Mafaking

My advice; do nothing.

He is blowing smoke. He has no fire in his belly to deny otherwise deserving cubs their rank.

Let'm test the scouts if he wants. Give him as much rope as possible. Recommend that he reserve the meeting hall and dedicate his time to test these scouts individually.

When I first started scouting my questions were way dumber than yours.

Sincerely

Topper

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I would hike in on Gatoraide and save the hot chocolate for the evening campfire. As long as you are moving you won't get cold. We require two liters of water at the front end of any big hike. Make one straight water and the other gatoraide.

You won't want the hot chocolate until at night when it gets colder and you are not moving.

I agree with others that your troop leaders should have covered this. Your question leads one to suspect that other winter hiking requirements have not been addressed. A packing list from a SM or one approved by the SM would have been nice. An equipment shake down one meeting prior would likely be needed for a trip like this too.

Yea we are just talking cooking here, there is no right or wrong way.

For heating up chili at a tailgate party that coleman cooker would come in handy.

If I understand how a crock pot works, it uses low wattage per area heating elements sorrounding a ceramic pot. The low heating rate and disipating heat of the ceramic provides the user with a very long and forgiving cook time without any hot spots.

And you like to make soup.

I think I would use a cast iron dutch oven on a tripod over a fire. Tending the fire and then rasing and lowering the Dutch oven on a chain or rope would provide the temperature control.

I was the scoutmaster in the room in uniform. No one on the board wore a uniform.

NancyB I feel for you.

I can tell you there is no blanket answer on where to go here. I have a mix of stuff. My sleeping bag is from REI, my metal cup Walmart, my mess kit either Target or Sports Authority, my backpack - local high end outfitter, tents: target, Dicks, Eureka outlet, Campmor and some on-line retailer. Bed roll I don't even remeber.

Budget to outfit a scout ~$150 - $200.

Sleeping bag, Mummy 15f = $85

Bed roll = $30

Mess kit = $10

Canteen = $10

Metal cup = $5

Duffel = $20

Total = $160

If he is Backpacking

Used 4500 Cubic Inch Back pack = $75

Tent = skip for now

Stove = skip or $35- 50

Cookset = Skip

Ed, The scout and I were the only ones in uniforms.

Sat in on one the other day. What a somber lot. Seven men ranging from 35 - 80 asking questions about life to an 18 year old. One was a judge, one was a retired marine officer, one was a civil engineer, another a cop and the others a couple business cogs. The mood can best be describe as mortuary in style. I kept looking around for the coffin.

The scout didn't help. His answers were slow and overly thought.

I could tell that they liked asking him about his future and thus seemed to be looking at a young man and not a boy. They asked if he new what he had to do now that he is 18? He replied yes sir register to vote and register for the armed services. They corrected him about selective services but were please that he knew.

They did asked some good questions. When the scout answered a questions about his project with We.... the Board jumped back with WHO IS WE?

Funny thing is by the end they managed to size up this scout just right. He is devoted to his family, his church, tries hard in school. He is looking forward to college but a little afraid about moving out. His a good scout but may not have been very active in the program during his later high school years.

It took less than three minutes for them to vote.

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I think I'll give it another try next month. It had rained for two days prior to us camping at that site. I use a ground tarp but not under the vestibule. I should see if I have double zippers on my rain fly and open the top six inches or so to improve circulation. The only time I really need the full rain fly is when it is raining cats and dogs.

Yea I could not find it either on the net. I bought it at Dick's Sporting goods ~$140 ouy the door. It was marked downn from 199.

The closest model to it is this Marmot Adobe (see link). My pole configuration is a little different but otherwise its close. Lots of mesh and a rain fly that goes to the ground with a vestibule on each side.

The weather was damp and in the 40-50's. The night started with a good wind from the south and died to a breeze by morning. But the Eureka didn't have the same problem.

My tent:

http://marmot.com/fall_2009/equipment/tents/backcountry/abode_2p

The scouts were in these Eureka's with no condenstae.

http://www.eurekatent.com/p-57-apex-2xt-tent.aspx

I used a brand new Marmot, Aspen 2p - two man tent this weekend. I really like the tent, the construction, style size and weight. BUT I woke up in a rain forest. Way more water inside than the Eureaka tents with two scouts.

Question; do I have an issue here that I should take back the tent or could it be something else?

"So what will my son do? "

Join the young republicans.

Buy a cardigan sweater

and watch Hannity.

From Baeavah "If yeh had a parent like him, could you point him to a troop in your area (other than your own), which would meet his expectations for rigor and adventure?"

No

We aren't much different than the four closest troops to our meeting hall. None are true Eagle mills and none are pure high adventure. Most falsely claim to be boy run but aren't. Most claim to have a certain magic that no other troop has. But the magic comes from the scouts not from the leaders.

Backpacking is not the end all beat all. I would rather have a scout spend a week with my troop at summer camp without a parent then to spend two nights crapping in the woods to prove he can do it.

Let's define High adventure:

Is is physical Risk?

Is it emotional risk

is it based on dependency of society, toilets...?

Is it breaking a barrier real or imagined in the youth's head.

Funny we use canoe association and other industry guide groups to help define our program. I am sure the US Ski association recommends helmets for all. Besides Scouting is in the business of teaching the proper techniques for camping, canoeing, swimming, and skiing. Not the goofy way we learned to ski in the 1980's from our buddies.

Anyway. One of my scouts while snowboarding on the infamous skid wall fell and racked his head. His bell was rung so bad we had to pull him off the slope with about two or more hours of open skiing left. All the adults watched him for signs of goofiness. (not easy to detect in a 13 year old boy). He seemed fine. Next day he decides to sleep in and miss breakfast. OK your choice! His dad calls me on the phone very concerned because he spoke to his boy and learned that he rang his head yesterday and is now lethargic. We both knew that his boy is a poor riser in the morning but still the message was clear. "Are you doing all you can to keep my kid safe?" Was I? It was an uncomfortable call.

By 11:00 AM he was on the slopes and doing fine.

Can you imagine if he had not had a helmet on, another adult and I would have spent the evening at the hospital and no doubt they would have kept him overnight for observations. By the way he reacted from the fall with a helmet on he would have likely given himself a concussion. That would have been an even worse call to make.

Our Troop will wear helmets when we ski.

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We took our troop skiing last winter. Our policy, Helmets had to be worn by the youths. After we came back we decided if we went again we would want to have the adults wear them too.

It wasn't that big a deal. Snowboarders wear them more than skiers. Most places have obstacle courser of small jumps and skid walls. Since you won't know when they are on these jumps or on a black diamond, just make everyone wear one.

Lisabob thanks for posting these actual occurrences inside your unit. They are of great value.

Most seasoned posters here have long since stopped posting their units current trials and tribulations. I think many seasoned poster are unwilling to state that their unit is not perfect or are unwilling to take the criticism usually directed at the poster for not doing all they could. That and many posters are no longer associated with a specific unit.

Too often the circumstances are beyond the actions of one individual. It would take the persuasive voice of a John Adams to change the made-up minds of other adults in a Scout Troop. Blood feuds are drawn over the silliest things.

I think the first question is do you take action?

And the second is in what form.

And finally to what degree. (coffee or scorched earth) I my opinion neither of these extremes work all that well. So its somewhere in the middle.

Good luck

and thanks again.

This has nothing to do with scouts PLC or SM, at this point.

The advise should be directed towards getting the committee to take the most stringent action possible. And the persuasive context someone like Lisabob can use to get reluctant and passive adults to take action against known trouble makers.

Start off with a motion/proposal to resend their membership in the unit. Then keep backing off until the most severe action has a plurality. Don't seek complete conscience you will never get it, just 50% plus 1. Then volunteer to approach the CO about the matter. Dismiss the notion of prior issues and known bias. If this is well known then why hide it?

Eamonn you must realize what you posted?

1) The cost of scouting in the UK is better (lower cost and more value)

2) Summer camps are better in the UK

3) Chartering /Scouting organization relationship are better in the UK

4) Commissioners structure is better in the UK

5) The UK scout oath is better.

added

6) Advancement is better too

OK so in your opinion UK scouting is better.

You just want us to know this, debate this or what?

Good stuff for scouting!

Navy fly over right on que when the Boy scouts were front and center.

I wouldn't have many scouts if we spent two weeks in a farmer's field for summer camp. Parents would not invest their son's time.

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Likely the site switched over to new servers and system hardware.

Either that or someone spilled Pepsi on a router somewhere in New Jersey.

When we started our troop a few years ago we took the Forum's sage advice of light weight stoves and nestled backpacking cooksets.

It didn't work out as planned and we had to add more robust Coleman table top stoves and patrol boxes.

The trouble is most scouts come in with only the basics of cooking skills. Getting a patrol of 5-6 scouts to cook meals in a backpackers cookset just didn't work out for us. The scouts also were not ready to change their eating habits and pick Cuscus over noddles. Pancakes are almost always on at least on patrol's menu and getting twenty pancakes out of a six inch backpacker's pan takes about an hour.

Eventual we moved into light weight plastic chests for patrol boxes. One good cast iron pan in each and a pot to cook enough noodles to feed a soup kitchen. We still have the backpacking stuff but its traditional car camping 8/10 times a year.

What is the minimum, ideal or it would be nice to have in a troop storage room?

This is my ideal kit list for a troop:

First Aid kit

Cook set for each patrol

Stove for each patrol

Enough tents to house all scouts for the weekend

Rain/dining fly

A storage room

Trailer

I got more prayers than I do Santa wishes.

Continued CO support, safe travels, responsible scouts and leaders, unit growth,...

But from Santa?

A few more lanterns, more Pioneering poles, a cross over bridge, a climbing rope and some climbing gear.