Down the road?

[BadenP]

 

"There comes a point where the values of scouting of my day are no longer the values of scouting of the future" - Barry, (or even of todays scouting).

 

Barry well said. One of my personal goals and obligations as a scout leader today is to instill in my crew adults and youth a real sense of those values so that they continue to get carried down to future generations. In our crews case a sense of respect for the beauty and sacredness of the outdoors, and our obligation to help protect and preserve it for future generations. While at the same time learning how to enjoy all the wonderful experiences nature has to offer us. I am so grateful that this message has become the core theme for our crew. You know if all us "old time scouters" could do the same thing in their units we would in essence help preserve the true values of scouting, no matter what direction National goes. You may not always be able to fight city hall, but there are always avenues open to go around it.

[Kudu]

JMHawkins writes:

 

Kudu talks about patrols camping 300 feet apart - if you're going into a Wilderness Area you can't have more than 12 in your party, so with two-deep adult leadership, you can't even take two full patrols anyway.

 

Usually this rule applies only to state and county venues. In my experience such parties of 12 are considered independent if they camp a mile or two apart. This means you only need two adults for every ten gung-ho backpackers.

 

There are no such limits in National Forests, so long as you camp at least 300 feet from the nearest road, parking lot, trailhead, or developed campsite. National Forests are good for younger Scouts.

 

And most (if not all) Scout camps will allow you to camp your Patrols 300 feet apart if you know who to ask about the "primitive" areas. Of course if your Patrol Boxes weigh 100-200 pounds and your adults weigh 200-300 pounds then, yes, it will seem as though Baden-Powell's Patrol System minimum standard is "old-fashioned" and "unreasonable."

 

JMHawkins writes:

 

There are plusses of course, but overall I see it getting harder to just go explore the great outdoors. I'm saddened that BSA isn't doing more to fight that. Seems like they could generate a lot of support for maintaining access.

 

Fight what? Camping Merit Badge allows any cupcake to "earn" Eagle without ever walking into the woods with a pack on his back. The whole point of Wood Badge is that "21st century" Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class can be earned in two days (ItOLS), which is same number of hours as most summer camp first year programs. If anything, the BSA restricts access to the great outdoors by relacing outdoor skills with "leadership skills."

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

http://kudu.net

 

[JMHawkins]

Thanks Barry, we're still plugging away. I think you're right about a different vision for folks who weren't Scouts as a kid. I think a lot of their image of Boy Scouts is the Leadership/Eagle/Help little old ladies across the street sort of thing. Which is part of Scouting, most certainly, but I don't think they realize (at least until they've seen the results) that the Outdoor program is the most important tool in delivering the character development.

 

But I'll give our Committee a big thank you. It's mostly folks who were not Boy Scouts as kids, but they have been willing to trust those of us who were as we get a new troop off the ground. You can see that they're nervous at times, not quite sure about these crazy ideas, but they've stood behind us and let us roll out a real patrol method, boy-led, outdoor program. We're starting to see results 6 months in. The mother of one of our PLs told me last week that she's amazed at the difference in her son since he joined (new troop, all the leaders are new scouts, they're getting a crash course). We just had our 2nd CoH, and I was looking at some pictures from our very first campout back in April. It suddenly hit me how much more mature the boys looked now. I think we're doing something right, so we should probably keep doing it.

 

Kudu:

And most (if not all) Scout camps will allow you to camp your Patrols 300 feet apart if you know who to ask about the "primitive" areas

 

We're going to a local Scout camp next month. We've got separate campsites for each patrol (and another for the adults plus the Webelos who are joining us). They should at the very least be out of sight of each other. Does 200 ft + trees and bushes = 300 feet? Some of the Scouts who did Wilderness Survival at summer camp want to give it another shot in the primitive area and try to teach their buddies how to do it. We'll see what they think when we get there - November in the Cascade foothills will be a little different experience than July. Dump camping will let us have lots of dry clothes on hand at least if they go through with it.

 

We'll be taking our ~30 lb Patrol Boxes instead of backpacking it. We're still gearing up and got some donated Coleman green stoves, but we're a little short of backpacking stoves. Getting there though. And I will be hauling my 250 lbs self up the hill too (I do meet the Philmont BMI guidelines, thankyouverymuch).