Gutterbird

It is that time of year when we take all the equipment out of the troop trailer and clean and look for damaged gear. One thing we do is set up every tent, clean them and look for damaged poles, zippers, etc. so we can make these repairs over the winter months. We just completed a camping trip this last weekend and noticed a few of our Coleman dome tents had a musty smell and even a few spots of mold. After each campout we do dry out our tents to prevent this, but moisture may have snuck in during storage, who knows. So, what is the best way to clean these tents to rid them of the mold without damaging them?

What does everybody use to whip rope ends? I have tried a few different types of string and nothing really lasts. Any Ideas?

Thanks

I have mixed feelings about the Friday Night Family Night at summer camp. My first year at camp, family night was Wednesday and we did not lose any boys, however, camp is a two hour drive from our city and very few parents made it. Those that did come, had to leave early because they had to work the next morning. The council then switched to a Friday night Family night and we had more families make it. However, we lost 5 boys that night. Three were planned and two got homesick when they saw mom and dad. This past year we had 100% turnout of families for our troop and we only lost two boys. One was arranged ahead of time with a family activity the next day and the second was a last minute decision by the boy in my original post. So I will have to say I favor the Friday night family night and starting next year we will only allow scouts to leave camp early if it is arranged ahead of time or if it is an emergency.(This message has been edited by gutterbird)

He did not make the next campout. Our next one is in three weeks and I will let you all know how it went. In the mean time, I pulled him aside on one of our last day trips, (and yes, he wanted to leave early on this daytrip to a favorite nearby fishing pond) and had a scoutmaster conf. discussing his leaving early. We discussed sharing the workload and setting good examples for the younger scouts, among other issues. I will report back to you all early October after the campout.

Thanks for all the input and the boys will be discussing the issue at their next PLC. In the meantime, one of our committee members is a school psychologist (every troop should have one of these on their board, lol) and I discussed this issue with her. She has seen how he acts on campouts and believes he may have some mental issues. She also notices that when he does chores, (cooks, cleans camp, set-up, etc.) that the father is there helping him if not doing the work for him. She suggests that I talk with the father again and find out if in fact there may be some mental disabilities. If so, we need to step back a little, tell dad to stay on the side lines and issue some simple challenges to the boy and see how he does. Part of boy scouts is to be independent and do things on your own. This boy may need a little more time to develop this skill and mom and dad are just prolonging it. We have another campout coming up at the end of the month, I will have to make sure that all parents stay out of patrol sites excpet for saftey purposes!

There are times a boy may have to leave a campout early because of other family or school commitments which I have no problem with; however, we have a boy in our troop that always leaves after the first night of a two night, weekend campout. His father is a committee member and attends these campouts with his son. The problem I have with him always leaving before the end is he gets out of the cleanup and other boys are now catching on and asking why this boy leaves. This is not just one or two campouts, but every campout. I discussed this with the father and the fathers reply is that once all the fun stuff is done on Saturday, they just go to bed, get up Sunday morning, break camp and go home, usually on the road by 11am. I always inquire as to why they want to leave early and this boy comes right out and says that all the fun stuff is over. I have discussed scout spirit with the boy and father, and the importance of staying the second night and help with the breaking of camp Sunday morning. The father is your classic example of a helicopter parent and what ever little Johnny wants, little Johnny gets. What really got me chapped was that on our last night of summer camp, which is family night, he wanted to go home with mom. At 10pm I get called to the camp office to sign the form so he can go home. His reply to me as to why, was that the fun was over; the last night was just going to bed and breaking camp. I had to bite my tongue as to not blow up at him in front of his mom, I talked with his dad about it, who was also at camp with us. The father stayed the last night to help with the clean-up in Johnnys place. I am ready to start a policy that once at camp, you can not leave unless it is pre-arrange before camp starts or if in cases of emergencys or illness. How do other troops handle this situation? Oh, because of this situation, I feel the boy lacks scout spirit, therefore, until things change, he will not be advancing, agree?

Does anybody know hwere I can find information on the Knotmaster Program?

No, his SPL POR was in previous ranks, he has no POR as Life.

"One thing to keep in mind is creating a SM leadership position is fine for Star and Life, but Eagle requires one from the National approved list. The SM cannot create a leadership position for Eagle."

According to our Scout Executive, to whom I inquired about the Lone Scout option, I could create a leadership position. I did look it up on eaglescout.org and you are right, so I do not know. It does not really matter anyway due to the fact he did not want it. My next step is to talk to parents and just take it from there. Thanks for all the input.

(This message has been edited by Gutterbird)

"Please share with us your last Scoutmaster Conference with him... "

Last SMC was back in May, the last time he was at a meeting. We discussed his Eagle rank and what he needed to achieve this goal. I tried to find out from him if there were any issues that he thought was slowing him down? Girls, cars, etc. He told me no issues. He was not very talkative and I got the impression he just did not want to participate any more, he just wants his Eagle.

"Please share with us the Committee's last non-advancing BOR with him... "

Have not had one. When we hold BOR's he does not come, even when asked.

Please share with us something about your Troops program? How is your SPL? PLC? How much mentoring do you get to do, vice how much decision making you do for the youth?

When I came to this troop in Feb 07. There was no adult leader and no real structure to the program. Kids just ran around freely and there was no real "checks and balances". As the new SM, I attended ALL the training and started to transform the troop into a structured Boy Scout program as outlined in the SM handbook and other scouting resources. The troop created patrols with patrol names, flags, etc. Elected PL's, SPL, and filled other various youth positions. Recruited other parents and formed a committee. I started to slowly turn this troop into a scout lead program. Though it did not happen over night it has come a long way. I have always been there for the boys, have worked with them to meet requirements, and gave all the youth leaders TLT. This particular boy was our first SPL; he was very motivated and loved his position as SPL. Then came election time. Several boys expressed interest in becoming the next SPL, we put them all on the ballot, however, this scout no longer wanted to be SPL and did not want to run. That was the beginning of his down hill slide. In a previous SMC I asked if there was any issues when he was SPL that prevented him from running again, answer, no. He just lost interest. Our current SPL is doing a fine job. I spend most of my time with him; he spends most of his time with the PL's and troop. Each patrol has an adult advisor who is there only to advise, not do the work. Patrol meetings were recently held where each patrol picked 3 items that they would like to do, whether it was a particular campout, day trip, trip to water park, whatever, and bring this list to the next PLC and put it on the calendar, as long as the activity was safe and did not violate BSA policy or the Guide to Safe Scouting. This is something we do several times a year to fill the calendar with outdoor activities.

I do not know if this is what you where asking John-in-KC, but, thanks for all the responses.

He never accepted the POR position I created for him. The position I created was Scout Service Project Coordinator. I told him he would help set up and run various troop service projects. Something he could do during his down time when not at school or work. When I presented this to him, he just told me he did not have the time for it, therefore, never held a POR.

Looking at my records, he attended only 4 meetings this year and his last outing with the troop was July 2007. Since I have been SM (FEB 07), he has not participated in any service projects, 1 fundraiser, and 1 campout. My next step is to sit down with his parents and explain what all he needs to do. He still has almost 2 yrs before he turns 18. I have and will continue to give him opportunities to advance but he must want it. I plan on sitting down with the CC and the rest of the committee to discuss this. To me it is cut and dry, if he does not complete the requirements and improve on scout spirit; he does not become an Eagle. It is his choice and his move.

I have situation, a particular scout has not been coming to meetings, when he does show up (maybe 3 meetings this year) he sits in the back and gets up and leaves when he wants. He will not participate in troop or patrol activities. I have even made in effort and gone out of my way to get him involved. I will give him tasks but meet resistance; I will not force him to do anything. He has not been on a troop campout or outing since July 06. He has no POR time and will not take a leadership position. I have even created a position just for him to accommodate his schedule but he did not want it. He was signed up to go to summer camp but changed his mind. When I do run into him, he reminds me he just needs 2 more MBs and his Eagle project and he will be Eagle. I have taken him aside and explained to him that that is not the case and that he needed to be active, participate in the troop, and take a leadership position. Now here is the kicker, the CC is still telling this scout that he just needs the 2MB and eagle project. I have had a talk with the CC to explain to him that that is not the case and explained why. The CC even suggested he go it alone as a Lone Scout. I had my doubt about him qualifying as a Lone Scout but asked the council anyways to please the CC. The council stated he did not meet the requirements for Lone Scout. I will not sign this scout off until he meets ALL requirements. Eagle is a very prestigious award and I feel the scouts must earn it as per BSA policy. Am I right taking this position?

I got the password issue worked out. I ended up calling the National Council in Irving TX, talked with a very nice and helpfull lady. She reset my password and a few minutes later, I was in!

Is anybody else having trouble accessing "MyScouting"? It seems my password stopped working and it will not let me reset a new password. Apperently passwords have to have numbers and letters now, mine was just numbers which is why I guess it won't let me in. I emailed their tech people at the address provided but no reply yet.

Just got back from a weekend campout and I lost my cool and barked at a scout in front of all the parents. Let me back up a bit. I have the philosophy of talking across to the scouts rather than to talk down at them. I try to show them the same respect that I expect them to show others. Very seldom do I ever yell at a scout, however, there is one scout in particular that has really been pushing our (the leaders) patients on this campout. He is somewhat hyper active, does not respect others belongings, is loud, and did something in front of a group of people that I will not repeat. Anyhow, at the end of the campout I was handing out Tot-n-Chip cards to a few new scouts that have earned them on this campout. This particular scout has already earned his Tot-n-Chip but lost it and wants a replacement, I told him that I was handing out new cards only ( I did not have the time to retrieve another card right then and there) and that I will have a replacement card for him at the next troop meeting. He did not want to wait and wanted it NOW. I lost my cool and yelled, telling him I would have it for him at the next troop meeting. Because this was the end of the campout, the parents where all there picking up their scouts. I do realize that I am going to have to talk with the parents of this particular scout, but I feel bad that I lost my cool.

So my question for you leaders, what do you do when you loose your cool? Have you ever yelled at a scout in front of parents? I am sure there are scouts out there that push us to the limits, so how does everybody handle situations like this?

Well, we just made that campout that I talked about in the original post. The campout went as expected. Temps ranged from mid twenties during the day to single digits at night, we had snow and even wind. All boys came well prepared, and everybody made it through the night. A nature walk through the woods was done and several early rank advancements completed. The boys did a nice job lashing together a 7 foot lean-to that we used as a wind break. Cooking was kept simple, dutch oven or single pot meals. Lots of hot cocoa and a nice warm fire. The only difficult time was in the morning, the kids had trouble coming out of their nice warm bags. It took a while to get them moving. Once they did started moving, you could not hold them back. I felt this was a great experience for the boys and leaders. For those of you who stated not to do it because we have never done one, I would have to disagree. As a leader, if you do your homework, ask lots of questions and spend plenty of time to prepare yourself as well as the troop, you should do just fine. Sure, this was a learning experience and there are things that I won't do next time and there are things I would do different. Bottom line is, we where prepared, we stayed safe, and we had fun doing it.

Bamboo is a great idea, but unfortunitly, bamboo is not to readily available in the midwest. The tower was just a thought that may not happen. Monkey bridges are coomon, what do you use for monkey bridges?

Just curious what type of poles people are using for pioneering projects? Our boys want to move up and assemble larger and more sophisticated pioneering projects such as monkey bridges, larger gateways, towers, etc. What we have been using for smaller projects are 2x2 with the corners ripped creating an octagonal pole which works great. I am afraid that these may not be strong enough for larger project. Finding straight, long, tree limbs has been challenging. So, what does everybody else use?

I have tried several differant fad diets in the past, some worked, some did not. I have joined a weight loss program at the YMCA, work out when I can at the Y and I am eating smarter now. I am counting calories, I am keeping my calorie intake 1000/day or less, lots of salads, Veggies, staying away from breads, (which is hard for me). Seems to be working, down about 7 lbs in 2 weeks. Gotta get fit for Summer camp, can't let the boys show me up when I go huffing up those hills!!

Thank you all for the great tips. We are planning our trip towards the end of Feb. and will be in central Illinois. The winter can get rough but not Upper Wisconsin or Michigan U.P. tough. And by the end of February the weather should start to mellow out(at least in theory). Our troop has done several outdoor winter activities so the cold is not new to us. We just have not done any camping. As far as training, I have no intentions taking on this endeavor blindly. The safety of the boys is of the up most importance. I not only plan on getting further training for this but I have recruited an ASM that has winter experience and a father (of one of the scouts) that is USMC that has had winter survival training. I will not be afraid to pull the plug on this outing if conditions dictate doing so.

The information I have collected thus far from all of your replies have been overwhelming. I cannot thank you all enough for your help.

Thanks for all the responses, I appreciate it.

I have been a SM for about a year. Our troop has never done a winter campout and the boys want to do it, so we are going to give it a go. It will be done locally at a nearby campground and will be a first for all leaders and boys. I have done some research on the subject and have consulted the BS Fieldbook. I am now looking for any tips that are not in the books that you may want to share. Our tents are just the standard Coleman type dome tents.

Thanx

"A question came to mind after reading the above. Does any unit who owns a trailer and equipment have any type of insurance to cover theft of same? Is it available? Costly? Any insurance professionals out there, can you help?"

Yes, you can insure the trailer and the contents. Our troop carries insurance for this through Allstate,

We have many new scouts in our troop and we will attempt to build a monkey bridge at our next campout. Never having built one myself, does anybody know of any resources out there that will explain the ins-n-outs of biulding a monkey bridge?

I am just curious how troops are transitioning to the new uniform. Are the asking the boys to go out and by new ones so everybody will match or are you making it an option which would result in a mix of old vs new?