Originally posted by Jean Poitiers My girls' scout camp is only going to be about 60 miles southeast of Poitiers this year, so my wife and I are going to help with the pre-camp set-up (a weekend) and the post-camp teardown/pack-up ... Last year it was in Brittany, near Loirent, and my wife and I drove up to "help out" for a couple of days ... kitchen duty, some logistics help, etc. We stayed at a hotel and went to the beach a few times, so not a total loss ... and before that we spent a few days in Rennes ... J
Originally posted by dansamy I do NOT go camping with the Boy Scouts! They smell pretty rank after a couple days.
Originally posted by Jean Poitiers Same thing on this side of the Atlantic ... plus, camp fee "over-runs" ... bingo, same here, too. J
I've camped with the Boy Scouts for
25 30 years. In my general experience -
- Smelly boys is a failure of youth (and adult, since they taught the youth) leadership
- Questionable diet is a failure of youth (and adult, since they taught the youth) leadership
- Unsafe practices is a failure of youth (and adult, since they taught the youth) leadership
I think you get my message.
These days I teach
experienced adult leaders how to teach
new adult leaders how to
BE adult leaders (basically, just go to the back of the room and shut up), which is to say how to teach youth to lead the Scouting Program. IMHO there is nothing an adult does in the Scout Program aside from driving a car and using a Credit Card that cannot and should not be done by a youth member.
The other thing I do is coordinate all the Eagle Scout Boards of Review in my District. I have about 125 volunteers who perform the Reviews, all of them trained by me and my team to provide a fair and correct Review. Depending on the year my Council performs between 1100 and 1300 Reviews (2 per Eagle Candidate) and recognize between 550 and 625 Eagle Scouts annually. My District Team performs between 40% and 45% of those.
Earning their way is part of the deal if their parents choose, - but we're also prepared to let them decide how to earn it, and for them to fail, and to support them and teach them when they do, and to put them back in a position to lead once again immediately after they do - etc.