Campfire Fairy

My council's wood badge training recently came to a close, and I'm proud to say that I was a part of it. A handful of Venture youth scattered across the council, myself included, spent the last 3 days of Wood Badge in one of the patrols (go Bears!), helping to explain such things as the fundamentals of a leave-no-trace campsite, as well as running a problem solving round robin as one of the training modules. I must admit, I didn't know what to expect going into it, but I came out of it with a good experience and a fun weekend to talk about for quite a while. Venture Crew 1 (of course, the numb

I recently found out that my youngest sister's troop is disbanding (is that the right word to use?) this year. The girls will be in seventh grade in the fall, which is about the time when a) they start working on their silver award, and b) when I started getting bored with the program. Granted, I stuck with it until I earned my silver, and for another year after that, but once I joined Ventures I had no need for the GSA. It was too much fluff and not enough fun. I was talking with my mom the other day, and from what I understand, the main reason is that the moms who were running the troop

The 2 girl scout camps in my area have summer programs as well asorganized winter camping. The winter camping programs run Friday nights-Sunday afternoons and the activities vary. There are Mom-and-Me weekends, where each of the scouts (typically Brownies) brings their mom, and a similar weekend with dads. There are open-scheduled weekends when troops can reserve units for winter camping to earn badges, or just for fun. Both camps also contain ropes courses- low ropes at one, high at the other, unless things have changed since I've last heard. And I can tell you for a fact that non-girl s

Beautifully spoken, scoutldr. *applauds*

Wow, it's been a while since I've been to the forums here... they've updated and everything, and I feel all shabby and inadequate with a little half star rating... like I'm underdressed in a really expensive restaurant. So, some time may have passed since I was here last, but old habits die hard and I just have to throw in my two cents... An awful lot of people have responded to this thread who -aren't- Merlyn, despite the specifications of the title. Although I suppose if OGE wanted this to be a one-on-one conversation he would have privately messaged Merlyn instead of making it a

NeilLup- I'm afraid I may have been a bit confusing and ambiguous in my last post. I agree that it is necessary to have a female adult in attendance during co-ed overnight outings, and I more than understand the legalities behind this when the what-ifs and could-have-happeneds -do- happen. My sometimes overactive imagination can certainly drum up a number of ridiculous but not impossible allegations and accusations that could be devastating during a legal proceeding, and I certainly buy into the better-safe-than-sorry theory. To a reasonable extent. Before I go on, I am forced to ask what

Just to state my opinion in all this, I have retracted my comment that it was okay for a dad to be a girl's leader because I have been proven wrong with a reference source. However, my "interpretation," since that seems to be everyone's favorite word in this thread, is that of the two leaders present on an outing, one and only one is absolutely -required- to be registered with the BSA. I would like to think that I am perceptive enough to decide, after meeting the woman who will be my adult chaperone for the outing, whether or not I can put my safety and my trust in this person. And if I

*graciously retracts her comment*

Hey. Being a girl in a co-ed crew, I can help you out here... hopefully, anyway First of all, it is my understanding that yes, if the girl's father attends, he is her "chaperone" and you do not need a female leader. This only works for that one girl, however. She can't bring a friend and have her dad be the friend's chaperone, too. As far as female leaders go, no, they don't need to be registered with the BSA. My crew has always been desperate for female chaperones to the point where we almost steal them from other crews, but we've also had a few young women who were students of one

OGE- You're hired. Uh, for in the future... or... something...

I like the camping/rock climbing/backpacking/general outdoorsiness that I do with Ventures. I also like little kids (in a very NON-Michael-Jackson kind of way!). I like to draw... I'm into photography... I like animals and have aspirations of being disgustingly rich when I get older so I can own a white tiger, an elephant, a black panther, a panda, a chimpanzee, 2 horses, and your typical dogs, cats, rabbits, and small lizards. Oh, and a cute little green snake whom I will name Mr. Squiggles. I'm a movie freak but I hardly watch any tv at all, and I confess to having unhealthy obsessions with

I got a Venture uniform shirt... and a fleece liner for my sleeping bag... and a backpacking backpack... and a backpacking tent... and that awesome pair of hiking boots I so subtly pointed out to my parents that were 50% off or something crazy like that in the Cabela's catalog... and a tricked out, impressive pocketknife... and a spiffy leather-bound 3-ring binder thing with my initials on it in gold to keep my oh-so-efficient secretarial Venture meeting notes in... oh, and I got a horse. And then I woke up. Okay, so, Santa must have given away all the exciting camp-y things to you p

I'm curious (and maybe I should be putting this out in the open discussion forum, because I'm quite sure that very few of the male members of this forum pay any attention to this little corner of the world) as to how the boy scouts, youth and adults, view the Girl Scout program. Be brutally honest, and please share any observations you may have regarding girl scouting. As for the female members/girl scout members out there reading this, feel free to share your own opinions on the mission of girl scouting and what you think the "Girl Scout Image" is, generally, nation-wide. I'm curious to

Since someone else resurrected this thread, I'll have my say now. Yes, I admit, I didn't want to bring this one back from the dead if no one else was interested... I figured, I missed my chance to rant and rave about the troop mentioned in the article Beaver was so kind enough to post in here. But now, thanks to Anne, I can. I think it's precisely troops like that one that deny girl scouts any considerable amount of respect. Spas and yoga and shopping trips and the like are not the kind of events that teach the girls to be strong, ambitious, competent women and community leaders. If anyt

*jumps up and down and waves* I'm here, I'm here! Sad to say, this is quite obviously one of the least popular places on here... but I guess it's to be expected on a boy scout forum. But I would hope that more of the adult advisors, particularly those who are active in a Venture crew, might be interested in Girl Scout affairs as they may at some point have a girl scout Venturer in their midst and would be anxious to learn a thing or two about the way girl scouts works, the way the girl is learning a crazy amount about how boy scouts works (I know I certainly did when I first started