qwazse

I had a Swedish roommate who was heavy on the hot sauce -- the Indian chili kind. One drop from his favorite brand (he left hit it on the shelf for community use) was all anyone (except him and maybe the occasional Pakistani guest) could stand on their plate. Newbies who thought they were tough would keep pouring it on in spite of our warnings and protestations ... then promptly go running to the sink for more water.

Wait IOLS without you being assigned to a patrol where your PL assembles a crappy menu, and you kind of go along with it because the staff were gonna prop themselves up as judges and award the best meal? Bro, you're being shortchanged. Actually, it sounds like the best way to endure it ... go to class ... go back to your troop site and cry about it ... repeat. But, be patient. Make new friends. Look for the nuggets. IOLS was where I first learned about geocaching. Picking up a new hobby that sometimes annoys the heck out of family ... worth the price of admission.

Let me hone in on the "nobody really wants to ...". That's usually a phrase used by somebody who hasn't actually asked everybody. I know the year that we cancelled our spaghetti dinner, folks in the community really missed it. At boards of review, scouts were asking if we can do it again. Even now, my crew president wants to volunteer at the thing and doesn't care if it goes in his scout account. So, make sure you've asked the boys ... I mean really asked the boys ... before suspending a tradition. They might want to do the thing even more if the pressure to pad the treasury is reduced.

A fun tangent ... Our Italian scout is insisting on learning the scout Oath and Law in English, but is having a dickens of a time pronouncing "thrifty", so for the time being it's "... cheerful, cheap, brave ..."

A cautionary tale: one of the many divisions between adult leaders in my sons' troop was over bulk purchases of food saving $$ vs autonomous boy-led purchases. In spite of my efforts to convince the aggrieved that this was not a hill to die on , they used it to keep their contentions on a low boil. So, my comments above are not intended to be a reason to pick bones with your CO or any of the rest of your unit. Just be aware that streamlining is best when it somehow results in increased capability and increased youth responsibility. That's always going to be a moving target ... be it a CO that's generous with kitchen facilities, or a windfall donation like @@blw2 is reckoning with.

You mean like the freezer I shut myself in at my dad's beer distributor when I was 11? Our camp commissary staff (mostly age 15-18, properly trained) have access to such things. There's a difference between allowing boys to run in willy-nilly and electing a mature QM who is willing to learn how to take care of things. I suspect there may be liability/training issues that a CO has to consider. A good CO does that with an eye towards its community being better served by youth and young adults with real-world preparation. My mom didn't charge me for food either when I nicked it out of her pantry for my patrol. But, she sure let me know about how she had to go to look for more coupons before going to the store to restock. Eventually, I decided it was just worth the couple of cents in peace and quiet to go buy our own provisions. It boils down to: what are you missing by streamlining in the absence of personal accountability? And, is there a way to restore that accountability in the face of streamlining?

There's always a balance in this for troops. If the PLC wants to stock a pantry with 50 lbs of spam and Ramen, adults (especially those in food-service) should certainly help in accomplishing this and training the QM in safe dispensing. You have more people handling the same product, so food safety practices (e.g., hair nets, gloves, packaging) come in to play. Of course arrangements for space for all of these materials may involve more communication with the CO. (Our CO gives us a shelf in their day-care's freezer. We currently only use it for our spaghetti dinners. But that shelf being left open avoids disruption of the other more routine food-service of the CO.) There needs to be some way of making sure the boys track the real costs of the food. (E.g., pay the pantry $10 or pay the current market $15 or $20 for provisions.) So, as long as the boys agree, and the responsibility for the handling of the food and maintenance of the pantry rests with the boys, bulk purchases can be very helpful. If they become one more adult-managed bureaucracy, they begin to erode the scouting experience.

@@NJCubScouter, that seems to be the case. However, most of these (service hours, camping nights) would be part of an average scout's experience. (E.g. swimming and canoeing at summer camp, plotting a course to an event, sorting through cooking utensils.) Hopefully the boys won't be discouraged by the extra hurdles. On the bright side, most of you second class scouts (who ranked up last year) should already be use the new reqs anyway. So, now that everyone is on the same page, expect things to go smoothly.

@@violamom3, welcome to the forums, and thanks for your service to the boys! I can believe you did this. Happens all the time. That's why there are three parts to the MB application: the one that stays with the boy all the time, the one that goes to the counselor, and the one that is turned into the unit. The unit and the boy's copies have the counselor's signature. So they are of equal value when ordering MBs. Let the boy know you made a mistake and ask if you can make a copy of his sections of cards for the MBs he completed. If he doesn't have his copy, ask him again who his counselor was, and if he doesn't remember that, where he earned it. If he remembers earning his badge at camp or at a weekend event. Camp staff might have those cards on file.

Looks comfy. As I mentioned in another thread, dimensions, esp. length (or lack thereof) are a big deal for some of us. So specs would be nice.

I think the age difference between these SM's and the regular forum members is showing.

My line to the kids: "We approve of flawless execution." If the made A's and one B: "Sorry you flunked. we love you anyway. better luck next time."

The scout who E-mailed me to say "thanks for the backpacking trip, it was fun". In this age of social media: images of erstwhile scouts/venturers taking their friends/family camping/geocaching/climbing/sailing. One lad, who could never connect with our Seabase trips, is now working a tall ship in the BVI (pics of rigging at sunset, enough to melt an eye-splice-lover's heart). Just having youth like these to brag about to my international friends (hint: the average Saudi's winter camping is when it gets below 100). Son #2 on his last day as a Boy Scout, in uniform, helping an elderly lady to her cab.

Welcome! Thanks for your all you do for the boys!

That sounds similar to what we've done in the past. Sometimes a troop will waive expenses for essential leaders/drivers, etc ... When they to that for me, I try to bring some treats, etc ...

One suggestion from the tall guy: In your specs, I can't find the length of the bag. I don't have a problem with pad shift in my hammock. Perhaps because I sleep diagonally in a square bag + square pad? Good luck!

We often underestimate how much youth value tradition ... be it a tradition of "visit a different camp every year" or "visit the same camp every year." The annual pencil-whipping you describe is part of that tradition.

It typically refers to the trails between campsites and program areas. For example, Heritage Reservation is mostly granite, sandstone, and roots. So, injury rates are proportional to the average speed at which youth traverse the grounds. We just try to slow down that average. The one time I didn't tell a youth to slow down (because I was on duty counting boaters at a venturing summit) she promptly fell, and I was then radioing the medic to come to the aquatics area. Nobody yells at someone on a morning jog down the road, or cross cross-country run on the fitness trail, or the athletic field. (E.g., to condition for football Son #1 and his buddies would run the campsite garbage on a heavy cart through the main road of camp to the dumpster -- no problem.)

Sorry, no reply worth typing wont be promptly deleted by moderators.

How about from Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops? (Spoiler: currently no instructions on having the students refer to the handbook.) You could have settled this two posts ago by saying "What? Don't you read {Insert official BSA publication here} where it says {insert quote about being sure to use a reference wherever possible here}."

it's allowed. But in some places, folks have to recognize burn bans. But this is nothing new. While those scouts in those old movies were being filmed in their flint and steel contest, somewhere in this country scouts were being asked to limit the starting of fires.

This is where you talk to the SM (and maybe older boys) in the troop you're visiting and describe your religious convictions and if they will support you in that. For example, our troop is sponsored by a church, but the church expects us to be welcoming to every youth regardless of religion. They expect us to request the boys say grace at meals and that's about it. Other churches have expectations for boys who call themselves Christian, and they expect leaders -- even if they themselves are not Christian -- to make sure the program allows for those expectations to be fulfilled. The only way you'll know is by asking. It's a hassle, but on the flip side, all that talking to adults you've never met before will prepare you for things like your next board of review.

Whoever taught them? Like maybe the scouter who takes his cues from Scouting? Go to the OP above, follow the link to the article, generate a word histogram, and let us know the number of synonyms of handbook, reference, literature, or reading you find. (I could tell you how many I found, but my count may be biased.) To be clear: if you have boys who are teaching other boys more efficiently than their counterparts did ten years ago, we all would benefit from hearing about it. It's just that from what I've seen, the emperor has no clothes.

Well, get your scouts who know the acronym, ask them to tell you what each letter means, in their own words. Determine what percentage of scouts mention a book, manual, or even online app. That percentage will tell you how often "reference" is understood to be part of the method. If it's not the "end all, be all," why bother requiring it?

I'm sorry you had to make this kind of decision. As an older scout with some leadership experience, you should have a say in your troop's program. At the very least, your patrol should be a set of friends who would help you generate the variety you are looking for. Sometimes adults get in the way of that. But also, sometimes, youth don't invest in training (from reading their handbook cover-to-cover to going to an extra week of program like NYLT during the year), and as a result they aren't "holding up their end of the deal" in delivering the promise of scouting to their community. So, given that you asked your question in a very good way. I'll try to respect you by giving you a little "tough talk." First, think about how much you may be part of the problem. If you could have helped your patrol plan a weekend, find a location to go, line up the adults, then maybe you need to talk to your SM about doing a better job, and give your troop another year -- this time with you doing everything you can do to really lead and generate an awesome program. If, on the other hand, you tried to do that, and adults kept shutting down your ideas. Then, maybe you should visit another unit. If that's the case, start finding out which troops are in your area and paying visits. You are also old enough to join a venturing crew, and venturers, if they have been awarded at least first class rank, may work on Eagle until they are 18. (The crew advisor takes on the role of SM, but the council still manages your paperwork just like it would for all other Eagle candidates.) A venturing crew is a lot different than a troop. So, you will have to talk to each advisor to see if they share interests you'd like to try. But, a lot of boys, in joining a venturing crew, continue being members of their troop. As a result they bring back ideas for activities that scouts enjoy. So, you have lots of options, and a lot of things to think about. Good scouting to you!