mashmaster

BTSR has gone through some rough times but it is beautiful. It is hot, a) it is in Texas, b) it is in West Texas. It is higher elevation that most think. The first year program is up on top of a great big hill. Not sure why that is but they manage. Their high adventure program is really good. When we went there were staffing issues but that was in 2017 so hopefully those have been resolved. Tahuaya is wooded with mainly oaks and cedar trees. It is pretty, and has some fun features like natural surface rappelling. It is on the smaller side of camps. But I have heard it is fun.

Personally, I have told scouts when they had the camping and rank requirements but not my approval. 100% of the time, the boys understood and agreed. 100% of the time I got an angry email from the parent. It was never a blanket statement of mine but each one on an individual basis. I have been called many names in those emails. And I still stand by each of those decisions. I also have never been a fan of "Scout of the Year" awards. Scouting is a personal journey and these awards imho tells a scout he is better than the other scouts which I disagree with.

So, if I understand that statement, any Sea Scout can earn a merit badge as long as they have First Class rank. They do not need to be part of a Scouts, BSA troop.

I have seen it both ways. We had an ASM that basically was in charge of the first year parents. When we went to camp, we assigned them jobs like you are the photographer for the waterfront activities, you are the photographer for horsemanship. You just need to have a barrier that prevents the umbilical cord. The youth need to know that they need to talk with the patrol leader and SPL and in last case another adult than the parent. The parents need training about what to expect. Sadly, the training that I have seen for adults at summer camp is really bad so I don't recommend it. but

no dress whites anymore. We have navy blue uniforms now. They are sharp. Yeah same parents and adults. The youth I can deal with

He just stepped down publicly, stating it is because of the adult leaders....... sigh. Now to move forward. Sometimes I wish I had a drinking habit.

I'll put this into troop terms... SPL is unresponsive, over and over again SM and ASM (me) reach out to him in multiple forms of communication without action or reply. No more than one or two messages a day.... nothing.... requesting simple things like what it the meeting plan for this week? Finally get a message from the parents, "stop badgering my son"..... If your son doesn't want to do the job or at least try, teach them to walk up to us and tell us so we can get someone who wants the job and can do the work. His actions affect the entire unit.

Ahem, and Ships and Posts..... We aren't doing anything special. And to note this is the 50th year of girls in BSA scouting btw. Sea Scouts led the charge in 1969.

Welcome to the campfire

Our ship, all that were eligible are already in OA. Our girls aren't high enough rank yet.

ugh, seriously people suck

From him: I wouldn’t be here without all of you. Life is short and today is all that we have control over! I am glad you didn’t do chest compressions. 😂 I couldn’t control what happened to me, but I can change how I react. Your perspective and memories really help put together the accident. I’m glad someone saw me go over the bridge!!

(Long true story, stay to the end) Surreal lunch today for me. It brought bake memories that had slowly faded from my memory. In September of 2016, I was on a bike ride with my loving wife and a group of riders passed us. Moments later, there was an accident, a horrible accident. The rider in front had a blowout and crashed, next thing we see is a rider fly over the barrier on the bridge and fall 50 feet onto limestone. Most were in shock, and my co-worker got down to him to help him. I called 911, started directing traffic and someone called for someone who knew CPR. I raced down thinking th

LOL, but I can smoke a brisket like nobody's business

Looks great, I am Texan but never heard of it. I am going to try it

We use Scoutbook for for advancement. It is nice because we can do Scouts,USA and Sea Scout advancement tracking in one place. For calendar we use Google calendar. For communication : youth use Discord, adults use Slack. Email for long info. Youth do not read email.....ever

I see this no different than if I wanted my daughter who was in Girl Scouts and did an Gold Award project to retroactively get credit towards Eagle for that work.. That isn't how life works, it comes off as her and her father playing the system and setting a really bad president of the first Female Eagle if she is in fact awarded it. I will say that I have sat in on many Eagle boards and the range of kids is very wide. There is the boy that went above and beyond in leadership, merit badges, service, and project. Then there is the boy that meets the minimum requirements barely. They

I am happy to hear that

This is kinda my point where I am right now. A lot of these new troops in my small sampling of about 6 have very inexperienced leaders in BSA training/experience. They have come over from other programs and all are solely focused on advancement and merit badges. There is the race to be FIRST. That will slow down when troops run out of firsts to do. Before the majority of new troops were started with seasoned scouters and scouts of varied experience. I think it will end over time and normalize like previous troops. My one hope is that all these new leaders take high quality IOLS trai

Our troop had a branding iron which was uses rarely but fun to have.

I 100% agree qwazse. I do this this was to help keep troop numbers up artificially IMHO. One thing we have encountered in my son's Sea Scout Ship and Venture Crew is that if he wants to finish his Eagle they aren't willing to do the advancement work so he had to dual register with a troop. Of course the troop is confused because he rarely attends troop meetings because he is almost always at a Ship activity or Crew activity they aren't really willing to help him with signoffs. So he is kinda stuck to either find a troop that is more willing to work with his signoffs or not finish. Th

Sea scouts are the same. but what if they aren't dual registered in a troop? Can they still get merit badges? I am guessing that will always be the tack, dual enroll in a troop to earn merit badges.

I think that the shooting instructors have to be NRA registered instructors so that might be why they didn't mention it in the international email. I heard that somewhere but can't confirm if it is true or not.

Put them in a Sea Scout Ship or crew and it is magically the same unit and works out 🙂 Agreed on your point

Agreed, I am happy it is positive press now vs. the bad stuff people want to focus on. Active marketing is important and forgotten many times. I used to work for a company that believed that if our product was good enough people would find it and buy it. That company no longer exists and the company with an inferior product but superior marketing program is thriving today.