Summercamp 2013, Part 2

Well, it was a another great year at summercamp. Our 9 boys that went this year earned 33 merit badges and 10 partials. We had 2 boys earn their Polar Bear swim patches and 3 leaders earned their Scoutmaster's merit badge. Every boy earned honor Scout and the Troop earned Honor Unit. There's a lot to be proud of. 

We did learn a few things as well. We had 1 Scout who was upset homesick. We did a pretty good job at calming him down each night of trouble, but we had another Scout who was homesick and showed it a different way. He was defiant. I'd never personally experienced that before. He would quit on activities and refused to get up or participate at times. It was very difficult to handle. We dealt with it, but it took us too many days to figure it out. We also had a few kids that didn't want to eat. We had 1 Scout who was a returner that will only eats few items, none of which are good and healthy for him. I had a long talk with his mother and she just refuses to make him eat properly. The sad part is, I don't think he has the drive to become an Eagle. Sometimes I wonder if he even wants to be a Scout. The last part of our learning process was the partial merit badges. The council had told everyone what the prerequisites were for each merit badge. We, as leaders, passed that on to the Scouts and their parents. But, some just didn't listen to the advice. Summercamp is expensive in today's world, whether or not the Scouts earned their way or their parents paid their way, partials just suck. We will push even harder next year for those merit badges that have prerequisites. They must be done!  

Our Order of the Arrow lodge has gotten a new advisor. When I was a Scout, the ceremonies team memorized their lines. Last year, when my son got his brotherhood, they read off of cards and the ceremony sucked.  It was disappointing. This year, when an Assistant Scoutmaster crossed over to Brotherhood, they memorized their lines and the ceremony was incredible.  The ASM said that he felt like he was 14 again and going through Ordeal all over again. We all got goosebumps.  On the Friday night campfire last year, the tap-out was weak. This year, again it was breathtaking. After it was over, every Scout in our Troop said it was awesome. It was so good, I want to go up again to watch the tap-out ceremony again. Great job to the Scouts and their new advisor!

All in all, it was a great week. The coffee cart that comes around every morning is one of my favorite things. Our Scoutmaster and myself even drive it a couple of mornings. We've talked about maybe looking at a different camp, but with meeting all of the out of council Troops that were there this week, I can't see why we would.  Yes, our council is small and very weak as far as program goes, but our Camp is a great one. It's the staff of camp mostly that makes it so great, but our Ranger makes that camp what it is too. He cares about having the best camp around. He's proud of the fact that so many out of council Troops come here that he's creating new campsites to accommodate more Scouts. 

Thank you too all the staffers out there who make summercamps fun. Thank you to all the leaders who take vacations to be therefor their Scouts. And thank you to all the boys who go and experience the greatness of summercamp. We can't wait for next years week!!

Until next time, Yours in Scouting,

Eagle Scout Doug

Summercamp 2013

So as I sit here in my nice air-conditioned house on the evening before we leave for summercamp this year, I just smile thinking about all that we have done and are going to do with this Troop. I was reading the local paper and yet again we were featured in it for a flag retirement ceremony we helped out with. Last year, myself and our Scoutmaster took 5 boys to summercamp. Only 1 of the 5 had ever been to camp before. It was amazing watching how each of these boys grew during that week. We are taking 9 boys to camp this year and 4 of the 5 boys from last year are going again. That means, we have 5 new boys this year. It is going to be so much fun watching each of the 9 boys this year grow. We are so lucky to have the leaders we have, the boys we have and the family support we have. Having an active program is what makes a Troop successful. Yes, we all have our struggles, but as long as you learn from your mistakes and improve upon them, that's what makes a difference in these boys' lives. For anyone starting a new Troop or improve an established one, let me give you one piece of advice. At the least, download the BSA's Program Resources. You can find them in PDF form online, there are 4 books. We have focused a lot over the past year and a half on getting boys advanced. Now that our number of Scouts has increased, we really need to focus on having the right program for them. I have downloaded them and as we approach our 2nd annual Troop planning conference, I've read quite a bit of them and see a huge value in them. They can give you the outline for your next 12 months and then turn it over to your PLC and let them have fun with it! We just had a Court of Honor last week. 6 boys advanced. Before summercamp is over, 5 more will advance. I am hopeful that my own son will advance to Life before he heads to the Jamboree in 3 weeks. He needs 1 more Eagle required merit badge, a Scoutmasters conference and a Board of Review. I believe he's prepared to earn a minimum of 5 merit badges this coming week. Communications, Citizenship in the Nation, Emergency Preparedness, Canoeing and Computers. There are a few independent study merit badges that he can earn too, but I'm not going to push too hard on those. I am so excited for him to go to Jamboree. I remember going to the 75th at Fort AP Hill. It was amazing. I also remember going to the 100th and visiting for the day with my oldest son. Although the leadership of our council's troop is horrible, I am grateful that he knows how to have fun and I know he will get the most out of it as he can. I will be going out on the Saturday of the Arena Show for a visit. It's a hard pill to swallow when they want $50 just so you can see your Scout that you spent a ton of money on to go there! I do believe it will be worth it though. I haven't talked much about my younger son, but I will tell you that my little Bear Cub is headed for 4 days of summercamp himself. It is going to be a "rustic" type of camp, with coonskin caps and all. He is very excited to be going. He has asked a number of times if he can just skip Cub Scouts and become a Boy Scout. He's a funny kid, and really can't wait to be able to do the stuff that the big kids do. Yet another future Eagle Scout for our family. Have a great day and I hope you enjoy my thoughts. Yours In Scouting, Eagle Scout Doug

Brand new Troop

A little over a year ago, we became fed up with the direction that our old Troop was heading and started looking for a new Troop. The Pack that my son was in never had a Troop affiliated with it.....Until March 2012. I had gotten an email and a phone call from a gentleman who was looking to start up an old Troop and wondered if we would be interested in joining. I asked if we could have an "interview" of sorts, and he quickly said sure. That was a great sign. We met with them in January 2012 and I grilled them with questions. The first thing that got me was that he is an Eagle Scout. He's a few years older than I am, but wow what a guy. He's a Scouts Scout. Well, 2 months later, we chartered, I took a new job so that I could become an ACTIVE Scouter. We started with 6 boys. A little over a year now, and we have 15 active boys. In case you didn't realize, program matters! If you give the kids something to work with, they will come! This is my field of dreams. Rich and I have become great friends, we think alike, and we have the same values in Scouting. We completed almost 300 service hours last year. We camped every month, including taking 5 boys to summercamp! 23 Rank advancements. 27 Merit Badges. We don't need no stinking badges....Sorry, i just couldn't pass that one up. And the best part is, this is a boy led Troop, with adults and parents in full support of the program. Our committee seems to be strong and still growing. Our fundraising will be getting us a trailer in the next couple of months. We do things old school. No floor, canvas tents. Remember patrol boxes? I'm not talking about plastic tubs, I'm talking homemade built out of wood patrol boxes. You wouldn't believe all the people that come to our campsite during a camporee. We've done 4 of them now, and every time there are dozens of people who are amazed. This is something that I am very proud of and I hope this is something that I can bring both of my boys up in and continue on for years to come.

Frustrated Dad

So tonight I dropped off my son to his Jamboree Troop's first shakedown. He's excited about going to the Jamboree, as I was when I went to the 75th back in '85. But I'm very concerned with this council's leadership and their ability to make it a good adventure for these kids. I've asked questions to the Scoutmaster and Committee Chairman, and I've gotten flippant answers. Basically their attitude is, that it is none of my business. So I've let it go. Until today. This morning there was an email sent out with an official packing list, release form and menu. I was happy to see that they actually did something! Until I started to actually look at it. A month ago, they asked for the medical forms to be turned in, and they were. But yet, on the packing list for this weekend was medical forms. They aren't going swimming this weekend, but yet swim suit was on the packing list. And the part that got me going even more was that they said they needed to have 5 sets of clothes, towels, shower stuff...WTH! For 2 days?? Listen, I have no problem with "borrowing" other scouting programs ideas. Copy, paste, BUT EDIT! The sad part is that I actually think that this particular Assistant Scoutmaster took it upon themselves to do this, and screwed it up too. Why do I feel like this is how things are going to go for our boys at the Jamboree? As I'm dropping my son off, I run into the Field Director for our Council. I've known him for years and he knows me well. He could tell I wasn't very happy. As soon as I started to unload on him, he pulled the typical Scout Professional, "that's the guy you need to talk to". For once in this guys life, it actually was the guy I needed to talk to. I bent his ear for a good 30 minutes and he seemed to agree with everything I was saying. But if you agree with it, why has it taken you until 2 days ago to do something about it? I'm not some independantly wealthy guy, and neither are any of the kids' families that are going and the $1200 that our council charged us is a ton of money (although I know that people paid a lot more if you're further away). Make this a big deal. Whether these leaders know it or not, this is a big deal and they should be conveying that to the Scouts. I'm going to try and behave myself for now, and hope that this weekend is the turning point for the Jamboree Troop. If not, they are going to have one vocal and upset EagleScoutDoug on their hands. I typically call my dad when I feel that my council can't seem to get anything right. The bad part is that he agrees with me. I guess the only saving grace is knowing that the big powers that be in BSA know that this is a weak council and the leadership is terrible (from a paid professional standpoint). I know that BSA is testing the merging of councils within states. Let's hope they do it to this one. Our resources would grow by 100% if it happened. Or at least someone do something about how crappy this council is. I hate talking bad about Boy Scouts. I'm greatful for everything it has done for me throughout my life. I love it! Thanks for letting me rant. I promise, I'll get back to this again and let you know how our NEW TROOP is going!