SR540Beaver

Why am I doing it? Initially, for the best and simplest reason ever, my son asked me to. That was just the first step in an ongoing journey that we both love. He is half way thru a trek at Philmont right now. Boy I miss him. After he left for Philmont, I took three days of vacation and went to Cub Resident camp where he had been staffing and volunteered. They worked me like a dog, but I've never enjoyed aweeping and mopping a dining hall so much. Scouting is probably the best gift he ever gave me. I joined for him and when he ages out, I'll stay because I want to continue giving back because of everything I have received.

Did you ever notice how many Cub knots there are as opposed to Boy Scout knots? There is a knot for Tiger DL, DL, Webelos DL, Cubmaster, Pack Trainer and the Cub Scouter award. In Boy Scouts you have the Scouters Key which goes only to SM's and the Scouters Training Award for everyone else.

I tend to agree with everyone else that enough is enough. But lets be honest guys, there really should be a dutch oven master knot. I mean come on?!

I got a call about 9 PM CST last night from my son. He is part of the crew from our troop that is at Philmont. They arrived in camp yesterday and are hitting the trail this morning. Our SM's older son is their ranger. My son reported the same thing that GNX did. Smoke rising near the tooth if time and helicopers with bambi buckets flying overhead to go put them out. They had heard it was due to lightening. I can't wait until they get off the trail to hear all of their stories.

An un-scoutlike observation. If I had been the dad who participated with his two daughters, I would have been coming out of the wilderness alone. After the way they behaved, I looked at my wife and told her these girls will never get married if a prospective husband ever sees the show. They were unbearable.

I watched all the episodes and found it entertaining and informative. The subjects of the show were four groups of people. One was a husband and wife, two was a father and his two daughters, three was a couple who had recently begun dating and four was three friends made up of two guys and a girl. Three groups were in cabins while one was in a large wall tent on a platform. The experiment took place over 90 days. There two main goals were to store enough meat and firewood to survive as winter came. They were provided with expertd to teach them how to shoot, hunt and store food along with other skills needed to exist in the wilderness. At the end, all four groups said they loved it and would do it again. In fact, the couple who were dating quit their jobs to persue wilderness adventure and living.

gwd, Congrats on NYLT boosting your program. I have long desired our troop to utilize the program, but our SM has been resistant as he has little regard for anything council run. His son and mine have been staffing cub resident camp this summer and the camp director is the course director for NYLT. She was impressed enough with their instructor abilities to offer them spots staffing NYLT. She said they would actually learn more staffing the course than they would attending. Having participated in WB as both a participant and a staffer, I understand what she means. I've been going over the course syllabus and it has a lot to offer. I'm pleased our SM has bought into his son staffing with mine and hope it opens the door to us promoting it in the troop in the future. My son got home Wednesday night at 11:30 from staffing cub resident camp and left at 5:30 this morning with a crew from our troop for a Philmont trek. A week after they get home they will staff NYLT. I pray they will get as much out of it as your scout did. Thanks for the report.

Camp Pioneer in Arkansas offers the Plumbing and the Painting MB's.

They don't need NYLT. They just need to camp 300 feet from each other.

As a life long Baptist, I just want to set the record straight......there is absolutely nothing whatsoever that is Baptist about WBC other than the name.

geez, just when you think you've got the biggest noggin around, someone comes along and knocks the props out from under you!

LOL My son has always complained that the shorts are too short. He still wears them though. He has finally quit caring so much about what other people think and has actually began wearing knee socks with his scout shorts. Our troop is around 45 years old and we have pictures of past Philmont Crews going back into the 70's. Some of those guys were wearing what looked like hot pants!!!

Although you seldom hear anything about it, there is a Congressional Award that can be earned by youth and the BSA is a partner organization. There are different levels for certificates and medals and many of the requirements dovetail nicely with the Scouting program. http://www.congressionalaward.org

Michael, Troops having more than fo registered, active youth may nominate an additional adult for every fo registered, active youth, or fraction thereof. A troop with 51 to 100 registered, active youth may nominate 2 adults each year if at least 1 youth has been elected. This is according to the BSA's OA website. Likewise, if you had 101 to 150 youth, you could nominate 3 adults.

Just to set the record straight for those who believe WB is evil and destroys the boy led patrol method. WB is an adult traing class for registered leaders of BSA. I thought that was obvious, but evidently not. It is leadership training for any and all positions from the Tiger Den Leader to committee chairs and members to Cubmasters to ASM's and SM's to Venturing Advisors to District, Council and National volunteer and professional positions. It is done in the setting of a month in the life of a troop with all those trappings. It would be rather silly to base it on a season in the life of a football team. The purpose of WB is NOT to teach SM's how to apply the patrol method in a troop and never has been. Is the training different than it was in BP's day? Why yes, yes it is. BP was quite an innovator. It is reasonable to believe that he would expect every aspect of scouting to change with time. To blame the supposed demise of the boy led patrol method on WB is nothing more than a personal bias with no verifiable basis in fact. Most SM's who attend WB were SM's long before attending. Were they doing it roight before WB "corrupted", them?

I picked up my 15 year old Life scout and 2 of his cohorts yesterday from staff week for Cub resident camp. This is his first real job and he has had a blast so far. He will be running games which is OK, but he would prefer to be teaching something. He really surprised me when he told me he couldn't go to Philmont over the phone earlier in the week. Since he has yet to go to summer camp without getting some sort of "injury", I feared the worst that he had hurt a foot or a leg. He will only work half the camp sessions as he will leave for Philmont mid-June. The reason he felt he couldn't go is because about half the staff will also be leaving half way thru and tjhey will be under staffed with as many as 350 Cubs coming to camp. He said the staff is a team and he can't let them down and needs to stay. I told him I appreciated his sense of duty and desire to serve, but staffing is the directors problem, it isn' the first time they have had to address it and it would work out. Besides, this is a troop trek, is paid for, he has done all the shakedowns and the only chance he will get to do it with his friends. He still thinks he should staff. Makes me proud of his maturity. He has put down a down payment to do Northern Tier with the troop next year. I told him that if he enjoyed staffing so much, he could go back for all the sessions and skip the high adventure. Dad could sure enjoy not taking another major hit next summer paying for a trip..........especially since he wants to do a second Jambo in 2010.

First things first. I'm not an Obama or Hillary supporter. That being said, I think it is a crying shame that people likes Sean Hannity chose to attack Obama's choice in churches for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for the last couple of months. It is also a shame that Obama caved.......which will now be used against gim in today's gotcha politics. Here is the truth of the matter. Each religion or denomination has individual and particular teachings that others will find offensive. I'm 51 and have been a Christian since I was 7. I've been a Southern Baptist all of my life and graduated from a Baptist university and attended a Baptist seminary. I hate to inform you folks, but Jews and Catholics are going to hell as well as those who attend that LDS cult. Perhaps because my church and/or pastor teaches such beliefs, I'm not worthy of running for office. I mean after all, I've never chosen to denounce them to please partisan pundits. Is this really the yard stick we want to measure people by.

It is simply amazing how many patrol method "experts" seem to know what takes place in thousands of units across the country. By all means, please tell me what is wrong with my unit that you know absolutely nothing about. It is like me trying to tell you how much fertilizer and what type you need when all I really know is that you have grass.

I was going to respond and then read Lisa's response. She was spot on in everything she told you. If I recall correctly, Lisa has staffed WB just as I have and will be again this fall. The fact that she is in Michigan and I'm in Oklahoma and we both understand the ticket process the same tells me that the process works when the pledge by staffers to present the course as designed is followed. While a ticket is personal, it revolves around your primary position. If you are an ASM, you most likely need the buy in and sign off of the SM and PLC for any ticket that would involve changes to the unit program. As a troop guide, I spent a great amount of time explaining the process to the participants and making sure they were not stepping outside the bounds and that they were creating achievable goals. What you are being taught at WB is a set of leadership tools to enhance your personal abilities and your worth to your unit. You learn to be a team player and not a lone ranger. Are there those who don't "get it" and are there to get a set of beads? You bet........but they are in a very small minority in my opinion. I'd urge you to go and find out for yourself what it has to offer.

I hate to diosappoint you, but the patrol method is alive and well in my neck of the woods just as WB is. But keep tilting at those windmills to your hearts content.

Kudu, I'm truly sorry that you hate the BSA as it exists today and am dumbfounded as to why you continue to involve yourself. That is assuming that you are actually involved and not just recounting how it once was back when you were. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but you sir are a broken record. Must you keep repeating the same old insults over and over again? What exactly do you hope to accomplish?

John, If you are listening to a talking head on TV or radio, you can count on it being spin for one side or the other and far from reality. I live in Oklahoma and we currently have a low unemployment rate of 2.something. That being said, my company elected to give zip in the way of raises or increases across the board for 2008.......including execs......which is unheard of. The department my wife managed for a decade is being eliminated and she had to take another position on a project that forces her to travel around the country. Once the project is over, there is no assurances of further employment. I spent $84 filling up my tank this week......and gas is cheaper here than other parts of the country. Our CC is raising the question of charging boys for gas money over and above food and camping fees for the first time. I don't care what guys like Hannity and Rush say, things are tough all over!!! It seems that the only inflation proof jobs are being a politician or a pundit.

Whaaaaaaaat??? We are only supposed to give one hour a week? I thought we wer only supposed to have one hour a week left!!!

Scoutnut, I can't speak for how things are in ASM59's area, but Venturing Crews are not nearly as plentiful as Troops. I come from a good sized council and one of the largest districts in the council and our COR/Troop is the only one in our district that has a Venturing Crew. While we have a Troop of about 60, the Crew remains at about 5 to 10 after a couple of years of existence. Hopefully that will change as our council now has a Venturing "District" that covers 5 counties and even has a "roundtable" and a District Executive.

GW, The good news is that what you describe isn't standard OA operating procedure. The bad news is that your council/lodge is getting the cart before the horse. We too send out a letter with a health form.....after the call out and before the Ordeal. You can view it here. http://www.manu133.org/documents/candidateletter.pdf When my son and I were elected into OA, our troop had already made our annual plan and we had a conflict the weekend of district camporee. In our case, our SM notified us since we wouldn't be at the call out. Bend the chapter and lodge advisor's ear about where the cart and horse belong. Encourage them to make call out part of the district camporee or summer camp as many other councils do. Keep it a mystery until the call out and then send them a welcome letter, registration and health forms for the Ordeal. I think everyone would be happier and you would have a healthier lodge as a result. Just my two cents.