AwHeck

Back on the topic of cell phones in school/class... Where I live is geographically between where Columbine happened and the Platte Canyon High School where several girls were held hostage and one killed. Let me tell you that parents in this area consider their kids having a cell phone as necessary! If something is going on at their kid's school, they have the perception that they will be able to find out if their kid is ok before they hear about it in the media. It's a long shot that something will happen in YOUR school but if it does, having another way to attempt to communicate with YOUR kid is a good thing. Now - having said that, kids and parents need to have a long hard discussion as to what is appropriate use of the phone and what is not.

..." a pain in the back to set up in a different camp, provide the privacy needed and keep away Mom from being Mom. So my wife is not welcome at the campouts because it will required a different camp for her or any other female." ... Set up a different camp??? When females camp with our troop, they just set up their tent with the other adult tents, no separation other than separate tents for male and female. I am female and I get all the privacy I need in my tent. At summer camp where there are shared latrines, I just try to limit my use to times when the boys are in their tents for the night or busy elsewhere.

Regarding the boy who has moved, you should not be penalized for not re-registering him at charter renewal. Retention is calculated by first subtracting unavoidable losses such as boys who have moved or aged out. There is a form to fill out listing all who are not re-registering and the reason for non-renewal.

Denver Area Council has routinely had 5 or 6 sessions of NYLT, called Big Horn in our council. The past few years we've had 3 Wood Badge courses per year but they are far from full whereas the Big Horn courses often have waiting lists. In our troop, we encourage all eligible youth to attend Big Horn and cover half the cost. We also have a requirement that a scout must have been through Big Horn prior to running for SPL and that has worked well in our troop.

Our troop has used an adult 'banker' at summer camp for as long as I've been involved with the troop. We have envelopes with each scout's name on it and columns/lines to record the date, amount deposited or withdrawn, and new balance. This does help the younger ones to budget their money better over the week (with gentle guidance from the banker). This also minimize the impact of money being "lost". We also try to reduce the incidence of sugar overload from too much access to junk food at the trading post. Some scouts need a bit more guidance than others in this regard and making the bank 'mandatory' it avoids singling out some scouts for extra monitoring. Our older scouts appear to like the system but from time to time one will decline to participate in the bank. For an older scout, I don't push it, I simply mention that they are solely responsible if any turns up lost. We usually have specified 'bankers hours' a couple of times a day when scouts can deposit or withdraw funds. This came in handy one summer when the SPL became (justifiably) upset with the troop's behavior at opening campfire plus a few other incidents so he declared the trading post off limits for a day; by not opening the bank that day, scouts didn't have any money to spend.(This message has been edited by AwHeck)

Agreed that high adventure trips usually have limits on group sizes but this thread was spun from a comment that a troop of 40-60 scouts routinely limits their monthly campouts to 20-25 participants. I can easily see them only having 20-25 based on interest for a given trip but not based on artificial limits. I can't imagine that virtually ALL the locations that the troop is using for monthly camps have such limits.

Geez limits on how many can go on campouts? We occasionally see this in our troop such as our recently offered dog sledding activity but MOST campouts are open to all interested scouts. Is it a problem of not enough tents or cooking equipment? If so I'd suggest the troop invest in more equipment.

I just used a basic narrative, making sure that I included all relevant scouting (and non-scouting) activities of the nominee. Showing that the person is active in the district, not just within the unit and service outside of scouts is the key from what I understand. I used lots of superlatives but I truly felt that the nominee deserved all the kudos I provided. I also solicited letters of support from two other scouters, if possible get one or two from other District Award of Merit recipients. In our council/district I believe that we were limited to only 2 letters of recommendation beyond the nomination itself.

We went to San Isabel last year and had a great time. Our acting SPL said that it was the best camp experience he had. It's a small camp and there were a few issues but all camps have issues. The smallness is also a benefit as you get to know the staff and other campers better that way as well. Overall, the camp staff were enthusiastic and as leaders we felt that the merit badges were covered well. A nice thing for the leaders was the next to last night, the heads of each program area were assembled in the dining hall so that we could review our scouts' progress to see if they had any requirements missing etc. I had to leave the final evening but my replacement stated that the same thing happened the final night. The DO have bears so make sure that you prepare the scouts well. Absolutely NO food/candy in the campsite is the best policy and we enforce it in our troop.

Eagle boards are scheduled as needed in our district. Our troop has a board of review coordinator that all scouts in the troop work through to schedule their boards at whatever level. Most non-eagle boards are held during troop meetings as that is most convenient for the scouts and adults alike. Eagle boards are typicall NOT scheduled during a troop meeting as they tend to take much longer plus this allows full concentration by all involved. Our district has an advancement committee member 'assigned' to the troops in our area so most eagle boards have the same district member on the board and this person has also typically been the district member to approve the eagle project so there is continuity there. Our BOR coordinator asks the eagle candidate if there are any adults that they would like to have on their board - whether troop committee members or simply members of the community. The BOR coordinator typically chairs the EBOR and walks those unfamiliar with the process through it. She coordinates with the eagle candidate, the district representative, and others involved regarding potential dates for the board. For our troop, most eagle boards are held on Tuesday evenings as this seems to be an evening when most are available (the troop meets on Mondays) but the day of the week can vary if necessary. The district representative plays a full part in the board but does not RUN the board.

Most important.... HAVE FUN!!! I felt that my fellow troop guides and I bonded and we had a blast while still presenting the program. The advice for dark text on a white background is likely for those (like me) who created the slides to be printed out and presented outdoors. In a projected environment, the darker background is preferred but if the slides will be printed and presented the white background is preferable. For courses in our council, the troop guides form their own patrol and create their own patrol identity for their portions of the training such as the rocket launch. We took our Scoutmaster's theme and extracted a portion that then led to our patrol identity. Once we decided on that, we played it up and had a great time. You'll find that the first day is the most intense for you and you'll feel like you're constantly on the go. You're still busy the rest of the first weekend but it flies by. The second weekend you have much less to do with your patrols and you can enjoy the experience. Yes - get to know each of your patrol members. I'm honestly not sure if it's part of the syllabus but we were encouraged to write personal letters to each of out patrol members before the end of the second weekend. From my perspective, these letters were encouraging and I included my own perception of each person as I wrote them.

Our troop is also in the 60-70 'registered' scout range... at one time we were up to 100 scouts. In the year that we were at 100 scouts, we took over 40 scouts to summer camp and it was a logistical nightmare. We teased the youth leadership that they couldn't count past 30 as it seemed to take forever just to do a headcount before setting off somewhere. Ever since that year, we have offered two summer camp options each year plus a true High Adventure. We are in Colorado and have several options in-state for summer camp so one camp is in-state and the other is in a neighboring state. The troop has historically only gone to the in-council summer camp about every 2nd or 3rd year simply for variety sake. We do have a policy that the new scouts must go to the in-state camp and older scouts can choose which camp to go to. Virtually all camps in our part of the country have some sort of older scout program and we encourage that for those who can't go on the actual high-adventure trip. Offering two summer camps plus a high adventure trip each year has served us well, we typically have 20-25 scouts per summer camp plus at least 2 or 3 crews for whatever high adventure they are doing that year. We are fortunate that one of our former scoutmasters loves the boundary waters and organizes a trip there about every second year but we also do Philmont and recently took 2 or 3 crews to Sea Base.

One I saw recently that I hadn't seen before was a scouter walking back and forth carrying a hanger with the word 'out' attached.... When asked what he was doing, he responded: just Hanging Out

"At your wedding reception your best man leads a round of the Gilwell song and half the groom's side joins in while the bride's side looks on in complete confusion" Actually, in our council we have a bride who raised her hand in the scout sign at her wedding to quiet down the guests... the only ones who didn't respond immediately were her son's family who certainly heard about it

You have stated that you are waiting until you have your 2nd adult lined up before announcing this. Two things come to mind.... 1) You may have an interested scout who can persuade his parent to come along to make up your second, required, adult if you make the plea. 2) Why not use one of the two scouts who will be over 18 by then but had signed up last year? You seem to reserving this option solely as a possible 3rd adult. We had multiple crews going to Sea Base this past year and one had, as it's two adults, a relatively new ASM plus an 18/19 year old Eagle Scout. By all accounts, this worked just fine. Of course, it depends on your assessment of the young men and their maturity level. You also need to make sure that they are aware that, in going, they are ADULTs and must adhere to the YP guidelines, etc.

I believe that for the Centennial Quality Unit, all goals are to be set by the unit, I didn't think there were any mandated by National. The idea is to have the units stretch from wherever they happen to be, not set arbitrary goals that may be 'easy' for some units but very difficult for others to achieve.

Our troop is similar to Resqman's ... a large troop requiring a lot of drivers for most campouts. We have a one day "New Scout/New Parent" Orientation on a Saturday after most of the cross-overs. The new scouts are taken through various stations (led by older scouts) and typically earn their Scout rank along with fulfilling some of the requirements for Tenderfoot... we always try to get in the first measurement for the physical fitness requirement that needs to be redone in 30 days for example. For the parents, we cover a lot of what you see in New Leaders Essentials but tailor it to specifics in our troop. We also have a Youth Protection training session, introduce them to all of the troop leadership, explain how advancement works, show them our equipment trailer, discuss what equipment should be purchased now if they don't have it and what can wait etc. We follow this up with a "new scout campout" within a month. All other campouts leave on Friday evening and return on Sunday but for the New Scout Campout, the new scouts leave on Saturday morning - the instructors have often left on Friday evening to get their stuff set up in advance. When the scouts (and parents who are warmly invited) arrive at the campsite, they go through stations in their patrols. The parents are invited to set up their own tents (away from the scouts) but then they are formed into a 'patrol' of their own and they go through the stations just like their sons do. The stations typically cover the Tot'n Chip, Firem'n Chit, First Aid, as well as setting up our troop tents and how to use a stove etc. The parents like it as many are learning new skills or simply learning (from a scout) how their scouts are taught. This keeps the parents busy and reduces their opportunities to interfere with their scout's learning as well. The adults cook and eat as a patrol, usually the experienced leaders do the cooking for the adult patrol on this campout. We find this to be very effective on several levels. It provides the new parents with a view into how campouts work, they learn what their sons learn, and they see first-hand how the troop operates in the outdoors. Some parents enjoy it, register as ASMs, take the training and become active campers; others go away with a better understanding and are comfortable with waving goodbye for future camping trips.

Kittle - only has to show improvement in pull-ups?? In our troop, it's the scouts who sign off on the advancements thru First Class and I know that I have heard from many of the scouts that they don't have to improve in ALL areas of the physical requirement. I believe the requirement just says "show improvement" and doesn't specify exactly what that means. I have seen it mean as little as one element showed improvement.

My wood badge class was 2 weekends, one each at the two camps owned by our Council. The first day of the first weekend, just after lunch we crossed over from Cubs to Boy Scouts and learned our patrols. As the creemony was ending, the rain started and we all retreated to Gilwell Hall (basement of the dining hall. The staff was making adjustments to work around the weather when our Course Director came in and told us that we had a "Window of Opportunity" to set up our camp sites as the rain had tapered off for a bit. We left the hall and when we were about 1/2 way to the campsite area where all our gear was, the skies opened once again. we huddled under portable shelters for a while and finally started putting our tents up in the rain. This sure brought out the teamwork among the aptrols and ALL members of the class. I think I had 4 scoutsers helping me put my tent up and it's a quick pop-up type of tent! Some were luckier than others and some ended up with much of their gear totally soaked so our quartermasters were taking what they could to the one dryer available at camp and drying out what they could while the group were in training all afternoon (in Gilwell Hall as it was STILL raining). It continued to rain off and on all of that first weekend. We had some time when we could be outside but not as much as I'm sure is typical. Even our Scouts Own service at the end of the first weekend was held in what started out a drizzle and ended as constant rain. The second weekend started out nice, we were able to find our capsites and set them up while it was dry out but, as seemed "normal" to us by then, we had rain each afternoon. We laughed about it and all had a good time nevertheless. We all teased the CD about his "window of opprotunity" throughout the class and presented him with a real window with 9 panes in it, 8 panes were devoted to the 8 WB patrols and signed by all members of the patrol and the center pane was inscribed with "Window of Opportunity". This window has since been installed at one of the buildings at the camp where we spent our second weekend. For class WE5-61-04, rain will always be "great wood badge weather" Note - I understand that whenever that CD shows up at a WB class, it starts to rain, no matter what the weahter has been prior to his arrival.

Our situation is similar to JR56's - our COR is a former SM of our troop who is a member of the church that charters us. I am aware of at least 3 SMs since he has been in the role. He is on the church council so he is able to be a good liaison between the troop and the church since he is very familiar with both. The church charters both a pack and a troop and, unfortunately, both committes meet on the same day of the month so he only attends committee meetings sporadically. He is, however, very supportive and has "gone to bat" for us with the church when we've had a few requests etc.

We had a prank played on our troop by another troop - this one involving leaders rather than scouts. We are in the foothills outside of Denver and our troop tagline is "The Mountain Troop" This is painted on our troop trailer and used elsewhere by our troop. One camporee, we were camping near a neighboring troop. The area they are from is generally a bit higher in elevation than the area we are from but everything is relative. At this camporee, our SM was looking at our trailer and called me over... seems the other troop had taken some cardboard and covered up the "Mountain" portion of our slogan, writing "Valley" on the cardboard. The two of us chuckled over it for a bit. When we saw some leaders in the other campsite, we walked up to them to return the crdboard - explaining that since their troop meeting is at the bottom of a steep hill, they were more properly called the Valley troop. WE all had a good laugh over this... somehow, though, we ended up with the cardboard and we kept it in our trailer for quite a while as I recall.

We actually have almost the reverse problem with long term camps. We have an RN who normally comes to summer camp with us. With a large number of scouts, many of whom take a variety of medications, we prefer that she be able to store and dispense the medications. She is fully aware of all legal guidelines, stores them in a "2 lock" system (inside a locked box, inside a locked trailer or vehicle), maintaines a log of whne she dispenses what meds (and when they are due) etc. Some camps allow this, others insist that all meds be turned in to their "medical staff". We're lucky if such camp "medical staff" is even an EMT and from my understaning, at least in Colorado, an EMT is not licensed to "dispense" medications - he/she should at most hadn the bottle to the scout and watch him take the meds. We have had times when our nurse has observed the "medical staff" shake out the appropriate dosage into his/her hand (which may or may not be clean) and offer it to the scout. She even caught one attempting to give a medication that should only be given in the morning to a scout at bedtime. You can bet that camp management heard about that incident!

Ed - they weren't "sent to their tents" they were "sent to their campsites" which, I believe, happens after dinner at most scout camps every night.

Our troop has a book full of "approved" meals that the patrols can choose from when planning their meals. That's not to say that they can't create their own but somehow this gives them additional ideas. I have put all of the menus (or at least all that I was given in electronic form) on the troop's forum - feel free to review and use any that you like! http://themountaintroop.com/phpBB2/index.php

Denver Area Council provides Free Rank badges (up tto 2 per scout per year) based on a Commissioners Recognition Program. It includes a lot of areas, with points for each "goal" met and a cut-off of achieving a certain percentage or points to get the Free Rank. Points are for things like Leaders Trained, Annaual Planning meeting held and calendar published, establishing a budget, participation in popcorn, FOS, scout show, rountable attendance etc. The criteria change based on the level ... for Cubs, getting the Summertime pack award is part of it as is having Webelos IIs visiting troops. For troops it includes monthly activities, numbers of Webelos joining the troop etc. The units I've been associated with have always managed to get Free Rank.