boomerscout

Eagle92:

I agree with what you say, and they will do all this once they're in Scouts. The problem seems to be to get them into Scouts in the first place. Let's give them a taste of Scouts, and of (some) council camp programs, with some advance credit to sweeten the deal.

camp is just for Webelos; no "big guy" Scout patrols around to tease or annoy them. Four days of one year should not interfere with their other Webelos activities.

Guests? they pay for camp. they are told what camp will involve

I do believe I understand your points of view. But, how much skill does it take to sleep in a tent?

Council camp runs a four day summer camp for Webelos. Gives them a taste of Scouting, and what they can look forward to (graduating from BB rifles to real firearms, etc). Lots of Mothers & den chiefs in attendance. I think being under canvas should earn some credit.

Thirty nights after First Class may take three years. Many will just say to heck with it

Requirement 4b: help a Scout or Webelos prepare for a campout. So, why not go the rest of the way with this? Give them a card or certificate to later stick in their logbook

if your end goal is to go lite, then don't buy any heavy car-camping stuff except for the ice chest & a few chairs. the lite stuff can be used with car camping.

a cheap discount store tent will last a year (just) of car camping, by then you should be ready to go lite

camping log to start in Webelos -- helps get more to crossover. rgular summer camp can be used once & up to a max of six days. . High Adventure may be used without limit as long as 50 miler is earned each time. Twelve nights must be sleeping alone. Four nights tent must be no closer than 100 yds from next nearest.

cooking for two days won't allow everyone else a chance to cook. cooking for nine people is a lot of work! won't have time for anything else. he will have two kitchen helpers??

my own feelings are that camp mb should be the nature-conservation, the woodcraft (scoutcraft), the really messy or the noisy. Yet my own council camp offers the citizenships, athletics, etc. this is probably to get the older Scouts to keep coming to camp.

We suggest the citizenships for January through March. MB counselor likes to have about five at a time at the initial meeting(s)

Camp wide field trips cost more than you may believe

when you left after two years--what rank did you achieve?

in the Scouts during first grade? not at age six you weren't-not when you mention your "troop"

the sticker is required by law. all imports are supposed to be marked with country of origin. this used to apply to just manufactured goods, but now includes produce

how do you encourage them to select and plan a "higher adventure" program?

by starting 'em off gradual-like. as was already mentioned, they're too young to have much in the way of forward planning skills and experience. We thought some of our Scouts might like to go to Northern Tier. On the other hand, what if they didn't like canoe camping? A drain on the finances then. Part one was to encourage sign-up for swimming and canoeing m.b. at camp to see if they liked aquatics. That fall we scheduled a two day canoe trip on a nearby canoeing stream. Next Spring was another two day -- diff river. That fall -- ditto. Over the winters we showed canoeing movies and worked on wilderness fitness. They came up with the idea of NT (finally!). We ended up canoeing the Quetico for two weeks

GreyEagle's post made me think some of the team games from the TV show Survivor may be appropriate

tents are especially mandatory in state parks. otherwise, when you change your clothes, you may be mooning someone's grandmother

wouldn't it be better to carry your bear spray on your hip? seems it would take too long to dig out of a pack

the theory is that since a tent doesn't look like prey, the bear will just pass it by--unless it has smellables in or on it.

there may also be the idea that sleeping in a tent-especially one with a floor-isolates you from contact with dried mouse poop (hanta virus)

sleeping under the stars used to be encouraged at Philmont. If a light misting was forecast, the guide book said to just cover yourselves with the tarp or dining fly. Everyone inside a tent was the rule for later years; so, sleeping under the stars wasn't necessarily wrong--depends on the year.

On watering the bushes: you don't really want to walk to the trench in the middle of the night. This is when the predators are out; too easy to step on a snake. You don't water in a pit latrine either because of the salts that attract critters. Philmont asks everyone to pee on the rocks (could have snakes at night), or onto the packed down trail (no vegetation). In heavy bear country a lot of us carry a pee bottle we set outside the tent-downwind.

If we always sleep two to a tent, there's no room for the bear!

one of your ASMs needs to one-on-one with the disaffected. what do they think of Scouting so far? if they could change two things in the troop, or in Scouting, what would that be? Trying to please everyone all the time is a recipe for disaster.

Local site selected for National Scouting Center

Agreement reached for BSA to purchase 10,000 acres in Glen Jean, Mount Hope area

By Jackie Ayres

Register-Herald Reporter

The Boy Scouts of America announced Monday they have entered into a purchase and sales agreement with the Meadow Creek Coal Corporation for more than 10,000 acres of land in the Glen Jean-Mount Hope area to locate a National Scouting Center, which will include a new high-adventure base.

BSA chose the Garden Ground Mountain site, in the New River Gorge region, after assessing 80 proposals from 28 states.

BSA is now in the process of submitting an application to the Fayette County Commission for rezoning the property, which BSA says will provide the Boy Scouts with the flexibility to grow for the next 100 years in West Virginia and to potentially add more than the high-adventure base if that opportunity presents itself.

The BSA still has not confirmed where the National Scout Jamboree will be relocated. That event, which attracts thousands of scouts from all over the world each year, has been held at Fort A. P. Hill Virginia since 1981 but will be moving from that location after next years event.

The BSA says it is currently conducting an extensive due diligence process to determine the feasibility of locating the Jamboree at the Goshen Scout Reservation in Rockbridge County, Va. However, it has been rumored that West Virginia is also being considered as a permanent home for the National Jamboree.

- - -

In a press release, BSA said they chose West Virginia for the National Scouting Center because of its unique offerings, including some of the best whitewater rafting, rappelling, mountain biking and other activities not found anywhere else.

We are extremely excited about West Virginia playing such an important role in the National Scouting Center and in expanding our existing high adventure bases, said Jack Furst, chairman of the National Scouting Center project and member of the BSA National Board.

The beauty of the New River Gorge region and the opportunity for world-class high adventure and other outdoor activities speaks for itself. This will offer a tremendous, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Scouts coming from all over the country.

Currently, BSA has three existing high-adventure bases in New Mexico, Minnesota and Florida. Annually, these three bases serve more than 50,000 youths, with 20,000 more wait-listed.

According to Judy Radford, executive director of the 4-C Economic Development Authority, the New Mexico high-adventure base is comparable to the base slated for West Virginia.

With this in mind, Radford estimates that approximately 80 new jobs will be created annually along with 1,000 seasonal jobs. This will create an annual payroll of about $6 million. It will also inject about $10 million annually into the economy, Radford said.

The high-adventure base may open as early as 2012.

The BSA expects to close on the new property sometime this fall.

The experience in West Virginia has been just incredible from Governor Manchins office, to the local officials in Fayette County, to the National Park Service it has truly been a partnership throughout every step of the way, Furst said.

We are moving from vision to reality in West Virginia. There are many steps along the way, and we are very excited about the opportunities we can bring to this region of the state.

E-mail: jayres@register-herald.com

from Scouter forum of 6-11-2003: black sash with white stripe or white arrow are from the early, early days of OA.

a year is much too long. by the end of summer camp --at the latest--the newbies should be integrated with their "real" patrols. Even sooner if they pass T'foot earlier

going into camp some of the "1st year" will be close to First Class. Keeping them with the babies will be insulting.

we try for transitioning the first or second month. Even sooner if they say they're ready to run with the big boys

Scoutleader: I agree with all your sentences except the third. The wealth of this nation seems to have shrunk while its supply of money has increased. I sure don't have any answers.

wealth can always be created. Examples: couple guys go out & find some gold. they sell it to the mint in return for some of the newly produced coinage, couple other guys go over the mountain to cut down some trees on unclaimed land. Town can now replace its straw huts with wooden shacks--town becomes wealthier. Scouts help monastery monks go fishing. They bring back enough fish that people can stop raising turnips in their home garden and have time for other things. Someone else invents the Internet; people use it to educate themselves-town becomes wealthier. The pie can always be made bigger if you've the will

I wonder if such merit badges as hiking, cycling, camping, backpacking & survival are going to be done away with? Many times these are done by Scouts alone or with a few buds. If a Scout works on Whitewater, does an adult have to be in the kayak at all times?

Patrol cooking will have to be abolished. Scouts could burn their little hands. All cooking will have to be done by Culinary Institute certified chefs.

Most of our Scouts go to the same school. If they're caught playing Lazer Tag, would it be deemed a school event?

One underlying purpose of Scouting is to teach enjoyable life skills. One such skill is to enjoy the outdoors. If a patrol wants to go camping on their own, then haven't we succeeded? They may need to borrow troop equipment; should that be held against them?

hammock? if you're bringing a hammoch, then you also need to bring a helmet, elbow & knee pads. Expect a daily sneak attack throwing you out of the hammock.

after we clean the latrine, we hang a couple flystrips and a pine scented air freshener

Oh, yuck! It seems as if the presenters of this game were totally inept in its presentation. Looks like no-one in your entire group got the point of it.

If we take the troop as a unit, we always have competition within in it as patrol competitions. Yet, we expect the troop as a whole to always hike in the same direction. Maybe you could take the course again, but elsewhere.

Wealth is created out of nothing lots of times. An author creates a bestseller out of nothing, inventors create that which hasn't been seen before -- such as the World Wide Web. Even banks create money out of thin air when they make more loans than they have deposits (OK, not such a good example). If the money supply was truly fixed, then swelling populations would never find jobs.

perhaps your Scouts would like to read accounts by their peers on the Philmont experience http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/philmont.html (or just google: Philmont selden)

for short films on canoeing in the Boundary Waters www.holry.org/essays/promtionalfilms/