Oak Tree

The planning guide does not cover all of the rules at Philmont. Troops receive significant additional information. I don't know whether the issue is mentioned or not, but absence from the planning guide is not much evidence in favor the policy. The planning guide does specifically list "tents" as crew gear.

At some point it can be hard to tell the difference between a "tarp" and a "tent". It is a bit difficult to understand Philmont's reasoning on this, I agree. From the given reason, one could also argue that tents shouldn't have vestibules, because sometimes people cook in their vestibule during inclement weather. Now, if they have some evidence to back up the rule, then I'd be happy to listen. Do they regularly have bears wandering into camp and checking out tarps but leaving tents alone? How does a bear tell the difference between a tarp and a tent? Is it that a tarp is open at the

BSA needs to fund his salary from registrations, shop/camp profits, and general donations. This would be a change to the BSA model. I could argue that this would be a good change, but as it is, it doesn't work that way. Council gets no money from registrations. That goes to National and to the unit. I don't know whether councils get much shop profit, but I doubt it. I highly doubt that virtually any council makes a camp profit. And general donations is what they are asking for :-) If you are using general to mean from people not currently involved in Scouting then I think

I don't have anything "official" like paper work etc. Yeah, Renax127, I remember when my son first started Cub Scouts and I was surprised at the complete lack of anything resembling official paperwork. They just gave us a list of everything that could have been done at all of the stations, and assumed that every Cub Scout went through every station. This is something to get used to. Scouting is run by volunteers and it isn't highly organized, in any sense. Just use your best judgment and the best available evidence as to who's completed what. Our council shop would sell the belt

I wouldn't advance him. Is there anyone who might donate swim lessons? A member of a YMCA who could take him in as a guest? Anyone who might donate some money to cover the cost? Lessons can be surprisingly effective. Or, if a Scout really doesn't like the idea of lessons, just going to the pool regularly and doing a little bit of work on swimming each time can be a big help. It's hard to learn with only sporadic contact with a pool. We have had kids learn at summer camp. One of our adults went down to the beginners class and worked with them one-on-one all week long.

The site very much comes across as a work-in-progress. You're going to get your most useful feedback from users, who will request that you fix things or add features. Maybe you would want to give away a year's worth of service to some troops to see if you can build up a user base. I think you're going to find that some troops want more granular security controls, so that certain people have read-only access to some data, and so that parents automatically have access to their own kids. I personally don't like the phrase "Pass off" - I've never heard it used in our troop. I'd just

Yeah, sorry if I came across as uninformed. People mean all kinds of things by 'tarp'. Found the reference: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=38350 It is a bear safety issue. Since the tarp is used to cook under in poor weather, the smell of food and possible spilled food will be under it. Even if your crew never used the tarp to cook under, bears will learn from other crews who were not so neat that food may exist under the tarp and come investigate. For this safety reason, Philmont has the rule that sleeping under a tarp

Ok, now, don't go all Kudu on me here, Beav (no disrespect, Kudu :-)) I did admit right up front that you could manage a troop with no software whatsoever, but I'll note that BSA does actually have a troop webmaster position of responsibility these days. What's a lad to do if the adults won't go ahead and give him a site that he can play with? (Rhetorical question, no answers, please.) In the old days the Scoutmaster tracked advancement somewhere. They always had sheets available for those purposes. Sure, you could just use the books, but it's handy to know which Scouts might benefi

I had never had any counselor interpret that requirement the way you did TAHAWK, although I can see how it's a valid interpretation. My take:If I were writing the merit badge requirements I wouldn't use the word including unless I said including but not limited to or if there was a catch-all at the end and any other injuries common to your area. I would not list the first aid requirements at all. They are a repeat of other requirements, they are often ridiculous, they are too frequently the same from badge to badge, and I doubt very much that they contribute to any actual safety. I fi

We were recently served milk that had been frozen and was about a month past its expiration date. The milk tasted fine, but it was hard to put it in my mouth after I saw the date on the carton.

Since the parent thread was a bit contentious around the subject, I thought I'd start off with a bit more general topic. What features would I like to see in Scout software in general? I use TroopMaster and am very familiar with most of its nuances TroopMaster, TroopMaster DotNet, TroopMaster Web, you name it. I could produce quite a list of the little foibles that I would most like to see improved. Having not used the scoutboost.com, nor troopwebhost.com, nor scoutingplanner.com, nor scoutspirit.com, nor trooptrack.com I'm not as able to give a complete listing of what all I might f

It's actually Neili's commentary on another study: http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2010/07/how_diversity_punishes_asians.html "Participation in such Red State activities as high school ROTC, 4-H clubs, or the Future Farmers of America was found to reduce very substantially a student's chances of gaining admission to the competitive private colleges in the NSCE database on an all-other-things-considered basis." The actual study is by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade and his colleague Alexandria Radford. It appears to be this book or something similar: http://www.amazo

the boys have been highly resistant to pants When I re-read this, it doesn't sound quite right. The boys are in favor of pants - no one has yet shown up without them - it's the mandatory Scout pants that they aren't in favor of. Lisabob, I think you're right, the last discussion was with the old pants and the new pants are better. But my recollection is that it wasn't really the pants that were the issue, it was the idea of making them required. The new pants would be an easier sell, I agree, but I think the essence of the argument from the boys will be "Why?" They see several r

These? http://www.praypub.org/rec/

We're a little bit bigger than the above troops, but we don't have any limits either. We tried for a little while to slow our expansion, but it proved problematic to draw good lines around who could get it and who couldn't. I've talked with the largest troop in the district, and they don't have any limits either, except that both of our troops will redirect entire Webelos dens that approach us and want to visit. We get enough from our sister packs.

I'll echo Lisabob. Food can be more than $10, but it can also be less. A lot of times we have four meals, and the guys can often do the ingredients at $2.00 per person per meal - so $8.00 for food. There are state parks here that charge $1 per person per night if the facilities are unimproved (no flush toilets) - so that can be $2 per person. Backpacking in the national forest is free. Sometimes we've camped on private land for free too thanks to a generous land-owner. Gas is usually a bigger expense - a few years ago we didn't reimburse drivers, and not all of them always turn

I think that setting the example is a necessary but not sufficient element. I'd like to hear what else people do. I always wear a completely correct uniform, but it's definitely not enough. The above quote is not accurate in our case. I do agree that if the Scoutmaster were to give up on a full uniform, the troop would follow. And setting the example is a great way to give the new Scouts the clear idea that the uniform is expected. In the past when we've brought up the topic with the PLC the boys have been highly resistant to pants.

I've heard this explained. My recollection is that people find it too convenient to cook under tarps and the tarps end up smelling like food, which then attracts bears. I also think that for Leave No Trace purposes, they don't want you to tie ropes to things, as constantly repeated actions of that nature can wear away the bark from trees. Is your tarp free-standing?

Your Scout store may or may not still have some in stock. If they still have some, they'll be happy to sell them to you, I'm sure.

In our council, you walk in, pick up the merit badge, take it to the counter, pay for it and walk out. If your son already is recorded as having this merit badge, I can't see why the troop would be upset that you were trying to buy another one or to duplicate the advancement record. You definitely shouldn't need to turn in an advancement report. Can't you just explain this? Your forum post is pretty clear - I'd think that would suffice. I'd just send out an email as ntrogt8r suggests.

Weekly meetings year-round except for holidays and summer camp week. Camping every month (11 weekends plus summer camp) as the minimum, plus additional events thrown in from time to time. Maybe an average of 15 possible overnight activities per year per Scout. We haven't missed a month or cancelled an event in at least the seven years my sons have been associated with the troop.

Ok, let's say I want to take a group of boys canoeing at a lake or down a river on a Saturday day-trip. I need to make sure that each of the boys and adults has passed a swim test. If they haven't, then I would need to make arrangements for a time and place where the swim test can be administered. I need to fill out a Tour Plan (assume for the sake of argument that I do need to fill out the plan and include all of the items that it asks for - maybe the water is in the next council over.) I need to know my BSA member number and the number for the second adult and when the memberships e

The separate level pins didn't exist until BSA decided to make level specific hats and neckerchief slides. Nah, the separate hats and neckerchief slides existed long before the separate summertime pins.

I asked my son why he thought that all of the merit badges now have so many safety requirements, and why in particular the BSA is very concerned about people going on the internet. He said it's because the requirements are written by 50-year old men.

Pretty impressive - he still has a pretty big challenge in front of him. It looks like he'll have to hike well into December in order to get the entire trail done this year.