txscoutdad

Fuzzy Bear made the comment I believe with 'tounge in cheek" about Soccer Troops. Well I guess he hasn't heard about the "Soccer and Scouting" program tha BSA has launched to target the Hispanic community. Here's the web link for the program.

http://www.soccerandscouting.org/

Personally my son and I are active in a very conservative, thriving, large troop. I don't believe that change is enevitable for the continued life of BSA. Baden Powell had a rescipe for scouting and boys clammored for it. Do you think every boy back then thought the new program was the best thing since sliced bread. I doubt it, but the program grew. Just how far can the Scouting program change and still be reconized as somewhat of what BP started. I like using the analogy of the soda fountain machince. There are several BSA programs just like several soda flavors offered. But does every program have to change to make it relevent to the greatest mass of people, wether or not they would ever be interested in joining, just to build the largest BSA organization possible? How much of the core values and mentoring of adult men to boys, on how to be a man of honor and integrity, would have to be sacrificed to build that organization.

Also why is it that whenever the talk of boys wearing the uniform to school the focus is on the uniform and nothing about the state of society and schools where fear of being ridiculed for being a decent human being is that great.

I reject the often used phrase that "Change is enevitable and if you resit change then you are destined to become extinct".

I am not talking about the small changes that come along and past ones that dealt with race intergration. I just don't want to see this thing change so radically open and liberal that I could see our entire troop looking for some other program to offer our boys.

Had a scout come up to me on a campout at night, with his headlamp shinnimg in my face, so I could not identify who I was talking too.

Scout asks me if I had seen "his dad", when I inquired "who are you", replied, "I'm his son".

That nailed it down.

Eamonn and uz2bnowl

Our troop has two of the Colemans Hot water on Demand systems. We use them in the field kitchen used to cook meals for the Adults on campouts. We've been using them for about 2 1/2 years now and I don't think we've had any real problems. They are used a lot and were used nonstop for one week when a group went to do cooking for the Katrina Relief effort. Make sure the batteries are charged before leaving.

The one thing we like about them is that you can get hot water for cleanup started while you are still using all available burners to cook the meal. For a large group I think it is worth the price.

I don't know why you would want to hook it up to a large propane bottle, it does not go thru the gas that quick. I guess that a ingenious person could find or make an addapter to make it possible.

Our troop was one of the troops featured in this month's issue of Boy's Life cover article. It is about helping out after the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast. Troop 437 sent a field kitchen and crew down to help feed relief workers for a week. My friend Peter does a great job of turning out gourmet meals from just a field kitchen so they ate well. Neither my son nor I were able to go though.

There was a recent post about what your troop does for Service Projects. This is a lot more than what we usally do, but it's nice for the boys to see themselves recognized in their magazine.

With the recent deaths from lighting, what is the opinion of everyone on the board as to whether National/Councils/Local Troops should be ready with some kind of policy that the troop would use to help prevent lighting strikes.

With most troops gearing up for the new school year, I'm sure that more than a few new parents are going to be asking what the troop does when they find themselves in a thunderstorm. I would hope most troops know the correct things to do and follow them.

This Sat. our troop is having a leadership meeting for the new year and I'm thinking about approaching the subject of having a firm policy about what we do and traing for the boys. We've had dicussion on this board about not bugging out because of inclement weather but still not putting the boys in harms way. Most times when you find yourselves caught out there is only so much you can do, but are we sure were doing all we can?

Just wanted to get some feed back from this board and open it up for discussion.

Another Scout tragedy in California.

Here's the new link

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/sequoia_lightning_death;

Okay here is the link to Sub camp 3

http://jambo3subcamp.virtualave.net/Webcam.shtml

Our troop camps on private land most of the time where there are no facilities at all. Over the years we've found that once a year we need to have a light hearted training session for the new boys about how to succesfully use a cat hole.

Seems we found that some boys would try to go the whole two nights with out making a trip out to the woods.

The SM does this and keeps things light and not too graphic but covers the esentials for hygiene, comfort and leave no trace.

It's information that has to be passed on to some boys that have never been with out a place to sit.

Any interesting stories or presentations done by other troops you'd like to share?

kittle,

I think then I would send him with what he has and hope most come back dirty and not still packed.

Does your troop have a parents meeting before summer camp to help fill in the questions for first timers?

Also will they be sleeping in tents on wood platfoms and on cots? If they are, send everything pack in a 18 Gallon Rubber Maid Roughneck Container. One that will slide under the cot. Makes it eaiser to store stuff in a tent with a bunkmate and still have room to move around.

Just have to tell you that you're probably being lucky ""IF"" he changes his clothes at all the whole week. You're even luckier if he takes a shower the whole time also. Not that you should'nt send extra clothes, but a set of clean clothes for each day is ,IMO, over doing it.

But of course each boy is differnet and yours may be better at daily hygiene than most.

The amount and kind of extra clothing would probably depend on what kind of temperature ranges there are. I usally take two extra of everything with only one pair of long pants. If need be clothes can be rinsed out in a sink and hung up to dry. If you are going to pack a lot of clothes for him and since it is his first time going, you would be wise to take full set of clothing per day and put all in a two gallon ziplock bag. Makes it eaiser to grab on the way to the shower.

The first year my son went to summer camp, when I went to pick him up I told him he wasn't riding home with me unless he has taken a shower, since he had not taken one all week.

Hope this helps.

I would thind that the wording is exact and that no bold type is necessary in the first line.

The 8 items are bullet points and emphized for eaiser memorization.

I had thought that over in my mind and I think that with this paticular land owner, I think he just wants to be left alone. This man has a large tract of land, that looks like a manicured park, that is maintained by his ranch hand and himself. I also believe that he is very well off financially. Since the land abuts the Corp land I'm sure he gets all kinds of requests from lots of people.

I'm still mulling it around in my head of what I could do, hence this post.

Thanks for the suggestions

Our troop will marching in the Veteran's Day Parade in downtown Dallas this month. Since we're all homeschooled its eaiser for us to do than most troops I guess. It gets Scouting out there for people to see.

Unc.

You might be happy to know that the paper here does Eagle Scout announcements twice a week.

Funny thing about this is its in the same part of the paper where later in the week they have wanted criminals posted. I like to ask people which day would you like to see your son in the paper, the day about the Scouts or the day of the Wanted Poster

This last weekend a fellow ASM and myself, along with our boys, went to Lake Texoma to pre-scout the Cross Timbers Trail that is on the southern border of the lake. The troop will be doing a two nighter hike later this month. It has a few spots that are accessable by car since the trail runs through a marina for a while and later through a resort, both on land leased from the Corp of Engineers. We had checked out both trail heads for parking and these mentioned areas to find out how the trail winds trough them. We then wanted to check out where we were going to be staying each night. We hiked one short section where we would stay SAT. and saw on the topo map a road that came close to the available campsites for Friday night.

Well we went to the location and it was a large ranch. We stop at the Ranch Hands house that was close to the public road and asked about being able to cross the ranch to the Corp land. He said that he thought that would be no problem just drive up to the main house and check with the land owner.

When we asked the owner he said that he use to provide this for Scout Troops but that he had been burned too many times, especial by one troop that he mentioned by number from our area. He said he ther had been problems with fences not being respected and being damaged, and having water available being abused. This REALLY, REALLY sadden me to think that fellow Scouts had failed to live up to the Trustworhty part of the law, and had left a negative legacy for others to follow.

All I could do was tell him that I respected his wishes, apologize for the intrusion, and leave.

Hope everyone remebers to try and leave a Good Legacy for others that follow us in our Scouting.

Our troop is chartered to a local Homeschool Association group which has no physical property. We were meeting at the church that the SM attends, but do not have dual COs. Troop is only open to members of the Associaion and others by Committee aproval. The church was gracious enough to let us use the facilities but it was still not without it's problems. The troop decided to look for another church to host us for a meeting place recently and has found one that an ASM attends.

Having dual COs might work out but it could have it's problems.

Just thought I'd share a bit of our experiences.

This year has been slow compared to last for my son. He sold $1,200 last year and this year only about $800. The troop sold over $40,000 last year and tonight was the night to turn in orders so I don't know how we are looking for this year. We don't do show and sell as a troop altough I guess some boys might by themselves.

I also agree that more products in the $10 range would help.

A dad in our troop works for a major news network. Three years ago he was on a film crew for a retiring news anchor that had a interview with the President. He told that they had planed what to do if they had extra time left, which is not much considering that its the President. Well he was able to get GW to give a personal congratulations to his son on becoming an Eagle Scout. The dad had the tape if the can for three years just hoping that his son would fulfill the goal and he could use the tape in the video tribute to the new Eagle Scouts that our troop does for each one.

Our troop did this recently on a camp out. The boys set up a round robin type course with the adults and Venture Patrol set up as victims, one station for each patrol. We had leaders at each station to do sign off for rank advancements and also judges for patrol competition to see who responded better and treated the victims best. Having it outdoors made it eaiser for clean up and more realism a far as accidents in the outdoors.

I was the heart attack victim that day. After nine times of being draged out of my chair, sometimes being droped ,I was quite sore. Had a fun time working with the boys though.

Thanks Eamonn,

I knew that the people doing the training were voluteers, I just did not know how receptive they might be to being questioned about the ceremony. Didn't want to come off wrong.

I believe your probably right about the scouts not staying for the whole time and hence the reason for what was done. I think that the best would have been what I mentioned eairler or what you mentioned about just leaving them up till everyone had left and cleaning up.

This past Summer Camp there was another troop that had an adult leader that would not stand at attention for the ceremony but would noticeably slough and never salute the flag. It was like you could almost read his mind as saying, "Alright already, can we just get on with it and stop wasting my time."

Trust me those kind of people do not want some one coming up to them and attempting to "correct" what they are doing.

I would hope that District voluteers would not be this way.

Well I'm off to a full day of training tomorrow. 8:00 am to 5:30 pm

Eamonn,

I didn't want to come off as the type of person that seeems to always find fault in things. I was there to learn not critique the training program and as in my first post I wasn't sure if it was just me over reacting. Next training session is Saturday and I think I'll try and find out the answer then.

SR540Beaver,

That's what I'm wondering, what kind of example that was set for the scouts doing the ceremony.

...The adults want us to do it right all the time but when it comes to them it doen't matter, throw out the rules...

So you have scouts losing respect for the ceremony.

I'm having the same problem too.

just you and your shadow

After being involved in my son's troop for three years and registered as a leader for two, I finally went to my first training the other night. I've been meaning to do this for some time but always miss the scheduled dates.

Well the training went good, about what I had expected and I did learn some things.

Was suprised at the number of people though.

This was New Leaders Essentials and there was around 50 there for training although I didn't count them.

They stated the night off with a flag ceremony done by some scouts from the troop that meets at this location. The ceremony went well and we started into the training portion when after about 10 minutes the scouts quietly walk to the front and with out saying anything or any ceremony, pick up the flags and walk to the back of the room.

Well at first I was kind of shocked and had somewhat of an urge to stand and offer a salute but since everyone else just remainded seated thats what I did also.

I don't know if I am over reacting to this or not. Seems that if we adults are to set the example then the one set that night was not a good one.

Maybe the people in charge had some good reason to do this, like the scouts did not want to stay for the whole time to do a flag retreat.

If that is it, then I would think that you could tell the attendees that they will see how a flag ceremony is done to present the flag and immediately there would be a retrieval of the flag.

Can someone on this forun tell me if I am over reacting to this and how you've seen it done, or if you do training how you handle this.

Thanks

I don't have one but I do have a quick story about skits.

Last weekends campout our troop held a reunion for the SM's old troop in which he made Eagle. Old troop has been folded for sometime so only a few adults, SM age, and old leaders of the troop were there.

One of our patrols did a skit about an indian drownng in his "Tee Pee" after drinking too much tea. Seems that one of the leaders of the old troop remembers doing this same skit when he was an 11 yo scout...50 years ago.

Just shows you how some skits have been around longer than we think.

Here is something that will make you think.

A three year old boy goes missing in Montana for THREE DAYS and is found alive. Yet this 12 yo trained Boy Scout seems to have lost his life.

When talking about searchers, the 3 yo the boy was found by a man who himself had become unsure of where he was.

After this long it would appear that maybe foul play was involved.

I can not imagine the agony that this dad and family is going through.

Here is a link to the story

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/Central/08/30/missing.boy.ap/index.html