DugNevius

i dunno, sounds like hes doing a lot of the work himself. That goes against the point of the project. Maybe it just doesnt explain it well.

at summer camp it always seems that someone adds pasta to cold water before its boiling.

Its part of boys growing up. At that age they are hitting puberty and part of that is the new influx of testosterone which makes guys aggressive. They are building a pecking order and the put downs and name calling is both part of a bonding experience as well as a way of establishing rank. This competitive aggression is natural and unavoidable, but the way it is focusing and manifesting is. Focus it in other ways like sports while re-enforcing the rules yur troop has concerning put downs and swearing.

im always having problems with "Today's Active Topics" I seem to get an Error message when i click it.

wow, i dunno which i like better, tossing the sad DRP or everything that Gwd-Scouter said.

Id would also add to stop the selling of council property, making scout run BORs universal and getting rid of those damn burros in Philmont.

you are exactly right, Beavah, our minimalistic style came about 15 years ago when my scout master was 23 and wanted us to do a lot of high adventure and philmont because that was the part of his scouting youth that he enjoyed the most. Ive just kept it going and we have never looked back.

A backpacking troop does attrack a specific type of youth (And adult) membership and may turn off others. The great thing about being minimalistic is that you can do so no matter what the trip is, be it a hike down the AT or its a camporee. We dont do council trips that often but on the few that we have attended our scouts were shocked at the ammount of equipment in which other troops of equal size would bring. They were military operations setting up command centers, benches, grills, house tents, flood lights. It was awe inspiring but at the same time our boys took greater pride in how they got by with so little. Their idea is that if yu cant fit it in yur backpack and hike comfortably for however long a distance, its not worth having.

I will also agree that minimalism helps push the patrol method. In our troop our adults never deal with the patrol when it comes to set up/break down or food prep at all. Thats the SPL and his senior patrols duty. i have often witnessed two things when seeing massive troop trips like the 3 trailers and generators, and that is that either the adult leaders do a lot more for the boys then they should like cooking/kp and set up/breaqk down or they are simply bringing all the comforts of home for the Dad's sake. The way i see it, as an adult i set up my tent, break out my Crazy Creak chair and start in on a book. Alert me when its time to eat.

In the past we have had more issues with the DAD's on a trip then the sons. One particular father was a constant problem turning out trips into a scout trip with their family along with. They would have their own food, wander off on their own hikes and vanishing. Once, while he was driving kids home he took an hour detour leaving us waiting at the pickup spot clueless as to where he was with four boys. We had to tell him he couldnt go along anymore.

One time at philmont i had an issue with one adult who had refused to almost any physical training to get in shape for our Super Strenious trek. He could barely keep up, refused to hike with the crew, slowed us down and then started a mini-mutiny where he and his son and another scout were exempt of doing crew duties such as KP or carrying much weight.

As of today both dads and their scouts are no longer part of the troop.

it would depend on the trip. We backpack so the equipment we normally use is light and minimal. Per patrol Light tents, a tarp , a backpacking stove, one or two medium and small pots, stripped down vittle kit, water purification, bear bag and rope, first aid kit, collapsable jerry jug. Are boys always cook for themselves with the exception of our holiday party where they are treated to a banquet. Everything has to be carried by foot.

we try to get from wake up to on the trail within a half hour including eating.

What exactly are they yelling about?

Since i have been an ASM (which at 28 is now a decade-yikes!) i can only remember having to scream once and that was at Philmont in 2005 due to a major safey issue and scare. Other then that i dont recall any.

Tone is more effective the volume.

Last tuesday a scout was doing a demo. He is a 9th grader. When some younger scouts were talking during his presentation he pointed them out and said "Shut up!"

After his demo i pulled him aside, complemented him on his orginization, preperation and use of visual aids and then i gave him advice. I told him saying shut up alienated the person who was talking and that a better option would have been to first ask politly for them not to talk and then later use a stern but collected tone demanding respect. If you give respect you are more likely to get respect back. Finished, i gave him a smile and my fathers favorite send-off "Get outta here, kid, yur botherin' me." Message sent, message received.

Good post Uz.

I had a few Scoutmasters all with varying toughness and varying success. My first SM was my friends father who would scream bloody murder at the slightest offense but it became comedic to us and it soon lost effect. (He has now come back to our troop as an assistant but once again the scouts joke about him and call him Marlboro man and Mr Dutch Oven)

My second scoutmaster never yelled at all. He was a big kid and a goof and was never hard on us, never disciplined us. The troop actually faltered, shunk and the program became weak.

My third and final scoutmaster took over at 23. He was an Eagle scout from our own troop.n He was the perfect combonation. He was young enough through his 8 years as SM that we never looked at him as an old fart or a dad and old enough that we respected him as being an adult. He would play sports with us, taught us all to love Ultimate Frisbee and we adopted it as our troop sport, played capture the flag, kicked all our butts in Risk and joked around about movies and TV shows and Music.

But he was also tough. He held us accountable and expected us to be men. We were never to be late, we were always to be early. We were always to be prepared we never forgot. We never complained, we would only correct. No one spoke when someone else was speaking to the group. We never waited we took inititive. When we DIDNT or werent, he let us know.

That balance helped rebuild the troop and molded 12 eagles and 3 high adventure trips in 8 years where the two SMs before had produced 1 eagle and no HA trips in 4. The troop tripled in size and the boys that came out of it, even if they didnt get eagle, came out with life long love and respect for the troop.

Tough, fair and fun. Hold them to be men and scouts will impress the SM, as long as the SM can also be a kid sometimes.

I did notice this when i first came to this forum. I just let whatever aggression i received roll off my back with a smile.

scouts that commit to a trip pay their share if they go or not. Its up to our patrol leaders to collect the money.

i have a scout that i also tutor. Last year he was in 9th grade. Great kid but absent minded. I would constantly ask him if he had a notebook at a meeting or greenbar to which the reply was often "I forgot".

So i went to a 99 cent store and got him a cheap notebook and gave it to him. Under one condition. I would randomly ask to see it at a meeting or greenbar, and if he could not produce it he would pay me 25 cents. He agreed.

After a handful of quarters in my pocket it started to sink in. I havent had to ask. Now he has that notebook at everything.

its all about personal agenda. Some people in positions of power feel the need to force on others their beliefs and interpretations of things.

Religion is no more the core of scouting then being clean, brave or thrifty. Do scouts get turned away or denied rank because they are not physically fit? Maybe at BORs we should have the lads drop and do a set of twenty five push-ups?

we are in a similar situation

this up comming weekend is our 10th annual Troop Olympics. The scouts compete in patrol and individual events of athleticism and skills.

We have a scout working on eagle. A deathbed eagle if yu will. He turns 18 in mid april and his eagle project has originally been planned for a saturday two weeks ago but because of the weather here in NJ it was cancled that weekend and the past weekend as well. Because of a trip to greece april 3rd he has but 2 weekends left and is hoping that the troop olympics could be moved.

Its being presented to the Greenbar (PLC) tomorrow at the beginning of our meeting. Its up to them. And the weather. Right now we have a good 4 inches of icey snow on the ground which makes it impossible to do the project and difficult to do the olympics.

For us, having a Staff patrol, or honors, is very benificial. First, it cuts down on a logjam of leadership and allows fresh blood to take over as patrol leaders. It builds a patrol that works as an example of how things are done and it keeps the older boys fresh and active. They each act as advisors to the younger scouts and learn different skills as young leaders. They are the SPL's support staff to which he delegates different duties.

the boys pick which one they want to go to. plain and simple.

we have a Staff patrol, consisting of star and above scouts with specific POR such as Quartermaster, scribe, Historian, ASPL and the SPL

"The scoutmaster that brings along "extras" for the boys who forget things is doing their boys a major disservice.

My boys are taught the first time to do it correctly. After that, if they are not prepared, they go without or figure out an alternative. After a while they figure it out that doing it right and being prepared is the easiest in the long run."

very very true

Chippewa29's topic about recruitment amazed me when he described the "Bells and whistles" of a rival troop. The troop had over a hundred scouts and more then 20 ASMs. I cant imagine a troop of that size.

So what is your troop size and adult leadership size? What do yur scoutmasters do specificly?

Out troop is about 35 boys with 3 assistant scoutmasters. one asm works with eagle cannidates, one deals with equipment and I work on leadership.

its basically all about repetition and eventually it gets burned into their brains.

ahhh Friends of Scouting...

going on everything could burn you out. That is what Assistants are for.

yes, that is true. For our high adventure training attendence is required unless previously Ok'd by adult leaders.

I would think that most of the pro athletes did little else in their lives other then playing that sport since a very young age.

MtM- totly unrelated, but how would it be possible for your troop to attend philmont 2 years in a row when there are limitations against that?