Inspire Me, Please.

[packsaddle]

JoeBob, I agree with Barry's viewpoint--the younger scouts are your target audience, the foundation for a true outdoor troop. The senior scouts are too set in their ways. They'll move on eventually.

 

The Tenderfoot and Second Class scouts are absorbing the outdoor emphasis, even if they don't realize it right now. The spark is there--the hike where they saw the bear, looking at a campfire with a deep bed of glowing coals and thinking "hey I started that with one match," cooking dinner in the rain yet surviving it with good humor, leaving the tent rolled up and falling asleep looking at a million stars.... These moments are taking root. When they are First Class and Star, they'll be ready to actively transform the troop culture from car-camping to adventure, at the scout level.

 

The very best days of the troop are just ahead.....

Better yet, "I started that with no matches" and looking at the stars, "I can figure out where I am on earth by looking at those". Best of all, the secure feeling of knowing that they have the skills to survive if they did get into a survival situation, maybe help others to survive as well...THAT is a source of real leadership.

[DuctTape]

You will almost always have a core group that is truly interested in being outdoors. Have a well-skilled ASM invite them by invitation only (because he feels like it) on some outings that won't cost them much but are truly woodcraft. Hopefully, they will have such a great time that word will spread and a growing number will put away their computers and pick up their hike staves.

In teaching knots, you also have to teach the useful applications. What's this knot good for? Why this knot and not that one? If I want to bundle these poles together what knot works best and prove it. Many will be interested in learning the Cliff Jacobson's Trucker's Knot because it sounds so macho.

Lastly, stop providing subscriptions to Boy's Life. Get them all Backpacker Magazine instead

I had typed up a longer response to the OP yesterday, but the system had an error and it didn't post. That said, I agree with much of what boomer said. In my original post, I wrote a bit about the scout skills like knots. The purpose of all of them is, as boomer wrote, in their application. Thus the place to teach and practice them is not in the scout meetings but first in the outdoors. Lastly, while I agree with boomers sentiment about the magazine, I am not a fan of Backpacker. Like BL, it has devolved from what was once a great mag. It now is just a giant ad for expensive gear.

[desertrat77]

JoeBob, I agree with Barry's viewpoint--the younger scouts are your target audience, the foundation for a true outdoor troop. The senior scouts are too set in their ways. They'll move on eventually.

 

The Tenderfoot and Second Class scouts are absorbing the outdoor emphasis, even if they don't realize it right now. The spark is there--the hike where they saw the bear, looking at a campfire with a deep bed of glowing coals and thinking "hey I started that with one match," cooking dinner in the rain yet surviving it with good humor, leaving the tent rolled up and falling asleep looking at a million stars.... These moments are taking root. When they are First Class and Star, they'll be ready to actively transform the troop culture from car-camping to adventure, at the scout level.

 

The very best days of the troop are just ahead.....

Very true Pack, I was suggesting "one step at a time"...once the Tenderfoot gets the hang of it with one match, next thing he knows, he's a Second or First Class, a little older, more seasoned and ready to try the flint.