eagle90

Happy Holidays to all of my Scouter Forum friends! Dale

Well said Jameson. I totally agree Dale

Very nice. We had two very influential leaders pass within three months. Might look into doing that. Dale

One of our former ASM's was a woodworker and made a gavel out of a piece of wood from our summer camp. Unfortunately he passed away way too early from brain cancer, so we use the gavel symbolically to feel he is still with us. Dale

The CC bangs his gavel and says "The Meeting will come to order"....

Wonder what the mortgage payment is on $450,000,000?

28 degrees would be a welcomed heat wave here today. It is 14 degrees with a -5 wind chill!

We always have our scouts in uniform when selling our tickets either door to door or in front of the local supermarket. What better PR for the organization?

LOL! Our troop is camping this weekend too. Only the temperature is supposed to be in the low 20's Friday night!

Our new scouts receive a troop neckerchief and a troop t-shirt. If they are crossing over from the pack, they receive a handbook from the pack.

Hope she didn't get the Gucci outfit wet and the high heels didn't puncture the raft!

We have found that early August is the best time. After black fly season, and the mosquitoes are calming down. Also the weather and the water is the warmest. We prefer Ely, as the waters and woods are similar to the Canadian side, and there are no daily fees. Dale

We have done a Rummage/Garage Sale for over 20 years. We fill the school gym with used treasures and normally make between $1,500 and $2,000 for one day's work. It is also a good fellowship activity because it gets all families involved, even the ones we don't see too often.

We had a similar situation occur a number of years ago when two brand new parents did not like the way the troop operated and left to start their own troop. We lost about ten scouts. However, we gritted it out and prospered and grew. The new troop had problems right from the start, a lot of internal dissension, and folded after two years. Some of the scouts came back to us and said that leaving was the worst decision they ever made. So keep up the good work and things will get better! Dale

We have always tipped our Sea Base guide or rafting guides after our trips. We did not tip the boat captains. We don't do it blatantly, but discretely. For the most part these young men are not highly paid, and if our tip can pay for a pizza or the like for them, we've done a good thing. We build it into the fees for the trip

After 40+ years it got to the point that instead of looking forward to meetings and campouts I was dreading them. It was time to step down. Best thing I ever did. Now I go to the events that I want to and not have to. Lot less stress and aggravation

PROGRAM PROGRAM PROGRAM

After doing Eagle Scoutmaster Conferences for 30+ years, one of the questions I always asked was "When did you decide you wanted to become an Eagle?" And one of the most popular responses was "When I was at so and so's Eagle COH." So it is not only for the eagle candidate. but is a great inspiration for younger scouts. Dale

One of the most fun activities at Scout camp as a youth was building a raft out of logs and 55 gallon drums and then "sailing" it out on the lake and seeing how long it would stay afloat! A good pioneering project.

Absolutely not. Let's not get carried away with paperwork and regulations!

Sure sounds like this would negatively impact the Scouting program and the scouts attending the camps. We go to get into the woods and away from all the hub bub of city life and traffic. Having RV's driving thru camp would sure be a downer. And do you think that none of those campers and RV's would have a frig filled with their beverage of choice?

Did you go through a private outfitter or through the scout base there?

Ed Bryant Scout Reservation (Glacier's Edge Council) near Mauston, Wisconsin offers a patrol cooking option. Patrols cook breakfast and dinner, but eat lunch in the dining hall. Seems to work out just fine. Dale

We allow cell phones but they can only be used for "Scouting purposes". i.e. as an alarm clock, camera, requirement fulfillment, etc. We will confiscate it if we find them using them to play games or as social media. We also let them no there is no way to charge them so whenever the battery goes dead, that's it for the week.

Our camp offers jet ski and ATV classes for older scouts and also has a pontoon boat troops can rent and have a couple hour's cruise on the Lake.