LauraT7

in attempting to provide a program that gets a boy to first class / first year - we have a disagreement in time in our troop. We get boys in from Webelos and non-scouts, anytime from Feb of their 5th grade year to June. They do not all come in one clump, but rather in spurts, singles and small groups from the same pack. (we do not have a 'feeder' pack, we have to WORK hard to recruit!) some are active from the start, some are in spring sports and don't really get active until summer campouts and summer camp. We do have about a 95% turnout for summer camp - mostly because we have done

A tough topic. When I first started in BOY Scouting, one of the longtime male leaders and I discussed this on a trip (no boys in the car, I was pulling the trailer and he was my navigator - along for company) He had been uncomfortable with the YP tapes we had shown recently and his take on it was to avoid any discussion at all. He has no kids and has not had to face 'the discussion' himself, either personally or with someone else's kids. He asked me if, as a woman, didn't I feel uncomfortable discussing sexual responsibility, relationships, abuse, etc around teenage boys and was

We call ours "Family Night / COH " We generally do 4 COH's a year - approx one a quarter. Two are meals/family/social time. For the Jan one it is potluck/awards/ skits - for the August one (alot of awards because it is after summer camp) we meet in the park at a shelter. The troop provides meat, bread and pop, everyone brings a dish or dessert to share. We play softball or volleyball, have a big waterfight, we might do a scouting demo campsite or shoot off the rockets the Space Explorer badge boys made. The other two COH's, simple ceremonies with cookies or pie and punch - somet

Our troop USED to do one nighter campouts (SAt AM to Sun noon) - we finally and recently got it turned back around to two nighters after long consideration..... (and some arguments) For my money, if you're gonna go - go the whole weekend. Sat/ Sun sucks up most of the weekend anyway, and the boys get an extra 'night' and often an extra meal or two to cook (fri dinner and sat breakfast) important if you have boys who are trying to move ahead on 1st Class advancements. although we do still try to get home fairly early on Sundays - on the road by noon, usually - because boys still ha

There is one place that i witnessed many 'wonders'- all the memories run together of our family's many trips to the Nicolet National forest, and Sylvania . We started going up there in the late 60's, when Sylvania first opened. it was truly 'virgin' forest then - the woods so thick that 10' away from the waters edge you could not hear a shout from someone in the woods. Trees downed by storms were left to decay and were so protected from wind and weather deep in the woods, that if you walked up and touched one, it would crumble to dust. Animals were not used to - nor were they really

for you scout wish list, the obvious is sometimes overlooked by non- scouts, so for your list I would add: a pocketknife (sized for a boys hand - not 369 gadgets) knfe sharpener stone or kit a multi-tool a mess kit a silverware set a compass rainsuit (NOT a poncho) inexpensive headband flashlight backpacker/ biking size personal first aid kit sample size toiletries for camp carbiner hooks magnesium firestarter a COVER for their handbook, (or small bag to hold book, pen and paper - zippered bible covers work, too) or the new spiral bound handbook a star/ co

I like the photography badge - but it needs to be updated to include digital photography. They made cooking WAY too complicated and long - when a badge ends up with 3-4 pages of requirements, it's time to cut it into two badges - say, home cooking and outdoor cooking?

it is interesting to note that in the year since my last post on this thread, things have turned over almost completely in our troop. the boy who was such a problem with personal equipment has left the troop, and the other boys definately felt his attitude, because they bend over backwards to share with each other now. We DID run into a situtation at summer camp this summer where we did not have enough troop tents for the boys - even with buying two new tents right before camp (we wanted three, but could not get the third in time) and so some of the older boys who DO have their own t

I see two problems here - the first is YP training. A scout should NEVER be alone one on one with any adult, registered or not, unless that adult is the scouts own parent. Two adults, one kid; two kids, one adult; or more than three, or a public place is OK. We do stretch the rules a little in our troop because we have two familes that work nights and their boys need rides to and from meetings. so they always ride with another boy and his parent(s) - never with a leader alone. We have a couple of ASM's who do not have kids in the troop - they do not offer rides for YP reasons. ALL o

I am a counselor for camping merit badge and I have talked to a number of other camping counselors about alot of the badge requirements, but I have never heard of anyone I know requiring a boy to START counting his nights of camping after he gets the badge card - it certainly does not say that anywhere in the badge requirements. There are quite a few badges that DO specify that work is to be started AFTER the badge card is received, or that work on the badge must be pre-approved by the badge counselor - so if it were BSA's intent to have the boys START counting nights after the badge card

I answered this on the other board - but on thing you do have to realize is that most of those photos in the scouting magazines and other publication were not 'posed' by the uniform police - If I'm taking photos of my troop's boy's in action on a camporee or summer camp, I am not going to stop the action to tell some kid to tuck in his shirt or to go change into his uniform pants from yesterday, or to take of the patch that mom sewed onto the wrong side of his uniform.... I'm going to snap the photo and hope that people will see the IMPORTANT part - scouts having FUN - and that they wil

I agree with you - in one way - that the uniforms shown outside (and even sometimes inside BSA) are often not correct. However - at some of those photoshoots - such as one recently where the President's office presented some award to various scouts who had received medals for something - I bet there's a photographer who is saying 'Bring all your awards and do-dad's to 'dress' the photo. And these are kids - and they want to show off their acheivments to the world so they don't argue the finer points of uniforming with the photograher. and to tell the truth - to anyone outside of sco

Wow! I could only WISH that this would happen in our troop - though it isn't the scoutmaster who wants to change outings, it's the committee. Someone has taught the boys in your troop WELL! Great to see things working the way they SHOULD!

LOL! well, Packsaddle, I don't consider 'cabin camping' to be 'camping' either - but apparently BSA does - just not for qualifying for the Camping badge - that is why, I suppose, that they specify camping "in a tent you have pitched or under the stars". but one of our problems was that we were NOT doing one overnight a month, and some that we did were not camping - they were indoor overnights. 'Cabin camping' is listed as an option for overnights in TroopMaster, so apparently it is a fairly common type of outing for lots of troops. 'Cabin camping' is any overnight outing und

I asked this once before, and I don't think I ever got a complete answer - anyway, I can't find the thread anymore, either.... I am looking for something in the training manuals or somewhere that specifically says WHO can administer the BSA swim test. We have a boy who has everything completed for his First Class, except his BSA Swimmers test. He did attend two summer camps last summer (two weeks apart) and did NOT pass the test at the one I was at. He DID participate in a canoeing day trip at our council camp,(as part of the summer camp program) but says he doesn't think he did th

I have taken New leader Essentials,SM/ASM training, Outdoor Leader Skills, Committee challenge and various other training programs (YP, Safe Swim, safety afloat, and skills classes) offered by my council and district - everything, essentially, that was available to me except Woodbadge, which I haven't been able to arrange yet. That being said, the 'training' is only as good as the trainers and my ability to follow them. Some of my 'trainers' have been more interested in reminising about the past than teaching present skills - and others have been bvery good - but I may not 'get' all that

WE had a disastrous result when we attempted to have a NSP of all just crossed over 11 yr olds, and let them elect their own leader. Granted, that the ONLY thing we did correctly (by the book) was to establish the patrol & let them elect their own leader (by popularity, they don't have a clue). Everything else WE screwed up on. We assigned a TG to the patrol - but having never HAD a NSP or TG before, no one had a clue what he was supposed to do, and he acted (sometimes) more like an instructor than a TG. he would step in and 'teach' skills for advancement work, but never got

Y'know, the real world of scouting is seldom made up of the extremes you guys like to use as examples. Either perfect troops that have well trained & experienced adults who simply chaperone and advise, and boys who have been taught from the first and brought up thru the ranks to lead themselves - nor are all all troops run poorly by adult heavy-handedness. Although my experience with our troop leans toward the latter, some of us are trying to change it - and we periodically fall backwards. We're far from perfect - i suspect more troops are like ours than are like the 'ideal'

We just had a district camporee that had a 'Merit Badge Midway' the theme of the camporee was 'Backpacking' and troops were requested to leave their trailers and heavy equipment behind - everything had to be treked in from the parking lot. We still had alot of wagons and dolly's, but the boys did pack up all their stuff and carry it all in backpacks. They set up an area that had counselors manning it to cover 'paperwork' requirements in Camping, Hiking, Backpacking, Pioneering and Orienteering. they did not try to do the entire badges, but rather to give the boys a start on

this is a two-part problem - First, the scouts are not being sufficiently taught the skills, and two - the BOR should NOT be re-testing, that is not the purpose of a BOR. Regarding the first problem, one way to is to start following the teaching method of LEARN DO TEACH Most people only want to do the first two. In cub scouts, they get into a habit of getting 'signed off' on a requirement by simply 'doing' it - they are not required to 'master' the skill. Once they get into boy scouts, they should really KNOW the skill - well enough to use it without prompts or

you are correct - over the ENTIRE COURSE of a scouts carreer - there is something seriously wrong if they can't get 20 nights of camping in roughly 7 yrs of scouts. But - There are 12 eagle required badges that need to be earned in stages across a scouts rank advancement - he can't wait to get all of them just before he turns 18 and gets his Eagle - he has to earn so many for each advancement in rank to Star, Life and Eagle. Most boys want to start on some of them before they hit First Class. Camping is actually one of the easier ones, except for the 20 night requirement - and

I have a 50's crafstman circular saw and a drill that belonged to my grandfather.... They weigh a TON - metal casings instead of plastic - but work great! I have many of my grandfather's hand tools as well - a large wooden level, wood handled screwdrivers. Also a crowbar and a measuring rod that belonged to my great-grandfather - that I don't quite know what to do with, but I keep for sentimental reasons. I have a Mirro aluminum nesting cookset that my family bought in the 1960's - that I still take along on every scout & family campout. (good thing, too - as the boys are always forg

I DO wear my 'full uniform' - including uniform pants - though I had to buy them too big in spots and alter them to fit.... they are still of a cut and style to point up the worst in middle-aged body shapes.... And Bob - I never said I thought National didn't make them available..... I certainly realize that 'demand' is what makes the local scout shops carry certain items, and even determines the stock of our council office - if there isn't adequate turnover, then it's not worth wasting shelf space on. Catalogue shopping is not something people who are not a 'standard' size

that's a great idea to leave specific time openm for patrol outings.... i think I'm going to mention that to our SPL and ASPL.... We've been trying to encourage patrol outings - but we have also either had the whole troop jump on the bandwagon or had them peter out from lack of commitment or time constraints.

"I don't understand why people who will pay $75 for a replica Michael Jordan shirt balk at wearing a Scout uniform. " maybe for the same reason you don't wear the official uniform pants - if someone elects to buy and expensive sport shirt - it probably fits in an acceptably comfortable and fashionable manner.... But why does BSA have to make those darn uniform pants look SO BAD? I swear even skinny people look bad in them.... and since most SM's and ASM's I know (male AND female) carry a few extra pounds - Well, most of them look like sausage stuffing hanging out of the casin