Eagledad

>>It makes me feel dirty that I have to sell popcorn to get a patch! and on top of that the Cubmaster Knot requires your unit to get Quality Unit twice during your tenure.

>>My council removed fire buckets from summer camp because they didn't want untrained people fighting fires and because of the mosquito problem caused by standing water. Extinguishers are present in structures, but not in campsites.

"Ghost Chickens in the Sky" seems to be a fun favorite for all ages. We sang it from Cubs to Wood Badge campfires. Goes real well with a guitar. To the tune of Ghost Riders in the Sky. Lyrics: A chicken farmer went walking out one dark and fateful day He rested by the coop as he went on along his way When all at once a rotten egg hit him in the eye It was the sight he dreaded Ghost chickens in the sky! Bok bok bok BOK Bok bok BOK The ghost chickens in the sky The farmer had raised chickens since he was 24 A-working for the Colonel for thirty years or mor

Pretty Good. Leave the snacks until the last. Have you thought about Smores? That is what the little brothers and sisters will remember most. Barry

Hi All >>On a side note, kids are not allowed to fiddle with the fire -- no sticks poking in and out of the campfire. Sticks that get poked in get added to the fire perminantly. This earns me some hairy eyeballs from the kids, and some of the Dads think I'm too up tight, but I don't really care. Trips to the ER ruin my camping experience.

>>Otherwise boys would only be in regular patrols for one year until they turned 12. Kind of silly, don't you think?

>>It is perfectly permissable to give the Scout a rope and ask him to tie a bowline. It is perfectly permissible to ask the Scout to demonstrate first aid for a choking victum. It is perfectly permissible to ask a Scout demonstrate how a compass works and to orient a map.

>>Using terms with different common meanings is just going to be confusing to the rest of us that use the Scoutmaster Handbook for guidance.

>>I won't comment on the workability of a single-activity "patrol" except to say you cannot find any guidance on how to work the concept in any BSA publication.

>>Again, that is how Venture Patrols operate! Boys stay in their regular mixed age patrol and the Venture Patrol exist only until the activity is done, then are re-orged/reformed.

>>Your description of your "temporary activity patrols" is basically Venture Patrols.

Hi Lisabob The answer to your first question is you will find that many of the scouts wont want to do all that stuff. One year when we had about 35 fourteen and older scouts, I polled them to find out how many actually wanted to do high adventure. Twelve! Of course some wanted to do some high adventure, but not enough to join a patrol just for those activities. If you encourage the scouts to create and plan the trips, I think you will find that they come up with enough trips to keep the crews managble. But, lets say you do get a large crew, divide them up into a couple of smaller groups w

Hello Scoutingmama Our troop eventually went the direction of an adventure troop instead of Venture Patrols. For reasons that I wont get into here, Venture Patrols didnt work out well for us. Instead of waiting for your scouts to get old enough for the Venture Patrol, start encouraging Temporary Activity Patrols now. Those are patrols created for a specific activity like Philmont or Northern Tier or any other activity that is not planned by the PLC as a troop activity. Temporary Activity Patrols don't have an age or rank restriction unless the specific activity was limited by age like Ph

>>IMHO, the BOR has been crippled by decades of good intentions, and policy tweaking.

I second Bob White in that competition is instinctive for boys and you should use that to your advantage for good team building a Patrol bonding. Its in their boy nature; so learn how to use that positive energy for momentum toward their growth. You seem to be pretty successful in the patrol method part of the program, but struggling a little in the application of the Scout Oath and Law. That is OK, it is just a matter of practice for the adults and we all have to learn and grow to build a mature scout program. Remind the scouts that they are to serve the other scouts by using the scout

>>I think it could be because when the PL is there and doing his job well, there is not much responsibility attached to being the APL.

We eventually matured into a troop where the scouts pretty got to choose where they wanted to go. But that doesnt mean the adults are supposed to stand back and not have an opinion. I can write volumes on the benefits of mixed age patrols over same age patrols based from our experiences. So I'm very motivated to guide the program in a direction that is best for the scouts growth. As our troop matured, we learned what worked and what doesnt. However, if a NSP came to us and asked to be their own patrol, we would let it happen knowing the struggles they would contend. The way our troo

Veryfiy that this is really a scout function before it is made an issue. My sons soccor team use to go out and play paintball. Barry

>>Being a 40 year+ Scouter I think the NSP is a Band-Aid with no adhesive; it was designed for adult run troops that had hazing problems.

>>My original feeling was that a friendly face at Tenderfoot (to get the scary unknown out of the way) would be a better set up for future successes than throwing up on his shoes and quitting because he is afraid of the unknown.

>>If a man does something and there's no woman around, is he still wrong? (sorry)

>>It is not a requirement for Scout rank to have a BOR, but my new boys all have one anyway. This serves two purposes. 1) It gives all the new scouts an opportunity to experience a BOR before they "count". That means the boys go in with a more relaxed feeling, no pressure, just so they get their feet wet talking with the adults on the Board. And 2) it gives a chance for the adults to work through any problems/questions they may have conducting a BOR.

>>And certainly, BSA's image to the public is complex and multi-faceted. Nonetheless, one portion of that image that has loomed ever larger in the public eye in recent decades has been a direct result of BSA's discriminatory membership policies.

>>What rules of the BSA (and by rules I mean policies, procedures, et al) get in the way of you delivering a good program?

Hi All A lot of the time these things happen because the group and or the group leader doesn't understand the objective. BORs is one of the most common adult discussion questions that comes up in all scouting forums because really it not all that clear why we do it the way we do it. It is nice to have cheatsheets (we did that also), but if the objective isn't clear, it can still be difficult. Barry