General Scouting Thread - BSA + GSA

[Sbbruin 21,829]

@atomheartbevo I think that is very well thought out.  If they dig their heels in on the religious thing, that is just one more major headwind they will face.  There were ZERO Cub Scouts who bridged from Pack 1 to Troop 1.  First time ever.  Fortunately the next webelo class is pretty big.  But they can't be putting up roadblocks, or it will die.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

We returned yesterday.  1 Week in Elbert, Colorado @ Camp Cris Dobbins.  Located approx. 75 minutes SE of Denver.

 

 

 

I took a lot of pics; will see what I can get to upload via the computer (TapaTalk has been a pic uploading headache for over 1/2 a year now).

We overnighted @ the Amarillo KOA (Kamping Kabins) on the way N, no tents required - quick in & out.

Stayed @ Palo Duro Canyon on the way back & saw "Texas, the Musical".  If you ever do go through there, eat somewhere other than the concession by the amphitheater; the Q is horrendous.

Food during Camp was maybe a 6 out of 10... we had some kind of dry "chicken" on day 1 & I swear, every day after that @ lunch or dinner, there was an attempt to disguise the chicke as something else simply to try & get rid of it.

Hamburgers served like a hockey puck & room temperature cold.  "Salad bar" typically consisted of lettuce + salad dressing.  Gave us variable additives for the "salad"... one day, celery (that didn't appear again), whole sliced tomatoes, crumbled egg, diced onions... if on a complete bar, sure - good.  1 at a time, however, was odd.

I ended up being the #2 on the equestrian program because one of their "Camp Counselors" hurt her leg somehow & got swapped into the HQ office.  Got probably 4 hours of saddle time for 4-1/2 days.  "Drive to Colorado to ride someone else's horses for 4+ days."

Did   "Cowboy shooting" with Monster... nothing I can't do in my back yard (.22 single action revolver, double barrel shotgun) however they DID have black powder & we did 5 shots ea. on that (the SASS people assisting on that were confused that I had paid for 5 shots each vs. the typical 1 each).

Oh, & our weather was 1 day a high temp of 82 with avg. overnight lows between 55 ~ 60 & the 1st night was down to 45.  No rain to contend with.  Sucks to be back in Central Texas.

Monster's MB classes were Nuclear Science, Radio, Shooting Sports & ...um... I don't recall if there was a 4th.

I'll try to upload pics via m computer.

There WAS a shitload of walking.  This place is fairly well spread out.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

These 1st 2 uploads are video from my drone - don't know if they will work here.  The first video is of the horse corral area

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

First arrival @ camp, first meal with the mystery chicken.  Pic of the dining hall.  We had adult spaces below with separate showers & their Gilwell hall.  Someone brought out a Starlink setup, so we were able to do work via that connection if you were computer equipped.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

We didn't use the provided canvas tents for anything other than exterior storage.  Hiker Direct sells a fold-down cabinet thing & I might get that if we go to camp again next year.  It would definitely assist for a long-term camping stay so you don't have to constantly shift & sift through a footlocker.  Also, I need a larger dirty clothes storage thing.  We could only bring vehicles in for dropping off the troop trailer & then they had to go back to the parking lot while the trailer stayed.

 

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

Dining hall / handwashing stations / picnic benches underneath the main dining hall & Gilwell / showers / adult use bathrooms under the mai building. the elevated area.

 

Canvas tents (no bueno for keeping bugs out).

First night's campfire with a "Jumanji" theme.  Plenty of lame / Dad Jokes, some camp staff songs that only they could understand.

Lots of walking to get wherever you needed to go - I probably did close to 30 miles walking over the course of 1 week.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

That last video up ^ is Monster taking in the scenery on our 1st evening.

 

Here, the HQ.  Then, inside where they have various classes & do Woodbadge stuff as well.

Pizza on the 2nd day when we had lunch - the Scout next to me had a very VERY burnt slice of pizza.

My inside the tent clothes rod - kept things fairly less wrinkled, easy to reach & also for drying off.  I cut little slots in the top of the PVC so the hangers wouldn't slide & notched to ends so it wouldn't roll on the rope.

Monday @ 1600, we had an adult shoot around for Trap; I had 4 / 5.  Remington Express Magnum 870's.

 

 

Then some plinking with .22's & over to the axe throwing (1st time for that, prob. 1/3 accurate).

Back to dinner with a very VERY suspect "sausage" (was more like a bad hot dog) & more views of my tent setup.

 

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

Starting with the equestrian pics.  This 1st Palomino is named "Mooch".  We hada couple of disagreements on day 1, but then wen he realized he had an experienced driver on board, all was well.  I'd gladly go back to Colorado to bring him back down.

 

The other Palomino is named "Spurs".  He has a busted face - the story is that when Spurs was a colt, he somehow got a broken jaw (no intel on how that happened) & it healed / calcified the way you'll see in the pics.  He eats fine, takes a bit (they had a Hackamore on him) & if you knock on it with your knuckles, it sounds like y ou're knocking on a wooden desk... no flinch, no blink.  Solid.

Then there's the paints = the tan & white is "Tonto".  Again, he had to learn that the rider was a rider & not a passenger & all was well.  For all of these horses, I did an occasional roll back or weaving around trees to remind them that I was in charge.

For all of the trail work, I was riding drag.

The black & white Paint was "Shadow" & he was probably the most boring of them all.  Mooch was my favorite.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

We used my truck daily for both AM & PM saddle moves.  Faster / easier than walking them from the tack shed to the paddock.

One day on the AM push from the pasture down to the paddock, (horses get turned out in to probably 100 acres of grazing overnight) I found a skull - I am thinking some sort of canine type & that's based on the size & tooth layout.

Another horse pic; this swaybacked example is "Mo" & I was not at all interested in riding him but the lighter Scouts seemed to do OK.  He responded well enough to their commands & had no interest in speed.

Insurance required everyone to wear helmets (& yes, it absolutely IS safer... I need to get my cowboy hatted mentality to wear a helmet when @ home).

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

"Cowboy shooting" with Monster + sunset pics.

"Spurs" with the fat jaw + "Shadow".

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

With Coral, who ran the equestrian program.  She's brushing out her hair with a horse brush that had been used on a horse tail not less than 3 minutes earlier.

Riding "Shadow" the black & white paint & then on Mooch again.

 

Last pic, finally got a full salad with cheese, tomatoes (that I again had to cut up), some egg crumbles & the celery returned.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

Palo Duo Canyon.  Took in "Texas - the Musical".  Pretty good stuff.  Would return.

Skip the onsite "BBQ Dinner" - was horrid.

Had a tarantula encounter when we came back after the show & saw 2 of them in the morning when we were packing up.

 

If anyone has intel or stories about the 2 holes in the canyon wall ("was occasionally used by..." or "they once found _____ inside... " I'd like to hear it. 

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

We saw a mountain lion on the way out & I stopped @ the Ranger Station to let them know; was wondering if that's a stat they keep track of, etc.

Last pic is with Monster; he's now taller than me by maybe 1/2 an inch.  15 years old.  I'm probably starting to lose height while he keeps gaining.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

Scouting adjacent:

My daughter wants to go down to SPI with the youth group for a new church she has glommed onto.  I'm all for it, no concerns (even if the wife doesn't want to spend the $$... they are going on a trip to the Galapagos Islands in mid July... it's a holdover from 2020 / Covid delays, etc. & the wife is being cheap).

 - - - - - - -

Anyway.  I asked about what the protocols are for 2 deep, etc., what sorta training the leadership has & things like that.  My wife looked @ me like I had a baby arm growing out of my head.  "This is a church group."

As if that makes any difference.  I explained that with YPT, we ALWAYS have a minimum of 2 adults if 1 youth / 2 or more youth if 1 youth, etc. & explained about something like going to the bathroom or headed a distance from point A to  point B, etc. needs 2 youth together @ all times & she's still coming back at me like this is crazy & I should be more concerned with the weather or sunburn.  I explained that any time you have adults in ANY position of authority, bad things can happen.

- teachers

- sports coaches

- clergy (no matter what religion)

- Scouts

- police / fire / medical professionals

This is one of those "Jesus light" type non denominational / mildly protestant church places & I honestly don't know if they have budgeted or even looked INTO the idea of how a program like this should be run in regards to youth safety.

She still thinks I'm overreacting.

Thoughts?

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

Dude. That’s a lot of pics.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

Dude. That’s a lot of pics.

It's like a sideshow party from the 1980's except you get to scroll on by & ignore what you want.

Sent from my SM-A326U1 using Tapatalk

[davidg 4,036]

Yeah that's a ton of pics.  6 years of summer camps when I was involved in scouts with my son and Lost Pines had the best food of any of them by far.  Salad Bar, Potato Bar and Leftovers.  Could definitely get your fill.

Don't know how old your daughter is but if I didn't personally know adults on the trip I would have a problem with it if they didn't have a defined YPT type protocols.  

 

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

On 6/27/2022 at 5:10 PM, ROFL BOX said:

Thoughts?

I’d be wary as hell, but not sure the age of your daughter.   These small churches probably don’t do much until they have an incident or one of the leaders hears about a lawsuit against another church, etc.  

[Native Horn 3,498]

When my son was in BSA, his troop was sponsored by a Catholic church as the chartering organization (maybe their Knights of Columbus chapter, don't remember).  The registered BSA adult leaders not only had to take the BSA YP Training, but also had to attend the diocesan training put on by the church.  Yes, well documented that both BSA and the Catholic church have greater than their fair share of sexual abuse of children, so I had no qualms attending both.

I would be somewhat hesitant to send my daughter on a trip to the beach without some assurances about how they handle youth protection.

[Saint Tacky 1,614]

Daughter picked up her Gold Award, finally. Have now set her Eagle award ceremony for mid-August and she'll join a small group of young women with both Eagle and Gold. We are very proud of her.

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

18 hours ago, Saint Tacky said:

Daughter picked up her Gold Award, finally. Have now set her Eagle award ceremony for mid-August and she'll join a small group of young women with both Eagle and Gold. We are very proud of her.

Excellent.
We had a couple of female Scouts @ camp & our "guide" was an ...um... maybe 19 year old? ... that was in the "Inaugural Class" of female Eagles.  She had been in GSA & the split second girls were permitted to join, she dropped GSA & humped it to get her Eagle - did that apparently in 2-1/2 years or less.

 

I'd pos rep you 3x if I could.

 

Also, Roxette is 17 now.  Burfday is on Texas Independence Day.

[Sbbruin 21,829]

Got the b&w proof of the boy's Eagle photo. Proud of this young man.

[Sbbruin 21,829]

Daughter picked up her Gold Award, finally. Have now set her Eagle award ceremony for mid-August and she'll join a small group of young women with both Eagle and Gold. We are very proud of her.

As you should be. My daughter is going for her gold now, but she just can't seem to buckle down on it.

[Saint Tacky 1,614]

35 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

As you should be. My daughter is going for her gold now, but she just can't seem to buckle down on it.

Same! She took her foot off the accelerator and my wife was completely over it. Tension was running high. The boy and I were about to move out. 

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

Got the b&w proof of the boy's Eagle photo. Proud of this young man.

Congratulations to the boy and his parents!

[Sbbruin 21,829]

Had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor yesterday.  Very proud of him.  Love that boy.

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

Had his Eagle Scout Court of Honor yesterday.  Very proud of him.  Love that boy.

Fantastic.

Just got back from taking our Pack to a sleepover at Space Center Houston. Highly recommend it. It was a very well run program. About 2/3 of the attendees went down to Galveston to camp on the beach. I had to pass on that.

Maybe in October.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

Friend called me up tonight because they are getting ready for their first Pinewood Derby tomorrow and he was slightly panicked that he was having an issue with the wheels. I told him that if he's not putting the wheels on 15 minutes before the derby starts, he's doing it wrong....errrr...right.  I told him that with our second derby, we discovered that the car was left at the grandparents over three hours away, and we had two hours, so we went up to the Fickett center/Scout Shop,  bought a new car (actually bought three), got home, cut the block so that it looked like a car instead of block of wood, sanded it, painted it, ran a hair dryer over it to dry it and then painted it again, dried it again, got the wheels on, and did all of that in under 2 hours, and he's worrying about something that's half-a-day away.  He's coming over in the morning to use our axle guide.

I think if I had to, since we already have  half-a-dozen unopened cars/blocks (spares for us and anybody else in the pack) and we've been through four derbies, that I could probably cut, sand, paint, and mount the wheels in under an hour.  That needs to be a contest next year for the parents, in addition to the parents having an open/no rules race.

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

Solid bump.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

Anecdotal, and just based on a couple of pack meetings over the last 4 weeks, but seems like our Cub Scout pack plus the packs of a few other friends are seeing an increase in interest/memberships.  We've done well over the past year (obviously tanked the prior few years because of COVID), but it feels like we are seeing something different and not merely getting back to pre-COVID interest.  Not just the kindergartners and 1st graders either but all grades, and a decent number of girls.

I am wondering if stuff the kids started during COVID in place of scouts has lost its luster (various sports or whatever), or if we hit some kind of critical mass over the past 3-4 months and a bunch of kids got their friends to join.  

Just kind of odd/interesting, but in a good way.  More kids = more parents = more volunteers = good.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

And it's great that Cub Scouts can officially camp over two nights.  Many/most were doing an unofficial Friday night campout and then an official Saturday night campout, but not at Wooten and other CAC facilities.  Being able to do two nights at Wooten (or anywhere officially) will be nice.

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

So is everybody in a rush to rebrand everything to Scouting America?  And hopefully your packs/troops are bouncing back and membership is increasing.  We are already pretty set for the fall.

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

So is everybody in a rush to rebrand everything to Scouting America?  And hopefully your packs/troops are bouncing back and membership is increasing.  We are already pretty set for the fall.

I wouldn’t call it a rush.

Chad Jr. crossed over into ScoutsBSA in March and has been enjoying it.

This Sunday, I’m going to my last summer send off for the Pack I helped found in 2019. It’s going great. I told them they had me until end of May.

Now I’ve already been recruited as Troop Committee Chair at Jr’s troop. I thought I might get some time off but I suppose that was unrealistic!

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

So our pack is doing much better than expected in the younger dens. It's going to be a good year, but it seems like a lot of Packs are struggling with their Webelos II/Arrow of Light numbers - that seems to be the group hit hardest by the COVID year.

Anyways, I get an email from the Scout Shop showing off some new hoodies.

The Eagle Scout hoodie has a nice olive color, but I was not an Eagle Scout, so I pass.

https://www.scoutshop.org/scouting-america-eagle-scout-hoodie-olive-adult-s-2xl.html

Look at the non-Eagle Scout Hoodie and I'm like "I might get that for me or my son or both of us" in olive.  Go to the link.

https://www.scoutshop.org/scouting-america-hoodie-maroon-adult-s-2xl.html

Maroon-only?

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

On 9/25/2024 at 10:27 AM, atomheartbevo said:

So our pack is doing much better than expected in the younger dens. It's going to be a good year, but it seems like a lot of Packs are struggling with their Webelos II/Arrow of Light numbers - that seems to be the group hit hardest by the COVID year.

Anyways, I get an email from the Scout Shop showing off some new hoodies.

The Eagle Scout hoodie has a nice olive color, but I was not an Eagle Scout, so I pass.

https://www.scoutshop.org/scouting-america-eagle-scout-hoodie-olive-adult-s-2xl.html

Look at the non-Eagle Scout Hoodie and I'm like "I might get that for me or my son or both of us" in olive.  Go to the link.

https://www.scoutshop.org/scouting-america-hoodie-maroon-adult-s-2xl.html

Maroon-only?

Innerdasting.  Our Pack excelled during/after Covid because we were essentially the only game in town actually doing stuff as a group (within Covid guidelines of course - so much as you can expect the under 10 set to follow those).  The Troop we've currently moved into however, suffered mightily to the point that there is basically no one over 14 left.  That cohort just didn't complete the crossover.  We have have a bunch of the pre-Covid guys aging out, but that 14-17 cohort just isn't there which means that we're at a deficit of older Scouts around to teach the younger, as it should be.  We've got a couple of the older 14 yr olds who are trying to pick up that slack, but we really miss them.  It doesn't help that we lost a few to the local Venturing crew as well. 

[atomheartbevo 89,623]

On 9/26/2024 at 11:35 AM, Chad Fuck said:

Innerdasting.  Our Pack excelled during/after Covid because we were essentially the only game in town actually doing stuff as a group (within Covid guidelines of course - so much as you can expect the under 10 set to follow those).  The Troop we've currently moved into however, suffered mightily to the point that there is basically no one over 14 left.  That cohort just didn't complete the crossover.  We have have a bunch of the pre-Covid guys aging out, but that 14-17 cohort just isn't there which means that we're at a deficit of older Scouts around to teach the younger, as it should be.  We've got a couple of the older 14 yr olds who are trying to pick up that slack, but we really miss them.  It doesn't help that we lost a few to the local Venturing crew as well. 

I wonder how much of these problems we've seen are due to parents checking out on extracurricular activities during/after COVID?  We had problems just as COVID was hitting, with the leadership turning over, and that group of 5th graders not continuing with Scouting - which would be the 14-15 year-olds.

In our instance, with the Pack and some of the others I've seen, I think the current 5th graders were hit hard because that was the group that would have just been getting into Scouting as little kids before other activities could take root (baseball, soccer, etc.).  We tried to navigate COVID as best we could, and rebuilt our groups successfully afterward (bigger and better than pre-COVID) and both our Pack and the Troop we feed into are doing fine, but we also have some solid leadership.

I find it interesting that all of the sudden, the national council is pushing everybody to crossover their AOL Scouts to the Troops in December (or earlier if we can), and to start having our AOL Scouts camping with the Troops starting last month. I know they were testing stuff last year, and I know they started putting out the information earlier this year about crossing over early, but it seems like things accelerated recently. My guess is they are trying to get the incoming middle-schoolers fully into their Troops before middle-school activities take over.  And I don't have a problem with that at all - I felt like Webelos II was just us spinning our wheels and shadowing the Troop anyways, since Boy Scouts were having to run most of the requirements for them.

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

Alright my Scouters.  Who here as done Wood Badge, and if you did, what did you find to be rewarding/meaningful/easy tickets?

I started mine this past weekend and have a second weekend in about two weeks.  I'd like to work with my advisor to get all my tickets approved before showing up on the second weekend.

 

[ROFL BOX 6,647]

@Chad Fuck

What is the theme for your Wood Badge course?  Ours was "Diversity" & it went OK for a bit; I tried to get some connection with the local Hispanic kids however I came to find out that if any with "foreign exchange / originated S of the border" parents, they typically view Scouting as "for the rich" & the most these parents do with / for their kids regarding community activities is put them in soccer.

I was able to get one recruit - he was a Sophomore @ the time & stuck with the Troop for 1 full year, got to 1st Class, but never returned for what would have been his Junior year.  I even tried (through translated conversation with his Mom) to get him on scholarship to our Summer camp trip to Colorado (see voluminous pics prior) however he simply faded away,  I have no idea if there was any input or participation from a father figure.

 

Anyhow, what's your theme?

 

 

[Chad Fuck 17,658]

[mention=699]Chad Fuck[/mention]
What is the theme for your Wood Badge course?  Ours was "Diversity" & it went OK for a bit; I tried to get some connection with the local Hispanic kids however I came to find out that if any with "foreign exchange / originated S of the border" parents, they typically view Scouting as "for the rich" & the most these parents do with / for their kids regarding community activities is put them in soccer.
I was able to get one recruit - he was a Sophomore @ the time & stuck with the Troop for 1 full year, got to 1st Class, but never returned for what would have been his Junior year.  I even tried (through translated conversation with his Mom) to get him on scholarship to our Summer camp trip to Colorado (see voluminous pics prior) however he simply faded away,  I have no idea if there was any input or participation from a father figure.
 
Anyhow, what's your theme?
 
 

Our theme is “The Power of One” which is essentially the idea that one person can make a big difference in their little corner of the world. The WB Scoutmaster opened with the story of the kid throwing starfish that had washed up onto the shore back in to the ocean if that gives some context.

I don’t think they’re making an ask as specific to a particular theme as yours sounds like.