mrkstvns

Do y'all participate in BSA's Summertime Activity awards program?  

With or without the incentive of an extra pin to tack onto your cub's uniform, getting out and doing things together as a den or a pack can be a heck of a lot of fun!  I know some units consider summer to be an "off" season, but a strong unit won't sit idle for 3 months. That's just too long to not hang out with your friends!

The highlight of my summers growing up in Northern Virginia was our annual pack picnics in Bull Run Park. 

Just curious about what kinds of summer pack memories you are creating for your kids....

Ideas??

Thanks, guys!  I'm going to have to try the 2-pan technique next time I'm on lunch detail. Using focaccia sounds like a good idea too!

6 hours ago, FireStone said:

Maybe I'm naive about the court system, plea deals, etc... but this seems like an open-and-shut case to me.  ...

Seems like it to me too, but sadly, lawyers are involved, so no closure yet for the scout's grieving family.

Reminds me of something my dad used to say, "Where there's a will, there's a lawyer to tie it up in probate for years."

2 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

Logistics for patrol cooking summer camps is a lot more complicated than mess halls, which I understand is the main reason many camps we're glad to get away from it. 

Yep.  As adults, it's often a whole lot easier for us to just do something ourselves than it is to involve the boys. Those younger guys aren't as efficient as us and they waste time figuring things out and sometimes making the kind of mistakes that will only result in experience.  As an adult-led organization, BSA should sure focus on whatever is logistically best.   

6 minutes ago, MattR said:

I talked to some of the counselors at Camp Dieter at Peaceful Valley and it's not just patrol cooking, it's just about patrol everything. Each patrol gets a counselor and they decide what they're going to do for the week. They decide how much advancement they want to do. At the lake, at the shooting range, service projects, hikes, pioneering projects. It's all about teamwork. There are times where patrols can split up for individual merit badges but it's the exception and not the rule. I think it would be great but the adults in my troop shot it down several times.

Really?  That's refreshing to hear.  It would be a long trip for us, but I might have to talk to a couple scouts to see if Camp Dieter might float their boats.  I know that most scouts over age 12 really have little to no interest in wasting time at another BSA merit badge summer camp. Maybe if a camp really understood the patrol method and the concept of fun it might change their outlook (and help us retain older scouts).  Camp Dieter....hmmmm....

35 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

There is "approve" and then there is approve.  It depends on the activity.  Often "approve" is more hot air than something meaningful.  But I agree, charter org officially does "approve", but that should not limit you too much.

 

Right.  The charter organization can set certain guidelines in which the unit must operate, for example, abiding by religious beliefs, not scheduling activities on holy days, etc., but they can't change things that are core to the BSA program.  For example, they can't re-write a merit badge or do away with boards of review.   When a family puts their kid in a scout troop, they have a right to expect that SCOUTING is what will be delivered. 

Just now, David CO said:

The Chartered Organization owns the unit. That's a fact.

Mmm...maybe if you twist semantics around, but not in "fact".

A charter is more like a franchise. The whole scouting program (including the concept of the unit) is BSA's, and when an organization charters a unit, it is allowed to use the program for a contractually specified period (one year). To continue operating the unit, the organization must re-charter (and pay a fee) annually.

The program itself is defined in training materials, BSA guides, etc. An organization chat charters a BSA unit is expected to use the materials and to deliver the program they've licensed. 

Although organizations are afforded much latitude in certain areas, they are not free to do anything with "their" unit that they want.   

10 minutes ago, David CO said:

They own the unit. 

Bzzzt!!!  

Wrong answer!

They hold a charter (i.e., a year-by-year license to operate the BSA program).

33 minutes ago, T2Eagle said:

...  We ask our scouts what they want to do, they choose mess hall.   ...

If the scouts want it, that's great, go for it!  But in units with scouts who WANT the chance to do more cooking, patrol cooking should be offered.  A scout camp that doesn't offer units the option of patrol cooking is not doing all it can to meet the goals of the scouts (and nowadays, with Cooking merit badge back on the "required" list, there are quite a few scouts looking for more chances to do some outdoor cooking).

11 minutes ago, Summitdog said:

I'd love to learn more about this procedure.

It's available in current versions of Adobe Reader DC, but it may not be available if your user preferences aren't set appropriately or you don't have a PDF that's suitable for audio reading.

See Adobe's help here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/using/accessibility-features.html 

56 minutes ago, TMSM said:

We asked the scouts to vote on dining vs patrol method cook. votes was 43 to 1 for patrol method. The one vote for for dining ahll was from the laziest scout I have ever met.

I'm convinced that the impetus for lame dining halls at summer camp is lazy adults, not lazy scouts.  Most scouts I've met LIKE cooking their own meals.

Mess halls proliferate at BSA summer camps...but that wasn't always the case. At one point, BSA summer camps fostered scouting goals like independence, self-reliance. They trusted scouts to do things for themselves and they let scouts learn by doing. One of the ways they did that was by letting scouts cook their own meals: a practice referred to as "patrol cooking". You can read a bit more about patrol cooking here (https://www.summitbsa.org/patrol-style-cooking-not-your-typical-summer-camp-meal/).

Fortunately, there do still exist a handful of outposts where scouts are allowed to have meaningful camp experiences that help them grow into competent, confident young men. An example of this type of outpost is the summer camp where genuine patrol cooking can be done....

Camps that allow patrol cooking include....

• Camp Liberty, Heritage Scout Reservation  (PA)
• Rickenbacker Side, Bear Creek Scout Reservation (TX)
• Camp Dietler, Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch (CO)
• Camp Waubeeka, Curtis Read Scout Reservation (NY)
• Camp Freeland Leslie (WI)
• Soaring Eagle Boy Scout Camp, Ben Delatour Scout Ranch (CO)
• Camp Marriott, Goshen Scout Reservation (VA)

Do you know of another summer camp where patrol cooking lives?  Please tell me about it!

I've heard lots of raves about the "rugged" programs offered by Camp Emerald Bay, which is located on Catalina Island off the coast of California and is operated by Western Los Angeles Council. They have SEVERAL programs for scouts who want to advance their scuba diving skills and their sailing program offers options to go "above and beyond" the simplistic basics of the Smallboat Sailing merit badge, their sailboat fleet includes keelboats so boys can get a chance to actually experience what it feels like to do genuine coastal sailing (though they do offer lightweight merit badge programs too).

Cool location, meaningful programs....lots to like about Emerald Bay.
See:   http://campemeraldbay.org/ 

14 hours ago, MattR said:

Pre-cooked bacon, pre-made spaghetti sauce, pre-cooked hard boiled eggs, pre mixed eggs, and yes, pre mixed pancake batter and/or pancake mix. Cooking your own food from basic ingredients is much cheaper than all of this stuff. And it tastes better. And it's healthier.

It's also important that kids get an OPPORTUNITY to do and learn through experience. Pre-cooked everything is just a babystep away from sending mom to the nearest McDonalds for fast junk food instead of bothering with camp stoves.

Am I the only person who thinks it's unconscionable that MOST BSA summer camps have eliminated patrol cooking in favor of mess halls where a surrogate mom fixes meals for the kids? The pitiful argument that it lets kids have more time to squeeze in an extra merit badge only shows the foolish over-emphasis on checkbox advancement embodied by too many scouters.

Sandwiches make for easy campout meals, but when you turn your sandwich into a panini, it's elevated to  a masterpiece of outdoor culinary art.  

The deli across the street from my office has a fancy schmancy panini press that they use to cook their paninis, but a scout can easily achieve the same effect with an appropriate rock. Look for a rock that's fairly flat, roughly sandwich sized, and about 5 pounds in weight.

INGREDIENTS:

• Loaves of italian bread (or French bread)
• Fresh mozzarella cheese
• Sliced salami and pepperoni
• Pesto sauce
• Roast red peppers or sun dried tomatoes
• Olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS
Slice bread into thick slices.  Spread pesto sauce on bread and layer with slices of salami, pepperoni and mozzarella. Top with red peppers and/or sun dried tomatoes.  Close up sandwich with top slice of bread. Coat bread with a layer of olive oil.  Lay a sheet of aluminum foil over cooking grate or grill and set sandwich on it.  wrap rock in aluminum foil and set it on top of sandwich.  When bottom of sandwich is an appetizing golden brown color, flip it over and do the other side (also with rock on top of sandwich). 

Enjoy the tastiest deli-fresh panini you ever tasted on a campout!
 

On 11/28/2018 at 7:17 AM, RememberSchiff said:

In court on Tuesday, Thomas Murphy faced Andrew McMorris' mother while dozens of scouts from McMorris' Troop 161 filled the hallway outside court, wearing red ribbons to honor the friend who dreamed of being a pilot. 

"We're trying to get through the holidays without our child," said Alisa McMorris. 

Source text and court video

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Drunk-Driving-Suspect-Court-Boy-Scout-Killed-Crash-Long-Island-501383891.html

Legal proceedings against the drunk driver who killed the scout are still dragging on...
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/boy-scout-fatal-drunken-driving-1.32258655 

6 minutes ago, malraux said:

https://tradingpost.classb.com/official-licensed-bacon-ninja-patrol-patch/

theres 2 different patches...

You're not making me feel younger...

2 hours ago, Thunderbird said:

It has bacon, it has ninjas...  What's not to like?   

https://www.patchtown.com/baconninjapatrolpatch.aspx

I don't know what scares me most....

• somebody thought up the patrol name "Bacon Ninja Warriors"
• everybody thinks its a cool name
• there's actually a patch available that is in-stock and ready for immediate delivery
• the page on that link you posted got rated 5 stars

I must be getting old.

16 minutes ago, goldnloks said:

Hey Scotty actually there is a solution.  Many troops scan their pamphlets and keep them on line in PDF format.  All you have to do is open them click play and they are read to you.  

 

Is that really all there is to it?

My understanding is that common reader apps look for text-based content to "read".  That's fine if you create the PDF using Word, Publisher, or one of the many professional publications software packages that create PDF output.....but maybe not so fine if you just scan pamphlets yourself. The problem is that these are probably images and not really text strings, so your reader won't interpret it as human language, but rather as a picture.  

Maybe your mileage varies, but it seems to me like it might not work.

Camp Rainey Mountain in Georgia has a Whitewater-KR program that focuses tightly on going above and beyond your basic kayaking and whitewater merit badges...

The camp's leaders guide is here:  https://www.nega-bsa.org/files/24043/2019-Summer-Camp-Program-Guide 

I saw an episode of "NCIS" in which McGee is a scout leader bringing his patrol to see the crime lab. Abby shows one of the scouts how to take fingerprints and enter them in the system for a background check when OOOPS!  the system gets a hit on the scout as an abducted child.

What hit me most about the episode is how it would absolutely drive the uniform nazis bonkers because the kids had "merit badges" sewn all over the place....on pockets, above pockets, on the sleeves, etc.

6 minutes ago, walk in the woods said:

When it comes to evaluating any particular First Class skill, there's only one relevant question:

Do chicks dig it?

If the answer is yes, then it's relevant.

😎

That used to be true.  But in today's all-inclusive scouting program that accepts gays and females, there may exist scouts who don't feel they need to understand chicks.

Mosquito control might become an increasingly important topic for scouters as the world continues to grapple with rising temperatures caused by global climate change.

Whereas in past years, we might have been able to view mosquitos as little more than a nuisance, the spread of mosquito-borned diseases that were once of thought of a a problem to be dealt with by people and governments in the tropics are now a problem to be dealt with in the United States. 

An interesting article in yesterday's New York Times discusses how dengue is spreading northwards.

See the story:  
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/10/climate/dengue-mosquito-spread-map.html 

40 minutes ago, perdidochas said:

Sons' old Troop called a troop activity anything that the Troop did as a whole outside of fundraising for the Troop (this was a few years ago, so we had individual scout accounts for fundraising).  If the Eagle project was open to the Troop, it counted.  

Just to clarify, the requirement actually says, "...10 separate troop/patrol activities..."  so it doesn't even need to be the troop as a whole.  If an individual patrol wants to do a hike on its own, even if it's just a handful of boys, that should count.

28 minutes ago, perdidochas said:

Personally, except for Life Scouts working on Eagle in fear of aging out, I discouraged Scouts from working on "book-related" merit badges at Summer Camp. I don't think my sons ever took one at Summer camp. They took most of the aquatics badges, the activity badges (climbing, etc.), at Summer Camp.  Life's too short to spend hours at summer camp listening to a ill-prepared Scout teaching Citizenship merit badges.  

Precisely!

Summer camps provide "experts" in fields that are most closely related to the outdoor experience.  Boys can create meaningful memories if they stick to the topics that camps do best:  aquatics, shooting sports, camp craft, etc.  Take Horsemanship. Take Climbing.  Take Whitewater.  Take Archery.  Leave boring bookish classes like any Citizenship badge to the troop or to local merit badge workshops.  There's a right time and place for everything, and summer camp is no time to get bored.