GKlose

I think that brings up something interesting. There is BSA clip art available from an official source, Troop Program Resources (http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/Clipart.pdf). The first page, at the bottom, it does say "No additional licenses or permissions are required for uses that fall within the scope and within accepted BSA editorial and content standards."

I'm with evmori and Kudu on this -- troop committees don't get to decide what does and doesn't count for Camping MB. That is clearly MB counselor territory. I suppose you could argue that they do for rank advancement T/2C/1C, via a Board of Review, but that is starting to get into an SM/Committee territorial dispute, if you ask me. Guy

October Sky at ours too (NE-I-267, fall 2009). I've seen it about 10 times total, so I was actually relieved that my TG wanted to do "ticket talk" while it was playing. Otherwise, I'd guess that I would have fallen asleep.

Eagle92 -- I've been close to the center of two packs falling apart, and neither one was pretty. Knowing what I know now, I should have stepped up to save the first pack. The problem was that the CM/CC (he was a one-man show, in a small 15-Cub pack) only gave the rest of us about a week's notice between his announcement that he was done and to when he moved to another pack. Four or five others from his son's den immediately moved with him, which took the pack down to almost nothing. The district held an emergency organization meeting with the rest of us, but those that had already decided

Mr Adams -- (BTW, I grew up in Xenia, part of your home council, and worked at Camp Birch for 3 summers -- I'd guess you know my old SM, who goes by RJ) Unfortunately, the SM wasn't there. He's an avid hunter (and at the moment is at Philmont on a "relationship development" elk hunt, whatever that means) and is rarely around in the fall. A year ago, I waited around to see what would happen with the troop, and nothing happened. The first outdoor event, since the beginning of August, was a Sunday morning trebuchet building event in November). The first overnight was at the end of Janua

I love "what I did this weekend" posts -- there are always great ideas to be gleaned from them, and from other posts in this forum. For example, Bryan S. has been a great help to me, providing guidance on developing a youth leader training weekend -- Which is exactly what I did this last weekend. The bottom line is that we have an adult-led, troop method, advancement-oriented troop with fairly non-functional patrols, and another adult (our heir-apparent SM) and I ran a youth leader training program for prospective PLs and SPLs. I know this will stick in some craws, but we strongly suggest

I love the concept of 300 feet -- It reminds me of my troop, many years ago. A couple of times we did a Brownsea-style summer camp, on our own, in a county park in northern Michigan. Primitive camping. 300 feet? I'm not sure, because I never visited other patrol sites. At least that much, maybe even up to 1/2 mile. At least 1/2 mile from the "base camp" where adults camped, and our primitive trading post existed, and was a meet-up spot for merit badge instruction, starts of hikes, that sort of thing. Commissary and water jug drop-off (an adult would load empty water containers into a truc

I have a question -- did any of you participate in your HS band? If so, was it a fairly high-level band (weekend competitions, state contests, that sort of thing)? Guy

This reminds me of me, when I was a scout :-)... My very first summer camp, I'm thinking it's summer, I don't need a sleeping bag. I took a light blanket and a sheet. To a camp in northern Michigan. With nighttime temps south of 45F. I was cold, and didn't sleep well all week. Never said a word to anyone, and after that, I was never cold on a camping trip again. But at least I was only affecting myself. The second time, not so. I was a PL, as I recall, and forgot a cook kit in the trunk of my dad's car when I was unloading. That weekend not only was my patrol annoyed, but every other

This vaguely reminds me of a story -- our pack, along with many others, spent a night aboard the Battleship Massachusetts (Fall River, MA). Below decks, ventilation is not so great, and I swear we were all feeling just a little hypoxic. Sleep came late, because of noisy Cubs (there were maybe 40 Cubs and adults in our bunkroom), and just after everyone quieted down, a woman screamed. Loudly. She then apologized, loudly, because she thought she saw a kid falling off a top rack. It wasn't so funny at the time. It wasn't a very restful night after that. The only mildly amusing part I re

For an annual Webelos outing that our troop puts on, we feed a large crowd of Webelos and parents by putting out a buffet of items to add to foil packs: ground beef, chicken, italian sausage, steak tips, kielbasa, hot dogs, onions, bell peppers, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, potatoes, etc. Although there are plenty of people that pick and choose, the intent is for everyone to take a melange of ingredients to put in their pouches. Guy

When I was a Scout (circa 1976 or so), my SM did a similar incentive thing, where the top 6 (or so) sellers were able to choose their own outing (which the fundraising paid for, although it was minimal expense). I was one of the top sellers, so I got to be involved in the outing. We chose one of our favorite things to do, which was to go caving. Normally, our annual caving trip was in March, and was usually a cold and rainy outing Carter Caves State Park, in Kentucky). But this special outing was in June, as I recall, so the weather was completely different. We also didn't see many hibernating

Our troop has bought a couple of cheap first aid kits at a local Walmart, but I think the quality is reflected in the price. They may be cheap, but they really don't hold much (besides a lot of individual packaging, which helps make it look like there is more in the kit than what is really there). I just took a Red Cross first aid course. Our counselor didn't even cover the section on splinting. She said something along the lines of "don't splint anything -- whatever you do will just be taken off and redone by EMTs". Of course, she wasn't talking about backcountry. In those cases, I was r

One of the best times I had with my siblings happened during a holiday week when our families were back home visiting mom. Mom decided early on that she thought it would be fair if each one of us each took a night to cook dinner, and we were left on our own to shop and cook. The best part was when the sibling rivalry kicked in and we attempted to outdo each other. Everyone ended up a winner... So in true scoutlike fashion, maybe a duty roster is in order. :-) Guy

DWS -- the best way, and I think your plan is a sound one, is to go ahead and register as a merit badge counselor and then finding out the names of the Scoutmasters your local troops. Then let them know you're available as a merit badge counselor. Guy(This message has been edited by GKlose)

I saw a web-based program the other day that looks fairly interesting: http://www.troopwebhost.com/. Seems to have many of the same Troopmaster-like functions built into it (including online advancement and rechartering) and provides functions of a troop website. I made note of it because we use Troopmaster and pay a provider for website services, and this other product would probably cut our annual expenditures for those in half.

One small step at a time :-).

B-Skip -- that sounds like a great method (ammonia/water). No problems with nylon coatings? thanks, Guy

This is off the top of my head, but what about a timed course, based on a standard (run it through yourself, and use that as the benchmark)? Then patrols can be plus/minus the time standard, thus penalizing the patrols that run from point to point. Closest one to the standard would get rewarded. In order to stave off running and waiting, don't disclose the benchmark. Just let them know that it is based on a certain event time, and then walking (safely!) to the next station. Guy

Oh -- we did have a positive change in the last year. A few years ago, the "ol' pack leadership" didn't want to be bogged down with Boards of Review on-demand, so they decided that the last meeting of the month would be Board of Review night. But with the new advancement guy, we're back to doing Boards of Review on demand. A scout notifies him in advance, and then he makes sure there are enough committee members there to take care of the BoR. Since we usually have enough adults at the back of the room at meetings, Scouts have even begun to ask at the start of a meeting. I can think of onl

Need a negative example? :-) (this drives me up the wall, by the way) -- our troop leadership is descended from Cub Scout pack leadership, in a pack that used the Blue and Gold as their end of year banquet. Therefore, all awards were held until the end of the year... Fast forward to the troop of today -- awards, badges included, are held until a Court of Honor (October, sometimes March if there is an Eagle, and June), where Scouts are presented with a Ziplock sandwich bag that contains their advancement booty. If a Scout misses the CoH, he can get the stuff if he asks for it, and if

Beardad -- I did the same thing with my older son. His first year at camp, I dropped him off and then picked him up. He did a lot of growing in that week. During his second year, I was there for the week, but I pretty much left him alone, except for one thing. He didn't pass the swim test on Sunday, so Monday morning I made sure that I walked down with him to instructional swim, and then he passed the swim test. That was good, because he was going to work on Swimming MB in the next hour. Things were fine after that. This year, his third year, was my younger son's first year at camp.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the input. I've seen, in the past, tents and things like nylon packs that have disintegrated when they are stored in a hot attic. As far as I know, the seams are in good shape on the ones we have, and we don't have coatings that are sheeting off, or anything like that. I'd probably toss out the cheap tents in that circumstance. The Timerberlines: I just learned about them at the end of the last meeting. There was at least one, possible more, in a old canvas bag. I don't know their condition, but we'll be checking that out sometime soon. I hope they ar

B-Skip -- as a trombonist, going into my 40th year since starting, I can confirm the importance of "mouthpiece buzzing". It not only helps solidify his embouchre, it also helps tone quality, breath support and ear training. One of my teachers, who helped me completely revamp my playing about 20 years ago, had me practice a mouthpiece buzzing routine that took about 20 minutes to a half hour to work through, daily. That, more than anything, led to great changes in my playing. One of the tricks, though, is not to overdo the buzzing. It should not be like a duck call, loud and violent. It should

By the way, we haven't really needed "troop tents" all that much -- before I arrived on the scene a few years ago, the troop had mostly settled into a pattern of using personal tents, which most of the older scouts still do. Younger scouts, however, don't necessarily have their own tents, so we're interested in getting these older ones back in service, if possible. Guy