txscoutdad

Fuzzy Bear made the comment I believe with 'tounge in cheek" about Soccer Troops. Well I guess he hasn't heard about the "Soccer and Scouting" program tha BSA has launched to target the Hispanic community. Here's the web link for the program. http://www.soccerandscouting.org/ Personally my son and I are active in a very conservative, thriving, large troop. I don't believe that change is enevitable for the continued life of BSA. Baden Powell had a rescipe for scouting and boys clammored for it. Do you think every boy back then thought the new program was the best thing since sliced bread. I doubt it, but the program grew. Just how far can the Scouting program change and still be reconized as somewhat of what BP started. I like using the analogy of the soda fountain machince. There are several BSA programs just like several soda flavors offered. But does every program have to change to make it relevent to the greatest mass of people, wether or not they would ever be interested in joining, just to build the largest BSA organization possible? How much of the core values and mentoring of adult men to boys, on how to be a man of honor and integrity, would have to be sacrificed to build that organization. Also why is it that whenever the talk of boys wearing the uniform to school the focus is on the uniform and nothing about the state of society and schools where fear of being ridiculed for being a decent human being is that great. I reject the often used phrase that "Change is enevitable and if you resit change then you are destined to become extinct". I am not talking about the small changes that come along and past ones that dealt with race intergration. I just don't want to see this thing change so radically open and liberal that I could see our entire troop looking for some other program to offer our boys.

Had a scout come up to me on a campout at night, with his headlamp shinnimg in my face, so I could not identify who I was talking too. Scout asks me if I had seen "his dad", when I inquired "who are you", replied, "I'm his son". That nailed it down.

Eamonn and uz2bnowl Our troop has two of the Colemans Hot water on Demand systems. We use them in the field kitchen used to cook meals for the Adults on campouts. We've been using them for about 2 1/2 years now and I don't think we've had any real problems. They are used a lot and were used nonstop for one week when a group went to do cooking for the Katrina Relief effort. Make sure the batteries are charged before leaving. The one thing we like about them is that you can get hot water for cleanup started while you are still using all available burners to cook the meal. For a large group I think it is worth the price. I don't know why you would want to hook it up to a large propane bottle, it does not go thru the gas that quick. I guess that a ingenious person could find or make an addapter to make it possible.

Our troop was one of the troops featured in this month's issue of Boy's Life cover article. It is about helping out after the hurricanes hit the Gulf Coast. Troop 437 sent a field kitchen and crew down to help feed relief workers for a week. My friend Peter does a great job of turning out gourmet meals from just a field kitchen so they ate well. Neither my son nor I were able to go though. There was a recent post about what your troop does for Service Projects. This is a lot more than what we usally do, but it's nice for the boys to see themselves recognized in their magazine.

With the recent deaths from lighting, what is the opinion of everyone on the board as to whether National/Councils/Local Troops should be ready with some kind of policy that the troop would use to help prevent lighting strikes. With most troops gearing up for the new school year, I'm sure that more than a few new parents are going to be asking what the troop does when they find themselves in a thunderstorm. I would hope most troops know the correct things to do and follow them. This Sat. our troop is having a leadership meeting for the new year and I'm thinking about approaching the subject of having a firm policy about what we do and traing for the boys. We've had dicussion on this board about not bugging out because of inclement weather but still not putting the boys in harms way. Most times when you find yourselves caught out there is only so much you can do, but are we sure were doing all we can? Just wanted to get some feed back from this board and open it up for discussion.

Another Scout tragedy in California. Here's the new link http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/sequoia_lightning_death;

Okay here is the link to Sub camp 3 http://jambo3subcamp.virtualave.net/Webcam.shtml

Our troop camps on private land most of the time where there are no facilities at all. Over the years we've found that once a year we need to have a light hearted training session for the new boys about how to succesfully use a cat hole. Seems we found that some boys would try to go the whole two nights with out making a trip out to the woods. The SM does this and keeps things light and not too graphic but covers the esentials for hygiene, comfort and leave no trace. It's information that has to be passed on to some boys that have never been with out a place to sit. Any interesting stories or presentations done by other troops you'd like to share?

kittle, I think then I would send him with what he has and hope most come back dirty and not still packed. Does your troop have a parents meeting before summer camp to help fill in the questions for first timers? Also will they be sleeping in tents on wood platfoms and on cots? If they are, send everything pack in a 18 Gallon Rubber Maid Roughneck Container. One that will slide under the cot. Makes it eaiser to store stuff in a tent with a bunkmate and still have room to move around.

Just have to tell you that you're probably being lucky ""IF"" he changes his clothes at all the whole week. You're even luckier if he takes a shower the whole time also. Not that you should'nt send extra clothes, but a set of clean clothes for each day is ,IMO, over doing it. But of course each boy is differnet and yours may be better at daily hygiene than most. The amount and kind of extra clothing would probably depend on what kind of temperature ranges there are. I usally take two extra of everything with only one pair of long pants. If need be clothes can be rinsed out in a sink and hung up to dry. If you are going to pack a lot of clothes for him and since it is his first time going, you would be wise to take full set of clothing per day and put all in a two gallon ziplock bag. Makes it eaiser to grab on the way to the shower. The first year my son went to summer camp, when I went to pick him up I told him he wasn't riding home with me unless he has taken a shower, since he had not taken one all week. Hope this helps.

I would thind that the wording is exact and that no bold type is necessary in the first line. The 8 items are bullet points and emphized for eaiser memorization.

I had thought that over in my mind and I think that with this paticular land owner, I think he just wants to be left alone. This man has a large tract of land, that looks like a manicured park, that is maintained by his ranch hand and himself. I also believe that he is very well off financially. Since the land abuts the Corp land I'm sure he gets all kinds of requests from lots of people. I'm still mulling it around in my head of what I could do, hence this post. Thanks for the suggestions

Our troop will marching in the Veteran's Day Parade in downtown Dallas this month. Since we're all homeschooled its eaiser for us to do than most troops I guess. It gets Scouting out there for people to see. Unc. You might be happy to know that the paper here does Eagle Scout announcements twice a week. Funny thing about this is its in the same part of the paper where later in the week they have wanted criminals posted. I like to ask people which day would you like to see your son in the paper, the day about the Scouts or the day of the Wanted Poster

This last weekend a fellow ASM and myself, along with our boys, went to Lake Texoma to pre-scout the Cross Timbers Trail that is on the southern border of the lake. The troop will be doing a two nighter hike later this month. It has a few spots that are accessable by car since the trail runs through a marina for a while and later through a resort, both on land leased from the Corp of Engineers. We had checked out both trail heads for parking and these mentioned areas to find out how the trail winds trough them. We then wanted to check out where we were going to be staying each night. We hiked one short section where we would stay SAT. and saw on the topo map a road that came close to the available campsites for Friday night. Well we went to the location and it was a large ranch. We stop at the Ranch Hands house that was close to the public road and asked about being able to cross the ranch to the Corp land. He said that he thought that would be no problem just drive up to the main house and check with the land owner. When we asked the owner he said that he use to provide this for Scout Troops but that he had been burned too many times, especial by one troop that he mentioned by number from our area. He said he ther had been problems with fences not being respected and being damaged, and having water available being abused. This REALLY, REALLY sadden me to think that fellow Scouts had failed to live up to the Trustworhty part of the law, and had left a negative legacy for others to follow. All I could do was tell him that I respected his wishes, apologize for the intrusion, and leave. Hope everyone remebers to try and leave a Good Legacy for others that follow us in our Scouting.

Our troop is chartered to a local Homeschool Association group which has no physical property. We were meeting at the church that the SM attends, but do not have dual COs. Troop is only open to members of the Associaion and others by Committee aproval. The church was gracious enough to let us use the facilities but it was still not without it's problems. The troop decided to look for another church to host us for a meeting place recently and has found one that an ASM attends. Having dual COs might work out but it could have it's problems. Just thought I'd share a bit of our experiences.