Stosh

THANKS! 13 states and 2 Canadian provinces! All within a day's travel! I've been to 48 of the 50 states and excursions into Mexico and Canada. Alaska is #1 on my Bucket List.

There's a major difference between self-esteem which everyone is falling all over themselves with bling and baubles, and then there's self-respect, which is a powerful force in a person's life. Self-esteem is what everyone tells you is important about you. Self-respect is what you know to be true about what is important about you. I don't stroke little Johnny's ego with self-esteem ribbons and trophies, I simply say, "Well done, Scout." when they succeed and "I bet you don't ever do that again." when they fail. I have always felt that this has been my "secret weapon" to ward off all the discipline issues I see with kids today. Parents, school, sports, churches all fall prey to this self-esteem bandwagon of today. So why am I doing Cub Scout, Boy Scout and Venturing all at the same time? Because I don't burn out on disciple issues. I work hard at turning entitled narcissists into productive leaders. It's really easy to trust and respect kids when they trust and respect themselves. OH! But STOSH you just let the kids run wild without any adult hovering supervision!!!! Yep, all the time, never regretted a minute of it either.

I have never had to deal with homesickness before 10:00 pm. Day camp is day care for Cubs. Sorry, no other way to explain it. My council is doing Cub Scout resident camp this summer for the first time. If they aren't prepared to handle hundreds of homesick Cubbies, they are going to lose a ton of boys to the program. As usual they haven't thought this through very well. Handling an 11 year-old boy's homesickness is tricky, an 8 year-old's? Well, even Mom isn't going to do well with that one. For me the odds of Cub resident camp being successful is pretty ify. There's a major difference between challenging boys at a mature level with some serious opportunities, At the Cub level that same challenge is setting them up for failure.

That's great, I don't have to worry about whether the tree is male or female anymore. That was getting old. By the way, the moderators have a censor button they can push, but we have an ignore button we can use. It really works great. One might miss some good ideas along the way, but one doesn't have to wade through a ton of "stuff" to get to it.

WHAT? You didn't need 35 years of professional therapy? Lucky Dog!

Lighten up @@Krampus I gave up a long time ago reporting personal attacks on the forum and other un-scout-like activity, all it doesn't do any good.

I was in Cub Scouts for 4 years. I got a Bobcat pin I got a Wolf patch and arrows I got a Bear patch and arrows I moved to a new town joined a new pack Never got Lions Never got Webelos Never got AOL I was in Boy Scouts for 4 years I got Tenderfoot I got Second Class I missed a session of summer camp I never got First Class I never got Star I never got Life I never got Eagle I was in Civil Air Patrol for 3 years I got my radio operators license I got certified as an aerial search observer I flew in 6 training operations and 2 actual search operations. I survived a plane crash. I never got bored. Sometimes it's the people running the program that is the problem, if not the program itself. By the way only my Bobcat pin and Radioman patch are in my bling box of mementos.

Why doesn't the Troop simply ask for a W-9 from the CO?

One also has to consider an option most often neglected in discussions like this.... Is it the bling or is it the program that is important to the boy? If the bling is more important than the program, there's something seriously wrong with the way the program is being run in that neck of the woods. As @@desertrat77 points out, is failure a lesson that is important for scouts to deal with? The reality of life is: failure is more common than success. How many Tiger Cubs will get AOL and how many will reach the rank of Eagle? Those numbers say a lot on how the program is run.

Find one's home base on a map. Draw a 500 mile radius around it. One now has thousands of inexpensive trips to choose from. In my case even internationally. Canoe areas, 20,000+ lakes (Sorry Minnesota, but Wisconsin has 10,000 lakes too), rivers of any challenge level, fishing, camping, national forests, hundreds of miles of national hiking trails, bike trails, State and National Parks, etc. and if one watches closely, there is a National Jamboree in 2017 that costs $850 Canadian and is open to youth 11-14 in Nova Scotia. Let me see.... West Virginia or Nova Scotia? Hmmm. Maybe the Cub National Jamboree in Ontario would be closer. If one is going to only think of great trips as defined by BSA, they are going to miss out on some really neat opportunities out there.

It just Depends on what you are used to.

Yep, I as 2nd ASM and my Eagle Scout 3rd ASM, were chastised multiple times for not hanging around camp and watching the boys. The last thing I wanted the boys to do was hang around camp. Near the end of the time, they assigned me a time I had to be in camp at which time I kicked all the boys out of camp and told them to go someplace interesting. Once the camp was empty I left too. I got in trouble for that too. Some adults on this side of the pond have some strange concepts regarding how a BSA troop is to be run. If one is going camping, they camp. If one is at Jambo, the last place they need to be is in camp. I met more people from all over the world at our national Jambo. I was surprised at how many internationals were there. It was great. (Except the parts where I was getting yelled at. At least I know they'll never ask me to do it again.)

Our council does both week long day camp and week long resident camp for Cubs. That means our combined scouts could theoretically burn out on Council camp well before they get to Boy Scouts. Now if they were to add 5 Saturdays to the mix, I could see some of the boys burning out as Bears or Web 1.

Does that apply to your last statement?

A program to teach leadership, perseverance, character, honesty, etc. and there's someone out there who thinks there is a shortcut to accomplishing this.

I think the "Do your best" means to do your best whether one receives the award or not. There have been plenty of times I put my best effort into something and still came up short. It's not a life-threatening situation and doesn't require 30 years of professional counseling to correct. It's just the way life is. No matter how hard one tries, ya can't win 'em all!

No Eagle Rank was awarded to a scout based on "Do Your Best" We shouldn't have to unlearn Cub Scout principles and retrain Boy Scout half way through the program. Maybe the reason cross overs drop out so fast is because they don't give out MB's like they do belt loops.

I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night, what do you want to know?

Of course one could always use the Buddy System when in such situations and that problem could be handled. Just because one is over 18 doesn't mean the buddy system isn't necessary.

Over the years, the functionality of the bugler has been lost. It's unfortunate because in this day and age of electronics, the role of the bugler can be fulfilled with a smartphone app. But then again, so can the Librarian and Scribe. Broadcast email and the Chaplain Aide job can be done with a copy/paste send. And of course the ever popular PLC with Skype or NetMeeting. The nice thing about the bugle, it doesn't need to be plugged in and recharged.

The boys used blanket rolls and dumped the backpacks in the Civil War. At that time they didn't have the frame to the backpack necessary for the belt to be applied. It is surprising how much "stuff" can be carried in a blanket roll very comfortably. One must also realize that even with the backpack, the food and water was always carried separately from the backpack and on campaign, much of the supplies were carried by wagon and tentage was always optional on the march. Once it became necessary for the soldier to carry more were policies and equipment changes made. A normal Civil War soldier carried about #50 total equipment including #11 rifle and #5 lead ammunition. Canteen was 2 QT adding another #4 and 3 days of food rations. That means only about half of what the soldier carried was in his backpack...#20-#25 at the most. Rain poncho, gum blanket, wool blanket, 1/2 tent, all of which could be rolled up and thrown over the shoulder. The backpack was a useless piece of equipment with or without a waist belt.

When things get so out of hand that boys are peeing in the campsites and lying down in roadways, I as an adult have the option of simply not being a part of that process. Although I have never had to resort to it, I do as a leader have the option to say, "I'm not going if these kinds of things will be part of the activity." If they wish to find adults who are willing to take that kind of risk, then more power to them. The boys all know what the Safety First and Look and Act like a Scout rules are. I have had a few boys push the envelop here and there, but these kinds of activities described here have never been an issue I have had to deal with in 45+ years of working with youth in a variety of different settings, scout, church and community based youth programs. If the adults are allowing this type of unfettered behavior, there is something seriously wrong with the ADULTS!

As 2nd ASM I was in charge of forming patrols and getting boy leadership together. Put all the boys in one big field, said we need 4 patrols of 8 each and SPL and ASPL, and went and got coffee. When I got back, it was all done. SPL had even made a list of who was leadership and who was in each patrol. It was the last boy led thing they did for the activity.