qwazse

I agree. Whatever an SE may or may not do. The SM two whom this guy confided was make two phone calls, one to council, the other to the police. However, the skill of a perpetrator is in finding a confidant who will not follow the rules.

Thanks 'skip. I'm a little concerned that recent warming trends will make our winter camps more often similar to yours. Our crew's winter wilderness survival weekend was in temps around 70F (17C?). But, be that as it may, hearing about other places to go for winter challenges might inspire other units to do the same. I'm dealing with a troop that's gone a little soft. They'll do day events like Klondike derby but won't camp overnight under canvas or less. Former SM and I made regular offers last year, no takers. Hopefully things will be better this year.

Welcome, and thanks for all you're about to do for the boys.

This is more for our international scouters, especially you coeducational lot. But American scouters please pipe up if you think you got something special that maybe we should visit this winter. Do you go winter camping? where? What weather do you expect? In what type of shelter? What age/sex youth? Is finding enough adult leaders a challenge?

@@Hedgehog, you're doing a little bit of apples-to-oranges. What was the youngest age (not grade) of your participants? I couldn't imagine throwing any of my kids into most those activities while they were 10 years old.

@@Rick_in_CA, for the record, I don't feel denigrated. It's a big country. Someone from the heartland is welcome to pick apart the pernicious East Coast ideas crossing Appalachia. As long as nobody's cussing, I'll discuss his contentions ... in a later post as time allows. @@Eagle94-A1, I saw this quote in a sidebar on Bryan on Scouting's forums a few days back, but the link to it was bad. Your link quotes the title and not much more. So I suspect someone was taking something out of context, and the Scouting story editors could not get elaboration from the chief scout executive's office. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, gets released more widely. @@JosephMD, a youth, male or female, cannot be in venturing exclusively and qualify for O/A. Ignoring historical precedent, it makes sense as expounded here http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/07/18/female-youth-order-of-the-arrow/;however, in the ensuing comments of that blog, there is an observation by Mike Walton, "... National Explorer Presidents were also OA members. Females could not be OA members normally but did become OA members under a loophole which was closed in the late 90s." In other words, Crews tend to come with female youth, and national advisors don't feel that female youth should be in O/A, thus O/A is not for venturing or any co-ed program of the BSA. The formula for GS/USA and BSA is quite simple: keep the opposite sex at a distance.

Depends on how often the PL melts the DO.

Thanks for more details, I keyed in on this. Really really important right now: don't ever ask him to work on requirements again, ever. Not until he asks you to provide that concierge reminder service. When he comes from school let him know that you learned a lesson from a creepy guy on the internet who claims to have seen scouts come and go. That lesson is that Boy Scouts is his program, not yours. So, from now on, if he want's your help with any requirement ... even a gentle reminder ... he canhave to ask you and mom. The only thing you want from him is that he live up to the Scout Oath and Law. If he can do that, you'll be happy. Anything else good he does in scouting you promise to be proud of him, because it will be his achievement that he got on his own. Absolutely the number one reason I've seen young scouts quit is because they perceived too much pressure to meet requirements too fast. That pressure did not come from us, it came from parents.

Schiff, this sounds like one of those projects that an improved IT infrastructure could manage. Might be worth sending a note to put your hat in the ring to test it! @@RichardB, I would definitely use the selected incident reports for training (maybe even more so, if it included the field of smitten reindeer). This is something I would pull out of my pack to show once we were out of cellphone coverage and distractions are few. Are they already in printed form (e.g. a flip-book) for purchase?

You will have this issue for the next 10+ years. So condition the behavior you want so that the person who will be paying for the loan will be the one promptly completing the financial aid application. So the dinner discussion (right before dessert) should be: blw2: What do you think about that message Mr. __ sent? blw2son: Message? blw2: Oh, I'm sorry, I presumed you checked E-mail as frequently as you scan for Pokemon. Check it now. After you do, we can discuss it over dessert.

@@Phrogger, welcome to the forums. You're son was rushed into the Boy Scouts. There should have been no problem with him hanging out with the next younger den, maybe visiting the troop for activities that would interest him, until he turned 11. Period. My reply falls under a standard "If I were scoutmaster." If I were scoutmaster, I would like to know above anything else if a boy is struggling with the program. It's very easy to be going full steam in an active troop and miss a boy who isn't tremendously upset, but isn't having fun either. This also trickles down to the older boys. Well-trained senior patrol leaders keep an eye out for boys who aren't "meshing" with their patrol (and, conversely patrol leaders who are "out of synch" with their boys). Example: one of my most vivid memories as a new scout was of my patrol off doing something I wasn't interested in (possibly sleeping in), and the SPL taking the time to show me how to start a fire from coals. From that point forward, my troop/patrol could count on waking up to a fire ... provided they cached enough tinder the night before. Clearly you are hoping something similar happens for your son. But, even though SPLs, PLs and other boys in the troop look so much more mature, they may not have learned the fundamentals of "working the crowd." So, give your SM the "heads up" of the problem and share your ideas. If he believes in the patrol method, he'll have a huddle with the SPL and PL about a good Tenderfoot-scale position of responsibility. Also, we have had younger scouts and their parents meet us at camp if the trails were overwhelming. That way, you and him can do some STEM stuff together then catch up with the troop in the evening ... at least for a couple of months.

Now that I think of it, younger SPLs have a rougher time with mustering and reveille. One especially despised method (from an otherwise very nice young man) was standing in the circle of tents shouting. "Wake up! We're burning daylight!" Older SPL/PLs get by with polite knock on each scout's tent flap until they hear signs of movement.

The story-telling is important. But, as with most strike reports, you have to add your knowledge from training and experience to explain why the boys were at increased risk by not spreading out (assuming they couldn't reach a grounded shelter). What I liked about the Times report: Pictures of the aftermath (which you may want to withhold depending on the maturity of your scouts). That would never happen with an human story. A written explanation of the mechanics of high voltage electricity ... especially in relation to mammalian conductors! Why four points on the ground is more risky than two, which is more risky than one (i.e. squatting with legs together). References to other stories of strikes on animals and humans around the world.

Practical illustrations of risks due to lightning along with explanation of how the damage occurs are hard to come by. This involves animals, not people, and thus may be easier to show to your boys. Plus, the explanation of the physics behind a strike (comparing why four footed species are likely to suffer more harm than two-footed) might help scouts understand our strategy of squatting in a broad circle if we can't find shelter. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/31/science/lightning-strike-dead-reindeer.html

I never had a STEM day with rockets. I had a build day, a paint day, and a launch/recovery day. Not once would I use the word science (although I might talk about what we know and can learn from reading reports and trying things ourselves), technology (although I might mention how certain paints go together and how some decals get printed), engineering (although I might discuss how you figure the right voltage for the launch pad, the choice of engines, the pad configuration, and the switch sequence), or math (although we learn how to triangulate altitude, calculate speed, estimate winds aloft, and predict recovery location).

Here's a recent update on the program http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2016/08/24/stem-scouts-pilot-adds-seven-councils-bringing-total-to-20/ Not to be confused with the STEM NOVA awards program: http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2016/08/24/stem-scouts-pilot-adds-seven-councils-bringing-total-to-20/

Loved the "Wakey Wakey", I think my adults would be teasing you mercilessly over that! They would rather you, in the time you spent providing "concierge" service a) get a shower or b) start the coffee. Mustering duty falls on our SPL, who by the average age they get elected is up an moving in time to perform it in his own style. If we're lucky, he has a bugler.

I forgot about leaders guides. Right there's your contract. ASAP, have a sit down, and EVERYONE on the crew read the leader's guide. Around the table. Out loud. One paragraph per crew-member. (Caveat: I've never read the Philmont guide, so if this is an unwieldy tome, highlight the scout-friendly must-cover bits.) @@Petey091, you know your people. So work with them accordingly. If this lot has tended to ignore meetings, then do what it takes to mandate your first one. Reschedule if even one participant can't show. This is where you all decide you're gonna be a team. It is where you all decide what are "must do" preparations. And it's not one-sided: Adults may need to get special training, maybe lose a little weight, re-arrange other obligations, this is where the boys hear them commit to doing that. Boys may need to gear up, plan payments, conditioning, and shakedowns. This is where adults hear them commit to doing that. I honestly think this kind of verbal "shake on it" agreement will get you more traction than a written contract.

Yeah, reference, but extreme redaction leads to extreme reactions. Either a practice goes unchanged -- out of ignorance or to curb expense -- at great risk, or it is revised at great expense and little benefit. Is this like those lean years where we all had to settle for margarine when it turns out that butter ain't all that bad? Or, is this like all those kidneys that are jammed due to chronic diet soda consumption? Knowing how much good can come from best practice is a strong motivator. And, maybe in demanding that from reporters, we force them to more closely inquire of sources.

A letter to the editor would be in order. But, I'm glad you brought it up here. Decades old still is quite new to some clinical practices. I myself haven't kept up with the regeneration literature. Lacking that, it's hard to balance the risks and benefits. In other words, what percentage of wounds fail to heal when cleaned with alcohol vs. those that fail to heal when cleaned with water. And what percentage get infected after being cleaned with alcohol vs. the percentage that get infected when cleaned only with water? I know, I know, the numbers guy gives everyone else headaches. However; knowing that balance gives us an idea of how great a safety issue promoting an outdated strategy becomes. The old "98% of body heat lost through your head" still sticks with me (be it true or false).

I think the expansion of cooking requirements comes from four things: No adult being challenged to earn the badge. {Insert standard rant: for-kids-only translates into make-it-like-school.} The rise of the public health service. We now know how much harm can be done with what folks get fed. We also know that giving folks better knowledge enables them to "see" and avert health hazards. Artisan cooking. My kids certainly take on more challenging recipes than I ever did until after college. I only watched The Galloping Gormet because it preceded the kids shows I didn't want to miss. Single parenting or both parents working full time. My best cooks seem to come from broken homes. Moms are letting kids in the kitchen because they are the ones home first in the evening.

One fine point on language. In trying to use succinct terms for the prevailing theme in a large movement, there is a possibility that words are chosen that have developed unintended meaning. So, I return to Webster's Ban ... 2: to prohibit, esp. by legal means or social pressure. Class ... 1a: a group sharing the same social or economic status ... 3: a group, set, or kind sharing the same common attributes. Deny ...3b: to refuse to grant. Objectively, I thought these are three neutral terms that accurately described actions without putting down anybody who feels these actions are good and just, or elevating any special interest who feels these actions undermine noble intent. But, let's allow the possibility that combined they sound more dark and nefarious than on their own. To be charitable and for the sake of political correctness, let's choose Barry's suggested phrasing (with emphasis on what I think he intends to be important) ... lots of other people think that BSA built a program over 100 years ago around building men of character. ... are boys missing something important because of their program's exclusive focus on building men of character? And, do boys lose interest in scouting because that focus is exclusively on building men of character? Change the rhetoric, the issue is no smaller or bigger than it was before.

Since I don't waste much time in things I don't believe in, I'm probably not understanding something, like that Mission and Vision statement http://www.scouting.org/About/AnnualReports/PreviousYears/2012/MissionVision.aspx which intentionally uses the word "youth" not "boy" in every direct reference to its constituents. I'm sure you also noticed that the requirement for scout rank no longer explicitly mentions "boy". Is the quality of the advancement program lowered? NJ, the requirements as written explicitly raise that bar.And the fine print of the BSA vision is "eligible". But we can look back on our history: .... Exclude adults from advancement .... Introduce a new scouting program for boys .... Lose some members .... Only open to girls in Exploring .... Keep losing members .... Endorse exclusion of athiests .,,. Lose public school COs .... Lose members .... Need to recruit female adult leaders, draw finer boundaries .... Lose members .... Ban some folks' beloved scoutmasters who "come out" .... Lose members .... Deny a nascent homosexual rank, .... Lose members .... Deny ovations of O/A Chiefs to tap out Venturing females .... Lose members .... Flip-flop on e sexual orientation thing .... Really lose members We can brag "quality" until we're blue in the face. But "quantity" is a quality of its own. So, thinking long and hard about who's not being served as a result of how we do things ... that stays on my table. I guess if I never had girls knocking at my door, I'd think differently.

Not sure if it was anything written, but we've always made clear that committing to an HA like Philmont, is essentially joining the hike-every-monnth club.

That's sort of like asking: if your boys want a youth-led movement, then why don't they get their leaders to adjust accordingly? Isn't it? From the few troops I've meet since my daughter left GSUSA, I've seen movement in that direction.