CA_Scouter

We had one family where dad almost lost his foot in a work accident. The troop ( and others outside the troop ) took up a donation and deposited close to $5K into their bank account. Quite a few people helped out with this and it involved GSUSA and 4H groups as well. This was a large undertaking. We had another family where mom had major surgery and dad was on seasonal layoff.. we had families drop by a dinner 3-4 times a week for about 3 weeks to help out. This was of smaller scale and much easier to manage and organize.

Overtrained committee members.

Remember, you don't have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your buddy...

We call that 'standing too close to the edge of the whirlpool'. It sucks you right it, doesn't it? ;-)

We are $5/mo or $50/yr if you pay up in Jan. We have a Xmas tree fundraiser and we run concession booths are our small town Independence Day parade. For campouts we split the cost of the location by the number of attendees... but because we backpack a lot, probably half our activities each year don't have a cost. We ask for $5 per person for gas, more if its a longer trip, paid directly to the driver. The adults do not handle food money at all. That's up to the patrols.. we encourage them to keep it to $10-15 per kid, but if they want to spend more, its their deal. I haven't touched patrol food money in 4-5 years...

Very involved. Baseball 5th grade thru High School ( all arm, no bat ) Football four years in High School Basketball 5th grade thru first year of college, then on to rec leagues up until about 6 years go when I became SM. Scouts throughout, Cubs/Webelos/Scouts thru to Eagle... and a paper route... and a very good GPA btw... ( you can imagine my reaction to little johnny's mommy saying he doesn't have time to do this or to do that ) Similar to Brent, Dad and Mom would shuttle me from weekend games to the campouts and back on occasion... NOW... a little pickup BB, occasional golf, jogging/workouts several times a week...

Just saw this on FB, thought it would be nice to share... ============================================================ Because Of My Son. Because of my son , I have a job to do. I became a Scouter, tried and true. I understand boys better, because of my son. It happened through Scouting... Gee what fun! 'Tis endless, the pleasures gained from Scouting, Because of my son, I've gained friends beyond measure. 'Tis indeed blessed to hold such such a treasure! Hours that were idle, now are filled to the brim. Because of my son, I enjoy life with him! Because of my son, I've a new way of life. I recommend Scouting for each husband and wife. Don't spend your spare time doing nothing at all. Because of your son, heed the Scouting call!

From the Golden Empire Council web site: The July 16, 1910 Sacramento Union announced, "Two bands of Boy Scouts are formed in Sacramento". These two "companies" were organized with commitment "to the development of all that is best in the boy". These early Sacramento Boy Scouts promised "not to lie, steal, curse, drink, smoke or do our will for anything which my father or mother would in any way object". Can't find any history info on our district yet though...

My company has a 99.99% uptime requirement, this means we get about 53 minutes per YEAR where we can be down. To do this we have: a data center in both SF and NY full failover replication to multiple servers in each location ( this means that if a one server fails, another one in the same office takes over w/o having to switch to NY ) multiple database nodes ( for the same reason ) in each location full backup power sources in both locations, in addition to mighty, mighty big UPS devices replicated data pipes from SF to NY and back, and with multiple vendors in case JimBob from Sprint cuts a cable, we can use BillBob's line from AT&T This is a very simplistic overview btw. We spend millions a year in hardware and software support to achieve this requirement, but we are a news wire release service ( worldwide ) and if we go down, we lose clientbase. Please note that we rarely use NY, its simply there as a backup in case SF goes down. That's a lot of $$ to spend on idle hardware. I think National made a decision to not spend that kind of money. This isn't life and limb stuff, eh?

Saw the show for the first time last night. Very entertaining but I notice that there is not a silent moment in the show. She's constantly chattering about this and that and after a while I had to turn the sound down. More interesting was the Alaska State Troopers show and a Wild Justice show which follows California Fish and Game wardens. I agree with Brent's assessment btw...

Geez youse guys give us Kalifornians a hard time! You may now know this but CA has ( IMHO ) a very strong Scouting program despite this states propensity to attract more nuts than a walnut orchard. **start good-natured dig ** And I'd like to point out that the World Series trophy resides out here on the Left Coast this year, ya know. My beloved Giants finally did it! **end good-natured dig ** Ahnold is gone. Long live Gov Moonbeam II.

ALL media is entertainment!

Three times a year for regular COH, as needed for Eagle ( 3 in our near future! ) April - Kinda light on the awards but we introduce the new PLC and do a dessert potluck Sept - we do a family campout and COH - its well attended, we have a great potlock and campfire, activities during the day, etc... loads of good times! Dec - Mid month - we make it the last meeting of the year and we also do our annual flag retirement ceremony

You mean you can't snooze when you put it on cruise control? When did this change? ;-)

We use the Coleman PowerMax for the patrols. It has a low profile so pot tipping is minimized. We use simple $12 aluminum 4qt pots from REI for the patrols. That's usually sufficient size for most one pot meals. We've used these stoves on our snow camping trips and they work fine. We keep the bottles insulated at night so they don't get too cold and this seems to keep them working efficiently.

Same as 'Schiff. Having the Committee meet at the same time/place also makes it more convenient for the scouts to address the Committee when requested or desired ( i.e.. we ask the scouts to present their proposed Eagle projects to the Committee ). My CC gives me time up front to address the group, then they go about their business. If I'm needed for subsequent discussion, I'm just around the corner.

Don't know if there is a Declaration of Canine Principle or not... ;-) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/16/DDEI1FPT18.DTL

That's nothing. I used to work for a Navy contracter ( Lockheed ) . They actually published an acronym book for the employees. I am not kidding.

Agreed Kudu. I am a failure as a SM. I just received this from my esteemed Committee member: This is the official guidelines of the BSA out of their current Youth Protection and Adult Leadership manual. I have underlined #6 for your review. Yes #1 speaks of patrol activities and this is I think where you came up with your thought process for the older boys but it relates to issues not involving camping. If the older patrol goes out on its own without proper adult supervision and something should happen you not only open yourself up to possible lawsuits but it also will extend to every registered member of the committee. ( I included only #6 below ) Leadership Requirements for Trips and Outings 6. Safety rule of four: No fewer than four individuals (always with the minimum of two adults) go on any backcountry expedition or campout. If an accident occurs, one person stays with the injured, and two go for help. Additional adult leadership requirements must reflect an awareness of such factors as size and skill level of the group, anticipated environmental conditions, and overall degree of challenge. Oddly enough Kudu, on your reference to page 3 of the G2SS, it states exactly the same thing ( thought its numbered as item #3). I read this as a pretty clear 'no', yet you ( and others here ) seem to indicate this planned activity is permissable under BSA rules? What am I missing here? ( and I haven't heard back from Council yet )

IMHO - threads should be closed when they veer so far off topic that the entire original message is forgotten, or they turn into a rant or name calling exercise, as this one is starting to... Too many discussions in this forum are ruined with persons pushing their own personal agenda or the Thought Police lambasting a poster for asking a simple question. Sheesh. Some of us have real lives and Scouting is a part of it, not ALL of it. Yours at 2 miles...

Moderators: As originator of this post, I respectfully ask that it be closed.

Tried to read thru some previous threads on this but they became entagled in verbiage so couldn't determine an answer... We are planning a one night backpack trip next month. Older scout patrol ( star and above ) want to go out on their own, no adult supervision. These are experienced backpackers, 6-10 backpack trips for each.. Myself and the asm's will take the younger scout patrol in the same area but hike and camp separately ( mebbe 2 miles apart or so ). One of my committee members says we can't do that ( no 2 deep leadership ). I say 2 deep leadership is to prevent one on one contact, that patrol outings don't have a 2 deep requirement. He says I won't get a tour permit from council. I'll be calling council later today but thought I post to get a few comments/opinions.... So.. does the BSA permit the older scout patrol to go without adult supervision or not?

Interesting, I drive thru Shingle Springs to get home. Looks like the troop is located in Grass Valley, about 35 miles north from Shingle Springs. I remember talking to some Scouters a few years ago, they were manning a booth at a local event, and we spoke about a camp that was run by a single troop. They had apparantly purchased the land back in the 50's or something like that and had been running this operation since then. Takes some dedicated volunteers to do that... boorah!

Welcome from Placerville! ( 40 miles from Sacto ).

Philosophical Question: The October issue of Backpacker mag has a bunch of great teachable skills on outdoor survival, ie.. how to make do without a first aid kit, or no compass, or no cooking pots... a variety of things... One of the pages ( p74 ) has several skills where a bottle of whiskey is used ( start a fire, treat iffy water, care for cuts, signal for help )... Do you, or do you not, teach this skillset to a scout troop?