Krampus

I'd agree. That's a mess. The boys are better off fumbling their way around their meals than having "Super Dad" try to "handle" everything for them. Just makes you want to shake your head sometimes.

Careful, @@Stosh, now BSA is becoming the Michelle Obama of what Scouts eat and drink... http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/04/22/drink-right-why-nows-the-time-to-replace-soda-and-bug-juice-with-water/

The new silicate lotion they sell now works better, smaller size and remains active longer without reapplication.

No argument as to why BSA is doing it. I think that's evident...or should be to anyone who bothers to look. What smacks as just plain silly is that they ban things like squirt guns, water balloons and bubble ball and yet, allows units to engage in firearms use. I cannot count the number of units I visited that said they were following BSA firearms policies but, in reality, they weren't. One would think BSA's energies would be better spent limiting their liability along those lines before focusing on inane activities like making sure Timmy's water balloon is not bigger than a ping pong ball

Yeah, unless it is a safety or disciplinary issue, adults don't delivery any of these messages. Nor should the adults step in. The PL or SPL delivers them. If the adult (read: registered and trained Scouter, not parents) has to say anything they go through the PL or SPL. Lastly, when giving criticism use the "Sandwich Principle": Good thing + Thing being criticized using a positive tone and example + Good thing.

Yup. Exactly. Get a high wind evening and that bag starts to sway? It may hold 98% of the time just fine. It's that 2% you want to guard against. Been hungry for a few days one time because gear failed (rope, caribiners, someone's knot skills) and took a few days to re-supply. As soon as I got home I went in to my climbing gear and got my good stuff out. As God as my witness, I will never go hungry again.

How about a custom smoker? I'll even deliver.

It is is high quality you should get by. However, if you get wind storms or "play" on your line the S biners are not as secure as the locking carbiners. I like fault-tolerance and redundancy.

Got mine in Europe. Very nice. Deuter and Ortlieb make some seriously nice gear. Like Sea/Summit "dry packs" without the hefty price.

Most climbers and outdoor enthusiasts will tell you the S biners are, well, PO S biners. For bear bags I recommend these. The are more expensive, but if you've ever picked up after your bear bag fell from 30ft up because your caribiner (or S biner) gave out you'll go to REI (or wherever) and spend the extra money. Had these for over 15 years...have not given out yet.

Not everyone is going to be the same with kids. My ADL and ACM were so uptight in front of the kids but they were great behind the scenes. They were patient as Job, but did not have the rapport with the kids I did. To each his own. I think that is true of any parent. If they don't know Scouting it is harder to bring them in. If they are not Americans and do not have exposure to Scouting I think that makes them even harder to bring in. Maybe the generational issue is that the current 40-50-somethings that are volunteers had their kids later in life and were more established as paren

As I said, the majority of the problem is people not following bear protocol. If the first family had done what they are supposed to the second family would not have had the issue. I don't stay in a camp where there are bears if, after doing an inspection, I find ANY food or smellables around. Talking to rangers about problem spots will help you pick you camp site too. As far as Scout camps go, reading their incident reports you will see nearly all of the reports have egregious violations of bear protocol.

They have new covers that are lightweight AND cover your entire pack like an eggs, straps and all. Very nice! Can even double as a shelter in a pinch.

Gotta use the advanced editor in the top left corner of the post window. Then click the image icon in the middle of the second tool bar. Past the URL of the picture you want to post.

Wasn't enforced if this actually true. I've seen water guns and such used all over Scout camps...and Jamboree...for a long, long time. If BSA truly had it on the books you'd think they'd have enforced it. Water guns have been around for a long, long time...far before the 1980s. I highly doubt BSA had "no water pistols" on the books back in the 1930s-1960s. Heck we used them at Day Camp from 2000-2008 and nobody said a thing...and we had council and national folks on staff. Go figure.

Yup! And if you don't have NSPs you don't have 10 clueless, new kids on one patrol trying to figure out KP. Our PLs have a check list (think: pilot pre-flight manual they used to keep in their flight suit) on what gets done when. On Sunday AM the cooks cook, everyone else packs their gear. QMs inspect the tents with the PL before dropping them. Cooks tent is last. After breakfast, while the others do KP the cook packs his gear, then he and his tent-mate get their tent inspected, drop the tent and pack it. After KP the QM and PL check out the PL gear and it gets loaded. This takes place

For most things, yes. For others the sea/summit bags are pretty good and hold their seal pretty well. When you have several ziplocks to get, having them in a sea/summit bag helps. Getting a bright orange or yellow one can help spot your stuff as it floats downstream...or if you leave your diddybag of stuff laying around and need to find it.

Heck now. Given that they are making generic pack covers that are amazingly good these days, it nearly defeats the purpose of needing a pack to be water proof/resistant. There are few things I would throw out just because they are degrading slightly. My tent's fly is starting to do the same. I went to an REI sale where they were getting rid of things like extra poles, flies and such a while back. Spent $40 on an extra fly for my tent. Now I can rotate in that spare any time.

@@tnmule20....just be careful with sizing. You may find very quickly that 65l gets filled up very fast. I do ultralight a great deal and I can fill my 85l pack pretty fast...usually with stuff others cannot fit in their pack. I don't mind. I like the extra space.

@@CalicoPenn, so it took BSA from 1910 until 2015 to ban squirt guns because they just realized that teaching proper firearms safety means not pointing ANYTHING at anybody is the proper way to act? 105 years to realize what people with common sense knew for 105 years!!! Please. This is nothing more than a reaction to litigation or potential litigation. It may be masked under the guise of "proper firearms management" but it is not.

Right. BSA shows the great water sports but then the kids gets there and all the cool stuff has been closed down due to litigation. These floats you see at a lot of camps are being phased out for the same reason. One local camp phased it out because of injuries (240lbs dads launching 70lbs Scouts when the rules say to find someone your own weight) and replaced it with...wait for it...bubble ball. Now they have to find another cool thing for the scouts to do. Wanted to put up a zip line in to the water but they got shot down for that too.

If I am not mistaken, the overwhelming majority of bear attacks at all Scout camps are caused by people not following bear protocol. Philmont is a perfect example. When you look at why bears were in camp they can trace it back to food or other smellables brought inside the Bearmuda Triangle.

I'm talking about the cost of the materials BSA's provides. There's no way a 10x10 tent, crate floor, electric a few chairs and a table costs BSA more,than $500 for the week. Given their profit margin on everything else at jamboree they are making a killing.

I'll bet you BSA's cost is no where near $1400 for what they provide.

I'll never go. Rip off of the highest order.