Leaderboard

Ive used smart water bottles and gatorade bottles on 2 PSR treks and a few other non-PSR treks. I like the smart water because they are tall and skinny so fit better in my side pockets. I usually get multiple 32oz and 1 of the 16oz with the "sport bottle" lid. I drink the 16 at home and put the lid on the 32. Be sure to put names on them because they all look alike. I havnt used a pack cover in many years. Instead I use a pack liner and just deal with the pack itself being wet. Any heavy duty trash bag will work as a liner, I like the ones we get from the DOT for highway cleanup bec

I told our scouts to pack all of their personal gear in their backpack. Then make sure they had enough space leftover to fit their home bed pillow in the pack. This would ensure there was enough space for food and crew gear. One scout arrived at gear shakedown with a pack that looked completely full. I was worried. He had arrived with the pillow in his pack to prove he had enough space.

I'm trying to teach them to use some of the lightweight techniques that modern backpackers are using in their through hikes of the Appalachian Trail and other trails. If backpacking becomes something they want to do after scouts, I want them to know they can go light and enjoy backpacking more. Using Smartwater or other "disposable" bottles is very common among lightweight backpackers. They are surprisingly durable and light. I was told one of our previous scoutmasters took our troop to Philmont and hit the trail with a pack that weighed over 70 pounds. I can only assume he carried a

Hydration. My high school band uniform was worsted wool. We had no "seasonal" uniform. Dry clean after every parade in the summer months. Sweat and sweat. Long cotton or nylon pants aren't a problem. Uniform means "uniform" so the Scouts at least in the color guard should all be uniformed the same. Same long pants, same type of Scout shorts, same caps, same socks, same type of shoe/boot.

I've been using the same aluminum canteen for 45 years, just sayin'. The only downside is I haven't resided at the address that I engraved on it for some 30 years. If I lose the thing, I might have to take a drive there, introduce myself, and have them keep a lookout and find it a good home. The clear bottle for drink mix is a good idea too.

Philmont rangers like to hang the bear bag first thing after finding camp ( I was taught set up shelter first). Teach everyone to put all their smellables in one bag so they can empty their pack and grab their bag and throw it in the bear bag. And anything else that smells like a shirt with spilled food on it. Barry

Gotcha. When i hear politics, nowadays I am thinking of extremes to each side and arguing/refusing to listen. You mean actual Oxford English Dictionary II definition of politics.

Mmmm, need more opinions, but the thin plastic Gatorade bottles wear out quickly with rough treatment of backpacking. Maybe others here had a better experience. Pack covers are as important for protecting the packs at night as they are during the day because there isn’t enough room for them in the tents. It can rain almost every night. Nothing like packing a soggy pack. If you don’t want to purchase a pack cover. Consider heavy duty trash bags. One thing we didn’t consider on our shake downs was the size and weight of food. You’re packing for almost a week. ITS A LOT. So remember

My Troop retires around 200 flags a year. The above is correct. The only thing that we absolutely do not do is refer to the flag retirement as a flag burning. We different people bring us a flag to be retired and tell us that they have a flag to be burned we tell them that we see a US Flag burning as a protest against our great country therefore we do not burn flags but retire the Flag by fire.

Welcome to adult leadership. Unfortunately, there are those in Scouting that want to do Scouting THEIR way or just cannot manage to play well with others. Some options: Lead them. Easier said than done, but by setting expectations and leading by example, advising and guiding you may be able to get through. Continue to have discussions with them and let them know why you have certain expectations and how they can help you and the Cubs by following them. Hard, but really the Scouting way. It's your sandbox, your rules. Now that you are CM you have push back on certain be

This one sentence tells me that your troop is on the right track. Based on my experience. the most difficult challenges for an SPL is less hands-on and delegating. And these are two great skills for scouts to learn for the rest of their life. I agree. I teach adults to push their patience to the point of when the scouts aren't having fun. That is when the program has to pulled back a tad. And, that is difficult for younger troops because the scouts (and adults) don't know how to change the program before it reaches that point. For example, I learned that most scouts advertise they will

Totally agree. Which is why the SM needs to be strong in youth led, so he is able to step in and guide the adults and SPL. He needs to be able to gently push back on the ASM and nudge forward the SPL until both parties understand the dynamic. It is an awesome thing when it works like it should. I had 2 SM's from other troops come to me at an event and suggest we do something together. I told them it sounded good, but that was the SPLs call. The SM's went to SPL, who said it sounded good and he would be glad to talk to their SPL's to see if they could work something out, but he did not co

Before National turned Eagle into more of an association goal, around 3 percent of scouts earned the award. That is very close to the same statistic of companies that reach the Fortune 500 status as well as the natural leaders and visionaries in the population. I would expect that the ratio is about the same for above average BSA units. I'm not sure how an above average unit would be measured, but I expect growth or consistent high output performance as a function of program would be on the list. Our program motto was "Put the adults out of business", so we had to constantly change parts

I've found some very good comments here. My sadness is the ideal is hard to achieve and hard to maintain. Leaders change. Life happens. Adults don't always agree. More importantly, I truly believe the scouting program that I want my son to be part of rarely looks like the ideal troop.

One of my WB tickets in 1995 was visiting 5 troop PLC meetings to learn ideas of how scouts run them. Four of the five troops I visited went exactly this way. I visited other troop PLC meetings over the years along with OA youth leaders meetings over the years and saw the same problem. It happens a lot and the main reason is the adults don't know how to run meetings, so they don't teach the SPL how to plan and run meetings. Dysfunctional PLC meetings lead into dysfunctional youth run programs. As a result, the adults takeover. Adults have a hard time taking themselves out of the process o