EagleBeaver

I'd agree. That's what's done in our lodge - just a simple call out of names and instructions for the next step. No knocking or bopping or smacking or cracking.

We tend to recognize at the patrol level and we have a Patrol Spirit award and Coup Beads for patrol flags:

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/activity/patrol_spirit_competition-1383.asp

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/activity/patrol_coup_sticks-1382.asp

The scouts also decided to give a Scoutmaster Challenge a try this year:

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/library/scoutmasterchallenge.htm

The new SPL wants to do something about the level of cookin on campouts, so I think I'll mention the Golden Spoon to him.

Scout On

In our troop, we'll typically have a dozen or so eligible for OA, but only 2 or 3 get elected. The scouts are quite selective when deciding who gets in. In other troops, there will be a dozen called out. I suppose that has a lot to do with how it is presented to the voting scouts.

In our troop, current OA members will describe the OA and explain the characteristics of a candidate. The scouts seem to take it quite seriously when deciding if Billy or Bobby demonstrate those traits.

As far as continuing activity in the OA, I see the same thing. Scouts get in, get the sash, but then have many other activities taking their time and there's not much room to add more meetings, conclaves, and ceremonies. But, the handful that do 'get it' make a very positive impact on the troop.

Scout On

Since I'm also a Camping merit badge counselor, I use that as an example of how the merit badge process works for new scouts when I'm doing their 'Scout' scoutmaster conference. Hiking and Backpacking are two others that take quite a bit of outdoors time.

At summer camp, new scouts often do Basketry and Leatherwork merit badges because they are fun and tactile, and they have something tangible to show mom & dad when they get home. I've found that starting merit badges that require strength, skill, or bookwork right away can turn scouts off and it's better to get a couple fun ones done while they are concentrating on their First Class advancement requirements.

There are a couple suggestions at http://www.boyscouttrail.com/boy-scouts/eagle-scout-schedule.asp for completing merit badges required for Eagle in 9th grade.

Mail lists for entire troop, each patrol, PLC, ASMs, then temporary ones for each high adventure crew. Each scout and parent has an email forwarder so everyone just needs to remember bobby@troopdomain.org no matter which gmail, hotmail, freemail, ... service Bobby moves to next week. That has saved a lot of headache.

The SPL, scribe, and SM send meeting notes, newsletters, and one-way communication through email often. But, I'm constantly reminding folks that if you really want a reply, the fone or face work lots better.

We've had a website with blog areas for each patrol to keep an historic log of their activities. Really sounds like a neat idea, but hasn't been used much.

We're now using www.TroopKit.com for a lot of troop management and it has lots of automated reminder email and online outing reservations.

One new-tech communication device I'd really recommend you check out is the Spot Messenger at findmespot.com for your camping trips. Lets parents back home know right where you are and that everything is ok - and it is one-way, unlike a bothersome cellphone.

http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/trainingmodules/scoutmaster%20conference%20training.aspx has some good information on delegating conferences to assistant Scoutmasters, stating that it might be done in larger troops for lower ranks and not for Star, Life, or Eagle in any troop.

That shows the BSA's stance that it should only be the Scoutmaster doing the conference.

Waste is one thing that really irks me. It has been a frustrating part for me about cooking as autonomous patrols. But, the benefits of having each patrol do their own menu planning, purchasing, arguing, cooking, clean-up, and garbage disposal far outweigh the wasted food. Taking care of food at the troop level is easier, cheaper, and faster, but whenever I see that at summer camp, I notice adults cooking and scouts sitting around.

Patrols make their own menus and they are sometimes lacking in representation of the food pyramid, but all scouts understand that their scoutmaster won't be signing off any rank advancement for heating a hotdog or poptart over an open flame.

One of our main points when having boy scouts speak to webelos dens is that they are not 'graduating' from anything. They've just gotten their big toe wet in scouting and the real fun starts this spring. When older scouts deliver this message along with pictures and stories of their adventures, the webelos don't seem burned out.

Most (nearly all) parents of joining scouts that were involved as cub scout leaders inform me that they really want a break from being a leader. It is seldom that one says, "OK, sign me up!" The adults that were involved in cub scouts have put in a lot of effort and I have no problem giving them a 'honeymoon' time with the troop. Long about November, we start talking again about where they might help out.

evmori: The kindergarten program is more than talk. It's an active program in some select areas.

I've got 20 7.5 foot natural poles in my garage - gathered by an Asst. Scoutmaster off his property. It's oak, ironwood, and birch - whatever looked the straightest and skinniest. They are all about 2-3 inches in diameter.

It's enough to build a catapult, swing, or single story tower, but nothing big.

Look for small trees within an older forest since they'll be growing higher and straighter searching for sun. You might contact local DNR or property owners to see if your scouts can harvest a couple dozen trees.

Scout On

We got 22 ALPS 2-man and 4-man Taurus tents before Christmas from ScoutDirect.com when they had a big sale - just $29 and $39 each. We've been using this style tents for 3 years now and have been very pleased. Now, we're set (and committed) for the next few years.

I prefer fiberglass poles - they are less expensive, they break rather than stay bent weird, and I don't like aluminum around me in storms. Fiberglass weighs a little more, but not so much to make a difference backpacking.

They have a full rainfly that creates a completely enclosed alcove on both sides of the tent, so a 2-man has room for both scout's gear protected right outside the tent. The fly to the ground is tons better in rain than those that are open on the ends or go part-way down.

I've spent two Philmont treks and 3 other weeks in one of these 2-mans.

We start the new scouts with 4-mans and 3 scouts in each. When they get ready for high adventure, they graduate to 2-man and pass their 4-man on to the next class of scouts.

Scout On

All I know is over 50% of the scouts at this week's troop meeting were in BSA pants instead of the occasional few. And, I expect that will continue to climb now that it's a majority. My pair of Switchbacks from 2006 are still working fine.

If you have cell phone coverage and call 911, how long will it take for advanced medical help to reach the victim? If it's more than 30-45 minutes, then Wilderness First Aid Basics procedures are more appropriate than urban First Aid. I expect that covers a very high percentage of the normal weekend campouts scouts go on. The skills covered are valuable to a lot more people than just Philmonteers.

This WFAB training has been recommended for the BSA high adventure bases for quite awhile, but the recent BSA volunteer interest comes from the 'recommendation' changing to a 'requirement' for Philmont. I'm having a fun time presenting the training to lots of BSA folks this spring. It's a fun session to present and at least a few of the participants have enjoyed it.

For WildernesStudent, a large chunk of situations that can go wrong in the wild start small and grow into problems. Dehydration, hypothermia, heatstroke, all develop. With the safety emphasis in BSA, I believe lots of the potential problems never develop due to proactive prevention. Pushing limits of personal abilities, equipment, time, and weather are other ways to ask for trouble. BSA volunteers are (should be) trained to resist those temptations and keep outings safe. Those are reasons why there may be fewer horror stories to share than you would think.

While backpacking and camping, I've had to care for hypothermia, dehydration, altitude sickness, sliced finger, sliced leg, hand burns, sprained ankle. No compound fractures, sucking chest wounds, or guts hanging out, but those major traumas are less common as you've figured out.

We use the Patrol method.

Adults make, buy, and prepare their meals separately from the scouts. Except at summer camp where adults are guests of patrols and they go to a different patrol each meal.

Scouts do their own cooking and cleaning, as do the adults.

The patrol that planned the campout creates an agenda. Meal times are on the agenda so patrols cook and clean in time for the next activitiey - theoretically. :-) Duty rosters are a great way for a PL to fairly distribute tasks to his patrolmates. As a single-aged patrol matures and gets used to working together the duty roster becomes less needed.

If a patrol doesn't finish their meal in time for the next activity, they either miss the activity or put off their clean-up until later. It's up to them.

On http://www.scouting.org/awards/centennialawards/faq.aspx it mentions the black patch is for units rechartering in December 2006. (FAQ #15 which doesn't make much sense to me)

There's yet another quality unit patch for 2007 100% Boys Life - http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/ItemDetail.aspx?cat=01RTL&item=18023 - this is the one our troop has received.

After a direct discussion with the SM fails, asking your Unit Commissioner to review the troop's operations might be a good idea. I've asked our UC for advice many times and gotten steered the right way.

There is a 'challenge' option to the ARC WFAB course. If you demonstrate proficiency in all the skills and pass the exam, you get the certification. That might be a way for Eagle732 to fulfill the requirements without using up 16 hours in training.

I guess our council is generous. Trails-End gets 30%, Council gets 30%, and Troops get 35% of the sale price. Instead of having scouts choose prizes, the troop can get 40% instead of 35%. But, that needs to be an entire troop choice.

Camp Tomahawk in the Northern Star Council (www.northernstarbsa.org) has a good camp.

A scout from our troop always has soccer the week when we traditionally go to camp so he went to camp with an 'All-Star' troop to Many Point Scout Camp and had a great time last year. I expect he'll do the same this year. It is a troop made up of scouts that could not attend with their own troops but really wanted to do camp.

Just think about that - some pretty motivated scouts that really want to be at camp will probably be a great group to be with.

The page at http://www.scouting.org/forms/34408.pdf which is the award application form specifically has a checkbox for bicycles.

From looking at your posts from the past 4 months, this one seems to be out of the blue.

But, leadership development doesn't start when a scout turns 14 or after he's been in Boy Scouts for 3 years or at any magic point in time. As a Webelos den leader, I expec you are already developing their leadership in age-appropriate den activities. Having them lead flag ceremonies, be the denner, maybe choose where to go for a hike. Then, when they cross over to Boy Scouts, their leadership development continues if the troop they join uses New Scout Patrols(NSP).

Our troop has a Troop Guide lead the NSP, but more as a teacher and guide. Each month a new scout is elected as Patrol Leader so he can attend a PLC and lead the patrol with the Troop Guide.

No one needs Scouting to get a boy into the outdoors - anyone can rent a canoe or go for a walk. Scouting aims for character development, citizenship, and physical fitness through an exciting outdoor program. There aren't many other organizations that attempt to deliver that much. Chess, soccer, and swimming are all great activities, but I expect there's only 1 or 2 team captains and those are not really developing much leadership under the control of the coach.

The thought of "little return on the investment" just doesn't fit with my family's experience in Scouting. It's been a great return every year.

Good Luck with your decision.

John-in-KC:

The 'old' way of a troop getting lower priority in year x+1 was good - but that is no longer being done according to the reply I received from Philmont.

I believe a more fair way would be for a troop to get a priority boost for each year it puts in and is not picked. I would expect each troop could then go at least once every three years with the current load on the ranch.

We are #1034 on the waiting list of 1418 groups for 2007. Philmont services 22,000 participants each year. If trek crews are 12 people, that means they have about 1800 crews go through and 1400 more wanting to go.

I asked Philmont about our chances for 2008. Being on the wait list gives us NO advantage the next year. Everyone enters the lottery and lucky ones get selected. With this system, our troop may never get to Philmont again.

I asked about availability of Double H as a new adventure. Double H said they used the same system as Philmont and have no openings for 2007.

So, this summer our scouts are organizing a backpacking trek to Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming and backpacking to Arches Nat'l Park in Utah in 2007. I'm expecting our adventures will broaden as the scouts get experience in planning and running a trek from start to finish. We'll keep putting in for Philmont, but we don't expect it to happen.

I just picked up the "Troop Leadership Training" (TLT) packet from the scout shop yesterday for $7.00 with high hopes that it would be an improvement over the stale, 5 year old, "Scoutmaster's Junior Leader Training Kit" (JLT). Man, what a disappointment. If you want to see the new TLT packet instead of paying $7.00 for it, take a look at http://training.cfcbsa.org/forms/TroopLeaderTrainingSyllabus.pdf - it is the entire 15 pages online. It just doesn't have the wallet cards.

As a scoutmaster, I believe my highest goal after keeping things safe is training the scouts. I MUST be missing something here. There must be some additional resources that I forgot to buy or that are not available yet. Have any of you found what I'm looking for? Can anyone tell me that there is more information to use for training troop leaders than this?

If this is it, then I have some work ahead to create our own troop training workbook using resources from the JLT and this new outline. Having each troop develop their own training program with such minimal guidance seems like a bad, inefficient thing to be happening.

mn_scout

--------------------------------------

JLT was 128 pages and TLT is 15 - 15 pages for a new scoutmaster to use to train his troop leaders to run a troop.

JLT had 2 page "Guide for Conducting an Introduction to Leadership" sections that I could copy and use as support for the person doing the session. That was pages 15-88. These seem to be replaced by a wallet card for each position that lists the job duties and has a place for the scout to write his goals and sign his name.

JLT had a "Continuing Training Opportunities" section with 10 pages of scenarios, tips, and advice - some of them were lame, but they had points. TLT now has 2 pages and it is just advertising NYLT, Philmont training, and an OA national seminar. No help, no advice, no tips, nothing.

JLT had pages 89-116 devoted to the troop leaders training session with suggestions, goals, activities, games, and guidelines. In TLT, it is now less than 3 pages.

Its Me asks: Could it be that the Webelos program itself is the reason for the high attrition rate between the two scouting divisions?

I'd give a definite, absolute, emphatic, cheerful 'NO' to that question. There is a progression of age-appropriate activities from Bear to Webelos and from Webelos to Boy Scouts. I also do not believe the Webelos program saves the fun stuff for Boy Scouts. I do believe the level of skills and character challenges in the program are meaningful to boys of Webelos age.

I think a bigger reason for attrition is parents and pack leaders not understanding that Cub Scouts is a preparatory program for Boy Scouts. Instead of telling scouts things like "almost done with Webelos", saying "almost ready for Boy Scouts" could be a significant mind change.

Our den of 11 scouts ate up the Webelos program and said it was the best part of Cub Scouts. But, we camped, hiked, built fires, did first aid, went places, and did things. We did not sit with the book giving answers to questions just to get an advancement checked off, which can happen.

Since the aims of scouting are Character, Citizenship, and Fitness it makes sense to me that the Fitness and Citizenship activity badges are mandatory for earning the Webelos rank badge. Other than those two, there are 18 other optional activity badges that the scouts can earn. A den sure doesn't need to do ALL the badges. Most of them are active, fun requirements but some (such as Scholar and Family Member) may need some imagination to make them interesting.

Scout On

Try using games that do not eliminate players or you'll have a lot just standing around.

Blob Tag

Crabs, Crows, Cranes

Giants, Elfs, Wizards

Gift Givers

Yanks and Rebels

See http://www.boyscouttrail.com/cub-scouts/tiger-scout-Games.asp for instructions and other games.