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@EdCornflake, welcome to the forums! My gut says linked troops would benefit from a shared website, even if they don't share much else in resources. It should make it easier to see who is doing what, and it may be a great way for each of them to "raise the bar" in terms of activities, advancement, patrol bragging rights, etc ... Nothing wrong with two webmasters if you need them. Or it could be best with one webmaster and the one troop communicates to the other to keep everything posted. Depends on the youth who are available to do the work. This is definitely a "your mileage may vary" thing.

Seems like cold mountain lakes would be pretty clear. Don't see how a wet suit would muddy them ... unless they shed microplastics? Seriously, though, I find that wetsuits have drag that offset any benefit of flotation. Some scouts might find them hard to adapt to. I certainly have opted for mild hypothermia. (I swim in Lake Erie, which is at 55F most Memorial Days.) But our camp's ranger wouldn't let swimmers in, wetsuit or otherwise, if the temp is below 64F. I think that is why the requirements are clear about the four hours of preparation -- the intent is that you are prepping in the same body of water you'll swim in, usually across several days in the same week. That would help determine the need for thermal protection.

@DadandGareth, welcome to the forums! And thanks for resurrecting a useful topic. No parent was around when went for my first (or any subsequent) mile swim. I will say that the absolute worst is laps in a square. My motivation? Forestalling death. That's what was pounded into me by my ARC instructor (a Women's Air Corps vet, tough as nails) from when we were in guppies (or whatever they called that 1st class). My brothers were Navy, an uncle was rescued in Midway -- twice, so the whole "lost at sea" scenario was pretty close to the surface. Part of that mentality is athletics and stamina. But part is also calculus. "Am I getting everything out of each stroke? How many times to breath, really? If I have to do another mile, can I?" And later, when I got guard certified, "If I have a victim in tow, will we make it?" Those 40 minutes give you a lot of time to think.

Well, I should have reported this after taking the mile hike to my morning coffee shop, but I slept in, and it was more a twenty yard dash to the bus instead. From the school of hard knocks: You don't want to find out on a 14 mile trek that you are only good for 8. You don't want some young aquatics director busting your chops because your rescue sprint is a half-second too slow. Physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight ... none of them get any easier as you age. But our youth need us to put forth your best effort. And not just the kids, I've seen a fella turn his health around (ditch the cigarettes start cycling) when he realized he couldn't make the the mile hike into back-country with his kids. He has a disease that required multiple surgeries and time in the hospital, but I think the change in habits gave him the stamina to fight it. His wife is now trying to keep up! On the other hand I lost one friend and had another nearly drop dead from running. So, yes, there's a balance. And figuring that balance is not trivial.

Anybody combine a few MBs and help a scout build their own pack?

Before throwing in the blue neckerchief, I'd look at this guy. A dark horse, maybe, but maybe his son will get more out of the program if he helps dad prepare meetings. I heard from the Cubmaster that the new bear program is a bit of a grind. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but he said it felt a lot more like school. I encouraged him that if that's the case, no one would fault him for dropping advancement having the boys pick their favorite activities from the book and going at them full tilt. Can the troop give you a Den Chief for this den?

Oh, they were. But from the sample of two small-town FL GS/USA girls who I know and love, they were doing all of their camping with their cub-scout brothers.

I feel your pain! Some of those packs require a degree to understand! There's nothing like visiting a bunch of stores and trying on the variety that they have in stock. Some stores even have weights to give you a sense of how they'd feel with load. Personally, I've stuck to external frames. I can scavenge my retired packs for parts that I want to keep on the new ones. Kevlar straps and para-chord are beautiful things. Rated carabiners are nice too.

Our units collect donations from folks who just made purchases in the grocery store, so no. The food bank volunteers do check before distributing. From what I've seen, the larder is drawn down to bare shelves between collection times, so it's hard to imagine any of the canned goods reaching their sell-by date.

Hi @Jenn, welcome to the forums! As the other scouters have noted, You all are in a good place with room to grow. One way to break the cycle: offer a weekend activity for your son's patrol. If you have a campfire, great! But it could be to carve/paint pumpkins, bake pies, or make-your-own pizza. Invite a couple of adult leaders to come enjoy the pie.

Read again. I quoted my father-in-law -- not granddad. Therefore it was referring to how I wound up with the best mother-in-law a guy could ask for. Although I'm sure Mrs. Q gets the "brought int this world" benefit! But Pack's misread shows that blaming the writer for folks who read facts not in evidence is a little silly. It's fine to have a little back and forth to hone in on what's being said, and if what I've said is patently unconscionable, I'm more than happy to change my approach to youth's issues. But, that means the cause had better be against the construct itself and not a straw-man. Proclaiming "it might sound like ... <insert PC concern here>" doesn't carry the weight that "this definitely implies ..." does. Just like the soon-to-be-father Eagle candidate. By most of our books, we could dock him for fornication. Some of us might also fault the abandonment of universal precautions. But, using that to speak to his entire character is setting up a another straw-man. And, how you weigh it against all the other scout's traits (including how he is going about responding to this situation) might very well depend on where you live. I will take this moment to point out; however, that the real answer probably involves "Time will tell." If the Eagle rank weren't merely a youth award, you could tell the scout, "We need a year to see if you will handle this situation responsibly and with true scout spirit." Being able to do that might help develop a desirable character.

@malraux, I would strongly suggest against throwing babies out with bathwater. It's entirely possible that someone could be wrong about one thing and quite right about another. As to influenza vaccinations, it's true that the more people get them the better the odds of survival for the vulnerable in our communities. But, that's only to a point. @WisconsinMomma, I bet you probably are on that balancing point. The odds of you or your suffering gravely from your vaccination are likely balanced against the odds of someone around you suffering gravely from being exposed to the virus that you'll propagate. That differential becomes significant if you live/work around elderly, asthmatics, etc ... Personally, I missed a flu vaccine one year and got laid up for a week. This was before son #2 was born and had asthma. Me so achy I can't leave bed: no problem. My kid in respiratory shock: big problem. Measles, tetanus, rubella, on the other hand, have striking effects. A break-out in a camp would be demoralizing. But @RichardB, do we have incident reports of such things? P.S. - As to this just being a council camp director's prerogative, some of us find ourselves on council camping committees. So, the discussion could be on a docket that we'll read and vote on. It would be nice to know what others do when, say, a med form appears with no records of vaccination.

I see the same posts from yesterday a page or two back. But you misquote me quoting my father-in-law. Neither he nor I would ever reference her as a "that." Reading this as I drink milk just bought from the corner store where the owner was listening to her morning meditation in Hindi. So, yeah ...

If he's really happy with his current bag, I'd hesitate to change until he grows out of it. I've found that sleeping pads, fleece/wool blankets, caps, and scarves are my friend. When he puts on a little weight and height, that's when the zero-degree bag makes a big difference. I haven't been able to beat (but have rarely been able to afford) Big Angus.

As one whose beard is greying, and who is facing the prospects of World Jambo and 20-something SMs from the rest of the world, you are right. What keeps many of us in? Well, luck. I've lost some good friends over the years, so I know that my nights counting stars are limited. money and time. Our country is very unique in that many retirees have made a decent nest egg. being nice. The first two don't matter if someone complains too much to our COR. war and college. It takes our young SM's/ASM's away from us right when we need them the most. Us oldies need to sub in for them until they return and can tell their boss they ain't working double shifts no more. smiles. I say it again and again ... but there is no place where I see happier young people than when they settle themselves down in the middle of the wilderness. Maybe not the first time, but they keep coming back. Then finally learning how to rest easy.

Oh, the presumption that my quips are only delivered to boys ... but the let's just assume that's the case, and that what I say might lead to some Sooner enforcing his ideals of 'kept women. (Sorry, Barry, couldn't resist). The first link was a "love marriage"; therefore, tragically makes a case for my point. Unions based on emotion make great novels, but those things fade and render a person who cannot make a living in his/her own right vulnerable to abuse. Would that her husband and family could rise above this. They couldn't. The case in your second link is perhaps far more complicated. In the 18th-19th century, William Carey tried collaborated closely with Indian scholars to build a nation who voluntarily resisted the culture of Sati. The subcontinent is seeing rejection of perceived 20th century government overreach and touting of over-zealous Hindu nationalism. (Not unlike our Alt-Right who hang their hats on "old time" Christian or Pagan Aryanism, which has no documented basis in the ancient dogmas of either religions.) The motives of my in-country MENA cousins are even more complex. They believe that they must "win," and they only see themselves "winning" through heirs, a strategy that makes them wholly dependent on women. In this context, a woman's wealth or skill is immaterial. Be the marriage for love or money, a wife is liability until sons rise up to defend the household according to mantras like "Me against my brothers, my brothers against my cousins, my cousins against the world." I am finally old enough to be trusted to converse with (some) young MENA women, and it's captivating to hear them sift through a mix of ancient and post-modern ideals. It's also interesting watching the young men try to keep up. (Look up PBS's Frontline episodes of Our Man in Iran.) I have no idea where the chips will land with that lot. But, I assert that challenging young men and women in that culture to seek out the endowed and industrious for mates puts them on more solid footing. I'm not a fan of transactional if-you-give-X-expect-to-get-Y approaches to marriage. Talking to someone about the cost of a relationship smacks of prostitution ... My working assumption is that a youth will go "all-in" for their spouse. The question then boils down to what kind of person he/she should go "all-in" for? My answer is not pat. It's provoking. I've never been inclined to put a gag on my kid's adult leaders. If they were afraid to give my youth proverbs that trouble Mrs. Q and I, they might also have been afraid to tell them something dreadfully important. As the kids grew, we could discuss who said what and why they did. The snide remark is none of the above. It is Hephnerism at its best ... fulfilling the Cosmopolitan ideal that we all are best treated as parts for temporary use and subsequent disposal. It is precisely the standard by which young men and women in the past 50 years have been brought up to evaluate one another. Some great and powerful people have learned to live by it. It echos from teen tents of both sexes late at night. It's what you get when people like me don't talk to your youth the way we do.

It's like our Venturing registration (a.k.a. paper crews) spawned an evil twin (a.k.a. paper membership) 12 years later! I'll spare you the details. Bottom line: registration "numbers" are a bold-faced lie. To whom it may concern ... in any report from your council or national, insist on tallies of paid registrations or throw the report back in the exec's face. You would do well to call your council president and let him/her know what's going on. (Ours was in our troop, so I didn't need to go far to report shenanigans.)

I do not know from any personal experience, but my understanding of mistresses and house-boys are that they are neither rich nor good cooks. Speaking of "less developed countries" my father-in-law first noticed my mother-in-law while they were tending crops in the hinterlands of western PA. He saw her work-ethic and thought, "She'll do." Demean the "help-mate" criteria all you want, but to this day, I am reaping the benefits of that union.

Lots of little things will come up as your scouts determine program elements. Storage shelves, lighters/matches, candles, tables, whipping string, lumber for projects like klondike derby sleds and camp boxes. Compasses. GPS. If you all are doing a lot of acquatics: pfds, oars paddles. If bicycling: helmets, pumps, repair kits. Map sets!

Well, if it's the Big Ten you're referring to, most of us Christians have been off by a day! Still, we would do well to take @perdidochas's exhortation to be consistent with St Paul's exhortation to "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together." We could split hairs over weekly church attendance being a duty or an honor. Or if we think Saints and Bishops got it wrong. But, I don't think most of us are satisfied an answer to the tune of "I'm not that kind of Christian."

There is a bit of "eye of the beholder" going on. For example, having a couple of scouters 100 yards away in an open meadow -- while the SPL/ASPL may shuttle between scouts and adults as needed -- is what I call "reasonably engaged." But, last week we backpacked mostly first-years over moderate terrain to an idyllic, but narrow site between thickets and a stream. My dog was the only seasoned backpacker under the age of 13! So, yes, the adults were within eyesight and earshot. On the other hand, if this group keeps itself together, in 3 years, we'll be on the opposite side of the valley from them. They may even show up with a hike plan, and if I'm convinced of their training, I'll let them work it and rendezvous with them at the end of the trail. So, we bend the PM to fit the terrain.

It's like I have a long-lost brother! When ever we visited home Mrs. Q helped prepare meals, Dad would come up to her and make sure she knew which cupboard had the garlic! I do share these criteria to scouts of both sexes tongue-in-cheek, but also to help them think about core values. Are they outdated and sexist? What, pray tell, should be a post-modern nomad's criteria for mate selection? Beauty? Personality? Desire? Wits? Beauty vanishes, personalities change, desire waxes and wanes, wits dull, but ... If your spouse leans into the plow and secures wealth for your family and the poor in your community, you may hike and camp more and work double shifts less. If your spouse puts out a good meal, you may be presumed fed ... and freer to welcome the stranger to your table. So, yes, I am having a little fun, but provoking thought at the same time.

Sounds like the sister would be in the dog house after that recommendation!

I agree with sewing as the best strategy. Obviously, that means a fella can't swap out a temporary patch but once a year while taking online YPT (that might be the only spare time someone has) ... so choose your absolute favorite. Mine's been on for nearly 40 years (actually hopped from shirt to shirt once ).

The problem about tarps (and most modern tents with low-slung flys) in winter: to keep "exhalation frost" from building up on everything, it's actually best to allow for a lot of ventilation. So the trick is proper alignment of vents, and bodies. That requires lots of practice that 1st years obviously do not have. In the days canvas floorless tents, piling snow around piled around the walls of the tent not only blocked wind, but attracted condensation. So even in calm frozen nights when the flaps weren't kicking open, canvas walls were frost-free on the inside. (Although folding them at the base could be rough if you packed the snow to tight!)