Chippewa29

What? Now I'm going to have to change my username. Actually, I think the change is going to be official only. There are so many lodges that go by their number. Does anyone thing Unami is going to stop putting number 1 on their flap? A better solution would have been for the lodges merging to have to choose either one of their current numbers (most would choose the lower one) or be assigned a new one from the back of the pack. Once a number is gone, it is gone (no reassigning). If national was really having a problem with lodges not merging when their councils do, then they just need

You can't stand to go on vacation with anything less than 15-20 people. Also, when you do go on vacation, you make up a duty roster and try to organize everyone for flag raising in the morning.

In recent years, when we've held our troop planning conference using all the Scouts in the troop. The SM Handbook says that the PLC should do it. We've let all the Scouts participate in the past since we've had smaller numbers. However, we're looking at having 15-16 Scouts go on our winter cabin campout in a couple of weeks. That is usually where we do our annual planning. When we only had a few Scouts, it worked out fine. However, last year we had eleven Scouts debating about the different activities and it got pretty crazy. Add in 4-5 more, and I think it will get way too out of hand

I was fortunate to receive a new pair of hiking boots. The last new pair I got was seventeen years ago (I was a frosh in high school at the time). Something that I was very excited to get and kind of Scout related is the Indiana Jones DVD set. Not only is there a scene of young Indiana Jones as a Scout, but seeing these movies always gets me excited to go out with my troop and have more adventures.

Thanks for the responses. Like Saltheart posted, an ASM is there to assistant the SM in guiding the Scouts in the troop. If the ASM isn't doing anything, then they aren't doing their job and shouldn't hold the position. Many of the adults in my troop are reluctant to take on defined responsibilities. They are afraid that they'll have to put in as much work as I do (I really don't do that much, it just seems like it). They don't understand that if more people took on defined roles, then there is less work for each individual to do and more will get done. Our former COR descibed i

I've personally seen Scouts get their Eagle at 13 and continue to have very active and productive Scouting careers until the "age out" at 18. I've also seen Scouts earn their Eagle early (13 or 14) that totally lose focus and becoming a bad example for younger Scouts. A lot depends on what the focus of the troop's program (and also the Scout's priorities). If the troop emphasizes advancement for the sake of advancement, then the Scouts will see the troop as only a place to add the Eagle rank to their college resume. If the troop emphasizes character building and having a great experience (

When speaking with our unit commissioner a couple of weeks ago about our charter, he asked me where all of our ASM were. We currently have five ASM on our roster, yet none of them are active. They include three troop alumni who have been active at some point (but not recently), a troop dad that got trained but helps out only every once in a while if he has time, and our former Scoutmaster (who stops by maybe once every couple of months but doesn't actually do anything). In short, we have no active ASM. I recently sent a letter to each of the five ASM with two options: take on some regu

Wow. That's a lot of questions. I'll do my best to answer them. We have 16 Scouts registered and fourteen I'd consider active. They are currently set up in two patrols. We go to summer camp in council and attend our district's fall camporee. Yes, we support FOS and sell popcorn. The only other fundraiser we've done in the past few years is a bottle and can drive. We use New Scout Patrol entirely for the first six months. After six months, if there are open spots in the previous patrols, the new Scouts fill those spots. If there are enough Scouts to add a strong extra patrol

I am in a similar position when it comes to ASM's. Technically, I have four ASM's (three of whom are trained). However, none of them are active. One has sons in the troop and claims that he is an ASM, but he might be at one meeting a month (when he attends the troop committee meeting) and might go one two outings a year (he always has excuses why he can't be at other ones). The other three are either former SM's or troop alums that were at one time active. I am planning on writing to each of them in the next month to ask if they wish to continue as Assistant Scoutmasters. If they do

We don't allow any electronics devices on campouts other than flashlights. In fact, I try to get the adults to leave their cell phones in the car. My attitude is if you are going to get away, then really get away. If there is an important enough emergency, then you will be found soon enough. My troop hasn't let kids have the electronic stuff for years. The only exception was our once a year "outing" in a cabin where we do our annual planning. The first year I was SM, kids brought gameboys, earphones, etc. Things went great and the only arguments had were by the Scouts while they wer

I have bought on Ebay on and off for 3-4 years. I've found the selection to be outstanding and if you watch the site enough, you can get an idea of what people are buying just to make sure a dealer (outside of Ebay) isn't getting more margin that he deserves. I've gotten both Scout Handbooks and Scoutmaster Handbooks dating back to the mid-20's for a good price (the biggest tag was $45 for a two volume SM Handbook in great shape from the 40's). Everything else was between $15 and $30 each. I've also sold off a good chunk of my patch collection the past year and a half. Of course, I've

I've got an official BSA Silva compass I bought for my first summer camp twenty years ago. It has been on countless adventures with me and is still in perfect working order. A great investment for $6-7.

I have two perspectives on this. The first is for the short term. Some parents think it would be fun to bring little six year old Johnny out on the campout, especially since he loves to hang out with his 12 year old brother. Also, that would give mom a chance to have a weekend at home alone to relax. However, what a lot of parents don't realize is that the younger child won't want to hang with dad while older brother is off doing Scout stuff. We've had parents bring younger siblings along and it ended up slowing down the hike or activity. Also, the little ones tend to want to be righ

For the 75th Anniversery in 1990, they sold black sashes with a white arrow. Of course, these sold out immediately and a few showed up with traders basically demanding your first born child in return for one. However, I have seen very few since (in fact, none in the past ten years) and the few people I know that have them keep them very safe as a collector's item. In fact, one of our advisors in 1990 got a sash, had every member of the lodge contingent sign it with a gold pen, then framed it with some other items from that NOAC.

When it comes to songs you can sing at the campfire, Simon and Garfunkel have a couple of good ones. We did "Bridge Over Troubled Water" at the closing campfire of JLTC about a dozen years ago and there wasn't a dry eye in the place. A lot of the Motown stuff sounds pretty good around the campfire as well, especially since the kids know a lot of the words (from being stuck in the car with their parents). Some other good stuff to listen to is CSNY and if you really want to get deep, Traffic. Scoutldr, I like your choices. I love a ripping guitar that accompanies a great horn sect

When I went up for my Eagle SM conference, it was my SM and three ASM, all of whom had helped me quite a bit in the journey. They joked for a few weeks about the hot lights and before we went in, asked me if I needed more deodorant, because I was sweating quite a bit. Once we were in there, we just had a nice discussion about what had happened in the past 6 1/2 years and asked me how my perspectives had changed over time. Of course, there was some teasing, but it ended up being a great experience. All four of them said they felt as proud of my getting the Eagle as their own sons. I hope t

I just read the article in Scouting Magazine about the world jamboree in Thailand. I didn't see it mention when and where the next Jamboree was going to be. Does anyone know?

My troop pays me a generous six figure salary and built me a 4000 square foot cabin (the ceiling in the living room opens up when I want to build a campfire in the middle of the floor). They've also provided me with personal assistant (to make sure all my tour permits and other paperwork is complete) and valet (to make sure I have everything packed for campouts). My personal chef uses only Dutch ovens and ... Ok, I'm awake now. I was just dreaming for a second. I actually do a couple of things. I coach high school track and cross country and am working to build a company that helps o

If this "leader" is truly helping his kids cheat so that he can boost his own ego, then he is no longer a legitimate leader. Once a leader uses their office to serve themselves instead of helping their followers learn, grow, and become better, he no longer has the right to be the leader. I've seen people like this before. They try to bend the rules in every which way so they can get some kind of advantage. If they would try as hard to just do it fairly, then it would probably be easier for them. Ultimately, people will recognize his lack of character and the troop will slowly die off.

If I had just one wish, I would give the Scouts the belief that they could do anything and the parents the belief that their sons could do anything. The adult leaders when I first joined Scouts told us the sky was the limit if we wanted to work for it and I was crazy enough to believe them. Fortunately, my parents like the attitude I got from that, and although they didn't believe it, they didn't discourage my belief.

I don't see a problem with LazerTag. Basically, its a higher tech version of flashlight tag. I don't think anyone would have a problem with that. Also, its in a controlled environment where they usually don't allow running or jumping. Much safer than the Scouts running through the woods at night. Another bonus is that there are no arguments over whether someone was tagged or not. You wouldn't want to see it happen a lot, but I don't think once or twice a year would hurt the Scouts.

I'm happy to report my troop just welcomed three new Scouts tonight. These kids can't wait to go hiking and camping. Their dads can't wait, either. One of the dads even said he wanted to go to training in the spring. If we get part of a large group of Webelos crossing over in April, we'll be over twenty Scouts for the first time in our history. We also had our first OA election in five years on Monday night. Two Scouts were elected and I'm happy with their election (two very good kids). The thing I've still got to work on with the adults is to keep them from trying to decide eve

I'm not opposed to the kids bringing the cards and playing with them (after all, they have Yuh-gi-oh and Pokemon clubs at our local middle schools). However, the only problems I've had is when a certain Scout won't put them away during a meeting. I don't think they harm each other by playing the game, but I just want to make sure they don't spend too much time doing that on a campout when there are so many other things to do. They can sit home and play with those cards all day if they want.

Yes, you are correct when you say a lot of the "exciting" stuff is very expensive. Something that really helps the sense of adventure is good old imagination and fantasy play. Some people don't like the idea of this, but I love to go "bushwacking", where you go exploring through the woods without the help of trails. If you add some hills into the mix, things are even more exciting. I've been out in the woods a couple of times and somehow, these bad guys drop out of the trees and start chasing after me. Aparently, Dr. No, their evil leader, has realized that Bond is around and is

How many kids outside of Scouts get to go rapelling, rock climbing, or white water rafting if they're not in the Scouts? I honestly know more people that do that "extreme" stuff stuff such as motorcross, jet skis, etc. outside of Scouts than do the stuff that Scouts do. You can't appeal to everyone. When the Scouts have asked if they could have a campout for playing video games or other things they normally do at home, I just suggest they stay home if those are the things they really want to do.