Kudu

Baden-Powell designed the Scout Uniform so that all badges remain, except for Second Class, which is replaced by First Class. They are called "Proficiency Badges," meaning that they indicate current proficiency through constant retesting (think BSA Lifeguard), the opposite of our one and done "rank" badges. See: http://inquiry.net/uniforms/traditional/placement.htm

Spiney Norman writes: "We appoint our patrol leaders." So do ALL of the Scout Troops in ALL of the countries that use Baden-Powell's Patrol System. The difference is that in the Patrol System, the Scoutmaster meets with the Patrol first to discuss the possibilities, and/or consults the PLC before making the official appointment. See Rule 240: http://inquiry.net/traditional/por/groups.htm The question should be: "To what end?" In most "modern" BSA Troops, "Boy Led" means the adults give the Scouts a free hand in six month popularity contests to "learn about de

Our Scouts never get tired of "Pizza Hot Dish." The Troop tradition is a baked evening meal for First Class cooking. For practice, they first cook the three meals at home (in a regular oven) for their family, and count it for Cooking Merit Badge. Pizza Hot Dish 2 pkg Crescent rolls 8 oz Shredded Cheddar Cheese 1 jar Pizza Sauce 8 oz Shredded Mozzarella Cheese 1-1/2 lb Ground Beef Brown ground beef, drain. Line dutch oven with 1 pkg of crescent rolls. Spread pizza sauce on dough. Add browned beef, the cheeses and use second pkg of rolls to form a top crust. Bake

Baden-Powell's test for a First Class Scout was a solo 15 mile backpacking trip, the world standard for a competent camper long before the invention of lightweight equipment The "How To" guide for adult leaders: http://inquiry.net/outdoor/hikes/1st_class_hike.htm The distance increased with each stage of training: http://inquiry.net/advancement/traditional/journey_requirements.htm Yours at 300 feet, Kudu http://kudu.net

"Many of the discussions on this thread attempt to find happy ground . . . we're going backpacking, but we can only cover 10 miles a day because we're going to need to stop and cook 3 times a day..." For a Troop's first experiment, I'd go for that happy ground: No more than one (1) mile in each direction, and at least one (1) cooked meal per day. A couple of years ago, I introduced "backwoods fishing trips" to our town's only local Troop: Just a half-mile, but at once they saw the potential of replacing a Troop Trailer with backpacks, as if viewing the world for the first time throu

JMHawkins "1 stove per 4 Scouts sounds about right. I think Kudu calls this a 'Cook Group'." Yes, two (2) "Cook Groups" per Patrol. Here is Bob Geier's easy, illustrated guide for beginners: http://inquiry.net/outdoor/skills/cooking/lightweight.htm As you slowly invest in good equipment, move the more mature Patrols into using the same gear for all campouts. They can backpack Baden-Powell's minimum 300 feet every month :-) Yours at 300 feet, Kudu http://kudu.net

In a nutshell, "Traditional Scouting" is Baden-Powell's Patrol System: 300 feet between Patrols, and (in common with Green Bar Bill's definition of a "Real" Patrol) unsupervised Patrol Hikes at least once a month. If lrsap agrees that the long-term solution to his current problem is Patrol Leaders with the maturity to move Patrols through the backwoods, then he knows he can scan through my last 1,968 posts for "documentation," or visit my Traditional Scouting Website. Yours at 300 feet, Kudu http://kudu.net

Since you asked... The photographs are very good, and I like your use of Green Bar Bill's capitalization of key program elements (Troop, Patrol, Patrol Method, Patrol Leader, etc.). Where I part company is your use of Baden-Powell's term "Patrol System" as interchangeable with the BSA's "Patrol Method." In essence you do to the Patrol System what books like Working the Patrol Method and some American "Patrol Method" Websites do: Cloak group development theory in the patina of the historical "Real" Patrol Method! As for your "five areas of the Patrol Method that are espec

"Kudu, I agree a 16 y.o. PL would be great, but you work with what you've got." So your oldest Scouts are 13? At one time you had a 16 year-old trainer. Still, the goal of Traditional Scouting is to have the Troop's most mature Scouts serve as Patrol Leaders for as long as they are the best natural leaders. In this version of the Patrol Method, the Patrol Leader's primary role is to hike and camp his Patrol away from the other Patrols. That you can do with thirteen-year-olds, scaling the actual physical distance to each Patrol's maturity. One trick you can start now is: Neve

"And anyone seen Kudu lately?" I've switched from analytical writing for adults ("telling"), to allegorical Patrol Adventure stories for boys ("showing"). I'm happy to comment when invited, but I don't check in here every week. As for short term "practical" advice: rdclements, fred8033, and Twocubdad nailed it. But the big picture here is that both Baden-Powell's "Patrol System" and Green Bar Bill's "Real" Patrol Method are designed to work with your Troop's most mature Scouts as the Patrol Leaders. Would you need to engage "adult-association" Scout Spirit requirements,

Basementdweller writes: "Read any of the AT trail books written for entertainment, Skywalkers, 300 zeros...many of them have negative references to Boy scouting. Most are because of the ignorance of the adult leaders" Speaking of: Here are some pics I snapped this spring of trained adult leaders teaching Boy Scouts to hack up mangroves in the Florida Keys: http://inquiry.net/outdoor/leave_no_trace.htm Many people would be surprised to learn that Baden-Powell invented a training course to teach indoor volunteers how to think like an outdoorsman. It was a week-long immersion

No, it's the other religion: "It's a great way to prepare for the real world," Platt said of his Scouting experience. "I feel it's preparing me for being a CEO...."

GKlose writes: "We still have a ways to go...I'd specifically like to institute a couple of Kudu's ideas: one is to get away from car camping (completely, I hope, someday) and do that by offering a "backcountry" trip that is maybe a half mile away from parking. The other is to get our patrols separated physically (300ft!). That worked when I was a Scout, and there's no reason why it shouldn't work now. But we haven't been digging really deep to find outing spots to support that concept yet." No need to dig deep for 300 foot Patrol venues if you combine your two modest goals: Ask (in

Twocubdad writes: "Under "Patrol Method" you can discuss ... every patrol camping 300 feet apart." One big advantage of camping the Patrols Baden-Powell's minimum 300 feet apart is that this physical distance will eventually move "Voting vs Appointing" from a moral debate to one of obvious practicality: "Who is the best leader?" rather than "Who needs the POR?." That being said, I would implement B-P's "Real" Patrol System in the field, along the lines suggested by SeattlePioneer, rather than writing it up as a new "policy" to attract debate. Adjust the distance of e

Beavah writes: Kudu I think has somethin' on his site about lightweight campin' for patrols which does a comparison between what you do and what a lightweight group looks like. Comparison Chart of Heavyweight Troop Method vs. Lightweight Patrol Method: http://inquiry.net/outdoor/equipment/lightweight_camping.htm Detailed Equipment List for "Chucking the Chuck Boxes:" http://inquiry.net/outdoor/skills/cooking/lightweight.htm Yours at 300 feet, Kudu http://kudu.net

Here is one with a "Citizenship in the Nation" theme: Early in the last century, six (6) outdoor organizations aspire to forming national Boy Scout organizations in the American free market. One of these corporations gets Congress to grant it an absolute monopoly on Scouting. The condition of this lucrative monopoly is that the corporation must maintain as its mission the training of boys in outdoor camping skills called "Scoutcraft," as the word "Scoutcraft" was defined on June 15, 1916. In 1972, a group of corporate management experts removes all camping requirements for Ea

To qualify for some "Honor Troop" award at Camp Thunder, we had to listen to a Venturing sales pitch. The guy arrived ten minutes late and talked about all the fun things our Scouts could do after they turned 14. It did not make much of an impression. Except for the promise of pistol shooting and sky diving, our Boy Scouts already do all the traditional Boy Scout stuff he offered. However, when two of our older Scouts returned after hearing the Venturing pitches all summer long (while staffing the waterfront at Camp Woodruff), they made a presentation to the Troop telling them abou

I always registered about 15 non-Cubs a year using the following recruiting presentation, but it requires access to a public school during school hours: http://inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm

Sorry, BSA24, but you lack modern leadership skills. Obesity is our nation's fastest growing demographic. We run the risk of becoming irrelevant if we don't adapt to things that attract kids today. You can teach a kid about character and leadership using aerospace and computers. The secret is to get them to sit side by side with morbidly obese models of character. We've had CEOs on our board say they want to send their people to Wood Badge, our adult leader training program, because we use these state-of-the-art techniques. http://inquiry.net/leadership/sitting_side_b

That's what the epaulettes are for: So you can wear a chip on your shoulder.

"It ... ultimately distracts from the purposes that they are out camping in the first place." The topic for this thread is "iPods and the 'Real' Patrol Method." The "Real" Patrol Method refers to William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt's Patrol Method (as opposed to Leadership Development's Patrol Method). Hillcourt defined a "Real" Patrol as a gang of approximately eight friends that finds adventure in hiking on a regular basis, separately from the rest of a Boy Scout Troop and its "Adult Association." So by definition the "purpose" of a Patrol Hike is to cover physical di

If only outdoorsmen were as good as office workers at getting fake Baden-Powell quotes to stick.

On the Internet, nobody can tell that you actually are a curly horned African antelope! I'll be at Camp Thunder next week if anyone wants to see if kudus bite ... Yours at 300 feet, Kudu http://kudu.net

"parents never really see the good stuff because it happens out in the woods." Do Not Underestimate the Power of Facebook and other social media to enable parents to share their pride in their son hanging off a 60 foot climbing tower, or hanging out 60 feet below a SCUBA dive boat. "Hey! Anyone want to do scuba?" The public page below is only one campout old (Climbing Merit Badge, rather than Scuba), but please consider clicking "Like" (at the top, under the Boy Scout swimming toward the dive boat) to benefit the Troop if you see the potential in their example for your own

Troop61, The lawyers on the list can give you a better answer, but I think the problem is mixing a sponsor with trademarked BSA words and logos. However, the BSA does not own the words, "Troop 61." Yours at 300 feet, Kudu http://kudu.net