BrentAllen

It has been made into a movie, or documentary. Check out "Trek - A Journey on the Appalachian Trail" If you decide you want to purchase it, make sure you read the reviews on Amazon. Most are very good, but some were expecting the film to be much different that what they got. Also, be aware there are a few scenes in it that you might not find very appropriate for Scouts (language, hand signs).

Dean, If you love Scouting, you will most likely love Wood Badge. Don't be discouraged by some of the posts you read here. It is NOT an executive MBA course - it is Scouting, demonstrating how a Troop should operate. In our council, you can take it as a two-weekend course, or a week-long course. (BTW, when my dad took the course in 1975, it was broken up over two or three weekends, not just one week). The participants are divided up into Patrols, they select a PL, we have a SM, several ASMs and an SPL. Troop Guides instruct the patrols, just like in a Troop. We have flag ceremonies, skill instructions, and games - just like in a Troop. We have Troop meetings and Patrol meetings. We teach team building and recognizing the strenghts of all the team members. We teach EDGE, which is the same as how we teach the boys to teach skills. All of this is done in the outdoors, at one of our council camps, just like a regular Troop camping trip. I hope your course is as fun as mine was!

We have two canoe trips planned in 2009, a 4 day/ 3 night trip to the Okefenokee Swamp, and a 10 day trek to Northern Tier. This has resulted in a few canoeing books finding their way onto my bedside table. I also stumbled across this piece, which is a little highbrow, but very insightful. I hope you enjoy it. Exhaustion and Fulfillment: The Ascetic in a Canoe 1944 Speech - Pierre Elliot Trudeau Source: originally published in French in Jeunesse Etudiante Catholique, November 1944. I would not know how to instill a taste for adventure in those who have not acquired it. (Anyway, who can ever prove the necessity for the gypsy life?) And yet there are people who suddenly tear themselves away from their comfortable existence and, using the energy' of their bodies as an example to their brains, apply themselves to the discovery of unsuspected pleasures and places. I would like to point out to these people a type of labour from which they are certain to profit: an expedition by canoe. I do not just mean "canoeing." Not that I wish to disparage that pastime, which is worth more than many another. But, looked at closely, there is perhaps only a difference of money between the canoeists of Lafontaine Park and those who dare to cross a lake, make a portage, spend a night in a tent and return exhausted, always in the care of a fatherly guide - a brief interlude momentarily interrupting the normal course of digestion. A canoeing expedition, which demands much more than that, is also much more rewarding. It involves a starting rather than a parting. Although it assumes the breaking of ties, its purpose is not to destroy the past, but to lay a foundation for the future. From now on, every living act will be built on this step, which will serve as a base long after the return of the expedition. and until the next one. What is essential at the beginning is the resolve to reach the saturation point. Ideally, the trip should end only when the members are making no further progress within themselves. They should not be fooled, though, by a period of boredom, weariness or disgust; that is not the end, but the last obstacle before it. Let saturation be serene! So you must paddle for days, or weeks, or perhaps months on end. My friends and I were obliged, on pain of death, to do more than a thousand miles by canoe, from Montreal to Hudson Bay. But let no one be deterred by a shortage of time. A more intense pace can compensate for a shorter trip. What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature. For it is a condition of such a trip that you entrust yourself, stripped of your worldly goods, to nature. Canoe and paddle, blanket and knife, salt pork and flour, fishing rod and rifle; that is about the extent of your wealth. To remove all the useless material baggage from a man's heritage is, at the same time, to free his mind from petty preoccupations, calculations and memories. On the other hand, what fabulous and undeveloped mines are to be found in nature, friendship and oneself! The paddler has no choice but to draw everything from them. Later, forgetting that this habit was adopted under duress, he will be astonished to find so many resources within himself. Nevertheless, he will have returned a more ardent believer from a time when religion, like everything else, became simple. The impossibility of scandal creates a new morality, and prayer becomes a friendly chiding of the divinity, who has again become part of our everyday affairs. My friend, Guy Viau, could say about our adventure, "We got along very well with God, who is a darn good sport. Only once did we threaten to break off diplomatic relations if he continued to rain on us. But we were joking. We would never have done so, and well he knew it. So he continued to rain on us." The canoe is also a school of friendship. You learn that your best friend is not a rifle, but someone who shares a night's sleep with you after ten hours of paddling at the other end of a canoe. Let's say that you have to be towed up a rapid and it's your turn to stay in the canoe and guide it. You watch your friend stumbling over logs, sliding on rocks, sticking in gumbo, tearing the skin on his legs and drinking water for which he does not thirst, yet never letting go of the rope; meanwhile, safely in the middle of the cataract, you spray your hauler with a stream of derision. When this same man has also fed you exactly half his catch, and has made a double portage because of your injury, you can boast of having a friend for life, and one who knows you well. How does the trip affect your personality? Allow me to make a fine distinction, and I would say that you return not so much a man who reasons more, but a more reasonable man. For, throughout this time, your mind has learned to exercise itself in the working conditions which nature intended. Its primordial role has been to sustain the body in the struggle against a powerful universe. A good camper knows that it is more important to be ingenious than to be a genius. And conversely, the body, by demonstrating the true meaning of sensual pleasure, has been of service to the mind: You feel the beauty of animal pleasure when you draw a deep breath of rich morning air right through your body, which has been carried by the cold night, curled up like an unborn child. How can you describe the feeling which wells up in the heart and stomach as the canoe finally rides up on the shore of the campsite after a long day of plunging your paddle into rain-swept waters? Purely physical is the joy which the fire spreads through the palms of your hands and the soles of your feet while your chattering mouth belches the poisonous cold. The pleasurable torpor of such a moment is perhaps not too different from what the mystics of the East are seeking. At least it has allowed me to taste what one respected gentleman used to call the joys of hard living. Make no mistake, these joys are exclusively physical. They have nothing to do with the satisfaction of the mind when it imposes unwelcome work on the body, a satisfaction, moreover, which is often mixed with pride, and which the body never fails to avenge. During a very long and exhausting portage, I have sometimes felt my reason defeated, and shamefully fleeing, while my legs and shoulders carried bravely on. The mumbled verses which marked the rhythm of my steps at the beginning had become brutal grunts of "uh! uh! uh!" There was nothing aesthetic in that animal search for the bright clearing which always marks the end of a portage. I do not want you to think that the mind is subjected to a healthy discipline merely by worrying about simplistic problems. I only wish to remind you of that principle of logic which states that valid conclusions do not generally follow from false premises. Now, in a canoe, where these premises are based on nature in its original state (rather than on books, ideas and habits of uncertain value), the mind conforms to that higher wisdom which we call natural philosophy; later, that healthy methodology and acquired humility will be useful in confronting mystical and spiritual questions. I know a man whose school could never teach him patriotism, but who acquired that virtue when he felt in his bones the vastness of his land, and the greatness of those who founded it.

The Antelope - the rarest of the Wood Badge Critters... My dad is an Antelope, but he doesn't have one of these new-fangled computers.

Kudu, Yes, a little chilly way up north here in Dunwoody! :-) Happy Official 2009! No, we haven't had patrols camp 300' apart yet, but not because anyone has prevented it. When we arrive at our destination, the PLs decide where they want to camp, and I then select the site for the adults. I check with the PLs to make sure they are ok with our site selection. Usually we don't have enough room to spread out too far, due to the characteristics of the site. I think we achieve most of what you are after by telling the adults (including me) they are not allowed in the patrol sites. This was especially important at summer camp, and the adults complied. I think I will start trying to select a site further away from the boys, when possible, and see if it makes a difference. We are headed down to the Okefenokee Swamp next month for a 4 day/ 3 night canoeing trip. They recommend following guidelines for bear country camping - doing your cooking at least 200' from the tents. That might make the distances a little bit of a challenge, but we might be able to get the adults on the other side of the cooking area. I paid a little ransom today to give an old 17' Ouachita canoe a new lease on life (a late Christmas present to myself). I don't know how old the canoe is, but it hasn't seen much water, other than rain. As soon as the temperature rises and the wind drops, we are going to hit the Chattahoochee and see how she handles. Every SM should own a canoe, no?

troop555, You might want to pick up a copy of "Passport To High Adventure" at your local Scout Shop. It covers National, Council and Do-It-Yourself High Adventure activities and programs. It is a very good resource. Happy New Year!

Kudu, Happy New Year! I'm wondering how things work in your unit when you go camping. Is it a Troop rule that patrols must camp at least 300' apart? Is this enforced by the SM? What happens if two patrols wish to camp closer to each other? Are they allowed to do that, or are they over-ruled by the SM?

I don't know if you can access this photo album without permission, but if you can, it is a great album of a local Troop's trek to Bissett (through Northern Tier). You can check out the gear NT provided. Let me know if the link works and you can get in. http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=6dyfsmz.beo20hqj&Uy=vvh4l&Ux=1&UV=658906882546_263994069503

You might be able to find a few facts in this report. It's from ABC, so take it for what it's worth. http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=6498405&page=1

Hmmm. Our band traveled down to Warm Springs to play for disabled persons. The school doesn't provide nearly enough funding to buy the instruments and equipment for the band at our public school. Money is raised through fund raisers and parent band boosters clubs.

Only a silly person would read that and think I was comparing the Salvation Army to a school band. The policy is Scouts can't wear their Scout uniform while raising money for another organization. (I don't know about in TX, but here in GA, band programs have been cut to the bone. Bands must raise money for instruments, equipment, trips, etc.) So, now you see the problem - who gets to decide which causes are worthy, and which aren't? Some would argue band is very worthy. Watch Mr. Holland's Opus and you might change your mind about band. You can substitute any group here you want - the bottom line is the BSA has the right to set the policy. Instead of getting into which causes are worthy, they said you can't do it for any. The old slippery slope argument.

A question for those who think Scouts should be allowed to wear their uniform while ringing the bell for the Salvation Army: Johnny Scout is in his school band, and is selling cookie dough to raise money for a band trip. He isn't having much success. He decides to wear his Scout uniform while selling it, just telling the customers that he is raising money for a trip (he doesn't mention it is for band, not Scouts). He finds he is much more successful selling when in Scout uniform. Question - do you have a problem with him wearing his Scout uniform while raising money for his band trip?

The Health and Medical Record we received for Northern Tier has the same height and weight chart as we are discussing, on page 6. It also mentions the total participant load per canoe must not exceed 600 lbs (3 people). Page 11 of the Expedition Planning Guide says anyone with significant hypertension (150/95) should be treated before arriving to reduce their blood pressure as close as possible to normal. If the Scouter showed up with high blood pressure AND was above the maximum weight limit for his height, I don't think he should have been surprised to get pulled.

Standing on the sidelines, getting nauseated with everyone else, it appears it is you, Bob, making all the assumptions. Beavah didn't say your unit was racing JYs, and notice he said inland on a fair day. Last time I checked, Safety Afloat applied even to Sea Scouts, which is all Beavah has been stating. And yes, I have been sailing, on inland waters in heavy winds, and in international waters.

The maximum weight appears to come from the middle of the "obese" section of the BMI chart, between a BMI of 32 & 33. See http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/chapter3.htm for the chart. Maybe we are unusual, but I don't see this affecting our unit much at all. I'm not saying we are fitness fanatics, but making weight isn't one of our problems. I work out regularly so I can keep up with the boys, and do the things I want to be able to do. We have worked a fitness section into our quarterly Honor Patrol competition, with the patrols competing using the exercises in the Tenderfoot requirement. They earn 1 point for each (correct) sit-up in 2 minutes, 3 points for each push-up, 10 points for each pull-up, 1 point for each inch over 36" in the standing long jump, and 1 point for each second faster than 2:30 in the quarter mile run. They go through this contest once a quarter. Ideally, they work on these on their own weekly so they can help their Patrol win the Honor Patrol award. I treat any Scout who can beat my score to an ice cream at Brusters. That's a little financial challenge to keep me in shape, as well. If that chart is causing you to worry, turn lemons into lemonaide. As Stephen Covey says, begin with the end in sight. Think about how much better you will feel, how much healthier you will be, how many more miles you will be able to hike, etc. if you start working out and start eating better. I got on a plan back in February - working out, using a personal trainer, cleaning up my diet - and dropped 10 pounds quickly. Cardio and strength improved a lot. If you have some overweight boys in your Troop, you can be a very real role model to them for losing weight and getting into shape. Given that we live in a country with a severy obesity problem, which leads to skyrocketing health care costs, my hat is off to the BSA for pushing this issue.

We are making our first trip to Northern Tier this summer. From what I've learned, you can go with 2 per canoe, if you like to do a lot of walking. With 3 per canoe, a crew should be able to make a portage in just one trip - 1 carrying the canoe, 1 carrying the "kitchen", and 1 carrying all the personal gear. With 2 per canoe, expect to make multiple trips over portages. Also, with 3 per canoe, the non-paddler can navigate, fish, rest or sleep.

Varsity Scouts is an entirely different program, aimed at sports programs. They can still earn ranks, but think soccer practices for meetings, and soccer games for campouts. Two very different animals. Boys who aren't interested in sports wouldn't have any reason to join. I have yet to run across of Varsity Team in our council. Baden-Powell said it best - "...the Patrol System. It is the best guarantee for permanent vitality and success for the Troop." "If the Scoutmaster gives his Patrol Leader real power, expects a great deal from him, and leaves him a free hand in carrying out his work, he will have done more for that boy's character expansion than any amount of school-training could ever do." IMO, the older boys get bored and drop out because they aren't given any real responsibility, any real ownership of the program. In Troops where they are given this, older boys stick around and run the program. The problem isn't with the age of the Scouts, it is with the way the adults run the Troop. I have seen the older boys running the program well in South Africa and here in Atlanta - it works, when given a chance.

Well, I guess South Africa is the exception (they are a Commonwealth nation, are they not?). We visited several different Scout groups while traveling there in 2004, but we never saw or heard any division based on age, or the term "Senior" Scouts. The biggest difference I saw was the Troop Scouters (our SM) were much younger and didn't have a son in the program (they weren't married, didn't have any kids). As they aged out of the Troop, they became Assistant Troop Scouters for a few years and then took over as TS.

I would like to add to Barry's post, expanding on the leadership development, to include character growth. Both leadership development and character growth take place in the patrol setting. Unfortunately, the patrol method is misunderstood, or completely ignored by many Troops. Just putting patches on shoulders, constantly forming ad hoc patrols for campouts, and selecting PLs for campouts, are not the patrol method. From Baden-Powell's Aids To Scoutmasterhip: It is important that the Scoutmaster recognize the extraordinary value which he can get out of the Patrol System. It is the best guarantee for permanent vitality and success for the Troop. It takes a great deal of minor routine work off the shoulders of the Scoutmaster. But first and foremost: The Patrol is the character school for the individual. To the Patrol Leader is gives practice in Responsibility and in the qualities of Leadership. To the Scouts it gives subordination of self to the interests of the whole, the elements of self-denial and self-control involved in the team spirit of cooperation and good comradeship. But to get first-class results from this system you have to give the boy leaders real free-handed responsibility - if you only give partial responsibility you will only get partial results. The main object is not so much saving the Scoutmaster trouble as to give responsibility to the boy, since this is the very best of all means of developing character. ... The more he gives them to do, the more they will respond, the more strength and character will they achieve. ... The object of the Patrol System is mainly to give real responsibility to as many of the boys as possible with a view to developing their character. If the Scoutmaster gives his Patrol Leader real power, expects a great deal from him, and leaves him a free hand in carrying out his work, he will have done more for that boy's character expansion than any amount of school-training could ever do. (This message has been edited by BrentAllen)

"In most other countries, boy scouting (or just scouts, if its co-ed) are for boys (or boys & girls if co-ed) 11-14/15. At this point the young must move to the next section (Venture, Venturing, Exploring, Senior, whatever its called). They don't have the problem of overlapping programs." I'm curious - which "other countries" do this? That is not what I've seen in my limited exposure to international scouting.

The Chattahoochee Nature Center is fantastic! A couple of years back, one of the leaders attending Roundtable had a Screech Owl fly head-on into the grill of his truck as he headed home. The owl's head was wedged in the plastic grill. He was able to remove it, and brought it back to the meeting room. After discussing several options, we determined I lived closer the Chatt. Nature Center than anyone present, and that would be the best place to take him. We put him in a plastic coffee can with some padding, and I headed home. He "woke up" on the drive home, but was pretty subdued. The next morning I had him at the CNC bright and early. They examined him and said he had a concussion and blood in one eye. They would give him antibiotics and see how he did. They called me back 2 days later and said he had fully recovered, and I could take him and release him or they would. We picked him up and took him back to his home turf, and my kids released him. It was a cool experience, and I took some nice pics. We've also had the CNC present their "Birds of Prey" show to the Cub Scout Pack. They would bring out a hawk and owl and teach the boys all about them. They do a great job!

We had this discussion about the CPR/First Aid reqs recently, though not to the extreme position that I first posted. This was a group of Scouter Wilderness First Aid Instructors, most of whom are probably MB counselors as well. One person opined that the reason the CPR requirement was included on all those different MBs was so the skill would be taught and practiced many different times, and the skill would sink in. If MB counselors just signed off because the Scout had completed it elsewhere, or had his Red Cross CPR card, they were missing the point, and the opportunity to ingrain that skill in the Scout. I pretty much agree with his theory. If the Scout insists he knows the skill, and you are working with a group, then have him teach the skill to the others in the group. As Beavah pointed out, the Red Cross requires annual testing and certification to carry their card. I also agree that common sense should prevail where a Scout just completed a requirement for one MB, and it is also required for another MB that week.

So, according to the double dipping suggested here, when a first year Scout goes to summer camp and completes Swimming MB, he should be credited with completing Canoeing 2, First Aid 3b, Lifesaving 13, Motorboating 2, Rowing 2, Small-Boat Sailing 1b, Water Sports 2, and Whitewater 1b, c. Sure, he's just an 11 year-old kid, but he did it once, so he's got it down forever, right? Give him his blue cards and sign him off, right?

I must give credit where credit is due. While I share the same sentiment, those words originally came from Green Bar Bill, in the Third Edition of the Scoutmaster Handbook (1938), in the section on building a new Troop. That paragraph wraps up a charge he recommends the new Scoutmaster deliver to his new Scouts. Here is the rest of it: "The Troop we organize here must be one of the finest and most active Troops ever started. It must measure up with the best Troops in the Council. Every Scout in it must be right on the job all of the time to be the best kind of a Scout he can. Ours must be a winning team in the great game of Scouting! ... At first we'll keep our numbers small; we'll pick our men. More important than anything else I have mentioned is the Scout Oath or Promise to which every member subscribes when he joins. It is this - (give Scout Oath). Unless you feel sure that you want to live up to this Oath the very best you can, you shouldn't become a Scout. The Oath and the twelve points of the Law are a tough lot of things for any fellow to live up to; only those with grit and nerve should tackle them. You had better think that part over pretty carefully before you make up your minds to be Scouts." My admiration for Green Bar Bill grows with every page I turn! :-) Too bad much of that material has been edited out of the current Handbook. I think we sometimes get caught up in the numbers game, trying to recruit every boy to be a Boy Scout. While I wish every boy wanted to be a Scout, I think we end up spending a lot of time on boys who just don't care to be. They might enjoy the camping and hiking, but they never really sign on to the ideals - the Oath and Law - and they end up being discipline black holes, sucking up all your time and energy. Or they are on the Lone Scout Eagle Program while a member of your Troop (taking from your Troop, but not giving back). I just don't care to entertain those boys in our Troop. We'll do everything we can to help those boys who really want to be an active Scout; I have very little patience for those who just want to waste my time.(This message has been edited by BrentAllen)

The real price of membership in this Troop will be unfailing regular attendance at its meetings and outings, and steady progress in all the things that make a Scout "Prepared." If I put my own time into the activities of this Troop I shall certainly expect you to do your part with equal faithfulness. Is that plain - and fair?