flyingember

I was in a troop during college for a few years as an adult that held their first ever oa elections that year. I think it was 2004. The troop was began in 1924 and is a heavy mic-o-say troop. It took a new scoutmaster who was willing to experiment and follow the scouting program to the letter at the same time to build a small but high quality troop. Anyways, they called the district oa advisor to arrange for one. the district is a bit unorganized in that manner. The guy came alone and ran the election. This struck everyone as very odd. I was one of two oa members, I received it in a different troop and one adult from district the year before. We questioned the process instantly since no youth performed the election or was even present. The scoutmaster worked with the lodge and had the election striked. A team of youth were brought up by a different adult to run the election. More scouts were elected this time though not all attended the ordeal. The only area that struck me as odd is that the scoutmaster basically planted a vote for as many as possible direction in the kids heads between elections, but it was a ton better than the first one either way. Elections can be screwy at times.

Thanks for linking my site! I'm working on an update to it. The Okaw Valley council (mannaseh) has reported active oa membership has more than doubled since beginning the tribe in 2001. they state as such on the council webpage. seems like it's doing very well for the council. do note they spell it differently. mannaseh.

The current chief scout executive is a member of mic-o-say as were the previous three. I doubt the other programs will ever go away.

how many members does firecrafter have? active members? new members each year? how many councils is it in? how many officially? does the chief scout executive become a member? (http://www.mic-o-say.org/Williams_Roy.cfm) oh, and the website does not work in firefox. you can't click on any links

What is a lightweight stove? (I'm keeping it open-ended on purpose)

ah, that's the camp that has a non-oa honor program somewhat related to mic-o-say. sounds like a good camp from what i've read talk to this troop if you want to know camps north of you. they attend bartle every year http://www.troop840.org/ they're based out of coppell, tx(This message has been edited by flyingember)

same camp since 1930. H Roe Bartle Scout Reservation. well, one of our leaders did kind of helped found the camp in 1930 (he owned the land), so you can see where that leads. We do have one of the few camps to return 50% of scouts from their first to fifth years. Heck, I bet we had more scouts over 13 one year than under.

I can't tell you when the newsletter started but I have an interesting paper vs digital comparison for a large troop. In 1996 my mom tookover the newsletter from the scoutmaster. She just gave it up this past summer to another parent. (no more kids in the troop) Now, the idea of a newsletter is a good idea. I run the website and didn't feel that it was the optimal way to run pertient news for years. Currently it's more a "recent events" site than anything. Anyways, about a year ago we started to send the newsletter via email. Due to the 150+ mailed newsletters and the time it took to get them mailed, two weeks wasn't uncommon for the newsletter to arrive. The classic "the news is out of date issue." The email list has come to have 90% of the troop on it. For those families it's the only way they receive the newsletter. We discovered that only about half the troop bothers to read the newsletter eventually and have been tweaking how we send it via email. In the end, the newsletter has become the way to have a printed calendar, upcoming events list, get out a "congrats" to the infrequent-attending families, etc. The web and email list is for instant messages and for photo albums.

yes, if you keep the weight down. but I suggest seperating into multiple items in plastic tubs with handles. I've seen wood used. Though sturdy, they were heavy even for me, let alone a first year, and we're talking a smaller wooden box (held kitchen and stove only) I would avoid cardboard as it doesn't promote the outdoor code. Basically I think the following works: One box for the cooking supplies. This may or may not include a propane stove depending on troop style. Number them and assign one number to each patrol each campout. One box for dry goods (small) One cooler for cold food (small) This way you're keeping food away from the long-term storage area. There's nothing like finding something spilled all over your kitchen a month later. No personal gear, such as silverware, should be in the kitchen. This will reinforce the seperation of patrol and personal gear per the scout book.

nearly every campout I've driven too I've never been reimbursed, but then again, I've never paid for food in four years that I know of (the scout's food comes from a food fund they pay into), nor for any other fees (camping fees come from fundraising). so I never really complain. Though I don't drive much anyways, we have more than enough drivers and seats so my not driving is better on us, less cars to mess with. And I get to talk with the scouts the whole way down as I try to ride in a different car each time.

Bartle runs 8500+ scouts each summer. the Kansas City paper quoted a quarter million having gone through the camp historically. Troops from 6-7 states attend camp there. Numbers don't lie. (oh, it's at capacity every session every summer in October) I'd put Geiger, up near St Joeseph, MO on the list.

I've heard good things about mack morris in western tennessee. I've seen troops from northern georgia to western missouri goto it. bartle, geiger, arrowhead, and s-bar-f are all major camps. these are the four big council camps in missouri, and all sessions usually fill fast.

H Roe Bartle here again. in the northern end of the ozarks in central missouri. I went twice, I'm 22. the first time I went 2/3 of the campers were over the age of 14. yes, 2/3 were older scouts. trouble keeping older scouts? not a chance. the second time we were younger, but that's because it was all small troops. 25 troops were in camp, and we still had 1/3-1/2 over 4th year. in our troop we had 20 leaders post high school but not yet with their own kids. our 4th year+ group was half of the troop down with us, and we took 15 first years. I should note this isn't the local oa camp. I went out to an oa ceremony nights during one of our other camps boy scout sessions. total campers in the ceremony: 150. there were more arrowman not at the ceremony than at it since they all appeared for the campwide crackerbarrel. total mic-o-say members at each ceremony- easily 800-900. we're beyond standing room and have seating for over 700. this includes another 130 not in the seats being inducted one of the nights. 1000 members is easy for us to get down each session for ceremonies. repeat 6 times for active membership. these are all scouts in their 5th-9th year returning to camp. on our staff 21 is still nowhere near senior. 25 is common. to say that we draw older scouts back is an understatement. results? we had 209 eagles listed in the august council newsletter. that's a unique list from the last one, which I think was June. that figures to over 1000 eagles yearly for the council. (national numbers are 46,000 for 2003) the campstaff is 80% eagle scouts.

isn't a key point of lifesaving about not necessarily swimming? reach-throw-row- and only then if that fails go? scouting is about being physically fit, not about swimming. more kids bike more regularly than go swimming. more kids walk places than go swim. how many adults exercise by swimming compared to those that jog or bike at the gym? scouting is about life skills, not swimming skills. the ability to be fit. oh, and those that think swimming is hard, hiking is often harder for many scouts. I've seen kids pass swimming easier than easily go on a five mile hike. swimming is a skill for safety moreso than its a skill for fitness

Keep him! First item will be to make sure he's up on youth protection training This will be your key leader at camp and on campouts. Let him wander among the scouts and help them. Let him joke around and play games. Around here the strongest troop keep their 18-20something group around. They're usually all eagles and active in honor camping. These leaders are your living examples of what the 4th year scout should be.