resqman

I just took my sons sash to the local embroadry shop and had them put the First Initial and Last Name in the same color thread on the back of the sash near the seam at the bottom. Anyone who picks it up does not have to guess about whose it is.

Read the back of the cans for suggested serving sizes. Buying #10 cans of veggies at Sams/Costco/BJs may be a cost saving. Otherwise buy the store brand canned veggies. Figure one 16oz can of veggies per 4 people. 4oz of protien per person. Sliced raw onion per 4 people 1 raw yam/sweet potato per 3 or 4 people. Bell pepper per 3-4 people. Slices cook quicker than dicing. Try to keep all cut veggies same size to provide more even cooking. Large chunks of potatoe take longer to cook than small chunks of potato. Much of the slicing/dicing/chopping can be done at home prior to the campout. Store in ziptop bags or plastic resealable containers for transport. Rinsing white potatoes in clear water for a few minutes will help to wash out some of the starch and reduce browning during storage. You can also add "Potato Whitening" to the potatoes to prevent browning during storage. Usually have a table set out with foil squares at one end and a series of bowls with the fillers along the table. Spoons in each bowl and people laddle a few items into their foil. Spices and sauses come next to add flavor and liquid. At end of line, recommend a squirt of butter or liquid/juice/soup/sauce to aid in cooking the food. Mustard squirt bottles can be used to "write" their name on the exterior of the foil. It will leave an easy to read label on the outside of the foil for identification when they are all in the coals. Cooks brown and easy to read. Some people put a wet paper towel between two layers of foil. The wet towel adds steam but also prevents burning or scorching of the food.

Diced Ham chunks Pineapple chunks Diced Sweet Potato/Yams Sprinkle of cimmamon Spinkle of brown sugar Splash of canned yam/potato or pineapple juice or butter Chicken(fileted if too thick) Onion slices Green pepper slices Canned corn Canned new potates, diced Salt & Pepper Couple pats of butter,or splash of teriakyi sause, or couple spoons of cream of chicken soup Apple, cored Several shakes of cimmamon inside apple Several shakes of nutmeg inside apple Spoon or two of brown sugar inside apple Pat or 3 of butter

I don't know know how or what other units are doing regardless of their affilation or sponsor. I am concerned about my unit. Are we presenting the program the best we can for our lads? There are a number of ways we could change the way the program is run in my unit. For the most part I am happy with the way the program is run. I would like to see more involvement by the older scouts. I would like the boys to be more involved in annual planning. Don't know how or why the LDS units may do it differently. Oh well.

I am curious how you handle folks that rsvp they are attending and they either cancel or change the number attending at the last moment after you have started purchasing the food items. Do you issue refund and are they full or partial refunds? Does it matter what caused the change in attendance? (ie death in family, work conflict came up, etc) Does it matter when you get notified of the cancellation? We require payment prior to the event. We purchase food based on those that who have paid. If the food has not been bought, camp fee not paid, etc, then we may refund if special circumstances. Once the unit has incurred cost, that fee is not refundable. If they want to add extra people, it depends on many things. Is there available space at the camping area for addtional people? Is it one more or a car load of people unit wide. When I purchased food for the pack campouts we usually had 90-100 confirmed but I planned to feed 125. Almost never had leftovers. Some would not attend but others would bring extra people or extra appetites. Patrol food buying is smaller quantity and sometimes 1 extra person creates havoc with portions. Other times it is no big deal. We have had several occasions where one patrol forgot to bring food and the other patrol forgot their patrol box. SPL introduced the patrol leaders to each other and problem worked itself out.

Popular fashion trend is to wear a short sleeve shirt overtop a long sleeve shirt. They even sell shirts that long sleeves sewn to short sleeve shirts to emulate the two shirt look. I think it looks stupid but I am a grumpy old man who prefers silk neckties and gleaming shined leather shoes. But the scouts only see it as popular fashion and so wear long sleeve shirts under the short sleeve uniform shirt. I would prefer that if scouts are going to wear long sleeved shirts under their short sleeve uniform shirt that all members of the troop wear the same color. Not gonna happen. When I tried to choose the appropriate color of long sleeve shirt to wear I came to the only logical conclusion, a long sleeve uniform shirt. I have two uniform shirts, one long and one short sleeve.

High adventure also foces a participant to "solider through". There always seems to be at least one point in every trip where the scout is tired, hungry and does not want to keep moving, carrying, or doing whatever the task is. Unfortunately there is no practical way to stop or reason to allow the scout to quit. The scout has to face his own fears and fatigue to make it happen. They learn that they have more reserve than they thought they did. They accomplish something over the week+ long adventure that most people in modern times seldom do. They went up against nature and hardship and came out the other side strongly metally for the challenage. It is something they carry within them the rest of their lives. They have been tested and know to their very core that they can do whatever it takes. They learn to believe in themselves. They walk a little straigher and taller. Plus its lots of fun! I just sent off the paperwork today for my triple crown award. Only took 35 years to get all three national bases. Every person needs some adventure in their lives.

Just got back last evening from a 7 day trek thru BWCA (Boundary Waters Canoe Area). Wow! Much more physically demanding than Philmont. We covered 104 miles in 7 days. We were within 5 miles of base camp on the last day so we took a day trip so the interperter could complete a challange. He carried 3 canoes at one time on an 85 rod portage. Each canoe is about 75 lbs for a total of about 225 lbs. He tied two canoes to the third and carried them 1400 feet. He gets to tie a turks head around his canoe paddle to commerate the task. We had wonderful weather. Rained one morning for about 2-3 hours. Cloudy for several days but that limited the sunburn and heat. Wonderful for paddling. As for gear, the above suggestions were right on. 2 pair of zipoff nylon pants 2 pair of socks 2 quick dry T-shirts 2 quick dry (nylon) underwear 1 quick dry long sleeve shirt (prevent sunburn during day or mosquitos in evening) camp shoes (NOT crocs) Jungle boots Wide brimmed hat with chin strap sunglasses with strap camera rain jacket pocket knife bowl spoon water bottle (no camelback) bandanna sleeping pad (nothing but rocks to sleep on) 2 fishing poles per crew max small notebook and pencil for journaling Alarm clock head light PFDs were used for seat pads in camp. Brough a paperback but was too tired to read except once or twice. Lads read aloud to each other each night from a "scary story" book. 1 deck of cards was handy for crew. Everything thing else is just extra weight. We had a water filter and never used it. Polar Pure did not add any taste. We used the strike anywhere matches in the crew box for the stove and never had a problem. No coffee drinkers so only used two quarts of fuel for trek. Sister crew did not drink coffee and used 4 quarts of fuel duing same time. We did not have an alarm clock but other adult woke up @5:30am from habit. Recommend adults do some cardio training before going. Lugging canoes up hill on the portages had me sucking wind the first couple days.

While a Den leader, I heard from my son that he did not want to wear a neckerchief beccause it was hot. I decieded to turn the discussion a different direction. So I carved several wooden slides from the scout store. Then I found some web sites for ideas and carved some more. Then I got out my leatherworking tools and stamped some leather for slides. Then I had a den project where each cub stamped his own leather slide. The Pack had a pinewood derby so I bought a 6 pack of "matchbox" cars from the dollar store and glued pvc pipe to the back side and gave every den member their own custom slide. The Pack meetings had slide making as a craft during pack meetings where the Pack provided film canisters and varied supplies to make slides filled with items. Wilderness survival, first aid, etc. Pretty soon, custom slides were the norm in the pack. The scouts enjoyed the diversity. Less pushback from my son about wearing a neckerchief. We graduated to Boy Scouts. I had a backlog of 2 dozen handcarved slides. My son and I wore a different slide every meeting. People noticed and asked about them. The troop had a garage sale and I donated 1/2 dozen slides. Troop sold them and now scouts in the troop are wearing my custom slides. At summer camp scouts watched as I carved slides during the week. It peaked their interest and they bought kits from the trading post and carved their own. Now 1/4 of them trooop has custom slides. I have carved slides for the woodbadge graduates of our troop. Adults wear custom slides. One campout a scout lost or misplaced his slide. One of the adults weaved a woggle from some lightweight rope/twine and within half an hour, that scout had a new slide. Two years later and he is still wearing the woggle tied by an ASM on that Sunday morning of a campout. By all means encourage custom slides. There are several websites that feature slides ideas for cub and boy scouts. Our troop has a custom neckerchief. We are a fully uniformed troop and wear neckertchiefs to weekly troop meetings, monthly campouts, and almost every other occasion. Personalized slides eoncourage the wearing of neckerchiefs. I encourage you to promote personal slide creation.

"Resqman, I mentioned an elderly eagle scout in an earlier post, he earned it in the '30s, served as an adult scouter till he passed away in the '80s. He wore his eagle patch as an adult. Would you give him the same speech?" Yes, if asked about wearing his Eagle patch as an adult I would. I am of the belief that the uniform is supposed to be worn correctly according to the current regulations. Anything less is not a uniform, it is polyform. Many good people and scouters justify not following the rules by saying it is only a little bit of not following the rules. As adults we should be trying to set the best example possible for the lads by making a concerted effort to follow the rules at all times, in all ways. If the adults can't be bothered to wear the uniform correctly, why should the lads bother to either. Wearing the uniform fully and correctly is not difficult. You sew the patches on right the first time and never worry about them again. People who want to only wear part of the uniform, only wear it when it is not to much of a bother, or modify the uniform are missing the point of a uniform. I know that I am one of very few on this forum but I don't understand why it is so difficult to wear the uniform correctly. I don't understand why adults don't want to wear the complete uniform at all scout functions. It only reenforces the idea that the uniform is somehow inferior. I earned the rank of Eagle 4 months before my 18th birthday. Did not get much time to wear the patch. As an adult, I am allowed to wear the knot to show my previous achievment. It is a smybol of what I did in the past, not what I am doing today for the scouts.

If adults can wear the Eagle patch, why not all the rank badges? The idea is this a program for BOYS. The BOYS are allowed to wear patches to display the rank they have earned. At age 18, you are no longer a boy in the program, you are a leader. Leaders are given a way to display the award they earned by way of the knot. The same is true of the AOL. Why not wear the AOL light patch on the adult uniform as well. If you don't like the rules, work to change the rules. The whole issue always boils down to a UNIform. UNI meaning one. People seem to chafe against the idea that there are rules and the rules say the uniform is to be worn in a very specific manner. But since the 70's when everything became the ME generation, following the rules seems to be bad. Get over yourself. If you earned the rank of Eagle, act like one and follow the rules. Stop making excuses to do what you want and make an example of yourself by being the best Eagle possible. The rules allow you to display your award with a knot. Grow up and be an adult and wear the adult eagle patch, the knot.

Same old arguements, over and over. I grew up in a fully uniformed troop that had inspections at each troop meeting. Points were awarded. We wore the uniform to everything we did, meetings, camping, hiking, summer camp, etc. Current troop is a fully uniformed troop. The uniform works in the outdoors.

What do you mean by commando rope? If it is a uniform piece, then the answer would be the scout shop. The rope type uniform piece is the Den Chief shoulder loop. Cubs have similar should loops.

I have a small daypack with a hydration system I wear. Helps me to keep hydrated. I keep a hat, knife, first aid kit, bandana, pen, pencil, notepad, and rain gear in the pack. I have a few breakfast bars, peatnut butter cracker, jerky sticks in there as well. The first year scouts tend to crash mid afternoon due to heat, activity, lack of water, and strange food. A bit of snack and a drink of water and they perk up. I bring my xacto knife and carve neckerchief slides to fill the time. I bring a paperback to read after dark. Definitely bring a folding chair. From a leader viewpoint, we make sure we bring several Sharpie markers to help reduce Lost & Found. Recommend the troop pack a sleeve of plastic cups and write the scouts name on it. They get one for the week. The troop sets up the shade tarps and keeps a 5 gallon water cooler in the campsite on the folding table under the tarp to encourage hydration. It gives the scouts someplace to go and play cards and swap stories. The adults take the permanent shelter for their play area. Troop needs to hang a clock on the shelter so scouts don't have an excuse not to leave for class, waiter duty, etc on time. Bring a large bottle of talc powder to treat crotch rot. Encourage the scouts to change out of the bathing suit immediately after the class to prevent crotch rash. 100 feet of binders twine or 1/8 braided nylon is useful for setting up clothes lines to dry the towels and bathing suits. Tuesday afternoon/night is the peak of homesickness. We hold a troop discussion after the evening meal so everyone can discuss their feelings. Helps them to understand they are not the only ones missing family and routine. Do not let anyone call home!!! Once they make it through Tuesday, they usually have it under control. Bring a coat hanger to allow your uniform shirt to air out. You will wear every morning for flag raising and meal, every evening for flag lowering and meal. You will wear it at opening and closing campfires. Hanging it up lets it air out and limits wrinkles. Bring a battery alarm clock for you and one for the SPL. The SPL needs to get up early enough to get the waiters up and off to the mess hall. Then he can wake the rest of the troop. At least one leader will need to get up to confirm the SPL is up. A watermellon Wed or Thursday for evening snack is a welcome treat for all. Some camps have a SM/ASM cobbler cookoff. Plan ahead and bring the all the necessary equipment and supplies. A legal pad and pen to take and leave notes at the adult shelter or bulletin board is very useful. The adults always find a need/use for a battery circular saw, hand saw, hammer & nails, tape measure, and hand full of nails/screws. Out troop always volunteers for a camp service project. Having a few tools makes things go much easier. Identify a troop medic to handle all the in campsite minor injuries. Bug bites, minor cuts, scrapes, rash, splinters, etc. Some camp medics are part time and always on the opposite end of camp at the wrong time of day. Identify 1 adult to follow along behind all the scouts who must take daily meds to ensure that happens.

3 hours of online traing for Youth Protection, Weather, Safety Afloat, Swim Safely. 1 day of SM/ASM specific training, 1 weekend for IOLS. That is 4 days over a 1 year time period. A single troop campout eats up almost that amount of time. So they skip one round of golf for position specific training. They don't watch an hour of TV a couple of nights. And they go camping with adults one weekend instead of the troop. If they are not willing to do that, than I am convinced they will be able to provide the amount of time it takes to be useful leadership to the troop.

Our unit encourages all adults to complete all the required training for their position within the first year. That being said, we have at least 4-5 uniformed adults that teach wood badge and IOLS classes for the council. As a result, adult leadership is often offering informal training to newly uniformed adults during campouts so they are able to come up to speed quickly. Just because the next offering of the required classes may not be for several months, there is no reason the scouts have to suffer with untrained adults. The informal training does not qualify towards satisfing any national, council, or district training offically but the sooner the adults get the information, the sooner they are following and presenting the program to the boys in a unified manner. There was a friendly competition to see who completed the recently added weather training before other members of the troop. With online training so easily available, there is no reason for adults to be untrained. My understanding was the trainer positions was more of a bookeekping and cheerleader position. Track the classes and encourage adults to take training.

$75 per scout per year. Fees also collected for each campout, average $35 per campout. Summer camp is avout $250. We use a different camp each year and prices vary along with travel costs. We have at least one fundraiser per year so scouts have opporutnity to raise money. Troop funds pay $25 fuel to each uniformed driver on campouts and provides $4 per adult per meal to the grubmaster during campouts. Uniformed adults pay $15-$25 per year in dues.

How about a man being involved with the care, feeding and upbringing of children? Almost exclusively most daycare and teachers are female. Women relate to men differently than men relate to men. Women do not share the same experiences in the same manner men share experiences. There is a male culture just as their is a female culture. Men have a different way of interacting. As an example, when men have differences they tend to yell at each other and them move on. Once confronted, the grudge and the events leading up to the grudge are completely erased. Women tend to hold on to percieved grudges indefinitely. Women may expect males to feel and handle problems in a manner common to female culture. While women and men use the same words they mean different things.

3 yrs ago we budgeted $115 per scout for everything book campouts awards PWD 3 summer outings COH Blue & Gold 2 campouts neckerchiefs

It depends on how often the troop uses the council factilities. My troop has only used the council summer camp once in 7 years. We rotate through 7-8 different summer camps within a 5 hour radius. We use the council camp for a weekend campout once a year for YLT. It is close by and we can use the COPE course and get a buiding opened for class room work. Otherwise we do not use council factilities. District camporees are typically only announced 6 months in advance. The troop plans out its calendar a year in advance. We often already have stuff planned and skip district and council activities due to the short announcement time. Yeah it would make sense for them to hold the same event the same month every year but they don't. I would worry more about the actual troop than council or district. It is the troop that really makes the program. Things I would look at include full uniforming, camping trips min once a month, high adventure trips for 14+ yr olds every summer, trained leaders, boy lead, and number of older boys still attending regular meetings. I would also look at the depth and breath of adult leadership. If the entire program is being held together by one or two people, then when they leave or quit, the troop may fold. I want at least 5 ASMs and a full committee of adults who are not ASM. The SM or CC may be exerting a lot of personal influence over the program but there are enough other players that the loss of a single leader does not kill the troop. Advancement is important if no one is advancing but on the other hand if all advancement is being run lockstep, that is also a problem

Our troop rotates through Philmont, Northern Tier, and Seabase. Each year at least one crew from the troop attends one of High Adventure Bases. Usually 2-4 uniformed leaders attend and most commonly they are usually the parents of the scouts going. The answer for us is $. If you pay, you go. The other limiting factor is the bases rules. Most only allow 2 adults per crew. The SM attends when he wants to but does not go every year. This year it is Northern Tier. Initally we had 5 adults interested. Once the costs were firmed up, two dropped out. A third adult backed out due to being "undertall" for his weight group. The remaining adults have sons attending and have paid at least 80% of the fee for an August trip. We are looking to add a few more scouts but the economy has held back canidates. Asking the SM to take 2 weeks every year to attend High Adventure and another week for summer camp seems unreasonable and expensive. The SM should not be required to go on High Adventure.

Troop policy is parents do not sign off on offspring MBs. Parents may counsel and teach MBs but not sign off. I have more leatherworking tools and stuff than some Summer camp programs. I tutored my son regarding leatherworking. I provided him supplies, tools, and tips. I arranged a field trip to the leather supply store and led the store tour. When it came to be signed off, he took his projects into a troop meeting and made a presentation for all requirements to the another couselor. There is no national rule that parents cannot sign off for their own children. If absolutely everything for an Eagle canidate was signed off by one person, then I hope the EBOR would have concerns. I would hope they would be asking indepth technical questions to help satisfy that the scout actually learned something.

We have at least 12 ASMs. We only have 1 SM. The SM attends almost everything. His sons are over 18 and away at college. Not every ASM attends every event. There are the usual core suspects which attend most every event. All are fully trained and have extensive outdoor skills. There are ASMs who are willing to participate and "help out" as it were but are often still working towards becoming full trained or have jobs that limit their ability to attend ever function. The lads don't know why leader X did not attend an event. I would guess they really don't care as long as they can attend. Some lads actually prefer some adults NOT attend due to personality conflicts. Adults have rights and responsibilities. We are responsible for providing safety. We have the right to not attend for any reason, we are volunteers. I agree that if the lads are told upfront that leader X will not be attending but they are welcome to plan event Y as long as they can an adequate number of trained leaders, there is no problem. Scouts opt out of events all the time for similar reasons.

About a month before pinewood derby, I went to the dollar store and bought a jumbo pack of matchbox size cars. 6-10 cars for a buck. Took them to the next den meeting with some goopy craft glue and some 1/2 inch pvc pipe couplings. The lads choose the car and glued a pvc coupling on. Now they had a theme based neckerchief slide to wear to the derby or next serval meetings. Years later, one the those cub scouts still wears his as a Star scout. Went to the local Tandy Leather shop and bought a multipack of leather neckerchief slide blanks. Went to the scout shop and bought the various den logo stamps. The lads stamped the Bear logo in the middle, the word PACK across the top and the pack number across the bottom. Down the side they stamped their name and the other side the year. I purchased the 1/4 inch letter and number set for about $30. Lace them up with leather thong and they have a dated sovenier and practical neckercheif slide. I carved about 2 dozen wooden slides while den leader. I wanted to change the discussion from: Do I have to wear my neckerchief? to Which slide I am going to wear? Almost worked. Still got grief from the boy but he has never worn the standard metal thing from the scout store in 7-8 years. We don't even own one. I have carved over 4 dozen slides. His favorite is made from eastern red cedar. The core of the tree is red while the outer layer is white. I carved away the white leaving a fluer de lis in white over a red background. Coat or two of poly and is good to go. For cubs, go to the local 1 hour photo mat can ask them to save film cannisters for you. They make great little kits. Cubs have fun filling with 1st aid, fire starter, wilderness survival, etc.

http://www.yaworski.com/eagleknife/ Above is a link to a customized pocket knife for Eagle scouts. Maybe you could contact the Buck company at the link above and ask if they would be willing to do something similar for Girl Scouts. Girls tend to be less thrilled with pocket knifes but some programs are more outdoorsy than others. Maybe a custom leather bound scrap book. http://brucejohnsonleather.com/content/index.php/gallery_index/bible_covers_and_planners_organizer_gallery/