qwazse

1. I have a friend who coordinated backpacking medical supplies into isolated Central American Villages. That would definitely fit in with some of my Venturer's ideals. 2. The HS Latin club does trips to Italy/Switzerland/Greece every couple of years. The usual bus tour stuff. For our Venturers, I'd love to fly out and meet them at the end of the tour and extend their stay by hiking in the Alps for a week. Thanks to college tuition and cost overruns on our last adventure, both of those are out of reach for me (for this year at least).

Our crew's annual plan goes something like: This year we are going to ski a couple of times, camp at least a half-dozen nights, share a couple of activities with our troop, gear up for some wilderness backpacking, participate in our VOA, climb a little, and fit in a service project or two. We'll let you know how things went on Scout Sunday. Thanks in advance for your approval.

I would like to break down what I said earlier a little more specifically, focusing on the orienteering requirement. It takes a lot of time to make sure a student "gets" navigation. Personally, I think it's harder than swim testing. Basically, you need to allow a boy a day in varied terrain allowing him to be in complete control of the map and compass. (This alone is something that many boys don't want to do. Last month I was on a great hike except for listening to the 14-17 year olds arguing about holding the map!). If he chooses the wrong path, you should let him follow it for a mile or

Two MBs done well may be worth the week. You might also suggest the mile swim

What do yeh suppose it really takes for that average lad who comes in without any prior skills to learn enough to be able to plan and navigate a 5 mile route on his own (mix of on-trail and a bit of open land)? On his own meaning that he personally can do the navigation. Because that's the requirement, eh? Simple answer: Step 1: losing patience with EDGE. Step 2: READING REFERENCE MATERIAL

IMHO, if anyone ever pressed the issue ... 1. I'd encourage them to call national about it. 2. If my request to keep both in the program fell on deaf ears, I'd ask the couple to determine which one of them is getting the most benefit from the program, and encourage the other to become "unofficial", but fully supportive of the crew until both cross that 21 mark. I'm also working on getting the "2nd generation" recruited. I'd love an excuse to keep having this much fun for another few years!

not the GOD of the Bible, but a twisted interpretation of scripture that is plainly erroneous So, promotion of heresy (let's set aside, for a moment, the ability of Joe Scouter to discern such a thing in post-modern society) should disqualify a group from calling itself a scouting program?

Does if fall on the PL and APL to juggle the duty roster and Patrol Meeting schedule to meet these individual plans? In our troop, yes and no. I've known PL's who were very serious about doing this, and very frustrated when a kid who last week said he wanted to complete requirement X is now shrugging off his duties for req X! In that case, I encourage a PL to focus attention on other boys who are interested in progressing. Sometimes we have a bunch of younger boys who are picking up skills faster than we could track. (It's been a while.) When that was the case, we gave all of o

Thanks, Bronc!

One pointer (and a really important one I think, because most boys don't do any journaling) is after those trips, have each boy reflect on what he just did. "What was one thing you did?" "What was the best thing that happened?" Then have the boys write the event in their handbook. (There's a place for them to record their first five activities with the troop.) The feedback you get from reflecting like this will give you a real idea of how you'll need to slow some things down or speed somethings up.

Ya AnBMom, If I had stumbled across an AHG troop when my daughter was that age, we probably would have signed on. It was a long wait for her to turn 14. But then again, I'm not too bothered by indoctrinations by fundamentalists of any persuasion. Youth led + smiles on their faces + age appropriate challenges = scouting. Now the real challenge will be down the road when the likes of your daughter take the helm of their program in this post-modern society. Will they buy into the reasoning of the BP's of the world? Or, will they feel that the anchoring squarely in the Christ

Oh for the love of ... Buy the green-on-tan numbers. Ask the troop if any pack-rats have any used white on red numbers he can "borrow" for just two months. IMHO National's absurd spinning off of different color schemes for every transition a boy makes should not be countenanced. There should be one color pattern for all unit #s across all programs. Change it in one program = change it in all. This allows for vintage #s to be carried forward. Next thing you know some thread-seller at national will mandate a different council patch for different programs in a council. They mi

I have not noticed any such pattern. In fact recent history is bearing out that our "slow and steady boys" are sticking with scouting, while the FCFY boys have left us for video games and such! I guess troops are like a box of chocolates ...

I assume the biggest problem would be in first aid, swimming, knot tying, and actual outing time? every kid has a different hang up. With my youngest son, it was getting off his seat and talking with one of several people in our community about rights and responsibilities. And, getting the price of the items on his menu. He knew how to make pizza, but he didn't know the cost of a cup of flour! I prohibited his mom from looking it up for him. After three years, he figured it out. That's why 'fish, you're better off helping the boys make their own schedule of what they want to do

I think you're doing exactly what I'd do in the situation. I wouldn't want to pull a good leader off the roster if they are in a healthy relationship. But it is something that could get blown out of proportion by a parent who only heard half the story from a 14 year old. We would hope that such a parent would call us first before making a phone call to our SE.

I think you're doing exactly what I'd do in the situation. I wouldn't want to pull a good leader off the roster if they are in a healthy relationship. But it is something that could get blown out of proportion by a parent who only heard half the story from a 14 year old. We would hope that such a parent would call us first before making a phone call to our SE.

5mom, I was referring to point 10 on the last page of BSA's youth protection policy: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/ypt/pdf/25-026.pdf Which many crews like yours turn a blind eye to if the couple in question are only two or three years apart in age. As was discussed in the following thread: http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=283974

At the crew level, it is possible to have this kind of variety in the program (partly because the youth are more mobile and able to drive to the programs that interest them). But I still find youth gravitating to the group that has the most friends from school. As long as they're with their friends, they'll make the program happen.

I also wanted to add that this also helps you get to know which of the older boys in the troop are natural instructors.

I am diametrically opposed to the FCFY philosophy. I am adamant that a scouting year provide at least two opportunities to pick up each 1st class skill. But don't think about micromanaging this. in an active troop it's very easy to naturally follow this rule of thumb. Every month you ask your patrol leaders to identify a requirement that their boys have yet to meet. Then ask them, "What can we do to help those boys learn those skills?" 'Fish, in your case, this may mean by next month you show the natural born leader in your patrol your advancement chart and ask, "what do you guys want t

We don't do much special with ours besides give them to the boys. In the crew, I take great pleasure in giving them to to the girls shaking their hands, and saying, " Welcome to the boy scouts of America."(This message has been edited by Qwazse)

Beav, from another thread, oldest son is now an adult, so you could have picked up a bigger stone to throw.

The Thermarest's have outlasted any air mattresses we've owned. We have a variety because for a while my wife was having a hard time finding something that would suit her. I'm a sleep-anywhere kind of guy, but I still wake up sore if a rock or root finds me. A pad does take the edge off of sore hips.

Yep, everyone wears multiple hats in our troop, so nobody pays attention to your position patch when you raise your hand to vote. We've even stopped calling them committee meetings and started calling them parent meetings. That's partly because we lost a few hard-working families to a new troop in town, and adults who were hanging back need to step up. It's also partly because we want folks to realize they don't need a bajillion hours of training to have a good idea for the boys. But, generally, the SM and ASM focus on how we are taking care of the boys, activities they want to do, wha

I think Troopmaster spits out something like that for T2FC, at least we get something of the sort from our advancement committee. During meetings, we have patrol leaders sign off on scouts. Then they take their books straight back to the advancement chair, who brings her labtop ready to enter progress. Anyway it's not too hard to do something on graph paper. Or, we crank out a spreadsheet where the columns have the requirement numbers and the each row is a youth. Search advancement tracking online and you'll come up with a variety of home grown solutions.