pargolf44067

1 Yes 2 Charcoal with a starter chimney. 3 We used to patrol cook, but now troop. 4 #10 (I think) 5 Both. We have done everything from stir fry to monkey bread and cobblers to lasagna and fried chicken. 6 No. Cast iron only. 7 Sometimes for troop meetings. 8 We have dutch oven liners that we use, but we will clean as we go if someone forgets to use one. 9 Oil 10 We have cast iron griddles.

Completely agree on that. Too many times I have seen someone sign off a requirement that says to demonstrate, when all they have done is watched what someone else did. When I was SM and I saw this I would step in right away and ask both scouts to re-read what the requirement said and if they thought that it had been demonstrated. Usually that worked, however, I know there were times that I missed because you can see when you are doing competitions, either patrol competitions within the troop or Klondikes or Camporees and there are boys (sometimes older) that struggle to do basic scout skills.

When we used to do patrol cooking, we would have two or three areas set up depending on how many patrols there were cooking. We usually heated the water up as a troop, not by individual patrols. Three bins like many others, hot w/soap for washing, warm for rinsing and then room temp with sterilization tablets for sterilizing, set out to dry. Unlike some of the folks that answered on the previous thread, we wash personal gear first then patrol/troop gear. However, if you aren't around when the PL or SPL calls for personal gear and you come after patrol/troop gear has started, you get to wait until after all patrol/troop gear (and the usually not so clean water!). Scouts learn quickly not to wander far away after dinner.

Thanks to all of you for some good advice. It turns out that he may be turning it over sooner than he thought as some issues at work have cropped up again. I will have an honest discussion about this with him next week.

When my older son first crossed into a troop more than 10 years ago, the troop he joined would test the boys on their scout skills in their Board of Review and "fail" them. They would go so far as to have ropes in the BOR and make them tie the knots. I was a new parent at the time and thought this was the way it was done. It wasn't until we moved an joined a different troop and I took SM Specific training when I agreed to be SM that I realized just how wrong that was. In the old troop scouts would literally go through BORs 4 or 5 times until they "passed". When I mentioned that this was wrong to some friends I still had in the troop, my friends said that they had been telling the SM and CC this for awhile, but they didn't care, this was the way their troop did it. Crazy!

For perishables, the scout(s) that buy have first option and then it is split up back at the church when we get back. Otherwise, we keep the non-perishables in the trailer and have our QM keep a list so that we know what we have before we buy for next campout.

As some of you may recall, last month our current SM advised that he was going to step down at the end of March due to some issues with work. Because of that I agreed to step back in as SM for the next 18 months to 2 years. After I told him and our CC that I would step back in, the CC said that was great and then he said that his work issue wasn't going to be an issue after all and that we could talk about it. In the meantime, it got out that I had agreed to step back in and a lot of people that had been with the troop were happy because things were not as organized as before and there were certain things (patrols, adults cooking and doing KP on campouts, etc.) that had changed since I had stepped down. One of these people was our Unit Commissioner. After I spoke with him, he said that he was afraid that I would get stuck with being SM longer than I intended and that was why he hesitated about me stepping back in and we agreed that I would take over after a brief transition period sometime in May or so. Then he told the boys that he would be leaving and after a transition period I would take over in June or July. And then at the Committee meeting he told the parents and other adults it would be September. However, the more I become involved the quicker I would like to take over. How can I bring this up to him without offending him. I have some sensitivity to this as there were issues similar to this right before I joined the troop 10 years ago that completely blew up and I don't want bad feelings here and the same thing to happen. There are things that I have started doing, like organizing a family camp that we haven't had in a couple of years and restarting the website that has not been used in over a year, both kind of pet things that I thought were useful to the troop. I have added an Annual Planning meeting to our calendar in August that I used to have that we haven't done lately. I just don't want to do too much until I officially take over but I don't want to take too long. Any guidance?

As long as the units are all thriving that's great. I think more recruiting pressure makes troops have better programs.

BD, Sorry I am a little late to this, but I don't necessarily agree with your comment about "poaching" being bad. We have three troops in our school district, one is primarily associated with the Catholic church and school in our area and the other two are on either side of the district, about 15 minutes apart, if that. We have four packs in our school district, three that are supported by the same CO that the troops are and one that doesn't have a "feeder" troop. When I was SM last time, I had someone approach me early on in my tenure to come visit my troop from the pack supported by the other non-Catholic CO. I welcomed them and was very friendly towards them. Once they saw our troop they decided to cross into our troop and told others about it and we got many more from that group over the next couple of years. We got them because we invited them to a campout and our boys interacted with them. We got them because we made an outreach effort to them. They didn't have any contact from the troop that shared their CO with them. We didn't offer them anything but a nicer reception and in their minds a better program. I wouldn't consider this poaching. I agree with you that troops shouldn't offer "special gifts" or bribes to come over, but I see nothing wrong with reaching out and inviting multiple packs to see what your troop has to offer. So, what happened to the other troop? The committee saw what was happening and replaced their SM because he had no interest in recruiting. He just thought because they were a feeder pack that they should just automatically come to his troop. Once they got a new SM, who I became good friends with and went on a high adventure trip with, they did a much better job recruiting and we built a friendly rivalry by both recruiting from the entire school district. After I stepped down as SM, we appeared to have a significantly lower outreach to the packs in our school district, including our feeder pack, and now we are suffering in boys coming in. I just think that Webelos need the opportunity to look at multiple troops to see which program might fit them the best and not just go into a troop because they have the same number as their pack.

I can understand where the original poster is coming from as I have seen other troops with boys that bully younger kids, yell at each other and overall have a lack of respect for each other. Part of that comes from the adult leaders of that troop as they tend to yell at the kids to "knock it off" while they sit in their camp chairs and drink coffee. The boy leaders are only going to take their clues from the adult leaders in the troop in how to handle discipline and if all the adults do is yell at the kids, then that's what the boy leaders are going to do as well. In the past we have had a couple of adults that would be on campouts and yell at the kids as the general way of "leading" the boys and I would pull them aside and let them know that wasn't how we handled things in the troop and that the boys learned from us. After that I would have no further problems from those adults. When I was SM last time, we made sure before we went anywhere that we let the boys know that they were representing not only themselves, but the church that we are chartered to as well as the leaders and Boy Scouts in general. Typically in the past I have been exceedingly proud of the behavior of the boys in our troop and we, as leaders, have gotten compliments from those outside of scouting as to how well behaved and how courteous our boys were.

Ok, I did it. I let the current SM and CC know last night that I would step up as SM through June of next year (which was when the current SM was going to step down). That gives us just over a year to find someone and properly train them. I am looking forward to this challenge and thankfully, as several of you have mentioned, I have the support of my wonderful wife and my kids. In fact, my wife has volunteered to organize our (used to be) annual family camp that no one else would volunteer for and my oldest son is looking forward to being a bigger participant as a leader. Thanks again for all the advice on here.

Stosh, I do realize how lucky I am that she is so supportive. She saw how much it helped both our boys and she is a big believer in Scouting.

Thank you everyone for the thoughts and advice. I did think about my older son as a possibility, but he is still in school for another year and he needs to take care of that first, however, he said he would be willing to help me. I think the boys are the most important aspect to think about here and just rushing around asking people if they want to be SM is potentially asking for trouble in the long run, not that there aren't qualified people, just people who are not willing or ready. My wife said last night that if I am going to do this, I need to be in all the way and make the commitment, so I know I can't go in only half ready, and I know I have her support either way. I am leaning towards stepping up again with the idea that we work through the process that was identified in this thread in terms of finding qualified candidates within the next year and working with them. I am going to sleep on this before I make my final decision though. Thanks again for the words of encouragement. I think in the back of my mind, I kind of wanted to do this, but it was nice to hear some advice for how to handle!

Stosh, You make some good points on this. We have some leaders that have been involved in the troop for some time and have an idea of what is involved, some of whom I approached when I was stepping down. However, when I talked to them this time as well as last time, they said they weren't interested. I do like the idea about giving a time limit of how long I will step in for and then recruiting from there. I have a question for you. Do you get any gruff from folks within the troop that you have been around too long or ask why you are still doing this when your kids have been out for so long? I know that some people I have talked to (including district folks) have said that you can be SM for too long, especially if you don't have kids in the troop. How do you keep your ideas fresh? CNY, I know when I looked for my replacement, I approached people that I thought would be a good fit and didn't wait for people to step up. I explained the role and found someone that I thought would be really good and he has been. I really don't know if anyone has been asked by the SM or Committee Chair. I know I have asked a couple of people that I thought would be good replacements and they have told me they don't want the job and I assume that they would tell the SM and CC the same thing. Thanks for the link. I'll take a look at it and forward on to our CC as well.

I have already spoken to my wife and she is fine with it. In fact, I asked her if I was crazy for even thinking about it and she said no. So I have her support. I wouldn't have even come out here without talking to her-I'm not that stupid . My dilemma is more around giving the current parents another excuse not to get involved by volunteering myself. And if I volunteer on an interim basis, does that disrupt the boys too much. Trust me, if I didn't enjoy my time as SM, I wouldn't even be thinking about volunteering.

Hi all, It has been a while since I posted on here, but I would like to hear what your thoughts are. I am a former SM of my troop, having stepped aside almost 2.5 years ago after 7 years in the role. I gave two years notice and had someone in place that I trained a year prior. My replacement has announced that he needs to step down at the end of the month. He had mentioned that he was going to step down in the middle of next year and has been looking for a replacement, but no one who currently has scouts in the troop has stepped up. Now things have changed and he is stepping down at the end of the month. I spoke with him and the Committee Chair and there is still no one that has volunteered. I am having an internal debate as to whether I want to step up, at least in an interim basis, to become the SM again. Both my boys are out of the troop (the youngest almost 1.5 years ago). I was thinking that now that my boys are gone, it may be time to move on to the next part of my life. However, I rechartered again this year and I still go to the meetings and have gone on campouts when they are short leaders. My oldest son (21) has registered as an adult leader this year as well and has gone on a couple of campouts as a leader. Part of me wants to just let go and force some of the parents of current scouts to step up, which has been an issue over the last couple of years. However, the other part of me would hate to see the boys in the troop struggle with someone who doesn't really want to be SM. The other thing is that if I step up on an interim basis, then the boys will have 3 SMs over the course of the next year or so. Appreciate any thoughts on this.

I have to say that our boys just got back from Philmont taking the train from Raton to Cleveland (through Chicago) and our leaders received nothing but compliments from others on the train. Not that I am bragging or anything!

Thanks for the advice so far. I think I may have misspoke. We have a really good relationship with our Chartered Organization, including providing service hours to them and them allowing us to have a shed on site as well as meeting space. It is just that it is a relatively small church and nobody that is in the troop goes to church there so the person who is our Chartered Org Rep really doesn't attend the meetings. The COR as well as the Pastor of the church are well aware of what is going on and know they are welcome to come to any of our meetings that they wish. They are happy with what we do and don't see a need to be more involved than they are. My comment was just meant as an aside that it isn't fair for the COR or the people who are interested in the CC position to have her make a decision on that. We, of course, will inform them of any decision made. I hope I cleared up any misunderstanding that there may have been regarding our relationship with the CO.

Hi All, Our troop committee chair has decided to step down after three years in time so when recharter happens we can put the new committee chair on the paperwork. My question is, if multiple people step up to volunteer (I know, a nice problem to have), which is a distinct possibility, how does a troop decide which person to pick? As some background, our Charter Organization Rep, is that in name only. She is only there to sign paperwork, not an active part of the troop, so our COR would not be the right person to help make a decision. Just curious to hear others ideas before we have to decide. As an FYI I am the SM of this troop. Thanks in advance!(This message has been edited by pargolf44067)

I have been asking at every one of my SM Confernces to pick out one or two favorite points on the scout law and why it is important and how they live it in their everyday life. I guess since it is another requirement in the same realm of the scout spirit one, this is one that I will have to tell scouts that the only one who can sign off is me as the scoutmaster as this is something I will ask in the SM Conference.

Lauwit, I think it certainly helps to meet weekly, but if everything is getting done as it should then you are probably fine. I would agree with gwd about not taking crossing over Web IIs for granted. Get them on a campout and show them what you do at meetings and on campouts. I know there are troops that don't meet at all in the summer. We take the month of August off for the scouts (and leaders) to recover. We have our annual planning meeting that month and we finish the month with the court of honor to kick off the new scout year. ASM, I would actually like to see your survey for the themes from the Program Features. As I mentioned I am getting ready to do our annual planning meeting next month and I think it would be great to have a survey like that to pick the themes for the year.

ASM, Our troop was there the first week (6/21-28). We had two crews that went, 11 boys and 5 adults. My two boys were both there, my younger son is 13-1/2 and my older one is almost 16. They got back on that Sunday and couldn't stop talking about what a great time they had. I was supposed to go but, unfortunately, had work issues to deal with and couldn't go. The good news was the adult that filled in for me had really wanted to go, but hadn't been able to sign up in time. Every boy that went had a great time and the leaders said it was great to see how the boys grew over that wek period, and I have personally seen some maturing in my younger son from when he went up there. Unfortunately, there are rumblings around council here (actually told to our troop at RT) that Tinnerman is going to close after next year. The boys said that up at Tinnerman they didn't think that was true, so who knows. I know it will be a shame if it does close because it is a wonderful camp that has been around for decades.

Well, after talking with the CC and a couple of other adults on Thursday night, we decided to cancel the outing -- and 21 inches of snow later, we were proved to have made the right call. The boys are going to talk about doing another campout before our next scheduled campout to use the food that was bought and to give our first years some camping experience sooner rather than later. I don't even think I would have been able to get home from work on time on Friday night, since I would have had to leave work about 2:30 to make it. Ohio_Scouter, I hear you guys got it as bad if not worse than us up north. I hope you decided not to make the trip or if you did that you made it safe. Thanks again for your input! Bill

Thanks for all the feedback. I actually work with a parent of one of my scouts, and she thought we should cancel. Again, if we were going to our local scout camp 20 minutes away, I wouldn't care as much. We are actually staying in a cabin, so we wouldn't really have any equipment issues. Yes Lisabob, I often ask myself why I still live in this part of the country. Amazingly, we had warmer temperatures and less snow for our Polar Bear in early February. We got dumped on with snow the night before we left our Klondike campout (14") but that was a localized issue and we were in sunshine by the time we drove 10 miles south of the camp. I will definitely talk to my CC, who is going, and other adult leaders who are driving to get their impressions (although one of my ASMs already e-mailed me asking if we had ever cancelled before, so I think I know his position). My issue now is whether to cancel tonight before we buy the food or tomorrow when we have a better idea of what track the storm will take. Thanks again for the feedback. Bill

We are supposed to be camping this weekend at a Boy Scout camp about 2 hours away from home. They have issued a winter storm watch for the area from where we are to where we are going with a potential for 6-10 inches of snow from tomorrow afternoon to Saturday afternoon. In addition there will be ice and wind. I am not concerned about actually camping in the weather as much as I am driving 24 boys about two hours (which would more likely be 3-4 hours) in a driving snowstorm. Being the SM, that is a lot of stress on me as well as the other leaders driving. I looked in the G2SS and there was no true guidelines for this situation in there. Has anyone ever cancelled a campout because of weather and how soon before the campout have you cancelled the trip? Just curious to see what other groups have done. Thanks, Bill