Buffalo Skipper

Are any of you going to Camp Woodruff this summer? Our troop will be up there for week 4 (June 21-30). Wondering if anyone with Woodruff experience can add any info on what to expect, and what week you are going up? Has anyone heard how the North Georgia drought has affected the waterfront program? How are the lake levels (I see that even with the rains the past month, Lake Lanier is still down almost 10')

Lucky you to be so close! I wish I could take our troop or provide a local Sea Scout Ship to attend. On the other hand, we will have the Spanish tall ship Juan Sebastian de Elcano in port in early June to celebrate our city's 450th anniversary. I will definately have our troop there, as well as the Sea Scouts. Have fun with the Volvo yachts! I have followed the races online since the 2000 Whitebread. Always exciting (for a race which lasts several months)!

To expound upon what Eagle92 said, a "unit" is the body which is chartered Cub Scouts=PACK Boy Scouts=TROOP Varsity=TEAM Venturing=CREW Sea Scout=SHIP Each of these is organized in roughly the same way. All have a Chartering Organization, a Charter Representative, a Committee, a Committee Chair, and a Unit Leader (ie, Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Coach, Advisor or Skipper, repsectively). Does that help?

I am working hard in my troop to bring a productive and scout initiated merit badge program to my troop with qualified and trained Merit Badge Counselors. In recent years, very very few merit badges have been earned outside of summer camp, and that is the attiude/expectation I am working to change. If I heard of a MB oriented camporee, I would never even tell the PLC about it, instead letting them decide their own program. Just my 2.

One point which may have been missed here (Kudu danced around it, but--unless I missed it-- didn't state it flat out), is that BP viewed his patrol method as a new means of education, but one which took place outside the classroom. Remember that BP's invention of the word "Scoutmaster" is in fact derived from the British "Schoolmaster," or as we in the US say, teacher. In fact Added to Kudu's reflection of the YMCA, history and organization, and the realization of what society was like after the turn of the century, really puts a new (and relevant) spin on the history of scouting. Thanks for the good insight on this thread.

Our council just instigated a new policy regarding non-summer camp facilities usage. If the unit participates in the council popcorn sale, spring fundraiser (coupon books this year) and FOS, then all facilities usage for the unit are waived for the year. This includes camping, building use, and use of the council canoes and trailers. And "participation" is the key word (kind of like a scout's "active" component). This is great, because, while our troop raised $2000 for the council, and over $1200 for our troop account, we also get the use of all facilites for free. We will be camping at least 3x this year, and taking the canoes on a 5 day trip down the Suwannee River, all for free. Works for us, and obviously the council benefitted as well. I call that a win-win.

gwd-scouter, those pictures look great. Please pass on my congratulations to Patrick for a job well done. Good luck on the follow up.

As a 15-year old first year staffer in 1992, I made $40/week Wow! You can't be serious!?! I was a 14 year old first year staffer (CIT, they called us) in 1980; I made $10 a week, with a 7 week program, including staff week. The next year, as a returning staffer, was given a significant raise to $20/week. LOL. But back to the original topic, I think this example needs to be tempered somewhat. With many troops going out of council for many of their summer camp experiences, many of those 8-week camps are drawing troops out of the prehaps more run down local camps, which now have fewer and fewer campers. There are many camps which run only 2-3 weeks with less than 200 campers a week. Some of these camps, in an effort to draw campers, charge as little as $160 a week (with a dining hall). The kinds of funds you are talking about here are in a completely different category, but these are the camps which are in the greatest danger of disappearing. With the amount of income they are generating, and property from 500 to 1000 or more acres, it is next to impossible to run, maintain, and prehaps most importantly, improve to make them competitive with many of these larger, better funded camps. I heard of one (large, well funded) camp which made several (7?) million in upgrades just 2 or 3 years ago. I would be surprised if our camp's operating budget has cumulatively reached that figure since it was opened in 1961. Average is a great discussion phrase, but it in cases of summer camps, I would guess that this includes fewer camps than one might imagine. I am not disagreeing with your figures, only trying to give them some perspective.

I started this thread two weeks ago with an upcoming campout that weekend. I had strongly encouraged the SPL to set it all up, and he said all the patrols were prepared. Unfortunately, just after dinner, we had a significant enough injury to require a hospital visit, so I missed the campfire, but I discussed that already in another thread. I was told that it went well, and that the patrols did their skits and songs. Maybe next time.

mdsummer45, I have looked through your posts over the past 2 weeks, but I cannot find if there has been a date set for your son's appeal EBOR. Has this been set yet, or did I just miss it in all the talk?

I am all for Scouts signing off Scouts. But I had a situation turn up last week which concerned me, and may be reflective of a bigger problem. I had a scout signed off for 2C req 7c (Water Rescue) while on a campout in the middle of the winter, in a non swimmining situation. I have read the requirement, and it does not exactly say it has to be done in the water, but I do not feel the scout should have been signed off. What is the best way to handle this without undermining the PLs authority? The scout who is up for 2C has completed all other requirements.

Sorry to hear everyone is having such trouble with this system. We have been using it for the past few months and we have had zero problems. TONS better than taking or faxing to the scout office. One thing that just came to mind, is that the old online training system and myscouting sometimes do not merge training records. About a year ago (a few months after myscouting went online, if I recall) I had to call national and they walked me through the process of merging multiple records. If I understand this right (and I may not, or it may be completely unrelated to you woes) this may also occur if your council has you registered several times; not multiple positions, but more than once, with more than one id number. Good luck straightening it out. Again, we have had no problems and really like the online tour permits.

Not to muddle the conversation here, but if you remove the sleeve pocket (and presumably the flap as well, where do you put the "trained" strip? Above the position insignia but below the unit number (or for commissioners, below he arrowhead honor)? Without the pocket, it really muddies the difference between the "old" and centennial uniforms.

Sulla, Welcome to the group! Sometimes our virtual campfire becomes a controled bondfire, but thats all good here. I did not have the opportunity to serve as an ASM, as our troop dynamics demanded that I go straight from Committee Member to SM, but I can offer a simple piece of two pronged advice to any Boy Scout leader. First, we need to keep in mind Scouts is for the boys, and that if the overall program isn't fun, something is wrong. Good luck, and keep us posted on how things are going.

My wife thinks they are a little short for shorts. Has she ever seen the first issue ODL pants? Now those were short! But I really do like the (old) switchbacks. I have not seen the new ones enough to compare.

Seriously has there ever been a Scout who could not obtain Eagle because he could not find several people to write nice things about him? Yes, there has--well sort of. And it was in my current troop, but before I joined the unit. One scout had compled all his requirements for Eagle, his MBs, his project, his SM conference, and was awaiting letters to be returned before his BOR. The SM had just stepped up, and though he knew the scout well, he was unfamiliar with proceedures, and the outgoing SM had become he "Life to Eagle Coach." The scout received only 2 of 3 letters back and the L2EC refused to set up a BOR, on the basis that 3 letters were required (no one at the time knew any different, so it was not challenged). As it turns out, the 3rd letter was not received because the Associate Pastor had been on a summer mission trip, and the letter was lost on his desk (I started/fueled a thread a several months ago about Life to Eagle coaches because of what I found out about this situation). This man is now 26 years old and, with information I have passed on, is now appealing the decision. I will start another thread to discuss this some other time, as the process has just begun.

I have been talking to some local scout friends (not with my troop) about new scout advancement. We have 6 new scouts in our troop this year. As SM, I would like to see these scouts complete their Tenderfoot before we go off to summer camp at the end of June. I am not advancement focused, and I genuinely do not push advancement. Most of these scouts already have half their Tenderfoot reqs signed off, and the PLCs theme for next month is First Aid, so I see this as being very attainable. What is the best way to "inspire" these scouts to finish their Tenderfoot before camp? I do not want to sit down and encourage these scouts to all set this as a personal goal; that seems too heavy handed to me. Their patrol leader is very motivated, and I am thinking this may be the best way to reach out to them. What are your thougths on this?

Guilty also. (I am so embarrassed...) I actually sent our treasurer an email a couple of weeks ago with a series on instructions written as if-else statements. He is a retired Big Iron driver and I still program in Cobol daily. What is sad, is that he read it and didn't even notice I had written it as a cobol expression. But more on topic (or prehaps not): Triumph is just Try with an umpf.(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)

Several points here. First, we are a small troop, and currently have no ASPL. May be next year if we add another patrol (which appears likely). If we were to have an ASPL, his duties would be to "oversee" the non-PL members of the PLC, ie, Bugler, Scribe, Quartermaster, and Chaplain's Aide. Secondary duties would be to step in to replace the SPL when absent.

That is a very interesting perspective on "caring" and the buddy system, especially as it relates to the tenderfoot requirement. I will definately take the time to explore that angle more.

SM214, not to worry, we all enjoy lively conversation here. Glad to hear it is working out, and a fiery welcome to you!

I know that presenting scouts special troop awards has been discussed before, even recently, but this is a different take on things. Do your troops give awards for "mistakes" the scouts make? Like the events described in the thread from which this was originally spun, the "Slash and Burn" award to the scout who cut himself after spending all day sharpening his knife and only wanting to fuse the ends of the rope and start a campfire. Please don't take this wrong. I am not talking about ridiculing scouts here, but about some good natured fun.

I received a PM asking what it was that required a stitch. As a courtesy, I thought I would reply to the group. It was a knife wound, and, not to belittle the situation, but it was almost comical. It involved a new scout, who has a avery active and enthusiastic personality, and I have known since he joined as a Tiger. Several of the scouts had brought multiple knives on the campout (on the order of 2 and 3 each); one scout had brought his new sharpener (like this one-- http://www.rei.com/product/708614), and all the scouts were sharpening their knives over and over and over (as good scouts should). Anyway, this one scout was holding the sharpener just so, and his hand slipped, nearly slicing off the knuckle of his left pinky. Lots of blood, as is expected for this kind of wound, but he was real good about it. At the hospital triage, they expected it to take a stitch or two, but the doc decided to glue it, as it was already starting to heal, and he saw no need to aggrivate the wound with a stitch. Back in camp, the SPL ran the campfire (which we missed entirely), but a good time was had by all. This scout is a good kid, when we packed up camp and loaded the trailer, he was the first to jump in and carry the heavy loads and pulled more than his share, wound and all. We should give him a special award at the next CoH, like the "sharpest knife award" or some such.(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)

I could not agree more that "primary" is a much better choice of words. I will keep that in mind now and in the future. And, funny, I was thinking the same thing that compared to MS Summer's son's situation, this is a meaningless arugment indeed!

John, I really do not feel we are that far apart. I do apologize if I stated things in an infalmatory way. I would do the same thing as you working with other troops and Troopmaster. And yes, we do keep redundant records, but when in doubt, we go by the scout's handbook, and we consider this the most official record. As stated earlier in the thread, there are occasions where a HB is lost, and when a new one is bought, we do our best to replicate the information from what we have in Troopmaster, as we do try to get scout's HBs often to keep our records up to date, but this is not perfect. As we consider the HB the most offical record, the BoR must sign it off in his HB before it becomes "official." Like any requirement, it cannot be signed off until the book is presented to be signed off. Anyway, this does serve to teach the scout about the responsiblity of keeping up with his book.