Eagle69

Your committee is creating requirements outside of BSA and that's not correct. The Scout Handbook doesn't have any wait times for these ranks, they used to but that's another story, so it isn't right for your committee to add these wait times.

Around these parts it is not at all uncommon to have an ASM on the board. The board usually consists of one or two people from the district and the rest are Committee Members or an ASM from the boy's Troop. When I was doing the Eagle Boards as Eagle Review Chair we never let the SM participate and that rule was still in effect with the last 4 Eagles I had reviewed. In a lot of troops if you prevent ASM's from sitting in, you will have a hard time getting enough people for a board.

As Herms said:

" Whether they're required or not, they are a good idea. Have you ever looked at the records of your boys at council? Did that last year, and on average a third of the boys advancement/MB's weren't in there. "

That is exactly why you need to request a full advancement printout twice a year and hang on to your signed "green sheets" so you can show council where it was turned in before.

I went through WB in 1978 and it was a walking WB at that. Even though the whole course was done outdoors on the move, I don't remember much outdoor skill instruction. What I do remember was learning how 8 individuals must learn to work together in order to get things done, that the pecking order, so to speak, is the Patrol Leader, SPL, and then the SM. I learned about getting and giving information, representing the group, and several other such things and these were what my ticket was based on. Our learning sessions were done on the side of the trail and now looking back I can see that everything we did had a purpose. We were there to learn what it was like to operate as a patrol and to learn leadership skills. I am like so others that have responded to this thread, the new WB course just doesn't appeal to me at all.

Even when backpacking a trailer is nice. Unless you have a bunch of cargo vans getting 20+ people and backpacks to the starting point is a logistics problem. If your unit is one that stores equipment in the trailer when it is not in use, make sure it is as secure as possible. Where I live units have lost everything when someone steals the trailer from where it is stored.

I have seen patches on a blanket and in the books with the clear vinyl pockets. I knew an adult that had been around Scouting for 50 years and he had multiple blankets of patches that were something to see, but not everyone wants to or has the time to spend doing it that way. A lot of serious patch collectors use the binders so people can flip through the book and look at patches or the displayer can remove the pages and lay them out for looking and still protect the patches.

I have 8 (Eagle, Religious Award Youth, Religious Award Adult, Scoutmasters Key, Scouter Training, NESA Outstanding SM, District Award of Merit, Silver Beaver). I think the Eagle, the NESA award, DAM and the Beaver are the ones I'm proudest of. The Eagle represents hard work on my part to achieve what at that time was something not many had, the NESA because it required nomination by my SPL, the DAM and Beaver because they both are recognition by my peers for the work I had done in Scouting.

For the situation you describe I think you manage ok with Wal-Mart sporting goods stuff. Number one item would be a stocking cap and make sure they wear it to be, gloves, possibly long underwear (synthetic over cotton if you can find it), hopefully they are wearing something other than tennis shoes for footwear because they will be colder than a leather shoe or boot, a coat or jacket to put on. The main thing to remember is you want layers so you can peel off as the day gets warmer and you warm up doing activities. You want to make sure that they don't wear all the same clothes to be that they have been wearing all day. The ones they have been wearing will have moisture in them and it will make the night colder.

It all just shows that even though National may say here are the rules, each council seems to interpret them their own way. The burden falls on us, the leaders, to make sure a kid doesn't get shafted somewhere along the way. Sometimes we have to play the game by the rules of the organizer even though we know that they aren't right.

Some of your Councils are amazingly organized and also seem to be creating rules out of thin air. I've been a SM for 27 years and signed off 25+ Eagles and hundreds of Merit Badges and the blue cards have never gone anywhere outside the Troop level. In my Council there is no such thing as a District/Council Merit Badge counselor list, I've seen reports from Summer Camp on Blue Cards and on a generic piece of paper with the Merit Badge name and the list of requirements completed/not completed and a staffer name. The ones that are completed were sent to the Council Office on a standard advancement form and I never had a Registrar ask to see a blue card or want to know who the Merit Badge Counselor was. It's just amazing to read these threads and see the differences between the way Councils operate.

#4 NESA Outstanding Scoutmaster - white knot on khaki backgroun

Lodge is the premier name in Dutch Ovens, they used to be the ones that made the BSA Official Supply ones, I haven't looked in a long time so I don't know if they still do or not. The difference between their ovens and some of the cheaper ones is the quality of the Iron that was used in manufacturing it. My troop has both the cast iron and aluminum ovens and I much prefer the cast iron official BSA one that was made by Lodge and is almost 30 years old.

That is a myth that you are not covered by Insurance if you fail to file a Tour Permit. You leave yourself open to more questions, but if you were doing everything else correctly then BSA will cover you.

As I said above I love Troopmaster, but I 100% agree on the paper trail as well. We have a binder of all the reports filed with the Scout Office and I have done the Advancement Chart as well.

Prior to acquiring Troop Master we had one of the forms from National that listed all the ranks and Merit Badges, etc. with places to put dates and whenever we turned in a green sheet we updated this, after Troop Master was purchased we keep it updated. I love it. It allows me to see anything regarding advancement, special awards, outing attendance , etc. all with a click of the mouse. If I have a parent that wants to see Johnny's records I can generate a report and print it, email to them or whatever. It conforms to the standards of the National Scout Net so you can upload advancement/recharter information from TM to SN if your council allows it. Of course I support my scouting habit by being a computer programmer so I'm a big fan of computerized record keeping.

Are you wanting a traditional Summer Camp with Advancement/Campfires/Etc. or something more challenging and available only to older boys. If it's the latter then check out Packard High Adventure Base in Southern Colorado. It offers White Water rafting, rock climbing and such, but no traditional Summer Camp stuff.

1 night campouts aren't worth the effort. I've been a leader 30 years and only in rare exceptions have we not done 2 nighters. We don't do anything but set up camp on Friday, but that then leaves Saturday to start out cooking breakfast and have the whole day for activities instead of losing most of Saturday morning to driving and setting up camp. It may impact some kids, but as long as the majority can go on Friday we do. I've had parents of those that want to participate drive up on Saturday morning. Even when backpacking we would drive to the jump off point and on Friday and get up Saturday and have a good breakfast before putting away all the big stoves and heading out into the woods for the rest of the weekend.

As others have said a parent or SM that wants to classify one night as a none troop outing causes warning bells to go off.

Deja Vu. I have had this exact scenario happen to me, fortunately with a different outcome. We were on a backpacking trip and the young man pulled a pot of water that had been boiling on a backpack stove onto his foot. Another scout saw it happen and immediately took the injured boy to the creek and had him put his foot in it. We treated for shock and kept an eye on him, fully prepared to hike out to the car and go for help, but didn't have to. The doctor told his parents later that the older scout taking him to the creek was the best thing that could of happened. It took the heat out of the burn and kept it from being worse than it was.

I've been part of funerals for Scouts and Scouters and at both the Troop attended in uniform and the Troop Flag was front and center.

I think giving the scout the Totem Chip card directly was where things went wrong. The card should have been given to the SM at the end of the week with all the other advancement/awards stuff. If there was a compelling reason for the boy to have it before then, then the area coordinator should have given it to the SM.

As for the rules of the Trading Post,that depends on the camp rules. If the camp says you must show a TC card to buy a knife then that is the rule, if the camp has no rules then its not up to the Trading Post to decide who should or shouldn't be allowed to buy one.

11 Arkansas and Texas Scouts injured by lighting on Baldy Mountain. Here is the link to the story.

http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0707/443447.html

I became SM of a Troop that was going OOC and continued to go to this camp for many many years. The reason being the program and facilities were better. I heard the rumblings about us going OOC and have heard from a reliable source that it was held against me when I was nominated for the Silver Beaver and delayed me getting it for several years. I never heard much from my DE. He always asked why and I told him and he never had a problem, after all he got credit for us being there.

Just come down to Little Rock, Arkansas and put in on the Arkansas River. It is currently running over 200,000 cfs, normal for this time of year is about 30,000. You would get a heck of a float at that level.

The Discovery Channel has a whole forum related to this show. I've looked at it a few times and a lot of the comments you all have made have appeared on the forum, including the question about the PFD.

http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/cfrm/f/5651971848

You have Camp Pioneer just over the border in Arkansas at Potter, Camp Orr in Arkansas on the Buffalo River at Jasper about 200 miles from you,

Camp Preston Hunt in Texarkana, AR about 150 miles away, Camp Rockefeller (formerly Blass Scout Reservation) at Damascus, AR about 200 miles away.