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National Outdoor Achievement Badges and Award


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I know of at least one scouters son who will receive the award unearned.

I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

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I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

Let me run thins past you. Lawyer Dad has put together an event for August. (At least we will have one). Class 1 river 4-5 mile float on rafts. What is walking speed 3 mph? He is worried about the new scouts being able to navigate safely on the rapids. A CLASS 1 RIVER!!!
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I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

I would find another troop....Or step up and make a difference.......

 

In August we are doing 19 miles with an overnight canoeing..... the outfitter is charging us $20 per canoe......very nice discount...... I imagine it is a class one no boiling rapids.....

 

So your event that is going to take what a whole hour or two??????

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I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

I know, the Lazy River at Six Flags sounds more exciting than this. It may take all day on a class one river with four boys in a raft trying to get it to move. Expensive as well, a canoe is much cheaper.

 

The committee is half the problem, so becoming SM is not going to solve the

problem. I have already sent an email to a troop that meets during the summer, no response yet, church based troop so that could be the problem. I need plan B in place before I make my move. I think most of these parents like it like this. Nice and safe with minimal interference with important things like soccer and lacrosse.

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I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

Canoeing isn't my thing.....Bored out of my mind.....

 

But what the heck....thats what they want to do.

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I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

Class II on a a scenic river is fun, mostly steering. Never understood the desire to portage. A cooler of beverages and a bikini in the front help also. Unfortunately no such amenities under the auspicies of the BSA.

 

BTW former district EBOR Chairman told me tonight to be a strict constructionist when interpreting BSA requirements, if is not there, then it is not there. He also talked me into taking climbing and repelling instructor training along with challenge course. Sounds more fun than woodbadge. That might breath some life into the program. Have you done either one ?

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I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

Sounds like your district guy is recruiting a new member for manning the councils cope course. Your unit probably won't benefit as much as you think....

 

Rapelling is to expensive on the unit level.......I know I could not afford the ropes, harnesses, helmets and hardware to equip a patrol... So your going to spend thousands of dollars on the gear and use it once a year or maybe twice.....

 

I have 4 boys who want to become rappell masters...but the minimum age is 14 so it will be a year or two....for most of them.....But We attend the local rappell master workshop as the test subjects.....

 

I will always contend that my scout riding his bike to the quickie mart for a slushy or hanging at the pool with his peeps checking out the ladies shouldn't count for the award. Even if your contending the desire to earn the award makes every activity he does Under the auspices.

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So back to my log book idea.....

keep in mind that I'm a cub leader, and as a youth wasn't very active as a scout..... and that was a long time ago anyway so I have little memory of requirements....

It seems that there are a lot of requirements for time and distance for the various merit badges and awards.

 

I can imagine boys that get started in scouting would have absolutely no idea about any of this...... but they might end up doing quite a lot of something that could apply to a merit badge or award during their first year or so, but have no idea to keep track of it....

So it seems to me again that encouraging a log book from the start might be a good idea...

logging everything that a boy does that might be "scouting" related

 

canoeing outings, miles paddled, Kayaking outings, miles paddled, bike trips, miles biked, number of camping trips, nights camped, numbers of hikes, miles hiked, etc.....

.... and it seems that under each of these categories to be tracked, he would need to record "auspices" or let's call it "free time"

 

For a very active boy in a very active family, or a very active troop, it could be hard or impossible to go back and remember all of these things once he decides to go for a certain badge or award.......

 

Do any boys do this?

Do any of you leaders encourage such tracking?

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I give up KDD your son's scouting program has got to be the absolute worst on the planet. Not meeting in the summer is not the norm in my part of the country, we all meet year round. We camp 11 months out of the year, canoe, hike, rapell, camp, backpack........

 

I am sorry that you feel the need to bend the rules so your scout can feel special.....

 

My boys, if they choice to earn it, will earn it as written..............At troop, patrol, council, or national events.

 

 

You were asked to be SM.....if you don't step up then whose to blame????????????????

BD, I completely agree about short distance rides not counting and I never claimed otherwise. I am talking about 10-15 mile and up rides. Not sure I would even consider counting a 5 mile ride, unless it was more a mountain biking trail.

 

Climbing is something I have always wanted to do. My grandfather started when he retired at 65 and eventually climbed all 10 or 12 Teton peaks. Our council has a great program. All gear is provided by council, just make your reservation. One close camp (20 minutes) has a night lit tower for $40 a unit. A 90 mile away camp has open face rock for $75 a unit. The unit just has to provide the trained and qualified instructors. Training weekend for climbing is $25 and then if you take Challenge course it is only $5 for that weekend. We have two challenge courses in the area. The council also has a partnership with a state park with bluffs over the Mississippi, again just check out the gear from the council ($75). That park is also very popular for Eagle watching. Sounds like a great program weekend to me.

 

At least 5 boys in our unit spent time at the tower at summer camp so there is some interest. I just need to recruit at least one other adult to take the training with me.

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So back to my log book idea.....

keep in mind that I'm a cub leader, and as a youth wasn't very active as a scout..... and that was a long time ago anyway so I have little memory of requirements....

It seems that there are a lot of requirements for time and distance for the various merit badges and awards.

 

I can imagine boys that get started in scouting would have absolutely no idea about any of this...... but they might end up doing quite a lot of something that could apply to a merit badge or award during their first year or so, but have no idea to keep track of it....

So it seems to me again that encouraging a log book from the start might be a good idea...

logging everything that a boy does that might be "scouting" related

 

canoeing outings, miles paddled, Kayaking outings, miles paddled, bike trips, miles biked, number of camping trips, nights camped, numbers of hikes, miles hiked, etc.....

.... and it seems that under each of these categories to be tracked, he would need to record "auspices" or let's call it "free time"

 

For a very active boy in a very active family, or a very active troop, it could be hard or impossible to go back and remember all of these things once he decides to go for a certain badge or award.......

 

Do any boys do this?

Do any of you leaders encourage such tracking?

I will encourage my boys to do it. We have a very active and committed advancement chair that does a lot of this already in TroopMaster. It theScout should be doing this as well. He should write a short journal entry about each activity as well. I think that's what all the charting requirements in cubs were meant to foster.

 

I have sat on a few BOR already and it is sad to see the boys not logging camping nights and service hours.

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So back to my log book idea.....

keep in mind that I'm a cub leader, and as a youth wasn't very active as a scout..... and that was a long time ago anyway so I have little memory of requirements....

It seems that there are a lot of requirements for time and distance for the various merit badges and awards.

 

I can imagine boys that get started in scouting would have absolutely no idea about any of this...... but they might end up doing quite a lot of something that could apply to a merit badge or award during their first year or so, but have no idea to keep track of it....

So it seems to me again that encouraging a log book from the start might be a good idea...

logging everything that a boy does that might be "scouting" related

 

canoeing outings, miles paddled, Kayaking outings, miles paddled, bike trips, miles biked, number of camping trips, nights camped, numbers of hikes, miles hiked, etc.....

.... and it seems that under each of these categories to be tracked, he would need to record "auspices" or let's call it "free time"

 

For a very active boy in a very active family, or a very active troop, it could be hard or impossible to go back and remember all of these things once he decides to go for a certain badge or award.......

 

Do any boys do this?

Do any of you leaders encourage such tracking?

ah, another category to log..... service hours.
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Troop webhost records miles hiked, nights camped, service hours.....and I recently started tracking hours of water activity......But I use event notes for that....It all comes out on the scout history report.
"Never do anything a boy can do." Who said that?

 

I really tried to pitch the committee on TWH, but the advancement chair didn't want to learn new way. I really like the communication tools also.

 

Built in ISA's as well. :) Deliciously controversial.

 

Bigger battles to fight for now.

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