JMHawkins

The last sentence of the first paragraph, the future scouter asks if he will have to either "end our relationship" or "have one of us leave Scouting for the next year-and-a-half" Would this young man seriously end the relationship over this? I'm not a brain scientist, but that seems to be a whole nother ball of worms that may need to be ironed out. I think folks are missing the rhetorical questions here. I don't think SMB asked "Do I ask these two adults to stop being friends?" because he was seriously considering doing that. He asked (SMB, please confirm!) that basically absu

Yeah, you can set up your hammock as a bivy if there are no trees. Not as comfortable though. Only restrictions we've ever encountered were Rangers saying "just as long as you don't damage the trees." Which is why we use straps and don't let anyone rig their hammocks with just lines.

...During the course, I watched a bunch of pretty experienced Scouters doing some goofy things. In it's own way, it helped me to understand that being goofy with kids is really OK... Y'know, there's mixed opinion on that. I'm a big beliver in "all things in moderation" and I think a bit of goofyness now and then, especially with boys and especially with Cub Scout aged boys, is good. But there's also the idea of modelling adult behavior for the scouts. That doesn't mean being dour and grim, no no no. It doesn't mean never having any fun and never being less than serious. But if you ca

I think Scouts should definitely be encouraged to cook - remember, there's a purpose behind all this. Basement's right that the grocery store is the place to get backpacking food, not the outfitters. It's also pretty cheap to dehydrate your own food - there are $40 dehydrators on the market, and you can even make your own with an old box fan and some furnace filters (really, Alton Brown can show you how!). I like the idea of doing a dump camp in a backpack style as part of the shakedown.

Like a dog wizzing on a bush just so other dogs know he's been there. Clearly Fido needs a refresher LNT course.

Well sure, a caveman wouldn't carry anything except a sharp rock that he'd use to make whatever he needed when he got there!

Well, in looking over the application, for Requirement 5, it asks for "Number of registered Scouts" and "Total outdoor MB earned" so I'm pretty certain they meant it as an average. But, it raises another question. Do you only count MBs earned during the year? I'd assume so, but if you have a bunch of older scouts who've already earned a bunch of outdoor MBs (and maybe aren't interested in Fly-fishing, Forestry and Cycling)... Whatever the interpretation, getting the Scouts thinking about those MB sounds like a good idea.

I like qwazes advice, though of course the adults may chat with the PLC about their interpretation and make sure it's appropriate and all that. Personally, I'd read the requirement as the troop averaging one MB per scout. If it was supposed to be each scout earning one MB, then I'd expect the requirement to be worded as "Requirement #5. Each scout in the troop earned at least one outdoors-related merit badge." rather than "at least one outdoors-related merit badge per Scout." It would be awfully difficult to expect every single Scout to meet a bar like that. I mean, how do you ac

That sounds like a wonderful project. Not only something meaninful, but something Scouts could do mainly on their own with minimal adult assistance. I really like this.

Backpacking is a thinking-man's game supplemented by experience. More than once, I have sat in the middle of my camp thinking to myself: "Why in the world did I drag that along?" When I get back to base camp, I make a mental note: "Never bring that stupid thing along ever again." It works. This is excellent advice, and the best outcome of course is for the Scouts to do this thinking, not have the adults do it for them! They'll need to gain some of that experience to do it, and that's a tremendous bit of maturity for them. I think this is one of the main advanages of backpacking for Scou

...we have the classic 2-burner green Colemans. Are y'all saying to carry a few of those along? I would leave the green Colemans home and take backpacking stoves instead. Your first backpacking trips will probalby be in the summer, or at least not in the winter, so the isopro pocket rockets would work as a cheap starter step. They're good to have around anyway.

First things first, GOOD JOB! Getting a car camping troop out backpacking is an awesome step. As to equipment. Seattle's right that you want them to make decisions, but you should also give them some guidance. Part of the fun of a backpacking trip is all the gear! Here are my suggestions you could share with your PLC about backpacking gear. Perhaps they would like to invite some adults (or even better, older Scouts from a nearby backpacking troop!) to do some Gear Talks during upcoming Troop meetings. 1 stove per 4 Scouts sounds about right. I think Kudu calls this a "Cook

Callooh, For step 6, could a Scout substitute "leave Blue card in scout pants while on camping trip with torrential downpour. Discover mass of blue pulp and return to step 2"?

Do I think any of these are ideal solutions given the background on the couple in question? NO. But you follow the policy or you don't. It is not a guideline that can be adjusted at one's whim to fit one's circumstances But we claim to be training folks for leadership. When the rules don't produce a good result, shrugging your shoulders and saying "rules is rules, whatchagonnado?" isn't exactly leadership.

I'd say it's up to the counselor. If I was his counselor, I'd be happy to let him use his recently completed football season, so long as he was able to do a good job explaining the rules, etiquette, equipment and field, and already had a good grasp of the first three MB requirements. Others may only want to count things done after he get's his blue card. Either way can be justified, and both have their plusses and minuses. Of course, he has to have the blue card to "work on" the MB with his counselor, but there's nothing to say the counselor cannot (nor that he must) accept previous

We didn't exactly split a troop when we started ours, but there was some tension none the less. I live in a rural valley that's also a bedroom community for the Eastside (Redmond, Bellevue, Kirland) tech industry. There was one troop, and it was in the next town down the valley. Years ago, that town used to be the big town in the valley, but for the last couple of decades almost all the growth has been in the town I live in, which is now about twice the population of the town with the other troop. A bunch of parents, me included, started talking about forming a troop in our town. There wa

I came across a column written by the outgoing Chief Executive of the Scouting Association of the UK. Interesting reading. One point in particular stood out to me: "For adult volunteers, instead of insisting on a one-size-fits-all training programme which took weekends to complete, we fitted training around the skills, competencies and experience they already had. Any gaps could be filled in the evening, in modules and even online." The article is here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/voluntary-sector-network/2012/oct/01/scout-association-volunteering-community

I don't think we're discussing whether they're tenting together. I think we're worried about whether they can even belong to the same unit.

Then have invite the two loudmouths on the committee out for a cup of coffee. In a nice way, ask them to grow up. Causing a stink with someone who, A) is married to the president of your chartered organization, B) is an active and apparently influential member of the council, and, C) has given a lot to the unit over the years, is just childish. Indeed. Based on just the limited info available in this thread, I'd be more inclined to drop the two MCs from the charter than the old CC. Doesn't sound like he's going around causing trouble for the Troop, at any rate... Unless there's som

Well, the first thing to find out is what the CO's view on this is. Second, assuming the CO has no problems, bring it up with the SE. Why not go to the top? If the SE is okay with it, then continue on as Q mentioned. But, if someone, somewhere, has a problem with the adult leader and his "youth" fiancee, there is another solution. They could become ASMs with a Troop, both adults, and no funky grey areas.

A 5:1 ratio sounds like a reasonable goal for Cub Scouts. If you're talking about Boy Scouts, that is too low. The real ratio depends on the maturity of scouts and the capability of the adults, but there's no reason 2 adults can't handle 20+ reasonably responsible Boy Scouts. I know of no written requirement for Boy Scouts beyond the 2-deep requirement.

It seems we could streamline the whole thing quite a bit if da councils filled in most of it, and da UC added most of da rest, and then it became a 15-minute agenda item for a TC meeting unrelated to recharter. I think this is an excellent idea since it would put the burden on the District to - if it wants JTEs filled out - find a UC for the unit. I think that's probably one of the best things a district can do to help Scouting. Our Troop is lucky - we actually have a couple of really good UCs fighting over who gets us! But that's just because we're a new troop and really fun people to

A 16 hour class can only cover so much. There are other classes available with greater time commitments that go into greater depth.

Best beading ceremonies I've seen were when WB course-mates got together late at night after the lads had gone to bed, shared a bit of camaraderie around a campfire, and enjoyed each other's company for a bit. This was what the SM in our troop did. There were a total of four youth in attendence - his three sons and the Troop's SPL. The SPL was there because when he found out about the ceremony, he asked if he could cook dutch oven desserts for everyone (he loves to cook). I just started working on my ticket. I figure I'll do one of two things for a ceremony. Either I'll do wha

Tis better to tarnish the grown man and loose a leader than to perhaps second guess a child because what might be happenning is soooo terrible, one must defame the adult to protect the child. Right, except of course it's not just the adult scouter who's harmed. It's his family too. His children, who now have a father the community thinks is another Jerry Sandusky. His wife who has to live with sideways glances and whispers at the supermarket. I'm sure none of that harm his kids at all, right? And then there's the societal trust problem Dean mentions. Society doesn't work very well w