
>anticipating some multiple day campouts, trail maintainence projects,
>etc. My problem is that on an overnight campout, no matter what we do
>the first day, the boys treat the night like a sleep over. Lights out
>is at 10 PM but the boys stay up talking etc all night (They are in
>their tents, and quiet) and are useless the next day. Maybe it's just the
>age, b
>ut
>we are scheduled to do some work on the second day in the near future and I
> wonder what they will be able to do. Does anyone hve any suggestions
>appropriate to boys at this level?

Philip,

When I first joined our troop, the SM was a great scouter...also a football
coach in one of our Jr Hi schools. I saw him handle this problem a couple
of times....BUT never twice with the same scout. He did it this
way....he'd give the boys a few minutes after taps to settle down. After
about a half hour of talking he'd make the rounds to "noisy" tents. He'd
simply state that if things weren't quiet in five minutes, that tent was
getting up 30 mins early. In five minutes he'd visit the tents again and
inform them that reville for them was now 6:30AM instead of 7. This went
on until all tents became quiet. He was naturally an early riser but true
to his word. He took a skillet and hammer to the tents at the hour of
5:00AM for some scouts....6:30 for others. He'd bang the skillet and if
they didn't pop out of the tent he'd unzip the tent and drag them out by
the feet.

They NEVER repeated the offense. I always admired him for the one thing
that parenting advisors always repeat: "Stick to your word."


BLUE SKIES!,

Jim Peterson
RT Comm, Pelathe Dist
Heart of America Council
ASM, T-55, Lawrence, Kansas Any day above ground is a good day!
Mic-O-Say: "Shieldmaker"

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