SR540Beaver

I know we have an Indian tribe that rents our summer camp and a religious group that rents another property each year, but it is not while summer camp is in session.

I forgot to mention that the adults did step in with the first troop I was briefly associated with. The boys had gotten lazy and then lazier. They were eating pop tart and ramen. They got so lazy, they quit boiling water for the ramen and started eating the bricks of dried noodles straight from the package. That's when the adults stepped in and provided a frame for what they could and could not do menu wise and cooking wise. I'm all for boy led until there is no leadership at all.

There are as many different methods as there are troops. Our troop has the adult "patrol". We camp together away from the boys and plan a menu, shop for and cook our own food just like they do. The method you described is what happens at Jamboree. There are 4 adult leaders and 4 youth senior leadership and 4 patrols. We had a rotating schedule and an adult and senior leader would eat with adifferent patrol for each meal. That is done more for the time limits that come with a Jambo than anything else and provides time to get to know the boys who are in our charge for such a short time.

"But honestly the OA is nothing more than a lodge flap to 90% of the OA members." Sad but true. While there is plenty of blame to go around, part of that problem is because SM's won't support the program. It's no different than the uniform. Show me adult leaders who won't wear the uniform correctly and I'll show you a troop full of boys who won't either. Show me adult leaders who are fair weahter campers and I'll show you a troop full of boys who won't go out in the cold or rain. It's a two edged sword. The Lodge needs to provide a program that makes boys want to participate, but if t

Sentinel, I looked at my old syllabus and it says that Venturing was included in 2010, so that would be when it went coed. It also listed changes for 2011 as the terminology changing. That was when it went away from troop/patrol terminology and became generic. My course was in 2012. I have wracked my brain trying to remember the source of the change back to using the old terminlogoy, but I can't find it. I can assure you it was from an official and reputable source. I'm guessing that the change starts this year as I heard it last year. I actually believe it was during one of our council

Sentinel1947, Take heart, NYLT is doing away with the generic nature they adopted when the course went coed. I unfortunately had to run my course under this generic model and I struggled remembering not to use SPL, PL, Patrol meeting, Patrol names, etc. The course will remain coed, but they are going back to the Boy Scout Troop/Patrol model and terminology. The excuse I heard....I mean reason....is that the Boy Scouts in the courses struggled with the generic position names while the Venturing kids had no problem adjustin to using the Boy Scout terms. So the coed program for both Boy S

peridochas, I was an NYLT course director in the fall of 2012 and I'm on the youth training committee for our council. Just like Wood Badge, a course director signs a pledge to deliver the course as written. I can assure you, what the youth experienced during their course is not part of the NYLT course material. Someone decided to wing it and make it "better" or more to their own personal liking. The council training chair and the Scout Executive need to be asked and provide an answer on how this was allowed to happen. In fact, if you've been to Wood Badge, NYLT is almost identical materi

I know I'm going to get beat up on, but I'll say my piece. I have nothing aginst the Venturing program. I wish it well. I admit, I was not around at it's inception. But Venturing is the program put together by BSA to appease all the people with things they didn't like about Boy Scouts. It's for the people who don't like advancement. It's for the people who don't like uniforms. It's for the people who don't like a structured program. It's for people who want a coed program. It's for people who don't necessarily want the program focus to be outdorrs. It is BSA's, anti-Boy Scout program

Yes qwazse. We do elections in the last quarter of the year for the coming year. We do call outs in the spring during Camporees and have an Ordeal in May and August. If a unit doesn't "get with the program" and puts offrespoding to our requests to provide an election, we can technically do them up until the first Ordeal. But we really try to get them all done prior to December 31st.

ABC123, OA elections might seem confusing, but they really aren't if done correctly. As a Chapter Adviser, I was adament with my election teams that they convey the information to the unit. Before I became Adviser, the guys would wing it and adlib the presentation. It sucked. There is a very good video produced by national that trains election teams and another that explains the election process in great and easy to understand terms for the units. There is also a written script for the election team to use in presenting to the unit. My guys who were doing elections were also my ce

Hmmmmm, we have a state supreme court justice in our troop. He's also served as our district chair. Of course, here in Oklahoma, we tend to appreciate the value the BSA brings to youth instead of finding a politically correct cause to attack it with.

As a former Chapter Adviser, I've facilitated a good number of unit elections. While a youth ages out of the unit at 18, the OA considers him a youth until he turns 21. So even if he is serving the unit as a registered adult, he can be elected and participate in voting until 21. So your youth membership pool and voting pool runs from 11 to 21. Crossovers can present a problem depending on when a Lodge decides to hold unit elections. It is quite possible to get crossovers two weeks ago and hold a uit election today. They simply don't know the boys they are voting on yet. When voting, you

I came from a larger troop. We had JASM's, but it was the SM's judement call on who was made JASM. Obviously, they have to be 16. Our troop did a pretty good job of retaining older scouts. Just being 16, didn't qualify you for being a JASM. For the most part, our JASM's were guys who had moved up the leadership ranks thru the years from APL to PL to ASPL to SPL. Most had been a TG to our new scout patrols. They were Eagle or just a couple of steps away from it. At 16, many of them had taken on jobs to pay for cars and couldn't be at every meeting or every campout, but they still had a

I'm surprised to hear this. I saw the new ceremony at conclave and it received mostly negative feedback from all the people I visited with about it. Perhaps the feedback was different from the other conclaves or the powers that be decided to go ahead and do what they wanted to regardless.

I honestly don't know how other councils do resident camp. Ours basically runs the full month of June and we do two sessions per week. First session starts at 1 PM on Sunday and runs thru 10 AM on Wednesday. Second session runs from 1 PM on Wednesday thru 10 AM on Saturday. So our resident camp is a half week which is perfect for Cubs. The attendance varies from session to session, but we have sessions where there are 450 Cubs and family members and we have to run two shifts in the dining hall. Until this year, we have had the same camp director and program director for over 20 years, so

Wow! I can't believe that this topic has generated so much heat. Everyone needs to step back and realize that their troop is not the "norm". No troop is. Each one is unique and individual. I've learned this by being in a troop of about 15 boys, another troop of about 5 boys and another troop of 60......now 80 boys. I've been an ASM for 2 Jambos. I've served as a Campmaster and visited with many, many troops of every size and sort imaginable. Heck, I visited on one "troop" when I was Campmaster and there wasn't a boy in sight. I asked where their boys were and they told me that none of the boys

I'm sure it's a troop by troop thing as there are still some knuckle draggers out there who won't let women camp with the troop. In the troop I serve, everyone is welcome. But then we have 80 scouts, so the SM and 1 or 2 ASM's aren't quite enough to transport boys and gear. We need drivers with multiple seats and if that is all they do, we're good with that. If they want to bring their son or daughter, were good with that. Whatever it takes to get the help we need to deliver the program. That being said, we run a boy led program and the adults and their younger children are taught from d

What jblake said. I've worked with underprivileged scouts as well and they were all fully uniformed. It isn't difficult to do.

The only time I see dressier pants is with our OA Lodge leadership. They've decided to have a professional appearance because of some of the things they are called on to do. Each year, our Lodge Chief gives an address to the State Legislature, he sits on the Council Board, etc. Our Lodge Adviser, Chief and VC's all wear the poly/wool uniform shirt and pants. I'm a Lodge Associate Adviser and I do not wear them. I will say that even though they look really nice when they go somewhere, I don't find a poly/wool uniform practical for their site visit to our summer camp. The one thing I do fi

Just curious........how much camping does your pack do? You do realize that while it is perfectly fine to do so, it is not the norm. We have some packs that camp more than others, but I believe the majority of our packs take advantage of our district day camps, council cub resident camp (summer) and our council spring (May) and fall (October) weekend camps. Those all come with a camp and program director and camp cooks. Most packs are just not geared up like troops are for frequent camping and they are not broken into patrols where the boys are mature enough to take care of themselves. Ma

Well, except for the Tea Party folks who do call them on it, but we all know they are terrorists, anarchists, arsonists, people with bombs strapped to their chests, and extortionists who want to destroy America thru responsible taxation and spending. How dare they! http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/10/66593/

I saw a video last week where a guy on the street was asking people who deserved the blame for the recent government shutdown, Obama or Bush. The majority said Bush. Low information voters blaming a guy who has been out of office for 5 years. Go figure.

At the risk of angering some here who may be LDS, it has been my personal observation that many of the stories we hear regarding deaths, injuries and just dumb antics come from LDS troops. Not all, but many. I'm not anti-LDS. I don't know what it is like in Utah where the vast majority of scouts are LDS, but where I'm from, the LDS troops participate in nothing......including training. Most LDS leaders don't register because they want to, but because they are directed to. They use the Boy Scout program, but they don't necessarily follow the Boy Scout program. I believe that if they would

Thank you!

Hmmmm, I was unaware that ALL search and rescue folks only worked for the federal government.