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Mash, enjoy. Not gonna lie. The first freeze of the year is hard on this old frame, so brace yourself, and don't be afraid to cry "uncle" if anything doesn't feel right. But, once you adapt, it's sheer beauty! (Well, the burn scar will be sad.) When I get my official WSJ troop #, I'll PM you.

Welcome, and thanks in advance for all you'll do for those girls! Regarding hammocks: the family that sways together, stays together (depending on available trees).

It's not just you. It's broke. I think they are trying too hard. This interface could be one that spits out plain text and a map. But developers have fallen for this hand-held look and feel.

My associate advisor made my crew!

I agree this is mostly semantics. Since time-out-of-mind, in English, the singular was used to refer to the body of ordinances and the plural to refer to the collections of ordinances within the body. (E.g., Jewish religious law is made up of 613 laws. The one English word serves for the two Hebrew words that distinguish the sum from the parts.) But, it's also a reminder that scout commits to duty to God and country and obedience to the scout law. helping others, and maintaining one's self prepared. B-P has in mind an integral being of certain character. Not someone with a dozen (or more) responsibilities. God and country hold those long lists.

I'm with @skeptic: one law (as referenced in the Oath) with 12 points.

Why not a stove that sits on top of the canister? I understand that jet-boils have a small radius. But a a burner with a 4" diameter on a canister seems about as stable as one with all of those fold-out legs (which I've seen fail at some inconvenient times). Even with those pocket rockets, three choice rocks or tent pegs around the canister/burner give the added stability for larger pots. I just favor as small a footprint as possible to minimize tripping hazards.

Don't ignore the phrase "if participating in a high adventure activity ..." WB is not a HA activity. Have you actually talked to your specialist about participating in weekend courses like WB? Do you monitor your own BP? Regarding troop leadership, they may mean well. But, they need to go pound sand. If you're a good leader, they aren't going to let you slip away over your apprehension about attending a course.

Here is a little something I prepared for a peace dinner a couple of years ago. A friend asked if I would open a discussion on Christmas tradition with some international students ... mostly from Arabic countries ... a few weeks before the fall term closed. Sean's greetings to all!

As we discussed in your prior post, a lot of great leaders serve their units well without taking WB. Give your primary physician time to look over the paperwork and decide if you need any restrictions.

What? You don't hew to scouts should be seen and not heard? I guess it depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If your goal is to train adults (and maybe your SPL) to take a step back, and possibly to get patrol sites looking sharp throughout the day, being in view helps. If your goal is to get patrols to feel a little more private, then woodland are ideal. In some of our laurel thickets and hemlock stands, 50' is an eternity.

Gloves give me an icky feeling, so no. Even in winter, I keep my gloves in my pocket until my fingers are too cold to work without them. Our SM, on the other hand, is all about those gloves, so he makes sure patrols have a set of cleaning gloves.

@Sentinel947, you definitely have a lot to look forward to. Graduate school is it's own kind of troop; and your class, it's own kind of patrol. Then, there's a family, or if you are so led, the ministry. And as you visit your troop, you can explain what's the same, different, etc.

So, if we send National the receipt for our ink, will they reimburse our recharging fee?

Sounds good, @chief027. The traditional physical distance is 300', assuming you have open field and can see everyone. You still need to talk to your unruly scout and let him know that your expecting him to do better (I.e., be more helpful) at every campout, just like he promised he would when he said the scout oath. Let him know that you believe in him and think he can do it.

The abused deserve restoration. Can that be achieved by winning damages?

How Trail Life USA is growing: BSA SMs who are failing -- nay, refusing -- to deliver on the promise of scouting. It's a tragedy for the leader as well. Scouting works on us. But we have to let it. That means telling your employer that you are responsible for scouts and need a weekend off. It could mean not making the $ you think you need, and other sacrifices to reap smiles. @sst3rd, if you've met these two girls and they and their parents are gun ho, move heaven and earth to make it happen for them. I can think of no better reward for you than their "thank-you" years from now.

Cabins are the best. Some wood stoves are also designed for cooking as well. You need to talk to your ranger about which set-up is preferred for a given cabin. The down side: clean-up is tougher. Barns are fun too, if anybody has a farmer in the family. We have converted a picnic shelter into four walls using tarps. Lots of knots and rope work. Hay bales were brought in to buffer the concrete floor. I'm not a personal fan. Always went out and set up a tent or tossed my bag and tarp on a picnic table when they did that. Growing up, my troop had a 24 man tent (we called it a circus tent) donated to them from the local armory. But that comes with its own set of problems. The most comfortable, honestly, was wilderness shelters in a pine forest. They take all morning to build, but are well worth the effort. Regardless, the cold is rough on small bodies, so training in cold weather preparedness and first aid is essential.

My wife's grandmother gave me a fridge magnet that said "No man was ever shot while doing the dishes." :P Any of the above are worth trying. So is a more firm approach. A scout is helpful. A boy who is not helpful, therefore, is not a scout and will not be welcome on campsites. So, if he is to prepare for the next campout, he is to wash his family's dishes and tidy the kitchen at least once a week. Make it clear to him that you will check in with his mom, and as long as he is practicing at home, he can come to the next campout to show off his skills there.

Our troop uses that often. Maybe a little too much ... Scout (approaching me on a trail at camp): Mr. Q, I just thought of something. Me: Yes, Scout? Scout: Mr. C (our oldest ASM) might be the great master of all scouts. Me (knowing the scout is Catholic): Well, Scout, his initials are "J.C." Scout (stopped in his tracks): Woah! Son #1 has since told me that that one circulated for years well beyond that scout's tenure.

To the OP, this isn't a beginning. This is "here we go again." In related news: down in FL for the week. My young relatives are having a great time in TL/USA. Their switch had nothing to do with any G's. It had to do with their various BSA SMs being unwilling to deliver on the promise of scouting. My mother-in-law seems more discouraged about this than I do. The kids are growing up strong and good. I like that. Mrs. Q and I were very intentional about limiting our children's time around Christians. Maybe that's part of taking the "Go ye into all the world ..." directive quite literally.

No plaques please! The best gift is one you cannot give: A young man who returns from overseas and stops by and catches the scouter up on all he's been doing and his plans for the future, and then they can talk about a few shared memories. Had one of those last night. Short of that, a neckerchief signed by all of the scouts is a good start.

I think a shared committee would only make sense if the TC of a boys' troop was "launching" the girls' troop. They would have already had a hand in picking the leaders, and the there would be extensive overlap. E.g., on paper, the SM for the boys was an ASM for the girls and the SM for the girls was an ASM for the boys. The success of such an endeavor would really depend on a unique set of personalities. If the girls' troop was looking to take up residence at one of four possible CO's, that sounds to me like separate committees are in order. In the girls' troop, at best only 1/4 of the parents might have worked with the linked troops' committee before. But the boys' troop might loose a few good MC's that way. Volunteers can only spread their time across so many meetings. When I ran my crew, we had separate committees with the smaller crew committee having about 20% overlap with the troop committee. The crew committee demanded far less time from members, so doing both wasn't much of an extension.

Our PLC doesn't vote so much as come to consensus. How much a girls patrol leader needs to attend depends on how many decisions they need to make in concert with the boys. If you are doing the same campouts having the same activities at troop meetings you want to sync up with the other patrols in the troop.

? Really ? Haven't you read the annual report (especially the footnotes at the bottom of the financial statements)?