NCMountaineer

Unfortunately, my experience with SMs as both a youth and adult is of ignorance and ego as described by Myboy. There's a book--a few, actually--with 90% of this stuff in it. My opinion in my troop is always the minority and written off as "my way or highway" because I am literally the only person who has ready any of these books. The SM handbook, the PL and SPL HB, the Guide to Adv., and the Guide to SS, etc. Every one of these threads is situational, and this SM is ignorant--willfully or inadvertently, it doesn't matter--and his position is wrong. I don't care about his intentions, I don't care about his heart: He's wrong. He is either wrong on purpose, or he is wrong because he is no good at his job, whichever, same difference. If he's wrong because he's unfamiliar with the GtA, his heart isn't in it. If he's wrong because he refuses to abide by the GtA, his heart isn't in it. Next week someone might come around to pan their SM and if they're wrong and the SM is right I'll be right there by the SM. But in this situation, taking Myboy at face, the SM is a heel. What was his POR and did he fulfill it? Kind of hard to lead if you're not there (outings included). IF he did, case closed. IF he was on 1 camp out in 6 months then yeah he would have a problem.

It takes a village......

Perhaps camping is harder now in some parts of the county; but in this particular case it appears to be a situation of doing the bare minimum. For a lot of kids theses aren't isolated cases but a pattern. They only end up hurting themselves and often times look back later in life and wish they had applied themselves more. I bet in this particular case there will be lots of future opportunities to do these requirements as part of a backpacking trip.

Most people have bikes, you could plan a rural route or mountain bike. People that want to camp but not ride could be the ground crew to haul the equipment. If you don't like the ground crew idea have them haul everything they will need. This could be a great multi-day activity.