txscoutdad

Our troop always does BOR during summer camp if enough Committe Members are there. We had an interesting one done last year. Some background, most of our troop brings bicycles to Summercamp. One afternoon Scout and his dad, an ASM, are riding around during free time. Scout falls off and breaks arm. Dad takes son to hospital. Scout has finished Scoutmaster conference for a rank advancement. Dad asks son about BOR, Scout wants to go back and finish BOR before going home and that is what he did. That same week we had one Scout sitting in a BOR while the troop packed up to leave. They stayed while everyone drove out to the gate and when finished they walked out. As some of you may remember our troop has a large dad involvement and almost always has enough Committe Members present during campouts to do BOR.

Yes the Rebels were not allowed beacause they were going to use the Confederiate flag for thier patrol flag. I'm not in any postion in the troop that dealt with the matter though. I believe that they changed it to the Lone Star Patrol and use the Texas Flag.

Our troop has always been one with somewhat unusal names for patrols. We also change up the patrols every year. They have had such names as Borg patrol Gladiators TheSums Ents Spiders Patriots Penquins Dodos What is amazing is the creativity in coming up with a partol yell and song. They did have one name that was not allowed and that was the Rebels

Let me just throw this out here to the people who say that we just need to sit down with the terrorist and dicuss why the hate us so. To me it would be like having the NAACP sit down with the KKK and find out why they don't like them. There is just hatred in the world in some people.

John-in-KC, First, thanks for your service in the military. I guess you know what it means to wake up and go to sleep to the bugle. The thing is why does it seem that what is on web sites vary? The web site you linked had this on reveille http://bands.army.mil/music/bugle/reveille.asp REVEILLE Signals the troops to awaken for morning roll call. Used to accompany the raising of the National Colors. I'm just wondering why some state that it is for wake up and other that the troops are in formation like you did? Please don't read this as I'm trying to debate you on this, just that there seems to be comflicting info on the web. Also with the BSA trying not to be too militaristic maybe they just chose revielle to wake up to. By the way, what area out side of KC are you in MO side or KC/KS. I went to collage at CMSU in Warrensburg back when Whiteman AFB was a SAC base. I took flying lesson then and seening all the silos while flying was neat I would love to be able to see a B-2 flying in while up in the air.

John-in-KC, Having never served in the military and not knowing, but with a son learning to play the bugle for his troop, help me out. I've gone to the web sites linked and have done some Googleing on this. Found this on the site http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/buglecalls/Buglecallslist.html "A military bugle call , in the category of service calls, played at dawn to awaken the troops for morning roll call. It is also used to accompany the raising of the National Colors." Seems most sites talk about First Call being for the buglers and a warning to others that Reveille was about to be played.

OneHour, Two years ago during our councils Winter camp in Athens I went for the first part, Sat and Sun. It was beautiful weather, warm and just a joy to be at that camp. When I left Sun night as I was crossing the dam of the lake, I looked back up on the hill were everyone was camped and saw all the lights and heard all of the sounds, it made me not want to leave. Well Monday rolled around and a large storm system rolled tru and they had lighting strikes at the camp and they brought all the boys down to the dining hall for saftey. There was also funnel activitey with this system. A group of dads left at the urging of the concerned parents and brought them home with my son arriving back at 1:00 am. In my first post we were outside of Glenrose on the Barzos.

Hastingr, I have to give you a BIG FOUR SQUARE HOW for that post. That is exactly how I would describe the attitude in our troop and part of why I like being a part of it so much.

I don't know about BSA restrictions,but an Adult leader in our troop who is an EAgle, told me about doing a 24 hour hike from one rim of the Grand Canyon to the other and then back to the other side. He noted that they had lots of support from adults at the second side with food, water and rest, but they did do it in just 24 hours. I don't know though what milage that entailed or where in the park that they did this, but I would say its more than I would ever want to attempt.

FScouter, That is what I thought to be so. Would be nice to hear from Bob White on this though.

Last month our troop went for a canoeing campout and had two days of rain. The river rose about 3 feet and even though we were camped along the bank, were not in danger of it coming out of its banks. We did how ever have a few patrols that made poor choices when selecting a campsite and woke up in the night to find 8 inches of water in the tent. The funny thing was that the SM at this campout site last year took the boys around and talked about not camping in the low lying areas. You can train and talk a lot but sometimes bad experinces are the best teacher. We spent most of the day Saturday drying off stuff and trying to stay dry, raining all night, with it still raining most of Sunday morning. Our troop doesn't break camp and leave to go home early because of weather, unless it's unsafe. Was wondering what stories others might have about a campout that maybe wasn't that enjoyable or down right standing around trying to be comfortable. Curtis

My wife visits another board site and a person posted the following: "All eight boys in Webelos 2 den crossed over as Tenderfoot scouts". What do you think the person means by that, and how and would you respond to it. Curtis

Adrianv, How would you interpet the following from the flag code chapter 1 sect 8.j "The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing."

Our Troop ends every troop meeting reciting the Scoutmaster benediction and singing "Trail to Eagle". On our canoeing campouts our Scoutmaster loves to lead the boys in a very animated, loud and twangy version of the "Paddle Song".

FOG Flights above 12,500 feet in a unpressurized cabin requires O2. You're still fine at the altitudes at Philmont's top elevations "if" your in shape and your lungs can oxygenate the body adequetly enough. Thats why you only see Sherpas who live at Everest altitude try it with out O2.

Our troop has four types of camping set ups. We go backpacking once a year with each patrol given a minimalist amout of gear for cooking and a troop supplied tent to be carried/shared by two or more boys. Dads bring their own gear with the adult cooking gear and food divided up. Most monthly camping is car camping at various locations. The troop has full gear stored and carried in a Troop trailer with a locker for each patrol. Each patrol has a chuck box and identical amount of cooking gear and tents. We also have a trailer to carry all of the backpacks for the boys, they pack a backpack with at least the 10 essentials for all campouts. The adults have a trailer that has a field kitchen with propane stoves,tables,chuck box,and large frame tarp. Summer camp is in council,in supplied tents,meals at the dining hall, bring what you want. Winter camp is also in council, but with no mess hall, we bring the field kitchen and adults and boys all cook together. Everyone brings their own tents. This camp is done Jamboree style and you see a vast variation of the amount of equipment that troops haul in. One troop that camps next to us every year at this camp has full military field mess tents with heaters,tables and chairs. They also bring in a LARGE smoker used by a big name barbeque resteraunt to cook on. Not saying this is bad,and I'm sure they don't camp like this all of the time, just that you can see from that much equipment down to small troops with small amouts of equipment.

We are the Gray Owls. We camp off away from the boys and have a field kitchen to cook for all the dads. We have a patrol leader that attends the PLC only as an observer to report to the other dads about camp timetables. We all wear an Owl patrol patch and have a song that gets sung on a few occasions. We never compete with the boys, we're grading them on camping skills for Honor Parol award.

I saw this in our local paper and I thought I'd pass along the link. Its about a Scout that has Aspergers syndrome and made Eagle Scout. He made a video about his condition as his eagle project. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/texasliving/stories/040904dnlivscout.596db.html I know in our own troop we had a few scouts with problems and required that the dad monitor their sons on campouts by staying in the patrol campsite during the day.

FOG, The quote was not mine but was from Eisely's post. No I do not have a problem with the LDS troops. On the number of dads, it take a lot of vehicles to transport the size troop we have and pull the trailers. We also have ASM signing off requrements after the older scouts have taught them by having them demostrate it to an adult. We also have a lot of dads cooking for the dads working and guiding the boys, dads judging for honor patrol awards, and like in another post, sitting around the campfire gaurding the coffee pot.

I want to share my experiences with the troop that my son and I are in. We are chartered by a Christian Homeschool Association, restricted to only those members and requiring a signed statement of shared faith. We live in a large city and have about 60 to 70 registered scouts and about 50 to 60 active with over 15 new Webelos moving up from our cubpack. We have a large group of active dads with about 20 to 25 on each campout. I want to challenge Eisely's statement about it being unfortunate that such restriction exist. If it is allowed by the BSA than are we not following the program???? Are you telling me that all troops are cookie cut molded just alike, no variations? "In this day and age that is unfortunate." What happened to acceptence of others and their faith. Just because one troop is not open to all does not make BSA being not open to all. I would agree with him in that if the COR is changinga requirement for one person only, that is not in the Charter Bylaws, than that person is out of line and following a personal agenda. Fotoscout, I understand your frustration with your situation, but was it the fault of the way the CO wanted to charter the troop or the fact that it seem that the leadership was lacking in training and support from the church. Remember, the CO owns its Troop program and with in BSA guidelines can set up the Bylaws of their program as the want.

Achilleez, I'm still eating beef but I am boycotting green onions since 500 people have been infected with the hepatitis A virus and three people have died in the US. Lets see.... how many people have contacted mad cow disease in the World, 153 with one being in the US. Might be a bad way to go, but there are a lot of other greater risks. Curtis

Our troop has done training like BW's on several occasions. I remember once having a hypothermia "victim" sitting there with one after another of the patrols discussing the syptoms but no one doing anything for the victim. Knowledge does not equal action. I had one real life experience one time involving spilled bacon grease onto the leg of a Scout. I was obverving a Scout cooking for sign off when the pan fell of the lightweight stove one Feb. morning. I quickly got the trousers pulled down off the lad and instructed his patrol to pour water on the leg till it felt cool (poor guy said he did not know if it was still burning he was too cold to tell). After making sure the essentals were attended to, I turned to another Scout and asked him if he was trained in First Aid for a burn, he said he knew it but had never preformed it. Told him to do it just like it says in the book. Be able to preform it, not just know it. Like the Heimlich maneuver, you show the postions but you do not demonstrate. Curtis

How many boys registered? 65-70 How many boys active? 60-65 How many Patrols? 9 Does your troop go to summer camp in or out of Council? In council Does your troop go to Dist/Council Camporees? No Does your troop support FOS? Yes Does your troop sell Popcorn? If not, what are your fundraisers? Popcorn, we do yearly service project for disctrict sorting for all the troops. Does your troop use NSP, FCFY method? No. Does your troop have a Venture Patrol? Yes Does your troop have a feeder pack? Yes How does your troop recruit non-Cub Scouts? Our Charter Organization is a Home school Association, all troop member families must belong to the association. Has your troop seen your Unit Commissioner in the past 6 months? yes Is your Unit Commissioner helpful or a pain? Yes Does your troop leaders attend Roundtable? Yes How many members are on your troop committee? 6 Is your troop boy led? Yes

Our troop camps one weekend 10 months out of the year with one week of Summer camp in July and a four day Winter camp after Christmas. We just got back from a three day backpacking trip in the Ouachita National Forest in Western Arkansas.

I've worked as a machinist for the last 10 years at several small companies. I also work a part time job at night as a security officer for a large company. This allows my wife to stay at home and homeschool our six children. One boy-- five girls, so Scouting is for me as much as for my boy, to get us both out of the house... Curtis