mbrownkc7

How about the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation right there in Missouri. Great camp!!!

http://www.hoac-bsa.org/bartle

Been there once during an off season visit. Check first and last day policies regarding getting gear in and out. It is an unbelievable trek on a gravel road down a very steep grade. We were told to stop the cars in a specific spot to cool the brakes and when heading out to use low gears. We had to do both of these. The camp is on a beautiful river with wonderful cliffs surrounding it. We took a troop there in Spring to do a float on the Buffalo River. Would highly reccommend that.

the road and takes his time stopping in the designated spots to cool the brakes. If you could, you should go see the camp in the spring and do a float on the Buffalo river. Very nice river in the SPRING. Dries up in the summer and can't float as well. Camp Orr will let you stay there during the off season if you are on a boy scout function and call in advance to schedule.

Been there once during an off season visit. Check first and last day policies regarding getting gear in and out. It is an unbelievable trek on a gravel road down a very steep grade. We were told to stop the cars in a specific spot to cool the brakes and when heading out to use low gears. We had to do both of these. The camp is on a beautiful river with wonderful cliffs surrounding it. We took a troop there in Spring to do a float on the Buffalo River. Would highly reccommend that.

"You think it is crazy for a Scout to take a class for a merit badge he's already earned, just because he thinks it's fun."

That is awesome! We have some boys who take shot gun shooting and rifle shooting every year. Some of our leaders kind of roll thier eyes but we all giggle a little and move on. For the leaders in our troop (just a few) who really care about the number of badges our troop gets, I tell them it counts towards the total and they move on.

Now this brings up a different problem. This one boys has been in our troop for 6 plus years. He turns 18 in February and still needs 4 Eagle required badges. He comes to camp every year and takes all the shooting badges again. I mention to him about the other badges but if he and his dad don't seem to care, neither should I if he doesn't get his Eagle done. I have seen this boy go to scout camp 7 years now and watched him grow up and be our Senior Patrol Leader. He has some minor disabilities so it has been great seeing our troop support him. I hope he finishes his Eagle but I think it is unlikely. Oh well, Scouting has really been a great thing for him.

Great follow up with our scout who wants to get eagle at 14. Our overnight this weekend involved biking a 15 mile trail. This boy did not want to go because he had never rode a bike with out training wheels. I don't know if he remembered our conversation 2 weeks prior about having fun but he did come. The first mile was tough but he did great and finished with no problems. We had a great camp fire last night and this boy was very proud of himself. Now I understand everyone's points her and we all have good examples of how it works best for our troop but in this specific case I am so happy this boy chose to come and conquer this. He didn't have to come to finish his Eagle but he did so to have fun in the great outdoors with a group of boys who will be his friends for life.

I have seen scouts get them when they are 14 and others get them at 17. Myself would rather see them do this at 17. I sat with on a board of review at camp this summer for a boy earning his Life badge. He proudly stated that he already had is badges required for Eagle and just needed to do his project. He was barely 14 and his plan was to finish while he was 14. I asked him if during the last week at camp had he gone on a hike to explore a cave. He hadn't. I asked him to slow down and enjoy camp and what scouting offers. It isn't a race.

I would rather see an active scout take his time and help younger scouts and get that Eagle just before he turns 18. We are very fortunate here in Missouri in that we have a camp that boys want to go to. It is almost alway s assumed that a boy will go to scout camp 5 years and a lot of boys go even longer.

Don't rush em is my advise. Have fun!

keep him with his pals.....mom is going to be in the room with him, mature or not.

+1

Just got back Saturday after enjoying 10 very hot days at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in Central Missouri. Big drought in our area so the lake was very low but plenty of water for the boys taking lake front merit badges. All of our days were in the upper 90's and a few reached 100 degrees but with the shade from the beautiful oak trees it wasn't to bad. The Mess Hall was rocking, Out Posts were all excellent, the woods were alive with critters, and the boys seemed to have a wonderful time. After 10 days I was ready to go home but I already can't wait until the next time I get to visit this beautiful place called scout camp.

48 days for me. Haven't been to excited until this week. A freind of mine's son went down for staff training Wednesday and now I am itching to go.

Good and bad year for me. My oldest son earned his Eagle a few months ago but my middle son dropped out. I am hoping that with no pressure he will take some time off and get back in. He is really into sports which I love watching him play but has lost interest in the scout thing. I have one more boy and that starts 1st grade next year and I am afraid to sign him up for Tiger Cubs which he really wants to do. I think the Cub program is very long and boys can get burned out.

You never know, this may be my last year to go to camp with one of my sons. I just teared up writing that last sentence. I love going to camp with my boys!!!

This is an easy one. You could express your concerns at the next committee meeting in a non-threatening way and ask if anyone else is interested in being the CC. I see to often that we are afraid of hurting someone's feelings by questioning a situation when in fact there should be a concern. My concern isn't the ethics but the huge responsibility put on the family trying to fill two important positions. The problem you may have here is no one was interested in helping and this person simply plugged a hole. My suggestion to you is be ready to step to be your troop's next CC. I am for our troop and it is a good position. It is a lot easier that being the SM for sure. I guess that is because we have a wonderful SM.

There are alot of sporting activities in our troop. There is a basketball court at the church where we meet. There is a parking lot for touch foot ball and kick ball. Each week a patrol is in charge of a game and they can do whatever they want and lot of times they pick basketball, football, kickball, capture the flag.

On our overnights there is a lot of sprots played as well. On our canoe trip the camp site we stay in has a covered basketball court and we play a lot of ball after the float. We have had adults vs boys soccer games in fields at a very nice state park. We have also played football on overnights.

Our main thing is Frisbee and we play alot of Frisbee golf. Just need a frisbee and some trees. Works great on the woods.

The boys enjoy all the campning, hiking and cooking stuff but they also have a big interest in sports so I believe it is important that they include it in their activites.

Now saying this I also know that every body either isn't interested in sports or are not very good. There are plenty of activities to do around camp or meetings if they are not interested in the game being played. I have watched the boys play and they always seem to be so nice and understanding of the boy who may be lacking skills.

Playing sports during a meeting or campout can be a very beneficial activity.

Got back Saturday after 10 days at the beautiful H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation in Osceola, MO. It was very hot and humid but amazingly I wasn't dying to leave. Our boys seemed to have a wonderful time and the program was excellent as always. The kids earned some merit badges and we had some rank advancements. We also had a project going on in camp were the boys built bird houses for their parents and the Scout Reservation. Our other project was cleaning out a cave so kids could explore it safely. And as always, Mic O Say kept the boys interested in scouting and I can't wait to do it all again next year.

If I had an older scout come to me and ask if he can wear his old scout uniform to an Eagle Court, the last thing that is going to cross my mind is if he is registered or not.

"Please come to the Eagle Court and I am sure we would all love to see you in uniform. Please invite your parents as well. I would love to see them and catch up."

That would be more like a response I would expect from a scouter.

I love all you posters and enjoy the reads but we need to lighten up just a bit before we run off more boys.

Leave this Thursday July 15th for ten days. Get to go with two of my boys. Got to do a lot of shopping and organizing today to get ready. Always a little nervous the week before we go. I am our camp scoutmaster for the first time. It has taken a lot of planning and am anxious to see everything come together.

Yes, I did read your email but you are still missing my point. An email is NOT an effective form of communication when an answer is needed quickly.

Yes I understand people may be gone but I guarantee with a little detective work and a few phone calls, you can get a phone number of the person you need to call.

Or you can sit back and check your emails.

don't get mad. You asked for help and I tried to point you in a direction.

Good Luck and have a great time on your trip.

You just proved my point. it took you 3 plus hours to answer this email when I replied and by that time I was somewhere else. My point is everybody is not waiting and staring at their computers waiting on an email but we all have phones. Office, cell, and home phones.

Like I said earlier, I understand your problem but make a few phone calls and get the number of who you need to talk to.

Good Luck

This afternoon I had the pleasure of a 30 min car ride with my oldest son. He is 15, been a life scout for a year now and was on his way to meet some friends from his scout troop to go swimming.

On the way there he asked me if I knew of one of his friends earning his eagle award yet? I did and he mentioned a couple of his other friends whose parents where not letting them get thier drivers license until they get their Eagle. (I have heard parents say this a lot)

This was the perfect time to not push or force but to talk. I asked him if he had thought about his project and I got the usual "not so much". We then spoke of his favorite groups outside of scouts and he is really close to his youth group at his church. I asked him if he would like to do somehting for them and got the usual, "maybe". He then talked about another project done at the church and then others boys projects in our troop and came up with a couple of ideas. We talked about the first steps he should take if he wants to do something for them.

That was about it. I very nice 30 minute discussion with my teanager. These are times that it is great to be a parent.

To answer the question, to push or not? I understand it is hard not to push but I believe it is a good time to talk and keep it in front of them. I also agree with the some of the other posters, a lot of times they don't know where to start and need some guidence.

We leave for camp next week for 10 days. It is great that he is excited about his 5th year at camp and hopefully he will bring up the idea for his Eagle project when we get back.

I know it is tough for us parents because we want everything for our children now but it is also fun sitting back and watching them do it themselves.

Stop emailing and call them and keep calling until you get it taken care of.

The email thing is a huge issue with me. People I work with take the easy way out and send emails or texts. We don't call each other any more.

I feel your pain on your health form. I have done the same thing on insurance questionaires and am given grief over my mother dying with a disease I have no chance of getting. I am temted everytime to not tell the truth.

I wish you good luck with this but I would start calling today.

we really increased our recruiting numbers by being there at the elementary school when the parents and children come to meet their teachers. There is no preasure and we just set up a couple of easy ups in front of the school and serve deserts. We get some boy scouts out there and they prepare dutch oven deserts, they dish out ice cream and have fun with the kids. We also set up a small display with badges, pinewood derby kits and an information page about our pack and troop. We should set up a few tents but havn't had to. The parents and boys really have fun seeing the boy scouts working and want to get involved with our group. We also pull our scout trailer so people can see from far away who we are.

Give it a shot. Our pack grew so fast we were actually concerned if we could handle it.

Good Luck.

It is fun watching boys learn these valuable lessons. My oldest sons first year at camp I noticed he was wearing the same clothes each day. I saw him go the shower a few times but I never inspected his foot locker.

When we got home mom went to help him get his laundry going and she came across only two pairs of dirty clothes and 8 sets of clean. She threw out the socks and we have told and laughed at this story many times since. Now he is a clean freak and goes through the clothes each week.

I also remember doing laundry at camp when I was a boy in buckets. Had a soap bucket and a rinse bucket. Then I hung my clothes on a line I had hung between two trees. Our camp is 10 days and back then I didn't have 10 pairs of everything.

Have a good summer.

"Hello?

SM's, ASM's, SPL's, PL's where are you?"

Where were we? Where were you?

How does an eleven year old or older not now how often to change socks? Do you want us to count his underwear also? Why don't you come to the camp and set out his clothes each day and turn back his bed at night. While you are at it, get me a glass of warm milk and read me a story.

LOL.

Plenty of Water - Ditto

Plenty of sleep at night

Lots of fun

About this funny comment again. We do ask our boys to head up to the showers every other day but by no means do I watch them shower or follow up to verify they changed their clothes. If I see a boy with some heavy soiled clothes, I will suggest he change but I don't make him.

Have fun at camp.

I am going to agree to disagree on this one and as usual I will give some classic analagies to make my point.

You son is on a baseball team but the coach tells you since you are not a trained coach that you are not allowed to attend. Nope, we don't want you watching you son learning a sport you never played and by god, don't think about giving him any advise.

Or your daughter wants to be on a dance team. You never danced as a youth so don't even think you come to a recital. Are you crazy, we are learning how to dance and you can not be a part of your childs learning experience.

I guess my next question is how did any of you get to go on the first camp out with your son if it is strongly discouraged for parents to attend camp outs. Wait, let me guess. You wanted to be involved with your son while he experiences this beautiful program.

Our troop has many parents who have never scouted. We love them to come along and learn with the boy about the program and it is beautiful watching them grow together. We also have parents not get involved at all in the camping part and most times they don't help on the committee side either.

I will stick with the way our troop operates. We have great participation from the boys and parents. We do year round camping and have a large group. We also do a lot of things in our community each month.

It does sort of become a large family as we all watch our boys grow up and mature.

Discourage parents from camping with their children? That has to go down as one of the craziest comments I have ever heard of. Why not teach them scouting? Are you planning on being there all the time? Why can't they enjoy watching their boy learn during camping events?

Maybe I don't understand your reasons but I can never imagine myself telling a parent to not come. I would not feel comfortable doing so.

Please let me know how that is working for you.

acco40 wrote:

"For me, I'd much rather have 12 year old boys happily playing near by my "final resting place" than weepy, solemn and possibly bored children; but that's just me."

I'll 2nd that!

You and your wife have a right to be concerned but I wouldn't be. As you can see in the previous posts, the boys swimming abilities should be reviewed during the merit badge.

But my question is this. If you and your wife are so concerned about this, why did you let your boy participate? Just because everyone else was doing it is not a good reason. If you have a problem with part of the program being offered by your son's troop, council, or even the BSA, explain your concerns and hold him out. Don't wait for the "Big Man" to do it for you.

Again, you have every right to be concerned about your child safety. My point is if you have a concern you shouldn't wait for someone else to take care of it. I believe that a 100 years of experience has proven that BSA does a good job protecting our youth.

Good Luck.