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Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/23/20 in Posts

  1. One of the most difficult concepts Crossover parents have to adjust to is that not every moment of a campout has to be scheduled. We normally give our scouts a couple of hours of afternoon free time. Some will go out on their own for a hike, play whatever sport is in season at the time, play cards, sleep, Do homework(!),work on advancements,. or just hang out with friends. It also gives the adults some free time to relax. read, or do whatever they want. Scouts say it is the best part of the campouts and some of their best memories. And I agree with 69 Roadrunner. I am known for bei
    4 points
  2. Last night we had an adult leader meeting. Our CM has been very busy with work and family responsibilities. We gave her a report on our successful Summit Merit Badge Camp and Northern Tier trip. We did Philmont last year and she asked us to compare it to Northern Tier. They're very different adventures. I loved Philmont and Northern Tier. One thing that was common about Summit and NT this year was the lack of program. I know some won't want to hear this, but it was a great thing. Hear me out. Normally at Summit they have evening program. This year, the scouts were free to do wh
    2 points
  3. One of our VOA VP’s called it “structured unstructured time.”
    2 points
  4. I'm constantly fighting this battle within my Pack. It's exhausting for everyone when we're on a tight schedule in camp. And it's totally unnecessary, especially at the Pack level. I think the idea is that we camp just a few times per year, so we have to make the most of each trip. But it seriously burns people out, I think the kids included. They want time to just run around in the woods, play a game, hang out in camp. That's a quality experience in itself. To this day one of my Webelos son's favorite memories of scouting so far is a trip a couple of years ago and "log battle" in camp, 2
    2 points
  5. Some of the best camp outs our troop had were focused around one core activity for the day. The rest of the day was meals and free time.
    1 point
  6. I remember one campout camped beside a creek with a little spring flowing off of it, probably two feet wide at mos. Our scouts must have spend two to three hours trying to dam up the creek with sticks, stones, etc. They finally formed a little pool and were so proud of their engineering feat. Then they dismantled it to get it back to natural. We couldn't have planned a better activity if we tried! Dale
    1 point
  7. I suspect that Scouts Canada will simply be the latest in an increasingly long list of national organisations doing this. Scouting is a movement, it has to move with the times. Just like in the UK Scouts Canada are not ditching religion but simply making room for those with no religion. And that can only be a good thing, bringing people together with different beliefs.
    1 point
  8. I've always been a fan of leaving lots of time for the scouts to just be scouts: run around in the woods and have fun. Too much of kids' time today is programmed. A lot of the benefit of scouts i y opinion is just giving them time to figure out how to occupy and entertain themselves. I occasionally get push back on this from the other adults in the troop, although I've brought most of them along. I definitely get push back when we're at district and council events. But I never insist my scouts attend any part of a program that they don't want to --- most of which are evening program
    1 point
  9. Our trip last year to Sea Base was also filled with "activities". We went to Munson Island and the scouts enjoyed most of the program - fishing, kayaking and snorkleling were great but almost every night we had a campfire and sang cub scouts songs and 3 or 4 repeat after me songs. These campfire programs were fun the first night but grew tiresome and the scouts wished we could just hang out or go night fishing. I am sure there is a purpose for these over the top programs but I also think they are overrated.
    1 point
  10. My troop is shut down until the school activities resume. No plans for this fall. Fall sports are also cancelled, so we aren't being treated any different from the other activities. Instead of looking at fall, I'm looking at winter. We lost 90% of the 2020 scouting year. Families didn't get what they paid for. I don't know how many will be willing to sign up and pay for registration fees again in 2021. I think BSA should waive the 2021 registration fees for scouts who paid the fees in 2020. It would be the fair thing to do.
    1 point
  11. Oh, let me share a coin horror story. While working as a Transit Bus Driver, in rush hour, it was not unusual for folks to pay the fare with a handful of coins, carefully dribbled into the electric farebox. I had a lady board and proceed to unroll a penny roll and carefully line'm up into the slot. It took a few seconds for me to realize THEY WERE BRIGHT UNCIRCULATED STEEL CENTS. I put my hand over the farebox and asked her where she had got that roll. She responded out of her husbands desk drawer, as she needed money for the farebox. I explained to her that each of those "pennies" w
    0 points
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