Sidney Porter

I was looking at the difference between the swim test and the swimming merit badge. The swim test starts resting backstroke while the MB calls out elementary. So what is a resting backstroke? Is it just a slow overhand (back crawl) backstroke? Or do they have an option with the test to do either? Test Jump feetfirst into water over the head in depth. Level off and swim 75 yards in a strong manner using one or more of the following strokes: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl; then swim 25 yards using an easy resting backstroke MB Swim continuously for 150 yards using the following strokes in good form and in a strong manner: front crawl or trudgen for 25 yards, back crawl for 25 yards, sidestroke for 25 yards, breaststroke for 25 yards, and elementary backstroke for 50 yards.

I know that when my son went to summer camp the physical copy was kept by the nurse and then returned to me when he checked out. I think the desire to ensure that the documents are either destroyed or returned when not needed from a general privacy standpoint (not HiPAA). I am willing to bet that people have old documents on their hard drives that are no longer needed. From a practical standpoint I understand that it is much easier to have everything on a smart phone than a binder when hiking, and in wet environments etc.

So are the parents actually covering the items or just going through the motions and signing off? Why are they motivated do they want to obtain all 20 and that is not the plan for the den?

Does it strike anyone else odd that they all chose to do their Eagle service project for the same park? One of their parents is the director of the park. Seems like their was a lack of creativity.

We have the 5 gallon thermos water jugs, people refil their bottles. We are not going to provide bottled water, although some people bring their own. We also don't provide paper plates or styrofoam plates. Bring you own mess kit.

-For 1 I actually see the opposite people not wanting to help out. I find this is worse the bigger the unit. -I have never really seen and issue with 2 or 3. -As far as 4 I am not inspecting other peoples tents. You only need to experience one camp out where a raccoon visits for people to realize why this is not a good practice. -I have seen both 5 and 6 but thiey are the same parents that behave that way at a den or pack meeting or any outing. I don't expect them to change for a camp out. - 7 is an interesting one. I have been the first one to leave as well as the last one to leave. We have parents that want to be out early to get to Church for a 8 or 9 am service or kids to another activity. I have been on camp outs where we have enforced the rule that no one leaves and you have the family that are slow and don't seem to realize that they are holding people up. I think this is easy to enforce with a small group. We were in a pack with 150 scouts the first camp out of the year we would get 80-100 scouts participating, plus brothers and sisters and parents. We were over 300 people. I actually wanted some of them to leave early rather than stick around. I guess my biggest issue is parents that don't want to volunteer to help and then have an expectation that they will be waited on. Some of the solutions were to have some of the campouts where the pack doesn't provide the meals but rather it is up to the den or individual family to provide their own meal. If the pack is providing I have found that foil meals work well everyone is somewhat responsible for their own meal clean up is easy. The big grill with the hamburgers and hotdogs leads to too much of being waited on attitude.

I was reading the OP again. I noticed that they are also requiring aquanaut. That is not required for arrow of light. IMHO the BSA has enough rules around the requirements w/o the den leader making up his own.

At our old pack in FL there were about 10-12 opportunities to camp per year (2 council, 3 or 4 put on by the zoo, sports team etc, and the remainder put on by the pack). Here in Ohio it is probably 7 or 8 (2 council, 2 with sports teams, 1 with the troop (webelos only), and 3 put on by the pack. Now I beleive that my nephew's pack only puts on one and they do not promote the other opportunities with council, sports teams etc.

They do make long matches. But I cannot think of a reason that a long lighter would be dangerous. I didn't realize that people needed training on how to use propane stoves. Most people have propane grills at home. I guess using a coleman stove that uses coleman fuel could benefit from training because if you have never used one it may not be obvious to people how to light them.

Our tigers did not obtain rank by Blue and Gold in Feb. Instead they got it in March. Nornally March would be arrow of light / web 2 cross over. Instead we did the tigers prior to arrow of light starting.

You really have 4 things. B&G, Arrow of Light and cross overt. I think it nees to be 2 separate meetings. I have been involved with 2 different packs the first pack made some changes so I have actually seen 3 variations. - B&G - target for obtaining rank, focus on all of the scouts (except arrow of light) - Crossover - focus on the Webelos 2 with arrow of light and crossing over My worst experience is when you try to combine all: obtaining rank, arrow of light and crossing over into B & G. It becomes a long event and someone feels slighted. I know that B&G doesn't need to be the target for obtaining rank but it seems like it often is.

I doubt many of these are about to fold because of lack of demand. My guess is that they were created by a software developer who was involved with a unit and created his own dB to track. He then decided to market that software. It isn't like these companies have a staff of people and a need to make payroll. Once the dB was created I don't think there is a lot of update from the dev side that need to occur. Also once a unit gets the software they are probably unlikely to switch to another software so you get the annual license renewal for very little up keep. I guess I am not following how your unit keeps track of the scouts progress. I would not want to attempt to remember who showed up to what meeting and worked on what items.

If you don't need the awards tracking portion you can expand you search to non scouting software. I would look into Sharepoint or search for Sharepoint alternatives.

I have had the opportunity to be involved with 2 different packs so I have seen different was that it can be handled. Both packs have a goal completing it prior to B&G. At the old pack B&G also included the cross over ceramony. While in the current pack cross over is a month later in March. The benefit of having the goal of B&G to obtain rank is that it it is well attended. It seems that participations starts to drop off in the spring once spring sports starts.

boy led vs adult led is one thing. But it sounds like the boy scouts treated the cub scouts poorly this would be my biggest concern. The troop camp out that we attended was scout led but I think that the adults helped focus the planning. Obviously we did not get to see the planning that went into it. But the troop led the webelos through every aspect of the outdoorsmans activity badge. It was more thought out than what I have seen with district summer camps. You could tell that the older boy scouts understood the reason they were there is for recruitment and helping the webelos get their outdoorsmans. This is where I think the adults explained the purpose of the gather to them and then let them execute. The SPL was very mature. The only real issues was that nothing started on time and everything took longer than expected. But that is part of being scout led.

edit wrong thread

I always thought the age requirements were for LDS while the grade for everyone else. I guess it doesn't matter in the OP since he meets neither.

Do other leaders share your concerns? Food for that many people can be a all day job with all of the meals. Simplifing meals may help. Foil packs cooked on the camp fire is an easy clean up. Require people to bring their own mess kits , reusable plates. They are resonsible for cleaning their own dishes. Another option is to make the dens responsible for their own food. How structured are the activities? Do you plan both den and pack activities? A structured day seems to work better than just winging it. Kids are going to run around if there are not activities where they get to run they are going to run through camp. An option would be to look for a site where you can have a tent area and a play / running area. If people are not staying out of the fire ring, it might be time to stop the camp fires. You don't need a camp fire at every camp out (although you would need it for the foil packs) I have been involved with a pack of 150 (Tiger and Wolf) and 60 (Bear and Web 1). In my observation the amount of people volenteering do not increase with the larger group. You will get about the same number helping out with any task. I have also found that if you tell someone you need help with something they will not say no.

What if they started it as a Bear but completed it as a Webelos? I could see this happening with the sone of the pins (more so than belt loops)

We have a scout that repeated webelos 1. He was young for age when he started school and then skipped a grade. Leadership figured out that he would not have been 10 and able to cross over so he did he did the Webelos 1 items 2x.

From a weblos overnight camp perspective we do every other year in council and the other year out of council. This way the boys that go both years get 2 different experiences.

Swimming a mile non stop in a scy gets really boring. To be honest I don't think I have ever swam a mile in the pool. I have done 1650 scy and 1500 m just because those are traditionally recognized distances. A mile would actually be 1760y since that would end in the middle of a pool I would think you would end up with 1775y.

As far as not seeing well enough to do flip turns. I use the perscription sporti S2. They are around $8 a pair at swimoutlet. My son also use the kid size non perscription verison.

When you guys are saying glide I assume you mean streamline. Gliding is usually referred to as part of the normal stroke pattern. There are schools of thought that there can be over gliding where there is a pause in the stroke and it causes inefficient in the stroke. But even with these inefficiences it is not something that should DQ a swimmer.