buffalo2

If I understand the situation correctly the CO is financially contributing to the unit? Then no surprise if they wish to consolidate funds; they're concerned with preventing those very things that we're all worrying about! Perhaps best to make a clean financial distinction; maintain an independent account if you can, keep things open and honest as has been mentioned earlier, and just don't take their money. You can't have it both ways...

Got to be the Old Guy in camp this year; lots of talent chasing the special interest groups and just made a vacation out of it. And tried something new; sat and filled out the boys' Merit Badge Blue Cards during the day instead of staying up into the wee small hours. Didn't take long to figure out that prime time to do that was just before meals when the boys were drifting back into Camp... Had more good discussions with these guys in this casual and non-threatening setting than I would have thought possible; and well worth throwing all those extra Blue Cards away every night! What fun...

Eammon - in the midst of all of this great stuff you've drilled to the heart of it I think "Remember how you were feeling at the first training that you attended" If I can help create for the participants a fraction of what I felt when I attended training then I have done well... Still remembering the old SMs that took the time to share their own training and experiences with those of us that were new or just getting back to the program. I particularly like the idea of eating with the participants instead of hanging around with the good old boys on Staff. And don't forget to remind your students that every one of them brings something unique to the table, and that they may learn as much from their fellows as they will from the presenters.

Eammon brings up a good point on using computer-based projection equipment. Prepared a Powerpoint pitch once and ended up having to use a large television to present with... The backgrounds were dark and oppressive and the colored lettering that looked so good on the PC was quite an eyesore. Would have been better off with black-and-white prints on 11x17, which is now my backup plan. Live and learn! And isn't this sort of discussion refreshingly productive after seeing what goes on in the Issues and Politics forum?

Folks - Is anyone familiar with the climbing operation at Gilboa Quarry? Looks to be an hour or so west of Cleveland; an outfit called Vertical Reality runs it... Looking for a Scout Camp nearby; Heart of Ohio Council perhaps? Thanks!

Saw one last week at Camp Powhatan in Blue Ridge Council (come in Le Voyageur?) that was pretty well done; forgive me if I can't do justice to it... Staffer 1 walks out and delivers a roast of one of the area directors (his boss of course) and pretends to sit on a bench. Staffer after staffer continues in this vein and the Commissioners get in the act until the virtual bench is full and most of the senior staff has been abused in some way, upon which the Camp Director comes on and reviews these tales of woe. He goes off on his own rant about the quality of the staff this year before berating them for not noticing that their bench was moved last week... All staffers immediately fall to the ground of course. These roasts of the area directors were pretty special and quite humorous; complete with appropriate costuming and exaggerated mannerisms. Much better live than what I've managed to describe here! Good luck OGE

Enjoy your vacation DS Hope to 'see' you soon! It's wonderful to have some insight onto the professional side

Think I'll try those flowers - improve the ambience if nothing else (!) Or maybe look for something similar but square and make a chessboard? Once prepared, you can bet that all of your tent sites will be perfectly flat...

Rooster I think you've said it...

To your point OGE - Check out the Venturing Corps of Discovery at: http://members.aol.com/VentureCOD/index.html Looks like some folks working to develop something similar to OA and NicOsay that would be Venturing-specific. Don't know how current this might be but worth checking out. And remember that you don't need lots of recognition to have a service organization...

Some good ideas flying around here... Always wanted to convert a day hike into an emergency situation with an overnight stay using what's in your daypack but can't quite make it real enough without scaring the pants off the younger ones? Not Wilderness Survival per se but uses lots of those elements

Well said KWC57 and thank you for introducing a bit of maturity into things...

We've found in working this with the younger guys that to navigate over a course, (hiding pieces of dinner at the check points of course) setting up tarp shelters, building a fire with 2 matches or whatever, cooking dinner without utensils (silver turtles are pretty easy) pretty much fills up their day. You might want to kinda go easy on foraging for natural foods - you'll need some expertise to really get anything across that will stick - fishing might be fun though Having your older guys put together some higher-level static displays can be pretty satisfying as well - remember that you don't have to do it all on one trip! This is a great activity for all concerned; let your boys plan this and execute it their way BTW we usually do this after the first frost; keeps the bugs to a minimum and gets them to bed a little sooner as well. Have fun! (This message has been edited by buffalo2)

Biggest downfall in planning that we see lies in the execution... In a perfect world that Annual session just lays out the framework that is supplemented by a distinct part of your monthly PLC meetings. We like to work from the annual calendar for 90 days out, pencil things in at a moderate level of detail 60 days out for reservations etc, and the last PLC prior to an activity have it all inked in and ready for passing out to the Patrols for their part (duty rosters, menus, etc.) Constantly rolling forward in advance keeps everyone thinking about whats coming down the road. Not perfect, always subject to change, but helps the boys keep the surprises to a minimum. And if you're working without the school calendar handy you're begging for conflicts! Might consider taking a page from the Venturing Leader's Manual with the Countdowns; while most Troop activities don't merit the 180 day timeframe its not a bad way to go and your SPL has one more tool to work with.

Good point on adults keeping the kids up! If you've got lanterns cranked up and folks moving around and lots of conversation it's even more difficult for the boys to get settled down... Think I might make a special mention of asking the older Scouts to 'stay up a bit and review the program for the next day' to take some of the older/younger sting out of it. Like that night hike idea as well

That sounds about right; think our adults averaged about 55 lbs last year depending on where you're at with commissary visits and water availabilty. Found bulk was almost more of an issue; stripping all that you can out of the food packages can help a lot. Have a great trip!

DSteele Could you share with us the position requirements for the District Commissioner and District Chair positions? And perhaps your interpretation? Think that we're pretty well served in my small corner but curious all the same... Thanks!

Guys, do you think that maybe we've pretty well worn this one out? Don't recall seeing pistols at dawn in my copy of the G2SS but sounds like that's where this is heading. Back to your corners please! Have a great Memorial Day holiday, and don't forget what it's about

Might be that I'm reading between the lines again, but I'd like to think that the SPL was able to resolve most of these issues on his own, and perhaps that the SM would only get wind of some of them in the SPL's summary briefing or if the SM (or a wandering ASM) had cause to happen by at just one of those moments. Just hoping that the SM has got better things to do than sit through every minute of a PLC - sounds like micromanagement to me! Yet another reason to have your Troop Guide program working...

Gotta go with Bob on this one, but will expand with an additional reason - the gradual working progression through First Class builds on prior knowledge rather than just making a huge data dump that the Scout will absorb, glaze over, and forget. Lots of this material is addressed over and over and there's good reasons for that. Remember that we're building, and begin with a solid foundation. Good luck

Some good stuff here! This meeting is important enough that we try to find a special setting for the day. We also invite members of the Troop Committee to come in and prepare lunch so as not to interrupt the flow of things; also gives them a good opportunity to get a little closer to the Troop functioning and sends a message to the PLC that their time is valued. Might be worth a pre-meeting with your SM to review the past year? Definitely want to have school dates nailed down; dances and concerts and football games etc. Also take your District and Council calendar into consideration ie Camporees, OA functions. This information is available but have to dig for it sometimes. It's important to have the whole year's calendar on one page for the Scouts to work from; they don't always see things from month to month (and some of we adults aren't much better! You can find a reasonable template in your Troop rechartering package(?) You might consider a brief review of last year's calendar and activities as an introduction to your planning session. Remember that a different group put that one in place and learn from it Good luck David

On the District level, I think that about 2 years is plenty - time for the old guard to move over and let some fresh air in. In a perfect world, this might be communicated early on (avoiding the prospect of a life sentence) along with the notion that one of the larger responsibilities of the task is to begin grooming a replacement... In that same world, these positions would be rotated over a period of time so that the talent pool is never completely drained. Forgive the question Eammon, from one that hasn't served at the DC level; but your approach to Commissioners seems a mite heavy-handed. Were you able to maintain a staff at the level of expertise and committment that is necessary while saying things like 'this is my patch' and notifying folks every year that their services would or would not be required? Not quite sure how I'd respond to such an approach from one who was asking me to take on such a task...

Our Troop carries on throughout the summer with a week off after summer camp. We meet on Mondays, so get an occasional holiday weekend off also. I'd have to agree with mk9750 about picking up the pace in summer when you can, lots of opportunities there. Maybe time to give some more thought to Patrol activities? We usually end up with taking 2-3 weeks off over Christmas holidays but have noticed that its pretty hard to get back into the swing of things. I can't imagine shuttig down for the summer; would almost seem unfair to those boys working on their First Class progression.

And don't forget the ziploc bag omlet!

Industrial Engineer Trying to learn something new every day