Mike F

Kenk, Good question! For the younger guys, I always recommend going with the cheaper fabric boots. There's just no sense in spending a lot of money on boots they're going to outgrow in a year. I did some fantastic training with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in Wyoming last year and spent some time talking with their Equipment Manager about boots. He was even more negative about Gortex lining - says that's not the best application of Gortex because the friction and pressure tends to just press the water through. On the plus side, it will dry out faster than a leather

I've seen it and am not in favor, either, although I'm glad it worked for CA_Scouter. I've seen too many scouts that pushed through with min effort to get the badge just to check off the square to get the reward and bail out of the program. At times during my #1 son's rebellious years (13-14), I mentioned things like withholding driver's license or paying cash for rank. He made it clear the license would be a test of wills -- we really wanted and needed him to start driving to support family logistics. He told me flat out that he wouldn't take my money - that's not what Eagle is all about

I agree if they are really trying, you give them all the help/coaching they can stand and give them the benefit of the doubt. Lynda and Eamonn both gave examples of scouts that were trying, maybe even doing their best, but struggled. I agree that scouts in this situation have successfully completed their terms of leadership because they learned and grew in the process. Most cases of leadership problems fall into this category. The discussion which follows would be one of the exceptions Eamonn mentions. I have occasionally run into a different situation where the scout was in the position

CA, You're right on track with the in-house leader training! Good luck!! Eammon, I really enjoy your posts and always learn something new, but I gotta agree with KS on this one about removing a scout from a position (as a last resort - when all the coaching and training has failed). I will agree that if a scout wants the job and is giving it his best with the training and support of his SM (and others), it's not likely that he could do much significant damage. Others will generally understand. But if after all the training, coaching, etc., you should consider removing the scout

CA, Dug brings up several very good points. (Sorry for length) First - how he came to be PL if he's so immature. Too often, I've witnessed PL elections and heard the guys discussing "whose turn it was" to be PL. We need to continually emphasize that they should elect the best available leader for the job. There are no term limits in BSA. Second what position of responsibility did he use to earn Star? Was it the Den Chief job that he was removed from? SM has a definite say in which scouts are allowed to represent the troop in Den Chief jobs. If a scout has maturity problems,

Cyndi, Wow - what a mess. Problem mom is also Scoutmaster (SM). As if that wasn't sticky enough, her dad is Committee Chairman (CC). Yes - this is going to be difficult to untangle, but necessary. (Some other acronyms we've tossed out are Charter Organization (CO) and Charter Org Representative (COR) - these are the troop's sponsor and main point of contact.) Please quietly follow up. With a couple of phone calls, you can find the leader of the OA Unit Elections team. (Your other SM buddy will know.) Quietly tell the OA Unit Elections leader what you have told us with int

My $0.02 I've always used cast iron, but have been advised by friends in this forum that cast aluminum is a viable alternative. They won't melt when using coals for cooking - just don't set them on the fire to burn out old crusty stuff. That said, I'm sticking with cast iron. After smoking up the house seasoning my DOs a few times, I've started using gas grill outside. Just wipe it down with cooking oil, turn upside down on the grill, close grill top, set flames on high for 20-30 minutes, then off to cool in place. -mike

Sorry, but I don't agree with the thought that this should be allowed to stand -- I believe too much in the integrity of the vote. If there were a suspicion of wrongdoing, I would contact the OA election representative who ran the unit elections usually from the local OA Chapter or Lodge. (Units are not allowed to run and report on their own elections precisely to avoid this type of thing from happening.) But you dont have to approach it in an accusatory tone merely as trying to correct a potential mistake. Talk to the OA representative (from outside the troop) about the election. The

Welcome back, BW! -mike

Beav - you got it about perfect! The only nuance I'd throw in is that the Committee does more than support program - the committee works with the Charter Org to define the program they want to have, and then to support it (through training, resources, etc.). Like you said, the SM and his/her staff are in charge of program. jd - As I recall, troops cannot establish rules (such as males-only on campouts) at the troop level. But the Charter Organization may establish exclusionary rules such as this one for troops they sponsor. On the other hand, troops may decide in individual situations

Thanks, Nutz! You made my day!! -mike

Hi, Nutz! Welcome to the "campfire!" I did some rooting around - you can find a ton of info on Emergency Prep MB at the following sites: http://www.meritbadge.com/files/mb-pdfs/EmergencyPreparedness.pdf http://www.meritbadge.com/mb/006.htm http://www.relia.net/%7Ethedane/passports.html http://www.relia.net/~thedane/emergency_preparedness_passport.pdf A word of caution - your topic says "Merit Badge University." Please be careful if someone is encouraging you to put on a class for a group of scouts and expect them all to be done with this merit badge at the end of the d

Before I start please I have no intent to convince, only share observations. My two Boy Scout sons are in different troops, so I have the opportunity to serve, compare and contrast two very different programs (in terms of size, camping emphasis, program emphasis, etc.). The smaller troop makes it very clear from the first visit that only males are invited to go camping, with the exception of annual family campout. Moms are involved on the troop committee and with other behind-the-scenes stuff - they just dont go camping. I had reservations, but after pushing my eldest sons troop

I've written about this in other threads, but here goes again. To my amazement last summer at Philmont, on our first evening on the trail, after all the chores were done, the skinniest kid on our crew whips out a big bag of poker chips and a game of Texas Hold 'Em broke out. My first impulse was to close them down and send the chips out with our Ranger, but I decided to watch closely to see how it was handled. And I was glad I did - they had a blast. Crew Leader made sure the games didn't get in the way of other activities. Games sure made the time hunkered down under rain fly go quic

BSAChaplain, Yes - I did mean to say that the new scouts could be intentionally excluded. The recommendation to do so was given to me several years ago by one of our Lodge Elections Advisors. This occurred after our second or third year in a row of having a very poor election percentage apparently due to brand new scouts (within their first month of joining and before their first campout with troop) who didnt know the eligible candidates, but submitted ballots anyway. Im not saying this is generally the best answer. The OA Guide to Inductions (http://www.oa-bsa.org/resources/pubs

I've been through Sommers, too, but used NCCO in 2003 at Eagle90's recommendation and had a great experience! Early August - got very lucky - no black flies and minimal skeeters until the last couple of evenings. Caught fish every day. The biggest difference to me was the exhilaration of pushing away, heading into adventure, with just our crew - no professional guide, interpreter, etc. Our scout Crew Leader and his team did a great job figuring things out and came away with an incredible sense of accomplishment. Adults paddled at the rear to stay out of their way and had a great time.

Good golly! My crews called me ugly names concerning our prep for Philmont 2004 and it was nothing like this. Hope you've found ways to make it fun. A number of these are called "required." What do you do if someone misses one? -mike

ps, Yes - having a GPS with trail waypoints marked would help sometimes, but not all the time. Philmont rotates its trails - periodically they'll shut one down and route you via another trail to give the old one a chance to recover from the abuse of 1000s of boots every summer. They'll also have conservation crews working to repair and prevent erosion on the closed trail. The point here is the trails change some, so you'll have a hard time getting precise waypoints for all trails. If you depend solely on GPS, it will let you down sometimes. Philmont maps also aren't as precise as

ps, Lots more good advice above. We live at sea level and I knew altitude adaptation would be an issue, so we stayed in Colorado Springs for two nights before heading down to Philmont. Toured the Air Force Academy and did some fairly strenuous day hiking - guys loved it! Spending a couple of extra nights at high altitude helped a lot - we had no problems with altitude by the time we were on the trail. Map & Compass skills are essential, but not too difficult. Hardest part is getting the guys to use them and do the required thinking along the way. You can do about 90% of t

jam, Very good question and I'm glad you asked. I've seen this foul up a troop's election. As others have said, a blank ballot turned in is really a vote "against" all eligible candidates. It's perfectly acceptable to have brand new scouts who don't know the candidates abstain from the election. The easiest way to handle the new guys is simply to plan an alternate activity for them while the rest of the troop participates in the OA election. A good one would be for them to be in another room or outside working on their Scout or Tenderfoot advancement or having fun with some basic

rour, This is going to be long - sorry - I've been down this treacherous path several times. I'll assume the BOR members have an issue with the way he accomplished his position of responsibility (POR). If the BOR is the first to tell scout he didn't serve adequately in his POR, then a lot of other folks weren't doing their job. But that doesn't mean you have to just pass him off and send him on his way. There are alternatives, but lots of pitfalls, so step carefully. Don't just tell the scout he didn't do the job adequately and send him away. These situations have turned int

Waking the sleepy head... We had problem with one scout on Boundary Waters trip a couple of summers ago - wouldn't budge when dripping tent was dropped on him and didn't change after advisor dad forcefully dragged him out. The scout Crew Leader (who had the only alarm clock and was responsible for wake-up calls) came up with solution: Breakfast would be served 30 minutes after wakeup call. Nobody was allowed to eat until their personal gear was all packed and ready to load. If you were late and chow was gone, you were out of luck. The first morning was not pleasant, but the Crew

SemperParatus, I haven't been able to tap in much lately, but I'm very thankful I caught your story tonight. Wow -- thanks for sharing! I have a feeling you are going to get many more opportunities to tell this story and more -- you have a gift!! -mike

Dale, How could I have left off Laguna Station!?!?! (http://www.lagunastation.org/) That's my old home council - Rio Grande Council. I haven't taken a crew there, yet, but recent reports from 4 other local troops were all very positive. We'll be getting down there in the next year or two. -mike

KirkGinn, Welcome to Houston! Unfortunately, you're going to have to travel for the really good stuff. We had a crew raft the Rio Grande in Big Bend a few years ago. They used a private outfitter and had a great time. If you don't want to travel so far, there's also some pretty good white water canoeing to be had on the Guadalupe River upstream of Canyon Lake, but check into the local SHAC requirements - leaders must have completed approved flat water and white water canoe training. You can go through training offered through Strake or check out Goose Creek Canoe Clinic at http://www.