Advice for a new wood badger

[desertrat77]

1 minute ago, Double Eagle said:

  And, machetes still rock! 

I agree!  Dad was stationed in Panama/Canal Zone.  I was a brand new Boy Scout, just crossed over, first hike with the troop.  Each scout had a machete.  I was loaned one for the hike.  Deep jungle.  No adults.  Star Scout/SPL ran the show.  Everyone conducted themselves like good scouts.  Wonderful day, didn't want it to end.  I'll never forget it.

[desertrat77]

14 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

District has a winter event, we have stopped attending.  Basically run by the adults in the OA, complete with (I kid you not) 20 page handbook.  Troops and patrols are told what they should bring, how they should dress, are evaluated as such.  I asked one time why not send out a list of events, patrols bring what they think they need?  Blank stares.

My final straw was when the SPL and I went to the Friday meetings and there was a 20 minute diatribe on Safety.  Yes be safe, but Good Lord.  Then another 15 minutes health lodge processes.  MY SPL leaned over and asked is we couldn't just handle stuff at the campsite if needed, I said you bet.  In the 45 minute meeting maybe 5 minutes about the program.

Don't get me started on the convoluted formulas, secret calculations, and mystery awarded points to determine the "winner" of the camporee.  Funniest thing was at all the assemblies, etc the only ones talking were the OA adults, they had actual Scouts standing there but none of them we (I guess??) deemed worthy to be in charge.

Guess with all their WB and OA training they missed the whole youth

 

Sounds like our neck of the woods too.   I was director of a multi-district camporee a few years go.  I tried to my best to buck these nanny-state trends.  Had some success.  At the cracker barrel I stressed my thanks and respect to the units that took the time to participate.  That the oath and law covered 99 percent of what we expected that weekend.  Our package was only a few pages, mostly dedicated to the events and schedule.

So after a few moments I stopped talking and asked if they had anything for me.  No?  Okay, see you around camp.

Ah, not so fast.  One of my fellow staffers, a true WBer through and through, stopped everybody from leaving.  Rather, demanded they stop and listen to him talk.  He gave them a long condescending speech about the aims of scouting, including a quiz ("Who can name the second aim of scouting?  Anybody?"), safety briefing ala tie your shoes and don't stare into the sun, etc.

Embarrassing and unnecessary.   And we wonder why units stay away from these events in droves.

And the OA advisors!  Another group of adults that should not be seen nor heard. 

Edited October 21, 2019 by desertrat77

[Eagle94-A1]

I admit I and other adults ran the show. Goal was for the Scouts to compete and have fun. All the ideas for events came the previous camporee's SPL crackerbarrel. I did use the BSA's COMPLETE WILDERNESS TRAINING book by Hugh McManners for source material. As for the book, I admit it was 20 to 30 pages, plus 4 addendum answering questions various adult unit Scouters had.

Edited.      book had ideas, sources for additional info, and a section on sheath knives.

As for knives, I got a Becker 21 kukri for Christmas and carried it that weekend.

Edited October 21, 2019 by Eagle94-A1

[Jameson76]

2 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

 As for the book, I admit it was 20 to 30 pages, plus 4 addendum answering questions various adult unit Scouters had.

Did the event book include twenty-seven 8 x 10 colored Glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of Each one explainin' what each one was?

[qwazse]

35 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

Did the event book include twenty-seven 8 x 10 colored Glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of Each one explainin' what each one was?

For fits and giggles I looked at some recent venturing packets for area gatherings ... max was 8 pages and that included the roster crews were to turn in.

[elitts]

3 hours ago, Jameson76 said:

I came to one council one to do an event only, was surprised that in an 1,800 acre reservation they had the troops all corralled in the big field when there were acres (literally) and acres of land they could have used.  There was another whole camp they didn't use.  Looked like some sort of really bad festival.  Each troop have like 100 SF and the next troop guidelines were right there.

Not sure what the thinking is for these

I know that once upon a time the nature preservationist theory was "keep the human impact contained to one space that just gets destroyed and leave the rest untouched".  I guess the ones in scouting organizations haven't figured out that the new theory is "spread everyone out thinly so the impact is light enough that nothing gets destroyed".

[Double Eagle]

And this is for DesertRat77, Did my time near Colon and JOTC as well as Ft Clayton in Panama.  The Panama Canal Council was great.  Machetes and the occasional black palm thorn through any glove or in a leg.  Not to mention, NEVER SLEEP ON THE GROUND!!!

[desertrat77]

3 minutes ago, Double Eagle said:

And this is for DesertRat77, Did my time near Colon and JOTC as well as Ft Clayton in Panama.  The Panama Canal Council was great.  Machetes and the occasional black palm thorn through any glove or in a leg.  Not to mention, NEVER SLEEP ON THE GROUND!!!

We were at Howard AFB...beautiful country, loved it there.  I agree, PCC was outstanding.

[Eagle94-A1]

Going from memory. Book had event descriptions which included an image, links and citations to help the scouts prepare, and how it would be scored. Each event had a page. Also had inspection sheets, registration info, and score cards. And short section on sheath knives.

The addendum dealt with questions adults, and a few youth, had. To be honest, the adults were more of a challenge than the youth. The scouts wanted to know what the prizes were going to be for the cook off and Halloween costume contest at campfire. All the rest of the addendums were because of adults.

Sadly a lot of what I consider common sense rules, i.e. no vehicles in campsites, no boating allowed except for the event, tomahawk throwing is a shooting sport with range rules in place, had to be in the book because of issues in last camporees. Apparently common sense ain't common any more.

[Jameson76]

4 hours ago, desertrat77 said:

Ah, not so fast.  One of my fellow staffers, a true WBer through and through, stopped everybody from leaving.  Rather, demanded they stop and listen to him talk.  He gave them a long condescending speech about the aims of scouting, including a quiz ("Who can name the second aim of scouting?  Anybody?"), safety briefing ala tie your shoes and don't stare into the sun, etc.

Not too many years ago at summer camp we had something like that happen.  We had a new Dad who was keeping up with the first year scouts.  They have a 2 hour program in the morning, request is to at least have 1 leader there if there are any behavior or attention concerns, staff brings them to the center of the area, they go back to the patrol they are working with.  Basically the leaders sort of hang out, chat, do e-mails, some do some work, etc.  

He came back to the site and told us how one person who was WB staffer, on their Council training staff, etc etc and felt as there were adult leaders there, training must be done.  She was very insistent and persistent.  Their version of discussions and making sure all were graced by their knowledge.  The area director was not really sure what to do about this.  After comments to the camp, on the second day the program director stepped in, if they wanted to do training, that was fine but they needed to do it in another area and the PD would be glad to make the announcement at the morning leader meeting.  Just needed to know the subject so interested folks could attend.

Nobody was interested.

[desertrat77]

1 hour ago, Jameson76 said:

Not too many years ago at summer camp we had something like that happen.  We had a new Dad who was keeping up with the first year scouts.  They have a 2 hour program in the morning, request is to at least have 1 leader there if there are any behavior or attention concerns, staff brings them to the center of the area, they go back to the patrol they are working with.  Basically the leaders sort of hang out, chat, do e-mails, some do some work, etc.  

He came back to the site and told us how one person who was WB staffer, on their Council training staff, etc etc and felt as there were adult leaders there, training must be done.  She was very insistent and persistent.  Their version of discussions and making sure all were graced by their knowledge.  The area director was not really sure what to do about this.  After comments to the camp, on the second day the program director stepped in, if they wanted to do training, that was fine but they needed to do it in another area and the PD would be glad to make the announcement at the morning leader meeting.  Just needed to know the subject so interested folks could attend.

Nobody was interested.

Kudos to the PD, handled the situation like a champ!

But Mr/Ms Pontificator...ugh.  They cannot bear the thought of scouters a) tending to the business of their unit and b) having free time.   Unit level scouters must put up with mandatory training/harangues at work, they certainly don't need it at a scouting event.  Involuntary attendance, especially.

[CNYScouter]

16 hours ago, Jameson76 said:

Did the event book include twenty-seven 8 x 10 colored Glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of Each one explainin' what each one was?

@Jameson76 Was the camporee theme Alice's Restaurant?

[Jameson76]

2 hours ago, CNYScouter said:

@Jameson76 Was the camporee theme Alice's Restaurant?

Weird part was the camporee  wasn't at the restaurant, it was at a church nearby the Restaurant.  We got up there and found all the garbage in there and the troops decided that it'd be a good service project for us to take the garbage down to the city dump.  So we took the half-a-ton of garbage, put it in the back of an SUV, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction, and headed on toward the city dump. 

Well, we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across the dump sayin', "this dump is closed on account of the camporee" and we'd never heard of a dump closed for a camporee, and with tears in our eyes, we drove off into the sunset lookin' for another place to put the garbage.  We didn't find one till we came to a side road, and off the side of the side road was another fifteen-foot cliff, and at the bottom of the cliff was another pile of garbage.  We decided that one big pile was a lower impact on the environment than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up, what with it being more than 4 feet and us not having climbing gear, we decided to throw ours down. That's what we did

We all drove back to the church, had a Camporee Dutch Oven dinner that couldn't be beat, had a campfire with skits and whatnot, went to sleep, and didn't get up until the next morning, when we got a phone call from Officer Obie....and you can sort of guess that is spiraled out of control from there.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Jameson76

[5thGenTexan]

In case anyone is interested.. I go Jan 26 for the first weekend. 

[ParkMan]

10 hours ago, 5thGenTexan said:

In case anyone is interested.. I go Jan 26 for the first weekend. 

That's great! Have a wonderful time!!