shortridge

This is very off-topic, but as a request from someone who is in the content-creation business (it used to be called "journalism" in the olden days) ... please don't post the entirety of someone's copyrighted, original work to another website. A few sentences and a link is usually sufficient.

There was a similar incident at my home camp a few years back. (I was on staff but was off that week at a YMCA conference and missed the fun.) The Scout took a shortcut, or what he thought was a shortcut, between main camp and a base camp. Like this Scout, he went without a buddy. He ended up spending the night lost in the woods with very little in the way of equipment. It seems to usually be those "I know my way around here" moments that get ya. (Side note: The father of my then-girlfriend was one of the volunteer firefighters who went out looking for this kid on the camp's 1,400 acres. I heard about it when I called her from North Carolina and she said "Yeah, some kid named Chris got lost on some wilderness survival thing." While that turned out to be wrong, I had a fleeting period of panic ... the name of the staffer filling in teaching my Wilderness Survival class that week was also Chris, and I had a mental image of an entire group of Scouts lost in the swamps on an overnight, and of me strangling him upon my return.)

There's really no comparing activities that are affiliated with schools. Sports teams practice after class lets out. Ditto band. They're held right there at the school. No fuss or muss. For Scouts, you have to go home, eat dinner, do your homework, change clothes and get a ride to a meeting across town. Which is more convenient for a boy or his parents?

I don't have a solution, just a few observations. >> One Scout camp can't be all things to all people. Scouts have to attend the right camp for them. That may mean older Scouts attend Camp A, while younger Scouts attend Camp B. >> An awful lot of troops attend the same camp, year after year after year. That gets boring - not necessarily because that camp's program is boring, but simply because the Scouts have done it all before. Switching it up helps. This is closely related to the practice of wanting troops to sign up for next year's camp at the end of this year's sessions, guaranteeing them the same campsite, etc. While it's a no-brainer for camps, I think it's a horrible idea for most boy-led troops. The decision is basically made for them a year in advance. >> Generally speaking, camps need to do a much better job of marketing themselves directly to the boys. Instead of pitching their camps at roundtables and mailing out leaders' guides to SMs, they should be visiting meetings, setting up Facebook pages and putting promo videos on the council's website and on YouTube. And those videos need to be up-to-date. As of two years ago, my council was sending out videos shot in the late 1990s. >> Camps need to figure out their strengths, and focus on those. Again, you can't be all things to all people. Offering Golf or Auto Mechanics isn't going to get a whole group of Scouts to say "Yeah, let's go to Camp A!" But saying "You can design your own trek, choosing from a menu of climbing, survival, backpacking, canoeing or sailing" just might. If you have great hills, running a three-day intensive mountain biking program followed by two days of two days of swimming and boating might be the thing to do. Running a provisional camp turned into a 1911-era Scout camp, wearing old-time uniforms and working on badges of yore, could be another's special pitch. >> Understaffing and underfunding are issues that are really tied together. Underfunding leads to low salaries, which leads to understaffing. Underfunding also leads to insufficient program supplies and resources. There's a finite amount of money that a camp can bring in through direct fees. If you can't run your camp based on that, it needs to be subsidized by council funds - or you need to raise your fees. There's not really another way around it.

If a bunch of them was to walk down an airport concourse, you couldn't even tell they were a Scout group. Sure, you could. All wearing the same color and style of shirt, all wearing neckerchiefs, all with the same basic insignia. And they'd be very polite, seeing as they're Canadian, in addition to being Scouts.

In my neck of the woods, at least, there are a lot of sports camps that already offer a much better program, with experienced coaches, full equipment and professional facilities. Why try to copy and compete with what's already out there, when sports is not the focus of our program? Bottom line is that offering two hours a day of football or basketball practice is not going to attract more kids to join Boy Scouts and attend camp. Besides, "Varsity football teams and interscholastic or club football competition and activities are unauthorized activities," according to the G2SS. So all they'd be able to do is touch/flag football. On the logistics side, neither of my council camps would have the setup for this without a lot of investment. One is on a mountain and rocky; the other just doesn't have the open space without slashing down a bunch of trees. Covering the costs involved in such a proposition would make the fee exorbitant. You still need to buy the football helmets, pads, etc., and pour the basketball courts and put up the hoops whether you're practicing two hours a day or six hours a day - running it for a shorter time doesn't cut down on those costs. We're Scouts, not athletes. Let kids come to our camps to explore the outdoors and have Scouting adventures, not feel like they have to multitask and practice sports, too.

I think so. It seems like the line that you object to crossing would be someone saying "Let us pray," and then reading a prayer from the tradition of Religion X to the whole assembly, when everyone in attendance does not follow that path. Would that be approximately accurate?

D'oh ... MCs have to be 21, of course ... sorry. The next thing I would do is tell the boy that this is something he might need to discuss witha trusted family memebr or long time friend. Perhaps that's you. Maybe he doesn't have anyone else he feels he can talk to. Which would be sad, but it's a possibility nonetheless.

They actually look like something you could wear on a hike and not worry too much about getting overly dirty, snagged or torn. Do the uniforms normally not have any bling (beyond what looked like the World Crest on the pocket) - troop numbers, position patches?

"Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me. Can I ask you why you told me? Is there anything you need my help with?" I can't recall being told in any training session, or reading in any Scouting publication, that gay boys are banned from Scouting. I am certainly aware of the Dale case, but National has never informed me, as a volunteer, of any actions I'm obligated to take to deal with such a situation. So I'll use my best judgment. (P.S. There's no such thing as an 18-year-old JASM. At 18 in a troop, they become adults and ASMS/MCs.)(This message has been edited by shortridge)

E92 - It was USAF Col. (Ret.) Richard Searfoss, who used a diagonal lashing to secure a piece of gear to the shuttle. (http://bit.ly/qW99N4 - Scouting, Sept. 2008) There was also a Hubble fix using a taut-line hitch (called a "tent-line hitch"): http://www.udel.edu/PR/Messenger/97/3/BLANKET.html

I found two other online examples. Eagle Scouts for Romney (for 2008 campaign, but not updated since 2006): http://eaglescoutsformitt.blogspot.com/ Eagle Scouts for Gibbs (2010 candidate for Vermont secretary of state): http://gowithgibbs.com/eagle-scouts-for-gibbs-gibbs-campaign-announces-new-eagle-scout-coalition There's also a spoof "article" which parodies the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth-type campaigns: http://www.myspace.com/2502649/blog/6400492

Federalist, Scouters are not some monolithic group that all march in lockstep, united on all issues. Perhaps some who appear to be "afraid to be judgemental" have family members or friends for whom medical marijuana use has helped. Don't be so quick to fly off the handle.

John, Just to clarify a point that's been nagging me ... Would there be *any* type of interfaith elements at a Scouting service that would be acceptable? For example, if a Scout were simply to read a selection from the Baha'i writings as a way of sharing the perspective of one of the faiths represented at camp? What about a presentation comparing the Golden Rule as it is expressed in various faiths? Or a Zuni prayer of thanksgiving for the day? Or would *everything* have to come from the Old or New Testament to be acceptable?

Adults being the operative word here. Teenagers shouldn't be allowed to marry. From everything I've read, to refer to this guy's group as a "church" is a huge stretch. More like a cult.

DK - We think that's a problem because we won't always have freestanding tents, thingies on cords, internal frame packs, freeze-dried foods or camp stoves at our disposal. Matter of fact, when we need them the most, chances are we definitely won't have them. Far better to know how to do things from scratch than rely all the time on modern conveniences.

An online search of rechartering instructions seems to indicate that some councils do put limits on the number of troops a boy can be registered with - some saying that multiple registrations are only allowed between troops and crews/ships.

If you Googled "Scouts Own," you probably didn't find much. That's now known as an "interfaith worship service." And there is a handout at Scouting.org that includes a responsive reading based on the Law (don't know if that's exactly what you were referring to). http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/Interfaithservice.pdf http://www.scouting.org/Training/Adult/Supplemental/InterfaithService.aspx

They're not "advancement skills." They're Scouting skills. Without learning, practicing, honing and advancing Scouting skills, what are we? Just Ings?

And yet we still come back to my initial point. There's nothing requiring crews to network, or be active in the VOA, or attend councilwide programs - just as there's no such requirement for Varsity teams, Boy Scout troops or Cub packs. It's a nice goal, yes. But if the CO and the unit's leadership want to operate the unit as an independent, stand-alone, self-sufficient entity, they're welcome to. I rather think it's silly to say that a fully functioning crew isn't "real" unless it sends a representative to one VOA meeting once a year. That accomplishes nothing.

So are contingent/personal tents prohibited?(This message has been edited by shortridge)

SP - Sounds like what you need need is to get people excited about your particular resident camp - not just camping in the abstract. Contact your council or district camping promotions committee, or your OA chapter or lodge, to get a presentation. Just remember you're not alone in this.

Absolutely. It's been in practice for much longer than that.

Find out when payments are due for next year's camp. Let's say April. That gives prospective campers eight months to start fundraising. If a parent and son put aside $34 a month - $8.50 a week - they'll have the full $270 saved. And if it's just a boy going, it's $22 a month. Split savings with popcorn sales, cards, pack fundraisers, and it becomes even more reasonable.

A group of 14-20 year olds who gets a BSA charter and makes no effort to pick the phone and find out what their neighbors are up to is a club. They might be the sharpest club around -- with grey pants and kelly-green shirts full of bling, but a club nonetheless. Change the ages, change the uniform colors, and you've got the basic description of a patrol and a troop: Local youngsters banding together around a common interest. Yet you say troops don't also have to network?