boomerscout

I pulled this from whiteblaze.net which is a site for App Trail hikers. Ms. Leller, the poster, was replying to a comment that Scouts today are basically incompetent -- don't know how to act, behave, prepare for the wilderness. So, I'm wondering if we should pay our Scoutmasters? Trained as wilderness rangers, SM would be their full-time job; they would run 2 or 3 troops to earn fulltime pay? Here is Ms Leller: "I just retired from scouting after 15 years as a scout leader, 10 of those as an assistant scoutmaster. I still continue as a backpacking and hiking merit badge counselor. Sadly

I am surprised Tanah Keeta did not provide water & ice without asking. Dehydration and heat exhaustion can be serious. I wonder if Dickinson State Park imposed water restrictions on them? Like you said, there are other council camps. Many allow the SM to attend free if the entire troop goes to camp. Tire Kingdom and AT&T Wireless used to donate large chunks of money to this camp. Getting the vendors signed for the pizza card is really an adult activity. We look for good pizzarias in a 360 degree circle within two miles of the Wal-Mart or the mall. We try to sign as many as we can

Yes, and they are the first to insist that those "not so nice little boys" be thrown out of the troop. -- Hal Unless, of course, those boys are their own little angels as part of our info pack for parents of new scouts, we enclose a copy of some of BP's writings on the patrol method

We never made much money with spaghetti either -- too much work, and potential customers did not want to eat in a basement (charter org's lunchroom) for their night out. First, stop spending money on patrol competition treasure chest rewards. It sends the wrong message anyway. Sell the remaining stuff to your Scouts against individual Scout accounts. Explain the facts of life to the boys. And, what possessed you to buy a Monopoly game? After you pay off the loans, money shld only go for needed camp gear & whatever is absolutely required right then. . Can you contact other troops for th

High Adventure is well & good, but now it may be time for higher adventure. They've been to Philmont-have they been north of Glacier? They've been to Northern Tier-have they been to the far north? Yes, this stuff costs money. So, what kind of fund-raising do they do on their own? Have they been taught project management? Are they all EMTs? Do they all have the Hornaday silver medal? Camporees are more for the t-2-1 level. As several have mentioned, it's boring for older Scouts; they need something with more scope. Helping the younger Scouts is good if it's not the same stuff over an

Way back when, for our trip way out West, we took the train so we could slowly acclimatize to altitude. We got tickets for one compartment. Everyone else rode the sleeper coach. We carried everything on board, and piled-secured-everything into the comparment -- leaving room for one bed. It worked fine. Haven't been on a train in quite a while, so don't know about nowadays.

sounds like time for another High Adventure! Where haven't they been? Plan for a bike tour of Europe, maybe? To qualify they'll need to get re-involved with Scouting

A lot of current teaching theory (I can't spell pedagogical

carpentry, definitely. Learn how to flip houses!

instead of a cheap outer duffel, we use a freebie sturdy cardboard box. Put the pack inside the box, add some wadded newspaper, tape or glue the box shut, lash a handling rope around it & off it goes. Forgot to mention we cover any & all printing with brown spray paint before writing our destination address on it. The rope "handle" holds the tags.

scouting.org states either {age 14 & finished 8th grade} or {age 15} so, looks like not

I'd like to see Stalking returned; in this PC era it would prob have to be renamed. Also Invention merit badge.

position badges -- Patrol Leader, etc -- could go on the shoulders of the shirt as epaulets

I had better luck donating a Handbook & a Fieldbook to the school library. captive audience and all that on "get a book for book report" day I donated a one year sub of Boy's Life to the local library. It became the least read of all the youth mags, so I did not renew the gift

does anyone know if the Campfire Girls (aka Campfire, as it's now co-ed) has more of an outdoors program than has the Girl Scouts?

What did WEBELOS originally stand for? A) Wolf, Bear, Lion, Scout then, shouldn't it be WOBELIS?

why so much CPR? Because any one particular Scout may take only one of the aquatics mb. Even if he takes several, who knows which he'll take first? Yes, would be nice if every Scout shows up at camp with current year CPR certificate from Red Cross

there is one big problem with asking such questions at a BOR or SM conference. If the Scout has any street wisdom at all, then he is not going to say anything that may throw a wrench into his advancement proceedings.

Uk Scout camping tents commonly hold four or more, while here in America we seem to favor two man tents. I wonder why the difference?

was he feeling rushed? You said meeting was about to close; being rushed may stress out a lot of kids interacting with adults in a FORMAL situation. Maybe you could encourage him to try for the public speaking m.b.

try sporting goods stores selling hunting clothing. I got mine at a big box

be thankful you have any parents at all

IMKathy with enough lead time, you can sometimes work out a special deal. some of our Scouts wanted to earn farm mechanics. This was a bit difficult as we are located in a metro area. we asked, and camp provided, a counselor for farm mechanics. they worked on the camps trucks, tractors, etc. we did make a field trip to a nearby farm implement dealer-also arranged in advance. Our own parents drove our own Scouts to this, so other than checking for sufficient insurance, no big deal.

for Urban Eagle ---> Wilderness Survival M.B.: using your Scouting skills, show how to make a shelter for a homeless person living in the downtown area. You may only use materials found in a typical dumpster. Explain how you would improve the shelter if below freezing temps are predicted. Spend one night in this shelter.

Hey KnotHead: "Many of our guys get 20 nights in year 1 (including 6 at summer camp) so 30 total wouldn't be too hard" a lot of troops spend half their monthly camps in cabins instead of in tents. For those kids it's much harder if they can't tote up until they reach First. Many camps push staying in their cabins instead of in their tents--so no 6 nite credit there!