MattR

The scouts love jokes like that. It's just spice to aid their imaginations.

It depends on the temps. "coffee is a block of ice" only means it got below freezing. How cold is cold? We can easily get below 0 and the lowest I've seen is -20. Others have seen colder. That said: I have a Coleman 4 season tent I got half off. It does a good job in the wind and shedding snow. I put a lot of effort into insulation on the bottom of the tent. A wool blanket on the bottom of the tent and padding with plenty of insulation. I currently use one or two thick closed cell foam pads with an insulated thermarest on top. I used to have a big agnes 3" insulated pad, which was gr

You can take just about any outdoor skill and wrap it up to be any type of event. Pioneering to make a catapult. Map and compass to save the prince and princess. Start a fire to "boil pots of oil" (don't really boil oil, though). Knots to storm a castle. It's all about imagination.

It depends on the scout and the scouts doing the electing. In my troop the scouts doing the electing are usually good about it not being a popularity contest so a scout not getting elected is not deemed the best scout. Then the question is why? Is he shy and quiet? Is he a bit too goofy and not quite mature enough? I've seen some scouts that had very different personalities when adults were not around. It could also be that the scout that won was just flashier and sounded more confident. I have seen this work against scouts that I thought would likely do a better job and making sure things get

@TheFlyingMum, welcome. The CC kicked the autistic kid out of the troop? Why? What was the CC doing to the scout with Bell's Palsy? And who did what to the autistic scout? This just sounds over the top. I've had scouts on the autism spectrum in my troop and the other scouts were really good with them. So I know it can be done right.

It's all good. I can move it if you'd like but it really is a good message to the scouts. They can relate to this a lot more than talking about spokes in a wheel and teamwork.

The two dads that want to take their daughters' patrol camping but can't because no mom wants to join. The whole reasoning behind two deep leadership is that at least one of those adults will be, well, an adult. How about 3 deep leadership in this case and we'll just hope at least one dad will be okay. The BSA has never worried about two men being pedophiles with the boys but now they're worried about two men molesting girls. To me, this sounds odd.

I'm not sure if or why it was moved to Scoutmaster Minutes, but you have to admit it's a good story to tell a scout. There's nothing wrong with asking for help. There is something wrong with just hoping a problem will go away on its own. Swallow your pride and just ask. I do this all the time when I misplace my glasses, my keys, my phone, .... and my wife is more than willing to help me out.

We're talking about the same thing. I assumed it was under venturing. Anyway, it's like a crew only they focus on water craft. If you can find one that's we'll run then it sounds like your son might enjoy it. He can still be in the troop.

Do you mean a venturing ship? Could be the ticket.

@qwazse, what's the cost? For us, any Bechtel Jambo is North of $3500 so I won't even consider it.

I'm not sure what you mean. How does a business directly benefit any unit? Is your CO the PD? If so, go ahead and ask and just let them know you're fine if they say no. They may have money set aside for making donations and they might think it's a great idea.

The guy in our district did that and the scouts really enjoy it. He chucked all the MBs that were school work. They had welding and stuff like that. Some parents freaked out but the scouts enjoyed it. I don't think they went quite as far as what I think you've talked about before.

@gblotter, congratulations to your son. With 57 MBs he clearly enjoyed it so it was the right thing for him. I'm not saying advancement and adventure are mutually exclusive. There's just an imbalance. Advancement, as it stands, was an adventure for your son and that's great. It's not for most scouts. I'm suggesting either the advancement be modified to be more adventurous or that advancement have less emphasis. It's a challenge to fry an egg if you've never done it before. I hate to say this but I know plenty of scouts that have completed cooking MB and still can't cook a pancake. But the

I think there is a relatively easy way to help the boys. It may sound a bit of a cliche but focus on the patrol method. A patrol of boys challenging themselves is still within the realm of BSA's program. They will do what is natural for them, have a lot of fun, and learn what we really want them to do. On father's days I was talking to my son, who completed eagle nine years ago, about the BSA. We haven't talked about it much since then but he'd fit right in on this forum. His words: scouting should be the anti-school. If it's classwork it sucks, don't do it. Also, eagle is not nearly as i

Ask them what they want. I'm now our district camping chair. I've been trying to get a discussion going with the SMs to get them involved with coming up with camporees that help support them. I'm pushing patrol method but other than that I just want events that they want to come to. I've gone to troops and asked scouts for ideas. The response has been a surprise, as in they are surprised that anyone would ask. So far it's worked well.

Do I remember the adults garters and tabs? That was 45 years ago! I assume they were the same colors as the scouts' uniforms because the BSA uses the same uniforms for adults as scouts. Where are you in Argentina? My son was in Coronel Suarez, a small farm town North of Bahia Blanca, for a year as an exchange student. BTW, Skip and Ian will get email to read this thread because of the way I quoted their names.

Yes, it sure is a mess. But the tent still works? Here's a different view of this: The gear is not the goal. The goal is the scouts. In particular, the goal is for the scouts to learn how to take care of the gear. What I'd do at this point is ask the scouts how they did and whether or not they had problems. i.e., get them to see that it was not a good paint job. Then work with them to fix the problem, cheerfully. What they learn is that they can fix problems and there are adults that will help them do that. That's a win. As for the gear, it still works. The scouts that use it don't care.

Hi @Falconidei, and welcome to the forum. Maybe the best people to ask are our friends from the UK, @Cambridgeskip, @ianwilkins. So, what were the original scout colors for uniforms? When I was a scout we had bright red garters.

Okay, let's all step back a bit. When we start talking about liberals, Trump and Obama we're well past trying to come to agreement. The OP was about parents gaming the system to have their kid be the first female eagle. Here's a solution to that problem: Don't number the first 1000 female eagles. Oh, and call the parents on the obvious gaming.

Those Iowans! They need to come up with their own city names. There are two cities I've lived in with duplicates in Iowa. Waterloo is the other. BTW, my wife is from Iowa and we drive to Dubuque multiple times a year. It's pretty along the Mississippi. Either way, that's a great story. Every scout needs good friends in a troop, or OA, in order to stick around. The friendships that started in cubs are great. An adult pointed out to me that a scout has to make friends by the time they're 14 or they won't stick around.

Something also that's amazing is that scouts in Colorado were reported in a local Iowa paper.

Is it possible to quantify this a bit? How often does a scout get permanent damage on a hike from mishandling a first aid situation? How often does a parent know enough to make a difference in such a situation? What training does an adult need to make a difference in such a situation and how many adults have that training? Standard first aid assumes there's an ambulance 5 minutes away. First aid MB is mostly a joke. If it weren't then I wouldn't have to renew my first aid in a week from now. Wilderness first aid touches on more issues. So how many adults have taken wilderness first aid and how

It seems there are a few assumptions here about what it means for two adults to be at an activity. If the activity is cooking a meal then does that mean there needs to be 2 adults in each camp site? That's ridiculous. So there needs to be 2 adults on the camp property? That makes more sense. What if the property is a national forest? My point is until someone starts describing in some detail what this means you may as well not read too much into it. It really gets down to trust, as it always has been.

@Sentinel947, you can run but you can't hide. Anyway, good luck and thanks for your help.