Leaderboard

We are the results of our choices. Trust lost must be re-earned. Your manfriend (he isn't a "boy", is he?) is not family , yet. He shows much maturity by his patience. He should sign up in my dot scouting dot com and take the Youth Protection Training. I assume you have already, if you were a Den Leader. He will be accepted in the Scout "family" by his willingness to put the Scout's needs and activities first. It will come, but as has been said, right now , he is not "family" per Scout definition, but he is your "guest". Smile alot, accept the ignorance of others as something you

Oh good, for a second there, I assumed the pain meds were making me see double in a weird vertical sort of way.

@CalicoPenn ... Your argument is repetitive.

Interesting comments. One of my traits of reasoning is I tend to look at the bigger pictures. What I see is that scouting did it to itself from a lot of bad decisions. I often wonder how today's parents would view the BSA if National had not made any major program changes since 1957? Over the years, since the 1960s anyways, sudden membership declines can be tracked following national level program changes. Not all membership declines were sudden. I believe some declines were the result of changes (Tigers/NSPs) that took a little longer to show a performance degradation of the overal

Camp Toquam Stories were passed on down to us that more often than not, piqued our interest. Vague names became legends in our minds. A station wagon would pull up in front of a neighbor's house and out would pop somebody's father who would take an overstuffed canvas knapsack from the back of a red faced boy struggling under its weight and toss it into the back of a vehicle. Off they would go for the weekend. Well, whether you knew it or not, we were in the background, watching un-noticed. Those on the outside looking in could never understand it. In junior high, some kids judg

I have been sleeping in a hammock for 6 years now in scouting and we have a few scouts interested in it. I have also taught Hammocking at Scouting University so send me a message if you are interested in a slide deck I created. Here is a Safety sheet and a PDF 680-055_SafetyHammocks_WEB.pdf hammck camping.pdf

This is one of the major benefits to having a year-round program that advances by age, not by school year. If a boy joins my group when he turns 10 in July, he has until the next July to earn his Webelos and/or his Arrow of Light. When he receives it, however, is entirely based on when he earns it. So, if he completes the requirements for his AofL in April, he earns it in April. I don't wait until there is a bigger group, nor do I put it off for some "special" event like the Blue and Gold - he earns it when he earns it. Not only does this prevent a boy from feeling left out if he does NOT

Not necessarily. I have been focusing on the question you proposed to us. Now you are talking about an entirely different issue. Next year, the unit will have several options they can choose from. They can accept him with open arms, they can deny his son from joining the unit, or they can avoid both extremes and choose some middle ground that they can live with. Of course, the ability to find and choose a middle ground depends largely on the cooperation of the parent. If you think the unit will have to "swallow it" and do more than "tolerate" his attendance, you are very sadly mist

From what I read, nobody knows that the SPL is making any money off of this... they thought that the SPL might be due to the cost, but those cards cost money, and most of the adults admit that they know nothing about the game. Like I suggested earlier, each Scout that wanted to play could just bring a predetermined number of unopened packs so that no money changes hands. As far as length of game, a large draft game takes a couple of hours or less, depending on number of players. The person who said that their son plays all weekend is saying that they build multiple decks and have multip

I remember the time when I actually envied councils with cool names like "Baden-Powell Council" or "Trapper Trails Council" and other fancy stuff like that. This is one of those times I am grateful my council is simply called Orange County Council, with a CSP that shows the beach and says Orange County Council, California. Impossible to get wrong, lol.

It's a long post but I couldn't stop reading it. Change the names, make it two years later, and that could have been my troop. Sometimes I wonder how we survived.

I have been camping in a hammock almost exclusively now for about 10 years. IMO it is just another piece of gear which is slightly different from the rest. I don't think it needs a separate class in how to use one anymore than any other piece of gear. Choosing a proper location, setting up, insulation, etc... all are slightly different for using a bombproof tent, a floorless shelter, a tarp, bivy sack, hammock, or cowboy camping. Not sure why hammocks are separated from the rest as so unique that they require a separate class. I abhor the idea of a class presented by adults for a troop me

Hi, I came across this site and post. I actually now live for the past 7 years on 5 acres on part of the land that used to be Camp Toquam in Goshen. Still have 2 latrines on my property and loved reading these Toquam stories! My home is on @ the only fairly flat area what I think was the Athletic field area or rifle range maybe.. Attach is an area photo from back in 1965 of the camp compared to now.

Outdoor Girl Scouts, what a concept. Yes, it is entirely up to the GSTroop leader(s). There was no set training for such when I investigated the situation umpteen years ago. GSing did not like the idea of male GS leaders, among other things, even with a female co-leader. My daughter did not want to do tea parties and fashion shows. I have a friend, Ted, who with his wife founded a GS Troop of Daisies when his daughter was about that age. He was a died in the wool Scouter (he now has a Webelos son) and he led those Daisies thru creeks and trails. They got dirty and caught crawdads.

I am not an expert on Girl Scouting, but I suspect the council would be very happy to have a troop doing outdoor activities as long as you have the correct training and do the right paperwork. My general impression in speaking with Girl Scout leaders in years past is that the amount of training required by the Girl Scouts for any given role or activity is greater than that required by the BSA. GSUSA National encourages camping, see https://www.girlscouts.org/en/our-program/ways-to-participate/camp-and-outdoors.html. But as qwasze says, it is up to the local leaders to make it happen, and

I think we have an answer to the question, "What is Scouting?" This is such a well-written piece...please list the source and author to give him due credit.

And everyone jumped on the band wagon of the current circus and lo and behold, after all the changes, it ain't a circus anymore..... And when all the dust clears, one will quickly realize that what's left isn't Boy Scouts anymore.