kenk

During this spring's OA elections, the person representing the lodge and overseeing the elections was adiment that Scouts had to be present to be considered eligible for election. Unfortunately one of the boys who the Scoutmaster wanted included in the election couldn't attend the Troop Meeting that night. I can't find anything in the on-line election rules that states the Scout must be present to be on the ballot. Your feedback? Your experience? By the way, kind of referring to another thread, during this spring's OA election one boy who did NOT get enough votes has Asperger'

Those floors that look like woven plastic tarps are only found on cheap tents, such as Wenzel and some Coleman tents. Good quality tents have nylon or sometimes polyester (not to be confused with polyethylene) floors. Good rain flys are usually made of polyester since it handles UV degradation from sunlight better than nylon. Tents, like just about everything else, range in quality from crap to really high quality stuff, but quality can cost money since it requires higher price fabrics, coatings, poles, and assembly. Today, it is more common than not to find good tents that come with fact

I like the idea of each person pitching in with the patrol's cook gear. The person assigned to KP should make sure water is heating, set up the wash stations and drying area, and then be responsible for making sure gear is washed, and washed correctly. There are Scouts in my son's troop that are great washers, and then there are others that regularly do an inadequate job, and need to be watched & guided. Most of the Scouts are notorious for not cleaning the dutch ovens well - or waiting until the contents have dried solid.

From "The Scoutmaster Handbook", Chapter 9, Cleaning Up: "Scouts in charge of cleanup can accelerate the process by heating a pot or two of water on the stove or campfire whle the patrol is eating. When the meal ends, the Scouts can set out one pot of hot water containing biodegradable soap, a second pot of clear, hot rinse water, and a pot of cold water with a sanitizing tablet or a few drops of bleach to kill bacteria. If each Scout washes his own dishes and a pot or a cooking utensil, the work will be done quickly and no one will have to spend a long time at it." 1. Wash in hot so

To summarize, so far I've learned ... - That a single person who has had sex outside of marriage should not be a SM or ASM. What about people who have drunk alcohol underage, or who have gotten a speeding ticket? - That people who are younger than 23 should not be a SM because they don't have enough life experience. How old does one have to be to have gathered enough experience to be a SM? - That a young female adult should not be a SM because she might be distracting to the boys. I suppose women are limited to serving on the committee, or better yet maybe they should stay away

The GS leaders are volunteers just like in CS & BS. If the leaders quit then then there are two choices: (1) another parent steps up to become the leaders, or (2) the troop is dissolved. Choice #2 happened with my daughter's first troop. The leader moved to Detroit so the troop disolved. Luckily my daughter moved to another troop that is much more active and "outdoors-involved", as opposed to focusing on makeup and more "girlie" stuff. About the audit, I do think that is one of those necessary not-so-fun things associated with any organization - volunteer or not. I would think i

I understand what you're going through because my son, who is now into his second year as a Boy Scout and is now a First Class scout, has Aspergers Syndrome too - though his case isn't as extreme as some. My advice is to just keep asking questions in different ways until something clicks and he provides an answer that meets the requirements. Its unfair to the other Scouts to just give up and check-off the AS Scout's requirement assuming he understood or knows. Like you said, with AS he can probably learn skills and facts faster than most people, the tougher part is usually when a require

As with any other Scout, we should facilitate their learning and advancement and celebrate their successes. Not all Scouts are the same. We certainly shouldn't try to add artificial requirements to try to slow down the go-getters.

L.H. -- well said. Having grown up with a twin sister in a family that loved to camp, I have no doubt that outdoor skills have no gender. There are two moms in our small troop that take a very active role as leaders. One is an ASM, and the other is a treasurer (also the leader of my daughter's GS troop - yeah!). They work hard, are great leaders, great role models, and the Scouts like when they're along.

At the beginning of the week our lodge made arrangements with each troop to have a lodge member come sit around the evening campfire with the troop, tell a story, talk about OA, and answer any questions. It came off real well with our troop last summer (my first year in Boy Scouts).

Another nice beginner's compass is the Brunton 9020G. This compass provides for tool-free adjustable declination, and the bright optic green color "may" make it more finable if dropped. Based upon my Scoutmaster training experience, I found it a bit frustrating that our council recommends ignoring magnetic declination when working with Scouts. Here in my area the declination is only about 3 degrees so its not such a big deal, but in other areas of the country magnetic north can be as much as 18 degrees from true north. When I was a Cub Scout leader I started the boys out with c

In our troop, after the flag has been posted, the SPL says "square off to the flag" just before he calls for the salute.

I just hope someone doesn't want to cut a corner off of my Therm-a-rest if I snore too loud!!

jblake47 gave the right answer, but then started straying into Wisconsin (?) law and personal opinions. Besides the Guide to Safe Scouting, the real answer is to check with your local and state laws, or if on federal property, you'll need to check with those laws. Here is a link that you might find useful: http://pweb.netcom.com/~brlevine/sta-law.htm (This message has been edited by kenk)

The advice given here is excellent. I'm curious what exactly you mean when you said "throttle him". Ken

When the troop first started (before I was around) the leaders planned to buy some troop tents and asked the boys if they wanted one larger tent or several smaller tents - of course they wanted one large party tent. They soon learned the lack of sleep was an issue, and scouts started bringing their own tents. Now boys without their own tent use the party tent (not many do that) and others use their own tents. We encourage them to stick to smaller tents and have two scouts per tent. The reality of the night-time bladder pressure issue is that regardless of the rules, I suspect the scout wi

I purchased a PLB w/ internal GPS at the end of last year. The purchase had absolutely nothing to do with Scouting. My scouts will not be put in a situation where a PLB might be needed. If I had a venture crew things might be different. My family likes to travel to areas that are not covered by cell phones and we tend to like to drive on the side roads where traffic is not very heavy and hike back a ways off the roads. After the James Kim tragedy my wife & I decided the price for a PLB was reasonable insurance for safety. I don't buy the idea that PLB's are simply gadgets - they

Headlights are wonderful! Somehow it is always pointing in the direction I'm looking. Magic! These days I recommend the Princeton Tec EOS - an LED light that uses AAA batteries. Very bright, but also has a lower setting that is perfect for inside tent use. I still carry a regular flashlight, but not sure why. Eventually it may just get left home.

So what you're saying is that the south might have won if only they had limited themselves to "a sharp pocketknife with a can opener". I for one am glad didn't have BSA's fine advice back then, otherwise I'd need to take my passport to visit Florida. :-)

I always smile at this topic. Luckily my son's troop (I'm an ASM) allows use of fixed blade knives, recognizing their inherent value in camping, but still enforces the bans on them on some council-owned properties - a Scout is obedient. I find it interesting that the descriptive quality of "unsafe" is used in this discussion about fixed blade knives. What is it about a fixed blade knife that might make it more unsafe than a folding knife? Is a folder with a locking blade more unsafe than a folder without a locking blade? Concern was voiced about carrying a sheathed fixed

The problem was that she didn't leave a trip plan with friends or family, nor did she even leave a note in her car. The searchers didn't know whether she was "out there" or had simply left her car there and left the area. They clearly had no idea that she'd planned to be backpacking for two weeks - I'm guessing they assumed she was a hiker. If she had left a plan they'd at least have known where to look for her. If she'd left it with friends or family, they'd have at least started searching a few days earlier. The reports say she made camp to wait for the flood water to subside, but

I'll echo the recommendation to spend some time at http://www.equipped.org . Doug Ritter is the executive director of the not-for-profit Equipped To Survive Foundation, whose focus is on saving lives through proper education and preparation about survival and emergencies. Regarding the James Kim event, Doug pointed out that a 406 MHz personal locator beacon (PLB) would have gotten them rescued promptly - probably in a matter of a day, if not just hours. I'd encourage Scout leaders who take Scouts on remote adventures - and anyone who travels in remote areas outside of normal m

You don't heat tents. Flame and tents don't go together. Hot rocks don't hold that much heat and can risk melting nylon and polyester. Also, just about any additional heat will only encourage condensation on the tent walls which is not a good thing and can literally soak your gear as the sun warms up the tent during the day. You may even be better off opening up the tent's windows at night to allow plenty of ventilation. You need to have a good sleeping bag, a hat, and very dry jammies. There will be a bit of coldness when first sliding into the sleeping bag, but soon enough you'll be ple

You said it well. I couldn't agree more.

Yup, putting a ground cloth INSIDE the tent as well as underneath is a great idea. Keep in mind that the waterproofing coating is on the inside, so anything that cuts, scrapes, or wears off that coating destroys the waterproofness of the tent. Have each Scout bring thier own groundcloth of sufficient size to fit the tent floor - use one under (fold as needed so it doesn't stick out), one over, and if there are three Scouts, keep one in reserve for all sorts of other tasks such as covering firewood, covering gear left outside, etc... By the way, if you're going canoing where you'll h