Buggie

Has anyone tried those super low to the ground cots? I'm a side sleeper with a cpap hose. I was wondering about making an under-quilt for the cot for the cold months and the low to ground cots look better for winter than the normal height ones. For me, the cpap doesn't lend itself well to hammocks and we don't always camp where there are good hanging spots. Oh, and my hammock rope broke with me in it. Gravity works!!! But I do enjoy them for afternoon "rests".

I'm sure it will take time for the buzz to die down. Old items still resurface for a while, Evan after years go by. Our UK friends have stated it takes a while for it to become the norm. It is a new world and we all have to grow with it.

A separate application is required for each. I don't know about Nova Counselor things, but probably the best thing to start with is the ASM application with a follow up with the MBC and Nova applications after the ASM application is approved. Each application triggers a background check so they can be done all at once, but I've always counseled doing the first one separate.

My son was in the OA and really enjoyed it and made significant growth as a young adult. He took charge of his time there and performed as an elangomat for a lot of the ordeals he attended. He took a bad situation with the ceremony team lead and made a very mature choice. And he finished out his time doing AOL crossover ceremonies with a different ceremony lead before that changed. Recently, I was elected and I've completed my candidate/ordeal weekend. I have no idea what I'll be doing, but my heart is in giving service where/when I can. I am hopeful that my son will surprise me like I did him. He did not know it was me sashing him at his brotherhood ceremony until it was over. But my son will be in college when that comes about, so who knows. As others have stated, OA can be an awesome experience, but each scouts/scouters experience varies. It is worth giving it a try and if not to your liking you don't have to continue. You can even take a break and try later on. It's there for your entire life to come back to. I've met a few scouters who joined as scouts and came back when their scout joined.

So @thrifty and everyone else, like someone in my troop stated when I said I wasn't going to be picking up cards to sell this year, "Well then, do you want to buy one?" 😁 It's usually a struggle to find a good venue that the scouts as a group can sell the cards at. We have always aimed for the camping outlet places in the OKC metro here, the big giant places and the smaller venues close to the troop's meeting spot. It does fairly well, but we're competing for the spots that all the other troops in the council are trying to get into. However last year the sporting goods and camping gear chain store we normally went to declined all BSA groups because they weren't on the camp card. Above my pay grade to figure out why they weren't, as that's between them and the council. (we did tell the council though) But that loss allowed us a new discovery. We hit upon a grocery store outside of our normal haunts who welcomed us with open arms. We did gang busters there, with only a few comments on why a troop from B Town is doing in M City. This year though, that grocery chain is not excepting any one selling anything at their stores because another youth organization held a sale where one of the adults tripped, fell, injured themselves, and then the chain was sued. I don't have the details of who sued, insurance company or adult. I suspect the company did the lawsuit, because that's how they do things and not the adult doing it themselves. In the story being told to me, it was the adult who was dong the lawsuit, yet I think the story is biased because of bad blood with that adult's youth organization. In any case, we're back to the big outlet chains again. The big problem my son had is selling fatigue. Everything he was involved in had some sort of fundraiser, and in the case of the HS band, multiple back to back fund raisers. We had to spread out where he sold for which fundraiser so that folks wouldn't immediately start walking away when he approached. With each successive year, he got exhausted from having to do it over and over again on top of all the extra curricular activities he was selling for.

It's like drier lint. Nice way to start a fire... So many uses for many things.

Sorry I'm late on getting through the posts, but yah. I wouldn't trust BSA to store and handle any information. They can't even get their own applications up and running most of the time.

I've been eyeing the Flint Hills Nature Trail in Kansas. Not to do all of it in one go, but I'd love to spend a few days along it. Link I love the open prairie and that whole area up there. Same with the Ouachita Trail in SE Oklahoma heading towards Little Rock. My troop has been there a decade or so ago, and I'd love to see my scouts get more active and try it again. My personal goal this year is grab one of my friends and hit the urban trails around OKC for training purposes. Not ideal, but conditioning none the less. My hope is I can get my troop (scouts and scouters) interested in hiking and in the long term, canoeing. They have gotten so used to car camping, it's depressing.

I can't state how often this happens with our troop too. Paperwork tends to go nowhere at times and it is a liability if it isn't processed all the way through. Things can surprise you.

Old, mostly useless tarp, which covers the seats or floor or both for scouts returning from camping. And a few extra trash sacks for the front seats.

It would be a good topic to bring up when the scout has a scoutmaster conference for 1st Class. "When you obtain your first class rank, you are also ... And here's how it works ..." Communication is a double edge sword. You think it will solve all your problems because now people will know. However what ever is being communicated can be garbled, forgotten, or confused/contorted. It can also open up things you don't intend to, when folks become aware of something and now they make incorrect choices/assumptions on it. Honestly though, I think it is best to let scouts/scouters know things now and then, communicate in short messages. Don't do like one troop I saw, having their scouts stand in lines for 30 or so minutes while you tell them one thing after another. Few remember anything that way. Especially when the adult leader gets mad because someone tried to take notes instead of being more attentive/standing without moving around so much. Yah, I know. Adults.... sigh. As parents, we are well aware when our child gets that glassy eyed look.

I am now imagining a SM minute being yelled at a bunch of scouts.

I'm often self amused because some scouts are always having problems with shirt tails or pants held up by the tops of their boots. It's like a law that they have to be disheveled looking. I try to take action on those types of things when they are important, never when they are moving gear etc. As adults, we tend to be more conscious of how we look. And we help each other out if our necker is sitting wrong. Honestly I think some of us need reminding to hoist our pants a little more. In one of our recent troop meetings, the scouts were reminded that before flag ceremonies that they need to do a quick uniform check. In other words, shirt tucked in, necker laying down, pant legs not caught on things, jacket off, appropriate headgear... Hopefully it will hold for a while.

That! I realize that sometimes we worry about stepping in when a parent is present. We don't want to do something to that makes the parent uncomfortable. But as adult leaders, we should always look at these scouts as ours in our capacity as the adult leader. The other thing that I've seen happen is some form of retaliation when the parent is in a position of authority or power. That's another mess. As "adult" as we all are, it happens. I'm more of a binary type of guy dealing with an analog world. It's either "this or that" to me and I struggle all the time with the points in between and outliers around in my "this or that" mindset. But as long as you are consistent in approach, directing teaching moments equally and applying the "you shouldn't" fairly, it keeps the heat off mostly. But never completely as some parents are just plain mean.

At scout day for my church I saw one of the ASMs attached to my church wearing a green tie. It matched the uniform color, but I haven't yet gone out to look to see if there really is such a thing in the scout shop that might be purposed or re-purposed for it. In any case, I was surprised to see it.

I was worried about this very thing the other week. If the adult who was being stupid had actually managed to follow through with his original plan despite my warning, my reporting would have kicked out one or two Scouters. The one who brought the scout to the event and scouter who arranged it. I could certainly see retaliation as a possibility and I was dreading it. I'm extremely thankful that nothing happened to report.

No, I was a parent for many years on the outside looking in with no knowledge of where the rules even were. I also respected my son's wish to have a place without parents looking over his shoulder. I was finally able to get in because of a job change that gave me more freedom and I joined a different troop to keep out of my son's hair. I think he had a far better experience that way. Once I got my green light to join, I was very keen on knowing the rules in general, specifically the advancement section. Mainly because I recognized how some made up or misinterpreted rules were used against my son. And thus, could also be used against other scouts. People are taught not to question the authority. I'm certainly no rules expert and I can easily forget or muddle things myself. My sharpness comes from events involving my own son. Things where Scouters were making up stuff in regards to advancement etc. There were gates put up because of retaliation when my son reported being bullied by a popular scout. As far as YP, we had an adult outside of scouting who did the classic items you see in YPT2. I'm extremely thankful my wife and I listened to our guts and kept our kid away from him. He was eventually arrested by the FBI and was put in prison. That's why I caution folks who are going to take YPT2 for the first time because it triggered things in me because I saw all the different things that lowlife tried to do to my son and us. As far as a refresher, I'm not sure. We all had to take the YPT2 last spring. I haven't seen anyone who isn't aware of it, except for that first incident I mentioned where the adult was actively looking to break the provisions. That was bad in all respects and they were called out on it by others too. All those other incidents were simple nods to the affect that we were vigilant and stepped up correctly. I still laugh at that scout who kept following me when I was trying to stay out of a 1-on-1 situation. The scouts don't understand that side of things. If there is any aspect of training we should do, it's to do a very simple talk with scouts about not being in a 1-on-1 situation outside of family members.

We had the annual... what I call "gun" event this last weekend. This event is your standard go out and shoot and throw at targets located located at various stations scattered super far away from each other that lasts all day. Lots of fun for everyone who wants to go. Lots of walking too. One of our scouts hit all five skeet which was cool. However for me it was a constant "Youth Protection must be observed" type of weekend. With adults getting caught in Youth Protection types of situations where we were generally of one mind and didn't have to even talk about what to do. There was only one time where I had to come down hard on someone's bad idea so it wouldn't become an issue. At the meeting before the weekend, the adult with a very bad idea had to be told how really awful his idea was. He must have lost his mind or something. One of the scouts had double booked themselves and had to work Friday evening until well after the troop was on the road. So he couldn't come with us. The adult in question tried to figure out a way for this scout to still attend and was trying to hook up another non-family-related Scouter to drive him early Saturday morning in time to make the event. The adult knew it was a YP violation, but was still wanting to do it anyway because he trusted the other Scouter completely. I made it very clear that it was a violation and shouldn't be done. I warned first and when that didn't seem to change the adult's mind, I made it super clear it would be reported if it happened. I was also proud of the fact that I was not alone and that three other Scouters stated the very same thing. End result? No violation. However I was very irritated he even contemplated it and I was worried he would try something behind our backs or something. It gave me a difficult time sleeping that night because I knew if it happened and I reported it, that would mean the end of one and possibly two adults in scouting and that as the one who reported it, I probably would have a horrible time with the troop for getting two other scouters kicked out. But I was resolute that I would report it and I prepared by looking up the procedures. I was extremely thankful that nothing happened that needed to be reported. The second involved me. I was in a car with another adult. No scouts in the car. When we got to the event site and finished checking in, a scout joined us for the final ride out to the campsite. All good. We parked at the campsite to unload. Driver got out to ask if that was where he could park temporarily. About half a minute went by and I realize I was alone in a car with a scout. And it was cold outside. And I wasn't wanting to leave the warm car yet. So I got out and put on my coat, knowing that the scout would stay in the car where it was warm. Scout followed me out of the car and wanted to stand and talk with me, sheltered from the wind by the car. I moved. He followed. I was internally cursing the situation. I went well out of the sheltered area and into the biting wind next to others. It was certainly cold. Scout followed, but now we were surrounded by others. The third was quickly and easily averted. A younger scout wanted to sleep with an older scout. About 5 years apart. I was already starting to voice the issue, when the SM turned to me to verify the age gap that could sleep together. He knew that it was probably an issue at least. Those two scouts did not share a tent. I had to internally boggle that the SM had to even ask. The cold must have done something to his brain. The fourth YP item that could have been an issue was a simple out of sight situation. The adult was "explaining" in a controlled, yet unhappy way, that a task had not been completed as directed. He was doing it out of sight and sound of everyone, perhaps because he didn't want to make it a public event or because the item in question was right there in a heap in the trailer instead of folded and stored as had been requested before multiple times during the day/evening. (it had at least been moved from out between the tents to the trailer) As it was, I happened upon it because the scout had to pass through the kitchen area and go by me to turn the corner into the trailer and I glanced in to see what was going on. I told my fellow cook what I was doing. I planted myself as a distant observer where I could see and hear what was going on, but I wasn't in the scout's direct sight so he didn't get the feeling of being ganged up upon. Afterwards I made sure the Scouter knew that he needed to be sure he wasn't alone with a scout. I know he wasn't thinking as he was irritated. But still, one must be ever vigilant. And the last event was during the event campfire by the lodge at the entrance. Said older and last year scout from the last paragraph didn't feel like going to the event campfire now because life was unfair after his bad attitude and decisions were pointed out. And we had another 12 y/o scout who had gone to sleep right after chow. We kept forgetting about him since he was in his tent. The other adult who I was hanging out with really wanted to go to the campfire, but he saw the issue when I asked him to stay. I didn't have to explain it thankfully. So we sat around our campfire and chatted.

Do they throw in a buzz cut as well? And yes, it does sound like a lot of fun, though the blur between scouting and military does give me pause even as an optional thing. But that's me.

I can't speak for Eagle paperwork, but definitely for membership paperwork. When I filled out my first membership application, we had several folks go over it to make sure all the items were correctly signed and dotted because they warned that the Council was known to reject or lose things that weren't filled out properly. If rejected, they waited for you to call them as it was easier(?). Even with due diligence, some how mine got lost somewhere between the front desk at the scout shop and the adjoining council office room in charge application processing. No idea where in that chain it got lost at or why. So second application was filed and finally accepted.

Should state that this is the minimum. I don't think there is a maximum recommendation. I've always held that the more you have, the quality starts to fall. Some scouts are doing great, others are doing their best to skate.

Awesome! Welcome to the virtual campfire.

Try "NotEagleDad" for that complete disconnect. Just don't argue with yourself.

I know it doesn't solve the problems, but I was thinking of a two part camping trip. Have the adults set up base camp, then the scouts hike out with two Scouters. The two scouters go only for "regulation" purposes *wink wink*. Stay out for a night or two. Come back the morning of departure. And I do mean make it a fun hike. Do some woodcraft. Or Canoe to the other side of whatever body of water. Treat it as a "how to get out of your comfort zone" type of camp out. Base camp is close enough that you can get back if needed to, but far enough away that the other adults don't wander into the scout's activities. Or set up an emergency pick up spot that you can drive to in case of emergencies. Just ... Something to get a physical gap between the scouts and the rest of them. You know, I like this idea for my own troop. I think I'll pitch it to see if we can get some bites on it. It could be set up with a progressive set of lessons on how to do things away from camp type of activities. See if anyone wants to add wilderness survival to it.

Agreed. But that is another classic battle of "we can't count on the scouts so we'll decide what to do". I'm trying to push from several directions to get folks moving in things. My aspiration is getting more fun for the scouts while outdoors and moving us all to the program. Trying to spark stuff in both directions. I've recently been more hopeful now that we've picked up an ASM who is very program minded. He has a bit more traction so I am hopeful. I don't know how he is on more activity yet.