Tampa Turtle

I assume this Wold Jambo affect?

My wife says I keep sounding like Sally talking to the Carrie Fischer character in "When Harry Met Sally". She is having an affair with a married man who is never gonna leave his wife and despite all her friends saying he is never gonna leave she is still wondering "is he ever going to leave?". I must take this "Scout is Honest" to heart too much. Mrs Turtle told me this was exactly going to happen that we would be forced to go co-ed no matter what the locals thought and all the rest was placating and posturing because the official line just wouldn't work. She also predicted two stock market crashes that I told her "no the experts say...". I probably should listen to her more. National is just mucking up the transition needlessly. I guess (to loop back to an earlier discussion) the only issue is if they are being duplicitous or incompetent. I'd lean toward 'sneaky' but then when I see the upcoming Summit bill I swing back to 'stupid'. (that said I have many planks in my eye as well). BTW is it just me or is their a LOT more of a push for getting folks to Philmont this summer?

My word of advice for the family is to be careful of joining too early if they intend to go for Eagle someday. I have seen several scouts who file their Eagle application with a date that was too early and it stops the whole train because that may be the one time it really gets checked. If they are 18 and running out of time it adds to the stress. Even unofficial early tag-alongs can get messed up if awards are recorded by volunteers before the official date.

Seems like such a STUPID solution that only exists to provide cover for Mr. Surbaugh after his previous statements about "no co-ed troops". Trying to have it both ways. I'd rather have intellectual consistency since we have to go out and explain this Potemkin Village to the parents. Not that I have an opinion. I may just name this "Surbaugh's Skort Solution" as something that is a hacked hybrid that is neither co-ed or single sex. Really. Your not going to listen to us Scouters anyway so just make a freaking decision--he needs to stop thinking this is a new chapter in "Profiles in Courage".

We once had a similar rule especially for 1st years. They had to have a tent buddy which cut down on some of the tent buying and site congestion. We then tried to discourage tents of 3 or more they just got too noisy. Some young boys preferred to sleep alone; they got around the (soft) rule by going to backpacking tents or hammocks.

IF one can find a good site that many should have patrols spaced pretty far apart. Pretty hard at State Parks, pretty easy at state conservation primitive sites. I like the idea of separate adventures but separate paper work, reservations is more work. Yeah the younger parents like that.

Probably could learn a lot from you guys.

EXACTLY. We did elimination heats but every car got to race at least twice. I think we went with a computer program as we often has 100 to 150 cubs in the pack.

A Boy Scout Troop is a fascinating human laboratory.

There is a lot on the forum about the JASM...try search. It is an odd position...I am sure it has worked in some circumstances but a lot of folks have same experience. Be aware that the Troops O/A rep is a lot of work to do it right,

We always had workshops, often several but no pre-cuts.

Yes, two completely different things. A good prep hike should have a couple overnighters so you can test that tarp setup you were thinking of having or you really want to bother cooking vs cold dinners. There is nothing that focuses your mind on your material possessions like carrying your whole house on your back.

After seeing an 'Officially Licensed by BSA' series of pre-cut cars (Formula shapes, truck shapes) at Lowes this weekend (the 'racer series') I withdraw my earlier comments about ANY restrictions about ANYONE following the rules. Why should everyone bother to work from the same block of wood? Why not just let the richest kid buy the best pre-built car on EBay...it will be good training for the boys to find out early that some parents will but their boys every advantage eventually into college. Just make sure BSA can get a cut on the sale. Maybe National should just tax the fastest cars? I don't know why, yet again, I care about enforcing BSA rules when the biggest eroder is the National organization. Why do I even bother.

I know these ladies and think they are better than this. They may have just been talking smack. We shall see...we are looking over a huge turnover in adult leadership due to boys aging out and BSA policy differences.

I have strong opinions on this but since my unit years ago voted for no neckers I feel I must keep them to myself... (OK OK over the collar looks better)

Regardless we are trying to build "resilient youth" (to get all buzzwordy) and we do that through the outdoor method.

We have allowed minor repairs by boy only especially if wheels fly off in the excitement. The glue thing is tricky--do it wrong and you get glue on the wheel and it stops turning.

Of DANG! I have been guilty of that, Mea Culpa. I guess I do that with my standard pre-ample when I write my congressman, "I am a Boy Scout Leader....". On the other hand Signalling has its virtues.

'virtue signaling' I have never heard that term?

In my experience 100% of those "special case scouts" never stay much past year one.

We do not allow that. The boy would have to sleep in a tent with a buddy. We would allow Mom or Dad to be in visible line of sight of each other and make frequent checks but under no circumstance (unless the boy was VERY disabled) would let the camels nose under that tent. By the 2nd or 3rd campout it is not an issue in just about every case the boys shoos his parents check ups away. We strongly encourage the Webelos visiting boys to sleep in boy-only tents even if the tent is 6" away from mom and dad. That helps expectations. I think the almost complete abscense of any camping at the Cub level in some units does not help matters. Now if the boy HATES camping that is another story. One time we had some newbies at a beach campout and it was so fair and dry no rain flies were needed and one pair just had the mesh top up under a cabbage palm. They were a bit freaked out by the chattering raccoons directly above them. When one of the tussling raccoons (a lot like young boys I noticed) fell out of the fronds right on top of the mesh they screamed pretty good. But we moved the tent, fixed some midnight hot chocolate and they had a good laugh about it in the morning.

I thought I was very well behaved as I silently repeated my mantra "I am a volunteer, I don't have to do this" 100x. One of these same kadies is the GSUSA Mom who said her son "better hurry up and get his Eagle before age 15 or all this time has been wasted".

Be optimistic. Be friendly. Be prepared to have Council cut you off at the knees. Sometimes the boy might need to shop another Troop. I see this as well.

Yes. There are other Troops and OA near by if so choose. Or I could just take "Elder Statesman" status and just do a MB or two. On the other hand Mrs Turtle would like more vacation time and while she is not into camping we may be able to compromise and take some walking holidays where you hike and spend a civilized night under a roof.

YPT Module 013 Mixed Gender Camping "How to keep your Scoutx campout from turning into a Scoutxxx campout."