eagle96

I have been a camps health officer for several years now. I hold all the physicals under lock and key in our health lodge where only myself and the camp director can access them in emergencies. After the week, all of the physicals are given back to the adult leaders upon checkout. We also have everyone go through the process of checking over the physicals to alert us of any major issues we need to know about (food allergies, other allergies, major health problems, etc...) This is done on an individual basis to meet all the privacy laws.

I became the scoutmaster of my troop at the age of 21 when the current scoutmaster resigned for a few undisclosed reasons. Now I am 23 and still the scoutmster and loving every minute of it. I learned quickly that it takes a big team effort by all the parents, other leaders, and the boys themselves in order to be successful. At first, I felt that I needed to do everything but then started sharing responsibilites so it is not all on one person. Since then, the job has been a lot less stressful and quite enjoyable. Basically, what I am trying to say, is that if everyone helps out, since we all have our own talents, then it does not put as much pressure on one person to do everything. I have so much support by everyone in my troop, that I am still able to take off for the summer and work at a Summer Camp that I have worked at for the past 8 years.

I have been working diligently on a webpage for my troop. Well, myself and the plc. We are just about done but have a couple of questions... Is there anything that needs to be on the site? What is the general opinion on the appearance of the site? We are wanting to put information that requires a password on it but I can't figure out how to do this, any suggestions... Heres the site http://troops.scouter.com/in/troop_89/ thanks eagle96

Thanks for your input. I am actually taking over as scoutmaster after a fairly poor one who cost us about 1/2 our boys so I am trying to get our PLC back in good shape as well as the rest of the troop (with help from other adults and boys). The incintives, like what was mentioned, would be something that I would be willing to try. We try to encourage all the boys to go on the activities but have been disappointed about the turn out on the past few. I figured that if they planned them out, more would attend. It has worked a little but I think that if I put another incintive in front of them, it might grab their attention. By ordinary campout, I meant ones that we plan as a troop where we go to a location and work on certain skills such as hiking, and pioneering to name a few.

The scouts in my troop say that we don't do anything but when asked for their input for camping trips and other activities, that have none. We try to arrange the trips to where the plc plans them. They want to go on more "high adventure" type trips such as rappelling, canoeing, etc... and we have a better turn out for them. But when we go on district camporees and "ordinary" campouts, we have a very low turn out (like 6 out of a troop of 28). I am out of ideas to motivate the guys. Any suggestions???