Where's the adventure that was promised?

[Stosh]

Female?  Heck, my wife spent 25 years in Alaska working for the National Forestry Service.   She's not a Scouter, but with no training at all, I'm thinking she could out scout-craft 90% of the Scouters out there. 

 

The helicopter drops you off in a clearing marked on the map.  Your responsibility is to check a number of survival cabins and make sure they are still supplied.  Survey the possible lumber yield, and be at a pickup point anywhere from 50 to 75 miles away in 6 days.  The reason why it was done this way was because the area was totally inaccessible except on foot.

 

Never assume the women don't know what they're doing.  In today's society, both men and women are often nature naive.

[Eagledad]

 

It's an inexperienced adult issue, period. Many units have no women involved and they still have problems keeping up the adventure. An inexperienced male leader can be far more detrimental to the adventurous spirit of a unit than an experienced female leader. 

Exactly! Now you understand the complexity of how membership can dilute the present quality of the program. There is no way around it. 

 

Your example isn't quite complete, however, odds are the woman entered the program with little or no adventurous experience. So in your analogy, the women was far more detrimental to the adventurous spirit until she got experience. At least three years. The problem is that as the program gets more inexperienced adults than experience adults, the program will change toward the greater membership demographic. The program will have less adventure, at least at the weekend camping level.

 

Barry

Edited March 6, 2017 by Eagledad

[Stosh]

Mom and dad are standing at the base of a large tree.  Their child starts to climb it.  It doesn't make one iota of difference whether their child is a girl or a boy.  But the vast majority of time the Mom will call out, "Be careful!" while the majority of Dads will call out, "How high can you go?!!!"

 

The reader can draw their own conclusion what this little story may indicate about being around adventurous people.

[ParkMan]

But a good troop should be able to absorb and train less experienced adults.

 

Senior leaders should have had the knowledge of how to plan for adventure passed down to them. They in turn pass it along to the next folks.

 

My troop is somewhere in the middle. The biggest problem we seem to have are adults stuck doing the same trips over and over again .

[Ankylus]

Oh - and Summit and Seabase isn't High Adventure?  Check your adult bias - to a 14 year old boy from Iowa, a week at Seabase will be a high adventure.  To a 15 year old boy from Kansas, a week at Summit learning whitewater kayaking will be a high adventure.

 

<mic drop>

 

I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally discover who the King of the Board is! I wish you could experience my appropriately obsequious posture and demeanor just now. I shall endeavor to properly observe your clearly superior intellectual, moral, and physical person at all time in the future.

 

That an activity thrills a scout does not necessarily mean it is high adventure. Otherwise, riding a roller coaster or an afternoon at the rock gym would be "high adventure". Whitewater kayaking CAN be a high adventure. And it is a thrilling activity. But the way it is experienced Summit is not high adventure. Similarly, deep sea fishing is high adventure? No, it's a long day of fun. (Now, the scuba diving and tall ship, on the other hand, I could go with.)

 

You cheapen the words. 

 

Check your arrogance. <mic drop>

Edited March 10, 2017 by Ankylus

[Col. Flagg]

[picking up the mic]

 

Isn't what constitutes high adventure relative?

 

My brother lives in Montana. If he were to do deep sea fishing for a week on a boat his kids would consider that high adventure. My sister lives in Kiawah and they are always on the water. A week in the mountains hiking would be high adventure to them. To a kid living in the plains who has never seen mountains or the sea, either would be the trip of a life time. To a kid from Chicago's inner city, a week at the Summit in canvas tents would be high adventure.

 

I would agree there are degrees of what constitutes high adventure, but I don't think there's one single definition.

 

[puts mic back in the stand for the next person]

Edited March 10, 2017 by Col. Flagg

[Ankylus]

[picking up the mic]

 

Isn't what constitutes high adventure relative?

 

My brother lives in Montana. If he were to do deep sea fishing for a week on a boat his kids would consider that high adventure. My sister lives in Kiawah and they are always on the water. A week in the mountains hiking would be high adventure to them. To a kid living in the plains who has never seen mountains or the sea, either would be the trip of a life time. To a kid from Chicago's inner city, a week at the Summit in canvas tents would be high adventure.

 

I would agree there are degrees of what constitutes high adventure, but I don't think there's one single definition.

 

[puts mic back in the stand for the next person]

 

I agree, and I admit there is reasonable minds can disagree. 

[Stosh]

If it were me, my first year scouts would think high adventure is their first week at camp.  Maybe before that they might think their first camporee is high adventure.  My older boys might think a week long float down the Mississippi river might be high adventure and my boys just about to age out might think a float on the Yukon is high adventure.

 

Start with talking to your boys to see what they think.  What YOU think is irrelevant.

Edited March 10, 2017 by Stosh