CWKitchenStaffer

We were building a campfire and came across a 4 foot long, 5 inch wide piece of metal with holes cut in it for cupholders. The bottoms of these cupholders were a single piece of metal across the bottom. We put it at a slight up angle through the fire with full soda cans in the cupholders. They were cheap, store brand sodas and when they reached a certain temp, the bottoms burst and they took off like mortar shells, spilling boiling soda all over the ground. Luckily, no one was injured, although we did melt a hole in a plastic tarp...

YIS

Brendan

My CO is the local Fire Department. They rate about a 10, as they don't intrude much, but have members on our TC and help financialy when needed.

OK, First, thanks for your quick replies. The scout in question on incident 1 is a Scout that can be much, much worse. He has been making giant strides of progress, because we have found yelling etc. doesn't work. We have discovered that when we make him stop and think about his actions, he stops. This is a kid who went from almost being kicked out of camp one year to being runner up for honor camper the next. I think I've ranted about that enough. Second, OGE, I don't have a very good relationship with my Scoutmaster. No one really does, and we are all somewhat glad he's retiring after our big trip next summer. My beef with him started a few years ago when I was working on my Eagle. He felt I should wait 6-8 months before doing any work what-so-ever. He almost didn't sign off on my project. I am lucky, because I fought him on it. I am now an Eagle w/ 5 palms. (Because of his ideas, no one in my troop even remembered there were palms until I came along.) Many guys have been denied palms because they waited so long to get started.

Anyhow, I've drifted way off the original point. I think my original question was how to prevent this committee member from doing this sort of thing again, not dealing with what has already happened.

By the way, my friend was very proffesional when he asked this genlteman to remove his hat. "We are proffesionals" is the first commandment of Wanocksett Staff, and strictly enforced.

I just turned 18 over the summer and became an ASM. There is one guy on our troop comittee that only seems to do things his way. The two shining examples are: On our last winter campout (in a cabin) a scout (14yrs) was making some crude jokes. This kid has done this before, and when we speak to him, he stops, unless the younger kids egg him on. Well, this comittee member happened to be at the campout and heard the comments. He way overeacted, (especially since we dealt with it right away) and called the kids mother as soon as we got home. Shes a little nuts to begin with, and that didn't help. That ws incident 1.

Incident 2 happened at Camp Wanocksett this summer. we have a clear rule that no hats are allowed worn in the Dining Hall. We (The dining services staff) are required to wear hats, so hair doesn't get in the food. When one of my colleauges asked this committee member to remove his hat, he said something to the effect of "Why don't you take off your hat?! Getoff my back!!" He seems to be trying to shelter his own son, but I don't know. Is there anything I can do as a new ASM? This guy hasn't been in very long, I was the den chief for the den he led for 5 years, and they crossed over 2 years ago.

True. I checked some old handbooks ( I only have them going back to the 50s) and found almost no mention of tourniquet usage. So, I guess unless BW remembers the 1936 handbook, he can't be complaining about any handbooks made during or after World War 2. Also, what was acceptable treatment "back in the day" is not common now. In the forties and fifties, soldiers put sulfalinomide on their wounds...not done today, but, it worked well when nothing better was available, sort of like tourniquets, way, way back when.

My troop uses this system for new scout patrols: A patrol crosses over from cubs (must be at least 6, otherwise they are integrated into other patrols), they are assigned a Troop Guide, if possible, the den chief they had, after 6 months, they have a regular election, but their old tg keeps a close eye on their patrol meetings and such, and helps out a little if necesary. Within 2 months of crossing over, we try to get them to do a patrol activity (usually a campout) to build comaradarie (misspelled that). This works fairly well for us.

My SM is a "temporary" one, who took the position out of necessity about 7 years ago when our old SM resigned for medical reasons. He has never actually had any Scoutmaster training, not even SM fundamentals, and forget WoodBadge. We have several active ASMs and several less active ones. The most involved ASM is my father, which has the potential to create a "scoutmasters kid" situation. Unfortunatley, there is no one in the wings waiting to step up to be SM, so it looks like we're stuck with him for a while. John-in-KC, the reason I ran for SPL is that the only other kid running was "Bobby", and I felt that he didn't have a fresh view of what was going on. None of the other kids could be persuaded to run.

It should be noted that "Bobby" has stopped working on his project and just fools around at Troop meetings. Forgot those things in my original post.

Troop of 18 Scouts. SPL is 17, ASPL is 14, PLs: one 15, one 11/12, TroopGuide is 14, APLs: 17 (under the 14 yr old...needs leader time) one 11/12. QM and Scribe both 13. I think thats everybody.

There are two older Scouts in my troop who refuse to listen to me. They crossed over from Cubs with me and are both 17. Both are Life, one has nearly completed his project and has about 6 months til his 18th B-day, and the other hasn't started his project but has almost a full year...and has a project in mind. The second one, we'll call him "Jimmy", has always been a little loud and overative. The other, we'll call him "Bobby", was doing fine until I beat him in the SPL election. I don't know if he is just jealous about the election (he was SPL for two years before me), or if he is jealous of my scouting in general. (I am an Eagle, and the local Lodge Chief) He was never like this before the last election. Any ideas for how to deal with him?

BobWhite,

By artificial respiration do you mean rescue breathing? If so, we still do that in emergencies sometimes. And why do you have bonfires listed as a bad idea?

Another Massachusan here. I would be interested in a 1:1 CSP and 1:1 OA flap trade. My email is viper3_6@yahoo.com

Hope to hear from you soon

Some of the councils listed no longer exist. The patches are out there, but may be harder to find. The merged/closed councils are: Boston(merged to Boston Minuteman), Cambridge, Greater Boston, Greater Lowell, Mass Bay Federated Minuteman (merged to Boston Minuteman), Moby Dick (merged into Narragansett), Monadnock, North bay, North Essex, Norumbega, and Lone Tree. For some I included merger info. The councils in Mass are: Boston Minuteman, Cape Cod and Islands, Knox Trail, Pioneer Valley, Yankee Clipper, Old Colony, Mohegan, Nashua Valley, Annawon, Narragansett, and Great Trails. If you are interested in 1for1 trades, I can get you some of the Mass. CSPs...if you still need/want them.

Hi, I am a patch collector up here in Mass. as TwocubDad said, the most common collectors items are CSPs and Lodge flaps. I happen to be working on collecting the history of my Lodge (309) in patches. we have had almost 100 issues over the years. One important thing to keep in mind when trading is to make new friends. I know many people that are like "patch business men." They tend to lose sight of the true aim of patch collecting/swapping, which is to meet Scouts from other parts of the country/state/council or whatever. While many older patches have great monetary value,(some early editions from my lodge are worth well into the hundreds) try not to get too caught up in that either. Certainly don't spend more than you want to on a patch...most likely it will come up somewhere again. Good luck and happy trading.

PS: If your son would like one of my CSPs or Lodge flaps, I am willing to trade one for one.

Hi, I am a patch collector up here in Mass. as TwocubDad said, the most common collectors items are CSPs and Lodge flaps. I happen to be working on collecting the history of my Lodge (309) in patches. we have had almost 100 issues over the years. One important thing to keep in mind when trading is to make new friends. I know many people that are like "patch business men." They tend to lose sight of the true aim of patch collecting/swapping, which is to meet Scouts from other parts of the country/state/council or whatever. While many older patches have great monetary value,(some early editions from my lodge are worth well into the hundreds) try not to get too caught up in that either. Certainly don't spend more than you want to on a patch...most likely it will come up somewhere again. Good luck and happy trading.

PS: If your son would like one of my CSPs or Lodge flaps, I am willing to trade one for one.

Aggie, right on about the shirts being too hot. They're to hot here in the northeast, and they must be deadly in Texas. What I meant about the military gear is that it is practical for certain uses, and fairly affordable, not that the BSA should be some sort of paramilitary organization. Sorry about that. Oh yes, not being in a Venture Crew, I have not had the opportunity to try out the "wonder shorts" (LoL)

I was a touch homesicj\k the first few days of my first week on staff. If this comes up, have him write a journal of his activities for mom or dad to read. This made me feel a lot better till I got in the swing of things.

My troop uses two different set ups. First off, at our own site, we sort of "car camp" (oh, we forgot this, will someone go to cumby's?) At our site, we bring a chuckbox (we call it a kitchen) a couple of coolers (depending on the intricacy of the meals) and a few axes, saws, etc. Of course, our site houses our shed, which has most of our outdoor gear. When we go to summer camp, we are fairly minimalist. The boys bring their personnal gear (obviously) and the troop brings one of those tarps with the metal frames. The camp kitchen staff (of which I am part) provides all meals, which are excellent (of course...lol) Our camp actually discourages the equipment laden trailers. Some troops still bring them, but they must be pulled by one of the two camp trucks. That can be time consuming since there are two trucks to get about 13 troops moved into their sites in a few hours. My troop does bring about a carload of small gear (axes, saws, first aid kit, KoolAid and crackers, etc) to camp, but we usually travel fairly light.

I say that for Troop Campouts (not summer camp, or camporees), military gear is acceptable. In my troop, we have one guy (an adult) who goes a little overboard (he brings 3 weeks worth of supplies on a 2 night campout) but otherwise, BDUs and used field gear are cheap, durable products for Scouts. My troop campsite was once used by the military for live fire exercises (near Fort Devens MA. used for training from WW2 - Vietnam). We have the remains of foxholes and defensive lines that are great for games like manhunt, and for practicing SAR. A used LC-2 ALICE pack runs about $40. That is quite a bit less than a decent pack (new or used) from Coleman or EMS. Other military gear (pistol belts, canteens, pouches etc) often run about $5 to $10 online. Also, I have yet to see a civilian product similar to US web gear (IE a pistol belt, suspenders, buttpack, canteen, and assorted pouches) If Coleman or Sears made such a product out of blue nylon instead of mil-spec OD nylon, would the BSA accept it? I bet they would.

I'm the SPL of my troop. Our campsite is located on a hill. Usually, the leaders tell us to go make camp, and then wait at the road for any stragglers. We set up our tents in a sort of half-circle around the center of the site (a fairly flat hilltop). The kitchen is almost always set up in the center, which can be a little awkward because of trees and the way our picnic tables are set up. Our problem is that our half-circle is staggered out over about 50-60 yards. This serves to seperate patrols somewhat, as some wise-guys usually set up as far away as possible. Our other problem is that our firepit is sort of towards the west corner of the site, so tenting is limited there, due to embers, and further back, old army foxholes and defensive lines (Our campsite was a live-fire training area for squad/platoon sized units at Ft. Devens MA from WW2 to the Vietnam era (We only found live shells once)) Besides being spread out some and lacking adequete kitchen space, we set up our own site, and it is pretty good.

I recently visited a Troop like yours. Quite a few of the kids were off the walls the entire time, and at this particular troop, the adults made no motion to discipline anyone. In my troop (Im also an SPL) if my ASPL is acting up, the adults help take care of it...kind of conference-style. This can be pretty sobering, as it's often done after troop committee meetings, with the SM and several ASMs and me. The younger boys may need a more "fun" program, or, maybe a little discipline. If you absolutely can't control most of the Scouts, its time to get an adult (your SM) involved. If he or she can't get a handle on the boys, perhaps talk to parents or have them sitin on a meeting or something? I've never tried that but it might work. Good Luck, and good to see you're working hard to resolve this.

We have a "Bobby" in our Troop as well. Usually, some of the kids in his patrol volunteer to share a tent with him. If he's really being awful, sometimes his brother will move in with him. I don't know if Bobby has a brother, but we've found this to be a pretty good solution, as our "Bobby" is afraid his brother will tell their mother about his behavior.