GKlose

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation, but let me relate our experience, which might be similar... Our "feeder pack" (which doesn't necessarily always feed the entire Webelos group to us) was doing their Blue and Gold in June, as an "end of program year" awards ceremony. Over the course of several years, more and more dens timed their rank awards to coincide with the Blue and Gold. The last few years, the banquet had moved from early June to the end of June (then the pack goes on recess until October -- mostly because September is round-up month). When we would get Webelos crossin

Thanks for all the input -- I find it interesting that it seems to be about 50-50, give or take a little. Given that, I'll probably not talk to the district advancement chair about it. If I get a chance, I'll talk to our Scouts that have recently gone through these boards and if they have opinions on the matter, I'll post them here. Thanks again -- Guy

Stosh -- an amazing incident. Would love to have observed it. I'd also be interested to hear if you think the board learned something from the incident, and if they modified how they approached later candidates. Thanks, Guy

I'd say that one was in what is sometimes referred to as "business casual" -- and the others pretty much in blue jeans, but no t-shirts. One guy in particular was kind of scruffy-looking, wearing blue jeans and a sweatshirt. I will say this -- perhaps it is true they don't have silver tabs and have a district committee patch on their uniforms at home. To a Scout, even an Eagle candidate, I don't think that would matter much. I don't think they notice, or grok the concept of, tab color and position patch. They are just going to think "council", maybe, and treat them pretty much like any ot

In the past, I've sat on just one Eagle Scout Board of Review, which had been held at the troop level with a district advancement committee representative. Since then, our council advancement committee worked on a common set of procedures now in place with district advancement committees. The new procedure calls for a district advancement committee board, and a Scoutmaster as observer is permitted. I sat in such a role last night, not as a Scoutmaster, but in lieu of, because the Scoutmaster is related to the candidate. He was on premise and was called in to hear the board results. Of cou

Come to think of it -- the last time I was in a patrol (or saw a patrol) that camped at least 300' from another patrol was when I was in a Brownsea 22 course, August 1976. :-) In fact, I'm not sure I knew how close the next patrol was -- we never saw anyone else, except in the parade field. Contrast that to my son's relatively recent experience with Brownsea 22 (one of the few councils that still uses the old syllabus for this course -- independent of the NYLT course that's run)...I think they had 6 patrols, 3 each in two campsites, putting them about, what, 15 feet apart? :-)

We added a new advancement chair in the troop a couple of years ago, who has kept up our Troopmaster records. Now, when we are processing a new Eagle application, he prints out an advancement report to include with the application, so that council has two sources of information in case their records are off (I have no idea how often that happens). But, as an MB counselor, I've kept all blue card stubs, and I've encouraged my sons to put together a binder for keeping their stubs. At some point, though, I would like to check what the council has recorded for them. I can't swear that every C

I wasn't trying to be coy, I was just hoping to minimize the "acting like a shill" part... The camp we've attended the last two summers is Camp Bell, in Gilmanton Iron Works, New Hampshire, which is part of the Griswold Scout Reservation, Daniel Webster Council. The website is here: http://www.nhscouting.org/openrosters/ViewOrgPageLink.asp?LinkKey=11456&orgkey=1812 Honestly, I am so enamored of the camp, that I am hard-pressed to think of a negative. Some people may be a little put off by it because it is so rustic (there are really only just a few structures in camp). Program ar

Now that I've read the other responses to this thread :-), I was reminded that we were also part of a small pack that folded. They did cakes too, but at their B&G -- they brought raw materials (a couple of plain cakes, some icing and then other decorations) and then Cubs and siblings tried to outdo each other in terms of decoration, on the spot. Usually they just created big messes, but they had lots of fun doing it. It didn't matter the finished cakes didn't look so edible, they just had fun.

We belonged to a pack that had annual bake-offs. They were okay, at first, but then I kind of got bored with them. I heard of another pack that stopped them because they became over-the-top adults trying to out-do each other without Cubs really involved. Sound like a Pinewood Derby? :-) So I suggest having fun awards with categories out of the ordinary. Don't crown a "Best", but have categories like: Most Chocolatey, Least Chocolatey, Most Creative, Best Sports Theme, Best Scout Theme, etc. Maybe even some Honorable Mention categories for the cakes that really are obviously Cub-built. If

I really like the system at the camp we attend -- sure, our council has "patrol cooking" (with a commissary list; and I'm sure that if we just wanted to bring our own food, they'd assist us in anyway possible). And I would agree -- in that system, you miss out on the communications at assemblies and in the dining hall after meals. The place where we go -- the assemblies/flag ceremonies are at different times (8:45am, just prior to morning program start, and at 6:45pm, just prior to evening program start). Just in case anyone is curious -- the patrol-oriented camp where we attend has a com

We found a camp, in an adjacent council, that is truly patrol-oriented. When I told my old DE about it, he asked, "why not go to our camp? you can do patrol cooking there..." I answered that patrol-oriented is way more than just patrol cooking. I also asked him if he'd ever visited the camp. He said no, and basically asked why he'd want to. Silly me, I thought checking out your competition would be routine. It certainly is in my world. Anyway -- patrol cooking at this camp. Works well -- there is a standard menu, and also a commissary list where you can choose deviations if you'd lik

As a district membership chair, I put together a roundtable presentation on "spring recruiting" for Cub Scout packs. In it, I made the point that it makes no sense to do spring recruiting unless a pack has a summer program. The rest of the talk (in fact, the bulk of the talk) is about running a summer program. I did this because I was getting the sense that most packs in our district were "academic year" Cub Scout packs. I used every bit of ammunition I could think of (Scouting outdoors is a whole lot more fun, it's easy to put together a few simple ideas, take advantage of local events such a

I've seen way too many packs where adults assume that the title "Cubmaster" means that it is a one-man/woman show, and that they run the pack. In the cases I've seen, that usually leads to trouble when either the Cubmaster burns out or wishes to move on (to Scouts, for example, with their son). Our "feeder pack" is going through such a transition right now. I think it would be refreshing that a strong CC step forward and strive to run things the right way, and take care of the administrative tasks associated with a pack, freeing the Cubmaster to concentrate on things related to program.

B-Skip, about the cooking. You can find the entire Philmont menu online (complete with nutrition information, which is critical for us -- we have a Scout with a dairy and egg allergy, and he desperately wants to go to Philmont). Although it's been awhile since I've read through it, some of their menu is not the "add boiling water and wait" type of cooking. Some of it requires actual cooking. So you're not necessarily going to find that the simplicity of freezer bag cooking correlates. BTW, if you do a google search on "Philmont+ultralight" you'll see a couple of good resources. Guy

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Philmont guidebook spells out pretty clearly the policy against single-person tents (even for adults) on their treks. Guy

I've been working on breaking old patterns the last couple of years -- our Scouts had lapsed into a pattern of two years at regular summer camp and then a year or two at "Eagle Week". We haven't seen older Scouts at regular camp in a long time. Along the way, summer camp became all about earning MBs and less about having fun. But this year, the transformation was almost complete. We've actually been out three weeks. First week of July, we were at a patrol-oriented camp for the second year in a row. The few who signed up had great fun with horseback riding, a day in the climbing barn, wate

Our troop just got back from a camp (new to us) that has a Mile Swim program I haven't seen before. They do "qualifications". On Monday, they have everyone interested in the Mile Swim do a 1/4 mile qualification swim during the afternoon free swim period. On Thursday, those who have qualified are asked to swim a 1/2 mile qualifier. Anyone who gets through both of those are then allowed to swim the Mile Swim on Thursday afternoon. I suppose you could argue that it is adding to the requirements to have to swim a total of 1-3/4 miles over three days, but the practical aspect of it is that th

Years ago, there used to be a shelf-stable "squeeze cheese" type product, in the same aisle as the cans of spray cheese. I haven't seen it in years, though. If you want to explore the world of cheese powders, here is yet another link: http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/cheddar-cheese-powder Guy

We had a similar situation, but Scouts ended up with partials -- but the story takes some setup. We go to a patrol-oriented camp, where program is based on what a patrol chooses to do for the day. Our guys decided to sign up for the "Wilderness Survival" program, which is a day-long program and an overnight (in the shelters they built). The intention of the program is they earn most, if not all, of the Wilderness Survival merit badge. In this case, the patrol is 7 Scouts. Two already have the merit badge, one had a partial, lacking on the overnight, and four others were starting it from s

Another thought -- Howe Caverns in upstate NY has a Scout program. That almost meets your 3-hour limit, depending upon your whereabouts in NH. This also just came to me -- there is an "aerial adventure park" (zip-lines, bridges, etc) that is in Western MA. It didn't seem that expensive for a day pass (on par with Battleship Cove overnights, as I recall). However, I can't remember the name of the place. It looked like a lot of fun, with appropriate structures for all ages.

Yankee Clipper Council cubs have a program with the Higgins Armory in Worcester (http://www.higgins.org/) -- there has also been an overnight with one of the "minor league" hockey teams in Lowell (I think the team is gone now, but I'm not sure if another team/arena picked up the overnight). The Lowell Spinners also have an overnight on their field. Maybe the Manchester team does too.

At a University of Scouting session on backpacking food, our instructor showed us examples of many things he'd made and dehydrated himself, using his home oven. I recall that his instructions weren't all that difficult (180F oven, door propped open, several hours). He said that you can pretty much dehydrate anything (I would guess that something with a lot of water, like a tomato sauce, would take a very long time). Also -- I know there are online plans for making your own dehydrator.

I'm curious -- have you asked the Troopmaster people the differences between the PC and web versions, or have you asked when their features would be on par? The reason why I bring it up -- I've had several email conversations with SOAR, and some of my ideas were either in the works already, or have been promised in their release cycle. Guy

Of all the MBs that I counsel, Cooking MB is the only one that has first aid requirements. At first I thought it was kind of silly, but now I'm on-board with it. When I have my initial discussions with a Scout, I'll always ask what kinds of things can go wrong in a kitchen, and then I'll lead them through a fairly thorough discussion of likely kitchen injuries (hey, why are kitchen knives supposed to be sharp?), sanitation and food-borne illnesses. If I get a sense that they don't know, for example, why some foods should be thoroughly cooked, I'll ask them to read up on microbes like salmonell