Leaderboard

I am certain it's necessary to keep the patrols single-gender, and I'm reasonably convinced that it's necessary to keep the troops single gender. I do think that we will discover opportunities for opposite-gender units and patrols to cross paths and interact in fashions that are at a minimum non-damaging to traditional program, and that we will probably find ways to play them off of each-other such that it enhances program in manners that were not previously possible. Of course, I'm also concerned that we will screw it up... The collaboration bit however, I think is interestingly diagn

That bacon is overcooked..... 🙂 Great job on the meals

In my humble opinion, YES EACH CANOE NEEDS A MAP OF SOME SORT! (emphasis and here on out emphasis too ) Doesn't matter if it's map case and bought maps, or made your own in ziplocs. THINGS HAPPEN. I was in LaDomaine, Quebec paddling and a storm hit. We got all stretched out, buddy boats didn't stick together, and my canoe was by itself, out of site of everyone. We had no idea where the rest of the group was, and kept paddling, hoping we were on the right patch to catch up with them. Thankfully we were, and we found them. Especially since I got hypothermia. 🔵

Sure, why not 🙂 Competition is good, and probably more importantly, an informed notion of what various people and units might think are reasonable expectations, wouldn't be a bad thing. I'll start. Our Girls' Troop first campout was last month, and they wanted to focus on outdoor cooking skills, so we threw them an assortment of interpatrol cooking challenges. Now before you say "they're girls, of course they're good at cooking!", I'd like to point out that A) My son, at 10-12, on pure skills, could probably cook circles around any of the girls in our Girls' Troop, indoors or o

I have not been to BWCA, but I do go to the Quetico to the north. So this may or may not apply. I have noticed that the evening mosquitos run like clockwork, and you can hear them a few minutes before they descend on your campsite. Thus I recommend determining their timing on night 1, and then plan each day so all can be safely in bug proof zones for all subsequent nights.

My thoughts. If she actually met the requirements AS WRITTEN, and truly "Master the Skill" needed for advancement, good for her. Now it's time to give back to her patrol and troop while continuing her journey. HOWEVER, if short cuts were made, fudging done to get stuff checked off, and a few other things I've seen done with boy units as well, Then I am strongly opposed to this. And as others have stated it does a disservice not only to the Scout, but others as well who will see her with that First Class Rank, and expect her to have the knowledge, skills, and abilities that rank enta

You know what's hard for morale? Girls finding out that you unnecessarily gave them a pass. What's good for morale? Girls knowing you won't skimp on requirements -- theirs or yours.

As much as it pains me to say this, at the moment, it's more problematic, even if not more prevalent, with the females than with the males. Scouts cheating themselves out of program is never a good thing, but with the defined start date of the Girls' troops, there are fairly clear boundaries about what's possible/believable/etc. It's a serious problem for morale when you've got to explain to the girls in your troop why you're not going to let them short-change themselves just so that they can keep up with the girls they've seen in another troop that is playing a bit faster-and-looser

I find that pace is fairly typical for scouts who join at an older age. Also, in my troop, Feb-May is a fairly active time of year. Moreover, if the scout is also a venturer -- especially an officer -- or camp staff she has connections to other crews and troops. Chances are, she lined up activities for her troop at an informal planning meeting in December. If a kid isn't playing basketball they can do a lot in terms of advancement. But, if they are student athletes, they should be keeping exercise records. Our off-season soccer included weight training and it was all that I could do, for