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I use the skeeter bait defense. There's something about my clean hide that draws the biters, so I tend to go a couple of days without one.

New mountainous adventure base ... highest attendance of female BSA members ever ,,, boys pay to serve ... Those aren't the stuff of headliness. We hate fat kids ..., now that's the kinda news my in-laws will repeat. BP and BD. A few of my buddies put their time and talent into this facility. I suspect we'll love it. Lot's of us around here don't know of any camp that isn't on a hillside, so we kind of take your heart pounding through your chest for granted. So yes, get in shape just like you would for Philmont.

Well, some of this is hype built on a simple formula: youth + one location + scouting = fun. So, what's different? - Youth. For the first time, co-ed BSA units (i.e. Venturers) were a part of this Jamboree. This is no big deal in the rest of the world, in fact, co-ed units from other countries have attended for decades. But, the general thinking was that Jambo was never meant for venturers, so the was a "there's nothing interesting for you here" attitude. Now for a lot of crews, there's still nothing interesting! (Lot's of venturers occupy their time organizing their own weekend summits for their area every year.) But for many, it was an opportunity to connect with the BSA at large and learn where they fit in! - Location. As nice as AP Hill was, it was designed for training young men and women for the machines of war. Once every four years it got re-purposed. But then it snapped back to its original purpose once the last scouter left. This new location is literally a "home" for scouting. It's setting is intended to provide wilderness training year 'round. Thus, this jambo was more of an "open house" as opposed to "convention." - Scouting. Certain aspects of scouting got short-shrift at AP Hill. Some examples were aquatics, and some Venturing-specific activities. Also, taking a play from the world jamboree's book, a Day of Service was instituted. Each day, 1/5 of the participants went to serve the West-Virginian community. Before, barring some emergency, you were stuck on base for 10 days. The other gee-wiz stuff (big ticket activities, flashy shows, speeches, patch-trading), that was kinda expected. (There's always a gimmick. And long lines for it, too.) But I think the three items above represent true "tweaks" in the core formula that most of us have been talking about.

Think of it this way, all those years at AP Hill our boys were helping our servicemen learn crowd control and logistics. Something they wound up doing a lot of on deployment. I understand your misgivings ... Sounds way too much like a "land for peace" deal. Here's hoping that the boys come home with some better ideas for service in their neck of the woods.

Sweet! So, that leads me to ask how much all of the scouting experience helped with the pastoring? Maybe you can start a new thread on the subject (if they let juniors do that sort of thing ).

Guess you didn't get the memo? http://www.summitblog.org/40000-scouts-5-days-and-300000-hours-of-community-service/ None of my crew went to Jambo. Maybe it was because if they were going to pay $$ to serve, they would want to call the shots. Maybe pick a third-world country. I don't know. But it seems that it was made clear from the start that this day was part of the package. Should it be? I don't know. When you move into town, it's always a good idea to lend a hand to the neighbors. That's good hunting land we just walled off! We want them to feel it was worth the exchange!

Wait. Didn't you say you were leaving us for the ministry? You should be "Member Emeritus."

Boyscouts love paperwork! So, if you have a neighborhood expert (say a police officer) who is not registered, and only he DL who can stay for the entire meeting, can you have a den meeting?

A five man tent easily sleeps 7 Webelos. Or, use smaller tents that only hold 2-3 Webelos. In general, I ask adults to be at the ready to bunk wih their behavioral disorder kids.

Or they can just leave it as it's biggest selling points, one of the ways to make you feel like you are indeed at a ... wait for it ... HIGH ADVENTURE BASE.

My aunt, reportedly one of the oldest living campfire girls, was one of my inspirations for becoming a crew advisor. To this day she has no clue how her immigrant family afforded it (a gift from a neighbor?) but the long summer nights camping under canvas are some of her fondest memories of an otherwise arduous childhood.

I win! To be fair, the reason BP hasn't heard of "remote venturing" is because I made up the term. But it happens a lot. A scout moves out of the neighborhood yet remains connected with the crew. I had one youth join us from another council because her plans were to leave home and she wasn't sure where she'd land and asked if she could join my crew so she could stay connected with venturing while she sorted it all out. Other folks have called me in situations like yours asking if thier youth who just turned 14 could join our crew. To be honest, those haven't worked out as well. We don't have attendance requirements, but fellowship is a real important need of youth, and even if they don't admit it, there's something really important to be gained by being "in the room" as events are planned. So, H, if you and your daughter are seriously considering this, you should also think about becoming a crew adivsor. Can you think of four or five other friends and caring adults who would like to do something similar to what you and your daughter are planning?

Suck it up, Fred! The news cycle has moved on to my having to explain to folks that we don't really hate fat kids! By the fall it will be something else. What you do: Get out those pictures. Show them to the school principle. Tell them you want to replicate those smiles. Forget the table. Set up a tent. A fake campfire, whatever. Ask boys "Do you want in on this?"

Age 14, or age 13 and completed 8th grade. Some crews do allow "remote venturers" although it's a real challenge for a youth to stay active. I would touch base with your council Venturing Officers Association (if they have one).

Topics like this do come up around campfires. So it is nice to have a collection of opinions on the matter. At some point in their path toward Eagle, boys are asked to attend public meetings. Sometimes they do speak up. If they go on record, and the discussion happens to be about erecting a memorial, wouldn't it be nice to know that something you said may influence what they say?

S, you have a tough row to hoe. Don't write off the GS. Your local community might have some good people, and maybe some of them are up for a challenge. Challenge them! "... even when I was a GS, I always wished I was a Boy Scout ..." We get that a lot. This spring at an area meeting I met a venturing crew of special needs youth. The advisor introduced herself because we happened to have the same unit #. I was quite impressed with the program they cobbled together.

Plan based on what your boys really enjoyed in the past year, and you'll score well on JTE. If you did JTE last year, pull it out and pick the one thing y'all would like to improve on. Chances are a number of categories will follow. It's unlikely that the new JTE will differ from the old by much, so set your goals using last year's rubric and make plans to review them every three months to see if there's something new from national or council that would incline you to adjust any targets.

Definitely involve them all. I would try to get YPT for them as soon as you can. It's become a modern day parenting skill anyway. Do you have Internet where you meet? If so, see if someone can set up a computer for them to take the course during the meeting. If not see if a district trainer can come and give it to as many parents as possible. Encourage all adults to register as scout parents. But that's a secondary issue. With Webelos, two adults in the same room is a good idea. You are going to expect the boys to follow the buddy system, so you should model it. Obviously, if someone has to duck out for a few minutes that's fine.

All of your experience as a teacher will be welcome and helpful, I suspect. Keep in mind that scouting is a little bit different than school. It's one hour a week, not six hours a day. At this age, it's families getting to know and appreciate (and sometimes challenge) one another. In terms of "fixing", therefore, my advise is to be careful what you wish for. Putting boys together in a seemingly "saintly" group can result in some really bad behaviors.

Who shampoos? Not these folks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_poo

There are scouters who see us going to the British model. I'm not one of them. If our numbers of scouts had been increasing since 2005, I'd buy the argument. But BSA's number of venturing (presumably co-ed) units has been shrinking faster than any other program. IMHO the show of venturers at Jambo is to justify the "ruggedness" of the new venue. They may not deserve it, but that is what the green shirt has come to represent.

Sometimes websites are great at putting barriers between real people who should be getting together. Your son would be old enough to start on Webelos (that's basically the last two years of cub scouts). So if there is anything particular on the site pertaining to Webelos (or specifically Webelos I) that may be the person to contact. Definitely keep an eye out at school. But, also, don't hesitate to look into packs who meet a little further away. This can be a slow time for any pack, but if there are community parades (for example the fireman's carnival in our community is this weekend), take your boy to them. Keep an eye out for boy scout uniforms. The idea here is just to get your boy to meet other scouts. Even if they are older boy scouts, they might have a connection to their old pack. And if not, hopefully they'll be friendly enough that your boy will be encouraged by this.

Ways I traumatized my daughter: on the morning of her birthday took her shooting with the crew. She had less time to spend partying with her friends (although they wern't going to get together until late afternoon, and one of her friends was coming to this crew event)! Yep scarred her for life. She grew up to be one of the finest ladies on the planet, IMHO.