prairie

Seven would be nice, we are restricted to 4.

I despise glue, if nothing else it makes it harder for the next boy to accept a experianced/used shirt.

Guess I'm the odd one out here and maybe its because there are more working mothers now than back in the late 60s, as cubs we met after school five blocks away in the comunity building, it was quite a change with Webelos to have after supper meetings.

Eagle by 16 sounds good to me, have a young man right now who made the deadline by hours. He has been so active in Scouting, O/A and school his Eagle was always on the back burner. Looking forward to his COH.

Ugh cellphones, I try and leave mine in the car when I go to meetings, only time it rang durning a meeting it was a wrong number. Just last night an older scout had to fiddle (game?) with his for 10 minuets at full volume, it was intresting when he tried to quiet a 11 year old and was informed that his behavior was compairable. This was done in a nice way and you could see the light bulb start to glow. I will settle for little steps, as long as they are in the right direction.

Humm, mine is on the council patch on my uniform.

I agree with 95% of whats been sugested. My 2 cents, ban the wearing of neckerchiefs under the collar by males, only ties should be worn that way. A uniform shirt thats good for more than a trip to the library. An all green scouters baseball style cap, fitted, not one size fits most. A scout handbook with more usefull info. A shift in requirements too more scout/field craft skills. An end to doing things a certin way to produce big numbers for national to brag about.

Sounds like some troops have gone past car camping and are now probing the possiblilites of siege camping. I fear my troop is firmly in the car camping mode, sould like to see a pared down patrol box and other signs unnessarry stuff is left behind.

Good! Now I can pester my sister for that too. = )

John-in-KC While the Fletcher book you listed is obsolete, there is a 4th edition cowrote with another fellow that is more up to date and a good read. Like the handbooks some earlier info has been droped though. Also a link to a forum for this sort of thing. http://www.backpacking.net/forums/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=books(This message has been edited by prairie)

Seems every troop has its own culture, back when i was a scout nobody stayed a Tenderfoot any longer than they had to, they wern't teased but boys either earned their 2nd class or dropped out after a year or so. These also tended to be the boys who didn't do many campouts, skipped summer camp and always seemed to be somewhere else when work had to be done. I also recall very little encouragment of rank advancement once 1st class was reached. Could it be his way of showing the rest of the troop he is his own man by avoiding advancement? I know I would not have gotten near as much out of

Fourth year of summer camp cussin got rampant, (that was also the only year with open front shelters), the boys decided iffn ya cussed you took a bite of soap, they made a tripod and hung a bar of Ivory from it and everything. Somehow latly I have started sayin bugger when things go wrong on the farm, might not sound too bad for most people but I also know an old meaning for the word that if a boy used it in that context its the equivelent to a f-bomb. I gonna try to change to blast or tanji, need something to say to release the frusteration without be offensive. Closist I ever hear m

Intresting question, one feels the boys should have some sort of say, but where and how strong????? Should they get a vote, or just a chance to approve who is on the list of choices?

Well ya joggled my mind, D/M stew, VanDCamps bakedbeans, peanutbutter on stale Sunbeam or Wonder bread, Don't remember any of that fondly. I don't remember kids bringing extra food/snaks, do remember more than one campout where there was not anywhere near enough food, patrol leader thought all patrol food was his to eat as he pleased.

Back before Ramian and such, what were the items the scoutmaster rolled his eyes at? I remember a lotta mac-n-cheeze, mystery meet wieners and canned peaches in heavy syrup. JiffyPop over a campfire is a real trick! When the adults cooked it usually was chilli and bug juice.

Sounds like they have just lost their way a bit, not outa control by any means. Best of luck!

All I have managed to do is talk to some Webelo parents about how scouting is diffrent than cubs, what we hope their boy will get out of his envolvement in Scouting and that we as Scouters have their wellbeing in mind. My thought being, "A mom and dad who believe that Scouting is important to and for their son will go a long way to bridging over the rough spots."

Hunt wrote:While I don't want to add "A Scout is Empathetic" to the Scout Law........ I think that Kind covers this. You all must have led a sheltered life, growing up I found 1 in 20 boys seemed to live just to make others misarible, the stupid bullys are easy to spot but there are others who are very clever about their missdeeds. The stupid ones almost never turn out as good adults, maybe half the sneeky ones do. Luckly most don't become Scouts.

Well, if we followed that kind of reasoning we might all be driving Chevettes? To be honest I don't see $40 in value in the current shirt, if it wern't labled BSA they might sell for $10-$15. I wouldn't mind paying $40 if they were made as well as those of forty years ago, I have several of those and am amazed at how well they were put together. Unfortunatly I can't find one big enough for me to wear. I am glad the ScoutShop has the choices it does, I find the cotton version far more comfortable than the polyblend.

History reports that the early BSA uniforms were cutdown surplus doughboy uniforms. Seems to me this could be done again, sorta. what would it take? Patterns so that the uniforms will indeed be uniform, features that add comfort or durbility would be shown as options. A new choice for the hard to fit. Suppliers of fabric the right colors identified or color referance provided. A tag to be sewen in if the item passes a simple inspection preferably worn by the end user, something like "BSA Accepted" sold for same amount national lost out on if a off the shelf item had been sold, this wo

"it's obvious that Scouts don't pull pranks that betray the trust of younger, weaker scouts or that unkindly humiliate them." to quote Hunt. A good prank should only bend the trust a little, thats why they should be few in number and mild in effect. A prank that from an outsiders view looks lame might be too much for a poorly chosen victim. On an unrelated note, I read where BrentAllen refered to camp skits, cept my goofy eyes saw "Camp Skirts" the first time, I'dd say that would be taking hazing a bit far. =)

First night, wait till they are about to go to bed, then tell them they need to walk to the latrine and back on their lonesome while you wait for them, Once they have made the trip in the dark they shouldnt get lost the next time, let them know there is time to use said latrine too. Maybe put one of those red safety blinkers in it for easy location. I still can get turned around in the dark if I'm not carefull.

My two trains of thought: Display only the ones that really mean something to the troop. Display only current ribbons, how many years depends on how much stuff you want on the flag pole.

If you want fun meetings better call ahead and make sure that night has something fun scheduled. I heard the flip side of this, troop had been working real hard and had the results to show for it, PLC decided to have a goof off night of card playin and such, Webelo and mom showed up to visit and she blew a gasket cause they were goofin off, nobody could make her understand she had picked the one wrong night.

Joggled my memory there, the year our troop had open front shelters at summer camp, 3 to a shelter and they chatted way into the night. Infact I remember more mischief that year than any other.