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ozemu

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Everything posted by ozemu

  1. Competitions can bring out some good improvement however for every winner there is a looser. The main point of the Patrol system IMHO is that Patrols act separately and differently. If doing different things there is no real way to compete and there would not be uniformity in Patrol ability. A strong Patrol competition may well indicate that adults are running a very tight ship and PL's are not independent enough. Sure there are essential basic skills straight from the advancement requirements and these are worth some competition. We all do that and rightly so, I would rate exc
  2. Play stalking wide games that involve looking for traces of the quarry. Soldiers leave no trace - otherwise the bad guys might follow the signs and shoot at them. Try camping overnight and then going to find the vacated camp of other Patrols. Indigenous peoples across the globe tred lightly. Not just with hunting and stalking but it carries over to respect for the other organisms. If Indians are cool then explore their outlook. Perhaps your Scouts could observe and follow ants, track how long before saliva becomes a moisture source, work on the micro and when that is interest
  3. Hearing that the older Scouts were keeping an eye on, and that the younger Scouts were going to the older Scouts during their first few months at high school. That first six months is unsettling for most - I was proud to know that without prompting, our Scouting relationships were being honoured. Non Scouting school friends had no idea how they knew each other apparently. Having my Asutralian Scouts proudly wearing either Indian Lore or Fishing MB's next to their Australian badges. Caused a few second glances from other Troops.
  4. It's been a while. Hello everyone. Can I throw an idea or two in using both my Scouting experience (6 yr co-ed SM here in Oz) and as a professional camp manager for school groups (5 yrs)? Young male instructors (probably Scouters too) have clients (Scouts) experience accidents more often and more severely. Stat's are cited across the industry and supported from our own internal records. Extrapolating....girls are safer until age 25 or so. Car insurance also seems to support the notion. I have as at today 5 women and 3 men working as camp leaders to give an idea of my experience.
  5. The thing I needed most in resurrecting a new Troop was an ASM. You need one who is into camping, willing to run meetings on a 50-50 basis (not taking over from Scouts but playing the adult role about 50% of the time so you can speak to parents, plan things, enjoy the meeting etc)and is in the area for years to come. If you don't have one - don't start. If you do they may never show up 'cause you'll be 'doing fine'. If your experience of Scouting is of younger ages then be very careful to not make it an older Cub Pack. This is a problem for some people. The age group can be very adul
  6. Fair enough comment. People do things they later look back on and would rather like it to be unsaid. Age is no barrier. Maybe it would have been better to let the discussion die the death I think it had. pj - no need to give it new life, it had left Today's Active Topics list, and it will again if we all just wander on to more profitable discussions.
  7. Agreed it is an adult responsibility to act here. Interesting to know what the Scouts would say if they had to decide. Has anybody asked? If they don't want him - end of discussion isn't it? Doesn't matter why unless they are a serious mess themselves.
  8. Mistakes are great - we learn and have an opportunity to humbly seek to understand each other. Of course outrage evokes defensivness and widens the divide between us. There but for the Grace of God (and many mistakes) go I. Let's learn from this story but also give people a break.
  9. Gear needed depends on activity, experience, age but also on environment. I'll bet you would mostly recommend a different tent down in the SE than you would in the NW. dewSM's question is what to buy first. Probably standing camp gear (don't get trapped by it program wise). Big heavy boxes - no, try smaller solid plastic ones. That way the Patrol can pick them up and move them around. And you can separate Patrols more easily. I don't know how you describe size - 50 litre? small enough that the smallest Scout if gaffer taped into a rectangle could barely squeeze into it? You get the
  10. I see something of your problem hiking god. Welcome to the forum by the way. If, in your Troop, the purpose of walking is to get from A to B fast then chants may well help. You say the other Scouts are not really into hikes. Maybe it is too much of an endurance race for them. So possibly a comprimise? Walk fast by all means (if that is what they want to do) but also try sections that are not walked fast. Stalking for wildlife is actually very hard to do. Stalking for other Scouts and then hiding from them as they walk past is lots of fun...if it is a two way track.
  11. I cannot separate camping and other adventures from values. How I work with these two areas is simple. 1. Do stuff: camping and adventures are popular with most Scouts. Got to be active or step 2 won't show up. 2. Get outside the comfort zone: when they emotionally engaged (happy or sad - doesn't matter) they are ready to pay attention 3. Ask the three questions: What happened: so what do we make of this, what do we do to improve next time? 4. Move on. Enjoy the day. For me I spend most of my time working on step 1, I watch for step 2 signs, we spend enough time
  12. That's hard Beavah. To speak openly and confidantly you need to be sure of yourself, failings and all. That is something to foster but not for teaching I think. An example goes along way and I hope that I have shown that to other adults as I learned to speak up. I'd add to Baschram645 that someone to show the way should be followed closely by every other adult member within cooee and I include the older Scouts in that category. (Basically anyone over about 13 years who wants to perform as an Adult). For those who are verbally impaired when it comes to values I say 'lead the way b
  13. Steel mug and a plastic spork (lighter than the steel one I lost). I cook, eat, rinse then drink from that mug. I do not count my folding pocket knife as part of the kit but when I need to I can disect the odd steak with it. Incidentally I have not washed either item in a very long time. Licked clean with tongue is the spork and the mug gets rinsed twice each meal with a thimble or two of water. When really dry I drink that thimble too. What do you call it over there? Wilderness soup or something?
  14. I assume that you are asking about MB's rather than special BSA international awards that may not (no idea if this is correct) contribute to advancement. Do everything by the rules and regs...then do what works. I don't know how easy it is to work around things but there must be a way to reconise effort and accomplishement despite inconvieniences of location. Few young men will understand "yes you did everything and more but the rules are impossible to adhere to overseas. Just do the MB again when we get home". Something of a disincentive. But you Americans are a creative l
  15. I was very confused until OGE's third post or so. You Americans don't use an 'r' as we do for the word that offened OGE and from my perspective 'rassler' was pretty inocuous. If the 'a' came first I would have gotten the point at the start. Young men of the age we serve do not, in my experience, make those sorts of connections. They mock but less cynically. I would think they were as disgusted as you are yourself OGE. And for what it is worth I understand the upset - being a foster carer has brought these issues into my home more than once. The fall out is / can be awful. N
  16. In our case getting Scouts has never really been a problem. It's always been about adults. The few who take to it with enthusiasm end up exhausted because they do not get assistants who will take any responsibility. I am sure this is quite common. Down here we have Groups that involve up to five age ranges covering age 6 to 26. The Group in recess had the young people to have four of the five sections. We never had more than two because we couldn't get the adults at the time. I'll write some letters to the editor of the local paper and see if the new arrivals that seem to turn u
  17. Hi all, the group (Cub Pack plus Scout Troop all under the one parent committee and with the same name) that I was SM of for six years has gone into recess as of tonight. Sad. We have one year in which our gear is in storage and able to be retrieved should the Group get enough adults to re-open. After that the gear is distributed in the area. We had the youth members - just not the adults. What a shame. I have brought the Troop flag, bannners, annual logs home for safe keeping so the rats don't get them. Anyone have a good news story about Troops coming back from th
  18. Today's young people are used to immediate reward and a 3 second attention span. Not their fault. Train them. I do not know what the handbooks say - look at my bio. But they are young men just like those in ancient Greece and pre-Columbus America etc. No more capable and no less. Teach them the skills that tv does not. Coach them through 'boy led' techniques. They will realise the benefit when comparing to other Troops just like Eammon wrote. They will not understand until then. Keep the faith. Make them work hard. They will drag the chain and might gripe. But they
  19. You can't - until the fullness of time has passed. Sorry. But when they are NOT Scouts; how many are in jail, happily married, career successful, contributing community members etc? I have been surprised. But only time can tell. What happens with young adults is not a fair assessemnt - it is about the choices that they make after they fly the coop. Today you can only 100% know for sure that we are all whittling away at the same peices of wood - trying to find the grain beneath and following it to a piece of art or utilitarian tool. Wish I could give a more immediate indicator.
  20. Excellant. More good news stories pls.
  21. I'm with Beavah. There are people who rely on the 'not my responsibility, no-one else is worrying, what if my intuition is wrong, some-one else has probably checked, I'm the only one who thinks this etc etc" If the idea niggles then put it to rest - humanely of course, and this does not even need to be known to him I'm guessing...because if your intuition is right....
  22. I'm no musician. I understand though that music is about emotiona and it is not always about falling in and out of love at age 12. Emotion is driven by how we think about events and the value we place on both the event and our response. There is excellant music about war, murder, injustice, liberty, rape, human rights, political (ir)responsibility etc. Music is fundamentally linked to values, ethics and morals. Choise - dunno. Will take GKlose's word on it. Teamwork; I can see where a band may have to understand the combined emotion of a peice. Again - driven by values that is
  23. oops, thanks scoutldr. I try to use terminology that is US so I have to explain things less. Doesn't always work though eh? I was more worried about getting the basballers name right.
  24. Putting yourself 'out there' as a candidate for advancement is brave when we cheer like mad every time they achieve blowing their nose without a goober dangling on their cheek. We might make less of a deal about it all for the older ones; more of the quiet adult praise like we give to work colleagues may allow the older Scouts to risk trying. The public embarrasment of failing to achieve put aside they may have a go. My theory may not be well explained but there is sound research on self esteem that argues against making a big deal of things that are not really a big deal. People need
  25. Have everyone pegging in and tying up a christmas present with ropes etc like a tent. Words 'presents may be slightly damaged through exuberance this year' or some such.
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