qwazse

The ranger at one camp had set up numbered tags on the sides of buildings and other landmarks. The bearings for multiple 3-control, 4-control, and 5-control courses were in a large binder. Scouts follow the bearings, record the nearest tag (or take a selfie with it in the background), and return to camp to report their findings. They may take another course if they’d like.

A noble cause. If involves boys, just add bacon. That’s their main motivator, it seems. That and deep fried chocolate chip cookies.

@admiral8079, welcome to the forums! And I think you're answering your own question. Most of us here have hiked rugged paths ... rocks and bogs ... just to stretch a hammock between two trees nobody else would ever see. So you're not gonna get a lot of encouragement to settle for the comfy assignment that you know a half-dozen other parents, with a little training, can take. What you're feeling a calling. High probability of failure, rewards for success unlikely. Your district is likely poorly resourced, so professional help will be a disappointment. There is likely a cultural chasm between you and the boys (girls?) in the vicinity of the scout house. The best uniform to give these youth would be a neckerchief of their own making ... distinct from gang colors. You might find yourself telling parents and guardians how to do their job ... not fun. If you're lucky, one boy from your old troop will be willing to help you. If his parents are like most parents in my troop, they won't let him. First class first year is a lie, the skills in them are difficult to master. This is especially true when parents aren't there to help the scouts. On the other hand, precious will that one tenderfoot scout born out of a year or two of troubles. Nobody gives you a knot for helping a kid be 10% less gansta. The only paycheck is when you get the phone call from a young adult going down the list of people he knew to thank for getting him to the point where he could buy his first house. Maybe you are hurting for some wins right now, so taking on your home unit might be a good idea. There they have moms who probably will bring cupcakes to their tenderfoots' courts of honor. But, maybe your hammock just won't hang well in any familiar trees. Your call.

Last night the SPL was regretting not planning ahead enough to get rope for an instructor to teach 1st years knots. I offered to bring my car around and share any spare rope in my camp box, and the instructor graciously accepted. The 1st years were happily wrestling in the lawn, so I started throwing balls of rope at them. Later the instructor had them corralled and was telling how to use knots in combination to raise a tarp. I shouted, “Don’t explain! Demonstrate!” And threw them a balled-up tarp. Pity these scouts don’t have a patient leader.

One of our VOA VP’s called it “structured unstructured time.”

The church is basically closed except for retrieving gear from storage. Two local parks have made their pavilions available to us on our meeting night. We had a recognition for the six scouts who earned Eagle, and the SPL distributed MBs earned so far this spring/summer. We are still in the midst of operation give-the-new-SM-blue-card-writer’s-cramp. The next meeting will be the day before school starts, then we’ll start weekly meetings. We have September and October camp outs lined up.

Welcome to the forums! Thanks for sharing. We often hear from folks starting troops abroad, it’s nice to hear from their charges.

Although I oppose abandoning the term, denigrating those scouters who would make such a proposal is wholly inappropriate (and unproductive). They may be incorrect, but they are not immature (at least not any more than the rest of us).

Don’t count on Summit improving their food. At World Jamboree pre-pandemic, the food was lackluster. If not for patrol cooking and contingents importing their spices it would have been hyper bland. The whole time I kept thinking of the surrounding valleys ripe with sweet corn that we weren’t sharing with the world. (We take this staple for granted, but nothing else says “America” like corn on the cob. Or cornbread! Son #2 brought an English friend for dinner, and he was thoroughly astounded by the stuff!) This seems to be a national camp school strategy. Load ‘em up on cheep calories, run them hard, and they won’t miss flavor or presentation.

If you are looking to say "always" or "never" then the important thing is to teach the scouts to be observant. And since your assumption (a good one) is that they will have some rope, use it to work in some real outdoor ethics. When they tie off to a tree teach them to ask: Is it alive? Is my rope harming it? What can I do to reduce that harm? Generally, there will be nothing to do if they are hanging a tarp. Otherwise they may need to loosen their knot, open their loop and slip sticks between the rope and bark. It could mean swapping out Kevlar, if they have it. It's more important to teach them to "always" inspect their work and "never" hesitate to make necessary adjustments.

It depends on the weight of the tarp. If you are sheltering a single person (e.g. covering a hammock) and the ridge line is a reasonably thick rope with a bit of play, probably not. If you are sheltering a large party, then even if you used straps, they could dig in, so you might find yourself putting something under the ropes to anchor the strap.

Well, a plan to spread out on the field is standard operating procedure for lightning but convincing folks to part with the lawn chairs would be rough! Emailing everyone vespers might be a good way to end the evening.

Well, I have son and daughter 20-something at home who treat me like I’m 16. No comment on how much I act like it.

If it doesn’t walk like a duck or talk like a duck, it ain’t a duck. If the SMs and ASMs aren’t willing to resign their posts over this, however, There’s not much you can do.

I forget where your son is in the program, but as long as he’s doing lots of good elsewhere, then you’re right not to press the issue. Enjoy hiking and camping with him.

Instead of testing out, the first course in scoutmastership should have as a prerequisite mastery of all 1st class rank skills, signed off by your troop’s SPL/JASM. The opening line of the syllabus should read, “Now that you demonstrated that you are a first class scout ... this weekend will give you the tools, as well as the fellowship of other scouters, that will help you excel as a scoutmaster. ...”

I think the fee-based structure simply will consume a lot of time doing calculus that National Management Team is not prepared to do. The problem isn’t so much dividing the year in to months or weeks, but figuring out the price points. Just think about it. How much more expensive can you make a night out with hotdogs and s’mores before participants realize that for the extra expense they can have the same night out with brats and tiramisu?

So, the majority of kids did not attend BSA summer camps (which ubiquitously sleep two per tent, not 20 per cabin as in the camp recently studied) and the pandemic “is as bad now as it’s ever been ...”

And this is why our scouts should be encouraged to meet directly with BLM and LEO to provide venues for orderly discussions. Nothing ruins a propaganda machine more than kids asking tough questions. Patrol, verb: observe and report.

Oh, sure ... publicly pushing kids into the known highest risk for abuse scenario ... the one that has zero accountability. If you thought the lawsuit ads are bad now, just imagine how bad they’ll be three decades from for anyone who oversells family scouting today?

Maybe they can write it off as a donation to BSA and GS/USA ...

So, once an Imam tried to call me out for saying "Peace Be With You ..." in Arabic because I was a Christian. I cracked open my Arabic New Testament and showed him the verse where the Angel Gabriel gives Mary the same greeting. He tried to claim that my scripture was corrupted. I asked him to show me where in his scripture it says that mine is corrupted (spoiler: it doesn't). I then asked him where in his scripture does it say that non-Muslims couldn't use the standard greeting (spoiler: nowhere). Of the hundreds of Muslims from beggars to sheikhs who I've met since then, none has objected to appropriating this little bit of Islamic culture (and I have told scholars about my encounter with this one Imam). In fact most were very pleased when non-Muslims made the effort. Should I avoid honoring the hundreds for the sake of the one? It's a big country. Nobody even in a single clan (let alone tribe) is going to approach this with the same sentiment. That's why I rate each of these articles on how often tribal elders get quoted. They have a long view and offer insights. I could be wrong, but I suspect that the Mic-O-Say folks have done more homework than the bloggers.

Yeah, my uncles and aunts would throw their weight around as well. As individuals, even though they were fully dressed, it was not a great look, but ensemble ... truly beautiful. (Yes, even a conservative family who would never bare midriffs learned a few moves.) Love the Shriners! So, in town they had a clubhouse called the Syria Mosque. (Look it up sometime.) Classic 19th century brick, some of which was fired in relief with Arabic script around the eves. Folks always had a laugh explaining it to the devout looking for Friday prayers! They relocated and built a larger building, albeit with a less ornate exterior. But, they sold the old building by getting two divisions of the same company in a bidding war. I still imagine those guys in their go carts weaving down 5th Avenue all the way to the bank! The old building was demolished and turned into a parking lot. The decorative brick was sold and can be found in various private gardens. I never met an Arab who, learning about the Shriners, was offended by them using Arabic/Turkish history and culture to do good work.

Which protestors? and under whose authority? As an Arab American, I might encourage you all to appropriate my culture. There's a mom in my troop who is a belly dance instructor. She can bring you all up to speed. But if another Syrian (say Bashar al-Assad) protests, it's him versus me and that scout mom. Whose wishes would you regard?

Lazy tweet-trolling disguised as journalism. The author didn't even bother to call a local tribal elder for his/her take on the matter.