scouter

I'm from Columbus, Ohio. Our troop goes cave camping in Blue Springs Caverns in Bedford, Indiana. That cave is really interesting. You actually camp in the cave, you get to ride a boat on the underground river, and you get a guided crawling tour through the openings in the cave.

Here is their website, not much other than a phone number:

http://www.stonehengelodge.com/bluesprings.html

Future EMT!

Bob White- I didn't know that there was another way to deal with it. Our scoutmaster, though, never seemed like he dealt with anything the right way. But that was in the past and our bully has moved out of town.

Great job! Sounds like a lifesaver in the making! Keep up the good work!

Pretty good design. I like it.

My troop holds what we call a "Planning Conference" every year, similar to what you are doing now. We have the SPL collect ideas from the scouts, rate them by order of relevance, cost, etc. and then the scoutmasters help set certain ideas to dates. We often times turn this whole thing into a campout. How do we get everyone to show up? We make it an "Electronic Campout" where the kids are allowed to bring Gameboys, TVs, and CD players (which otherwise would not be allowed at a campout). We hold the conference all day Saturday and invite the parents and families down for a potluck lunch on Sunday.(This message has been edited by scouter)

We had a scout like that in our troop, a bully. The only thing that could really be done is to tell the scoutmaster and have them sit down with the scout and the parents and have a little meeting. It needs to be brought to the attention of them. And despite the fact that he acts like he should never have earned Eagle due to his immaturity, all you can do is bite your lip and let it be. It is true, some scouts do not act they way they should, and when we wish we could take the rank away, we cannot.

I really like the headlines feature. I actually use some of the articles you post on my troop's on-line newsletter (don't worry, I give you guys credit for finding them!). I really enjoy the articles about interesting projects that Eagles are working on. I myself, am not much into all of the controversy issues though. Great idea, great news, great work! Keep it up!

http://troop700.com/newsletter.htm

Our site first started through geocities. There they offer 20MB of space and an easy upload page to load your files onto the web. Later, we purchased a $8.95 a month service through geocities that now allows us NO ADS and our own domain name.

http://www.troop700.com

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http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguide.htm

Reply to evmori's comment:

I disagree with your statement, "I don't think we need to be cool." I think that we do. Scouting is for the scouts, not the adults, if they want to drop out because it isn't cool, we need to look at how to make it cool for them. There is a difference between cool and rebellious. Being a cool organization requires that the kids have fun, look forward to meetings, stay active, and bring friends to join the troop. Now, rebellious is different. That is where the kids don't want to obey rules, they want to destroy, vandalize, and tease. Those kids have no place in scouting.

Scouting does need a cool factor to be popular. And it does need to be popular to stay active. Our troop went from being a scoutmaster controlled troop to a boy run troop. And frankly, we are better off now than before. Why? Because we now have some sort of a "cool factor" that kids relate to. You can't say that scouting isn't supposed to be cool....It is.

In my troop, we hold an annual Troop Planning Council. We try to get as many scouts to attend a weekend campout where we listen to their ideas as to what they want to do for next year. Topics usually include campouts, summer camp, places to visit, and troop meetings.

Understandably, we cannot follow through with everything that the scouts ask for (DisneyWorld, Europe, etc. lol..Who can?) but we try our hardest to compromise.

The kids come to the all day planning session with ideas of places they would like to go. We stand at the front of the room and write down EVERY idea they have on an easel pad. Then, we start a round of eliminations. We eliminate anything that is too far fetched, or too expensive for our budget. The rest then gets voted on by the scouts.

Using a troop planning council like this, the scouts have more of a say as to what types of things we do. Plus, then the ones who suggested an idea are more likely to attend that campout because it was their idea.

Overall, I would say that our scouts rate our troop as "pretty cool" (but as all you parents know...scouting can rarely ever be "really cool" because of peer pressure). Just remember to have fun with them.