DeanRx

A UC helping the situation ?!?!? Ha! Double HA, HA! The only dysfunction I've seen in our unit WAS a UC who started showing up at our meetings and providing "feedback". He gave me crap about our Web II's going to a troop in an adjacent district, not our own (we are not a feeder pack...)- My reply, its the boys' choice and thats what they choose to do. He invited himself and spouse to multiple unit functions to include B&G, thus increasing our outlay of cost (for food), without really doing anything besides glad handing folks and pitching FOS for the DE. I finally disinvited him from all functions via the DE after he made an off-color comment about a female leader and how well she "filled out" her scout shirt. I agree let a unit die, but the LAST person I will ever have around my unit is a UC. Its an outside, non-paid scouter. At least with the DE, you can tell him you will not recruit, not fund raise and not FOS if he doesn't stay out of your unit's business... The UC, no such impact to his pocketbook. Sorry if I offend any out there who are UC's, but in my expirience (this latest guy and others) - UC's are at best never seen / heard from, OR at worst mostly a bunch of old, fat scouters who's kids are now in their 30's, but want to stay in the program, are part of the good ol' boys network, but not in a paid position and go around thrying to tell others how they should or should not be doing things.... our unit is 50+ strong and growing with over 30K in popcorn sales every year... 85%+ REACHING RANK and transferring to Boy Scouts after cubs... keep you nose out of OUR business! If its guys like this that are going to SAVE a dying unit, might as well give the unit the morphine drip and let it go gently into that goodnight.

Ok trail... then who do we speak to at National about the membership policy? My point being, no one at the local level can even have a discussion regarding the ramifications of national's prejudiced membership stance. There are some in the "customer" base that have lobbied for local control of membership / program and get it (i.e. LDS... can't join and LDS unit unless you are a member of their church and they get to tweek the program to fit their agenda), but God forbid a unit wants to be mroe liberal in their approach - nope no can do... national says no,no... Its a double standards - plain and simple. Local control membership policies is the way to go... And don't jump on the "well what if the KKK or arian nation wants to be a CO?" Well if they do - good luck getting anyone to join your unit!!! Would you say the same if the Black Panther Party wanted to be a CO? I would. People will vote with their feet and their pocketbook - in my part of the country they have left or not joined b/c of nationals stance. The next 100 years may well be the Boy Scouts of Latter Day Saints...

The fix is SM and ASM and BOR personnel with the integrity and back-up of their unit committee to not just rubber stamp advancement! The SM conference and BOR should take care of this. The main issue I see is two-fold: 1) Scouts talk all the time about who is "easy" and who is "hard" with regards to the SM/ASM's on Sm confrences and especially about BoR members. I heard it at my son's last Patrol meeting and they just joined! Getting the lowdown from their PL and APL on who to ask for on their SM conference for TF because some ASMs are easier than others. Some hold a very hard standard and others just rubber stamp them. Adult leaders need to be CONSISTENT in their expectations at each rank level. Adults need to meet and AGREE to some standardization of what the SM conf and BoR should encompass for each level. 2) This needs to begin with Tenderfoot Class on up! Seems that in some instances, lesser or lower ranks get an easy pass at the BoR, but then the EAGLE gets the serious, hard look because it is the EAGLE rank. Well, the adults unwittingly just changed the rules on the unknowing scout and parents. This needs to not happen. To me, weak Eagles and especially the issue of parents bemoaning a committee rejection of an Eagle project / etc... is a symptom of the unit leadership NOT holding the line on advancement standards of the earlier ranks. If you rubber stamp the TF, and rubber stamp 2nd/1st class, then why not rubber stamp star and life... then you gotta do the same for eagle, right? Some of the program changes that make is easy for a scout to not gain a great deal of outdoor skills and still pass rank do make it hard to not have some "dumbing down" of the requirement(s), but the adults running the program must still hold the scout to account. Another issue I see - PORs for ranks that vary greatly in their level of responsibilty / leadership level. Example, one can be a scribe, a webmaster, a bugler, even the quartermaster and it counts as a POR. While challenging and a job that needs to be done, NONE of those is akin to LEADING a group of your peers as an APL, PL, ASPL, SPL, or even as a Den Chief to a bunch of cubbies. A scout could be a scribe, then the quartermaster, then the webmaster, then the chaplains aid... never really has to be responsible for anyone else besides himself. Then he's supposed to LEAD others in the completion of his Eagle project ?!?!?! He has no leadership expirience up to that point! That's not what I'd really call leadership development, but it can happen that way unless the adult leaders (SM and ASMs) don't allow it.

I for one applaud RichardB for his candor and the fact that he even listens / responds to posts on this board... perhaps if he could twist the arm(s) of more at the national level to do so, it would be a good thing overall for BSA. That being said - G2SS needs a SERIOUS rework. Some things make sense (no homemade stoves) - OK I don't like this, but I get that we can't have scouts blowing themselves up. However, no "little red wagons"? How are the cubs supposed to deliver all that popcorn they sold? I'd rather they pull it down the sidewalk in their wagon, than the one scout I saw riding in the back of moms mini-van with the tailgate open, he'd grab the order and slide out the back as mom came to a stop, run the order up to the person's door, then hop back in the open rear-end as mom drove to the next house on the block! Pretty sure that shouldn't happen either - but its THEIR son and THEIR van, thus THEIR risk. I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that the pull cart issue is from a scout running themself or someone else over with a scout cart at a council campground or on some other campout while hauling equipment from the parking area? Thus the ban? Well, to follow that logic - I hope a tree branch never falls on a scout while he is hauling his gear to the tentsite, or we will be faced with everyone wearing hard hats and camping only in areas with no overhanging trees or shade! Same logic applies to the decision made. I know Richard probably has lawyers (or is a lawyer himself, or at least stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night) he has to work with and apease for his bosses. Trouble is, a great deal of G2SS is a lot like the American with Disabilities act or the Homeland Sercurity Act. They are well intended a the time of their inception, but grow to be a costly hinderance that often times does very little to serve its stated purpose and does more to aggrivate and undermine the program it attempts to protect.

Welcome and My didn't you bite off a big piece to chew on.... I'll make it a simple as I can: 1) CM and CC must work well together - they will make or break the unit. 2) CM = PROGRAM. If it has to do with the program, i.e. meetings, outings, camping, service projects... then it belongs on the Cubmaster's plate 3) CC = BUSINESS. recharter, running committee meetings, management of sub-committee leaders (i.e. popcorn sales, Blue n gold, etc...) - those are the Committee Chair's duties. If its about the boys, then its the CM. If its about the addults that support the boys, then its the CC. Best of luck. Dean

JM has some great ideas... I'd settle for just 4: 1) Rework of G2SS. We have become the organization of "don't" in fear of litigation, instead of providing training, reasonable risk and responsibilty. 2) Par down the pro-staff. De's making over 100K and SE's making over 200K in a non-profit organization is crazy!! You can raise funds but put the $$ into the program, not the staff! 3) Local Choice policy on membership for the CO's to include coed units. BSA already allows for the bending of program to bow before the mighty LDS units, so why can't other CO's have the same latitude? Your CO is OK with gays, then fine, you want coed, then fine, your CO OK with atheists, then fine... put the power at the local level. The local vols know what's best for their area anyway. This solves the impase between those who fall on oposite sides of the major membership issues and likely saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal battles over equality issues, while respecting and preserving members rights to belong to a unit that fits their personal belief system. Heck, it would probably go a LONG way towards re-openning land use for many councils that have been blocked out in the past decade over BSA nationals perceived prejudical policies. 4) Don't know about Mike Rowe as Chief Scout, but a marketing campaign featuring well known and respected celebs and other public figures that were / are scouters would go a LONG way to combat the "scouting isn't cool" image and help both retention and fundraising. I'd go so far as to say in Irving could pull off #1, #3 and #4 - I'd be fine with them keeping their overpaid pro's. The program would be so dynamic and grow so fast they'd have wait lists to get kids on board, instead of making up ghost roster units to pad their membership numbers.

I'd take two things away from this meeting... 1) You are in it for YOUR scouts in YOUR unit and you went to the meeting so that you can have good info and "be prepared" as best you can for taking YOUR unit to summer camp. You can't control how prepared or unprepared other leaders are, so let it go... not on your plate of responsibility. 2) Knowing the # of scouts attending and the # of leaders that showed up (or lack thereof), be ready for the potential chaos that is camp check in. Boils down to you can only control how well prepared you and your unit is... If possible have all your ducks in a row so your unit's check in and activities run as smooth as possible. Have the boys do a pre-camp swim check if allowed... anything to get your unit OUT of the way of the others who may or may not be prepared for the event. Just remember to be flexible and have fun and the boys will do the same. Dean

Not to poo-poo your plans before they get off the ground, however.... We built a space derby track and have attempted to have races twice with our pack in the last 5 years. The A-frames are pretty easily built, with a drop down starting gate. HOWEVER, the kits are very fragile at best, the rubber bands are only good for about 2-3 runs (even when lubricated) before they start to snap, this means most of your time is spend helping kids reload with new rubber bands, re-lube, and rewind to the specified number of turns. Also, this is the ONLY cub scout event I have EVER ran that had multiple scout injuries!! The plastic props once wound to race, tend to slice cub sized fingers pretty easily. Make sure you have multiple boxes of band-aids on hand for your event. For the effort and fun level involved, I'd go with the raingutter regatta over space debry any day of the week and twice on Sundays. If you really want to do a space themed unit event, get an educators pack of Estes model rockets and build / shoot them as a pack. Much more fun, much less work, and IMHO much safer too. From the been there done that file.... Dean

I can honestly say I have two different viewpoints: As a YOUTH - it was about the destination... what did I accomplish as summer camp, at camp-o-ree, at High Adventure. Did I make Eagle? No, but I learned a lot along the way and checked a bunch of boxes off. As an ADULT - its about the journey... I have a greater appreciation now of what the journey is and the benefits the journey gives to the youth to develop into manhood. Extremely hard to see that part or appriciate it when you are the youth going through it, IMHO. I agree there are things in scouting that are fun and those that are just work that you bear down and get through to check the box. However, its a lot like that in life. My work, many things I find rewarding, others I think are stupid and only do them because the people who sign the paycheck tell me it needs to be done. I think the two most important things we can teach via scouting is independant decision making and taking responsibility for your decisions. Second, is that in life not everything worth doing long term is all fun and games in the short term, some of it frankly sucks. But, the rewards gained at the completion are much sweeter when there is perseverance involved. The second of these definately speaks to the destination side of things, which is not a totally bad way of measuring your life, it just shouldn't be the ONLY way you assign value to your activities.

I've seen it both ways, a leader's kid who runs amok for various reasons, dad too busy with unit leadership to notice, kid has a condition (ADHD, Aspergers, etc..), or maybe that families idea of discipline is far more liberal on the bell curve than most other parents in the pack. I've also seen the leader's kid who involuntarily gets to show up early and stay late setting up and tearing down, cleaning equipment, has to be the example. My son would tell you he can't stand to hear "lead by example" from me as the CM's son when his buddies are goofing off and he wants to be doing the same. I think it is a fine line one must walk as a leader to BALANCE the unit time and your son's time and attention so that you don't neglect either to the point of burnout. As for the parenting: unless a kid is being disruptive to the point of the leaders having to STOP program or doing something to harm themselves or others, let it go. If its really bad, maybe have a talk with the parent off line away from the offending act. You have nothing to gain by calling out the scout or his parent in front of the group. Finally, parenting is a lot like drivers on the road... all those going slower than you are morons and anyone going faster is a maniac! If a fellow adult's approach is more linient than you'd be, they are a moron, if they are far stricter than you, they are a heli-parent / over-protective / over-discipled. In times, I've come to see that is has much more to do with one's personal PERSPECTIVE than the actual parenting. Most kids will turn out fine as long as they have a parent that cares enough to be involved with their life.

I once had a DE state to me, "I just don't understand why there seems to be so much animosity between the paid and volunteer scouters sometimes!" Think I might print this thread out and mail it to him! If my council ever wants $$ for a signature on ANYTHING, it will be the last FOS, last popcorn, last ANY funding they see from me other than unit level support. Heck, I'd call the local news on something like this...

jblake has it right... YP, while about protecting the youth is ACTUALLY about protecting EVERYBODY... the youth, the adult (from false accusations), and BSA from lawsuits / liability. I do performance reviews for both male and female staff. If I am EVER in my office with the door closed - 1) I try to have 3rd party in the office too, 2) I leave the door open and 3) I ALWAYS sit in the far corner away from the door and have the employee sit in a chair nearest the OPEN door. WHY? So there can NEVER be a "he cornered me and said / did X,Y,Z and I was trapped and couldn't get away... /etc..." Same reason my friend who is an OB/Gyn NEVER does an exam without a nurse or med student / etc... with him in the room - just TOO many people looking to litigate for a fast buck (I blame the Bevah types out there!) - just kidding Two deep - means you, plus the scout, plus someone else. It can be an adult, it can be another scout. In a car, in a home, its fine. The only time you can NOT have it be you and two youths, is in a TENT or in a bathroom / shower facility! Spin this one off... what do you do when you walk into the bathroom at the CO meeting place and there's a couple scouts in the toliet? Do you turn around and walk out? what if YOU are in there doing your business and THEY walk in on you? Common sense says, finish up as fast as you can and get away from the situtation, but will that hold up in court?

Oh and now I'm a member of the "Old Goats Patrol", our yell is stated on our flag.... "Go ask your PL..."

well, we attempted to have our patrol be the 'hairy beavers', until the adults caught on... had a BUNCH of good yells ready for that patrol.... So, we settled for the viking patrol and the yell of, "Thor's Hammer !!" followed by either stopping the ground or slapping your hands loudly. I've also seen the "pi" patrol, with the yell "3.14159"... And the Coyote partol with "Kill the Rabbit, Kill the Rabbit, Kill the Rabbit" al la Elmer Fudd sneeking up on Buggs Bunny...

Yeah, A national move to celebrate LDS 100 years, that would be the tail wagging the dog for sure... but since the tail wags the dog a LOT in this organization, I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.

Oh yeah a P.S. on my post... I've never been a big fan of holding up the sign, its too passive to get their attention. I use the "Clap once if you can hear me, clap twice if you can hear me, clap three times if you can hear me...." By the time you get to the 3rd clap, most everyone will be eyes on you and not talking, why? The brain has to THINK to follow the action of clapping with the group. The scout has to engage in an activity. Its hard to think and talk at the same time. Its very easy to stick your hand in the air with two fingers up and keep gabbing to your freind next to you. Use the body's physiology against itself and FORCE their attention. You just state it in a normal talking voice and clap the number of times each time you say it. Longest it every took me was 5 claps and that was at a council event with nearly 100 boys in the crowd.

mrface- First welcome and hope you get some good info on here... most of us have been in your shoes a time or two. I too, went from Tiger Cub Den Leader to CM and then held that post for 3 and 1/2 years, so it is a baptism by fire for sure. A few pearls of wisdom I gathered... 1) For pack meetings, have the kids sit as dens, not with their parents. Your DEN LEADERS should sit with their den and THEY are in charge of controlling the scouts in THEIR den. Peer pressure actually works well this way. 2) I at times used prizes (i.e. silly bands, temporary tattoos, etc..) - I'd announce at the start of the meeting that the best behaved den would receive the den award at the end of the meeting. Positive peer pressure for less than $5 a meeting in prizes. 3) We began each meeting with a "reminder". I told the boys there are 3 times I expect silence and attention: when we are doing something with the flag (flag salute), any type of prayer / invocation, and when we were giving out rank awards. Other than that, use silly cheers and chants to applaud the scouts coming up to receive an award. Google run-ons and cheers and you'll get a bunch of ideas, but the sprinkler cheer, watermellon cheer and catus cheer are three solid stand-byes we always used. 4) Check out the parents. Once the kids began to calm down, you'll likely find its the PARENTS that talk while the leaders are talking... the kids are just following the example! Don't be afraid to call out the adults for being rude. I once stopped mid-sentence and walked to the back of the room and stood next to a dad having a loud cell phone conversation in the middle of the meeting. I stood there until he noticed I was standing there (about 2 minutes) - the kids all laughed at him! From then on, if there was a "parent" issue, I'd tell the boys it was time for the Shhhhhh~! cheer - they'd all turn around in their seats and Shhhhh the parents that were talking too much! 5) Keep it fast paced and moving. I don't care how many awards you got - meeting should be 1 hr max. period, do not deviate from this plan. The clock is ticking. 6) Segways are HUGE - even 30 seconds of silence / break in the flow or action is an invitation to chaos. If you are in between awards, have your ACM be lining up the next award and ready to call the boy up as YOU tell a joke from the back of Boys Life of something like that. The, "um,... just a miunute here, we'll be calling up the boys for wolf rank as soon as I find the list..." = you just lost their attention. 7) Get them out of their seats... make sure to have someone to run a gathering game pre-meeting to run out some steam and maybe have a game (our boys LOVE tug of war den vs adults) at the end of the meeting. Bookend the sitting still with something active for eveyone to do. 8) Last - if you have something important to discuss - make it special. Example, do a Cubmaster minute about RESPECT. Have a faux campfire ring on the stage and invite the boys to come forward and sit around it, as they do, have someone dim the lights in the room. Have the glow of your fire and a couple lanterns be the only light and then proceed with your message. It makes the scouts feel like its a special message meant just for them and not the parents, they are involved and have to physically move to participate. You will get a better response than if its you lecturing them about behavoir like they're sitting in class. Like another poster mentioned - they've sat in school all day and been talked to. Keep it fun, keep it moving and make your CM minute special and they'll pay attention to the message. Best of luck and hope you find some solutions here, Dean

OGE- Its not an axe to grind, its a legitimate 800 lbs gorrilla question that looms large over the organization, but few want to actually address. BSA has allowed for program modifications to suit the LDS, yet refuses to allow similar unit level program adjustments to accomodate folks whose beliefs and moral norms run counter to the LDS and Catholic church teachings. It has cost BSA land use, who knows how many $$ in legal fees, it is costing the San Diego council its office space in Balboa park (so now they're buying / building an office building - park campground traded for office space = no outing in scouting), and mostly it costs membership because at least in some parts of the country, they loose scouts because their parents believe the organization to be prejudiced. I have had parents at recruitment nights actually TELL me they like what we do at the unit level and would like for their son to be involved, but refuse based on the religious and more often the nation stance on homosexuality. Bottom line - we want to be around another 100 years, we're gonna have to live up to that pesky "friendly" point of the scout law and start to accomodate those who we may not agree with, or at LEAST tolerate them. Problem is, you can't even get anyone at council level or up to even DISCUSS the issue, but they'll sure as hell spend your FOS $$ defending the national stance! Dean

OK - I'll put this out there and watch the fireworks... Anyone know Wayne's religious affiliation? Is he LDS? Catholic? or one of the the more (dare I say it) "moderate" protestant faiths? Its a fair question, as it would give some insight into how willing he would be to "shaking things up" with regards to some long held national policy positions... I wish the guy luck. I'd like to see more accessability at the regional and national levels, or at LEAST some explaination whenever a policy change is made. It helps to get buy-in from the field if we know the WHY something is being done. This hasn't been BSA's strong suit for a while now...(This message has been edited by deanrx)

Ok - yes, pranks and sex are in the same category... whatever! Can't reason with the unreasonable... Pranks I have seen, been victim of, or done to others (in Gasp! a Cub scout unit)... 1) Our Oct meeting, the boys wear their Halloween costumes instead of uniforms. I'm follically challenged (thats bald for the non-PC types out there). I was CM and my ACM showed up in uniform wearing a flesh colored skull cap and told the boys he was dressing as Mr. Dean the CM for Halloween! I'm sure I'm scarred for life now, as is all the boys in my unit! 2) After giving food safety briefing at local scout camp (keep it in a plastic tub, or the racoons will get it) we placed a racoon cap with tail hanging out of a cubbies bag when he didn't properly stow his trail mix. Funny, and a teachable moment. 3) Telling "spooky" story at campfire, one adult sneeks off into the darkness and waits for line in story when the "boogy man" is chasing the campers... he comes running thru camp screaming.... works even better if you have ragged clothes for him to wear. Granted ALL parents were briefed so they could choose if they wanted their son to participate of not. 4) Various articles of clothing ran up flag pole when left unclaimed in camp. "Hey, who's jacket is this?" before morning colors. Again, funny - yes maybe a little embarrasement, but they won't leave their stuff laying all over camp anymore. 5) Best one of ALL time. Night hike at family campout. We have a mix of city and rural folks in our unit. Scout camp has ranch land adjacent to it... Mom of cub was FREAKING out because she "heard" sometime off to the side of the trail. We go about another 10 feet and a ranch cow lets loose a huge Moooooo! Mom just about crawls up a tree! Now, the cubs always ask her if she would like to go on another Mooooonlit hike! I got to give BIG credit to the boys as they came up with that on on their own 6) I have helped turn tents around in camp. This is a fun one. Unit going on a little hike or to the range and you volunteer to stay in camp and watch the stuff. Unstake someone's dome tent, rotate it 180 degrees, then see how long it takes before they notice the door has moved to the other side! In the words of the Saregent in the movie Stripes " Lighten Up, Francis..." have a little fun and learn to laugh at life's little gaffes. Sheesh. Guess you just have to know your scouts and families and who is "in" or "out" on this type of thing. Dean

And there you have it... The rules aren't really about keeping scouts safe, its about lawsuit $$ and who is and is NOT going to be on the hook for it. You can shoot bazookas on a unit level campout if you want (and you find a place that allows it - try BLM land... its pretty much anything goes out there). However, if littel Johnny manages to kill himself and a couple other scouts - BSA isn't going to bat for you when everyone lawyers up. Even if you DO follow all the rules to a 't' - you need to understand that BSA lawyers work to protect the organization, not YOU the leader. They'll cut bait and throw you under the bus in a heartbeat to protect the council and national. They'll hang the CO out to dry if need be. Your only true protection is common sense, qualified leadership, and even with those two in place, pray alot! When the fecal matter hits the rotary occilator and lawyers get involved, its ever man for themself.

As long as it causes no bodily harm and no property damage and is done in good fun, I see no problem with a prank. Can it skew a youth's view of "Trustworthy" - Hmmm maybe, but its a cold hard fact of life that people will try to trick you. Now, would you like to have that epiphany at scout camp by being the butt of a joke that turns you into "one of the guys" and really causes no harm, or have it be later in life in a business dealing in which you get swindled for a few thousand dollars because you we're too trusting? The point of scouting is to make boys into strong men. Part of that life lesson is to learn not to fall for BS and have a healthy skepticism at times. Best to learn that in a controlled environment that provides no long term damage to the youth's mental state or pocketbook. Bottom line - kids tease and get teased. Adults lie and get lied to. I'm not suggesting we should encourage deception, but it IS part of life and we need to arm kids to sniff it out and respond appropriately. To me, its kind of like trying to do away with bullying. Its a nice setiment, and a good goal. But what kids REALLY need is to be taught life skills on HOW TO HANDLE getting bullied, because it will happen at some point in their lives. Having skills to deal with the situation is what BSA supposedly is about. We also need kids to learn to laugh at themselves... take a joke, play a joke. I have been in scouts, ROTC, and active duty Army as well as other faternal organizations. The bottom line is for most people (well males at least) - there is a bonding element to going through a hazing (opps non-PC word) event in which you emerge out the other side as a tried and true member of the group. BSA even has some of these types of things in their program (albeit watered down). What is the OA ordeal? What is high adventure? Its a crucible of sorts. Part of the crucible is learning not to take yourself so seriously and laugh with and at others when humorous things happen. Guys flip each other sh*t plain and simple. Learn to deal with it or you're going to have a hard time living as an adult male in this world. Sometimes, yes - boys will be boys and its best to learn how to be one of the boys to get along in life... its not fair, its not right - but it is an undeniable truth of life. Our choice is do we acknowledge that it happens and prepare youth for it, or pretend it doesn't happen and attempt to change the behavoir?

I think the point Beav is trying to make is just because someone is acting outside the rules of G2SS and they may or may not be aware of it, you can still use good judgement, tact, and those two points of the scout law "friendly" and "curteous" when approaching them to correct their actions. You say "hey, this probably isn't a good idea given the amount of kids around, and its not really allowed at cub activities / check out the G2SS.... I know you probably do this as a family activity, but at schout functions, its a no,no... etc..." What you DO NOT do is, "This is the rule. I am the rule nazi and I'll tell you WHY you are wrong and if you don't like it, I'll get the camp staff involved... etc..." A little bit of tact goes a LONG way towards mutal respect in a situation like this (or in posting an opposing viewpoint on a web board - but I digress). This is something sorely lacking in society in general and I fear, in the scouting community as well. DeanRx

1) headlamp 2) Spork-a-knife... my mess kit now consists of ONE untensil, an old Army canteen cup and 1/2 of an old BSA mess kit. I can eat for a week with those 3 things if need be. 3) Big Agnes zero degree rated mummy bag w/ trapizoid footbox! I can finally fit my shoulders comfortably into a mummy bag and my feet have room to move, but still stay warm. Big $$, but it'll last me forever as I assume I'm finished growing in size. 4) A gorrilla pod for my digital still camera and flip share video camera. One of those inventions you see, its so simple, yet so great. Why couldn't I have thought of that !?!? Was thinking of getting a MSR pocket rocket, but I'm kind of partial to my old Coleman exponent single burner. A little bigger, but its fuel and fire all in one, doesn't junk up with temp or altitude like propane, and although I'll likely never use it like this, you can run it on unleaded gas without a conversion kit (if the end of the world comes - or at least the 'big one' finally hits SoCal).

I've met one person at a district trainer event... we didn't realize that we were both on the boards until we were packing up after training and got to chatting with others about online resources for information. He's a nice guy. I'm pretty sure our views differ on the 3G issues, but thats a 3000 ft level. As for our views on how the program can best serve youth, we're pretty much together on it. Funny how that can happen in scouting...