mrkstvns

Building better scout leaders.

Experience. Wisdom. Inspiration.

That's too bad. It should have. Here's a description of IOLS that I got off the web site for Baltimore Area Council ... it pretty much sums up what IOLS is intended to be: Four Rivers DistrictAbout 4RProgramTrainingIOLS IOLS (Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills) This course is designed for Boy Scout Leaders: focusing on the basic outdoor skills needed for the Tenderfoot through F

Just a few thoughts.... See "Guide to Advancement" (G2A) for guidance on this (section 4.2.1.2 is very short, and there are other places in the guide that expand on discussion, or may outline other considerations (such as wrt. merit badges). Allowing youth to sign off can be a good thing, but I wouldn't automatically let anyone of a certain rank or age sign off ---- I'd link it to the Positions of Responsibility so that scouts take responsibility for teaching and for quality. My suggestion would be: JASM, SPL, Instructor, and perhaps Troop Guide. G2A lists PL, but I don't re

Darn it Steve, you made me laugh so hard that I spewed coffee all over my keyboard and monitor! I kinda feel guilty being critical of any youth's decisions about how to wear his uniform, but I gotta agree with you. That mess really puts the UGH into UGLY.

I've got a few event T-shirts, but not a lot. Part of the reason is because my local council is lame: very few "events" to speak of. In fact, the only T-shirts I've gotten from my local coiuncil have been ones given to event staff. So when I volunteered to run an activity at Cub Day Camp, I got a "staff" T-shirt. When I volunteered to run a merit badge class at Winter Camp, I got a "staff" T-shirt. In neither case did the youth get a shirt. Some districts in our council are very active with lots of program activities that are very well run. Those districts sometimes offer other swag, l

Yes, they SHOULD. In my experience, they usually DON'T. Also, what they do for AOL requirement 3 doesn't necessarily carry over to the new troop. We have Webelos bridging into the troop from multiple packs. Sometimes a bunch come from one pack, more often, the new scout patrol has no more than 2 scouts coming from a given pack/webelos den. So the scouts develop their own patrol identity: new patrol name, new emblem, new flag, new yell. That generally doesn't happen at the first meeting.

This is what I periodically ask myself....it's basically the question "Why?" For me, it's a realization that every parent in the unit needs to pitch in as a team to really make it work. Parents can't sit on the sidelines and magically expect a wonderful program to just happen. So I pitch in and do my part so that my SON has a functioning unit in which to grow his leadership skills and personal values. It helps that I see his friends' parents chipping in and filling other roles, overseeing different activities, helping to make things work. It's still a lot of work. For the "key 3", g

Michigan Crossroads Council plans to close a camp that was popular with Cub Scout packs. Story... https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2019/10/boy-scouts-announce-end-of-rota-kiwan-camp-near-kalamazoo.html

I looked at the Insignia Guidelines, but the only thing that jumps out at me as belonging under a right pocket is a Recruiter strip. Are there other types of patches that belong there? What would they be? I ask because I saw a picture of a scout working on a service project and he had a very complex set of patches with multiple rings placed under his right pocket. I hadn't seen that done before and had no idea what kind of patches they were. Thoughts? Pointers to "official" uniform practices?

One would hope. Over the past several years, I've been the ASM who was tagged as the "First Class Emphasis" guy, so I work with the incoming scouts for the first year or so. With about 10 scouts per year, I guess that makes about 50 scouts I've helped on their initial ranks. I always ask if they did Cyber Chip in their Webelos den. So far, I'm all the way up to about 3 scouts who had done so and knew what it was. I keep dreaming that one year, we'll get a whole new scout patrol where everybody has a Cyber Chip card....it remains a dream. We run a Cyber Chip class for the new scouts b

It takes about a month. Most of Scout rank is for the scout to learn basic scouting things like the Law, the Motto, the Outdoor Code, the Patrol Method, etc., and to be able to explain these things. Scouts who are gung-ho can read the Scout Handbook and knock these things out in an evening (assuming they can get the attention of someone to sign him off). Two requirements seem to be speed bumps for a scout working on Scout rank: * 3b. For a new scout patrol, the patrol members need to get together and talk about who they want to be. They need to pick a patrol name, decide on an emblem (p

If I were feeling especially masochistic, I'd put up my hand in the next committee meeting and offer to make the T-shirts happen....sounds like fun! What I might do is... Ask the scouts if they wanted to design it themselves, then have a contest to pick the best design Let the scouts vote on colors Check the BSA branding guide to be sure I was using logos, wording, colors, etc. in a manner that didn't run afoul of official rules (the guide is here: https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/310-0231.pdf) Compare apples to apples. Shop the job around to see if I

Hmmm.... That seems like more water than I'd want to carry. I use a rule of thumb of 1 liter per 5 miles (which equates to 1 liter per 2 hours). For a 10-mile hike, 2 liters would be what I'd carry, unless I knew there were potable sources en route, in which case I might go lower. A hike should be more like a walk than a backpacking trek: the more you carry, the less casual and fun it is. (3 liters is 6.6 pounds of weight that you're adding)

Are you getting to NT by flying? If you are, then carrying ANY tent is "duplication" because NT has tents available that you can use. Yours might be lighter, but it's unnecessary added weight when you check in for your flight. I would be most worried about weight in order to avoid charges for excess baggage. NT might suggest a chair....but is ANY chair really that necessary? I've canoed BWCA area before and, believe it or not, lived to tell the tail even though I didn't pack a chair. There is not one single piece of electronic paraphernalia that I consider necessary for a can

I hate to be critical, but I can't help but laugh at the irony of this statement given the rest of your post. You claim to want to "save some weight and bulk" and then follow it up with a wash list of practically every unnecessary piece of overpriced outdoor techno-trash that an imaginitive huckster could dream up to sell you. To really make a NT trip enjoyable, I'd suggest 2 things: Simplify. Most of your "extras" are nowhere close to be necessary. Do you really need a Kindle on a backwoods trip? Aside from inviting problems caused by lack of charging, WiFi, etc., why on eart

Thanks, le Voyageur! I'm always grateful for any info about GOOD camps that let scouts cook their own meals. I'm not sure I'd recommend these for folks emphasizing patrol method though. Both seem to be high adventure programs, and the vast bulk of these have scouts cook meals on treks. Maine High Adventure's says their program has scouts cooking on fires or on stoves. IMHO, it would better meet their promise of "adventure" if the stoves were left back in a storage unit someplace... The Blue Ridge program seems to be an afterthought program (and their council web site is terribl

How else would a Dragon Slayer get to the dragon if he didn't have a Dragon Boat to get him there? Seriously though, I had to go Google "Dragon Boat" to figure out what the heck this was. Found out it's essentially a large canoe with lots of paddlers... A look at the requirements for the Dragon Boating activity badge say that you can also use a "bell boat" to meet requirements. A bell boat is a bit different in that it's like 2 canoes strapped together to form a twin-hull vessel (like a catamaran without sails). BSA may not have a Dragon Boating badge like Bri

Just taking the troop to a place like Tanzania is far more "high adventure" than most scouts ever experience, but one troop from Connecticut has not only done it once, but twice, and they also climbed to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro --- 19,341 feet. Now that's what I call a troop with an appetite for "high adventure"!!! Story: https://www.courant.com/community/simsbury/hc-va-simsbury-boy-scouts-mount-kilimanjaro-20191031-20191029-3t4wrtft5bfjlcrxvi2qzdrd3a-story.html

The 160-acre camp was evidently popular with troops in the Duluth-Superior area, but not popular enough to make money, so it is up for sale. Anyone have a spare $300K to drop on a Boy Scout camp that includes its own private lake?? Story: https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/community/nonprofits/4742419-Sale-pending-on-Boy-Scout-camp-in-Superior

Here's a story about a troop that had their trailer broken into. The tents and other troop equipment were stolen, flags were thrown on the ground and stomped on, but the trailer was left behind... https://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/thief-steals-boy-scout-equipment-stomps-on-american-flags/article_8584a443-dd03-5f21-8aeb-3c6fd12c9628.html

A hearty handshake and profound congratulations on joining the BEST troop in the whole darn council!

A lot of people still catch fish and eat them. Scouts who learn to clean and eat what they catch fulfill requirement 10 for Fishing MB (and possibly requirement 7c of Fish and Wildlife Management MB if they take the time to study the contents of the fish's stomach to learn what they eat in the wild. Yeah, I know what you mean. I heard a news report recently about protests against an Orthodox Jewish community that was planning a Kaporos ceremony as part of their Rosh Hashanah celebration. Evidently, the idea is that they transfer sins to live chickens, then kill the chickens.

The new NOVA award for Scouts BSA that incorporates the iFly indoor skydiving is called "Up and Away". You can see requirements for the award here: https://i9peu1ikn3a16vg4e45rqi17-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/STEMNovaUPANDAWAYscoutsbsa_final.pdf

A long time ago, that was also a required skill here in the USA. I think it was one of the requirements for First Class....skin and cook the rabbit or pluck and cook a chicken.