Leaderboard

Yes, parents are always, "concerned." My response is something in the order of: Adults don't interfer with the scouts elections. If the position is truly respected as a leadership position, then scouts generally want the right person, not the popular person. As scout has to earn respect. They can earn it simply by volunteering for outside responsibilities like leading the COHs, organize and lead service projects and offer to help out in program setup. That generally separates the wonna-be's from the gunna-be's. I found that troops where the elections are just populari

The good old days!

Not to be contrary but I joined a patrol back in the day. My PL lived 4 doors down and he recruited me. No Recruitment patch nonsense, a PL recruited the members he wanted in his patrol. When I became a PL, I did the same. Maybe that is something that has been lost from the Patrol Method or PL responsibilities over the years. My $0.02

Over the years I have been involved in a lot of "political" hassles in many different organizations and the dynamics are always the same. The simple explanation for this situation is: this parent enjoys the conflict and the perpetuation of it. It's a game to her. She doesn't really want the game to end because then all the fun will go away. So, the rest of the group has to decide to take it to the next level of conflict which is labeled "Divorce" and remove this woman and the game will go away, or take the conflict down to level of basic problem identification and solving. At this level w

If your are more interested in the experience of the BWCA than the Northern Tier patch, it's more affordable and enjoyable to use a private outfitter. Pro: Route flexibility. The only reservation is your Entry Point and pick-up. If you get into a poor campsite one night, move on. Bad weather? Tent up for a day. Leisure. If you're in a good spot, linger an extra day and enjoy the wilderness. Work on Scout skills, teach a merit badge. Unstructured time for campers to bash around an have fun. My approach to covering distance is to get out of civilization. Once you're in d

Well, for your first question, I would always remind folks it's called BOY Scouts. It does not matter if the boys vote for the All-American SPL or for the class clown. It's THEIR decision! Period. It is just a matter of the SM and TC Chair buying in to this approach AND making sure any adult leader buys in to this too. If they don't, invite them to find another troop. We did this and only lost two ASMs...and they were not guys we cried over losing. For the second question, the only adult's opinion that should matter on this issue is the SM. If Bobby does not want to be JASM then everyone

I don't know why they didn't just add a new color for Lions...this just will confuse people. Questionable decision but will sell more neckers.

My cynical side sees this as an arbitrary change to sell more merch since scouts will no longer be able to use older sibs necker, hat etc...

All alliterative. Neat. Fixed blade vs folder.... It comes down to the need to: 1) Be useful. In the Panamanian jungle, yes, a machete on the belt might be useful. At Camp Runamuck, not so much. 2) Carve a wiffle stick (what did you call them?) for fire making, yes a fixed knife, maybe 4" blade can be useful. 3) Impress your friends, ("oh that is so cool! ") . Maybe, but at what cost to pocketbook, weight carried, awkwardness personified, legality, 4) Protection? A Boy Scout? Dundee not withstanding.... 5) Cuisine? Kitchen operation? Fish cleani

[aussie accent]"That's not a knife..." Nice to see we tie ourselves in the same knots on different continents. Definitely not delving into UK knife law, but I've seen the reaction to knife crime and knee jerk responses and rule making. Then that nice Bear Grylls fella comes along and it's all survival this and bushcraft that. I prefer Ray Mears, always trust a tubby survivalist. Anyway...we then have lots of groups buying sheath knives for their kids to use. Cubs love a pointy stick eh? Then The Scout Association get Victorinox to sponsor a badge (don't start me on that), and the poor bus

It's British. http://hmvf.co.uk/topic/18314-58-pattern-sleeping-bag/ suggest using a NikWax wash. REI has this advice for down. https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/caring-sleeping-bag.html

Cultural norms are all over the lot. Eagle Scout expelled from Senior Year of HS because he volunteers that he has a 2" folding pen knife locked in the glove compartment of his locker vehicle as part of a survival kit (drives many miles to school in northern climes in Winter). B.S.A. norms are easier to find. The Guide to Safe Scouting, in 2011 recognized Scouting's duty to teach the proper use of all "legally owned knives" - which includes almost all sheath knives almost everywhere in the U.S. Hard to meet that safety obligation absent the knives we are supposed to teach about.

Baked and everything? Next thing you'll tell me they grind the coffee. Oh, and we paid for the gasoline for outings. "A Scout pays his own way." Right up there with unsliced bread.

Just so you know, the stores will slice the bread now.

I'm a proud mom of three, two boys and a girl. I have a Boy Scout, an Explorer and a Ballerina. I still work with our previous Pack, as Committee Chair. So in all of that, my time is full. I enjoy every moment with my family and with Scouting. I just joined today - jumped right in and asked my question. I joined at the advice of an old friend and retired Scouter. He recommended that I come here for advice and he was on target! This looks like a great forum with a lot of experienced Scouters willing to help with advice and encouragement. Thanks for letting me be a part o

Tip of the hat, I have found that very hard to accomplish.

.... and from outside the box, why was a too-small site selected in the first place?

Our troop is going on an independent BWCA trip this summer... the adults and the PLC viewed the greater planning as a huge plus not a con. More control for the older kids, more growth opportunities for the younger and cheaper. We're using our own camping and cooking gear, planning and prepping our own food, and hopefully can rustle up enough dry bags and duluth packs(though we may end up renting some of those).

Two more over the limit: I forgot about the joy of having NO cellphone signal and no recharging opportunities. The kids had to talk to each other and games in the tent at night weren't a factor. Your GPS on your phone still works fine; those satellites are still up there. I saved a Google Maps image on my phone for use offline that I had pre-marked with all of our campsite possibilities. It helped us not waste time searching the shoreline for legit campsites. I took 3 phone batteries, but only used 50% of one over a 7 day trip in airplane mode. It's amazing ho

Try again. I got an "Error" message about a minute ago. Any new "tool" takes some getting used to. Comments/nits to pick: 1) It is very pretty. 2) Things are too "light". I subscribe to a magazine (remember them?) that denotes it's pictures/insets in a smaller, lighter color type. Why? Same here. I do not like the light blue choices to click on. Hard to see/demark. The magazine uses light brown against a tan page (!!!). Why? Black, dark blue, even dark brown is fine. Light blue against white? Nahhhh. 3) Size/shape of icon/profile picture is not of much co

@Tampa Turtle, just for you...;) FYI, Alice is WB trained.

Catching back up on this thread - thanks for the good advice and the insight!! I think I am going to start with the suggestion of addressing it with these two directly; if I were causing an issue I would hope folks would do the same for me, and at the end of the day you all are right: I can always go back to just being a scout parent and switch packs if the issues start affecting my kids.

Agree, Stosh. While JTE is a (poor) attempt to show units how to track items that impact unit quality, the things they measure, their method of "measurement" is really lacking. For example, "Have an effective plan to recruit Webelos" is just a statement. The Bronze Level metric is to hold two events with a pack...but how EFFECTIVE is that as a measurement of whether your plan is good or bad? We have all seen units make Gold that are really lower quality units than others that just make Bronze.

Let's please remember that the original poster came here to get ideas on HOW to solve a particular problem. Like most threads in which people do that, some of the responses raise questions about whether there is a problem in the first place. That is not against the rules, but I think some of the responses here have been unnecessarily harsh. We are supposed to be "helpful", and provide that help in a "friendly" way.

Our closest summer camp has 2 or 3 campsites that have a locked power outlet at 1 platform tent. These are closest to the camp office and staff cabins, so its not a far run for underground cable. This is a newer add on, and I don't think its advertise, this past year, they offered a half week Webelos Resident camp, followed by a half week of Special needs camping, Our local Autistic/Special Needs Troop went for a true camp experience without the hassle of being there for a full week. This was a first for may of those boys. Most leaders I have dealt with in the past ei

I thought it was a general moral panic in Victorian England about "kids these days" being "too soft", and yes, I guess not ready to defend the empire. Unsurprising really, you take a bunch of city boys off to war in the african veldt and they get their backsides handed to them on a plate by the rufty tufty guys who had grown up there. Apparently one of my ancestors managed to survive a couple of particularly heavy defeats, but anyway... He did very much want scouting to become an international movement for peace, so as well as being pleased we're still lighting fires and playing games in

It's a good list but it's missing two things: Having fun and being in the outdoors. If you show that list to a scout they might not be so interested, so number one should be having fun. Also, we all know how important the outdoors are. Fresh air, away from electronics, ....

He is a junior and starting to look at colleges with ROTC programs. I think he is more of a 'group' person.

Welcome to the virtual camp fire!

Col. Flagg - Thank you again. Our troop is doing a "final push" for any boys that fall into the 14+ age group. They were told that they need to finish up Eagle by January, period. Of course this means that several of them are wink-winking it when non-councilors sign off on cards. In our Ward (probably like most other LDS pack/troops), Webelos is 1 year long then the 11 years old's cross over and fall into their own group of being scouts - but not really part of the troop. I was told that this has to do with being the age to receive the Priesthood - forgive me if this isn't totally correct