GKlose

"It would be great if the new programs out there would force Troopmaster Software to offer a web-only option, for example." I will admit, I am not a Troopmaster expert, but we've been using (I think) a web-only interface for a few months, which can then sync back to our Advancement Chair's PC. While he tracks advancement and outing participation, I have been mostly concerned with registration, training, etc. About the only feature I've noticed that is missing on the web version is to generate the export file for our SOAR-based troop website. I do, however, note that the web-based Tro

Hello -- I grew up in your area (in Xenia). At one time, there used to be functioning county pools -- is that still the case? If so, there might be summer lessons. I know that you've said the parents don't have the means, but I know (having gone through a couple of extended layoffs myself) is that by asking nicely, sometimes heavy fees are either reduced or eliminated. It would be worth talking to a local YMCA as well -- our local YMCA is very nice about financial assistance. From a different angle, though, I've just gone through a very similar experience. My younger son has no interest i

I've read it, it is well-written, and I enjoyed it. Lots of anecdotes, but I get the feeling some of them have been made up to fit the situation being talked about. Honestly, you get as many real-life stories on this forum, and we all know those are actual real-life stories, right? :-) The book isn't loaded with anything groundbreaking or new, if that's what you're looking for. Guy

Another place to keep an eye on (I regularly browse rei-outlet.com) is the ScoutDirect sales pages: http://www.scoutdirect.com/sales-items http://www.scoutdirect.com/ScoutDirectCurrentSales.htm About the only complaint I have about the Scout Direct program is that they don't disclose the shipping costs up front. Guy

My council has an Eagle Week, as do a few of the neighboring councils. Let me explain how Eagle Week has turned our troop into a "bipolar" troop. When my oldest son joined the troop, four years ago, the typical pattern was a Scout would attend summer camp for two years, and then sign up for Eagle Week for a year or two. At that point, they typically had all their merit badges for Eagle done, they would start getting busy with high school, and they would stop attending meetings and outings. They'd swoop back in to do a project, finish Eagle, and then not be seen from again. It's takin

I've read several of these AT hiking journals in the past, and have enjoyed every single one of them. In this particular case, I'm very impressed. He finishes a multi-year "section-hike" a couple of years ago, but that's not good enough :-), he's got to "through-hike" it, at 88 years of age. There's an old 2-volume set of books (maybe published by National Geographic) that chronicles all of the early stories of those who hiked the AT, beginning with the first ones to do it. I borrowed that set from the library once, and read through many of those stories. One of the more impressive storie

The way I see it, it's the CC's show. But our troop isn't exclusive. We're meeting monthly, on a separate night from troop meetings, and all parents are invited. I saw that when I joined that nothing really happened without the SM's blessing, but otherwise we pretty much run on a consensus basis. Last fall, we had some contention. It related to a change in troop policy where Scouts' positions of responsibility would not be credited unless actual effort was put forth for the entire duration. Our advancement chair brought this up, as a change to how Boards of Review would be conducted. One

By the way, our troop did this twice back in the dark ages when I was a Scout. Those are among my favorite memories with the troop, in addition to the high adventure trips we did. We had a pretty large troop at the time, and there were dads and older Scouts that functioned as MB counselors. I didn't spend much time at the waterfront, so I don't recall how we handled the lifeguard concept. I think we had a couple of dads on duty. We had one dad, whose real life job was that of a purchasing agent, who loved being our "commissary officer". He'd drive into town every morning, and get foo

I think this is a great idea, and I'm envious! From our own experience at a patrol-oriented camp, once you extract time for meal prep, "program" is only running from about 8:30am until 3:30pm, with an hour of "free time" (open swim, for example) from 3:30pm to 4:30pm. Evening activities are scheduled after dinner. Last year, our guys didn't even have the energy to start up a fire after the evening program...ever hear of that with a group of Scouts? :-) With T-2-1 Scout skills, you've got a nice varied program. You can lash "useful camp gadgets", set up a 1-mile orienteering course, e

Let me add a story to the mix -- I know of a troop that was pretty much an adult-led, troop method, advancement-oriented troop, with do-nothing positions of responsibility and a World's Oldest SPL of an SM. When the SM was asked about the patrol method, he'd answer "we're working on that." But meanwhile, the troop was purchasing a giant carport ("we can fit the entire troop under it"), a large 3-burner propane stove and a trailer to fit it all in. Adult leaders felt they had to boss around "youth leaders" and other Scouts, because otherwise "we'll never get anything done." The situation w

Our Scouts, prior to my time in the troop, attended a camp that had a tradition at evening flags. The camp staff would call roll, and each SPL would answer that his troop was present. Over the years, that had morphed into SPLs and troops doing wacky stunts, to be the first called into the dining hall. That camp closed, and most of the troops that attended that camp moved on to the other council camp, where such a tradition of silliness didn't exist. Here's where I started attending...same thing, at evening roll call, camp staff calls out campsite by campsite. So our guys start into the si

I'm a former district membership chair, and I did roundtable presentations several times (seasonally -- on spring recruiting, fall recruiting and Webelos-To-Scout transition). I developed these talks based on what I'd like to see from roundtable talks -- my "blah blah blah" was about 5 minutes, and questions would take another 5 minutes or so. Short and sweet, over and done. Contrast that with the last time I sat through "camp promotion". I'm sure everyone would agree that close to 100% of the audience has already decided what to do for camp by the time camp promotion hits roundtables. I

We're a couple of years removed from a Cub Scout pack, but I think I can accurately describe their annual planning process as this: "well, we did X last year, and the Cubs seemed to enjoy it, so let's just do X again". The only problem is that when we joined the pack, it was about 90 Cubs, and three years later when our youngest moved on to a troop, the pack was pretty much thinking about folding. Maybe 20 Cubs still left in the pack. They didn't fold, and now two years later, they're hanging on with 25 to 40 Cubs. Meanwhile, our "feeder pack" is having a leadership crisis of their o

Just a couple of random thoughts -- Over the past year, one of my most difficult tasks has been to convince Mr. SM that he needs to stop barking out orders to everyone, virtually taking over every meeting and outing. It's tough work :-), and he still needs constant reminders. We made most progress when we had a Scout step forward that really wanted to be SPL, he was elected and trained. Then we convinced Mr. SM to relinquish control. Lately, Mr. SM hasn't been to every meeting (or outing). He finds it somewhat liberating. He can sometimes come into a meeting, and be at the back of th

Our WB course had someone go home after The Game of Life too, but we don't know exactly why. The Course Director, the next morning, confirmed that someone left and then weasel-worded around it. Since it was almost two years ago, I don't really remember what he said. Eagle92 -- I had a similar experience with BA22, circa 1976. I was in a patrol with a bunch of pains (I'm sure they thought the same about me, but I definitely was not as immature as them). My own SM was the course director, and it was the first time it had run in our council. Our troop had always been run in that Brownsea sor

Most recommendations for Philmont I've seen are for sleeping bags rated for 30F. With that kind of rating, there are a slew of bags to choose from, even in the 2lb to 3lb range. Campmor, I think, has a down bag that runs about $100. Eureka has a synthetic that runs about $50. But don't forget to check into the ScoutDirect discount with Alps Mountaineering. Good prices, good quality. Closer to the 3lb weight, though.

I am amused by my council's Eagle guidelines, which says (a direct quote): "The application requires six references to be listed, with only the employer reference allowed to be omitted if the candidate has no employer." I pointed out to someone on the district advancement committee that there might be six lines listed, but the wording clearly does not require that all six lines be filled in. When I asked our committee chair (his son recently went through an Eagle Board of Review) he said they didn't fill out all six lines (so, by extension, the committee isn't really requiring six referen

rhol, I had similar concerns to yours, prior to signing up for WB21C. Things worked out just fine...I went into the course with a list of things that I wanted to do regardless of my ticket, and they just so happened to be formed into a ticket, along with quite a few other things I hadn't dreamed up, as I went through the process. Many of the ideas you have are a good start. I've heard similar stories about other tickets. For example, one patrol-mate signed up for Wilderness First Aid (he's an ASM). Our troop guide had started up a Venturing crew for his own ticket (and now he's a 'go to g

We had them, too, when I was a Scout in the 70s. Pretty simple to manage, I think. Sunday morning, after our Scout's Own service, the SM would hand out a bead to everyone there. He had some sort of color code going on, which was kind of fun (for me as an 11-yr-old). After awhile, he stopped the practice, but I don't know why. One story I remember about them -- we did our own summer camp a couple of times, and he had bead colors based on our patrol campsite inspections. Honor patrol, in a way. Then one day, he had a patrol that far exceeded his expectations, and he gave out an unused bead

Anecdote time -- years ago, when my sons were both Cubs, we volunteered for a "town-wide cleanup day" that was held on Earth Day, which was on a Saturday that year. We basically picked up trash on town roads and properties. The woman who organized the day was very nice -- most people didn't have a place already picked out, and she would say "I would choose something close to home, something that you see every day -- then you'll appreciate the results". My wife, kids and I had an interesting time doing it, even though you can't expect much out of a 7 year old and a 9 year old. All the whil

Just a quick note -- out of the three camps that I've mentioned, all three of them claim to only do instruction, not actually do testing and sign-offs. They specifically mention that it is up to the troop to make sure the skill has been learned before signing it off. One camp does provide a sheet that checks off which skills were covered during the week (and they have accurate enough records to know if a Scout has skipped a session or not) but they don't sign handbooks! Guy

Let me repeat what Scoutnut has said -- Alps Mountaineering has a Scout discount program called ScoutDirect. 45% off the list price, once you sign up with them. It is a great program. I have occasionally seen Alps Mountaineering closeouts on rei-outlet.com for a hair less than ScoutDirect, but more often than not, you can't beat the ScoutDirect pricing.

In the past few years, I've been to two different camps, and will be at a third one this year. Each one of them had a first year program, and all three seem to be different. However, we've not had Scouts enrolled in any one of them, so I can't give you a firsthand review of the results. But -- there are a few things that spring to mind based on what you've written. One is that the program we are seeing this year has an all morning program, and first year Scouts are taken to one merit badge "class period" for a merit badge of their choosing. The camp suggests certain merit badges appropria

I own two Tetragon 5s and the troop owns a few Tetragon 7s. I think they are fine "economy" tents with some very nice features (such as built-in gear lofts, and great ventilation). They are very easy to set up. But -- I'm not happy that we've got a problem with the fiberglass poles. They are splitting (on my tents, two poles split -- on the troop tents, one pole recently split). I've seen that a local outdoors store sells replacement poles, and Eureka replaced on of my own for free (I haven't called them about the second one yet), but I'm wondering if there is a design problem with their

I would suggest training -- all of the troop committee member training is online at myscouting.org (Youth Protection, This is Scouting, Fast Start: Boy Scout, and Troop Committee Challenge), and I think overall it would be less than 2 hours of commitment to go through all of them. From there, the Troop Committee Guidebook has further explanations of what is expected out of troop committee roles. Through Google, you can probably easily find a PDF of the Troop Committee Guidebook.