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I feel for you, bacchus. It about killed me to watch my IOLS instructor teach me how to fail to build a fire. There's this one episode of The Unit that would be nearly perfect for OLS-online. (Helicopter crashed, the guy had to treat his passenger for shock, build a shelter, start a fire, etc ...)

Based on previous posts, it seems that BSA has been the 800 lb gorrilla in LDS's youth ministry (via addressing racial inequities, training adult leaders, etc ...). It cuts both ways! At the same time, I don't think we would want to do anything to offend 15% of our youth membership or 33% of our units (small though they may be).

One that nobody mentioned: Does a troop have anybody your boy already knows from school or church? Sometimes a friend or two makes the difference in a kid sticking with it. (It can also work the other way, if the friend quits, the boy may, but I haven't seen that with my two sons.) Here's another one for moms: are female adult leaders welcome on any overnight activites? I'm not saying "required". I'm just saying that if dad is not an outdoorsman (or he's pulling double shifts in this tough economy) or if it's a single parent family, it's nice have troop that welcome whoever steps forwar

My past experience: My troop would camp on several occasions with the LDS troop. One included a "Sabbath" in which we had a worship service together then traveled home. The LDS troop's SM counseled me on a couple of merit badges. His boy did a two year mission stint, which was one of many motivations for me to do a similar thing after college. Net result, I earned a solid respect for our similarities without needing to make a list of differences. Since then, I haven't had a close affiliation with an LDS unit. But, I haven't heard anyone from council complain about them. I have a sus

Socialism or not, the lot of us are descendents of the folks who "up and left" whatever plot they were tilling (or ground they were hunting) at the time. Why go to Mars? - Because doing such a thing typifies who we are. The argument isn't when, but how. And although watching another human travel to mars is really nifty, being able to request that your own targeted image from a mars sattelite is insanely cool http://www.uahirise.org/hiwish/. I personally would be fine with another decade or two of robotic exploration. That red planet is big enough for dozens, maybe hundreds of 'bots.

E-92, I came back to the program when my son was in tiger cubs, and remember making conversation with a camp staff about exploring, and she proudly corrected me, saying she was a "venturer". Even though the program was not a year old the name was sticking -- at least with the youth who were "in." I felt a bit of "Rip Van-Winkle" syndrome. And yes, our crew's prototype t-shirt says "Venture Crew". Would have never noticed if I didn't wear it when assisting with VLST! Confusing or not, folks are generally happy to sleep in this bed now that it's made!

I offered this to do this for our troop one year and will never do it again. We have 30+ boys going to camp, and invariably no one evening is good for all of them. If not all the boys show up you're still taking those stragglers down for testing anyway. So then folks (adults, not boys) asked if I would set up two times to catch the boys who needed testing. I then had a revelation, we *pay* for that first day of testing at summer camp whether we do it there or not! Nobody is paying me or the boys who help me for doing it earlier. I decided I needed to focus my energy after camp: on the b

I graduated from my troop before the venture patrols started rolling out. I liked the leadership corps emblem. When my oldest son joined the troop, venture patrols were losing favor. His troop never bothered with the concept. It was taken for granted that the older boys would sign up for more challenging activities -- no patch required. Pulling those old scouting treasures from the attic and showing them to your kids when they are little is a great way to recruit them into the program. I remember doing that with all three of mine, and they all are involved one way or another. As

You're right MT - I had an excellent crew and an excellent committee on both the troop and adult side. But I also had this: - A crew in our council whose exisitence was "oppositional" to their troop. Like you described it was truly SAD. - The rumor mill that ignored the dozens of other crew-troop pairings (as well troops in close proximity) that operated successfully "by the book". - Paranoid adults who tried to protect us all from a rumored hypothetical scenario when 1) it was not occuring in our district, 2) there were no signs of it occuring in our units, and 3) our youth urgent

My son and I had a moment to review his scouting career and how I felt/acted about different situations that had come up between adults. It boiled down to this: 1. Listen politely to the folks with great ideas, suggestions, or concerns about the way things should be done. 2. Give utmost respect to the folks who do the work. 3. Do your work to complement the work of the folks in #2.

I've experienced the opposite of Moosetracker in the past four years. The boy scouts who've joined my crew stayed in their respective troops. The boys who left the troop before their 18th birthday were the ones who never joined the crew. At least half of them went to another troop, but it didn't gut ours. We still had those venturers! NOT having a crew around for our older boys would result in most of them finding no time for the troop. It would be a trickling away instead of a mass exodus, but the same result. We did have adults making it an "either/or" situation like what

Wide brim dark brown leather hat. Not BSA issue, but looks good with the scout uni, as well as our venturing crew's prediliction for activity in the Appalacian wilderness. More importantly, it sheds the rain and keeps water/snow from filling the hood of my jacket!

Based on meeting attendance at times, I know a few crew members who felt like "lone venturers".

Given that a good crew will eventually attract youth from outside school (ours did from the get-go), you should consider being charterd by an organization that is interested in attracting diverse youth from a wide area. Our school district allows the youth to promote crew activities. Just like most elementary schools let the BSA district executive or a nearby troop promote scouting. In fact my crew president is planning on visiting 8th grade classrooms to promote the program. They just have to add a disclaimer at the bottom of fliers saying "this activity is not supported or endorsed by t

One other tactic that I heard recently: "The boys on the PLC set the minimum standard for attendance." This needs a little moderation from the scoutmaster, because the youth are their harshest critics. But, the bottom line is this is not a requirement from the committe or the SM's. It's what the boys feel they need in a leader to have a successful troop.

It's a subjective area, "cellephone courtesy". You could exhaust yourself making a set of rules everyone can follow. When I see a couple of boys tuning out the rest of the group -- especially when they could use their leadership, I call them on it and tell them to stash the gadget. I explain that I'm not being "anti tech", and this is no different than when I was a kid and had to stash the deck of cards to help the rest of the patrol. Shoot, it's no more different than when my wife sends me the "earth to hubby" signal at home! A couple of our boys with the worst habit of this ar

Okay, a "respectful and gentle" conversation then. Point is, I figure in the four years I've been skiing I've organized day trips to the slopes for about 100 youth. Mostly without helmets. Until this year I hadn't paid attention to it. But, so far three out of three winter events this year someone has landed on their head. The one which I was directly responsible for was the only one in which helmets were required (by me personally, thanks to the GSS revision), and that youth walked away with just a headache. The other two were hospital stays. The most recent was a youth from my uni

Another one of my youth just fractured their spine snowboarding "offroad" at an event that I was not supervising. He borrowed the board from a friend, I know he did not borrow a helmet. Three days in hospital plus a seizure That's it. If I see ANY of you letting you or ANY of your youth on ski's or snowboards without headgear for ANY activity (scouting or otherwise), I'm stopping them in their tracks and telling them to go make snowmen until they get headgear. If they point you out as their adult leader, we will be having a "conversation."

Awesome event. I don't think there's ever a perfect time for this sort of thing, so I think you all did right by maximizing use of an existing facility. If National REALLY cared about getting the nation's Venturers in one place for a rally, they'd ask all councils to bring crew contingents as well as troops to Jambo! Until then, a series of 3-day nation-wide events sounds like our best bet. NER-4 has an area-wide event for all of its units that weekend. (Look up "Campaganza". When I heard the name I had my doubts, but those in the know guarantee me it'll be huge. "Adults picked th

Ski trip this past weekend was a tough sell to our youth since the new reg was in place and it added $5 to the fee. (That was a group rate that I negotiated with the resort CEO three months ago, letting him know that BSA Units should be requesting helmets if they don't have them.) Low #'s were on the sign-up list until the very last minute. Then they all realized that nobody else was planning a trip for them, and kids started coming out of the woodwork. It was rainy, so the helmets came in handy. (As did the waterproof gear that the kids used to backpacking had acumulated.) One snowbo

I teach my boys when it comes to requirements, follow the letter of the law. So if a scout gives me twelve ways he has kept himself clean, I'll sign off TF 13, SC 11, and FC 12. When it comes to life, follow the spirit of the law. So if a boy is a paragon of virtue everywhere except on his Facebook page, he'll hear from me. In a similar vein, if a boy tells me about how he walked through his entire web browser history with his parents and made sure they were his MySpace and Facebook friends. (Hasn't happened yet.) I might just sign him off on all three.

What does the crew president have to say about this? Meeting indoors in the winter just because its winter would be a show-stopper for my youth. Have you suggested the crew attend an Council/Area VOA event? A lot of these have training in the chaperon's coffee lounge, and it's a lot better way to get to know other adults trying to do the same thing. Anyway, if the president is not meeting WITH the committee or addressing the CO at some point in the year, in my opinion, you don't have a crew. Might as well let the charter lapse.

There are actually a lot of specialty recognitions for youth. Venturing awards are just the tip of the iceburg. But, it would be nice to see a Boys Life article or two on the subject. Maybe interview a recent silver awardee or a quatermaster.

Real men do curse, among other things. But they shouldn't. So don't try to drum up a speach. It's really not so complicated: If a youth says it, tell him "Don't cuss." If an adult says it ask "Please don't cuss." If you say it, apologize. (Even if those who hear it are adults who think nothing of it themselves.) Some youth have dared to become my facebook friends. It's a real pain, but they get a message from me when an obsenity appears in their status. So far none of them have unfriended me because of it.

Here's the smoke and mirrors: "Den Chief" isn't an office within a venturing crew. But just because it's not an office in your primary unit doesn't mean it can't count as a POR toward your Eagle. For example, three of our Eagles from our troop served their POR as officers in a venturing crew. The rub: since "Den Chief" is a troop or varsity scout position, the WAY IT's WRITTEN, you would have to be multiple registered with a troop or team to hold it. Now you and I and anyone else can split hairs over this, but what you *need to do* if this is more than just a hypothetical question is ta