FScouter

I feel compelled to offer some comments challenging several others made here about keeping warm. Thermarest makes different kinds of sleeping pads. The roll up pad is open-cell foam enclosed in an air tight covering. Its basically a thin inflatable air mattress. The Z-pad is closed-cell foam. Closed-cell foam insulates better because the air in the pad cells is trapped. Cold ground is a huge heat sink and will suck up unlimited amounts of heat from anything laying on it. A cheap conventional air mattress will not insulate much, though it is better than sleeping directly on cold ground. (Would you rather sleep directly on a slab of ice, or on a cheap air mattress on a slab of ice?) An air mattress does not make you cold. Cold ground makes you cold. An insulated pad separates your warm body from the cold ground, and that is the way to avoid losing body heat to the ground. Comfort is part of a quality sleep experience. Being cold is uncomfortable, as is trying to sleep on rock-hard ground. A conventional air mattress may not provide much insulation, but it is comfortable. Using an air mattress for comfort, with a Thermarest or closed-cell pad for insulation is the best of both. The insulating pad should be next to the sleeping bag, just as Bizzy did. Scientifically speaking, if a sleeping bag is wet with water it will cool by evaporation, but there is no way I know of that will cause it to become wet with liquid water simply by being rolled out. Humidity is gaseous water vapor in the air and does not absorb heat or make things cold any more that cold air does. However, a rolled up sleeping bag may retain some heat from the day. It may be warmer if unrolled just before crawling in. Unrolled early, it will lose whatever heat it had and be just as cold as the surrounding air. Personally, I get my bed ready when I set up camp, so I dont have to mess with it in the dark. If a body is cold, it is because the heat the body generates is being lost to the atmosphere. A sleeping bag prevents that. Clothing prevents that too. Clothing provides insulation that traps the heat and holds it close to the skin. One layer is better than naked, two layers provides more insulation than one, and three layers provides still more. If you are cold with one layer, add another. The added layer may initially feel cold until it warms up, just like dressing with cold clothes in the morning. But cold clothes in the morning doesnt stop us from getting dressed. More clothes is warmer than less clothes. If feet sweat during sleep, the evaporation will cause cooling. Evaporation will take place whether socks are worn or not. If feet are truly sweating during sleep it is either because they are too hot, or you have a nervous condition. If one has cold hands, you would not remove gloves because of worrying about sweaty palms. Likewise if your feet are cold, you would not remove your socks to warm them up. From personal experience, I can tell you that my feet are a whole lot warmer with socks than without. Wear wool or something other than cotton so moisture, if any, will easily pass through. A hat helps keep your head warm by preventing heat loss. A knit cap works better and can pull down around your ears. A mummy bag with its built-in hood with drawstring does the same thing, and a wearing a hat or cap would be redundant. One last thought. For years my wife suffered from being cold at night. It was later discovered she had a thyroid deficiency with affected her metabolism. After getting that corrected with medication, she was cured of being cold at night.

"Only 262 days left to donate your attic full of old camping gear to a worthy cause in time for next year's taxes" :-) A troop is not a charity and donations are not tax deductible.

"Likewise be skeptical of phrases like "bashes the BSA" :-/" That's not a surprising comment from Kudu considering he is one of the biggest BSA haters we have in these forums.

There are only 24 hours in a day. There is only enough time to do one job well. Doing more causes something else to suffer.

Well of course it is easier for the advancement team (person) to have the candidate do part of the team's work. How can the boy say "NO" ? Yep, "Certified" is looking real good.

For what reasons would the district approach you about starting a new troop with as few as 1 or 2 patrols?? Why cannot these boys join existing troops/

"in our troop we dont cook in patrols, unless it is neccessary. we cook as a troop b/c we have found that in our troop it works better." Is our purpose really to find the most efficient camping methods? Or something bigger?

"It seems to be the policy that whenever someone is upset and complains to the district about their present troop, the answer seems to be 'Well, start your own', instead of working thru problems for the betterment of the units and the boys involved. I have had a few of these people tell me later, 'I never knew all the work invloved in a troop. We should never have left to go on our own'. We have seen his happen, and those troops fail miserably." Profound words. It is far easier to work to improve a poor troop than to start from scratch.

Contributions to a non-profit organization are not tax deductible. Contributions to a charitable organization with a confirming IRS letter of determination are deductible. A troop is not a charitable organization and contributions are not deductible.

"I just am amazed that this is more difficult than I had anticipated." If it was easy, anybody could be an Eagle Scout. The "rule" that the family may not fund the project is misguided. There is no support at all in BSA about that. However, a project plan must show enough substance and leadership such that it is worthy for the Eagle rank. If the boy searches out ways to pay for it, that demonstrates leadership and responsibility on his part. That would certainly aid him in getting the project approved. If Mom and Dad write a check, that shows nothing and he will have to demonstrate leadership and responsibility through other aspects of the project.

"But they just keep showing up and schlepping along." They are bored with the program. Identify the boring parts, change them, and then you'll start to see new excitement. Have the boys planned the program? Have their ideas been nixed by adults? Has the adult committee planned a program and imposed it on the boys? Are the activities designed around the lowest common denominator, that of the boys with the least experience and skills? Breaking them up and forcing them into other patrols with young Scouts is a bad idea. 16-18 yr old boys don't get their excitement living with 11-13 year olds. You'd see an even faster disenchantment.

Do you think you would have a better experience with your leadership team if adult leaders allowed you to appoint the boys of your choosing to fill those positions such as scribe, quartermaster, etc.?

"How would you feel about a story of a whole kingdom of people who became so enlightened that they dematerialized and are now in a celestial plane, without the aid of a supernatural being?" I'd think, "Hmmm, that's very interesting." It would not cause me problems, nor would I feel offended.

"... everything Lisa mentioned as an area for improvement in her initial post is covered in our training and in the mainstream BSA pubs ..." You mean we don't have to figure this all out on our own?!

It's your unit commissioner or the district commissioner you need to call, not the DE.

A big problem any organization may have is the "free thinkers" that pick and choose what parts of the organization philosphy or rules they will ignore, and what personal philosophies they will add. It is important that members of a group abide by the decisions of the group. If our organization decides to eliminate the uniform, then I must support that, for the good of the organization.

"While I hold training to be very important it is worth remembering that if you send an idiot to training what comes back is a trained idiot." Have to agree with this comment. More important than the quality of the training is the quality of the adults selected to serve as unit leaders.

I wear my tie for courts of honor and such. I own several Scout shirts and they all have a top button and regular collar like other shirts. Adding the tie presents no problem.

"Gee, Mr. Parent, I'm sorry you were offended". Then let it go. You've already spent enough mental energy on this.

A discussion of BSA uniform design and use sounds good to me. Then we can leave out discussion of Hillcourt, BP, Scout revision organizations, and the concept of "troop uniform".

There is no provision in BSA for a unit to develop its own "troop uniform". Your intent in this thread seems clear enough. The intent of your posts in this thread, as well as all other posts, is to beat down BSA, its mission, aims, methods, and uniform. Do you ever have anything positive to say about BSA?

Running one's personal version of Scouting and intentionally violating the letter and spirit of BSA hardly seems to be an honorable basis upon which to teach boys to make ethical choices over their lifetimes. Or perhaps Badenscouts has a different mission?

Hey kudu, have you checked your tin-foil hat lately? My understanding is that the government has secretly infiltrated the tin-foil industry and now has technology to implant an electronic transmission device in the tin-foil itself. If you made your hat with pre-patriot act tin-foil you should be OK, otherwise be careful.

If you're interested in the the BSA policies regarding neckerchiefs, the Insignia Guide has a section that discusses them. I don't have the book at hand just now, but uniform and insignia policies generally do not grant permission to alter the uniform beyond what is described in the Guide. Graphics, logos, and colors are options. Oversized or square design certainly would not be options.

Part of a board of review is to determine whether all the rank requirements have been completed. On the day of the proposed BOR, will the boy have completed Life requirement #1 ? Why does the boy want to rush it? Does the troop have some kind of set calendar schedule such the next BOR will be 6 or 8 months down the road, causing the boy to want to get it done now? Boards of review should be scheduled when they are needed.