Basementdweller

So what if after completion of my ticket I don't want one???? I would like to just take my ticket councilor his wife and my wife out to dinner. The boys would be bored with it.....to be honest they could careless whether I am trained or not. So what did you do for your???

Not casting stones TN. But most of the adults I have ran into.......especially SM's with some tenure and an active outdoor program take great pride in their woodcraft. I cannot tell you how many times I have witnessed some chime up they could do X better than the current per doing it. I am on a council based IOLS training course and it is full of egos, who has got the gears and skills are discussed over gallons of coffee. Throw a city dweller in for a weekend of wood craft and see what happens....... We see how stressed out people get over not being able tie knots, what happens when it is a fire to cook dinner over.

Far as adults go, We have a SM that can be the adult scout and if you don't remind him that the boys are supposed to be doing the work will just do it himself. The one ASM brings a portable mansion and spends the weekend watching hulu on his droid. I am the other ASM. The rest range from 3 Type A's my son will be an eagle, thru the I just want to hang out with my son guys. Others may just be trying to sponge a weekend, The COR adult son, who is listed on the charter but only shows for camp outs and trips. We have a friend of the SM who also tags along, He is a good nature fellow, not much help. The SM is taking one patrol's grubmaster and I am taking the other to the grocery Thursday night. I would like the adults to cook separate and the Patrols to invite one adult each per meal at their campsite. But the SM is splitting the adults and each patrol gets 7 each....doesn't seems fair or right to me.

In moving from a single Patrol troop to multiple patrols. How many adults should attend a camp out in your opinion??? We have a camp out going on this weekend and 13 adults and 14 scouts attending......It is out of whack in my mind......

No one said the Eagle would actually be doing the work, but he could contact the Parks and rec people or TWP people to maintain the project. Make the effort is all.

Not enough information to draw a conclusion. I don't think it would be unreasonable.......He would just need to include it in plan. I have seen too many eagle projects that a year or so after completion looked horrible. A state park lake near us had an eagle scout added hand rails to a bridge and one year later they are in horrible shape, warped from not being constructed correctly and not protected from the weather. An embarrassment. too many of these projects end this way

I am currently working my ticket. Would have I liked the the old course better, probably because I enjoy the outdoors more than being lectured for 6 days.

if your an exact number kinda guy then 6 is your number. But If you had most of the den and they had a great time then I wouldn't sweat it. In the grand scheme of things nobody but you even remember or care in a couple of years.

The current woodbadge course is full of Egos and good old boys and gals. I did witness some Cub masters act in a very selfless manner when it came to recruiting. I was really surprised.

If your boys are having a problem getting their activities completed then your program is weak. And counting summer camp as two functions is ridiculous and you are selling the boys short. So an interpretation on what has been posted. I could conceivably make 3 events on a single camp out. The patrol fishes Saturday morning for the first one. then hikes in the afternoon for the second and then the camp out is the third. That is absolutely the dumbest thing I have ever heard. If you count the activities that way you have no business leading a troop. You are short cutting the intent of the outings. Get off those lazy city dwelling cans and help the PL's get their Patrols out and active. We have one Patrol that hiked 16 days last year. camped 8 times last year plus resident camp. Visited a tv station in addition to working the food pantry. They love to fish too so I am not exactly sure how many times they got together in the evenings and fished. Activities and counting them are the least of my concerns.

It is a camporee you don't have to attend the event at all. Continue with your plans for Sunday and offer a scouts own Saturday night or Sunday morning. Mention to the nay sayers that if they don't like this camporee they can plan the next one.

That is what venturing is for....we have a number of crews whose sole focus is shooting.

If your goal is to get him to shoot better at camp and earn the golden arrow. I would buy what ever the camp you attend shoots. We travel to a bunch of different camps and have shot everything from the cheapy bears to the Mathews genesis bows. I would buy him the cheapy bear recurve bow to start with. Then in six months buy him the basic compound bow. I really love to shoot, my son has yet to find any enjoyment in it. I shoot a probably 10 year old Ohneida Black eagle. I have taken him to the deer stand the last two seasons.....He just is too young yet to be quiet and not move around too much. The high light last year was was a humming bird sitting on the rail and scolding us for an hour. I could have grabbed him if I wanted. He couldn't figure out what we where. a great memory

I have struggled with the "Pack and Troop needs me to improve the Program" Remember this is your sons scouting experience and as DAD you need to make sure his experience is the best it can be. If you get lost in the troop politics experience will suffer. To be real blunt, Your son says he wants to leave. Time to look for a new troop

I stated something similar a couple of years ago the BSA is great except for the adults. I love working with the boys. They have boy issues, there is none of the political poserhood you see at wood badge and District and council levels. There are a group scouting friends that have promised each other reality checks.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

Just gotta shake my head at the brand new decorated staves the staff carry around. Adorned with all sorts of non outdoors things. Stuffed animals bags of stuff and stuff glued and stuck all over the place. I would have been impressed had one of the staves actually looked like it had been used. Brand new hiking boots. Posers and Man and Women scouts. The BSA should form Adult troops, give them an outlet.

Since when is Socialism a bad thing????? Isn't that what one of the Woodbadge games is advocating???? Make sure everyone is taken care of in an equal and fair manner. Leaving the woodbadge course looking around the parking lot there were a lot of vehicles that cost more than my house. Just sayin that's all. Socialism is more in line with the Scout oath and law than Capitalism. Let the attacks and debate begin.

I am sorry you had a tough trip. It happens hmmmmm, Got a funny story. My patrol for the 1st ap hill jambo was nicknamed the bad news bears by the SM before we left. I was elected Patrol leader and somehow We jelled at the Jambo. I will never forget the Dinner when we realized it had happened. The SM wouldn't eat with us "Cause we would just screw up his chow". We had the ASM's eat with us. We just cooked dinner per the instructions, cleaned up and realized that the other patrol had not set down to eat yet. The SM said we cheated making dinner some how. We held our head a little higher that night and the rest of the Jambo. It became a matter of pride to beat the other patrol with food prep and clean up. The food even tasted better as I remember. The ASM spent the rest of the jambo harassing the SM. The SM was so mad at us by the time we left he refused to shake my hand when I offered it. We Scouting Flunkies showed up the cream of the council, which as it turned out was his Brown Sea Patrol. The moral of the story......Hang with it, you never know when good things will happen.

yes and for every 20 you send you may get a visit.

We retest even with the AOL. As pointed out the boy may learned the knot, oath, law and code for 30 seconds and forgot it. Delaying his scout rank is trivial. If the adults must award the scouts to make themselves feel better then so be it.

It is a good read. But the problem I and every other scouter face is....we have little true influence. We have all had brief successes reaching out to a particular scout and helping guide him. Morally and Physically Bankrupt parents and friends are the biggest thing I fight. I equipt my son with some tools to use when he is teased at school about being in scouts. I when being teased or taunted have told him to ask them "What did you do last Weekend?" and to follow with "I went ________ with the scouts. Better than sitting on the couch in my opinion." He has recruited a couple using this line and he made one young man cry. The sports guys tease him to I have suggested he use the "Yes, I see your point standing in left field is better than ________. or Being tackled is better than _______." Today's boys are confused. Many if not most do not have a decent male roll model, very sad. A short story, Last week one of the Scouts who went to resident camp on a campership picked up his son from scouts with a BRAND new $10,000 4x4 Quad (he was telling us about it) in the Back of his truck and was stinking of beer. Good role model????

That is where I would start......Your local hardware should also stock some vandalism remover that may work better than goof off.

Chug has it right. Over complicating things.

Mike.....got a chuckle out of that response. What if the adult dove over the scouts to get it. hankins....in the grand scheme of thing the ipad is irrelevant in my eyes, being on the stage at the Jambo is the biggy. Again, had I got one of the designated shirts, I would have handed to one of my scouts. I am disappointed that the two guitar hero participates were staff. Wish I didn't know about it.

I have to agree with the most statement. I have tried to deliver the cub scouting message to some boys who simply don't want to be there or participate. I enjoyed the article, especially from a questioning parent. It sounds like his son is in an exceptional Troop.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)