resqman

I started scouts as a cub. Earned Life by age 14. Completed the last bit of stuff 4 months before my 18th. I enjoyed the program. I got a lot out of the program and it very strongly influenced who I became as an adult. For the intervening years between 14 and 18, I always thought it would be nice to be an Eagle scout, but I didnt really care enough. Too much like school work for me. Parents put their foot down and strongly encouraged me to wrap things up the last six months. Glad they did because I needed the encouragement. I have two sons. One didnt join scouts until couples mo

They sell pocket sleeve pages at the office supply store to store baseball trading cards. Got every boy in my cub scout den a 1 inch ring binder and 3 or 4 pages of baseball trading card sleeves. Told them to put their advancement cards in the binder. That way they have a designated spot, they stay clean and orderly, and can be maintained as a keepsake all their lifes. My son has two binders. One is all his Cub scout stuff and the other all his Boy Scout stuff. When a rank came off the uniform, it went in the sleeve with the card and the new rank sewed on. It was easy at EBOR time.

Philmont Difficulty Distance (affects body, mind and spirit if too difficult) Trek is chosen months before arriving at Philmont. Philmont has flater treks, mountainous treks, long treks, short treks. But once chosen, no deviation. Some crews will revel in the more difficult chalenge. Others want to spend time fishing. Elevation (terrain) profile of trek (elevation gained and lost daily) Elevation change is the more difficult part of backpacking. Less change the easier the trek. Again chosen and locked before you go. Distance between restocking and watering points (means more weight

Went to NT in 2010 with 2 adults and four 14 year olds. First High Adventure trip for the boys and the other adult. Boys were a bit hesitant and were thinking low milage before we arrived. The Guide assigned to our crew was great with the lads. The lads were thinking 45 miles max over 7 days. Guide said 45 miles as a mimimum. He laid out a loop trek. I believe they settled on about 65 miles initially. Part way throught the week, the guide wanted to know if the lads would agree to changing the route so the Guide could complete a task/challenge to earn an award. The task would take us o

I carry a pocket knife in my pocket and a fire starter on my keyring in my pocket. If going anywhere outside of camp I have a small daypack with water, first aid kit, trail mix, bandana, and whistle. There is just enough room to stuff my rain jacket and hat. I like the look but not sure how many pouches or what you would carry in the various pouches.

We don't label who is in each tent. Micro management. We use a marker to label the tent for inventory purposes so the quartermaster knows which patrol withdrew which tent from inventory that weekend. White board on inside door of trailer has all the tent inventory numbers. When PL sends patrol member to withdraw tents, QM marks on whiteboard Tent X went to Patrol Y. At end of weekend, Patrol Y takes tent home to clean and dry. Next troop meeting, QM checks clean tents back into inventory.

We use the patrol method. The SM is the PL of the ASM. There is an unofficial APL among the ASM. The APL/ASM is announced as the Acting SM for events where the SM cannot attend. Each ASM is allocated a patrol to monitor for a year. During annual SM/ASM meeting, roles are redistributed as needed. New ASMs are assigned a mentor ASM, so often patrols will have two ASMs assigned to them. During events, the SM will request various ASMs to take on specific tasks: oversee this hike, collect paperwork, etc. Some ASMs are clearly the go-to person for certain stuff. One fella is an EMT so fi

" but over all It really strikes me that the AT scene really is more of a "beatnik" social fest. Fun and making friends and all... " It is social if you wanna, solitary if you wanna. Meeting folks on the trail during day is mostly, Hi, Where is the last place you saw water? How far to the next mtn top/road crossing/landmark? Most of the social aspect comes at night in the shelters. Hikers backgrounds vary widely. I met grandfather and two grandsons carrying couple gallons of Kentucky bourbon. Met 4 firefighters who were taking their annual buddy trip. Met four 55+ guys all fr

Is she registered with an Explorer Post?

You can also make your own "char cloth". Get a new quart paint can from the hardware store. Punch a small hole in the lid with a nail. Loosely fill the can with 100% cotton cloth. Seal lid on can. Place can on fire. I use my propane grill. Heat can. Smoke will leave the pin hole. Once the smoke is clear, remove can from fire and let cool COMPLETELY. You have turned the cotton into charcoal. You have removed all the chemicals that cause visible flame. If you open can to soon, the charcoal will ignite when oxygen is presented to the material. Once cool, the cloth is durable and

Cotton ball burns about 3 seconds. Apply about a green pea amount of Vaseline and now it burns for 3 minutes! If you rub the Vaseline on the outside of the cotton ball, it waterproofs the inside of the ball. Turn the ball inside out to expose the clean dry cotton fibers and will start with a single spark. The cotton ball is basically a wick and the Vaseline becomes the wax of the candle. Guess what, the cotton gauze pad in first aid kit is cotton ball in flat format. The Neosporin is mostly Vaseline with a bit of antibiotic. Chapstick is mostly wax which can also turn your pocket lin

ASM with two sons in the program. As mentioned, first to arrive and last to leave. Sometimes they were ready to go and I had to listen to them. There were enough adults in the troop that I could leave and things would get done. Troop rule was you never disciplined your own kid. If you saw something, you asked another ASM to handle the situation. I was available to my boys if they wanted me, but tried to stay out of their way during scout events as much as possible. I made sure they had all the gear and equipment they needed available to them at home. It was up to them to choose to

Five months and only one section of video with fog, mist or rain. 2 sections of video showing snow on the ground but not falling. Imagine hiking for months with no rain?

Camp Bodie/Bonner in North Carolina offers a Mini Summer Camp experience one weekend a month in the non-summer months. Instead of staffing all the MB centers, they pick one area, lets say Scoutcraft in Jan, Nature Center March, Handicraft April, etc. They bring in staff just like during summer camp and run MB classes for the weekend. Arrive Fri night, attend class all day Sat, half day Sun and then leave Sun afternoon. Scouts can complete most or all of 2 MBs during the weekend. Dining hall is open and staffed. Gives troops a reason to use the camp. Helps keep staff trained and inv

I guess the question is what is the role of adults as summer camp? Troop should have couple adults to represent the troop. SM or designee attends the SM meetings held daily by the camp. SM or designee handles communication between the camp and scouts when situations arise of failure on either party. Adults "audit" MB classes for quality control to ensure classes are providing necessary training/education. Otherwise our troop presumes the adults will be napping in camp. We do have one adult who runs to town to buy watermelon for midweek evening snack. Many camps now have

Oldest son played on high school sports team and travel sports team at same time. During one season, he would leave one practice early to arrive at the other practice late with 7 practices scheduled over 5 days. Just before his 15th birthday, decided he needed to earn Eagle so would have something on his resume to get into college. Never been a scout until then. He had to work very hard at scheduling to attend events that offered the activities he needed to complete requirements. Attended district and council wide activities without his troop to complete requirements. Missed a few sports

please post pics. Description is confusing.

Pack ALL clothing in Ziploc bags inside their pack/bag. I like to put a complete days set of clothes (undies, t-shirts, socks, pants, shirt) all in one Ziploc bag. Put on clean clothes, put dirty back into Ziploc. No cross contamination between clean and dry vs dirty and wet. Plan on getting wet and pack at least one extra complete outfit. Everyone needs a hat. Helps keep rain off you and holds in body heat. Synthetics dry quicker but still are wet. Avoid cotton and bring all synthetics if possible. All clothing from the skin out. $1 disposable ponchos are useless. Get real rai

Your request seems a bit overwhelming. If you look at the National High adventure bases, they limit the number of scouts on a single trek to usually not more than about 12. That usually also includes 2 adults so only about 10 boys. Moving 15-20 people is much more challenging and hard on the environment. National Bases have a minimum age limit of 14. That has to do with a number of issues but simple things like the lads need to be physically large enough and durable enough to handle the pack or canoe weight and still be able to cover 5-10 miles a day for week to 10 days. As a t

Why is the committee paying for the gas? The cost of summer camp is the camp fee plus the cost of travel. Adding $5 per scout should provide plenty of money for gas. Three adults is all that should be needed for a week at summer camp. If adults can only stay 2-3 days, rotate out various adults so week is covered. If adults are too whiny to spend the night, then they are the real problem. Fire the adults. As already mentioned, the boys can just pay and go to any camp they choose, Get a few parents to drive, drop off and pick up an end of week. Most camps run a provisional tr

Local council can provide you with a list of other troops in your area. They should have a contact person for each troop. You can contact them to find out what night they meet. Visit several troops, talk with the scouts, talk with the SM. Each troop has its own culture and feel. After visiting a few, you will likely find a troop that feels right to you.

The Chairs. During a patrol meeting, an ASM entered and chastised a scout or scouts for rocking back in a standard chair. Explained the legs will break, the scout could fall over and hurt themselves, etc. The patrol took it as a personal affront and renamed their patrol The Chairs as a snub back at the ASM. The patrol and the ASM knew the story but no one else in the troop knew or cared the about the backstory. My son was in the patrol so I learned the backstory. Troop had a loose tradition of renaming patrols about once a year so no great questions about a name change.

There is no requirement by national to have a mentor. If the troop wants to assign you a mentor, that is a troop decision. As mentioned earlier, you can still have a social meeting with an acquaintance. If the acquaintance happens to give you advice about scouting, that is nobodies business but the two sharing a social event. The potential issue is when the troop mentor gives specific advice that conflicts with your acquaintance. Keep in mind, earning Eagle is the scouts job, not the mentors job. The Eagle candidate can accept or reject the mentors advice. Advice is technical

The only ID needed is a statement I have first aid training. Most EMTs are Certified, not licensed. Semantics, I understand but it it is a legal difference. I have been a certified EMT in two states, taken an EMT training course three times. Let my certification lapse so had to go thru course again to get certified. I have certificates that hang on the wall but don't remember ever having a wallet card. Just like in any other field, those with actual knowledge can usually very quickly identify someone who is not knowledgeable. Whats to say the bystanders should believe a Scout has

Keep in mind that Philmont does not allow hammock camping. What and how you sleep on troop outings is different. Basic hammock with rain fly, ropes, etc. is about 3 lbs. Decent backpacking tent is about 3 lbs. Tent & fly can be shared by two and split between two packs. Hammocks are individual gear so 3 lbs per person vs. 1.5 lbs per. Water filter, food, cooking gear and dining fly can be shared. Split up common gear along with food among crew members. Number of stoves and type gonna vary depending on how and what you plan on cooking. I carried a Jetboil because all my fo