prairie

"Adults sleep, generally, one to a tent and snoring scouters usually move out to "the edges" to scare off the bears."

Anarchist

The things we do for the program!

I still remember way back when on a Klondike a trio of snoring scoutmasters, their harmony needed some help, but musta worked cause we never saw one bear, no lions or tigers either.

Didn't know I was such a rebel, half the campouts of my scouting youth I pitched and went to sleep in 1 of 6 two man troop tents, I seemed to be the designated odd man out.

My only gripe was waking up to find one or two soggy boys had moved in when the rain made their tent fall.

I figure if the solo tenter sets up close between several two man tenters the saftey issues are covered.

Hope nobody objects to me as a Scouter wanting to sleep in my own one man tent.(This message has been edited by prairie)

Great post Beavah!!!

Watching too much TV would have a person afraid to get out of bed in the morning, cept if they don't they might get fatal bed sores.

We were the land of the free and the home of the brave, now we may become the land of the nanny state and the timid hiding at home. But not in the kitchen cause thats the most dangerous room in the house!

Targets I think about are those who act arogant or obnoxious, proablem is this group seldom can take a joke so what ever you do should be rather minor and very short term.

MY personal rules on pranks.

Know your target.

Watch the prank unfold, if it goes wrong end it right then.

Never pull a prank you won't fess up to, including the SM, the camp director and your pastor.

Be ready to undo what ever the prank was, even if it takes all night.

Which means I think up a bunch of them, and most are never even talked about let alone done.

I think the point is that the Scouters are in their "Secret Hideout" physicaly onsite but mentaly elsewhere?

Well a lot has changed in thirty years, most troops at camporees didn't even have trailers then. I don't have enough district or council events under my belt lately to know what accepted practice is now. Glad my gut feelings are still okay!

Well, thats one way to get outa eating your veggies.

I'm actully bothered by the Scouters in the trailer, I'm prolly off base but this sounds strange to me.

I had two strong willed grandmothers, standing up to them even as an adult brought on months of coldness. Maybe somebody could slip her some of Green Bar Bill's writings, take the aproach that letting the boys do it is good for them. Good luck.

Tried to edit my posting but it won't let me.

Camped out with the exact same gear last night, wore the hat I lost track of, but did take out a balaclava just incase. 20 deg when I went out and this morn it was 30, quite comfy this time and I didn't have supper either. This tent still has some condensation proablems, edge of sleeping bag was wet from my breath too. Not to shabby for a bunch of gear never intended for winter camping.

We missed a good one, temps came up to the 20s and 30s, some blowing snow yesterday but dead calm overnight. Would have qualified for the cold weather camping award with out suffering.

We had three scouters ready to camp and one iffy scout. Work got in the way of several older boys. Our pack and troop are joined at the hip, pack meetings that run late can look in on our troop meeting. Only way we would get a boy with experiance of another pack or troop is if he moved here.

The plan in my mind is to make a phone contact and set up a face to face meeting at their choice of location, at least one active scout and hopefully two scouters would do their best to explain why Scouting would be good for their boy and how the troop has corrected our faults. Making no excuses and or promises we can't deliver, things we might not know we will find out and tell them.

Anyway that was my thought, tomarrow night I will conflab with my SM.

Little history, I started with the garrison cap, thought it was cool cause older boys wore them and Leigon and Lions wore simmiler ones, so I thought it was more adult than the ball caps of Cubs and Webelos. Then the beret showed up and I was given one, at first I thought it was cool but that didn't last long, really it didn't offer any advantages over the garrison cap and a few drawbacks.

My troop uses the red and green BSA cap though most go bare headed. I bought the Stetson hat last month, seems nice enough but also looks easy to mess up. Wish I could find an old style green ballcap both winter and summer versions, I did find several garrison caps that fit me, seems my head grew some from when I was a boy.

Good luck with you hunt finding something they will wear and look good in.

1600 souls in the troops town we have had scouts from 5 other towns that were so small no troop could exist. My "hometown" is just 190 people and I live on a farm.

Kinda tough in a town of 1600, I don't think there is one Venture crew in my very rural district. I'm hoping to reach some 11 to 14 year olds.

Does he report to a perole officer?

Something is creepy weird about this guy, its like he is looking for something to get mad about.

Wise donkey question: Do podcasts come from pod-people?

I should have mentioned we are a very small troop right now, a winter campout had to be postponed and maybe cancled for lack of boys. I thought I could make a diffrence but I have spent 5 months just getting up to speed, thinking too much and doing too little. Now should be a good time to try with warmer weather coming and winter school sports winding down. I have a feeling it will take quite a few visits but if we find 2-3 returns to go with the 3 Webelos I will be happy.(This message has been edited by prairie)

Sounds like to success stories to me.

No, not in general tho that is a great topic.

We have a situation where almost no boys crossed over for several years and those that did dropped out because of a Scouter leadership issue chased them away (off the cuff rule making and freeride to Eagle for son). Those adults have been gone awhile and won't return.

How do you get these boys to give Scouting another chance?

Only idea I had was to visit each with his parents about how we have changed.(This message has been edited by prairie)

Well my ignorance is showing, I had not rellized the Green Bar Patrol had a life of its own and it was for Scout leadership enhancement instead of my thought of Scouter mindset training.

I wonder if a tiny troop could run just fine with no SPL as long as the PLs could reach concencus quickly.

"The best Scouter Handbooks ever written are already available for $5-$15 each. Look carefully for the 3rd, 4th, or the 5th editions (and/or printing dates between 1936-1971) of used BSA Scoutmaster's handbooks, see"

But if you start giving them away to every fresh scouter the supply will be exhausted quickly, hence my notion to gather the very best bits into a easy to cary booklet. I am proud to say a young man who will have his Eagle shortly asked to borrow my 5th edition to prepare himself as a ASM, hated to let go of it but not about to stand in the his way.

I would just as soon BSA kept their mitts off of it cause they will have to tinker with it till its dead or worthless. The purpose is to help adults understand how to get the boys to take charge of their program and then mentor them.

Maybe thats the name I should have chosen, Hillcourt Mentors.

Thankyou Kudu for you imput, we maybe traveling diffrent roads but heading for the same destination.

Thermarest has made several patchkits over the years, they work. Or get a tube of SeamGrip and some patch material, thats how I fixed mine.

Also considder a heaver ground cloth or a protective sleeve for the mattress, I would hate like heck to give up on my Thermarests, as comfortable to me as my bed at home.

First, headache is gone.

I have several balaclavas, grabbed the hat caues it was handy, once in the tent I was too stubburn to go back in the house and get something else, got what I deserved. On the campout will use a bala or army pile cap under a hooded sweatshirt, it felt like I was loosing 3/4s of my body heat either from my head or from heating up the air I was breathing. after that would add the 1.5 thick thermarest on top the other one. Got my eyes pealed for closed cell pads 25 inches wide, I keep slipping off the 20 inchers, just too narrow for my active sleeping style.

To be honest, I thought it was 15 deg above when I went out, musta missread the thermometer, that I did okay at 20 deg colder is a comfort. Didn't spend that much time asleep, 4 or 5 hours but I always rest up better outside.

I wonder if some of this is just the boys not realizing whats possible? Maybe ask each boy to write down with no talk between them 3 events/places or other activitys they would like to do in the next two years. Phrase it so that coming up with one idea nobody else had but many think is cool is a very good thing.

We complain when the youth "game" the system for advancement or other reward yet this looks like Scouters are gaming the system at the District and Council level. Is this the kind of example we want to set?

Wouldn't it just be better to have the best unit level program we can and let the numbers take care of themselves.

Total membership and how many attended the last successfull District/Council camping event would be a better gage.

I have decided I will not wear any trained or quality unit patchs unless threatened with expulsion. Rightly so the boys should be able to assume I am trained and doing what I can to provide them with a quality scouting program, thats why I wear the uniform.