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allangr1024

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About allangr1024

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    Oklahoma
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    computer programmer

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  1. I am glad to hear of this direction. I do not think that these MB events serve anyone very much, except in the case of earning a small badge, like finger printing, which can normally be done in one sitting anyway. Certainly Eagle Required badges should require effort, accomplishment, and skill or knowledge acquiring. When I see thirty scouts come out of a First Aid badge class with a signed blue card at the end of the day, I am pretty sure they will not know a lot about first aid by the next camp out. But they will receive a badge at the next COH. And I have seen scouts learn to "work
  2. Some of the tents at our council camp do not have the straps to tie up the tent flaps any more. The tent straps tore away long ago and we will not see them again until the tent is replaced with a new one with buckles.
  3. It is all about the gear. You should know that you have to insulate your underside, and equip yourself to do so. I have been using a hammock as an adult leader since 2007, and I have missed few camp outs, either winter or summer. For years I used my ground pad inside the hammock for insulation, with my 20 degree sleeping bag zipped open and draped over me. This year I started using a DIY under quilt attached to the outside bottom of the hammock, and that keeps me warm down to the 30's. I had to conclude back then that my tired old body could not handle being a ground dweller any long
  4. I went to Philmont in 2005, and my pack started out at 35 pounds. Then they added 15 pounds of food and water. You are looking at a base weight of 20. Not hard to do these days, but you have to plan carefully and look at the gear you want to carry.
  5. I really see the Scouting movement splintering, with each of the splinter groups going off and creating their own Scouting organizations. We saw this happen with Trail Life five years ago, and now we see the LDS groups going off to do their own program. That is already three Scouting groups out there, and the programs will be similar because the people who leave the BSA will still implement a program that they are familiar with. Who will be next? The Catholics? I hear that they have a program in the planning just waiting for an impetus to launch. What will that be? Further changes to BS
  6. You know, even though the BSA has been trying to get us to stop using the term "Class A uniforms" and "Class B uniforms", and instead use terms like "Field Uniform", I rarely hear the sanctioned terms, and much more often hear about Class A's or Class B's. If there is such reluctance to change the usage of terms to refer to clothing, how much more so will there be resistance to talking about people and groups in terms that have been in use for generations. You are not going to find this change occurring unless the Scouts BSA enforcement division steps in and starts revoking peoples me
  7. TLUSA, It is good to hear from you. In my area there are only 3 real TL troops, and they have been set up as either extensions of or replacements for the church youth ministry. The adults involved that I have met were part of a Cub Scout pack or were new BSA dads when the cut occurred, and don't seem to be as familiar with the BSA program as I would have thought. The area point man is a quiet guy who is the head of a troop at his local church, but is not that familiar youth leadership principles or the Patrol Method. I would expect there to be more TL troops in our area, as we in East
  8. For all its hundred years of experience, the BSA seems to know almost nothing about marketing. We heard rumors since 2010 that soon there would be girls in the Boy Scouts. The folks at BSA headquarters have been thinking about fashioning the BSA after the English Scouting Association for some time. That means no membership limit due to sexual orientation, that means co-ed troops, that means Scouting groups for all the ages sub-grouped by age, that might mean more national control at the local level. But the marketing campaign was about "Family Scouting", implying that a parent could bring
  9. In our district the scout meets with an Eagle project approval committee of three adult volunteer scouters. Youth protection is not a problem.
  10. So here is a question we the adult scouters are throwing around right now. We are seeing that our older scouts are coming to fewer camping trips. Some have expressed to me (ASM) that they have done everything on camping trips there is to do, and they are boring. We do mostly car camping at local scout camps and at state parks in the area. I know that varying the types of camping trip will help, with doing some backpacking and water based traveling (canoes). But the PLC does not choose these kinds of things. So the Scoutmaster wants to require that all scouts holding an elected office
  11. Hi Denise, To me, the most important aspect of Scouting is THE PATROL METHOD, followed closely by THE PATROL METHOD, and of course then followed by THE PATROL METHOD. Did you catch my drift? This is the easiest thing to say, but in many respects the hardest to implement and facilitate. But going back to Baden Powell and on through Green Bar Bill, this is the most important thing. I got some good stuff from Bill Hilcourts Scoutmaster Handbook from the 1930's and 1940's. There is a section at the beginning of the book that fairly well explains the subject. How do you start? The
  12. You know, dkurtenbach, The BSA originally set up governance of the program in a diversified manner. They looked at the original setup of the country as a guide. In our country in 1800, the idea was that the most control was at the local level, so government that touched the lives of most people was in the hands of local, county, and state officials. The Federal Government was weak by design, having only a couple of tasks that it had to do, like defense, foreign policy, interstate trade, running Federal courts. Everything else, like roads, schools, police, water and mineral rights, property
  13. I just found these in a google search: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/concerned-about-the-boy-scouts-there-are-catholic-alternatives https://troopsofsaintgeorge.org/
  14. This has already been happening. Trail Life split off five years ago. The LDS church will make their own, and I bet it will follow the Trail Life model of sponsorship. I have read that the Catholics are considering putting together a Scouting type program for their constituents. The fracture has already begun.
  15. When I get temporary patches, like Camporee patches or WOW patches, I take a hot glue gun and a 3 inch piece of leather shoe lace, and glue the ends of the lace on to the back of the patch, making a loop. This will allow you to button the patch to the pocket of the shirt. The patch hangs from the button, the same way that the plastic patch holders do. It acts like the Philmont patch, which hangs off the button the same way. I can change out the temporary patches in 5 seconds as the need arises. The glue does not harm the patch, and can be removed fairly easily if need be. I have found i
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