Uniforms

BSA high adventure camps have their place.  I doubt we would have snorkeled and camped on a Florida island or sailed off the coast of Florida without them.  

Got any links to these programs?  We're looking for options for our older Scouts.

@Eagle94-A1, no need to beat yourself up. It's hard to walk away. And it's okay. The first day I joined a scout troop I met this old guy, at least he seemed old to me, an eleven year old, and he was the kindest person I'd ever met. It was a group of new scouts and he was working with us. I was struggling with the scout law and all the other kids had no problem with it. He was very patient with me. I always wanted to be like him. My guess he was previously the SM. It's probably why I wanted to be a SM. He was why it was so hard for me to leave my troop. I wanted to be that kind guy. But, I never got to have that chance working with the new scouts because I was too busy trying to make up for the fact that not many parents were helping out and I was doing way more heavy lifting in the troop than I wanted. One thing I always told myself was not to wait until I was angry with the troop before I left. I had a lot of good memories and I didn't want them ruined. So one day something went way south and I decided right then and there I was done. I walked out and haven't been back. Scouting will have to survive without me. Whether it does is out of my control so I won't worry about it. Besides, I enjoy a lot of other things now. Tomorrow morning I'm going to drive to where I saw a really old, kind of rusty, GMC pickup truck that's sitting in a field with a lot of grass growing around it and take some photos. Take care.

HOT TIP - Don't go to the Scouts BSA High Adventure Camps. Other outfitters offer the same programs (or better) for less, AND don't exclude people based on BMI - a scientifically invalid measure of health and fitness.   Don't discriminate against the people who might need a little time in the out of doors, include them.  

Well, we survived!  Lots of learning by the adults and the Scouts.  For our part, we learned that we need some new policies and procedures.  Low hanging fruit is a cellphone policy.  Phones were serving more as a distraction than a tool.  Scouts sacrificed water bottles in favor of extra batteries in their pockets.  Scouts ignored youth leaders and adult leaders while playing games or watching videos.  We also realized that there are youth protection issues with cameras and internet access.  So, a policy banning internet-capable, camera-capable devices will be in place shortly.  We also realized that there is a major lack of Scout skills among the senior Scouts who have joined the troop.   We are working out a plan to form a Junior Scout Patrol for every Scout under the rank of First Class.  This will be divided into teams with an ASM assigned to each team.  The focus will be on drilling the basic skills - knots, first aid, camping skills, cooking skills, etc.  We will have an extra camp out each month as needed to put these skills into practice in the field.   I completed IOLS, so that's out of the way.  It was generally considered worthless for the content, but valuable for some connections made by those in attendance.  We had 12 participants, 2 women, 1 never been a Scout, 1 Life for Life, and the rest Eagles from the 90s/early-2ks.  We lamented the current culture focused on advancement over mastery.   The Cherokee Scout Reservation in Old North State Council puts on a great summer camp.  Their Aviation MB is top notch with about 8 decent gaming-level simulators in a room.  They have a wonderful first year program called FROGS that covers many of the requirements on the road to First Class.  They don't finger drill it either.  The Scouts start each session with a full on flag ceremony and end with the same.  They work at a skill until they are able to do it repeatedly with confidence.  Consequently, they can't complete everything, but what they do get through is pretty solid.  There is a lot of walking.  I am going to add a hash mark to my 50-miler patch.  I walked 54 miles this week.  It's a mile from our camp site to the main area and another mile from there to the water front.  You'll get your hill workout.  The food was pretty good.  The camp director really cares about the program and Scouts.  He pulls no punches when dealing with transgressions.  There are some hard and fast rules that will get you sent home immediately.   There were troops who drove 3.5 hours to come to this camp.