Nike

Experiences differ. In the South and West as well as overseas, girls want more of an adventure. Our Day Camp this year was hiking, rock wall climbing, archery, canoeing, an entire day learning about everything at the post theater, sports and wide games, and one crafts section. Our 1st-5th graders LOVED IT! Every girl I talk to about Girl Scouts says first thing, "I want to go camping." What's the number 1 requested adult training in my neck of the woods: Camping for Leaders. The girls who want adventure are turned off by the way the program is implemented because of the horrible training and desperate program revision that's been going on the last twenty years. There's been way too much "Congratulations! You're a troop leader. Turn in your financials by June 15." If a leader isn't confident in her outdoor abilities, she won't go there and possibly endanger the girls...Pretty similar to those BSA troops who barely leave the parking lot while camping, eh? GSUSA has hemoraghed membership since the 70's because girls were finally able to participate in so many other activities. We hemoragh now because many of the writers of our handbooks and other materials wouldn't know a Brownie from a Cadette if they assaulted said writer with Thin Mints. National doesn't have a clue! Any of this sound familiar? And, the backlash against men in GSUSA happened during the 80's when BSA and our nation were rocked over and over again by child molestation cases. I throughly beleive that our SafetyWise manual is written by our national insurer. Can you even begin to think what would happen if there was wide-spread molestation of Girl Scouts going on? BSA and the Catholic Church are cakewalks compared to that. Once you hit the Service Unit and Troop levels, WE WANT OUR DADS! And any Council staff that turn down dad volunteers without good reason are died in the wool idiots. Oh yes, I will put you to work in the great outdoors if you want to set up a orienteering day, Pioneering, Dutch Oven class, Belay for Beginners, J-stroke for Juniors, Rockets and how not to blow them up, etc. Anyway, if BSA were to begin a Guides program, all they'd have to do is pull out the 60's-70's era GS books and keep the boys and girls separated. Probably half the GS leaders I meet are also BSA leaders and/or active committee members. The other half either let their husband have guy time with their sons at Scouts or they don't have boys. GSUSA believes in God and that a spritual life is important in being well rounded, but doesn't mandate that anyone else believe same. God is still in the Promise, but if you substitute it with your particular faith's preferred name, do it. Believes that girls need female role models, just like BSA wants men for boys. GSUSA does not promote abortion, but does believe that girls need accurate information about reproduction. This is a big deal for girls. They're the ones who get pregnant. And it's all about growing young women of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. Sounds pretty similar to the BSA mission doesn't it? Yes, I get sick of the Girl Scout bashing and when I'm on GS boards I equally defend BSA. If your local GS are witchy little handfuls of attitude, I don't blame you for not wanting to deal with them. However, I would ask you to remember that Girl Guides and Scouts were a happy discovery of girls wanting to be included, too, in a time when girls didn't do things like that. The fear of raising a tom-boy was real. Girls as Scouts was R-A-D-I-C-A-L in 1912. Thank goodness Juliette Gordon Lowe was partially deaf. Does GSUSA have more than it's share of lesbians in the office? Probably, but GS are asked to leave thier sex lives at home. Do we have some bitter feminists still hanging on? Yep, but they'll retire one day. Have we tried to appeal to everyone while losing those we appealed to first? Can you say BSA Urban Scouting debacle in girl friendly colors? Does every Scouter agree with everything coming out of Texas? Same with our ivory tower gals in NYC. So, in sum, every SM, ASM, and other Scouter has more in common with the GS leader down the way than you may think. Girls need a girl place and boys need a boy place. That doesn't mean at all that we can't be mutually supportive of each other as troops despite what our national bodies may yammer on about.

The next ten years are make or break for Girl Scouts. We get new handbooks next year, and I am highly concerned about what will be in them. The best thing BSA could do for Girl Scouts is to take the office bound, haven't seen the outdoors without a latte, staff in New York for a trek at Philmont, a canoe trip up at Northern Tier, and a sail trip at Seabase. Then, everyone who hates their daughter's troop, either start a different type of troop or get in there and HELP. Many of our current female leaders don't have outdoor skills and haven't been on anything but the most miserable and uncomfortable camping trips somewhere an eon back. Show them how the outdoors develops real leadership skills and self-esteem through actual achievements, AS MANY OF OUR GIRLS ALREADY KNOW AND DEMAND! Sorry, I'll get off my soap box now.

Good for you and the troop!!!

Even a Girl Scout, of whatever age, has to earn her WAGGGS pin by participating in Thinking Day.

Thanks! I'll definitely pursue that.

Has your Scout asked to see if the poles are in his buddy's gear? Has he made an announcement that he's missing tent poles? Lastly, did he shake out his gear when he got home, or is he just now clearing it up? Your kid's 12. He should be able to remember who he split gear with on a campout and get the stuff back by the next meeting. Personally, if my son made no effort to reclaim his gear, I wouldn't buy new for him without a lot of unpaid yardwork going into it.

Has anyone used the PEAK Pack? It's sold by Leave No Trace's website and consists of seven different modules each one teaching LNT at the elementary level with games, etc. I'm looking for things to stock up our GS resource library that are modular, self-explanatory besides an initial intro, and useful in meetings, camping, and day camp settings.

Kudos on your gracious response. Mom may have just been stressed out or sleep deprived from other issues.

I'd tell him if I saw spelling/grammar mistakes as well as if something wasn't clearly written. Then I'd remind him that he should be putting his best foot forward with the Eagle App and project report. The Scout can decide whether he wants to redo it or send it in as is. But, unless it was absolutely hellacious from a Scout I knew could do so much better, I wouldn't fuss about it. It's "his" project and award.

Use the chicken tenders, not breasts, in foil dinners. They cook faster, especially if already half or fully thawed. Have spices/sauces/italian dressing too. The GORP we always made had chex cereals and/or cheerios, pretzel sticks, raisins, M&Ms. I'd ask everyone to bring a cup or two of something, whatever they like and you provide just the cheerios or chex. Of course you might end up with nothing but M&Ms, which wouldn't be a bad thing.

Plug your zip code into factfinder.census.gov. Go to People, Sex & Age. In 2000, our old zip code in GA had approximately 1800 males aged 5-19, probably closer to 2200 by 2010. Some zip codes get updated more often through interim research. You can also comb thorugh the publicly available testing data of your local schools. There should be a link at your school system website. If your DE can't be bothered to do what I did in five minutes for one zip code, including checking other demographic sites, what else isn't he bothering with?

It's like a Funky Winkerbean flashback. When I was a kid, in the 70's, the high school band always sold Indian River grapefruit with delivery right around Dec 1st. Everyone bought the grapefruit. I don't know why it would be against policy to sell fruit, unless there is a state ag policy you might be violating regarding the spread of pests or bacteria. I had a friend buy oranges in Jacksonville, FL to take home to St. Mary's, GA, an hour away at most. She got stopped by ag officials and the fruit was confiscated. No clue why. Edited to add: Maybe it's WHEN you want to do it that has Council's knickers in a knot. (This message has been edited by Nike)

We had no idea what was going on back east, living in Monetery, CA at the time, until SIL called us in a panic that she couldn't get in touch with her parents who worked in DC. We turned on NBC at about 7:30 am Pacific. My husband went to work, #1 son went to school, and I drove over to the Prediso about 10:30 am to find the snowbirds (students signed in several days or weeks early for an Army training school) pulling gate guard duty. It was a throughly strange and surrealistic day.

Thanks for the replies. I'm in full skeptic mode about buying a patrol's worth of these. It sounds like we'd need to get the hammocks as well as the underquilts. Serious $$$$.

Anyone have any experience with hammocks in anything but balmy summer time weather? How do you keep warm as temps drop? Sub freezing experience? Is this a better/just as good way to camp lightly as in backpacking tents?

Everything Twocubdad said. At this point focus on the boys you have and giving them a real CS experience. The only recruiting you need to do right now is for 5 or 6 people so you have a functioning committee. And they don't have to be pack parents. Do you have an troops scoped out for den chiefs? Look for one that has your same philosophy, not just the same CO.

It all depends on the size and strength of your child. In my experience, the el-cheapo bow, compound or recurve, is good for absolute beginners and Tigers/small wolves. 10-16 lbs is generally what we've used at Cub Camp. The biggest obstacle to beginner shooting is not pulling the string back far enough. They feel the resistance while drawing and release pre-maturely. The second biggest obstacle is getting them to stand still. My 7 and 8 year olds have ultra cheap fibreglass recurve bows about 15 lbs, but it gets the job done at home. If you are unhappy with the arrow rest (and I use that term with all intended sarcasm) on your beginner bow, get a nice paperclip. Unfold your paper clip to a 90 degree angle. Epoxy to riser and grip. And lastly, get good arrows, a shooting glove, and keep the nocks in shape. Fingertabs and stretched out nocks are extremely frustrating for beginners. I shoot a Mohegan recurve, because it's pretty.

Girl Scouts is developing a new "Pathways" initiative. All girls who are registered GS, can participate in in GS via Troops, Camps, Events, Travel, Special Interest, and/or Virtual (who knows what this means?) pathways. Consider exploiting these new pathway initiatives if your daughter values being a GS but finds it less adventursome than she'd like. Girls can participate in as many or as few of these pathways as they's like to. And remember, much of our paid staff have never been GS, are not outdoorsy, and are going to jump to the next better paying NGO/Charity organizaiton as soon as they can. Volunteers are the heart of GS, and we desperately need those of you with outdoor skills to commit to sharing those, even within a small program HA program.

Our girls here in Germany have so many more options, that most of them prefer to travel as a troop and stay in hostels or lodges than "rough it." When they do camp, they often camp on military installations and in German campgrounds, which everyone says are very nice and safe. The girls enjoy doing whatever outdoor adventure they can get: canoeing, cycling, archery, and horseback are very popular. However, they also like touring cities and villages, museums, etc. Females have a more acute sense of smell. We are a scrubbed clean society, and the girls do feel tremendous inner-pressure to stay clean and without any odor, lest they be teased. Therefore, hot showers are not easily negotiated away.

My son's old council in GA cost $1750 or so. That was bus up and back, three days hotels and meals, two days touring in DC/Mt Vernon, new tents sold afterward, patrol boxes and gear, duffel, hat, windbreaker, necker, some patches. On top of that we had round trip from Germany, but my husband's frequent flier miles covered that. I do know that Heart of VA, right there in Richmond, charged similar or higher, even though they were only 1-2 hours away depending on where the bus departed. I heard some mutterings about that at a family picnic.

I have to plug Kandersteg in Switzerland, open year round. But, if you can't make it to our Alpine snow, how about building snow shelters if you can get up north on a weekend to a place with really deep snow.

Well, if he didn't, shame, shame, shame. What kind of example is that to set for the boys?

Was any particular sub-camp hit harder? My son was in #18, but he hasn't gotten back to Germany yet (spending another week with relatives). If adults were the primary culprits...well I can't write what I feel. Suffice to say I would ban them permanently from the BSA.

All boys should have the opportunity to become Boy Scouts. And, that requires open mindedness and a lack of judgemental attitutdes on everyone's part. (Did anyone read the comments? Put on your asbestos suit.) Edited to prove I can spell.(This message has been edited by Nike)

Re: The old Pack's stuff. If no one comes to collect it, I'd take all of it to the DE's office or home. And leave it. He can harp on the pack's new CM.