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Sounds like a new requirement for Digital Technology MB: 10. Identify a digital tech method that has failed many of its intended users. a. Come up with an alternative based on simpler tech. b. Measure the advantages of the alternative in terms of speed, capabilities, and interoperability. Be sure to account for time getting support, etc ... c. Multiply the time saved by 50,000 to get a national estimate of the hours a national organization could spend actually doing service instead of Byzantine beurarcracy.

I agree with the above. Two or three is reasonable. Encourage him to think about badges he might not be able to earn on his own throughout the year. (For example, I could have never done Pioneering at home. Fathoms of high quality rope were not a priority expense in my family or troop. But, I could practice knots and splices in advance and work on towers and zip-lines in advance.) Also encourage him to pick different areas (e.g., one scoutcraft, one aquatic, one field sports) and ask older scouts what their favorites were from previous years. Supplements to the MB program depend on the style of the camp and the troop. Our boys may set themselves to camp-wide challenges, like building a one-man raft that out-floats any other troop's vessel. Or, they may opt to set up a lakeside outpost bunk using knots and lashings (and my spool of baler twine). Or, they may plan ways to outdo themselves on steak night. And there's always applying those basic 1st class skills ... making sure every knot on every canvas is perfect and every rope whipped. Some scouts are all about chopping wood; others, scrubbing pots.

So, are you Dad? Brother? Uncle? A lovely blog, but you're missing out on the old-school fun of getting post-cards every couple days from the re-supply stops!

Since the troop reserves the first session of summer camp, and that's when national inspection occurs, I've seen SEs (two of whom went on to be our past and current CSE's) in camp. They didn't disrupt the boy's activities at all (unless going down to water's edge to chat with scouts fishing is disruptive). I certainly do think an SE who can visit a different unit/round-table every month has a leg up on every other pro at his level. Cross-training is even good for us amateurs. I often talk to the kids in my church who attend different troops/packs. I'm usually asking pretty targeted questions. Every now I might ask after a one of their leaders, if I know him/her, and the boy will say, "How do you know so much about this stuff?" "I just read a lot," I reply.

I may be dropping scouts over a climbing tower tonight ... Does that mean BSA will drop it's oldest membership restriction? (One non-sequiter deserves another.) FWIW, @@tyke, I was driving to the next county over to help Mrs. Q put gem settings on a shelf (long story) today. The usual national public radio (equivalent to your BBC) talk show I listened to was out of range, and the nearest station was beginning an interview with a boy scout leader whose troop operates out of a conservative CO, and the founder of American Heritage Girls. The salient part of the dialogue for this host was that the Boy Scout Leader's CO still had the right to select leaders as it saw fit so that from their local perspective, the status quo could be maintained -- this was seen as a good thing. Meanwhile while a GS mom - she learned that there is no local control of who may lead a girl scout group and the removal of duty to God from their oath and the general progressive endeavor of the organization beyond the scrutiny of the rank and file -- this was seen as a bad thing. In contrast, the host had great enthusasim for AHG's attempt to restore a more theistic role (a pro-life feminism, if you will). Sorry, but the station went out of range before the interview ended I could get the call sign; otherwise, I would have asked if they had a transcript to share. Point is, the part of the country that elected our current president has no inclination to move into the fast lane for the little activists in the back of the car screaming "are we there yet?"

Practice with your gear is really important. Some techniques are listed here: http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/water.shtml One that isn't mentioned, but is related to hose contamination is forward dilution. There was a sick hiker incident in Dolly Sods, WV that was traced back to not rinsing the bottle mouth and lid with some of the purified water.

I almost forgot (easy to do given the cloud cover in these parts ): magnifying glass lens! Along those lines, has anybody ever try a parabolic mirror or frensel lens?

Bring back memories of this cute girl at youth group, pyromaniacly dropping chips, one at a time, slowly, onto the coals, wistfully watching each flame. I thought, "Better not bring that one back to the house ..." Thanks to you Skip, I'll now go wondering what would might been had I offed a "belly-button fluff" suggestion.

Wait, I had to memorize the Outdoor Code for Tenderfoot ... Or is my memory playing tricks?

If they are in clusters of three or four tents, you shouldn't let that spook you. Some PLs really deserve their own tent. Some, after coming from O/A or their venturing crew, are setting up a hammock (or less) anyway. We don't micromanage sleeping arrangements. Patrols acquire the tents they think they need. I try to get each patrol to set up as far away as the SM can stand from us and any other patrol. It works quite nicely.

Not a Philmont traveler, but I have come to agree that everyone in the crew should have the capacity for 8 liters, only half of which is necessarily kept full while trekking. I.e., if one person is down to his last liter, the nearest stream or spring is time for a refill to get everyone back up to at least 4 L. Even if you are camping beside a glorious spring or stream in a mile or two, there might be enough of dry terrain and heat to make that last hump tortuous. Obviously, if you are approaching a dry camp, everyone fills to the max and balances their loads. I prefer nalgene wide-mouth 96 oz. collapsible. I filter/fill one of those and, once purified, dispense into three smaller canteens, then fill it again. (Note to self: remind crew president to add water management to his scoring rubric for next month's wilderness hike.)

@Carbenez, Welcome to the forums! From your post, it's not clear if this problem should fall on your SM or your committee chair (CC). If your son needs a SM conference (SMC) for Life rank, I can understand why a new SM might be having trouble blocking out time for that in a meeting. He's basically playing catch-up with every scout, and those conferences in particular can be lengthy. The SM probably realized that constantly telling your son "next meeting" wasn't working. Once they've had their last SMC for any rank, our life scouts are often responsible for going directly to the CC and asking for a board of review. It goes something like this: SM "Well, scout, looks like you've grown a lot while earning that rank, let's consider this conference complete, I'll sign here, and you may go over to Mr. CC there and request a board of review at the committee's earliest possible convenience." We really try to encourage the scout to contact the committee chair or advancement chairperson directly. They are usually pretty nimble and can assemble a group of three members for a BoR. Because of this, we don't consider it the SM's responsibility to line up each scout's BoR.

It's a big country, and I bet these relationships vary. For @@Phrogger, a UC might help identify an issue within the unit that, if addressed, could make the scout feel more welcome in his troop. The UC may serve one or two other units, but I'm not entirely sure that helps the boy. Those units may be a bad fit as well. The DE should have a comprehensive list of the units. So, that's where you'd get the numbers of SMs to call. A seasoned DC (district commissioner, not den chief ) probably would know everyone in every unit. But, not every district has a seasoned commish. The problem with all of these positions is that they are far removed from the scout. (Well at least in large districts. Where I grew up, on the other hand, I was friends with the DE's kids.) And, often the parent has specific questions, while these folks can at best give general answers.

DE = District Executive. He should be able to put you in touch with other scoutmasters. It's good that your SM is willing to try a change. Hope it works.

It seems to matter to lots of folks in this one of Bryan's most popular blogs https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/06/24/ask-expert-isnt-camping-night-camping-mb/ Based on the pamphlet and the phrasing, I felt that the point of the badge was to get the boy into a routine of planning, packing for, and returning from camping trips (lather, rinse, repeat). With all of the hair-splitting that has since ensued, makes me wonder if the requirement would have better been worded "Go on, and return home from, 15 camping trips of varying lengths." Would that stifle the hair splitting? Probably not, but at least there could be a uniform reply ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjsSvjA5TuE

Our scouts ask for winter weekends in a cabin. I supposed there's a lot to be gained from them - just not nights towards Camping MB. As I said elsewhere, I only saw the outside of boy scout cabins until my boys joined this troop. It was a magical memory, bunking down in the snow wondering how the "other half" lived. However, I also got frost-bite once, and later spent a long night as SPL in a warming "hut" (i.e. re-purposed dining hall) thawing out unprepared crossovers. Learning how to attend to myself taught me how to attend to symptoms in others. Hypothermia? Got a mild spell of that myself as an adult one June training for BSA guard.

Weakness of mine: listing possible solutions, when in fact it is up to the patrol to figure it out. I think this is why LDS kept the Cub and Boy Scout programs. They explicitly force boys to work in community to resolve complex problems. There's no boiler-plate to fulfilling a vision of camping and hiking independently with your mates. Yet, we can offer everyone some milestones so they know when they've "arrived." A well-performing patrol is one of those milestones. I'm sorry, but Venturing and Varsity offers no comparison.

Here's the view from where I sit ... 1. I am not just a scouter. Kids see me around long after they stop participating in the life of the troop or crew. 2. They still made those oaths. Just because a youth let his/her registration lapse, I still hold him/her to what they promised. 3. Boys quit for lots of reasons. Only a few of those are the troop's fault. 4. A senior scouter once told me a story of how he went back to his troop one May after realizing the best thing about his previous summer was camp. 5. About a third of my venturers are boys who want to "catch up" to their scout buddies. So, I hold out hope that something I say might sink in and make a boy feel welcome.

As do many of our first-years!

Whatever "Cubelos" is, it sounds like fun. Definitions "district" and "council" aside, it does not sound like it only runs at night; therefore, IMHO, it would count as a day camp. Instead of being dropped off, they supposedly walk from wherever they've been sleeping to the days activities. Letter of the law. Done. This is not a question I would even broach with a DE.

True, the PM has to be suspended in order to implement age-restricted activities. Or, the boys need to decide on rearranging patrols so that each patrol does the stuff appropriate for the youngest boys in their group. The best of both worlds: the older PL picks a younger APL and when they come to these age-based splits, they segregate accordingly and PL and APL arrange to rendezvous after their respective activities.

The "why" comes from BSA rolling out requirements at different times and boots on the ground picking up the pieces. The Camping MB requirement has been around in some form for quite some time, gradually becoming more verbose as BSA sought to control membership loss via hegemony over youth outdoor overnights. The T2FC camping night requirements are quite recent, and seem to be an attempt to promote a more experiential learning model. Your particular summer camp program (or maybe your troop's rules) , seem to be written so as to guide crossovers to focus on 1st class requirements over MBs. I suspect their thinking is that only one week of long term camp counts toward the MB, most scouts don't earn the MB in their first year, so just make a policy that the 2nd full week counts.

We were having an 18th birthday for a friend of Son #2's who joined our troop for about a year. His mom was reminiscing how shortly after he quit attending meetings, the boy had roped them into family camping at Racoon Creek State park. Aptly named, the raccoons consider your food theirs. In the night, the vermin got a hold of some snack left by the campfire. Then they started clawing at the Boy Scout Handbook the boy had left out! I asked the boy, "If I had known, I would have told you that if you came back to scouts, you would have the coolest handbook by virtue of the claw marks all over it. Would you have re-joined our troop?" He said, "You know, I might just have considered it." Got any other one-liners that may or may not convince a youth to change his mind, but would be fun to put out there anyway?

He was careful? That boy's ready to tackle an Eagle Project Workbook! Tell him to hustle up and advance to life. If the kid's trustworthy and his patrol leader can see what skills need to be demonstrated next ... reward the boy's initiative and run with it. @@TAHAWK's references, I believe, refer to registering with council completion of rank advancement and merit badges ... not each requirement ... So what we're talking about here is just a little more work at the SMC looking for signatures in two places.

First, hiking one's gear in a mile or two is what, growing up, we called "scout camping." Eight mile per day hikes through the farmland and byways in our county, that was "backpacking." What is labeled "backpacking - overnight, backcountry" we called (and I continue to use the term) "forced marches in bear country" my Sons' scoutmaster called it "a walk in the big woods." Second, the autumn before crossing over, another dad and I took our boys camping at a wonderful location about a mile or two in from the trail head. I'm not so sure that the entire den would have been prepared for it. My son need help carrying his sleeping bag. These two boys (at the time) were particularly sanguine -- easy to work with. They also were terrible at starting fires, so we didn't have to worry about them burning the State Forest down. The weekend was calm -- unusual for camping with me -- and the boys had been through much worse at resident camp. So, given your description, unlike the others, I'll give you "yes, but ..." Things to consider: - How close are you to emergency services, should you need them? - How well have the boys behaved on previous campouts? - It takes a lot of attention to detail, picking up after yourself, not lighting a fire every whip-stich, knowing where you're going, how to get back, how to get help, etc .... Are your boys the type who will listen to you and work with the adults in a friendly manner? - There are a lot of locations where adults are going to get away from noisy kids, is your destination sufficiently isolate, or your boys sufficiently calm? - It's not just your boys. Have you ask yourselves the same about the parents? One mom/dad who always resorts to yelling can make an entire campground regret your presence. - Do you have a den chief? If not, this might be the time to ask a local troop or crew to recommend one.