MattR

This is really the only question you asked. I think if you dig a bit deeper you can find out where some of this comes from. There are a number of issues with advancement. The ideal model is it's a byproduct of doing fun and adventure, and the scout knows it solidly by the time it's signed off, or at least by the time they age out. All the rest of the rules are based on this and they work fine if this happens. Unfortunately there are things that get in the way and cause problems. Changing the time frame, which I believe is what you're talking about, is a crutch to manage some of thes

The real subject of the thread is whether a new commissioner should step in and say something about how advancement may be happening in a very new troop. I have no idea about what commissioners are supposed to do but asking questions is a good place to start. I'm working with troop guides right now and the point of Scout is to teach the new scouts how advancement is done. It's possible the rank could be done in one meeting but if these scouts came up through cub scouts I'd be suspicious. Again, ask questions. What we don't want is the cub scout advancement model. As for "adventure,

Must be a common theme this time of year, my troop just did this. I sat in with the older scout group. Most of it was see videos and talk about them. It worked but there's something that really helped. The adults had plenty of real stories of scammers and ways they had tried to gain someone's trust online. We didn't need to tell that many but just enough to get the scouts thinking about it. For example, all the Eastern Europeans joining this forum and trying to convince us they're really scouts. Reality is a much better teacher than bullet points. When it came time to do the project we suggest

Didn't read the article but isn't it the same for adults?

What happens when you wash and dry something with 10% wool? All my wool things have a lot and while I can wash them on gentle I just let them dry on a rack like thing. Anyway, is this why they say dry clean? I would never dry clean a scout uniform. Using an iron is hard enough.

My first thought was there are roughly a million kids in scouts doing all sorts of really great stuff and this one kid, and likely his parent, does something off the wall and here we are reading about it in the washington post. When I was 14 or 15 I certainly had it in me to do something like this. I probably wouldn't have done it at scout flag ceremony but I might have. And my reasoning would have been to just get all the adults' dander up. I was pretty good at that and when scouts do similar things now I catch myself. Now, if you ask this kid why he did it I'm sure there would be some altrui

They got rid of all those worthless pockets! Good for they. Now all I need to do is leave off all the patches and it could be useful outdoors. I'd be happy with the floppy shirts while camping. I went and read some of the comments. It sounds like they're all a size too big.

Since the theme is no cleaning, how about a cast iron skillet that just needs to be wiped out?

Welcome to the forum, @PinkPajamas. As for which training to do, which might be more useful after the webelos den leader leaves? Or just plan on doing both of them over 2 years and have fun picking.

I think the requirements are referring to "the written word" and not "the written word." Maybe "in writing" would be better. And this requirement refers to the spoken word as opposed to a famous speech written down. You have to admit, given that the requirements are about understanding language, it sure shows how complicated that can get.

@qwazse, that's brilliant. Not sure about gps count. I could mark the corner of each section and then the scouts could go from there using a compass and pacing it out. Not real accurate but gps's have their issues as well. One scout wanted to do something at night. They could set it up at night or the next day. @Eagledad, that's hilarious. It will have to be in there. It could be radios. Or it could be semaphore. Semaphore would match the steam punk theme. You will get full credit. You'd like the weapons I had in the clue-like murder mystery game: cotton, an outhouse, burnt pancakes, dull

I have a great idea for a patch. Alien wearing a cowboy hat riding a meteor like a bucking bronco. Yeah, the 100 stations sounds crazy now. I could see putting a 100 long ribbons in trees and the scouts need to organize and find them. If only I can give them some incentive to make it more fun. It can't be get all you can, they need to work together. So ribbons need to have value to do something later. Each patrol needs to find their 3 ribbons in their sector to do something later in the day. It could be their ticket to the rifle shooting or a way to lower their race time or ....

Yes, but that means you only get to eat salad the rest of the day But you do get to add probably 5 slices. And that's the only way I could handle grits. Well, a lot of butter works as well. I'm sure peanut butter would work as well.

A guy in our troop went backpacking with us and convinced me that daily protein is an important number when going for more than a weekend. I felt much better on that trip at the end. For a strenuous trip the recommended amount is 1 gr per kilo of body weight per day. For normal activities it's 0.8. The difference between the expensive and cheap dehydrated foods are the amount of protein.

I just got back from klondike and at 6am I was thinking about an idea for our Spring Camporee in May. A scout I was talking to yesterday wanted to have a really big event rather than the usual go from station to station thing. The overall theme is currently a meteor collides with an alien space ship and there's debris all over camp. Debris means a problem to solve. That supports things like emergency mobilization, first aid, and wilderness survival. So, aliens that need first aid or shelter, radioactive alien space ship parts. Other ideas? The unique part of it would be to have all the patrol

Small town in the middle of Minnesota? It could be the post office knows everyone. It could also be a polar vortex froze the poor lady's fingers. Or it could be a rural route that doesn't start with a number. I suspect ebay has a way to contact the buyer. Kind of a measure twice, cut once kind of thing. They won't mind, they're probably used to dealing with them city folk and will get a good laugh. Just use some word that spells differently over there and you'll make their day.

I just got back from our Klondike. The theme was zombie snowpocalypse. Half the events had patrol winners and half had other kinds of patrol challenges. There's no doubt that a lot of scouts absolutely thrive on competition and some don't. One competition everyone liked was the sled race. Each patrol brought a sled that a scout could stand up in while the rest of his patrol pulled him (they had to build them). We ran two patrols at a time so they could compete against each other but also timed them. Then we took that top four and had a play off. BTW, the ones that don't like the patrol vs

How about making a neckerchief slide out of the WOSM patch? Then just have the slide and necker until the rest of the uniform is ready.

Hi everyone, There was another request for a sub forum today and I'd like to suggest another way of doing this. The problem with sub forums is it's slower than you might think to set them up (mainly because the moderators can't set them up). Further, while there are several sub forums many are not used very often. At the same time, the advantage of sub forums is that you can quickly find threads that you're interested in. Here's a suggestion on how to get nearly the same benefit as a sub forum with little help from the moderators. Any thread can have tags added to it (and moderators

I understand the phrase teachable and, more importantly, unteachable. It has little to do with gender. There's an ASM in my troop, male, that just can't let go and allow scouts to learn the hard way. It was incredibly frustrating dealing with him. We'd talk, agree how to do things, and before you know it he chucked the whole thing and did things himself. It was easier, more efficient, nobody would be inconvenienced, if the scouts just didn't have to take responsibility. He's great at doing committee stuff and the only reason I didn't remove him. But ASM? Ugh. As for the phrase teachable f

I guess it depends on who is teaching the course and where they put the emphasis. Some of those topics do sound like a lot of fun. Besides, just because the email said "kayaking" it doesn't mean they're going to talk about what everyone does at summer camp. In another thread someone mentioned kayaking the Apostle Islands (oh yeah, that was you ). Maybe they'll talk about that. I'd think they would if they can find someone to cover that section. Have you ever considered helping teach that course?

Biking is fun. That said, with 200 people doing it at the same time there are issues. You do want some training about riding in groups on roads with cars. If not around cars then off road. You don't want everyone doing the same ride at the same time (but by patrol, staggered would work). I have noticed that a lot of scout's bikes are in poor shape. Bad brakes, rusted chains, derailleurs miss aligned. A great opportunity to learn some bike maintenance before the campout, and it would also help sell the campout.

Those mid westerners might not know beans about chili but they know cold, so they might not be that far off. Besides, I married a mid westerner so I have to be kind to them. Either way, I think I'll try your recipe. What do you do when you don't live in Texas and don't have 18 chili powders to choose from? My local grocery store has "chili powder." This is kind of like curry. Hmm, maybe that's why those mid-westerners add underwear, they only have one chili powder! Got any chili powder recipes?

I'm not sure people have changed so much as the technology has made "think first, open mouth second" harder to do. Remember the old days when we had editors for newspapers? Now it's a bunch of kids/folks with cell phones posting on social media and the news media playing catch up. There is a lesson in here for our scouts. Those two stars on the scout badge mean something important.

An old copy of the Handbook for Patrol Leaders. And by old I mean a printing stemming from the 1929 version (eg, 10th printing is from 1941). Also, an old copy of the Handbook For Scoutmasters. I just have volume 1 but the original printing is from 1936. These books are dripping with enthusiasm and common sense. Hillcourt wrote them both (and likely the 2nd volume for SM's). For more information about Hillcourt, go to the home page.