Oak Tree

Units complete this form when planning for local, national, or international adventure. The plan helps ensure the unit is properly prepared, that qualified and trained leadership is in place, and that the right equipment is available for the adventure Note the absence of any insurance rationale given for why units should complete this form. This would be a perfect place to mention it if it were an actual requirement. I'll note that our council never enforced the 14 day rule. I don't expect it's going to start taking 21 days for them to rubber-stamp a tour permit. Any activities

Why do you say that this person is a good COR? I'd say it's because it's very common in practice for a COR to be an inactive figurehead. Yes, the job responsibilities are as you list, officially. But it's very typical for a COR to act as you describe this guy acting. He could still wear the uniform and be associated with the unit, but can go on doing exactly what he's doing now, which is already what many/most CORs are doing too.

a defense of "I used common sense" won't fly if one adult is left with the troop because the only other adult took a Scout home. A defense against what? Using common sense and good judgment is a fine plan. Sure, plan ahead. Bring three adults if possible. Take an extra Scout or two with you to the ER. There are lots of dependencies here. What is the car situation? How far away from home are you? How long would it take for the second adult to get back to camp? Do you have cell phone coverage? You might even consider having both adults go to the hospital, depending on the Sc

There's no prohibition on it. I'm not aware that National runs any kind of background check and automatically disqualifies certain people. In practice, I see a couple of possibilities. One is that it doesn't even make it into the data that goes to the district Eagle board of review, they don't know about it, and there's no issue. The other is that the district board does know about it or is told about it. Then the question is whether they will view it as disqualifying. This might depend very much on your district board. Either way, I don't know that I'd start off with a call to

"With a 9-boy den you're looking at 72 races." No, only 36 races. That could still go pretty quickly - maybe a half-hour.

Our pack typically does two ceremonies, one right after the other. That way, we can seamlessly work in boys who have one or the other or both. But you can do them any place and any time you like.

Yes, I'm with the others. I don't see any harm in having the hands off COR/CC. If they want to continue with both roles, I would appoint someone who understands the situation to the committee and tell them that they are the committee vice-chairman, or some such title. You could call it ACM if that works better for you, but I'd go the route of trying to get a functioning committee. A well-respected figurehead could be an asset.

The absolutely stupidest part of CS Advancement is re-earning the belt loops for Webelos pins. That idea was just awful. I concur that the Wolf and Bear requirements are too complicated. Even Webelos - it can be a real pain to figure out which camping trip counts for which requirement. I like outings, but it can be hard to coordinate a lot of those. I definitely like the idea of more active things, and less writing/classroom lecture. And actually, I'm fine with the age ranges - that doesn't look to be much of an issue for us.

When I was at Philmont they didn't describe the uniforming as a myth, nor as policy. They called it a tradition. That works for me.

I've attended both pack and troop committees for a number of years (over 10 years of elapsed time), and I cannot recall any vote we've ever taken in either organization. Maybe I'm just lucky. As for by-laws, or troop policies, or troop logistics - you can call it whatever you want, but you do have them. They may be unwritten, but I can see an advantage in putting them down on paper. Somewhere you have a rule that says what your dues are, when your troop meets, when your PLC meets. You might have information on who owns the troop trailer, whether you have your own EIN, when your committee

Interesting talk - TED is a great place to look for interesting ideas. Here Ali Carr-Chellman discusses video games, teacher attitudes, zero tolerance policies. She mentions Scouting at least twice in passing.

Real truth, real freedom - are very powerful. And why do we need to be a broker at all?

I'd like a Cub Scout Requirements book that lists all of the awards available to Cub Scouts - even those that have individual councils or units setting the requirements.

In Boy Scouts, the official definition is that registered=active. Webelos have a slightly better definition. Personally I would define active for a given month as having attended at least one function in that month.

Scoutbox, If you're talking about requirement number IV, note that you only have to complete one of the three items, and the third item is to take on-line training. I think most of us could manage that.

that's still da purpose of uniforming, eh? To distinguish between people. I'd say it's definitely part of the point of the uniform to distinguish Scouts from non-Scouts. That's why we get all those stories about how people talk to you when they see you out traveling with the Scouts in uniform. The uniform also serves to distinguish the leadership positions. It serves to show the higher ranks and the lower. It can show who has the most merit badges, or the most knots, or the trained strip, or Wood Badge beads, or the Arrow of Light. For the Scouts, the uniform removes their non-Scouti

My experience with tents is that the cheap ones do not have rain flys that go all the way to the ground. I did buy cheap ones to start with - and it's a good first step, but if you're going to ever go camping in serious downpours, you want a serious tent. At least, that's my experience. I took my wife camping in a thunderstorm that sounded like someone was shooting off black-powder muskets in our tent while shooting off flashbulbs two-inches from our eyes. We had four of us in a six-man tent - and the tent was bomb-proof. We had not one drop of water inside. Best camping purchase I'd

I would just cook French toast with eggs and milk, and serve with maple syrup. Could it be a container of pre-mixed batter? I'd think that would be an option. Is there going to be an adult with them? An older Scout? Yes, things could freeze. Unless you include significant alcohol in the batter, I don't think you can avoid that. They could keep the food somewhere warmer, or they could set the ingredients in a frying pan with warm water in it and let it thaw. I would definitely send a fork and a tinfoil pie pan.

As a Scoutmaster, here are my suggestions for what would be most useful. 1. Be available. When you need to sign leader applications or money-raising applications, respond promptly and make it easy to get your signature. 2. Be experienced enough to know that a rubber stamp works great a lot of the time. Most of the time we've already done all the vetting and all we need is the signature. 3. Understand the CO and why they've agreed to sponsor a Scout unit. What would convince them that they've made the right decision? Communicate those things to them. 4. Likewise, identify to the unit an

I've seen cases in our district as well where one CO sponsors multiple packs, and not even with the same last three digits the way Brent's are. I don't remember which numbers they were, but they might as well have been Pack 308 and Pack 316 - no apparent connection at all from the numbers.

I agree, Nike. Although, for these purposes, I would count kayaking as a class of canoeing, and I would count snoeshoeing as a type of hiking. I would probably even count cross-country skiing as a form of hiking. As a general point, though, they clearly couldn't include every possible form of outdoor activity. There is nothing for hours spent on the climbing wall, or on the shooting range. Nothing for fishing, or downhill skiing, or snowboarding, or scuba. The only one that strikes me as a big omission is kayaking. I'd be curious to know if they intentionally left it off the lis

Oh, by the way, Beavah, I don't think my ideas are any special "pearls," I'm going to assume that choice of phrase was not meant in condescention toward me. I think Beavah just making a general point. Not only should you not cast your pearls before swine, you also shouldn't cast your costume jewelry, or pretty much any item of clothing, or much of anything else. I think the rest of us on the forum should be more offended that Beavah is comparing us with swine :-) It does take a little bit of getting used to, that whatever idea you post, it will get criticized. I think this is on

The discussion around innovation in general got me thinking about some of the "innovations" we've seen in Scouting recently. I wanted to understand which of these match up with traits for successful innovation and which may not. (And what is the difference between "innovation" and "change" in this context?) Leave No Trace Benefits to users: It's a simple, catchy phrase (easier than "Take only pictures, leave only footprints". It's easy to see how if everyone did it, the outdoors would be nicer. Simple, straightforward principles, does not require one person to really push to make it hap

Many of the things listed here as innovation in Scouting are substantive changes to the program. Honestly, I don't know how those changes are made. Who decided to have Tiger Cubs? Some Cubmaster just decided to start enrolling kids one grade younger? Obviously, I ask rhetorically. Likewise, I can't change the expected job description of a commissioner (despite the fact that they are widely perceived as being of little to no value by many leaders), nor can I implement new required courses, nor how the chartering process works. So I don't know the answer to the question of where innovations

So much of this depends on what issues you see for the unit, how much the Scoutmaster wants your help, what the other adults have as their expectations - in short, any tips that are general enough to apply to everyone are pretty high-level. 1. Be on the same page as your Scoutmaster. What does he want your help with? My experience is that it's not normally the committee chairman who gets involved in the details of the Webelos transition, nor in setting the specifics of the outdoor program. The things you are describing doing sound more like what I would expect from a new, enthusiastic ASM