JMHawkins

rancest, did the course cover the topics I mentioned above? Primary and Secondary Assessment, Spinal precautions, environment, stay/go fast/slow, would care, scene management? How long was the overall course? 16 hours?

We're using ECSI instead of ARC, but in Chief Seattle it has a ton of MOFA influence. For the most part, the treatment skills aren't significantly different than standard urban First Aid, but the resource management is (and the patient's stability is one of your resources). Really, the functional skill differences between urban and wilderness First Aid are: 1. Rapid, but effective, discovery and treatment of life-threatening problems. The patient has to survive longer before the medical miracles of a trauma unit or even an ambulance can help them, so the lower the sink on the scale, th

Sure, adults get something out of scouting, but "it's for the boys" is a reminder to make decision based on what's best for the youth. Adults and their wishes come second. My dad was a public school administrator. His mantra for decision making was, what's best for the students? If you had a decision between A and B, and both were equally good for the students, then you could pick whichever one you liked best. But if A was good for the students and B was not, then you picked A even if you - the paid employees of the school district - liked B better. You did that because the student

ScoutNut, it's no use quoting chapter and verse from the rulebook. When the end result still comes down to: 1. webelos are encouraged to spend the night with a troop 2. Webelos can use climbing tower and rifle range 3 Webelos cannot do both on the same weekend??? then the rules are fouled up. It's one thing to say "Boy Scouts can do these things, Cub Scouts can't" but the rules don't say that. They just say "Cub Scouts CAN do these things, but only when Boy Scouts aren't around." That's a different message. Making rules is something people should do with a high degree

Has anyone pointed out to BSA that requiring yearly physicals from a doctor is a waste of scarce resources? My doctor thinks I need a physical once every three to five years. When I went in this year, strictly to get his signature on the BSA form, it meant he spent an hour looking at me that he could have spent helping someone who needed it. There is something of a doctor shortage today, especially among GPs. I think the current policy is immoral. Should be once every three years, unless some condition warrants more frequent exams.

to me the training is too much like how they are negatively changing scouting in total - to much of the sit and "learn" - one and done style... and not the learn, do, teach to really learn For some reason, I now have a song running through my head. "B - I - N - G - O, B - I - N - G - O, and Bingo was his name-O."

Is there a receptive audience to put in the time and effort to gain the skills? OGE, I think there is, but not if it's going to be time spent sitting around being lectured at. If they're out having fun, they might be willing to put in the time. Sort of like, well, the Scouts themselves. Though probably not as noisy or messy.

desertrat77, I need a few moments to develop my own thoughts on what SM Mentoring might be like. Or maybe it's a SM Apprentice program... not sure. But the problems OGE mentioned - the sheer time commitment needed being beyond what almost anyone would be willing to accept - is a good reason why a pure training-based approach isn't going to work. It's one thing that attracted me to the idea of a mentoring/apprentice program. The volunteer gets to have fun while he's learning. We are sort of doing this right now. We had a family move in from out of the area and one son joined

I think one of our big problems is the lack of - I won't say trained, instead I'll say unskilled - leaders. AZMike is correct when he said "Formal training is a way to short cut the time needed to learn skills, but there is NO SUBSTITUTE for [extensive] experience..." He was talking about specifically lead climbing, but the same is true for most skills, outdoor or indoor. How extensive the experience needs to be varies with the particular skill, but ya can't become effective in something unless you practice it. The WRFA training was developed by outside groups, and I think i

Should we visit other troops that meet on a different night? As others have said, only as a last resort. He already has friends in his current troop, correct? If he enjoys camping with them, thats a good reason to stick with the current troop. Meetings are just meetings. Of course important stuff happens at meetings, but the outings are more important. Plus, he could always meet with his patrol separately from the official Troop meeting. Should I meet with the Scoutmaster of our current troop? You? No. Your son, absolutely! Of course, maybe he could use a little coac

Most of our pack losses are due to boys losing interest in the program. Even when we're doing "fun" activities, I think some boys are just worn out with learning, paying attention, and cooperating in a group by the time evening comes around.

JMHawkins - what made you think Beavah was liberal? Hmmm, I suppose it was his stance on the Tea Party, but in reading more carefully I see he considers himself a "northern GOP." Well, just goes to show it's no good trying to stuff a Beavah into a Pigeon hole. BadenP, Our unit gets contributions from a similar "matching hours" policy from some folks who work for a different company (not Intel). It's pretty nice, but we assume it won't last forever. If nothing else, sooner or later economic pressure will probably force a change. We generally use the money to subsidi

"I'm pretty sure the next one will be how to teach the Personal Management merit badge using video games!" Ha! Anyone ever seen the video game The Sims? You run this guy's (or gal's) life, and the single most important thing is time management. Gives you a real odd sensation when you realize how much time you're wasting in real life playing a video game about time management for an imaginary person.

Now I'm confused, I thought Beavah was a liberal. Quick, somebody print up a program, I'm losing track of who I'm supposed to like and who I'm supposed to hate. If we can't get some labels reapplied, I might have to start judging folks on what they actually think instead of what team they root for. Anyway, this part Instead of makin' everything a war, have da courage of your own convictions and enough belief in da rightness of your own ideas to try to convince people without threatening them with loss of access or loss of funding. Evangelize without attempting to force conver

I suggest a booth at a town fair or event.....bring your pinewood track.....have some cars to race....or seattles stomp rockets...... All excellent ideas. Our pack did stomp rockets at the town parade/fair and they were a big hit. The other pack in town has run raingutter regattas too, which are pretty fun. The only real problem with the PWD track is making sure you have enough room, they're kinda big, but if you plan ahead and work with the event organizers, maybe you can make it not just a booth, but part of a Kid's Fun Area. The other thing we do is provide Color Guards for

Lads that have been out a while and then get sucked back in because of friends or a change of circumstances. Not to "finish Eagle" but because somethin' about scoutin' was still in their blood that they couldn't shake. The fellow who ran the IOLS class I took had a story about this sort of thing. A couple of scouts dropped out after a couple of years, but one of their friends stayed in and stayed active. By and by, he earned Eagle, and invited his friends to his ECOH. Part of the ECOH was a slideshow of the new Eagle Scout's entire scouting career, from his first campout all the way fo

But if those strong units wont be bothered to help provide leadership at the district level, there isn't going to be a district to provide services. The key word in that sentence is "leadership." The question the District folks need to ask themselves is, are they asking units to provide leadership, or are they asking them to provide warm bodies to do the work under the direction of the existing District Leadership. If the previous district leadership was trying to rope units into providing volunteer labor without accepting input from the units, they may have soured the well. In

We did a week on Ross lake last month and two adults (cooking 6 breakfasts, 6 dinners, and 6 mornings worth of coffee) used about 12 oz of isopro total (and we weren't being particularly frugal with the fuel either - it was a kayaking trip and we had plenty of extra fuel). About $1 per person per day fuel costs. Besides, if you are going to do any backpacking, you can't take the big green Coleman stoves, so you need backpacking stoves anyway. You can buy a lot of fuel for the cost of having two sets of gear, one for dump camping and one for backpacking.

Priced out the supplies for a wooden model...over $70 per box, $35 in plywood sheeting alone. Almost halfway to brand a pair of brand new backpacking cook kits for the patrol! The stoves will probably fit inside the pots for storage...

AZMike, I agree that the overall quality of discussion on this topic is not always very high. However, I am very much interested in reading what you have to say, especially in re: "A lot of the information on how to deal with the abuse situation that WAS accurate and effective got brushed aside as new psychological and social theories came to the forefront in the 1960s and 1970s." This subject is distastful and uncomfortable, but it is a reality we need to face. I do not want to leave young men vulnerable to predators, nor do I want to see good men chased away through overzealous

Take a plastic tub deep enough to hold the stove on-edge, then expoxy in some vertical dividers (plywood, most likely). Or, do boxes-inside-boxes. Buy smaller tubs to hold smaller gear that go inside the bigger tubs. OTOH, it might be cheaper than you think to switch over to backpacking stoves. If you're still doing mostly dump camping, you can use cheap pots, you don't need titanium ultra-light stuff. A pair of 1.6 L steel pots (e.g. http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___90196 - $25 each) and $40 pocket rockets will do for a Patrol. $150 per patrol isn't chump change,

It might be a good time for each of us to take a few moments and think about what it is we - personally - want to get out of these forums. We come from different backgrounds, different politics, we have different opinions on lots of stuff. We can certainly find no shortage of topics to argue about, but is that what we're here for?

Speaking of which, has your DE had his REQUIRED meeting with the IH? Maybe good for a non-unit person to take the guy to lunch. That may put him in a little better "listen and learn" state of mind. I'm having a good laugh. Our DE, while a fine fellow and an asset to the district, is on the young side. Early twenties. Not sure how well it would go over if he was trying to put a 67 year old retired military type with an apparent attitude into "listen and learn" mode. Regardless, it is his job, and depending on his skill set, he might do some good. But I would not really expect t

Frankly, as I read the BSA advice for how to run a district, "retired Scoutmasters" aren't recommended as district leaders. Instead, you should have able and ambitious business and community leaders taking charge of making the district run and recruiting volunteers. Ha ha, the "retired Scoutmasters" who make our district work are also successful business leaders. Perhaps the problem with BSA Corporate is that they're so focused on fund raising from business leaders that they've lost sight of the fact the skills those business leaders have are even more important than their money. T

I'm in a different district than SP, though in the same Council. I think from the Troop angle, our district functions pretty well. I notice that most of the District level volunteers are what you might call "semi-retired" Scoutmasters. They were very active in troops years ago, but their sons aged out long ago. Many are still active with their units as ASMs or committee members, but for the most part the day-to-day unit program is someone else's job now. Meaning the district folks have time to devote to their district jobs without taking away from their units. And being mostly former uni