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Call the DE or Committee Commissioner, explain the situation and ask if they know of a troop that can loan a couple of tents, stoves and cooking equipment. There may even be a Chartering Organization with a defunct troop looking to move their equipment. Barry

Even if there were studies that showed that girls were, on average, paid more attention to organizational details, that doesn't remove the worth of the patrol method for the girls. Firstly, because averages are just that. There is also a broad distribution, for both girls and boys, of instinctive organizational skill levels. Some girls are a lot less naturally organized than some boys. Also patrols are not merely about learning to be organized. They are also about learning leadership in a kid-sized setting. They are about having the opportunity to try, and to mess up, and t

My boys are still on the young side, 12 and 10, so I've not brought this up. It's too tempting to stick my head in the sand, rather than try to wade into the murk that is the current #metoo. It's sad to think that it's no longer enough to talk to them about treating girls with respect, but to have to add in precautions about making sure they can't be accused of inappropriate behavior. As for my daughters, one was groped in the hallway of middle school - early 2000's, plenty of witnesses. She immediately went to the school director, told him what had happened and pointed out the boy, wh

After hiking in a good three miles to camp by a favorite stream, the boys took to catching crawfish, then using up my fuel to boil water. I told them it was just sinful ... to cook them without garlic and butter, which of course they didn't have. But they did have spicy pumpkin seeds! So, they boiled them first to dissolve the salt and chili powder, then added the five crawfish they had. They said they tasted great!

Three women reached a $4.055 million settlement with the city of Irwindale, CA and its police department, while just last year, a fourth woman settled for nearly $3 million. All of them allege they were molested by former police Officer Daniel Camerano. "He would take these girls to isolated parts of the city that were dark and abuse them," Attorney Anthony M. DeMarco, who represents the victims, said in an interview with NBC4. Camerano was convicted in 2015 for molesting one victim. The abuse taking place betweeen 2008 and 2010 when the girls were between ages of 14-17. Their atto

Are you referring to temporary patches as worn on the right pocket? Well, I just sew them on when I want to wear them on my uniform. When I want to switch out the old patch for a new one, I remove the former with a small seam-ripper, then I sew the new one right on the pocket (by hand so that I can still use the pocket). The whole process takes only 10 - 20 minutes depending on size of the patch. So far, none have ever fallen off my shirt. So, my experienced recommendation is: the ol' needle n' thread.

The problem about tarps (and most modern tents with low-slung flys) in winter: to keep "exhalation frost" from building up on everything, it's actually best to allow for a lot of ventilation. So the trick is proper alignment of vents, and bodies. That requires lots of practice that 1st years obviously do not have. In the days canvas floorless tents, piling snow around piled around the walls of the tent not only blocked wind, but attracted condensation. So even in calm frozen nights when the flaps weren't kicking open, canvas walls were frost-free on the inside. (Although folding them at t

Family scouting is all about the WHOLE FAMILY going on outings and activities together. So that moms and dads can spend more time together with their boys and girls in a scouting setting. -------------- Julie Anderson has been there. Like most parents, she laments not being able to spend enough quality time with her two children, Ian and Samantha. That’s why Anderson is such a fan of Family Scouting, the BSA’s push to welcome all members of the family into our life-changing movement. Do you crave more time with your children and less time bouncing between drop-offs and

Definitely a good idea. We had a local Troop run a service project once where they colllected old camping gear from the scouting community. These could be individually owned or old Troop equipment. The scouts then setup and tested the equipment and donated the usable items to new or struggling Troops. I thought this as a great idea as there is a lot of equipment gathering dust.

Bystanders are also important in helping prevention. The new YPT training helps with this a lot.

As a stay-at-home dad, it's amazing how much of the work supporting my sons' Cub Scout Pack goes on during the day. Trips to our Council office to iron out problems or pick up supplies (advancement or otherwise) from the Scout Shop. Running over to the school where we met to deal with scheduling issues and access our things in our storage closest. Going to our school district offices for usage agreements for the school spaces. Deposits to our bank. Popping into our local Park District to reserve shelters for our outdoor events and our annual pool rental for family swim night. If a few of

Hi @shortridge, I've not been through this with a new unit, but have spent quite a bit of time watching unit budgeting and how we spend. For what it's worth, here's my thoughts. 1) your budget needs to cover awards, meeting supplies, training. If you need to rent a space, it would need to cover that. 2) ideally your budget would have enough extra money to allow you to cover campsite reservations 3) For the first year or two, I think you could forego equipment expenses. However, you need to assess if your troop families can provide the equipment. In our troop, many scou

Hah! That's funny. Actually I'm an engineer too. Perhaps because of that, I see Scouting from the BSA as both a set of goals and also a program for individuals to deliver. In the work that I do as an engineer I'm constantly solving problems. If one way doesn't work, I try another. I look at Scouting much the same way. I look at the goals and figure out what we're trying to accomplish in Scouting. I look at the program provided by the BSA and figure out how best use it to accomplish those goals. If the BSA changes the mechanics of the program and throws me a curve ball, I go back

LOL. I see you have never met my daughter! Broad, sweeping generalizations like this help no one and are ultimately not constructive.

Packsaddle, Getting left behind is one thing, changing for the sake of change is another. Adapting is something else entirely. We disagree. I think boys ought to have their own program. I think the BSA has lost its soul for the sake of pleasing certain folks and the almighty dollar. With all of that said, as I mentioned earlier, all scouting is local. Scout troops are becoming family camping clubs, and the OA is becoming a service organization (can't wait to hear the new name). There's no brotherhood, or cheerfulness, just the service. I truly and sincerely wish every

Well said, @MattR. I understand rules. I interpret them for a living with those that are mainly in their "extended adolescence" known as college. I have to muck around in the gray a lot. Did you violate the alcohol policy by having one beer on campus? Yep! Is it worse if you had thee 18-packs plus four bottles of liquor? Yep! The second scenario gets a more stern penalty. My hope is that this young man in question does do right by his child and the mother. Hopefully, his final SM conference included some good parenting advice...and perhaps the Family Life Merit Badge needs to add a requiremen

@Zebra132, not sure if grumpy is the right word, but I'm certainly old. There are lots of discussions on this forum about what an Eagle scout should be. It's mostly about character. There are also lots of discussions about not adding requirements. Unfortunately, these two ideas create a lot of tension because what we think an eagle scout should be has little to do with the requirements. The requirements are very concrete whereas character is not. Courteous and kind and putting the needs of others is very subjective whereas 20 nights camping only brings up conflict when the idea of sleeping in

Aye, in both cases some sort of overcoat would have been advisable.

As far as I know, my pack covers dues. Given the time and effort leaders put into the process, it seems rather unfair to ask them to pay for that privilege.

A 16 year scout climbing with a friend when a rock handhold gave way causing his fall. The friend was nearby and attempted to help but was also injured. The two teenaged boys had fallen in the remote area of Middle Rosary Lake in Northern Klamath County while on a camping trip with their Boy Scout Troop from Corvallis, Oregon https://www.klamathfallsnews.org/news/one-dead-one-injured-in-scout-camping-trip