perdidochas

Cooking is listed in the New requirements, just not in the Current requirements.

Two is ideal for getting scouts to sleep.

Well, some of us have an opinion about what an Eagle Scout should be, and I have yet to meet a 12/13 year old that has the qualities of an Eagle Scout. I've met a lot of 14 and older scouts with those qualities. Personally, if I were remaking the Eagle Scout rank, I would have 100 nights of camping requirement (but count one long term camp a year, rather than the current count one long term camp as part of the 20 nights). Here are the requirements for camping in the camping merit badge: Show experience in camping by doing the following: Camp a total of at least 20 nights at designated Scouting activities or events.* One long-term camping experience of up to six consecutive nights may be applied toward this requirement. Sleep each night under the sky or in a tent you have pitched. If the camp provides a tent that has already been pitched, you need not pitch your own tent. On any of these camping experiences, you must do TWO of the following, only with proper preparation and under qualified supervision. Hike up a mountain, gaining at least 1,000 vertical feet. Backpack, snowshoe, or cross-country ski for at least 4 miles. Take a bike trip of at least 15 miles or at least four hours. Take a nonmotorized trip on the water of at least four hours or 5 miles. Plan and carry out an overnight snow camping experience. Rappel down a rappel route of 30 feet or more. Perform a conservation project approved by the landowner or land managing agency. So one summer camp (6 nights) can count towards the 20 nights camping. Need another 14. I will admit, I think it would be hard for a LDS unit that only camps one night a weekend (no Saturday night camping) to get the 20 required in a short time.

He needs to slow down. That said, he should bug those in charge to go camping. IMHO, a troop should camp at least 10 times a year. Question: has he simply not camped with the troop, or does the troop not camp often? If the first, stay in the troop. If the second, find a troop that camps.

Why join our Troop? We are Scout led. We vary our camping--we do everything from backpacking to day trip kayaking to just plop camping to snorkeling. We camp every month, except occasionally December (we have camped then as well, but more often we don't camp then). We have handsome, dashing leaders (and me) who have Scout spirit in our daily lives.

I have mixed feelings on that. One one hand, I do agree with you about the bare minimum. On the other hand, we often get scouts who get bottlenecked on a single requirement for Tenderfoot (namely the Physical fitness part), and it would be a shame for them to be delayed for that.

I agree. I like the changes. I especially like the additional camping nights (that don't count more than one night of summer camp). Personally, for the most part, I find that the most scoutlike of scouts camp a lot. We have one exception (a boy with Asperger's who rarely misses a campout), but for the most part, our frequent campers are our better scouts, not just in terms of scout skills, but in overall scout spirit.

Well, I think with me, I tended to open and close the pocket knife a lot. That said, even though I did the same with lockblades, I tended not to cut myself as much with them. I think it's because they opened easier than conventional pocket knives.

Edit: Please delete as I've already commented on this.

Why do you have a policy against lockbladed pocket knives? That said, personally, I think the safest knife would be a short-bladed sheath knife, despite Boy Scout discouragement of said knife. As a youth, I never cut myself with my sheath knives, only with my pocket knives.

I would get a pocket knife with a main blade, bottle opener/screwdriver, and can opener. Either one of the more basic Swiss army knives, a cheapo imitator, or a Cub Scout knife from the scout shop. I bought my sons cheapo swiss army type knives. They were cheaper to lose :-)

It's actually national BSA policy not to have a list of available merit badge counselors on the council websites. Merit Badge Counselor lists should only be available through the DE. Thankfully, our DE has ignored that. Not sure why National made that silly policy.

I thought you were talking about tents that hadn't been dried properly......

I think that the scout is the best person to spearhead this, although it would be helpful if his Mom or Dad was in the troop leadership to help him communicate what he wants--a troop led the way we are supposed to be led.

Boyled, I would advise you to finish up the rank you are working on (unless you just started on one), before you change troops. Other than that, I commend you for wanting a boy-led troop. Yours sounds pretty bad. As an Assistant Scoutmaster, I recently got irritated at one of our MCs (our Outdoor chair), because he assigned seats in cars. Normally, all decisions are made by boys, albeit sometimes with adult guidance. For example, in terms of lights out/reveille time, our SM usually discusses with the SPL about the activities for the campout, and the SPL then chooses a wakeup time based on that. I can't recall adults ever having any sort of say in terms of tenting arrangements. I can't imagine being involved in that decision.

I'd say Troop T-shirt, for practical reasons. Don't want to get glue or paint on field uniform.

Probably for a general resume, he's right. If it's a targeted resume (for a single company), you need to research it first.

I disagree. I think the outdoor program is essential. It's not just "one method" it is "the method."

Speaking as a trained ASM and MC (and WDL and TDL), i learned a lot more about the program than about cooking in the woods from training. I do agree that should be the priority, but on the other hand, IMHO, a scout leader should be able to cook in the woods. A Scout leader should be an accomplished camper/outdoorsman--at least as good as most First Class Scouts.

Discussing case studies, do we know the training level of the SMs or group leaders, in order to make a conclusion about Scout leader training? In the first case, they didn't have the correct equipment--namely navigational. In the second case, I don't see the big deal. They were OK, where they were supposed to be, they would have gotten across the river in another day. Not sure what to say about the third one, except I don't understand why they went back up the mountain. Wonder about maps/gps with the fourth one. Not sure why they kept going after the distress call on the last one. I don't think we have enough information about the leader training on those. I do note, that they all occurred west of the Mississippi.

I agree with you in an ideal world, that has councils that offer these courses on a semi-yearly basis.

Well, the last few years, IMHO, the main reason for a more precipitious drop is the gay issue. The President of BSA just made another announcement, about an issue even more controversial than allowing gay scouts, which is gay leaders. It's not going to help us. On top of that, we are getting a lot of bad press about the water gun silliness. Nationally, we don't get much good press. It's not a good thing for us. I'm afraid that my grandkids (who are theoretical and better be at least 10-12 years from existence) won't be able to join BSA.

If the economy was the problem, we would have had a big drop 6 years ago. I think it's just an excuse. I don't know what the answer is. I know our troop has actually gotten more expensive (used to be $5 a month, now we are at $99 a year, and our campouts are more expensive both due to inflation and higher adventure (not high adventure yet, but higher than when my oldest joined the troop)). We've grown, and about half of our growth is from Scouts from other troops. We've gotten a good reputation in the area from other scouts.

Ima, I hope you find a troop that is welcoming, and has ASMs that act scoutlike. Our troop has (and has had) several Aspergers and other Autistic Spectrum Scouts. They can be a challenge. I will admit, I don't work well with the non-Asperger's autistic scouts (but since I know that, I let other adults do it, except for safety reasons), but I work well with the Aspergers scouts--I have a brother who was diagnosed Asperger's in his 40s, and a niece as well (his daughter). I wish I knew more about what particular behaviors are causing the husband and wife ASMs to be such pains.

Paper handbooks are good, but they can be lost and they can be accidentally destroyed (and due to the cutrate binding), pages can easily be lost. Recording it in a different area just makes sense.