Basementdweller

Ok KDD so what is your angle on creating a venture patrol......

Riding can be either bikes or horses......Bikes are cheap enough.....The Patrol can ride to the movies as a patrol or ride out and back to the next campout..... With the growing prevelance and rails to trails I should be less dangerous than riding state highways.

Some summer camps around here offer horsemanship merit badge for no additional cost.....Not sure how many miles they do a week but over the course of a 6 or 7 year scouting career it is possible. As your scout becomes patrol leader and such he can guide the program.......Whose to say he can't have an ad hoc patrol to go horseback riding on a weekend.... or how about doing it on bikes, the patrol could ride to the movies or local pool or anywhere.....

Stand up at round table and demand answers in front of the room... Write letters and Emails asking very specific questions about money and/or membership. Question what a DE is doing..... Be a voice of opposition and begin to gain support....... I was warned once about it......Regarding District cub events......and again not to long ago in a thread regarding membership fraud.....I can't find it anymore.....I received an email telling me to stop..............

I have used Joebobs link......Module three was a bust.......Not sure if my guys were too young to understand the lesson or my delivery was off or wrong.......But it fell flat.......Modules one and two went over fine and the boys understood it..... They were completely lost in the potato game....The cookie game was a bust as well......They never considered taking more than their share and when I congratulated them for "winning" the game they looked at me like I had two heads....... I have been thinking about it and not sure how to make it more relevant for my boys.

Pack....The dining hall had to be 100 degrees with 120% humidity not to mention the smell of wet man beast....the boys were simply done and wanted to go to bed..... Back to the original post Why Woodbadge???? so you too can have a ceremony just like the one mentioned above and like KDD absolutely loves and adores.

just so it doesn't dis appear Joebob wrote Am I alone in that I don't care about the future of the BSA? We'll be okay for the next five years, and my son will be done. He is my primary concern. Sure, I d like for him to be able to proudly point to to a venerable organization of which he is an alum; but that horse is gone. BSA has devolved into a prissy politically correct financial enterprise. How do the BSA pensions compare to the GSUSA pensions? What the country really needs is a BSA type organization with a little more testosterone.

My son's troop is active in all areas in this award except for riding........Lucky that way I guess......So there is no need to look beyond the troop for nights or miles, or hours for any of the requirements.

Fair enough Joe bob....But I am not the one who has posted multiple times that I will be leaving scouting the second my son eagles. In another thread you wrote that you could careless the fate of the BSA as your son will be done in less than 5 years.......A completely selfish view. I will continue to serve the boys of my neighborhood and unit as long as I am physically able. I reposted not to gloat, but so the thread could remain complete....... I will continue to do so if the original poster on any thread deletes it regardless of topic.

good question.....In our file cabinets we have charters and rosters going back....Probably to the start of the troop 40 years ago.....We have a binder for each each year....membership attendance, calendar and rank advancement. Oddly I don't recall seeing any financial documents I view it as history of the troop....when I discovered it, I shared with with my son who was along at the time....Honestly he could have cared less...I guess just the adults are sentimental..... Beyond any BSA rules or sentimental value.....I would shred the documents as the boys aged out of scouting......I would keep the financial records permanently.

I am not sure exactly what a venture patrol is????? I think it is Venture Crew that functions as a patrol within a troop......Guessing it would have to be all male. So since I am my sons Scout Master.......If I were a game playing scouter, everytime we go fishing, hiking, camping, backpacking as a family I could count it as under the Auspices.........Naw.... I suggest finding a real Troop.

I would find another troop. I would not be a figure head SM. No way would I let one guy dictate the program because he has the vehicle to pull the trailer.... I would rent a truck or van for the weekend before that would happen. You missed my point on the canoe trip.....You are at the canoe launch point first thing in the morning for the first trip......You will be a head of the hordes. My next question would be.....have you seen the drunk college kids first hand or is it second hand info...... You could take the trip on a week day as well. Just sounds like excuses.

Well let me see.... The first three year I did our charter I always found 3 to 5 boys who nobody ever knew or had ever been members......In speaking with other CM's and CC I found it was pretty typical.....The DE was confronted at a roundtable and moved to another district very promptly after that and our charters have been correct ever since.... The first DE created a Crew from an entire grade a Parochial school....Not sure how it happened but the general consensus is that Learning for Life money was used. KDD you understand that if you raise too much of a ruckus that the council will revoke your membership.... So they force most folks into silence.

A courteous first post with a question would have received a courteous response... Reap what ya sow.

The beading ceremony needs to go away..... The over blown equivelent to 5 eagle projects..... I will repeat again.......What adult worth his weight can't do 5 eagle projects in 18 months....... Oh then there are the really bad ticket items.....Attempt to lose weight.....Date night with the wife......Attempt to spend time with daughter...... I just don't get the over blown pomp and circumstance...... To me it is just marketing......

KDD for the unit there is no benefit to having phantom members....... For the DE and SE on the other hand....Lot of money tied to those numbers.........then the Learning for life numbers...... All ya got to do is google BSA membership numbers fraud and look what pops up. Interesting our old SE left we lost 4k scouts the first year he was gone.

I would expect nothing less from the self absorbed southerner...... I appreciate you could give a crap about anyone else but your boys.......... He stays so his son can have that extra line on his resume.......It is not out of a sense of selfless service....The second his boy eagles he is gone.....the rest of the boys be dammed.

Sorry to hear about your issue....Sounds like he is going to leave. I wouldn't have done the patrols at a court of honor, but at a meeting just prior to a campout....... I still don't see his objection to the way the patrols are set up??????? Is it a case of hero's and zero's???????

The tone of the original email was belligerent....she was looking for a fight when she posted it.... She has no idea about selfless service.......The BSA doesn't care about its volunteers....there are probably a couple of hundred thousand a crossed the country. and honestly why do I care if the BSA cares?????? I am in the program for my boys.....nothing more or less.....I don't expect to become rich or famous from it......heck I don't even expect a thank you any more... i received a fortune in a cookie a while ago it read, He who expects no gratitude shall never be disappointed.

Our guys did that a couple of years ago and the camp ranger got is pantys in a wad about it....

Well, you were asked to be scout master..... You could change the program to meet your vision. Now is the time to start thinking about where you would like to be as a troop..... Now I understand why you view the award as difficult to achieve. We easily camp 30 nights a year and have three or four events outside of meetings a month and twice a week volunteer opportunities. Not sure what drunk college kids have to do with a canoe trip???? I think that is the case most everywhere......Just make your reservations for the first run in the morning......you will be far enough a head of them that it won't be an issue. Our scout camps close in november for deer hunting.......Deer hunting probably isn't the entire month right???????......When there is a will there is a way to provide a program.......Worst camp use November as your holiday party.....Take them bowling or to an indoor shooting range or what ever they pick......the boys love the post thanksgiving backpacking trip....Three days......lots of fun I gotta ask....So what does the troop calendar look like???? Taking the boys with swimming partials back over to camp tonight to finish about an hour drive one way...... From the text messages flying around looks like most of the troop is going........ The old fellow at the Dairy Bar will be glad to see us again on the return trip.

Really.....if you hear thunder go indoors......Stay away from water??????? really the camp was a mud hole from all of the rain all week....the only ground surface without standing water was the service road. We would have sat in the dining hall for the entire week....... Don't know what to tell ya........The Cd didn't call us in once all week. even during the hail storm.

iphone just now can do it......... really my android device has had that ability for a couple of years now....

Had we ran to the dining hall every time we heard a bit of thunder we would have had zero program.......As is the boys didn't finish their swimming merit badge. This is the same camp we enjoyed the tornado at last year.

Just last week..... The time is 10 PM at an unnamed scout camp after a day of rain and lightning. Picture an indoor Evening campfire program due to bad weather. Picture dining hall full of wet boy scouts numbering about 200 sitting on the floor.... picture their also wet leaders..... Picture outdoor temps in the mid 80s and 100% humidity light fog/mist hanging in the air. Picture no AC. Picture a Beading Ceremony that went 48 minutes long including calling all the woodbadger from the audience to the front for a round of Gilwell.....Yes I timed it..... WAY OUT OF LINE AGAIN. The boys could have cared less