Blaze66

am I here

am I here

Did anyone else here see this article at Fox News? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,119658,00.html Make sure you copy and paste the whole address, for some reason the post wouldn't include the whole thing in the link.(This message has been edited by Blaze66)

Ok,reluctantly, because I was so chastized during the original post of this thread I am back again. But this time only to give everyone an update on the status of our pack. No wait, Our CHARTER ORGANIZATION'S PACK! Just a little background to those who didn't catch the original post. I am with a pack that has three leaders who have been with the pack over 8 years and are ready to leave and no new leadership has come foward in the past few years to step in and keep the pack going. We went to our COR and he talked to the CO who did not have any advise or help for us. We then went to our DE

I don't know how they hid them at that camporee, but finding geocaches is not as simple as you might think. I participate in geocaching as a sport. True some are relatively easy to find, but if you want a real challenge find the micro and mini caches! If you don't know alot about geocaching as a sport go to www.geocaching.com

I know it's too late to get in this year, we are going to put in for next year (2005) in July. We picked this camp for several reasons. First we liked the merit badge offerings. They have alot that weren't offered at some of the other camps close by. Second it's in the mountains. It's a whole lot cooler there in mid June that it is the other places we have been going. Anyway we have made up our mind to go there next summer, we just want some tips and pointers of how it is at camp.

Has anyone here been to Camp Old Indian in the Blue Ridge Council? We tried to get out troop in there this summer, but they were full the week we wanted to go, so we are shooting for next summer already. What I am trying to find out is some tips... best campsite, closest campsite to dinning hall, whats the food like, how was the staff to work with, etc...

When I say made up I mean more like what Shell is talking about. You have to twist someone's arm or you have to use one person with many hats. If you thought I ment we just pulled a name out of thin air and wrote it down, thats not the case. It's just we have so few people step up to the plate that we have to grab people from the back pew and twist their arm to get them to register in the first place, but usually they are only figure heads because if you have to twist someone's arm to do something they really aren't going to be good leaders. They are more followers... which is not what yo

Great response foto! At least someone understands the reality of things and doesn't try to beat you to death with so called facts and figures that are of questionable origin. I know as bob says you have to list people to re charter every year, but who hasn't put people on their charter in two hat positions or grabbed someone out of the blue just for a name because you don't have anyone else. It's reality! So sure national is going to reflect that every pack and troop has a committie and cc and cor and co, but in reality they aren't always there! So you do what you have to do for the kids!

Yes we have mosquitoes too but what we use is Permethrin. Get some and treat all your camping gear including your clothing as directed. It works great for Mosquitos, Chiggers, Mites and Ticks. One treatment lasts two weeks in continuous use. If you use it, you won't need much deet.

I think you miss understand the question. The question is not how many miles a day can the boys do, ours have easily done anywhere from 8 to 14 miles a day. The question is does BSA policy limit daily mileage or suggest a daily mileage?

Most tents now days come with or you can buy seperately a "footprint" which is basically some really heavy nylon with a water proof coating. It is real light and usually fits exactly the size of your tent. That's what I use on all three of my tents. If you can't find one to fit, check out REI or Campmor. Sometimes you can find footprints or ground cloths for different tents on clearance. They might not fit your tent exactly but they are good alternatives. In a real pinch use 6 mil plastic. It doesn't fold or roll real well but it works.

eisely, I had that same problem with the first led head lamp I bought. I had a Petzl Tikka and I loved it, but the first time I really needed it for night time navigation, it was all but useless. SO when I got back home I bought a Petzl MYO. Best of both worlds. You get the halogen main light for navigation and wide area flood, and it has the three led task light for reading, cooking general around camp stuff. It's like American Express, I never leave home without it!

Ok here is one for all our scouting friends who love to quote BSA regulations. Where in BSA policy does it limit or suggest mileage per day, for hikes and backpacking trips? If there is a limit what is it?

If you have never tried it before let me give you a couple of pointers from experience. One make sure you have a good ground cloth. Just as in a tent, that vapor barrier between you and the ground is real important. Second, keep it simple. Either pitch your tarp using the old ridgeline between two trees with a stake on each corner or do the old army pup tent style with two staves. Once you have done it a few times then you can experiment with exotic tarp setups. These two will keep you fairly dry if you have a shower and will stand up in the wind with no problems. If you want some other

About 85% of the camping our Troop does is Backpacking. Three years ago we were working on emergency preparedness merit badge and one of the things we did was have the boys drop the tents and make their own shelter out of painter's plastic. To this point now, the boys had been carrying the tents backpacking by splitting the weight up between two campers. Well the boys loved it. Thought it was fun and liked not having the extra weight. So after that slowly the boys started asking could they use tarps, and started dropping their tents all together. Now thats almost exclusively what we use

With the exception of District and Council Camporees, our Troop quit using tents about three years ago. The ones we do use for the boys (when we use them) are the Eureka Apex that they sold at the scout shop until about two years ago when they changed their style from the full rain fly to the partial one. We didn't buy ours from the scout shop though, we got them from Campmor and about a 20% savings. Leaders use their own tents of various styles. I just looked at that Eureka Assault. It's basically the same design as my North Face Stratos with the exception of the zip out panels in m

I don't look for pats on the bach either. Not looking one now. I dont really care who notices what I do because I don't do it to impress anyone or to draw attention to myself. I started out doing scouts for the same reason you did shell, because I wanted to make it the best experience I could for my son. And I think everyone still kind of misses the point of the original question. I am not looking a pat on the back, or someone to tell me its ok to move on. We are just in a situation like I explained where we want to go and the CO won't do anything to help out and all our efforts to

Maybe I wasn't real clear in the beginning when I started this thread, or maybe I left out things that I didn't feel were important to the question. So here is the rest of the story, and get out the popcorn because it's a long one! I started my ADULT scouting when my son joined Tigers in this same pack. When we came in there were 4 leaders in the whole pack. That included our present COR who was also the Webelos leader, our former CM who was also running the Wolf den and two other den leaders. That was it! Four people running the pack. Now sure there were other people listed on the

Our COR attends every troop meeting and also takes care of the finances for the Pack and the Troop, but most of that is because his son is in the Troop and he was the one that helped to start the pack and troop back up so many years ago. He too is frustrated at the lack of support we get from the CO and he has been many times to the deacons and tried to ralley them behind things we were doing. Give you an example of something. Until last year the church did a pork shoulder sale. They sold between 175 and 225 shoulders. We (Troop) helped them out with the fund raiser as a service to our CO

Well I went home last night and did some soul searching and then some research (phone calls) to see exactly how the pack and troop was organized at our CO in the first place. Seems they never really made a decision that they wanted scouts as a part of thier church. In a sense that someone in the CO said "hey lets make scouts a part of our youth ministries". Yes they did make the decision to let someone use the basement to hold scout meetings. A pack and troop at another church folded some 10 years previous. One of the church members and some of his friends (non church members) needed a pl

Thanks Ozemu I think that was the answer I was looking for.

There might not be anything in national policy that says a 10 yr old cant do the same things that a 17 yr old does, but All the camps in our state that we have been too for summer camp sure do say you have to be 14 or over to participate in high adventure programs. Thats also been the reason that DE's have told me that scouts cant be in Venture crews till after 14, which I see other reasons for that not the physical aspects but the mental aspects of putting scouts under 14 participating with high school and beyond age kids all together.

Ed, I have heard of other packs in our area that have the same situation where the CO charges for a room to meet in or a place to hold the Blue and Gold. Our CO isn't quite that bad although we don't even try to hold our Blue and Gold at their fellowship hall. We just go to the town community building. Most of the CO's in our area (BOB I said Our area not the nation as a whole so don't throw out some statistics to me) but they are just the CO's for Packs and Troops because it makes them look more appealing to the community not because they are trying to deliver a program. It's not the CO's

When I refer to alot of packs troops etc. I can only relate to what is in my area, not on a national level. Scouting is a big thing in some parts of the country and not as strong in others. It's not as strong in our area. We put on a great program I think. Infact we have been a model pack for other packs in the area as far as what we do for advancement for the boys. They all have a great time and of the ones that stay they do look foward to whats next. But yes Shell, alot of it here has to do with what the parents want the boys to do. Sports is a big thing in our community, a