bsaggcmom

Girl Scouts here in Michigan had such a badge. I don't if it still exists or not. Required things like knowing the state flower, tree, bird, capital and some history. Also required visiting a list of places in the state. If I remember right the list was quite long and the number of visits was fairly low. But it did require that you go to a region other than your own. I think one of the BSA councils had a similar badge. It was lost when we had our statewide merger to one main council from 9. The merger hasn't faired as promised. We've lost a lot of unique programs and activities. The state badge was one of them. I would love to see it brought back. It'd be fun to visit a new state and the boys could earn something n the process.

Thanks again for the thoughts. Yes it needs to be whitewater. We have it narrowed down to 2 camps. BSA SOAR in Colorado and Heritage Scout Reservation in Pennsylvania. Prices are about the same, travel is the big difference. There are a few logistics we adult are still sorting out before letting the scouts vote. Has anyone gone to either camp? Can you please offer any pros or cons to each camp? Any info to help make the decision please?

I don't know about doctors in other areas, but most in my area will fill out a camp/sports/school physical anytime of the year as long as the child has been seen in the office in the past year. Just about every kid has a visit to the doctor's office at least once a year, flu, cold, strep, etc. Our doctor will filling out all my kids' forms at their annual physical or if I leave them with a self addressed stamped envelope at a sick visit. It may take a week or so to get them back, but if I ask in March and need them for June all is good. We also have urgent care centers on just about every corner here. They charge $20-25 per kid and will fill out up to 3 separate forms as part of the visit. Sports physicals must be completed after 4/15 of the school year before to be good for the entire next school year. $25 is less than a lot of people's office visit charges in this area. One doctor in the area organizes camp/sports physicals in the evening for a week in May and all the fees he collects get given to the school sports programs that the kids attend or to Girl Scout or Boy Scouts as FOS donations. I know one troop in the surrounding area that got the local family practice doctor to come to their meeting place and do the whole troop's physicals for $20/kid. They are a huge troop, 100+ scouts.

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I will check your suggestions and pass the results to the troop.

Thanks for the thoughts. I've checked dozens of leader guides for dozens of camps in areas I thought would be a match but nothing has been found yet. We pretty much ruled the Summit out for this adventure due Jambo next year. If the troop had wanted to do the trip this year Summit would have probably made the list. I can't see the Summit running the programs mentioned in the weeks before Jambo. It took them weeks to get ready last time.

My son will have one year left in the BS program after this year's summer camp. He and our 5 other older boys are looking for a camp for the summer of 2017 that offers whitewater MB as an option. We have found Camp SOAR in Colorado, but that's about it. The camp needs to offer a base camp for our younger scouts and a high adventure option for our older scouts, SM's requirement not ours. Does anyone know of a database that lists what summer camps offer what MBs? I have 6 older boys that want to do a high adventure, preferably whitewater rafting and 12 "little" guys that need a traditional MB driven camp. We have kicked around the idea of doing our own camp but we don't have enough older scouts to fill the minimums for MB classes with outfitters. We also don't have the adult manpower to do 2 different trips so each group gets what it wants. And several of the older guys have little brothers and the parents want camp done in 1 week not 2 different ones. We are looking at driving. Trains and planes are too expensive, especially when you still need rental transportation at the arrival location. Hoping to keep it to 1500 miles or less from southern Michigan. Colorado is at the far edge of our distance limits. The site must also operate in the last 2 weeks of June. The guys won't be out of school until June 15 next year. Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. Thanks so much for your help.

I am in the same boat with my daughter and her Gold award. I have helped a half dozen Eagle candidates with their paperwork and proposals. That's a cake walk compared to our GSUSA council's Gold paperwork. GSUSA's paperwork is all touchy feely crap. There's no real planning involved. "How are you going to let the world know about your project?" "How do you think you'll when you finish your project?" "Who's your target audience?" Nothing that really helps a girl layout a plan and carry it off. In addition in our council plans must be turned in months before you want to start working for approval of the board. A girl's paperwork could be tied up for up to 3 months before she knows if it approved or not. Then it repeats with re-writes and adjustments. Then a mentor from the council not the girl sets the progress of the project. If the girl isn't moving at a speed the mentor sees fit the project is over. Too bad if its finals, soccer season or the holidays or you have a summer job. Move at the mentor's requirements. Oh and if no mentor wants to bother with the project or thinks it is worthy you are done before you start. Daughter is not very tech savvy. She doesn't want the world to know about her project, she really doesn't want to start a twitter or facebook page or other blog about it. She picked a project that has deep meaning to her, helping premature babies. She was once one and wants to give the next generation a little tiny lift on their tough fight for life. The only adult to not give her grief so far is the beneficiary of the organization she wants to help. No wonder only 17 in our immediate area and only about 45 in the entire great lakes state that we live in earned this award last year.

Duffle bag, what duffle bag? My council had been stating in their recruiting talks for Jambo that there won't be a duffle bag for participants or staff this time around. Don't know if other councils are doing them but it seems that a duffle is not in the national price this time.