Great MB and one that needs changes

[OutdoorThinker 10]

The question of the six feet or above, scouts must be belayed is BSA Camping Manditory Standard 67. Unfortunately my standards book is not at school with me, so I can not quote it for you, but it it's written in the BSA Camping Standards,if you have access to them, take a look.

[OutdoorThinker 10]

FOG:

If a Scout of yours gets caught on a tower of 30 feet and is not belayed at camp, the program area can be shut down by the BSA. It was a reality this summer at camp, a real bummer for the boys, but I wanted to keep my program area open and I wanted to keep my job, so if the boys went off the ground, they stayed below six feet.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

That's at a camp. What if they decide to build a 30 foot tower on the local football field?

[Fat Old Guy 11]

We must wonder how many Scouts have plunged to their deaths from a signal tower.

 

I guess that makes our big monkey bridge illegal since the "X" of the shears is over my head and I'm 6 feet tall.

[CubsRgr8 10]

Communications is great - of course, I'm a counselor for it. Since it's Eagle required, I enjoy working with the older scouts. You should see the look on some of their faces when I tell them that they really have to actually develop a plan teach a skill, teach the skill, and then I check with them to see if the student has learned the skill. LOL

 

DS - I hate to be contrary, but.

 

Number 1: How does a rule that applies to BSA council camps get extrapolated into a general rule that applies throughout BSA?

 

Number 2: How would I, as a troop committee member, know it's a rule if it isn't in GTSS? We don't go to council camps (we run our own - definitely a future thread topic), there is no required training to be a pioneering MB counselor, we don't go to COPE courses, it wasn't even hinted at in Troop Committee training, so just when was I supposed to find out about this rule?

 

Number 3: How do we get this rule changed?

[le Voyageur 72]

FOG...

 

You tickle me... However, per your concern,if the batteries die in my GPS it's no problem. I can make a sextant outta two sticks, and a bit of duct tape...

 

As for being belayed on a 30 foot tower, use a static belay just like the local do here with their tree stands...

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Gee FOG, with all your talk about the weeniefication of Boy Scouts, I was surprised to see you say that only wrong with cooking was it couldnt be done in a week.

 

Unless it was tongue in cheek, which I could have missed.

 

Next, I was a little disconcerted about the 6 foot thing when Outdoor Thinker told me about it when she got back from Camp School. Then again, if a scout DOES take a header off an over six foot tower and dies or is paralyzed and is awarded millions of our FOS dollars in a lawsuit, how many of us would be mad that the BSA wasnt more safety conscious?

 

Just a thought

[nldscout 18]

The problem with the quoted 6 ft standard is that it is a BSA Summer Camp standard. It only applies to BSA summer Camps, Not to troop activities. The only unit height standard for pioneering is the height standard for Monkey Bridges that is in the G2SS.

 

Camp standards are always more indepth than anything else. If you ever read the camp standrds manual its very long and indepth.

 

So Build your signal towers, we do and we do it at District and council events. We follow normal safety rules and no one has ever fallen off.

[NeilLup 13]

May I suggest that anyone who wants to suggest changes to a Merit Badge should write to the Boy Scout Division in Irving Texas and lay them out. I know of a couple of cases where a single letter from the field caused changes to a requirement or to a manual.

 

As far as the six foot "rule", I hope that a certain amount of common sense would prevail. If a prohibition is in the summer camp standards, then, as was said, it pertains to summer camp. The BSA knows how to make changes to G2SS and if it isn't there (yet), then I believe it is not a BSA wide rule. However, it could, of course, appear in an upcoming revision.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

" The only unit height standard for pioneering is the height standard for Monkey Bridges that is in the G2SS."

 

Even that is only a "should" and not a "must." I'd like to get some 'gators, dig a pit for them and then build the bridge across the pit. That would give some motivation to build it well. :-)

[Bob White 20]

In case you did not already know, every merit badge handbook is being updated by the year 2005. At which time no MB book will be more than 5 years old. Then requirements and contents of individual merit badges will then be updated as technology and standard practices evolve.

 

BW

[Fat Old Guy 11]

Voaygeur, you suprise me. I thought that with your love of times gone by that you wouldn't use a GPS.

 

 

[Fat Old Guy 11]

"Gee FOG, with all your talk about the weeniefication of Boy Scouts, I was surprised to see you say that only wrong with cooking was it couldnt be done in a week.

 

"Unless it was tongue in cheek, which I could have missed."

 

Yep, that was tongue in cheek. One of my pet peeves is that so many Scouts and parents seem to think that merit badges need to be completed in a week or less.

 

For example, at least 50% of the Scouts in my troop play a couple sports. Soccer, swimming, wrestling, basketball, etc. But only two have earned the sports merit badge in the past two years. Why? Because it can take nearly a year to complete it and "thaaaaat's tooo long."

[le Voyageur 72]

FOG...

 

I teach GPS knowing that some of our scouts will eventually serve in the military.

From my own experience, I know that good map skills can be the different between life and death.

Better to start now, and ingrain those skills so they won't get befuddled in combat when the fertilizer hits the recipricating device...

[Fat Old Guy 11]

"I teach GPS knowing that some of our scouts will eventually serve in the military."

 

Isn't it more important to know how to read a map than to use a GPS? I view GPSs and calculators with the same jaundiced eye, the underlying fundamentals are more important than knowing how use a fancy gadget and the gadgets are usually pretty easy to learn to use.