Basementdweller

Why not call the local park system office and volunteer to do a conservation project???? Not sure the age of your boys, but they will appreciate tearing out weeds or planting trees much more than some sort of craft project. How about fishing derby, nature scavenger hunt, Hikes are good but most little guys are only good for a mile or two at best. Why not some free time in the woods???? Bring a lawn chair and let the boys enjoy the woods. Our boys love it, flipping over logs and looking for salamanders, and lizards.....bugs and slugs...... You don't have to plan every second.

Dutch oven fare is more often for the adults. Kids don't care. Trash can turkey, maybe at the boy scout level, cubs, they just don't care.....

I have met a lot of great dogs backpacking outside of scouting. I will say, Depends on the dog and the owner. I have great dogs in camp grounds, the big lug just wanted petted and to enjoy the fire. And others peeing on my gear and trying to get my dinner. I have spent hours searching for a friends dog who took off after some unseen critter in the underbrush. How about the one that barked and growls at every sound all night long....... Our BSA local camp policies don't allow them. As a Pack leader I will tell a Family no pets, which includes hamsters, gerbels, snakes, ferrets, rats, cats and bats, dogs too. My scout families don't have Labradors or golden retrievers....several families have multiple pitbulls, great danes, mastiffs. There is a fair share of muts too. So at a scout event....A big heck no....I don't care if your Pitbull is a teddybear or not, he isn't coming to our camp out. One dog bite isn't worth the risk or hassle. Obviously the dog couldn't run free, so we are going to have a number of chained dogs in our camp, probably barking because of all the kids running around....Imagine the litter patrol after camp is tore down.....we got to have a poo patrol. Dogs in the outdoors.....a big heck yes Dogs in at a scout event......a big heck no

moose..... You camp as a troop, but also camp as a patrol at the same outing. We have patrol A camp to the right of Leaders turf Patrol B to the left. Both have a patrol box, cook clean and purchase food independently. It isn't 300 yards but is what we got and we work it. They function as a Patrol. We have also taken out one patrol at a time. You can still Patrol camp..... Just takes a couple of adults to come along.

If you aren't the lead dog the scenery never changes. I care very deeply for my scouts, We have struggled fought to establish a credible scouting program. The cub pack has exploded....the troop went from ghost scouts to 20 scouts. Our new crew has 4 girls and 3 boys... It is a program I would hope BP would be please with. Yes I am ruff and gruff, It comes from years of battle scares from inside and outside of scouting. The District and council people telling me NO.....Fights with the COR and CC to straighten out the Pack and Troops finances and program direction.... I have been thru the wars of stolen fund raising money, SM/CM's mis appropriating money, Affairs and resulting divorces with in the Pack leadership, drunk and drug addicted parents, Assorted parent issues, I have stood at flag ceremonies where the rich kids make fun of our rag tag bunch, Some of our boys wear the olive shirts from our uniform closet. But you know, scouting means more to my scouts than those rich kids. We aren't the best troop out their, but I put our kids scouting spirit against any ones.

Pretty easy stuff We go to a couple of out of district events that are fixed dates.. Those go on the calendar. the Blue and gold and pinewood dates are fixed. The Graduation camp out is always the second weekend of May. Pack meetings are always last monday of the month. We have two fundraisers that go on....again fixed dates.... Then it is up to the den leaders to plan their den outings..... So not much in the way of planning....we critic each event at the next committee meeting and plan for improvements....... So scoutfish what do you guys charge a head for campouts?????? We set a $20 cap per family. We usually break even.....We can rent state park group campsites or national forest sites for $40 for the weekend...... Which is cheaper than our council scout camps.

Had a family bring two mastiffs to a family camp out once, despite being told no. The camp ranger sent them packing.

I was thinking chunks of sirloin or something like that cut up. Ground beef is expensive in your neck of the woods....we are $1.29 /lb for the cheap stuff and $1.99 for chuck. We did fajitas one campout for the adults and youth that would eat them, cream of green chili soup....it was excellent. We have a fairly high density of scouting and the retailers don't cut us a break on price for anything. I imagine that would be the benefit of scouting in a small town. So how do you do tin foil dinners for 50 people successfully at the same time? Large groups and tin foil dinners don't mix. I have had several poor experiences with large groups and tin foil dinners. I will say that when we camp as a family we make a great tin foil dinner. Tilapia fillet olive oil cilantro hot sauce red, green and yellow peppers onions Lemon pepper to taste. Add all ingredients to personal taste....cook for 10 minutes a side.... Now we are talking 4 people verses 50 bear dad,,,,,,as you can see, camp food can be as plain or elaborate as you want.

what and the heck do you spend on a campout????? Steak for 90?????? We charged 5 bucks a head last trip.

We do invasive species removal every earth day. Usually Japanese knot weed, garlic mustard or honey suckle. We usually do it with the County soil and water people or a park naturalist. As pointed out I would see what the most effective method of eradication will be. We cut off the honey suckle, then the soil and water comes back after we leave and sprays it. The boys like garlic mustard the best, but you need to make sure you get the roots too and bag it out. Conservation is a good thing and thank you for teaching your scout it's importance.

Scout fish brings up a good point.......We always have PB&J and a loaf of bread available for those who don't like what is offered. We do walking tacos for lunch. Or cold cuts and chips....something fast with out a lot of prep or clean up. Most of the scouts just want to eat and be done with it to get back out and play. I don't like chicken or raw ground meat on in a camp out setting. Just to big a risk in my book, I don't want a camp full of sick folks. Ground beef for chili or tacos is cooked at home..... if you are in a cabin with a refrigerator or close to town chicken would be fine. My troop got sick on chicken leg quarters as a youth, I have never gotten over it.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

I am assuming dinner Penne pasta and sauce.... Holds the sauce better than traditional noodles. Hot dogs roasted on the campfire, the kids favorite. Mac and cheese and sweet corn. We have done dutch oven western ribs, They were 99 cents a pound..... we have done Pie iron grilled cheese, Burgers are greasy and messy, fries or any thing fried is a pain. We even made the dutch oven cheese cake from the last issue of scouter.....delete the vanilla and sub lemon juice is my recommendation.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

Who was it that was applauding the Al Bundy Scoutmaster method???????

I am blessed with not having to deal with such non-sense. We have all the colors of the rainbow....And I would would never have it any other way.

Eagle....I am more than a little surprised, I thought your view was a little more moderate than that.......

pack....an interesting fact, I had no idea that even more than 100 years after the civil war feelings were still that close to the surface. Sad Sad state Our Crew, Troop and Pack all marched as a group this morning.

We are getting only a smidgen of the information here. I would love to here both sides.

I have some news for you.....BSA is coed. We have a fantastic very active coed crew at our CO. Our Pack has a Dude dessert contest.....men and scouts only......I help make a lot of cakes that week. guess my kids school is the exception than......they have three recesses or breaks a day.....they play dodge ball, trampoline and even red rover during PE. Both come home from school with the badges, bruises and abrasion, of the rough and tumble I expect from them. Your probably not going to laugh my daughter, at 7 years old, is infinitely tougher than any Cub scout and most boy scouts I have ever met including my son........She can catch skinks, frogs, toads and salamanders with the best of them. I am very proud of her and her outdoor skills, I could go on and on, But I would just be a dad bragging. In my opinion, while she has participated in cub scouting with her brother, it is a shame she cannot be officially recognized. I support Cub scouting being coed. Not dumbing down the program or changing it for girls, then it would be Girls Scouts and that is not what most girls want. The only think that is lacking is the transition from cubs to venturing. Girls do not belong in the Boy Scout Program, no idea the hows and whats.....just sayin...

Wow the compassion here is staggering.... Looks like he is just running the cub program.... We had a babysitting program....that has become a sibling den. Yes unregistered, unofficial but it works and the girls love it.

heheeheh Legal, the fundraising app is the silly, I file it and never hear anything back. Just like the tour plan......I file it and never hear anything back. Sitting here laughing, so you have a guy volunteering to take care of the scout accounts and just finished running a fundraiser and your complaining.....especially when you just said you cannot get volunteers. So long as the scout account totals get entered into the committee meeting minutes and the fundraising totals add up. All I can think of here is Cartman screaming "RESPECT MY AUTHORITY"

Legal.....yep, Right.....probably, would you have felt better if he put the money in his personal account??????? You force a responsibility on him with in his opinion, no guidance. He fulfilled the job to the best of his abilities. I hope he had built in some accountability to protect himself against accusations being made. I am guessing you think there is money or product missing. It is a pretty easy situation to figure out.....see how much candy he bought and see if the total funds handed over is the correct amount for the candy sold.

He is another boy...... But I think Scoutfish has never actually dealt with it.....A lot depends on the family...... this isn't like getting a catholic, baptist, Lutheran and protestant scouts together. The den and Pack meetings are not an issue, it is day outings and camp outs that can be a problem. All of the muslim families I have dealt with understand that when we pray in scouting that "god" refers to the god that each scout believes in and it has not been an issue to this point. We have one family who has integrated into our Pack very well, They do not expect everything to stop while they fulfill their obligation. They bring their own food and cook using the camp kitchen. We offered to adjust our traditional camp fare, but they said no. They attended our scouts own and participated. Interesting additions to the Blue and gold potluck for sure..... Previous experience was not that positive.......The group was expected to stop everything and they expected for the Pack to adjust the camp menu to their requirements...... I have no experience with Muslims as Boy Scouts or Venturing, Just as Cubs with their families.

Just curious....... The look in the Mirror makes the game of life so controversial. Most do not like what they see. Like I mentioned before, the looks on the participants faces was priceless during the oath and law portion...... I will say from what I witnessed at woodbadge and the non-sense in my district, a too large a portion of adult scouters do not live the oath and law.....

While the majority here voice disapproval... Any body actually ask what the boys want???????? I know of many troops that do as Eamon said, same camp and camp site year after year. It is no wonder they lose boys...... (This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

The biggest problem is cost Geocaching doesn't work well with groups larger than 2 or 3 people. Distances between caches and time to find them. Caches at a camporee, would be one solution, but after the first couple of groups found it the others would just end up following the trail. My family geocaches as well, been doing it for 4 years or so. Long enough that both son and daughter have their own gps's, both purchased from craigs list for less than $50 a piece. We have found 209 caches around our area.