JMHawkins

I like to make dehydrated "bark" - sauces and what-not that dyhdrates to crumbly flakes. Cook spaghetti at home, put it in a blender with your favoirte sauce, puree, then deyhdrate that (using special sheets for the dehydrater, I image they'd work with Stosh's AB special too). Add some dehydrated ground beef, soak in cold water for 10-15 minutes, then heat. Spaghetti and Meatball Stew. You can make bark out of veggie puree, sweet potato, corn, etc. Use Pizza Sauce for Pizza Stew.

Frankly, I think the biggest cause of burnout is failing to see resuls from your work. Maybe that's why changing to a different position helps - in their old posisiton they solved all the problems they knew how to solve and so were just beating their head against a wall and not feeling like they were making any progress. Find a way for them to see (according to their POV) progress from their work. Not always easy, but I think that's the key.

I agree with Beavah, you don't have to make rules when people do dumb things. You especially don't have to make dumb rules when people do dumb things. Suppose UPS has a driver who they discover is routinely driving recklessly. Do they ban those big brown vans for the entire corporation? No, they fire the idiot and let the rest of their drivers - the ones with common sense - continue to do their job. It's a sure sign that a bureaucrat is in charge when an organization starts trying to write rules to prevent anything bad happening even if people are doing dumb things. It never wor

Unfortunately, too many unit leaders pay no attention at all to district leadership except to consumer the resources and activities provided. Seattle, I think that's just another part of the vicious circle Barry mentioned. If the District is bad and the district level volunteers are as obnoxious as what Basement describes, not only are the unit volunteers probably worked extra hard to make up for the lack of district support, they're also probably disinclined to get involved with a group they find mostly annoying. Without some really exceptional and committed folks, turnarounds are

The FB responses are not running in Irving's favor. I wonder just how Social Media savvy they are? Things like this can brew up into a massive PR storm pretty quick these days. All it takes is one national radio host or widely read blogger to point people at it and they could be in for a deluge of "what's wrong with you people?" comments. I suspect the demographic that isn't already unhappy with the GGG issues won't be real happy about the excessive nanny-stating. Way to misunderstand your target market guys... Until BSA can get a handle on their risk management process, I don't thin

Eamonn, 'zero tolerance' is not good. It is thoughtless and hurtful. It is stupid. It substitutes a faceless regulation for good judgement. Your son suffered an injustice and all the authorities involved knew it. They were just too panty-waisted to stand up and do what was right, which was to challenge the law and the system, to ridicule it if there was no other way, but at least make all involved know what they were...cowards. 100% agreed.

I know of at least one FoS contribution that was halted specifically over this new policy.

Actual things banned by the form: Pickaxe... Considering the popularity of Minecraft these days, banning a pickaxe might just be the single worst recruiting move BSA has made lately.

She thinks the BSA Risk Management issue is like when she was a programmer and you tried to boost word recognition in a speech recognizer from 98% to 100%...it was HUGELY expensive to close that gap and it usually was not practicable. So trying to remove almost all risk starts to get a bit ridiculous. None of us want our boys to get really hurt... Tampa, it's even worse than expensive and impractical. It actually starts to become counter-productive and additional poorly thought out risk management increases the chance of injury. Every additional rule that is added is one more thing tha

When we started up the troop, we were looking for used camping gear we could seed the equipment locker with. One guy came across a Craigslist ad for a tent. Reason for sale: "My 13 year old son already earned his Eagle, so he doesn't need to camp any more." Now cbowe, the problem there isn't the age, it's the attitude. Someone who lives and breathes scouting and is highly motivated by awards (remember that point, I'll come back to it) can no doubt get everything done in a short period of time. But like Beavah's comments about FCFY, the one-and-done approach doesn't leave much time fo

It's increasingly clear to me that the wrong approach and mindset are being used with regard to saftey guidelines. We get the nonsensical results we get because things like pushing a wheelbarrow along a trail are apparently confused by safety "experts" with falling off a tractor trailer. Frankly it's probably a good thing the general public is ignorant of BSAs safety regulations. If they knew the details, they'd be likely to conclude BSA knows nothing about the subject and simply responds to accidents by banning entire categories of activities without understanding what exactly led to

Thanks for clarifying the BALOO/OWLS stuff.

JTex, I think you have plenty to focus on just getting going as a WDL without worrying yet about camping rules a troop may have. I'd suggest waiting for events to develop for the time being. When you get an official invitiaton to a campout, if it comes with a restriction on mothers camping with their sons, you can address it with the SM then and let him know the rule doesn't work for you and your son. He might surprise you, the SM may be a perceptive fellow who "waives" the rule before even mentioning it to you. Especially if you end up as the COR (if I remember correctly, I think a CO wit

Well, so, here's a question. Has the Troop officially invited your den to join them for a campout?

We are not raising a generation of whimps. We've already raised one, and it's put itself in charge of making age-appropriate guidelines. The question now is, are the rest of us courageous enough to replace these fools who think it's dangerous for a 12 year old to use a wheelbarrow with sensible folks? Because that's what's needed. Unreasonable saftey rules are in fact counterproductive. Quick, what makes up the bread in the SSD sandwich? Supervision and discipline, right? Both are undermined by rules like the ones in the spun thread. Disciple ultimately requires respect,

JTex, I would suggest you contact the SM of the troop and explain that you've heard women aren't allowed on their campouts and that, if that's true, your den can't camp with his troop unless there's a waiver for this policy. Don't be controntational about it, don't suggest it's a bad policy or that they should change it, just point out that if that's the policy, your den won't be able to camp with them like they always have in the past. Start off with the assumption that it's just a misunderstanding and that the troop would actualy have no problem with a female den leader - or any other

Hard to figure this guy out. Interesting description of boy-led. I wouldn't normally expect a boy-led Troop to be as crips and polished as described. But then I'm inherently suspicious of the "need" to keep the adult leadership closed. Not just closed to women, but to men who aren't "in the club" too. Our troop has high standards for our adult leaders (well, not too high, I got in after all) but new faces are welcome if they meet them. Not that this discourse is not a peak experience Tampa, my last "peak" experience was when my old Peak1 white gas stove developed a crack in the

Yeah, so I know what "boy-led" is. "Boy-led" doesn't mean pizza and video game night is okay for the monthly "outing" even if that's what they decide they want to do. If that's what the boy leadership of a Troop settled on, then it would be up to the adult leadership to redirect them towards more appropriate activities. Likewise, if they're content with a program, even if it's a traditional outdoor one, it might be time to push them to expand their scope. Unless all 3 of your adult leaders are retired men of leisure, I have a hard time reconciling an active troop with the claim you d

Well, I had a big, long, really well-written response (probably would have won an award!), but the Internet ate it. So, I'll give the (probably better) condensed version: One: get the scouts doing more outdoor activities and you'll have plenty of space for more ASMs. We have 10 for 38 scouts and more would be even better. Get them backpacking by patrol with each patrol going to a different area (meaning two adults per patrol). Get them out for longer trips. More time in the outdoors and it'll be nice to have someone to spell you for a bit. Challenge the boys to step it up. T

Dwalto, Welcome as others have said. A couple of suggestions. One, if there are more competent adults willing to work as ASMs than there is work for them to do, maybe the Troop should take on more activities? Our troop has 10 SMASMs and we're all busy enough that we welcome every new face who can pitch in. You said the Troop is boy led - boys can sometimes be awfully content to do the same old same old. Maybe you need to challenge them to do more. Two, if you really are "full" at the ASM position and you have already turned down qualified men who want to join, then it would be

I just have well-behaved kids Tampa! Sort of. And the babysitter adores our dog... I'm not bashing public schools Pappadaddy. My father was a public school teacher, principal and superintendent. But to borrow a meme I used on the Bye, bye Bob thread, he was one of the Mission people, and there's no shortage of Organization folks in the schools. Schools are important and there are things kids learn best in a classroom. But there are other very important things kids can't learn in a classroom, and it's essential that we not allow the Organization folks to claim all the kid's tim

Public schools are free daycare... Have you looked at your property tax bill lately? They ain't free... The average around the country is something like $10k per year per student. Works out to somewhere between $9 and $10 per hour. I can hire a babysitter to watch three kids for $10/hr, if that's all I'm after.

There is much that a young person needs to learn and only a portion of it can be taught in a classroom. Locking our children up for 8 hours a day in an institutional setting is an impediment to learning, no matter how carefully we engrave the word "School" on the side of the building.

Sorry, but the Chief Scout Executive is the top employee of the BSA. Basically what we call in most organizations an Executive Director. I'd rather it be someone who knows how to run a non-profit in that position. Personally, I'm not all that sure someone who knows how to run a non-profit is a good idea, at least if the way you evaluate that is by experience at non-profits. Sort of like hiring someone who knows how to run a bank to be your CFO. I think the world of non-profits may be changing, and someone too heavily invested in the status quo might turn out to be a terrible choice.

Kudu recommends movie night showing Master and Commander for TLT. So Beavah, I take it you might suggest Rashomon for UC training...