Leaderboard

Ok here are some links I have found. And I want to give a shout out to @Kudu and his Inquiry.net website. It has a wealth of information there. And I want to apologize about the wrong year for the 3rd edition of the SMHB, it was published in 1936, not 1929. Ok here to the links that can help. http://scoutmastertroop56.weebly.com/uploads/1/6/8/6/16867144/the_patrol_method_helps_for_scoutmasters.pdf links to a 1938 pamphlet to help SMs. While Bill is not credited, he probably wrote it. http://inquiry.net/patrol/index.htm Is a ton of resources on the Patrol Method.

With only 3-4 youth, and if only 2-3 want to do camp this year, you are likely going to get the response of "send them as provisional" this far into the summer. Your best bet may be to get ahold of whomever in your council oversees program, and find out if they can connect you with another girls troop who is already booked, and see if they have capacity to host you at their site with their kids/adults.

Answering your last question first. Encourage your SM to never operate as Webelos 3. They are scouts from day 1. If they don't understand what that means, they learn it. (That's why Scout is now considered a rank.) That does not mean the girls are ready to solo in a wilderness recreation area on day 1. That does mean they get into habits of thinking for themselves. Electing a PL. Coming up with a name, yell, flag, etc ... on their own and within a month of starting. Map out camp sites commensurate with their skills. Have them think about what they'd like to do when. They plan their own me

I don't want to go into too much detail on "why" since this involves a Scouter other than myself, but we have a parent/volunteer in our unit who is a former Scout but does not know whether he was ever awarded Eagle or not. Please no commentary on "how could he not know" - this is a unique situation and I'm not going to get into that part as it isn't my story to tell. My question is, how likely is it that the council he grew up in kept records good enough to be able to find out that information? I'm going to estimate this Scouter is about 40 years old by now, so we probably are looking at

@Eagle94-A1 Post a link to Green Bar Bill's ideas on how to start a new troop. One challenge always is for the kids to figure out who would be a good leader and getting to know each other so they can vote on who would be a good PL (or SPL). I'd suggest the first meeting include one or two get to know you games. And, run the games so that the girls start asserting their personality. You will quickly know who would do well standing up in front of others and helping keep things moving. I'd also start PL (SPL) early, but keep it simple. Then continually grow their role as

Use Green Bar Bill’s method, but move them away from adults teaching/learning to youth doing it. As you teach, train roses and thorns ... share the pluses and minuses. I wish these young ladies well.

Typically the CO has a number, do all units it charters have the same #. Only time I knew a CO with 2 numbers was when their troop merged with another, and they decided to keep the other troop's number.

I was told we will have the same number as the Boy Troop due to same CO. It makes some sense... the Troop was one of the very first formed in Texas, So it may be good to be attached to that history.

I am going to go on a different tangent regarding Webelos 3, and New Scouts William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt wrote a 6 month plan to teach New Scouts how the patrols and troop should be run. It could also be used to train an adult led troop's PLC to become a Scout led troop. It is in his 3rd Ed. Scoutmaster Handbook from 1929. I don't remember which volume it is in, I lent the book out and never got it back. But based upon my memory, Bill's plan IS essentially how Webelos is suppose to be done based upon my experience as a Webelos, and the training I have done and taught. In a

Why have the adults choose a troop number? Why not let the girls choose it? (Assuming the C.O. isn't set on matching numbers to existing units.)

I notice that whenever the issue of uniforms is brought up, there is an immediate influx of opinions to the effect of putting down those who support proper uniforming. Sometimes those who support the uniform are belittled as being obsessive-compulsive about something these naysayers claim "doesn't really matter," or, there arises a rather condescending tone implying that these others have "more important things to worry about than patches or pants." I find such patronizing unfortunate, and disappointing. The implication is that if you take time to care about the uniform, you are ign

Just to clarify this point:

Oh yeah, another "no" vote on a Webelos 3 type group. Get the girls involved FROM THE START with the planning. This is super important. Adults can take care of the boring stuff like charter paperwork, but the Scouts need to be presented with their books and then "Ok, figure out how you're going to accomplish this and what you want to do first. We'll be over here in the corner to answer questions. Let us know when you have a plan and if there's a problem with the plan you create we'll help you work through it." I'm doing my homework to see which camps in the region still have space for th

My wife was surprised to see "Fire Ring" ads on her Facebook after requesting I build a fire ring in the back yard for the grand kids. Apparently the digital gods don't trust my fire ring building skills. Try never to forget that The Man is always lurking. 🙄 Barry

Depends on the Council, but they usually keep the old records. I've never heard a council removing any records. But, up until around 2000 when the councils started converting to digital, the records were all hand written. So, the accuracy of the records, at least until around 2000, is a different discussion. I know that our Council put a lot of effort into converting the hand written records into digital. We found that up until 2000, every scout submitting paperwork for EBOR had a least one major advancement error by Council, usually several. Surprisingly few errors, if any, by Council after 2

The fact that SBR, even on just a limited number of weekends a year, doesn't have a handful of campsites available for unit camping is just a poor use of resources. Such a small amount of the total area of land is "developed" , and it is an ideal location for some weekend backpacking trips, and there are numerous opportunities nearby, like you say, for rafting and there are several horse ranches that do day treks as well. Let the place get used for more than summer HA, and jambos.

Less weight = more happiness. Go with the lighter pack and work on a lower base weight. Mine is around 12 pounds right now. On a budget you can easily be under 15 before crew gear, food and water. My mostly complete list for our 7/28/2019 trek: https://lighterpack.com/r/1y08fv

An 11-year-old Girl Scout was killed when a tree fell in a "freak accident" at an Indiana campground on Monday, officials said. A 10-year-old girl and two women were also injured in the incident. The Perry County Sheriff's Office said it received a call at around 11:30 a.m. local time about a tree that had fallen on several campers and volunteers at Camp Koch, the Girl Scouts of Southwest Indiana's resident camp facility, nestled along the Ohio River near the small city of Cannelton. https://abcnews.go.com/US/fallen-tree-kills-girl-scout-injures-indianas-camp/story?id=63925808

Oh, Please! Don't you guys ever get tired of sucking up to your bosses.