Eagledad

Hi All Thanks for all your heartwarming support. Nothing like hanging around the Internet campfire with friends to calm the soul. Kyle is home and I have to say the BW pretty told a similar story with his son. One of the adults called his wife a day before they came home to give a report of the week. Kyles crew was hit with rain and thunderstorms almost everyday. The two worst storms hit their camp the night before they got on the water and the night before they got off. They came off the water one day early because one boy injured his ankle while chopping firewood. They were forced to come back one day early to take the injured boy to a hospital. On the trip back, they had to deal with a long day of 30 mph winds, four foot waves in three big lakes along with several portages, three of which were over a half mile long having to also carry the injured boy. You can understand then why all the waiting parents expected a very tired discouraged crew when they got home. As the vans pulled up, Kyle was first to open the door and jump out with a grin from ear to ear telling the waiting parents that it was one of the best trips he had been on. That was everyones response, even the boy hobbling around with a hurt ankle. The doctors report said there was no major damage and he should be pretty much healed in a couple weeks. The whole group was energetic, laughing and excited to tell stories. So the prayers were answered and I thank you all. Kyle has talked a lot about the trip since Saturday and none of his reflections are negative. Officially, this was a last time gathering of his church group that has met weekly for over six years. But really between scouts, sports, church and school, This group has been a friends since before the first grade. It really wasnt a bonding experience so much as long time friends spending time before they started their new futures in different parts of the world. If the adversity of the trip did anything, it only brought in the open their welded friendship. There was not one discouraging word from the whole group. Not even a mention about having to carry their injured friend over two miles of rain soaked portages. And some people say there is no God. So, why is parenting so hard, at the moment I think it so we parent can have hope in our childrens future. Thanks again for all the kind words of encouragement. Thanks for your friendship. Barry

>>I honestly believe that the reason why so many troops spend so much time on these darn merit badges is because everything they need to do is clearly laid out for them and requires little or no imagination.

>>Chill, she's your daughter - one way or another, she'll knock 'em out!

>>THEY LOVED IT!!! It was an adventure that they talk about still. They stayed together, helped each other, made good decisions and survived without any injuries.

Hey thanks for the comforting replies. I know I'm over reacting, but I just needed to talk to some friends. I will let you know how things go, but they don't get off the water until Friday, which must be part of the plan for me to grow a little. Later we will get into how to not overreact to a cute blond blue eyed daughter who just got on the pom squad. She seems very popular with the boys all of a sudden. I'm learning that as far as fatherhood goes, girls are different from boys. At least I know Kyle is trained, how do I train her from boys. Thanks all for everything. Barry

HI All Is there anything harder than being a parent? Kyle, my 18 year old son is on the Canadian lakes in Northern Tier this week with his church group. All the boys in the group are Eagle scouts from other troops, so they are experienced in the outdoors. But Kyle is the only one with previous Northern Tier experience. However, by the looks of the Minnesota radar weather maps this week, his crew is getting clobbered almost everyday with heavy thunderstorms. Its not like Kyle has never seen thunderstorms in the wilderness, our troop went three years strait with rain on every camp out. We thought of putting a sign on the trailer that said If its not raining, we arent camping. He has experienced many Oklahoma thunderstorms, especially that one that dumped seven inchs of rain in three hours alone with lightning so bad, the night looked like day. Kyle has experience in this kind of weather, so why are all my thoughts with him in Canada and not on my work here in Oklahoma? Why am I praying so much? Is this the future of a parent? I thought when our children grew up and leave for college, the hard part of parenting was over. Am I wrong? If you all wouldn't mind, could you give a small prayer for his crew. Barry

Good post Eamonn. One fact that some of us tend to loose sight is even though this is a program for boys, it is the adults program to guide boys into developing habits of making ethical decisions. If in fact the adults dont teach and train through the program, then it really isnt a boy run program. On that, we also dont talk much about adult side of development and growth. Even you mention that through the years, you got better at motivating scouts. I dont think that I have ever met a good SM with less than three years experience. The SM and other adults need to develop the habit of learning from each past experience of working with a scout so that they do better with the next scout in the same situation. And finally, where does todays Scoutmaster learn the eleven leadership skills? I love this scouting stuff. Barry

>>The feeling I get from the other adult leaders is that they are looking for instant results to teach the boys leadership. They seem to think there is a magic technique where they can sit these boys down and tell them how to be leaders and that instantly it turns these boys into leaders.

>>if the cause of the number of THE injuries was based on the percentage of scouts served, then certainly we would have seen more UMMC scouts involved.

Hi All >>The ideals moving out of front-and -center and the slack in uniforming corresponds most directly to the dramatic improvement in the use of the patrol method and further improvements in the leadership method brought by the current SM.

Hi All If your program is such that it contiues to grow and mature, eventally your scouts and program will have the maturity ability to expaned to all the funtions you describe. If in fact you don't consider these ideas and others like them to continue to challenge the scouts, you will find that your program will become an obstical to growth. You have to push the limits of the program so the scouts can learn their stregths and abilities. At one time or another, our scouts did everything on your list. I love this scouting stuff. Barry

>>The issue of being as under weight as he is can cause medical issues and may be brought up during the health check at base camp.

>>It will be the most miserable week of your life, unless you went to Paris Island for boot camp,

Hi All >> I would end with a few words about confidentiality and it would end there as the situation will be out of your hands and in the hands of the SE where it belongs.

>>Did you use these people to prepare the CO for their role? If you knew the importance of the COs role in supporting a scout unit and you saw that it was not going to exist there why did you choose to start the troop there?"

>>The only reservation I can make in all this is to say that Juris' plan is not for newbies. But I would also say being an SM is not for newbies

>>The Council COmmisioner, who I am not sure read any of it, said that the Quality Unit took care of what I was talking about, which of course it doesnt,

>>US Scouting might have a problem with being a part the "world-wide family of Scouts" given our different interpretation of some aspects of Scouting, but it gives us something to strive for, anyway.

>>This seems like a bizarre situation to me. What was its origin?

>>Why can't it just be explained? Not evrything fits into neat one sentence packages.>I do not see how the membership loss proves that First Class Emphasis isn't working.

>>Again do not assume that everyone misinterprets the information, manydo not. Some understand it and just choose to ignore it,. Some understand it but disagree and so they change it. Some do not understand it at so do not try to learn it. Not everyone who doesn't use the program incorrectly simply interpreted it wrong.

I've never been much in favor of bringing Webelos to Camporees. It takes away from Webelos Woods and the Camporee for Troops. I was always out voted on that discussion. As far as knowing what the Camporee Events or Theme is going to be a head of time, our District has never been that organized. Which is probably one reason why it is not that well atttended. The best Camporee I've seen, other than our Night Trooporee, was a Backpacking Camporee. All the scouts had to break camp on Saturday Morning and hike five miles to their next camp. They had to stop at Skills Event stations along they way. The District Chairman of that District said scouts talked of that Camporee for years. I often thought of doing that in our town. Have all the Troops break camp from their CO and hike to our main park in the center of town stopping to do about six our eight skills events along the way. HAve the adults compete and cook that nights supper. A big bonfire in the football stadium along with a band for the Campfire program where everyone in town is invited to attend. All of Edmond would see scouting at it's best and the scouts would have a blast. Oneday maybe. Barry

Really good post Beav. I think there are two equal causes to the problem of practicing skills. One is that many of the skills learned arent used in our bungee-cord duct-tape culture just as you explained. The other is the creation of the NSP we have been talking about. Now please dont get wrong and think that I believe all scoutings problems are caused by the NSP. I personally believe we need the NSP in todays program, so Im not anti NSP, I just dont like some of the ways they are presented in the manuals. NSPs were created to help new scouts get more comfortable in the new troop so they would not quit in the first year. One of the ways National attack the problem of losing scouts was to change from scouts joining after their birthday to joining with the whole Webelos Den after they earn the AOL. The idea being that it is easier to stay in the program if your friends are with you. But that change forced troops to change their year-round skills program to a scheduled 12 month program repeated every year. See when a troop receives one or two scouts every month, then it naturally teaches all the skills all the time to help the newer scouts learn their skills and advance. Its a year round program of always using and teaching skills. You just get use to the idea that there will be some patrol time to learning the same skills each month or so. I dont remember that it was ever boring, maybe because everyone in the Patrols were involved. Once the program shifted to crossing large groups of new scouts the same month of the year, troops naturally shifted to a 12 month schedule program for the new scouts. Spring is basically the Tenderfoot and Second Class skills months. Summer is Second Class and First Class skills. And Fall is First Class skills. Winter is the season for the next batch of new scouts and starting all over. Even when you know this to be the problem, the troop is still kind of stuck. We learned it our second year in the troop and tried different ideas, but in the end, we basically a annual skills program. Ive gone long, but I think this is also the reason why Camporees arent as popular with scouts today as they use to be. Learning skills is boring when you have to relearn them over and over. Boys naturally would rather do something else. Good discussion. Barry

>>So, we can beat our heads against the wall trying to get people to read the books, or we can present the program in other ways.

Hmm, I was thinking more on the backpacking treks and suggest a backpack raincover from Campmor or even a large trash bag. That being said, I learned a lot from le Voyageur's post for our next Northern Tier trip. Never thought about using a dry bag to carry water. Barry