mrkstvns

5 minutes ago, mashmaster said:

All of these sound like great follow-ups, I was trying to think what would I do if it were one of my scouts that did this.  

I'd cry.

Then I'd pray for the strength to deal with finger-pointing adults and Monday morning quarterbacks telling me what they'd have done if they'd been there.

Finally, I hope I'd be able to help the troop leaders avoid crucifying the kid himself since I know perfectly well that I did things just as stupid when I was growing up (but thankfully, nothing that hurt anybody or caused major public humiliation). How can we help the kid grow from the experience and not just quit (or get ejected from) the troop?  Kids do stupid things. As Barry said, they need to learn how to make good decisions. That doesn't happen instantly or without occasional pain.

52 minutes ago, qwazse said:

No more cooking spray for anyone in the troop. Going forward, only provision with olive oil, lard, margarine, or butter.

Check provisions for any other spray-ables. That includes deodorant. This means a thorough shakedown before departure for a year.

Around here, bug spray and sunblock are very common spray-ables.  I can't imagine a troop banning these entirely...or such a ban being effective and enforceable.

1 hour ago, SBSkip said:

Hey Mark!

This is Skip Andaya, the Program Director for Swamp Base. I hope all is well!

I believe we have spoken recently, and we are looking forward to having your Troop for a visit soon! I thought I might use this as an opportunity to speak about our Weekend Trips.

• Primitive camping is free, and tents work best. There are a few trees for hammock campers, but they are inaccessible. A bathroom facility is available, but there is no potable water on site.
• The Houseboats are an amazing experience! We use an outside provider, and he has 5 houseboats that can be linked together, depending on your group size. The cost is $130 per person, and that is the main deterrent. The cost includes the gear rental.
• We have revised our paddle routes, and will be updating the website soon. All Weekend Trip routes are out and back, starting and ending at the campsite. We have 3, 6, 8, and 11 mile trails.

I hope this helps!

All that sounds great, but what's really got some of our boys fired up is the promise of being able to ride the air boats. Noise and power and all that...

We're really excited about coming out to Swamp Base. We do have a former scoutmaster who refuses to go anywhere where there's alligators, but I reassured him, telling him that the alligators haven't eaten very many scouters so far this year.

See y'all in a few weeks.

Great to see you here, Aaron. Look forward to hearing about your wanders...

30 minutes ago, TMSM said:

The best way to make this happen is to volunteer to teach it. I teach 3 classes each year on scouting skills and they are always packed. I am not sure why because these are things you should know as a scouter.

You're probably right. I should stop complaining and stick up my hand to help make the change.

And by the way, all these "things you should know as a scouter" are precisely the things that so few new adult leaders actually DO know and that so many adults who've got a few years experience could stand a refresher on.

Guess it's time to get over to REI and sign up for some of their basic scouting skills classes before I go make a fool of myself trying to teach my fellow adult scouters...

Nothing wrong with a boy being proud of what he's done and wanting to show off his bling.  I'm just saying there are better ways to do it.

Those kids with their bright red wool brag vests covered in patches sure do look SHARP when they're wearing that vest around the campfire

Taking the uniformity out of uniforms isn't a positive. You get a uniform that's a tacky self-storage bin for temporary patches and it's really nothing to be proud of.

If MikeS72 can show his age, I can too, because I'm close to his age, and remain VERY proud of the fact that our merit badge sashes never had ticky tacky garbage on them. They reflected merit and our uniforms looked SHARP (well, except for the ugly red berets....but I'll save that rant for another day and another cup of espresso.)

Well explained, willray.

The navigation system in a car uses GPS, but it is not the same as a handheld unit that can give you a specific set of coordinates describing your position on the planet. 

Unfortunately, the whole topic of navigation is not well understood by most scouters. Even basic map and compass skills bewilder many leaders, never mind asking them to explain how to read a topographic map. 

I would like to see a good navigation class offered at my local University of Scouting. Lord knows I'm bored senseless by all the bureaucratic nonsense about the politically correct policy du jour and learning more about the irrelevant tangent award du jour. Basic OUTDOOR skills are painfully lacking in our council's University of Scouting.  Navigation is just one of many useful basic scouting skills that scouters could use some brushing up on...

I often find that my local REI has better, more useful "scouting" classes than the council training committee offers. 

I know it's allowed, but some scouts have some seriously UGLY merit badge sashes because they tack on a variety of temporary patches on the backs of their sashes. Some don't even try to do it neatly. They put them on sideways if the patch is large, they sew on non-BSA patches, and they have inconsistent placement. From the back, a line of scouts looks like a posse of rodeo clowns. 

I know it's allowed, but boy, oh boy, some boys sure can put the UGH into UGLY!  

22 hours ago, perdidochas said:

Have you ever made grits?  You have to boil for at least 5 minutes for quick grits (15 minutes for regular grits). That and the cleanup make it impractical for backpacking.  

I don't find boiling for 5 minutes to be an impossible task for a weekend backpack trip. I wouldn't do it on a long trip, and instant is better, but a 5-minute boil is hardly difficult.

1 minute ago, MikeS72 said:

Be sure you are using meritbadge.org, rather than meritbadge.com.   It works fine for me right now, and did also yesterday.

Quite right, meritbadge.org does work..

But the OP pointed out the meritbadge.com does not work.  He is also quite right.  It doesn't.

Another new Nova award has been rolled out for Scouts, called Up and Away.  This one is in the "Engineering" part of STEM and it focuses on fluid dynamics (physics).  Looks like a very interesting award that could center around hands-on activities with wind tunnels.

Requirements for the Up and Away Nova award are here:

https://i9peu1ikn3a16vg4e45rqi17-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Up-and-Away-Nova-ScoutsBSA.pdf 

Meritbadge.com doesn't work for me either.  Definitely something wonky there....

I cringe when I hear someone pre-judging a boy who hasn't even joined the troop yet.  It makes me think of Father Edward Flanagan, founder of Boys Town...

Father Flanagan's most famous quote:  “There are no bad boys. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, bad thinking.”

Father Flanagan gives you some ideas for ways to handle the situation:  
- Environment: maybe put "that kid" with an older patrol who won't be intimidated by his more confident (or aggressive) style
- Training: maybe have a discussion with the PL, SPL, Guide, ASMs, etc. and find ways to work with the youth and channel his energy
- Example: pair up "that kid" with a very strong, experienced "buddy" to help him learn the scouting way
- Thinking: stop stereotyping and give the kid a chance, look for the positive and praise him when you see him growing as a young man

26 minutes ago, ScoutMom-2 said:

Does anyone have or know where to find a monthly newsletter template that would include Lion and AOL dens?  The only ones I am finding are older versions and I cannot modify them.  I want one that would cover all pack and den activities and announcements.  Thanks!

I would just find a site with templates for whatever software you're using (like Word, Publisher, etc.) and pick a good-looking template, then modify that to suit your needs. No need to limit yourself to one specific to a cub scout pack.

On 2/25/2019 at 3:09 PM, malraux said:

"You are no longer a Cub, you are now a Scout."

Succinct and correct.  Well said.

1 minute ago, AltadenaCraig said:

Ooooh, thanks SO much for reminding me.  HUGE SAFETY TIP:  Nestle unfortunately packages the Nido whole milk so it's nearly identical to their baby-powder.  DON'T CONFUSE THE TWO !!

Good advice!!   I'd hate to sprinkle powdered milk on my kid's wet bottom...

1 hour ago, Jameson76 said:

Actually they do sell an instant grits that comes in a self serve cup (you can get oatmeal also), just add water.  A little bulky on the outbound leg, but they compress down nicely for the trip back.  We add beef jerky to the grits and that is mighty tasty.  

If I'm backpacking, I'd probably want to minimize the bulk and avoid the self serve cups. Especially since Quaker sells instant grits in paper envelopes.

1 hour ago, Jameson76 said:

Actually they do sell an instant grits that comes in a self serve cup (you can get oatmeal also), just add water.  A little bulky on the outbound leg, but they compress down nicely for the trip back.  We add beef jerky to the grits and that is mighty tasty.  

if you're boiling water anyway, then it might not be too much of an imposition to just use regular grits and just leave on the pot on to boil a few minutes longer.

I like the idea of adding beef jerky (or bacon bits).  It might also be good to experiment with other things to add: diced hard cheeses, dry onion flakes, etc. 

20 hours ago, qwazse said:

I honestly think paper + digital image backup is the ideal mode of operations for 21st century groups.

Quite right.

All these online apps are an unnecessary nuisance that creates far more problems than they solve. 

2 hours ago, HashTagScouts said:

As a MBC for American Business MB, it is not an exciting badge so hard to get kids to take an interest in it.  The requirements were just revised, and it now is an even easier MB to earn.  There was a requirement of running a business for 3 months, so hard to get kids interested in the badge, and even harder to get them to want to have to do the 3 month requirement.  With that requirement gone, this is like a half day badge at a MB college, so #s will probably go up (and that was probably the point of changing the requirements).   

You're right. The requirements are a LOT easier now.

I wonder how many scouts who started on some of the easy requirements are going to say, "Aw, heck. I might as well just stick with the old requirements." Uhh, zero.

On 3/12/2019 at 1:46 PM, Eagledad said:

Not sure I can help on Business Management. Aren't they called "The Man"?

The low numbers on American Business merit badge are a bit bewildering. It doesn't look like a particularly hard merit badge, and most of the requirements lend themselves well to doing in a merit badge university/midway type event.  Business is one of the most popular degree programs in American universities, so why teenagers would avoid it's corresponding merit badge makes no sense to me.  Maybe it's just that the merit badge involves a lot of concepts and theory, or in other words, it's freakin' boring!

1 hour ago, FireStone said:

Part of our membership numbers struggle is public relations, and making people aware of what scouts do. Like it or not, informing the public about scout activities, accomplishments, and service to the community is important.

If someone undertakes a service project entirely for social media posting, obviously that's the wrong motivation. But if it happens that there is an opportunity for some good PR while doing something positive, I see no issue with taking advantage of it.

We often invite the press to scouting events, Pinewood Derby, etc. This is just the modern day version of that.

Quite right.

I like the essence of Terasec's sentiment that service projects should be done for their own value, but there is definite value to making people aware of things like this.

"Just another pat on the back" isn't the right reason to spread the word, but increasing visibility for the organization is a benefit to BSA (and other organizations that share its values), and publicizing things like the trash pickup serve a larger goal of educating the public.

When scouts document environmental service projects using the Hornaday Project Workbook, they're even asked about media coverage --- it's common (and even expected) that scouts doing these kinds of projects will publicize their efforts. Not as "just another pat on the back", but because it's important that people in the community see that things they do may be contributing to local problems and that there are things that can be done to address the problems. Awareness is often the first step towards solutions.

11 hours ago, RookieScouter said:

I am looking a better way to keep up with my scouts payments log for each trip we take. Does anyone have a template they use or tips on keeping payments made organize? 

Here's a tip:  If you adopt any kind of electronic log/template/app, *PLEASE* do not assume that anyone else in the troop will be willing to use it.  Due to an excess of professional experience with cyber security, I routinely refuse to: 1) download apps, 2) agree to terms & conditions of 3rd parties, 3) use anything associated with Facebook, 4) download anything onto my computer.

Soooo, while you might be gung-ho about your latest and greatest "helper app", be aware that others may find it a nuisance in even the best of circumstances.

Scouting is about scouting....not about Your Favorite App. Keep it simple. Keep it safe. Keep it fun.

9 hours ago, Liz said:

You know, there's a module on my.scouting on uniforms and it has a section specifically on neckerchiefs. 

If I recall correctly from taking the module recently, pretty much it says all the different ways to wear the neckerchief (including collar folded in, if desired) are acceptable as long as everyone in the unit does it the same way.

Good luck with that!!

13 hours ago, qwazse said:

Take, for example the land-navigation requirement (what many scouters mistake for "the 5-mile hike"), if twenty or more scouts are trudging along a worn camp trail, there's not much navigation going on per scout. They could be discussing with each other, learning how to take marks, identify distances, measure heights. In such a situation, I would discourage any SM from allowing camp to sign-off that requirement.

I've noticed that land navigation isn't a skill that most adults have today.  They just know how to plug in an address in their iPhone and get directions. They don't know how to use a compass, or read a topographic map, or heaven forbid, run an orienteering course.

Instead of steering adults to boring University of Scouting classes that focus on administrivia and overhyping award programs, more adult training on practical outdoor skills would be very useful and appreciated.