GKlose

Thanks guys -- I think if we get two boats, and they have diverging paths, so much the better. Of course, there may be some argument about who goes on which boat, but that will work itself out. But offhand, I don't recall which adventures are 10-12. That is certainly a good option. As of yesterday, I have 5 Scouts and 4 adults. Three more Scouts would say yes in a second, but they'll have to work out the payment issue. A side note: this trip is a little selfish on my part. Seabase opened up shortly after I aged out, and my old troop did go. Ever since, I've been filled with envy

Thanks, Q. A quick Seabase reservation question: my understanding is that I'll place a specific bid for a specific Seabase adventure, with dates (and perhaps alternates). For example, let's say I have an accepted bid for two crews of 6 (4 Scouts, 2 adults). Is it easy to add Scouts at that point, up to the max of 8 total per boat? Thanks, Guy

Thanks, guys... At last night's troop meeting, I heard about another father-son pair that want to sign up. However, dad is 300+ pounds, so I had to broach that delicate subject :-). I know that the 50:50 split is not optimal -- ideally, if I get four more Scouts, we can do two sailboats with two adults on each. Then I just have to clamp down on new adults joining the group. Of the four (adults) presently signed up, three are direct-contact trained. One is not. He's pretty affable, but I think when I explain the situation, he might not balk at becoming trained. Qwazse -- it'

RememberSchiff -- we had a couple of other odd incidents with this same guy. He eventually disconnected when his son turned 18. He didn't have much traction while he was on the committee either. One of the oddest stories about him, which doesn't really fit this topic, but I'll tell it anyway. The troop committee heard from him, at one point, that his son and another Scout had done some pre-planning for a bike trip on Martha's Vineyard. They figured out ferry schedules, a campground and all that. I should point out that this was back when the SM and the troop committee organized most outin

Hello all -- this coming January, I'm planning on putting in our troop's first-ever bid for a Seabase reservation. On our end, we have the understandable problem of few willing to commit to an event that is more than a year away, because it does throw a wrench into the whole reservation idea. Right now, I have four Scouts and four adults that would like to go. Ideally, I'd like to have two crews of 6-8, that way we can split up the four adults between the two crews. I can't really guess whether or not I will get 4 to 8 more Scouts signed up. Anyway... Other than that issue -- does an

My older son joined our present troop in April '08. I pretty much stayed out of the way until the CC set up a committee meeting (first occurrence since my son joined) in August '08. It was their "annual planning session." No youth involved, just dads. A few interesting things happened at that meeting. One was that the group discussed putting together a high adventure trip. "We've been talking about it for years, so maybe we should do it." I pretty much kept quiet, but as they discussed options, I spoke up and said, "why don't you get the group of older Scouts together and let them plan wh

I'm with B-dweller -- online registration, with online payment (yes, I know -- many members of Scouts-L shouted me down with a "you are underestimating how many people in this country don't have internet" -- to which I reply, "so what? The IRS has definitely promotes online filing, and that is certainly a more secure act than anything related to the BSA, and old paper IRS forms have not disappeared"). I freely admit that I got kind of nasty with a new DE (and bombarded him with snippets of email conversations) when I found out that an ASM was still not registered after a year with us. He

I've only been a CC for about 7 months (and I'm coming up to my first rechartering) and I know that there are others that must share the problems I've had. I think I've had a problem on each and every single adult application I've sent in -- every time, there has been a problem that originated in the office. They would stop processing the application and not let me know there was a problem. So I'd discover the problem a few months later when I ask about status. The answer would come back about how I haven't paid (when I did) or hadn't turned in a CORI (which I had). In one case, they sat on a

SM uses the opportunity to upgrade something for his son -- a lighter-weight sleeping bag or tent, a backpacking stove, etc. Last year, I gave my sons "stocking stuffers" consisting of small things for their survival kits. Haven't thought much about this year yet. Guy

At a Canadian camp this summer, our troop camped next to a Sea Scout unit from an island adjacent to Montreal. At least that's how they described themselves. Co-ed, multi-age. Their camp contigent had 10 to 16 year olds in camp, but they also had a few age 16 and up members that were part of camp staff. After checking out their website, when I got home, I realized they are really a Scout group, from Beavers to Rovers. Seems like there is a group committee, not unit committees. Looked like the system works well.

Just a quick note -- a couple of years ago, a Scout Stuff catalog showed a small unit flag. The local Scout shop didn't know about it, but was able to order one for me. It took awhile to come in, but other than that, it was a pretty painless experience. So now we have two troop flags -- one regular one, which stays in our meeting place, and a small one that goes on outings with us (along with a small American Flag). I have no idea if the small format flag is still available or not. Guy

A few weeks ago, a young Scout sent me an email request for a "border review." :-)

Eagle92 -- I had similar, but not the same issues, when my older son was a Webelos shopping for troops. I had a gut feel for which troop he should join, but he picked the one that was last on my list. He rationale was that he knew someone in the troop, a nice kid, who specifically invited him to join the troop. I stayed out of the way for a few months, and observed. I did attend roundtables, and knew about upcoming events, and I'd let the SM and other ASMs know about them. There was a 5-council mini-jamboree happening that fall. I didn't catch on very quick to this, but none of the o

Along with Cooking being revised and reverting to an Eagle-required merit badge, seems there are quite a few new ones in the works: http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/merit-badge-calendar/ Guy

Well, SP, because it is my dream, the water isn't added. In fact, just the opposite. Concentrated, not diluted. Of course, everyone would have to play nicely. For example, summer camps would have to do things differently than the way they do them now. But this is sounding like I disagree with you -- I don't. The last thing we need is to dilute what we have even more. If a WFA MB were added, I wouldn't want it to be handled the way that FA MB is handled right now. I would want it to mean something. Guy

Since I'm something of a dreamer -- Lots of us have complaints about how First Aid MB is generally watered down at summer camps...so my dream is that rank requirements would be beefed up a little, and that First Aid MB be just a little more rigorous, and that a WFA MB be introduced. Since this is just a dream on my part, First Aid MB wouldn't be Eagle-required, but WFA MB would be, and of course the first requirement would be to earn First Aid MB :-). Of course, just like how quite a few merit badges now require counselors with certification, the same thing would go for WFA MB.

We had three separate experiences this summer, all of them showing promise: - at a patrol-oriented summer camp, we had one patrol of first-time campers and one patrol of veteran campers. Because of the nature of the camp, both patrol were in the same campsite, but maybe 50 to 100 feet apart. The SM and I basically left the older patrol alone for the week, and spent more time observing the younger patrol. Staff members at the camp are sort of trained to watch patrols as well, and step in as necessary. So the SM and I mostly just observed. - the next month, at a Canadian summer camp, w

Hey, I was blindsided this summer... I'm the troop adult that takes care of administrative things, like collecting medical forms, for summer camp. I don't mind this task, other than it irritates me when I get half-complete (give or take) information or late forms, etc, after I've given plenty of instruction, warnings, reminders and "last call" notes. Maybe I'm too communicative? I don't know... So, standard procedure for almost every youth camp everywhere, right? All medications must be in their original containers. But that didn't stop two mothers from pre-packaging their sons meds

Not all medical insurance is the same! But that didn't keep one mom from arguing with me. Her son's annual physical date kept creeping later and later every year, because she insisted that it had to be at least 1 year and 1 day past the last one. Got to the point where, when I was asking for medical forms for camp, she said "but his physical isn't until [mid-week of camp week]". When I told her that she should check with her insurance company, because ours didn't do it the same way (one per calendar year), she argued with me that all insurance companies were the same, they all had to be a

I have a Life Scout at home (almost an Eagle) who will be a youth staff member, in the Jamboree band. Guy

A couple of recent happenings for our troop: - since we had trouble with attendance on service projects, we decided to try calling an annual project for our CO (cleanup duty at the annual picnic) a mandatory service project. Of course, we knew that several families might have prior obligations, but we were trying to get them to commit to something they otherwise wouldn't even think about. But apparently we rankled one set of feathers. One mom called the council office and asked if troops were allowed to have mandatory service projects. We don't know who it is, and we don't know what the c

I'm with all the others -- nothing wrong with communicating with the present SM, to see what expectations may lurk about, and nothing wrong with checking out another troop. Maybe even it could be a temporary switch. Maybe the other troop has high expectations. Who knows until you start asking around. In our troop's case, we're pretty relaxed. We expect a best effort to attend, and we don't mind that some disappear for a few months at a time. My own sons fit in this same category, with football, marching band, travel team and AAU basketball, etc. They attend when they can, and they still d

For some strange reason, I never had any problem selling things when I was a Cub or a Scout. In fact, I was so practiced at it that by the time I hit HS band, and saw some of the crap they expected me to sell, I refused. Step 1 is to have a good product. I guess I knew instinctively about the "sales pitch" idea, but if I hadn't, a Jr HS band director coached us. He explained that you just don't knock on doors and say, "you don't want to buy one of these things, do you?". So when my oldest was a Cub, we talked about what a sales pitch is, and he practiced one. I'd agree that short and

Our troop wasn't selling popcorn, because of some payment issue way back when. Old news, as far as I'm concerned. Virtually all principal players are now different. In the past couple of years, we've had some parents asking for more "direct support" for camp fees, and at the same time the troop has been growing, with the possibility of more future requests. And -- at the same time, we've had a few outstanding popcorn sellers entering the troop (one, an average of $2.5k per year). So the logical thing to do was to reintroduce popcorn, and introduce Scout accounts. Only those that want to s

This old and feeble Owl (the oldest and wisest of the forest creatures, and known to cough up a pellet or two in their time) says Congratulations! Guy