mrkstvns

Does anybody have an El Rancho Cima Death March patch they'd be willing to sell?

I've got a scout in my unit who earned the patch by doing successive 5-mile, 10-mile, and 15-mile hikes, but unfortunately, he lost the patch.

He's a good kid who was immensely proud of being able to accomplish it because he was only 11 when he went to El Rancho Cima. That patch meant a lot more to him than any merit badge or rank insignia he'd earned.  I'd like to surprise him (and his parents) with a replacement. It's kind of hard to do that though now that the camp has closed and been sold off to a non-BSA organization.

Sure do wish I could delete a post....not just "Edit".  Oh, well. I guess I'll just inflict mindless stupidity on y'all instead of my normal substance-ful posts.

15 hours ago, mashmaster said:

... If you go there spend the night before at Balmorea state park and swim in the newly re-opened pool.

There's a couple other options that might also be good for a troop (or even a patrol) to do the night before or after summer camp.  In addition to Balmorea, you could...

• Observe the stars:
  The stars at night are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas. In West Texas, you only need to look up and be amazed at how full the night sky is when you have no nearby cities to cloud it with light pollution.  Visit the nearby McDonald Observatory. They do Star Party nights Friday and Saturday...plus, you can use it to meet partial requirements for Astronomy merit badge and/or Nova awards...perfect for the scout unit arriving or departing BTSR!     Info:  https://mcdonaldobservatory.org/
   
• Hike U.S. history:
  Buffalo Trail Council has a historical trail that gives your scouts to earn a patch or medal (maybe also meeting a requirement for American Heritage merit badge).  Requirements to earn the award are on the BTSR web site. Fort Davis is a fascinating place. It was one of a series of frontier forts built in the mid 19th century to protect settlers from native americans.  The frontier forts in Texas were primarily manned by "buffalo soldiers" --- the famous "colored" units established by the U.S. Army during and following the Civil War. These units served with dignity despite frequent discrimination by the white settlers who often owed their lives to the black buffalo soldiers.  Info:  https://www.nps.gov/foda/  and http://buffalotrailbsa.org/btsr/high-adventure/ft-davis-historical-trail/    

2 minutes ago, mashmaster said:

Not sure if this is the right forum or not.  But today I was asked by a scoutmaster of a Troop with girls in it to help a couple scouts with a merit badge since I am a counselor for it.  Of course I said yes.  The Scoutmaster told me after my response that a majority of counselors are saying no to her because they don't want to work with girls.  I don't understand why a scouter wouldn't want to help any youth out.

 

I don't understand that either.  I know some scouters say they will only work with kids in their own unit, which might be the issue, but if it really is a case of a scouter discriminating against girls, it is most inappropriate.

27 minutes ago, mashmaster said:

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.

One kid told me that he liked BTSR, but his "thorn" was that there was always a long, uphill walk involved to get to any activity. 

I also heard they have an awesome climbing program with lots of "real rock" climbing and rapelling (vs. climbing towers at most camps).  They also have an "advanced climbing" activity that goes above & beyond the basic merit badge skills.  (I think it would be great if more camps did this....not just for climbing, but also for paddle sports, archery, riflery, etc.)

1 hour ago, roberthynesii said:

Wow, that's great that you get to pull from 2 Packs. I'm finding out that some units get a little territorial when you show up and start recruiting in an area where they previously had a monopoly. But well do the schmoozing part and well see how it goes. We have our Commissioner and District Executive assisting as well. 

I don't see why a troop should feel territorial about it....unless, perhaps, they're chartered by the same organization and share a unit number.

Even still, any troop worth its salt will know that the most effective recruiting tool in the long term is a great program. The troop that gets the bridging webelos will be the troop that delivers on its promise of outdoor adventure while providing a fun environment where advancement is enabled and supported.

Any thoughts on BSA summer camps in and around Texas?

I put together a list of all the camps I can find in Texas that are: 1) still operating, and 2) have real week-long camps for Boy Scouts, errr, sorry, Scouts BSA  (i.e., no cub day camps, weekend unit camps, etc.)

FYI:  The "biggies" here are Bear Creek, Buffalo Trail, and Sid Richardson (not in order of "bigness").  

Comments about any of them?  Know about a summer camp in Texas that I overlooked??

Bear Creek Scout Reservation
Hunt, TX
Alamo Area Council
Rugged, hill country terrain. 
Leader Guide:  http://www.alamoareabsa.org/files/d/usr/3395/2018 BC Leaders Guide.pdf

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Buffalo Trail Scout Ranch
Fort Davis, TX
Buffalo Trail Council
Leader Guide: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/4399aa_abe7de9a6d80402b9ee1bb0ad90a5b90.pdf

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Camp M.K. Brown
Mobeetie, TX
Golden Spread Council
Leader Guide: https://goldenspread.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2019-Summer-Camp-Leaders-Guide.pdf

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Camp Perry
Rio Hondo, TX
Rio Grande Council
Leader Guide: http://www.riograndecouncil.org/document/2018-camp-perry-leaders-guide/180629

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Camp Pirtle
Carthage, TX
East Texas Area Council

Leader Guide: http://www.etexscouts.org/Resources/Pirtle Summer Camp Leaders Guide 2018.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1

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Camp C.W.  Post
Post, TX
South Plains Council
Leader Guide: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/fb440e_fb992bcbecfa4bd4b8ded84cb3d93403.pdf

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Camp Tahuaya
Belton, TX
Longhorn Council
Leader Guide: https://www.longhorncouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Camp-Tahuaya2018.pdf

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Lost Pines Scout Reservation
Bastrop, TX
Capitol Area Council
400 acres, mostly flat,  heavily wooded (pine forest), large lake
Leader Guide: http://www.bsacac.org/my_files/sc_leader_guide_-_rev_10082018.pdf

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Sid Richardson Scout Ranch
Bridgeport, TX
Longhorn Council
2,500 acres, large lake, rugged hilly terrain, high adventure programs
Leader Guide: https://www.longhorncouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/SR2_2018_leaders_guide.pdf

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Trevor Rees-Jones Scout Camp
Athens, TX
Circle Ten Council
Leader Guide: http://circleten.org/sites/circleten.org/files/media/camping/trj_leaders_guide_2019_scouts_bsa.pdf 
 

Howdy, ma'am.  I think there's a lot of us here who are volunteering because we have scouts in the program.  Lord knows, I could probably find a more dangerous use for that "1 hour a week"...

Very fitting that the logo looks like a big, round ball.

That's exactly how you'll end up looking if you sustain your habit of eating foods with palm oil (which is over 50% saturated fat).

If you've been to Northern Tier, or done a trip on your own through the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Quetico Provincial Park, or Voyageurs National Park, you might have come across a very specialized kind of backpack called the "Duluth pack".

Here's a few observations that might help explain how a Duluth pack is different from the typical REI backpack...

• Duluth packs are flatter, wider, and shorter than your typical backpack and they almost never have a frame. That's because they are specifically designed for long canoe trips.
• Their odd geometry is designed to fit snugly in the bottom of a canoe, putting as much weight down and center as possible. A Duluth pack helps balance your canoe and stabilize it, while your typical backpack may be hard to fit in the craft and may put more weight higher than you'd like.
• The Duluth pack is tough and weatherproof. It's not made of lightweight nylon because it doesn't need to lighten your load. But it does need to withstand getting splashed on all day, wacked by paddles, and mistreated during portages. 
• The Duluth pack does not lend itself to distributing loads vertically. A typical backpack is high and may have straps so you can tie on sleeping bags or tents. The Duluth pack is meant to stay low --- typically at and below your shoulder height. This lets you strap the Duluth pack on your back even as you hoist a canoe overhead to traverse a portage. 

A Duluth pack is optimized to perform well on a canoe venture....but the very things that make it a great pack for canoe adventures make it terrible as your "default" packpack or as your backpacking pack. I can think of a couple obvious "cons" to these little gems...

• The Duluth pack is heavy (even empty, it's made of thick canvas, has thick plastic linings to make it water resistant, and has leather straps). 
• The Duluth pack is expensive. It will outlast your regular backpack by decades....but a small Duluth pack costs over $200 and the typical packs run more like $400.

Anybody else here ever use a Duluth pack?  What do you think about it?

BTW:  You can see what these look like here...

https://www.duluthpack.com/collections/canoe-packs/

On 3/1/2019 at 2:04 PM, malraux said:

Currently, both appear to be council level positions, in that code 58 is a non-unit position. (typically you'll also be the stem coordinator in the unit). At the national level there's only a form for the supernova mentor, not the nova counselor. I don't know why you'd want things specialized to that that degree. If i were filling out that sam houston form, I'd just put cub scout all or something. The whole point of the nova program is that you just need to be kinda sorta interested.

I think the Nova counselor is still supposed to be more of a cheerleader for math and science than any kind of expert or specialist.  The position descriptions don't seem to have changed recently...

https://www.scouting.org/stem-nova-awards/volunteer-support/

I'm not familiar with the stem coordinator position.  Is that something that most units do?  

Interesting photos....I've always thought that Rifle and Shotgun were merit badges that really leant themselves to being taught entirely outdoors, but if you've got limited range time, then the classroom intro makes sense..

Adult association is one of the 8 methods of scouting.  Turns out there's a lot of support for that method, and an interesting tangent is how older, wiser adults can form associations with youth to share thoughts, ideas, and wisdom gleaned from a lifetime of experience.  In our troop, many of the parents are fairly young (in their 30s), but we do have a couple of grandparents who are very involved in their grandchildrens' lives and who participate in troop activities.  Perhaps that's something that should be encouraged even more...

The New York Times ran an interesting story about this kind of inter-generational wisdom and the benefits of mentoring, both on the youth and on the older adult.  Here's the story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/well/live/want-to-leave-a-legacy-be-a-mentor.html

What do you think?  Do you see value in mentoring?  Thoughts??

1 hour ago, Buggie said:

I am now imagining a SM minute being yelled at a bunch of scouts. 

...and I'm imagining a "kinder, gentler" U.S. Marine Corps drill sergeant, telling a motivational story to a barracks full of privates who may not see the wisdom of rolling out of their bunks at 5am to do a 5-mile jog in the rain with full backpacks.

1 hour ago, Abatronthegreat said:

It’s just the international activity badge. 

I still don't understand....is that a BSA thing?  Some other country's scouting program, perhaps?

I've never heard of such a badge for Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts here in the U.S.

What the heck is an "international badge"?

Never heard of it...

11 minutes ago, Buggie said:

In one of our recent troop meetings, the scouts were reminded that before flag ceremonies that they need to do a quick uniform check. In other words, shirt tucked in, necker laying down, pant legs not caught on things, jacket off, appropriate headgear... Hopefully it will hold for a while. 

...at least until the flag ceremony concludes.

39 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

...

Burnout is a huge issue and the number one reason why troops are much bigger.

Is that really true?  Troops are bigger than packs?!?!

Seems to me like there are more packs in my neck of the woods than there are troops, and some of the packs are mighty darn big...

I'd be interested in seeing some stats on relative unit sizes.  Any idea where those numbers might be??

27 minutes ago, Hawkwin said:

Perhaps the better question, and one the SM should be able to answer, is why the necessity to delay?

That is a very good question.

This is also the reason I don't like hearing about Scoutmasters or MB counselors or camps or MBUs that have "age restrictions" on merit badges. The rule in scouting is that any scout is allowed to work on any merit badge at any time.

Yes, there are badges that a young scout would be best off waiting a while to tackle, but that doesn't mean EVERY young scout should be blocked. A great example is Lifesaving: a scout who is 10 or 11 is unlikely to excel at Lifesaving, and a Scoutmaster is well within his area of responsibility to advise the scout to wait until he has proven himself capable of handling the swimming and first aid aspects of that MB (preferably, by earning Swimming and/or First Aid MB first). But not every 10 or 11 year old is the same: I've seen kids who are on swim team do a GREAT job at Lifesaving, no matter how young.  So if that 10 or 11 year old scout pushes back on your "great advice" and explains why he really is ready, then the Scoutmaster should just wish the scout well and give him his blue card....he should not second-guess the scout's skills or ability because, after all,  it's really the MBC's job to test whether the scout can meet requirements, not the Scoutmaster's.  

Similarly, as Hawkwin says, the OA criteria are defined. So if you can't come up with a good explanation to the scout as to why he should wait, then why is there any necessity to delay? 

On 3/1/2019 at 8:52 PM, bobclark86 said:

So now I'm trying to learn what makes a good pack committee secretary, how to help out the pack and generally not stink at the job.

As with any role a scouter may take, learn the ropes and "Do your best". 

Do take training on scouting.org pertinent to the Pack Committee.  You've probably already done that though.  You've probably already read the job description for Secretary (but I'll repeat it here to remind the other folks on this forum):

Secretary

The secretary ensures proper records are kept within the pack. Specifically, the secretary will:

• Keep informed of all Cub Scouting literature, materials, records, and forms to help leaders function effectively. Help new den leaders access needed tools.

• Acquaint den leaders with the contents of the Pack Record Book so that they will know how to supply the information that should be recorded there.

• Maintain up-to-date information on membership, leadership, attendance, and advancement in the Pack Record Book and/or MyScouting Tools.

• Maintain an inventory of pack property.

• Handle correspondence for the pack. This may include writing letters of appreciation and requests for reservations, or ordering supplies through the local council service center.

• Keep notes on business conducted at pack leaders’ meetings. Record only key items such as things needing follow-up or items for the history of the pack.

• Notify leaders of pack leaders’ meetings and other activities.

• Provide den leaders with records and forms for meetings.

As you might already realize, there's sometimes room for interpretation and some of these duties do overlap with those expected of other committee members, so it will benefit you to understand the roles of all committee members/chairs and to build working relationships with them to avoid stepping on each others' toes.  For example, that third bullet point might encroach on what the Advancement Chair is already doing. 

Good luck!

58 minutes ago, Hawkwin said:

I heard the same program but I was left with the impression that instead of yelling, they think we should be lying to our kids. Don't go in the ocean because a monster will get you? Don't go outside because the northern lights will rip your head off?

I think most of us know there's a difference between storytelling and lying.  If there weren't, the entire field of literature would be impoverished and every movie goer would leave the theatre vastly reassured that there is a man among us who will protect us from evil --- a man from the planet Krypton, with powers and abilities far beyond us mortal men.

On the other hand, I appreciate the perspective of the NPR program:  a good story can engage kids, help them feel, and let them carry a lesson forward that's memorable and relevant.

Kind of like the way us church goers might have heard tell of a guy named Noah who had God's blessing, even as all the liars and cheaters got drowned in an inundation of 40 days and 40 nights. Was that a story we remember and that helps guide us throughout life?  Or was it just a bald-faced lie to manipulate us when we're very young?

You might feel good yourself for telling a kid about the peril of drowning if he goes in the sea, but he might actually stay out of the sea as a kid when he's told a memorable story of a sea monster --- a story that he can then laugh at and remember fondly as he grows older and wise enough to more fully understand the real perils of the world around him.

22 hours ago, TMSM said:

As SM its my perogavitve to to put scouts on the ballot that meet the camping rule, rank requiremnt and have the right scout spirit. Its also important to have a chance to talk to each scout before creating the ballot so there are no hurt feelings or misunderstandings. ...

Great points, TMSM!

I wonder how often, we see posts in forums like this that describe a Scoutmaster's "arbitrary rules" when, in fact, Mom or Dad simply doesn't understand that a Scoutmaster is exercising his duty to advise boys and to use discretion.  I wonder how often, a Scoutmaster tells the boy that something is quite difficult or would benefit from pre-training, only to have that boy go tell his parents that "there's a rule..."

I like your approach of talking to the scout and making sure they understand the reasons. Same is true for a scouter who doesn't sign off on a rank requirement, merit badge requirement, etc. Make sure you talk to the boy and help him understand how he can grow and meet requirements and achieve any scouting goal he wants to reach.

I was listening to NPR last night, and they had an interesting conversation that I thought could be useful for dialing down the volume on confrontation, yet still getting across important points (particularly regarding safety).

The program talked about how calm and controlled an Inuit discussion (or confrontation) would be. The Inuit are more stoic than we are. They don't yell.  Instead, they prefer to get their point across using the power of story.

I wonder how many times I might get mad at a boy and, instead of berating him for his carelessness, I might be able to sit down with him and tell a story that highlights to him why he might rather be more courteous, or more safety minded.  I wonder if storytelling could work with teenagers in my community...

Here's the backstory:  https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/689925669/storytelling-instead-of-scolding-inuit-say-it-makes-their-children-more-cool-hea 

15 hours ago, Cambridgeskip said:

I don't get too stressed about what style mine go for, in fact I quite like that mine look a little bit scruffy and grungy

Ahhh, the voice of humanism.  Boys SHOULD look a "little bit scruffy and grungy", shouldn't they?

I like that perspective!

On 3/2/2019 at 5:45 AM, HelpfulTracks said:

I would hate to see this troop disband.

The article is not specific as to how many leaders they need and for what purpose. 

I'll bet $5 they're looking for a Scoutmaster...seems like they'd want a very special individual to handle that role.