Tampa Turtle

"girls just wanna have fun" everyone applauds that and no one cares if something is a girls only thing but it is not reciprocal, apparently.

Funny thing that works in Marriage too....

I am going through that process now and know a few admissions folks (oh course NONE at a school my kids want to go through). The extra-circulars has become a curve of rapidly diminishing returns-- too many people "gaming the system". One boy of mine got his special attention because he was such a super-deep nerd in his academic area and could converse with his prospective professors and geek out...that has helped him get a second look. His Eagle and post-scout scoutering helped him look a little well rounded (he likes outdoor stuff a lot) but so do a lot of other folks. It was really his passion and what he spent the most of his free time on --an obscure area of academia that will cost me over and over. We had one scout get into Merchant Marine Academy and while the scouting helped it was the fact he did a couple years working part time at a local marine shop doing welding and basic repairs that lept him over more academically gifted competitors. BUT he did get his 1st taste of welding and automotive doing the Merit Badges.

Then who will be your Dulcinea?

I meant some of the older guys who were bust and stayed engaged we would work hard to work with them vs. the casual drop outs and ins...those were welcome but I am not staying up all night waiting on a death bed Eagle signoff requirement for them. That said I am a softie...

The mostly likely event is that GSUSA and BSA membership will, for many reasons discussed over the years ad naseum, continue a slow decline...it is just now that it will blamed on the BS4G initiative by BSA National critics and GSUSA supporters--it may not even matter if it is true of not.

I know some girls both in Sea Scouts/Venturing and Girl Scouts.

Assuming this is true then the only reason I would exclude would be that I knew they were gonna leave anyway. Very interesting, if true. I disagree to some degree with Hawkwin in that yeah we can drive ourselves crazy reading BSA tea leaves but the problem is when they lack trust and transparency this is a direct result; folks start arguing hypothetical because they want to get their position on the table since some folks at BSA seem to lurk the boards.

@Col. Flagg I agree (again...this is getting disturbing). We have had a few boys in High School football and marching band. In season the demands on their time was huge so if they showed up late for camp-outs (and had to drive 2-1/2 hours to get there) even though they were exhausted but attended as many as they could and stayed in contact with the SM and their Patrol. When the season was over they jumped into it.

Gets harder and harder to get folks out of their comfort zone. I think it is a disservice to boys not to teach them how to rig up some basic shelter and that they are not gonna die if they spend a whole night in it. My first time I made a simple 'tube tent' made of a walmart blue tarp and some old rope between two trees at my first Boy Scout campout (I had no time to get a new tent...I gave it to my new scout son)....I was surprised how warm it was and it got down to 34 that night. I also found a few mice that decided to come and share my body heat. I tried to shoo them away but gave up, put on my eyeglasses so they wouldn't eat my eye balls while I slept, and settled down to an uneasy 'I'll stay over here and you stay over there' detente. Those open AT shelters aint no picnic. What you save in not carrying a tent you pay for in mice, snoring, and some hard, hard boards.

Depends on the boy and the situation. The boy that blows us off for a few years and comes back at the last minute for the college application gets a lot less effort than the one who has been active all along, contributed to the troop, and just didn't check off things while having fun --yeah all work hard for that guy.

We had an interruption in our Troop history but when corrected for that gap in 40 (active) years we have had 123 Eagles. Higher frequency the later you go.

We do low impact fires and bring our own firewood. We frequently go without because of burn warnings.

Yeah! Great idea.... I will say we once had a GREAT campout with another Troop but looking back I think we were the poorly behaved guest.

On a different tangent I was pleased to hear my son#2 (aged out, ex SPL, Eagle) after rejecting the 18 year old ASM route and Venturing is considering being a MBC for the camping, hiking, backpacking Merit Badges.

Yes there are different sets of rules and expectations and it seems they rarely match up and it usually is the lowest bar that is set for both Troops. I wish it were otherwise.

I agree, no matter who ideally laid out it does seem to require constant rearrangement.

We do use fire for staring at.

I have a picture of 14 newbies from summer camp in 2010. Of the 'incoming class of 2010' 12 made Eagle (4 deathbed, 3 pre-14), 1 Life, 1 dropout. A really good class...lucked out time wise we trained them early about being responsible for own sign offs and showing up for advancement opportunities at camp outs. 3 of those scouts left us and Eagled elsewhere. The group of 19 the year before had few 'survivors' and 2 Eagles over very long careers. We seem to average 4 to 6 a year (though a peak of 7 a couple years ago) out of Troop averaging 40-60 scouts. We get a number of military dependent boys every year who are at Star/Life and since they are usually only posted 24 months the best of them jump right in to try to make Eagle before they have to move again.

When I joined the troop a group of older boys brought frisbees for plates and would line them with a paperplate or waxed paper sometimes which would be later used for fire starting. Was funny at meal time when one of them was looking for theirs after it had been thrown around hours earlier.

Just a blanket, though I might want to wrap a poncho around it. Best way to see stars at night. And see if it rains suddenly.

I try to set a good example by varying it up. I've done the tarp thing a couple times, cowboy camping, bivy sacking, making a lean-to just to mix it up. I usually get a scout or two ask some questions and check it out. I will say its good to practice something new BEFORE the campout. Hammock camping is a whole new world of fiddly.

We backpack a lot and (the bigger ones) are a lot lighter per liter than the trusty old Nalgene. And if you leave it behind it is no bog deal. Mostly because the screw threads match the Sawyer Squeeze water filter. They are pretty sturdy...I haven't cracked mine yet though I might get some new ones after a year or so (you can clean them with denture tabs). The only downside is you might lose the cap so boys also get the smaller size with the 'sport-sip" cap and swap them out. The same with the bowls (I actually use an ugly plastic lemonade container) it is all about the backpacking weight and all most of us do is boil water on backpacking trips so we don't really need a mess kit. (I do have a few...my wives old GSUSA one, a 1972 Army one, and a Serbian one with the scariest spoon, fork, and knife set ever made. I only use those for car camping) It started with being light weight and showing the boys you can be thrifty with scout gear. Save your money and get a good sleeping bag instead.

We count Hammocks as equal to tent camping if it has a tarp and they sleep in it overnight. I like to think of them as 'elevated tents'.

Mess Kits! How about bowls or frisbees? For water bottles we advocate Smartwater Bottles and reused them over Nalgenes. YMMV. Yes Scouts should be cooking for themselves. The only exception would be if for example (we did this) when the older boys were doing an overnight 25 mile speed hike and arrived at camp to find that the younger scouts had cooked them bacon, eggs, and biscuits. Was the younger boys idea and well they were pretty popular for a couple hours.