JoeBob

Let's differentiate from Girls Scouts by sharpening our nomenclature: Female And Male Scouts: FAMS. Or has family camping already trademarked that?

Lyft and Uber offer ride alternatives to absent parents.

Free volunteers cost so much less than paid lower level staff. Free labor equates to higher salaries in Irving. (Back to your hole, JoeBob! Back!"

I used my role as Scoutmaster to motivate myself to stay fit. "I gotta set a good example for the boys!" Whenever we had a physical challenge ahead, I'd scarf down a handful of chondroitin for the knees, and happily soldier on. I liked being able to make 2 trips up Mount Yonah hauling water(1000 feet of elevation in 2 miles), paddling solo on the Flint and the Blackwater as lead or sweep, and coaching the younger boys halfway up the wall in the climbing gym. I think that that is what being a Scoutmaster is about. Not to say that I never doubled up on s'mores, and heated my own hammock afterwards; or had a 4th hot-dog, when 2 would have sufficed. In my world, only about 10% of Scouters over 35 would be considered fit. I just really wish that more Scouters would push themselves to set a better example. I wonder if part of the friction I have with District and Council bigwigs is them being intimidated by the difference in our levels of fitness. (Probably not; that sounds like my ego talking.) I'm 6'2", 210 lbs, and 64. I have a physically active job, so I can still suck it in and display a sixpack. (It's actually an 8 pack, and the two on bottom are 16 ouncers.)

Which one of these District level scouters do you want your child to emulate?

Weapons platoon, Alpha Company, 2nd BN, 75th Rangers, Ft. Lewis, WA You?

The Skunk Polecat As Told by the French-Canadian Trapper. I'm hunt ze moose, I hunt zee bear, Sometimes, I hunt zee rat Last veek I take my axe, Forego to hunt zee skunk pole-cat. My fren' Bill, he say Ize very fine fur, somtimes ize good to eat. So I tell my vife she get fur coat, Same times, I'm get some meat! So I valk two, tree, four mile, An' I feel vun awful smell, An' I tink dot skunk she gone an die, An' fur coat, she gone to hell. By an' by I get up close, I raise my axe up high, An' dot gosh dern skunk, she up and trow Spmeting-—Plunk—right in my eye! Sacre Bleu! I am I blind! Jese Chris! I cannot see. I run aroun and roun and roun, An bump in beeg oak tree, By an' by, I light out for zee shack. I'm tink one million skunk polecats They climb up on my back. My vife, she meet me at zee doer, She sick on me my dog;. She say, "You no sleep here no more, You go sleep wis hog." So I go out by dee hog-pen. An' say! What do you sink? Zat gosh dern hog no stand fer dat, On 'count zee awful stink. No more I'm hunt zee skunk polecat For to get his fur or meat. For if his pee she smell like zat, Jese Chris! What if he sheet?!?

@Sentinel947, I was all ready for you to hit on one of my personal hot buttons: bad personal example. When one of these rotund individuals (from a folding chair pulled out of their camping van) implies that this old Eagle Scout, Airborne Ranger, Scoutmaster isn't up to standards because I don't have beads... I need ViseGrip pliers to hold my tongue.

The double standard for validation of argument has provoked me to react. One side of this discussion has required that their suppositions, predictions of the future, and personal anecdotes are to be taken as valid. While at the same time, they have demanded empirical data from the other side and dismissed years of personal experiences as unsupportable fantasy. I considered going back over the last four pages and cutting/pasting the many examples; but it's not worth my time. One side won't change their minds, and the other side knows exactly to what I am referring. They just have more patience than I. Family Camping hasn't undermined the Patrol Method? Linked Troops won't be going coed ? Girls in coed troops won't impact the learning and personal development of boys? Right... Back to being a lurker.

Hey Cole123, welcome to the forum! My troop from Atlanta liked to plan a ski-trip (18 smelly bodies in a 3 bedroom condo) or a caving activity for February. When you're underground, the weather is irrelevant. March was usually a hike in South Georgia or a canoe trip in northern Florida, Blackwater river or the Suwanee.

“For some men, they think if they’re not raping anyone, that’s enough. But we’ve seen that it’s not. We need to train men on healthy masculinity at a young age” https://www.thedailybeast.com/metoo-is-making-colleges-teach-toxic-masculinity-101?ref=scroll They've already neutered the Boy Scouts, so why not?

I'm assuming that you mean 'separate'. But I don't understand what you'd want your SMs to know that you think wouldn't apply to an ASM?

Busted. And I can't even plead typo; the 'T' and 'P' are even close to each other... On the other hand, I'm knot alone: https://weaving.wonderhowto.com/how-to/tie-sheep-bend-knot-for-camping-325923/

I don't know about brains; I do know about trees. My Scouting mentor was the districts' nature instructor. He would get absolutely effervescent whenever we stumbled upon a new tree that he could teach us. We picked Blueberries and made Sassafras tea together along the AT in every state. Here's a quick way to get boys interested in tree ID: tell them to pick a Sweet Gum leaf and crush it in their hand. (Show them the right tree...) {If you know what a Sweet Gum tree is...} The fresh sap is very fragrant and distinctive. They'll never forget it. FWIW: Try to avoid Sweet Gum as firewood; it's almost impossible to split as the grain grows in a very convoluted pattern. A Scout is helpful:

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how you get a two-beaded Would Badger scouting expert. I see no T-2-1 basic Scout skills in Parkman' perfect training outline. If a leader can't cut firewood, warn a boy about poison sumac, build a lean-to in a storm, splint a broken arm, or even pack a backpack; then that troop should probably stay in the city. Indoors in the city. You can learn basic first aid for paper cuts on the Bandaid box.