Back Pack

My troop sent scoutmasters only. There seemed to be 4-5 for the 45-50 of us who went. Parents weren’t allowed to go unless they were leaders, but scoutmasters had first pick.

Why is it ridiculous? Something they’ve been a part of is changing. If it went the other way and girls were denied entrance to scouts would you call anyone who quit ridiculous? Probably not. Standing up for something you’ve been a part of your whole life, even if you’re 17, shouldn’t be considered ridiculous.

My best friend’s Troop just lost their SM and all their ASMs. Their kids just dropped Scouting. That’s 20 Scouts and adults from one Troop. They’re moving to another program.

I’m in Venturing and was in Boy Scouts so my experience is pretty recent. Guys definitely do act differently around girls. We’d skip merit badge classes just to hang by the water front to impress the female life guard. We’d hang out all day at the trading post just to spend our money for a chance to talk to the cashier. One of my Philmont buddies faked injury just a to hang at base camp and talk to the girl in the snack bar. I’m not sure how old you are but it sounds like you’re not 17 anymore. I can tell you first hand that guys act 100% different around girls. If girls are at camp with boys it will change lots.

Scouting will change. Boys and girls at summer camp together will change how boys act. No way I want to look like an idiot in front of a girl so the notion of learning through failure won’t happen. Who wants to fail in front of girls? I have three sisters and the last thing we want to do is spend more time together. I want to hang with my friends. I don’t want my sisters along on camp outs.

Not sure you can just get any mom to fill the two deep role. In my Venture Crew you need a trained female leader complete with Venturing YPT and leader training. Many troops won’t have such moms.

Have the charter organization send a donation thank you letter to the families who bought the tents and copy the dads in question. My patrol bought gear all the time and when it became “patrol gear†it was understood it was now troop gear. As long as the patrol stayed together we got first choice to use it. After we split up the PLC decided how to use and share the gear. Why can’t the PLC decide? It’s their troop.

I was in a troop that doubled in size and it was a mess. The adults struggled to manage 100 scouts and then just tossed it at me as SPL. If they couldn’t run the troop effectively what makes them think at 15 I could. It was too much so we effectively broke down the Troop into two sub troops. I ran one and the past SPL ran the other. We had to plan around each other because our facilities weren’t big enough for all of us at once. In our case doubling our size just doubled our problems. Two smaller groups made more sense.

I like the idea of new troops. If an adult is having issues managing 45-50 boys properly it won’t get better with double that amount. You’ll need 4-6 new leaders anyway just to manage the ratio of Scouts to adults. Making at least one other troop gives you the chance to build a true scout led program. Competition is always good. It might force the other scoutmaster to change his ways.

9B is a tough requirement to get in the south. Few places are ever 1000ft higher than where you started. Snow Travel is rare and tough to find. That leaves biking, float trips and rappelling as the only events you can manage to accomplish 9B2. I suspect the leaders were trying to get him to do the 4 miles and do the 1000ft at the same time.

Wait we’re talking about tracking tents or people? We only tracked the gear. Why would you track the people? Do adults have to report who is in their tent? This seems odd.

We use branded leather tags with numbers. The brand was made by a scout in metalworking class and the leather we got cheap from a dad who owns a western store. The tags are assigned to patrols and then to scout tents in the patrol.

As a range instructor i would only need to yell at someone in the case of an emergency. I would never yell at someone escpecually being in a leadership position. That just shows poor leadership if that’s all you have to deal with the situation.

Wow and I thought my generation was needlessly snarky. Look it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know you don't scream at or demean anyone in front of others. Especially other kids. Would you like to get yelled at in front of 30-40 people? I was a Boy Scout so I know the Oath and Law. I go to church so I have been taught to treat others with kindness. I have good parents and family who have taught me to be nice to people. I hope when I am a parent I will treat others with respect. I can't believe that you don't think the average parent in scouting doesn't know that you don't yell at kids in front of other kids. I'm glad the adults in my life knew better.

Ok how about good parenting skills? You just don't call out a kid in front of other kids. I learned that in NYLT. Are you telling me adults don't know that?

Most of my friends didn't get their license until 17 or 18. Most never had part time jobs. Many have had their parents give them cars or other very expensive items. Most don't date much, nearly never 1 on 1 always going on dates in groups. No one ever calls anyone and talking to older people freaks most of them out. Talking to my parents about these issues even they agree that wasn't anywhere close to what they did.

I doubt many people would dress down a scout in front of the troop especially their own son. Those who wild should consider learning effective counseling skills. I'm only 19 and I know that's wrong.

Addressing the actions of two scouts in front of the troop is worse than asking them to sing for lost gear. It's demeaning and embarrassing. The asms should be ashamed of themselves for such a poor decision. Would they do that to their own kid?

So the ASPL wasn't in charge? The SM should have made that clear.

Correct. We just call him "doc". Ask him and he will say he was a corpsman without saying which service he was in but he will tell you he was part of the recon marines. He's not to be toyed with. He looks like John Cena. He's 60. We just call him "sir".

Our troop always takes time to work with park staff to do a service project of some kind, even if just camp ground clean up.

Why would an ASM ever address such an issue unless the SM and SPL asked him to?

Depends. We have a few doctors and a few nurses. One of our nurses is a ER trauma nurse. He's great! Better than all of the others. The best guy we have is a former Marine medic. He is the best my dad has ever seen. Even the doctors let him step in first.

We just had a Venturing event this weekend. The camp catered BBQ for staff and guests. Well run and everyone in and out in no time. Event cost was only $25. Worth it for a day of shooting, climbing and other stuff.

Our SM allowed us to explore as long as we had our ten essentials, stayed as a patrol, notified the SPL and SM our plans and stuck to them. We all had park maps and knew how to use them. We got to explore like this on any camp out. Swimming was not allowed but other than that we were free to explore. If we planned to be gone longer than 2 hours we had to check in.