cheffy

Now I'll be the first to admit that I think all kids should go to a Summer camp and I'll also admit to enjoying Tim Hortons coffee, and I have no problems with our Brothers to the north(I visit there often). now today is their annual "Camp Day" where part of the profits go to sending kids to camp. They are expected to bring in millions today. But look at the list of camps that benefit from this. there is only one in the state in Kentucky. Wouldn't it be great if some of that cash went to supporting local camps? Just Saying!!

65 chevy Caprice w/283 big car small engine. it was 10 yrs old when I got it. One of those"if you can get it running it's yours" replacing the motor mounts was the hardest part.

65 Olds Toranado. Classic until it rusted out in Michigan winters

68 Nova w/ 350

73 mercury Capri (loved that car)

some others in between

83 Volvo 240

then a bunch of mini vans

now F150 super crew. Troop loves that truck!

TwoCub.

I had a similar conversation with my Eagle son. he's a film major and they had to plan a major shoot. the person in charge was freaking out. he grabbed the project and told everyone" this is like an Eagle project. let me show you how it's done." Yep, sometimes it all works and gives you a nice warm fuzzy.

Went to an Eagle COH for a Scout who made Eagle and then the family moved out of state due to Dads work. They came back so the Scout could get his medal in his original Troop.

at the end of the ceremony the Scout gets up in front of everyone and says the usual thank yous. then he turns to the Scoutmaster(me)and ASm's and says " I want to thank all of you for letting me fail" He then went on to say how burning food and messing up a lot of things while scouting made him a better person.

sometimes you just get it right!

I know exactly what you are going through. I to am stepping down as SM this week. It was like as soon as the paper work was signed I felt bad. I have decided to stay on as an ASm for right now but others are trying to talk me into Commis. I still enjoy the Troop and camping and all the stuff that goes with. we started out with about 24 boys and are now upwards of 65. We have a great group of leaders and the committee is fairly good. to top it off I couldn't have asked for a better replacement. I've been told not to show up at regular meetings for a few months. I'm not going to know what to do with my extra hour a week.

we have experienced the same thing for about 3 years now. we were running right around 35 scouts and then a few killer years and we are now at 70ish.

We did a lot of what the others are saying.

a few things that worked and some of these we found out through experience.

we now put the new scouts right into established patrols. no temp patrol. they seem to do better when the older guys are around them and it develops that patrol spirit.

a troop guide and instructors for each patrol.

the 3 asst spl's divide up the patrols among themselves and work with the patrol leaders and report back to the SPL.

one of the first campouts is a T-2-1. the guides and instructors run the program and work the guys through some of the basics but the troop camps via patrol.

we were blessed with having extra gear and then we have slowly been picking up extra tents etc when they are on sale. we budgeted for them every year.

with that much gear we have 3 quartermasters all of whom are very well trained.

we have a meeting with the new adults on day one after crossover. explain the rules and how they can help. we repeat this about 3 months later and a "refresher".

at some point the older guys may think they are dealing with the new guys too much. We let them do a campout on their own. first class and up only.

At some point you will find that all those new guys will get first class and want a POR. be carful as you don't want to end up with too many chiefs and no Indians.

HTH

WE have a Scout who has asked to be Troop historian for his POR. Since the Troop has been around for 40 years and we have not had a Historian in probably the last 8 this may be a good idea. I'm looking for ideas on how to make this position work and not just be one of those "fluff" positions.

Any ideas/thoughts

We rotate camps also but the one we are going to this year has both options, patrol or dining hall.

we worked out a deal with the camp where the patrols cook breakfast and lunch then do dining hall for dinner.

the guys seem to like it as they have more time after dinner for the evening events, most of which are in the dining hall area anyway.

Our Troop usually frames the Eagle certificate

there are roses for the mother.

As far as planning the ceremony.. we have one or two people handle this with the scout and parents. a few years ago the person who did this made up binders with different styles of ceremonies and popular readings etc. now it's like ordering a la carte. The scout just says "i want opening o-1, readings r- and r-4. the whole thing goes together in no time.

It's a small town so usually the mayor shows up( her kids are in Scout too) and the state reps if they are in town.

Troop buys cake and most families do some food after.

One tradition the scouts started on their own (the uniform police will kill me here)is that none of them wear their MB sashes during the ceremony, except the new Eagle. Their reasoning is that it is his day to shine and show off. They do put them on later for group pictures etc.

I know which camp Lisabob is talking about. it's in our backyard. It's one of the oldest camps in the country and many years ago had Summer camp.

Part of the long term plan is to bring that back. If I remember right there was some cash donated to build a new dining hall(very impressive) and they have made some other improvements. We have several Scouts going because the week we chose for camp doesn't fit their schedule. We also have several older Scouts who are working at the camp this summer. I'm sure it's going to be a "test the waters" kind of year but we are all hoping for the best.

BTW lisabob I didn't know we were in the same council.

Our troop plans on doing this in the coming months.

our town is rather small and keeps to alot of it's historical roots.

to that end the "livery stable" is now the historic museum.

there is still a historic 1890's era working farm that has it's own master blacksmith.

and the local vet has a list or people that will shoe your horse.

we are going to incorporate all these into our MB program.

in a pinch we have used 2"x2" pine from the local lumber yard. a few of our adults are carpenters and knocked the corners off on the table saw so they were 8 sided. not bad if you can't get the real thing.

This is as far off topic as pie...

A guy at work did some work on the side for K Mart over Christmas a few years ago.

Boasted that he wasn't going to declare the income on his taxes.

I have a friend who is an accountant and used to pull this on his friends.

Bill the accountant calls up the guy at work and says he is from the IRS. Told the guy that K Mart reported paying him and why wasn't it declared.

Then told him to get his stuff together as he was being audited and he would call back to set up an appointment. It's been 5 years and he is still waiting to set the appointment, but he now declares everything. We have never told him it was a joke.

The look on the guys face when he heard the word audit was priceless.

And this is a lighter one. there's better.

Only 7 more days and it will be 1 year. the worlds longest running April fools joke?

Even I don't run a joke this long and I've done some good ones!

Here's the game plan so far.

Friday night do some survival review over cracker barrel and maybe play some worst casr scenerio game.

Sat morning older scout patrols head out to find their "crash site" and caches. they set up and work out issues.

The new crossovers are going on a hike with a couple of the senior scouts who will get them "lost" they will set up a seperate site with what they have with them.

Sunday morning everyone with have to orient they way to the "take out point to be rescued"

sounds like a fun time for our first round

One of the first campouts I went on as an adult I was asked to cook dinner. being classically trained the request was for Coq au Vin. now you just can't make that without the "vin" part. I found the "FRE" brand of wine that is alcohol free. I then boiled it to reduce it and burn off anything that may have been left. It worked fine and the camp commish didn't have a problem.

My thought is it it's a really special event and the ingredient is necessary i.e. beef burgundy, coq au vin etc then go withthe non-alcohol wines. otherwise just adjust. You're not cooking in the Bocuse d'Or, it a campout!

The troop want to do a wilderness survival campout and we need some ideas.

We have seen the usual ones on paper that have you rank the items etc.

What the guys are thinking is have each patrol hike out to a remote spot and there will be a cache there with certain items in it.

The patrol then has to set up their site and "survive" until a predetermined time and then orient their way back out to a "pick up point"

Question are. what will be the disaster situation i.e plane crash, lost, etc.

What should be in the cache? We have a few ideas plus some curve balls thrown in.

Any other ideas are appreciated/welcome

Thanks

I've been hearing that our council is thinking about imposing a new ruling that adult leaders cannot have one on one e mails or phone conversations with youth as it violates the two deep policy.

So when the SPL calls the SM to discuss a meeting agenda they both have to wait until a third party gets on the line. If a Scout needs an Eagle packet sent it also has to be sent to at least one other person.

I can see where council is trying to CYA but this is a little much.

Thoughts?

Before our cooking campout we take the boys shopping down to the market where it's still like the old school butcher shops. not plastic wrapped like the super WalMart. It's right down the street from some slaughter houses. I call my supplier and he usually get us a tour including the killing floor. In all the years we have only had one boy who had to leave. then again about half the boys live on working farms and show 4 H.

Maybe you could find a place that would give tour/demo. I've got to tell you that a poultry plant is fairly nasty.

Last year we got into watch a Kosher kill. the guy explained the reasons behind everything and why certain things were done. Very interesting.

We had a new Council person for EBOR's a few years ago and there was rumor that he was hard core Marine. Turns out that during a EBOR he is the nicest guy. runs a tight ship/meeting but really brings out the best in the Scout. We had a EBOR recently and at the end the council person asks the Scout "do you have any questions for the Board." Scout looks at everybody and says ' every time I have a Scoutmaster conf they ask how I lived the Scout law today. My question for all you Scouters is" how did you live the Scout law today" The council guy loved it. everyone on the Board was an Eagle and there were a few Silver Beavers. The scout waited until they all answered. After that approval was a no brainer.

And it's also a great place to bounce an idea off. Ther are days when you know what you should do but just want to see what other would do.

My youngest sons Eagle ceremony was yesterday. what a day! Even though there are several Troops in town it's still a big deal. The Mayor still shows up and actually knows many of the boys from their projects. The ceremony was some of the usual pomp but then our Commish read"it's only a pin" which my son picked out. Not a dry eye in the place including the Commish. Then the new Eagle said a few words and shocked me by saying of all the things he has done that Scouting was one of the best. Just my proud day that I needed to share with those who would appreciate it.

Thanks

BTW The Troop had 4 Eagles this year and probably that many next and no we are not pushing them through, they are motivated.

Since our state has a .10 bottle deposit we do a can and bottle drive after big party days like Memorial day labor day, supper bowl etc. We usually clear around $500.

we also have free access to a dunk tank that the local community fair lets us set up. 3 shots for a buck. Uyou would be surprised how many people want to dunk the mayor.

Well here's the update. I talked with my council folks. when I signed the application way back when, the kid was OK. That's what I signed off on not what has happened since. I'm not going to base my decision on what I read in the paper or heard. Their thought is that the court date will come before the EBOR and things will shake out from there. They are accepting the old application based the time of signing. If things go South for the boy he probably won't be filling out a new app. anyway. If he does my council knows I probably will not sign it.

give me some sage advice here. A Scout in our Troop has finished his project. As Scout master we had his conf and signed the application. It took him several months to get the remaining signatures. It wasn't that the people were not available he just dragged his feet. Now he needs to fill out a new application since the old one is a pre 2009 printing and council/national will not accept it.

Between the time the application was signed and now the youth has gotten into more than a little trouble with the law to the point that his name was in the local paper so everyone knows.

Question is can I refuse to sign the new application based on what we all know now. Obviously not living Scout law/oath, spirit and never shows up at troop events. Dad is pushing for him to get Eagle before his court date hoping it will look good to the judge.