69RoadRunner

That's my wife's/daughter's troop, too. For a few years, my daughter would do 2 camps. Last year, she chose not to go at all and I'm not sure if any of the girls did. They were 11-12. Also, going as individuals rather than as a troop seemed odd. It's certainly easier for the troop leader, but they don't have the experience as a troop. Last year, I was organizing our troop's first HA trip (Sea Base) since we joined. I asked my wife if GS has anything like it and she just said they have GS camps, but didn't know if anyone did anything HA like Philmont, MOHAB, etc. I do see Gi

Yeah, it is limiting from a gear/financial standpoint, too. They seem to operate hand to mouth and the troop really doesn't own any gear.

My wife is a GS leader. This is understandable when you look at how they organize troops. Each troop is usually 1 or 2 age groups, unlike BSA where we're 11-18 in the same troop. The troops are smaller and can only handle so many girls at a time. There have been times when my wife could not find an available troop for a girl who was not in my wife's troop's age group. Like most groups, finding enough volunteers is a struggle.

In my limited experience, when I've had an adult leader outside our group be critical in a condescending manner, it's been a WB. That does NOT mean all or even most WB are condescending. They aren't. The ones who are give the others a bad reputation. I'd suggest that all WB training include some time spent on being helpful and friendly. Also knowing when it's a good idea to not be "helpful." For much of my time in our troop, we were a smaller group of mostly younger scouts. We've had a couple with Autism and one with Down Syndrome. We're not perfect. We do the best we can and t

Our troop is smaller, but we have the same response from our scouts. Our District has a Camporee in October and a Klondike Derby in January. They ask us to do at least 1, so we do Klondike. The Klondike seems to be more fun. October is prime camping weather and the scouts would rather do one of our troop activities. I wish I could suggest something that they could do to make them more enjoyable for the scouts. For us adults, the Camporee was the only activity I did because I had to, not because I wanted to for reasons I mentioned earlier. Our other adults feel the same way.

Being forced to camp cramped in with the other troops for one thing. The troop next to us deciding to start breakfast at 4:45am (not sure, but I assume they were cooking a turkey). The night before, the two troops who ignored lights out time. Things like this seem to happen at every Camporee we've attended. When surveyed, our scouts dislike Camporees. The inevitable wood badger telling us all we're doing wrong doesn't help, either. I'm not condemning all wood badgers.

https://www.lhcscouting.org/about-us/camping/camp-twin-echo I didn't stay in scouting long. I was being bullied by 2 older scouts. I started a fight with them while waiting for breakfast when I couldn't take it anymore and of course I was the one punished. I then got into an argument with an adult leader who called lunch, dinner because my punishment was cleanup during "dinner" and I left at the end of lunch. The camp was nice, though. This is where I wish I had pictures from back in the days of yore.

If you're in that position, then he is in no position to dictate any of this. Don't wait to sit down with him because it will happen again otherwise. Talk it over ASAP and explain the problems and what the solutions will be. Ideally, you work as a team. Wishing you well.

There are advantages and disadvantages to troop-provided tents vs. scout provided. Our troop has some REI Half Dome 2 person tents available, but we have the scouts provide the tents for our activities. That ensures the scout is responsible for maintenance and damage done to the tent. For car camping, they bring 3 and 4 person tents for the most part and fill them with 1 less than capacity for more personal space. We have 1 scout with diabetes who uses a 1 person tent so that his dad can enter the tent at night when the scout's monitor triggers an alarm on his dad's phone. This avo

All of the mass-produced tents I've seen come with garbage stakes that bend the first time they're used in dry dirt. For car camping, the $1/each steel stakes from REI are incredibly strong, but of course heavy. MSR mini groundhogs work well. Shop the sales.

I'll use my own words, thank you very much. And I stand by everything I said. You disagree. That's fine, but I'm not going to follow your orders.

Not tolerating in that I tell the scout the behavior is wrong and expect a change is not the same as permanently denying the rank of Eagle. I don't condone the actions. They are wrong. The action was done, now are you going to say your religious views prevent the scout from earning Eagle? I'm quite certain if we go through the oath and law, at some point, every Eagle had at least 1 violation. Every adult passing judgment, too.

My comment was critical of people who are being judgmental by applying their religious standards to an Eagle BoR. This is BSA, not a church. I am also criticizing those who decide which sins are intolerable and which are not.

Good grief! It's Eagle rank in Boy Scouts. He's not applying to be a priest. it's amazing how many Christians forget that we're all sinners and Jesus intentionally associated with people society cast out as sinners.

I made a couple of mistakes, but they still turned out pretty good. First, I should cut the wings into pieces. Second, I should have finished them in a dutch oven, but we didn't have any available. I brined them in salt water with chili pepper overnight. Our mandatory ingredient was honey. I brushed them with honey on the grill. The problem on the grill was they were going to get too dark on the outside and not cook on the inside. This is where I wanted to finish them in the dutch oven. Instead, I boiled them. Then I put them back on the grill. For the sauce, I melted butte

I started with this recipe. It makes 2. http://50campfires.com/dutch-oven-cheesecake-recipe/ To make it chocolate, I took a small bag of dark chocolate chips and belted it with 1/2 cup of water and mixed that into the mix. I folded in a small jar of marshmallow fluff. I should have used half of what I used because it end up exploding a bit out of the cheesecake. I intended to put marshmallows on top of both, but forgot on the first one. I had a large and a small dutch oven available and the larger one took a good bit longer to cook than the smaller one. I topped it with

Almost every time I've gone with a cheap option, regardless of the item, I've regretted it. Very rarely have I regretted going with a high quality item that cost more. A scout is thrifty is not equal to a scout is cheap. There's no such thing as a perfect tent. They are all compromises. You have to determine how you will use the tent first. One used only for car camping can be heavier, bigger and more durable than one used for backpacking. Some of our scouts have Coleman and Ozark Trail tents. They start breaking very quickly.

"BSA - it's not just cookies and crafts." Nobody tell my wife and daughter that joke, please. I want to live.

The lesson, as I had to tell one of my kids about a teacher, is that sometimes in life you will have to deal with people in positions of authority who do not do the right thing. Kids are taught to respect adults, with good reason, but sometimes the adults fail in their responsibilities. It will happen throughout life, sadly and you have to learn to cope with it. Not every situation is the same, so the means to deal with it can be different. Fortunately, BSA has an established means for dealing with this one.

This was in the recent Scouting Wire: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2018/11/07/an-eagle-scout-board-of-review-isnt-a-job-interview-its-a-celebration/?utm_source=scoutingwire&utm_campaign=swvolunteer11142018&utm_medium=email&utm_content=B And...

That looks amazing!! I'd love to do it.

My wife is our daughter's Girl Scout troop leader and a lifetime Girl Scout. So is her mom. We both disagree with the BSA decision to add girls to the regular program and prefer the previous program of boy only troops with co-ed Venturing and Sea Scouts. I'm NOT opening up that can of worms. When we talked about this lawsuit, she agreed that suing over the use of the word "scouts" was wrong. Refusing to associate with BSA over this is petty and will not accomplish anything. GSUSA is making a difficult situation worse.

How about Skouts or Scowtz, like a Silicon Valley startup. Or...

Girl Scouts should not be expected to make any name change. They are understandably not happy with the change that BSA made. From a legal standpoint, they would have a very legitimate complaint over any use of Girl Scouts by BSA. I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on this posting and think they have little legal argument that BSA can't use the term Scouts. This could be more of a PR thing and perhaps a way to nudge BSA toward some sort of concessions. I don't know what exactly that would be.

Well, this is America where sue is more often a verb than a name. To be fair, you know what they say, 99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name.