whitepine

These are all great ideas! I think that getting the guys to invite others can work, and what I'm really looking for is getting some younger kids to join, whether through Cubs or friends. Thanks for the help!

I am in a very small troop. There are 7 members, 6 of which are 15 or older. I am an Eagle, there are 4 Life Scouts, 1 First Class Scout, and 1 new 11 year old Scout who is a Life's younger brother. The deal is that we are extremely top heavy with no feeder pack and there are few children in the struggling church we are at. We are outside a medium sized city there are plenty of other troops just minutes away. The troop will inevitably fold in the next two years as some guys age out. With all of this said, I really want to see the troop survive. We use the patrol system as much as possible

I don't know how familiar some of you are with the Royal Ambassadors, or RAs. Most of the boys in my church, including me, were involved in it. It was a boy's Southern Baptist missions program and had some Scouting influences. I was even a member of the RA's and Cub Scouts at the same time, though the RA group was viewed as more of a church activity.

I don't know yet if my any in my troop were negatively affected, but the sad events of that day certainly made an impact on them. We should all be thinking of the scout's family and friends who are going to have to live without their loved one.

My troop went camping at Stone Mountain this past weekend. I was at a Lodge event and didn't go. The state park is in my council and is about roughly 1 houraway from where we live. The troop he was with is from a town much further away and was camping there that weekend as well. For those not familiar with the mountain, it is basically eroded away to expose a huge rock bald. Although past deaths and injuries have led to some better marked trais, warning signs, and railing; there are areas where the gradual slope can intice people to go too far out on the rock. As fate would have it, both

It's really sad to hear about another camp closing for any reason. That's why my council's camp isn't directly owned by the council, it's really just being run by it. A charitable trust in a nearby city owns it, and we keep acquiring nearby land so that we can maintain a wilderness setting.

Many of the senior staff members at my local camp have taken NCS courses and they appear to be very detailed. I know a guy who took a weeklong Leave No Trace course in June and he said that it was a very well put together curriculum to learn from. They basically lived and breathed the principles all week long. For people that don't know much about it, this is the real deal. I was under the impression that it was a fairly common program among adults. (I'm a youth member so I'm not so cued in to "official" training.)

If homosexuals and/or female youth were allowed in the BSA, I predict that the official BSA would shrink and that other scouting groups would be formed or grow. I also think that entire councils would secede.

I have a friend working on her Gold Award project who has never slept in a tent on a GS camping trip. Her troop stick to arts and crafts and service projects.(This message has been edited by whitepine)

I will concede that my lodge doesn't do everything accurately when it comes to ceremonies. For instance, the pipe totem and dance were invented by us because of the importance of tobacco in our area. We also tend to do the same thing every time we have a ceremony due to tradition. Part of that is fear of change. I am not involved in Indian Affairs or Ceremonies, but I am friends with many people that are and it would be interesting to see a more historically accurate induction ceremony.

Wow BSA24, I am disappointed. You chose Wahissa Lodge #118 to single out and accuse of ignorance with your YouTube link. Wahissa Lodge, MY lodge, has a GREAT Indian Affairs program. Our dancers regularly go to powwows and dances across the state and nation to learn more about their styles of dance. You seem to forget that they spend lots of time, money, and research into what they do.Also, our drum team learns true Native American songs to use for tap out ceremonies and competitions. To top it all off, many people think they are good at what they do because our competition teams consistently d

My old troop (note word old), had a horrible way of electing people for leadership positions. Only a few offices had real competition, and oftentimes SPLs and other leaders were given positions because they needed to complete rank requirements. One memorable SPL hated Scouting, went to summer camp only once, and didn't tell people he was a Scout. His parents recently pushed him through Eagle, go figure. The troop is/was almost wholly composed of kids forced to go to meetings by their parents and patrols were barely used at all. I knew my time there was up when I was denied the chance to r

If you were King of the BSA and did all of those things, Scouting would be even better than it is now!

JoeBob- I'm on my school's shooting team and agree that switching between shooting methods is difficult. However, at most camps you can rest your rifle on a sandbag AND use peep sights, which makes qualifying relatively easy.

I sure never got a prize for Webelos I! That's similar to giving participation trophies to every player in a sports little league. However, a flashlight or compass would work if you find a gift to be necessary.

After my den bridged into Boy Scouts, we became the Raven Patrol. (The Raven comes from the "Raven Scout" program at Camp Raven Knob.) Our yell was the classic "Kah-Kah! Ka-Kah!"

The way I see it, the Tea Party appears to be elderly couples and housewives who advocate for change in government through peaceful rallies and changes in voting. On the other hand, the Occupy movement has a large amount of complaining freeloaders who like to camp out and protest against the inequalities of capitalism instead of getting a job and helping themselves.

I think that having time requirements for the lower ranks would be very bad for encouraging rank advancement. As of now, you often get kids who are really excited once they join, and as long as a scout works hard, he can easily get first class in 1-2years. There is no reason to hamper success by having minimum time requirements. Kids would be slowed down in their advancement and it may send the wrong message (don't try too hard and be too successful).

Is this for a competition/award or for fun? From my experiences, sandbags and such are usually available. I even did rifle shooting merit badge with a sandbag.

Warning: The following is coming from a conservative Christian who finds homosexuality to be unnatural. Although many people on here don't like to admit it, the BSA is very heavily influenced by the Christian religion. If the BSA allowed homosexual members, many Christians would leave the program. I think that it would hurt the program and our youth greatly. On the topic originally presented here, it seems like the woman who was kicked out of the Cub Pack was just asking for trouble. She obviously knew that she could be kicked out, but took the chance anyway. And now she is startin

Dear God and all that is Holy, why would a person think that extending the school day that late would go smoothly? Maybe a gradual change of length over a few decades or centuries would work, but not going until 6! I can't even focus in the latter half of my 4th block class. (during a 7hr day) It never ceases to amaze me that adults think that they can change the lives of children and young adults without protest from the affected minors. To put this in context for you, the idea suggested is like a forced absorption of the BSA by the Girl Scouts. You would see large numbers of people dro

You say that some people in your troop believe that the OA is just slave labor. They must remember that the Order is service oriented. We believe in giving back to our local scouting communities, keeping up the ideals of scouting, and having fun together. Give it a chance in your troop because it is a very rewarding program.

I suggest the 2man backpacking tents out there that are popular with scout troops. My old troop used to buy Alps Mountaineering Taurus 2man tents and they are awesome. I even have one. Eureka is another good brand to buy from. By the way, I think that Campmor would be a good place to get your tents from. They are really cheap and may be having a sale right now on Eureka products.

My council has a camporee once a year. I have been to a few of them and they are ok, but not amazing. They are usually campouts focused on learning scout skills and celebrating the scouting movement or firefighters, or soldiers, or Native Americans, well you get the point. However, this year the camporee is advertised as being a backpacking/outback campout a few miles into the woods at our camp. I don't know how that's going to work out, but I am curious and will probably go. FYI: Our council is relatively small in geographical size, and has never been one for the jamboree/ non camping ty

Our council is small in geographical size, so we tend to have a council camporee once a year. I've been to a few of them and they're ok, but nothing too awesome. I am hoping to persuade the scouts in my troop to go this fall because they have never been. We are supposed to be having a backpacking jamboree coming up. How that works, I don't know, but everything at the event will be a few miles into the woods at our camp. So I guess the only way you can judge one is to actually go to it! I am hoping to persuade the scouts in my troop to go this fall because they have never been. It will be