Eagle94-A1

Sometimes you need to adapt, improvise, and overcome. Public facilities is one example. Another would be the emergency situation where we had everyone, in two rooms. All the youth were in one room, all the adults, including females, were in another. It was one instance where I was glad son got sick and went home prior to the storm. you could go swimming in the tents!

The anti-LDS attitudes is as bad as the anti-Catholic attitudes I've experienced. I even had one potential leader, write a very long, abusive letter about he and his family will not join Scouts since they let Catholics in it. Better off without him.

Ditto what Fred said. We had a volunteer in a similar situation, ID theft victim, who personally delivered the paperwork to the council office.

Mixed on this one. As others have mentioned, the turnover rate doesn't lead to a stable, quality program. I have had several experiences with playing phone tag and trying to get the unit leaders so I can get info to them, invite them to RT, or see if they want to have a OA election and camp promo. And Some of the meetings I've been to resemble more babysitting or sports than Scouting. But I did have a positive experience with one troop. Part of that was the LDS bishop was very involved in Scouting, serving as the district chairman. One thing I've have heard from LDS scouters

Showers? SHOWERS?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING SHOWERS In all seriousness, you're good to go. And having the pre-Cub age siblings in the female bathrooms is a common thing I've seen. I just wish my council would get with the program. Two of the camps that Cubs use for camping do not have showers.

My old troop always took the manufacturer's recommendation and divided by half so you could also store gear in the tent. So a 4 man tent became 2 with packs. 8 man tent became 4 with gear. Now my son's troop has tents with a vestibule. So they can have 3 inside like the manufacturer suggests, and the gear is in the vestibule. On a different note, may I suggest you take Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills as these questions are covered in that training. Also some of these questions can be answered by your older scouts. Finally, WELCOME TO DA FORUMS!

On reflection, my oldest is on addicted to all things British: money, tea, Doctor Who, etc. Says he want to immigrate there when he is olde enough. I'm thinking let him save his money and do the program I did to give him a taste of living in Britain. It opened my eyes to how good we got it over here.

Is he in the OA? The OA has programs at the HA bases where you bust butt for 1 week, then have fun 1 week. http://adventure.oa-bsa.org/index.php# Or you can staff the HA bases for the summer. While it might not be HA, one program I did that was litterally the trip of a lifetime when I was college was the European Camp Staff Program. http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/International/ecamp.aspx I spent 11 weeks in the UK working at 2 scout camps. Free food, free shelter, and now 30% of travel expenses reimbursed. I saved for 2 years to go and spent approx $3500 20 ye

I am less than a mile at the moment. There is talk of district realignment in my council, so that may change. If we get merged, and it's where I think It will be, It may be doable. BUT for another district that will be in the merger, it will be over an hour 1 way.

Stupid question, but here it goes anyway. Doesn't WB21C teach the Patrol Method? I admit I have not gone through WB, either the old or new courses. Nor have I staffed NYLT. But I went through the old Brownsea 22 course, and staffed JLTC back in the day. The patrol methods was instilled in the patrols from day one. Having outdoor activities to do and compete, cooking meals, etc were part of the expereince that created the patrols.

Recording stories is a good one. This may or may not be appropriate, you gotta know the individuals involved and their view on the matter. Have some type of ceremony where you thank him for all he's done. A little "roasting" to make it light hearted and fun may be in order. But again, you gotta know your audience. For me, I would not mind the funny stories.

I'm sorry to hear that. What are some ideas that the PLC want to do? What about any troop alumni? When an active and beloved UC passed away, we had Scouts perform as a color guard. Also had a former youth of his on the unit level give a brief eulogy on him and his love of Scouting.

RS, I too would like to know who wrote it. My personal favorites include the camp museum is more important than the camp fire ring. Out of all of the camps I've been to, only 1 has had a museum that I can remember. And that was Youlbury International Scout Campsite in the U.K. And considering it's the oldest continually used Scout camp in the world, I think it's justified. Another U.K. camp I was at was in the process of building one. I got to look at their collection of WSJ patches they were going to display. They had originals from Arrowpark up to Korea. SM, The issue I have i

Stosh, Letting the boys pick their own patrols is what I'm talking about. Some folks say that all new scouts MUST be put into a NSP; all Scouts over a certain rank ( I keep hearing First Class) MUST me in "Experienced Patrols," etc. The youth have little to no input into the matter. One thing I liked about my troop growing up, every 6 months when elections occurred, we got the chance to switch patrol IF WE WANTED TO (all caps emphasis) I admit, my troop is guilty this. When folks join, they go to a NSP, or as the case is now the 2nd NSP. When they hit First Class, they automatically

Tahawk. My comment was in regards to how some folks think you have to do everything the exact way BSA states in the current literature. But sometimes, in some situations, the current BSA program materials will not work, and that you do need to use ideas from older BSA materials. Mixed aged patrols, which is not discussed in the current literature but is in older literature, was the example I've given. Having youth sign off on advancement requirements is another example I can give. My only worry is is units that do not use the patrol method. As for clear communications form natio

Yes, adaptable is a better word. But "Semper Gumby" sounds so much better. Agree with you. I like to call being a SM is an art, not a science. There is a multitude of factors involved in scouting: from resources, abilities of leaders, abilitiies of scouts, CO support, loctaion, ad nauseum. Every troop is different. Unfortunately I've met folks who think that what is expressed in the current BSA literature IS the only way of doing it, even if it will be detrimental to the program in some situations. And if you tell them otherwise, it's blasphemy. There are som

Here's my $.02 worth. 1) There is no need for an SPL unless you have 2 or more patrols. SPL is just that: the SENIOR patrol leader. If you only have 1 patrol, then you only have 1 PL. 2) I do belive the unofficial motto of the BSA is "SEMPER GUMBY" OR "ALWAYS FLEXIBLE." One of the most important things I learned in Scouting is that sometimes the best made plans fall apart, and you sometimes have to think "on your feet" or "outside the box" to solve problems. Best example I can give is finding out our of our camping gear was destroyed the night before we were taking Webelos on a camp

Qwazse, THANKFULLY that's the case with our two camps. One reverts back to the family ( who will turn the property into "McMansions" like the ones that are currently being built around the camp). The other camp goes to a local university. But I do know of one instance where the SE talked a trust into donating ownershipof the camp to the council. Within 3-6 months of getting the deed, he had the camp sold off. Sad thing is, the camp that all the money was sunk into ended up getting severely damaged by a hurricane. That camp's damage was so bad, an oil company was able to make the case

RS, In 2012, national decided tho create the National Camp Accreditation Program (NCAP) to standardize all scout camp across the national. Here are some links about the NCAP Main link to overall program http://www.scouting.org/Home/OutdoorProgram/CampAccreditation.aspx Camp Facilities Evaluation Tool http://www.scouting.org/filestore/Outdoor%20Program/pdf/430-085.pdf While I do beleive that camps need to be maintained, not every scout camp needs to meet those standards IMHO. My council has some primitive camps that have minimal structures on it. They do not need w

Hedge, there are a lot of different variations on wilderness survival that I've encountered. Some variations have folks only using survival kits. some make some accommodations, specifically sleeping bags. When we did the trips with Webelos, we took it relatively easy on them, and the adults that wanted to got to stay in tents . One of the ones I liked was a "crash site" done at a summer camp and everything needed was provided by the camp staff, if they could find it After waiting about 30 minutes for contraband to appear on the amnesty blanket, the scouts were taken to the site whe

Don't burn out, and keep focus on who is more important, your son and his den. I'm in a similar boat; TCDL for the youngest, troop committee with oldest, CSRT commish, and dist. committee.

Wilderness Survival Weekend Building shelters, utensiless cooking and having FUN! My troop growing up turned this into an annual event with Webelos coming to camp with us. Long story short, our gear got destroyed and we found out the nite before the Webelos Overnighter. Adapt, Improvise. Overcome.

WELCOME TO DA FORUMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I to am at a loss ... SQUIRREL!