Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I was just wondering if anyone was involved in Scouting. No, this isn't the tye of scouting like you would do in the pits durring regionals and championships, this is scouting like Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc. My family has been heavily involved in it and I was just curious how many people in FIRST are, or were, too. So, if you are in scouting or have been in scouting, go ahead and post it. Stories to go along would be great. I'll start.

I've been a Boy Scout for about 5 years now. Recently, I have recieved my Eagle Scout award. Once, when one of our team members was still involved in scouting, we went on a week long canoe trip. Till this day, he blames it on his mom, but he brought this heavy, heavy purple bag that I could have sworn was a body bag. It barely fit in the canoe, let alone removing and portaging it!:ahh: It's just been a funny stroy ever since (not to mention how much space in the tent it took up!:eek: ).

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I was at Boy Scouts for 2 years until I moved houses. I was the troop leader. Oh man...Jamborees, canoe trips in the middle of nowhere...I miss it all:ahh: I have so many badges/patches. Speaking of Scouts, I should stop by at one of the meetings in the near future to say hi.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Girl scouts since Kindergarten. Thats... 11 years I think?

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I have been a Girl Scout since 1st grade. I have earned the Bronze Award, and I am currently working on a project for my Silver Award. A friend from my church and I are making blankets to give to children that stay in Riley Hospital for extended periods of time. We make the blankets, wrap a stuffed animal in each, put a note of encouragement attached, and deliver them to the Ronald McDonald House, which, in turn, hands them over to the actual hospital. It's a lot of fun, though it has been a little difficult lately, due to robotics and other activities that I do within the school.

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I've been involved in Boy Scouts/Cub Scouts since 3rd Grade. I attended the 2005 Jambo (Northern New Jersey Council, suckers- X-Men patches, and my troop was Wolverine! Suffice it to say that near the end, they had high trading value- :D ), and I just made Eagle Scout on March 29th of this year. Scouting is an excellent program, and extremely useful. It takes some guts sometimes to stick with the program (Scouting's kind of a teenager social taboo nowadays), but the rewards are great if you see it through.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I've been in Boy Scouts since I was a Tiger cub in 1st grade. Though I have had a lot of difficulty staying active during my past three robotics build seasons, I managed to earn my Eagle Scout award last November. Scouting stresses many of the same principles that FIRST does, and I'm glad to be a part of it. :)

A large portion of our team is involved in Scouting. Besides Miranda and I, we have at least one Girl Scout Gold award winner, one other Eagle Scout, one former Star Scout (now 18), and three Life Scouts. Also, two 234 alumni are Eagle Scouts.

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We have two Eagle Scout mentors and one team member who just made Eagle the week before ATL. We also have two former scoutmasters and two other Life Scouts who are “on the clock” if you know what I mean.

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We have always had quite a few scouts on Team 358.

I'm Scoutmaster of Troop 343 in Hauppauge and was a Cubmaster before that. My oldest son, now in college, is an Eagle Scout and my youngest is currently Senior Patrol Leader and beginning plans for his Eagle Project. My wife has led a Girl Scout Troop for many years and my daughter, a robotics team officer, has her Silver award.

It's great to hear about all the Scouts also involved in FIRST.
Congratulations to all you who've attained leadership ranks, especially Eagle Scout and Silver/Gold Award.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I was just wondering...Is anyone involved in Ventures? I've heard about it and someone recently asked if I would be interested in joining a group of them. It's co-ed and the age range is larger. Quite a few of the boy scouts in my cousin's troop joined. That's about all I know. It sounds like it could be fun. I was just wondering if there are any people in the FIRST community involved in this.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

My daughter's also on a Venture crew.
They have a lot of fun and have shared campouts with our Boy Scout Troop. They've been doing whatever strikes their fancy such as rock climbing, snow tubing, and wilderness hikes. Next summer they'll be going to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico for 10 days.
It's a great chance to try things you've never tried before.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I was a boy scout for all of..... three weeks. Quite impressive I know. But I just kinda stopped being involved after that.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I am a Freshmen and i just earened my Eagle Scout. I love the program that they have set up all around the world. I also think FRIST and Scoucts should teach each other some things because they both teach the same moral valuses. Chairmens is like geting eagle scout just for a whole team.

since i am a freshmen i am have a lot of trouble mangeing my time doring the build seson i love robotics and i also love scouts. I would like to heer how other scouts handel these presures.

Matthew Simpson:)

troop 1776 Eagle Scout

team 75 reginal chairmens award

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

O i love the camping trips some realy good times happen in the mild of no where. Hope to see you out there some day.

Any one from Frist going to Boy Scout Camp Resica Falls a realy nice camp in pa.

Spending my summer as a counsolor.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I can think of five mentors and three students on BeachBots that are/were in Scouting (all Boy Scouts). Two are Scoutmasters, and none of the others that are currently in is below Star rank. What's really fun is structuring an Eagle project around a robotics competition...and having Scouts as a large portion of the volunteers.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

This'll be my son's third year as a counselor at Minsi, not too far from Resica Falls.

Here are some photos from part of an Eagle project staffed half by robotics members and half by scouts http://team358.org/history/2005/imag...ry=caleb_smith

P.S. I searched out these past Scouting threads:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=35643
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=29143
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=35724
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=19716

It's interesting to see just how widespread Scouting is in FIRST.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

WOW!:eek: Truly, I didn't expect to see this many people in FIRST to be active in scouting. I am glad to see that so many rank advancements have been made, too.
I am a freshman this year. As chessking132 said, it is hard to jugle everything around. FIRST, school, scouts. It was really hard for me. From mid-September to Thanksgiving, I was gone on a cross country bike trip. It wasn't until I got home that I joined FIRST. Since then, I have joined the Sound and Light crew at our high school. Between FIRST and Sound, I have missed many scout meetings. It has been a stressful year so far, but hey, it's my Freshmen year, this is the time to learn what to do and when to do it. Chessking132, learn from your stress and see if you can't make it less stressful next year. I know that I will try to do some of my extracurricular acitivities durring the begging of next year rather than durring the FIRST build season.
One last note, congragulations to everyone who has earned their Eagle Ranking. It isn't an easy trek, and from what I hear, Girl Scouts can be just as hard, if not harder, to finish. Once more, congragulations to everyone. :D

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Yeah, for all thos involved, DO NOT plan on doing anything advancement-wise from January to the end of March (AT THE VERY LEAST), and get it done as soon as possible, because it'll just get harder to do them as you get older (i.e. project, merit badges, etc...) (oh god just had my dad's words come out of my mouth-and i'm only 15-:ahh:)

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I also whant to congragulate all the Eagle Scouts and Gold award achevers i know that both take alot of time and efert to acheve.

Now what i think would be cool if FRIST had a rank like Eagle for indavigil pepole. I think that would give pepole something to do during the off season.

O and for all the pepole that have not made the highest rank yet keap trying because i know it's worth all the hard work.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Yeah, there have been quite a few people that as soon as they got into highschool, they practicaly left us. Some of them got their Eagles right before their 18th birthday. One of them got his final signatures on his birthday. The only thing to it, get it done before you get to involved.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

i agre with cooker52 it is best to get your Eagle done before high school because face it FIRST also is a huge time sucker. SO MY POINT IS IF YOU WHANT TO BE EAGLE DO IT WHILE YOUR YOUNG.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I have signed a couple of Eagle Packets they day before a scouts 18th birthday one was at 11:50 PM.

That's cutting it close.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

that is realy over the edge. Why dident you wait to 11:59and take a picture of it.

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Time management...definitely the one factor keeping me from finishing my Silver Award. I knew I wouldn't have much, if any time to work on it during the school year. Mostly because besides robotics, I also participate in color guard, creative writing club, the speech team(on occasion), and various other acitivities that don't require as much time as the ones I just mentioned. Oh yeah, I also take dance classes. I decided that I'm going to use this summer to finish up my silver award and probably start looking into the requirements for the gold, since, as everyone has said before, I probably shouldn't have waited this long.:D

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I am an Eagle scout, but not until I gave every Scouter in my troop a heart attack.

Two weeks before it was 6 months until my 18th birthday I came up to my Scout master and said, "I want to be an eagle scout." He replied, "But you're not even Life yet!!!" It took a lot of effort but I got it all done for my Life and then got it all done for my Eagle.

IT WAS AMAZING!!! I wouldn't have changed a thing, except maybe not giving my scouters heart attacks. :rolleyes:

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I have heard a lot of storys about cuting it close but yours takes the cake.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

No, it takes three cakes!:eek: That is definitley the closest thing I have heard. But at least you decided to become one. Congragulations Fireworks 234.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

The expirence you gain from being an Eagle is like no other. It changes your life forever at least it did for me.

being an Eagel and in FIRST should make it realy easy to get in to college. any thoughts on that?:yikes:

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

If I hadn't joined scouting in the first place, I probably wouldn't have done half the things I have.

I am going to an Eagle Ceremony for another one of my friends this afternoon. I always enjoy going to them.

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If that's the Scoutmaster's and committee member's signatures, he wouldn't make it in my council/district. I belive the requirement says before you turn 18, and the day you turn 18 is too late. (If you mean the council/board signatures, he's fine. Also, your area may have different rules on when exactly it's too late.)

I cut it close too--3:00 PM the day before I turned 18. If you want Eagle, DON'T cut it close! Being close is going to raise your stress level significantly. You really don't want that. I've been warning some of the younger Scouts I know to start work now so they don't rush.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Sorry to kind of change the subject, but who has any good stories out there? Me, and I bet a whole bunch of other people would love to here some.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Actually, at least from my interpretation of National's guidelines, sa long as all the work for your Eagle is done (i.e. merit badges, project, etc...), you can write letters asking for extensions to do all the paperwork- application sign-offs, conferences, Boards of Review, etc... I wouldn't recommend having to wait that long, but I think it's possible.

I do not having anything that even comes close to being that good of a story. That's amazing that you made it- congrats!

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Going camping this weekend it is almost as fun as Atlanta.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Just had a campout last weekend. I got there at ten because I was working on our high school musical (Ironically, we did the High School Musical. Sold out all of our Auditorium seats andwere pulling out extra seats! That's just about over 1,000 People!). The next day, we cleaned up all of the wood from around the church that supports us and made a huge bonfire! The flames were about 10 feet up! After words, we played rugby, and now half of us have decided to make it Troop 130's official sport (besides the other 10).
This weekend, we have the AWAC's (Anthony Wayne Area Council) Spring Camporee.:cool: This time we will dominate because most of our scouts will actually be there. (Our last camporee was durring the kickoff weekend. I was torn:( . And the one before that, a few guys and I were riding our bikes anywhere between Texas and Texas (You really don't want to ride across Texas by bike the long way)). Finally, this will be my second campout since I've been back.:D

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I was a girl scout...back in the day.:rolleyes:

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Just had a campout this weekend... Troop 334's un-official activity is rocketry...it's a crazy-fun time when you have all the young Scouts going running after the downed rockets...

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

The way my council does it, it's an automatic 3 months for BOR, council signature, etc. (This is supported by the requirement notes: up to 3 months with no explanation, 3-6 with a note, >6 means contact National.) However, the Scoutmaster's signature is one of the requirements. (Scoumaster conference) Also, injury or something similar (and unplanned) means that certain requirements can be extended, if the injury is big enough. Then again, I don't know the National guidelines, so I'm not sure who is correct here. I just know what my district says.

As for stories--I've got a few, ranging from the two campouts that were snowed on in April (in SoCal) five years apart, to the "Mud Camp" that my troop did, to coming up with a skit for three people in about two hours while camping four days out on trail, 1/4 mile from the north rim of Yosemite Valley, based on the rules we were given. Or how about setting a troop record for longest distance in one day (in full packs)--and then breaking it the next year while wading streams? OK, I think I'll stop there unless someone wants to know what the stories are.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Go for it, tell us some!:D

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

OK...

Mud Camp is the troop nickname for an orienteering campout in November of (I think) 2004. It rained the day before and the first day of. There was no grass in the area we camped in, so it got really muddy. I mean really muddy. Worse, there was no shelter from the rain except in the portapotties; even the tarp used to protect one area didn't work. The building nearby was off-limits. Oh, and every scout that was there had water in his tent. The next day, the sun came out--but the mud didn't disappear.

The skit story is actually pretty good. In 2005, three scouts and two scoutmasters from my troop were at Log Cabin Wilderness Camp in the eastern Sierra Nevada. On the first day, we were asked to provide three skits for a closing campfire. We did--four days out on the trail along the north rim of Yosemite Valley, after a 3.2 mile, 136 switchback (one way) trip to the Valley for lunch (long story) on our "layover" day, the scouts went and talked about skits and the rules and the equipment available. We broke for dinner, then went right back to work. After a long hike the next day, we rehearsed again in the hot tub at base camp (Yes, there is a hot tub there--the only one at a Scout camp that I know of. No pool, though.) We wound up doing "CPR", "Caterpillar" (with SM help), and "How to do a Skit". The last one was the hard one. Given five rules, we came up with a skit to explain those rules without breaking a single one. The rules were (no particular order):

• No physical humor
• No water (hard to clean up)
• No insults
• No bathroom humor
• No sexual references

We also added a few of our own, such as "make it original", "never give a skit unrehearsed", and "never, ever resist the stage crew". The best part? The skit is expandable to however many people you have on hand. With three, we had a narrator (who doubled as an actor), an actor, and Skit Buster, who punishes rule violations by running on while blowing a whistle. It was a hit with the staff.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

yes ,i was for two years but i got tired of it and decided to quit.(long story their)

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I was a Scout for just shy of 5 years, now I'm an ASM with my troop.
I got Eagle In December of 2005, The highlights have to be two trips to Philmont in 2003 & 2005 and four trips to the Mackinac Island Scout Service Camp.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I remember being up on Mackinac Island and saw a scout troop working there about 2-3 years ago, give or take. I thought it was really neat. And what better of a place to camp?

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I'm an eagle scout, got it in March of '03. I also went to the National Jamboree in Virginia in 2001, as well as doing our Troops' high adventure trip to the Grand Canyon in 2000. Currently, I've taken a hiatus from all my activities (scouts included) and am just trying to work and make some money. I'm an ASM and I look forward to continuing to lead the youth of tomorrow today (or in the near future).

My project was to renovate an entire city park, and it took half a year and 20 tons of yard material to complete...the place looks immaculate now.

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yeah I've been in scouting since wolf (our area didn't have tigers yet) and now I am 17 a life scout and workin hard to reach Eagle before I turn 18

And I didn't see it mentioned but is anyone else in the O.A.?

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I'm not yet, but my Ordeal is later this month. My friend from 1529 is the chief of our local chapter, and he says it's lots of fun. Hopefully, I'll have the opportunity to participate in the OA until I graduate next year.

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Gonna get my brotherhood this fall. Some of our guys were getting it this weekend, but I had a Battle of the Bands to work at.

THEY ROCKED!:D

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I've been a Girl Scout Leader for 13 years - Daisies through Seniors. My favorite moment - when 2 tiny first grade Brownies were fighting over who got to wash the pots in COLD water after dinner at camp.

Some of my Girl Scouts have also been FIRST volunteers for at the Duel on the Delaware and MOE sponsored FLL and JFLL events.

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Ordeal, Lakota chapter, Siwinis lodge.

I too was in Cub Scouts--for one year (Wolf) before we ran out of leaders. Got back in as a Scout.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Funny story.

I had a neighbor trying for years to get me to join Cub Scouts. I rejected him every time.
Then one year, my brother was going to the orientation. I got in trouble and couldn't stay home. It was either go with my dad and brother, or with my mom and my sister. That night, I got a better sight at what they did. This is about 5th grade. I technically joined, but before I went to start there, we decided to put me right into the Boy Scouts. Why not, I met all of the requirements. Plus, if I didnt', I would have had a lot to catch up on in Weblos 2.
That's the story of how I got into scouting. It's one of my mom's favorite stories to tell. My mom also made sure to tell it at my Eagle Ceremony. Lol:D

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Last weekend was my final GS Camporee as the mother / adult leader of a Senior GS. Other than the fact that it dropped into the low 30's the second night it was a blast! Our troop had 16 girls attend and the girls ran 4 events: an obstacle course for older girls, a paleontology talk - dinosaur dig for younger girls, an evening campfire and a USA Flag Burning Ceremony. Much to the adult leaders' chagrin, they voted to stay in tents rather than in cabins, so also put up and took down 7 tents and a dining fly. The campfire was my personal highlight - they found songs to sing that in all my years I never heard - but all of the girls knew. And with s'mores and banana boats the evening was a great hit!:)

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Is there any other way to camp besides tents?
Wow, sounds like a blast! My mom and sister are getting very active in GS and I hope that my sister goes through it all. She seems to have the enthusiasm, for now. I truly hope she keeps it.

Update on our Eagle Scout stuff. Just yesterday, we got about half of a big Eagle Project done mulching a mile long trail. and before that, over half of us went mountain biking. This next weekend, we are working on another Eagle Project.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Just a question for all those active in Boy Scouts: Have you ever attended/served on staff at your council's NYLT/JLTC/(other leadership course), and what did you think of it? What did you like, not like, etc... (basically, a Start-Stop-Continue). Are there any out there that are going to be attending?

The reason I ask is I'm going to be serving on staff at Northern New Jersey's NYLT course this summer as a Troop Guide, and wanted to know from others who have taken the course(s) if they had any ideas they could share to help me improve our course.

Just out of curiosity...

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

I did not like the program the patriotspath concil did. i thought that it was comensence leader ship. Most of the day we played littel games that had no prupose other than playing a game. when we were not playing a game we were siting in a dinning hall and they tought us things i already now. I allso found that the staff that worked their were rud and not very nollegeable of leadership.

the program has a gratepotenshil but it has to be exacuted right. like in robotics trane a traner teach them what they dont know like how to teach to a large group. also teach them ways of geting a job done with out giveing boosy orders. if you teach them those things you will do a much beter job thant when i went through.

Matthew Simpson
Eagle Scout troop 1776

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Is anny one going up to Resica Falls this summer. I am a pool consulor there and i would love to talk to other pepole that go to resica.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

No, I have no time, otherwise, I would try. This year, we are going to Glacier, just before school starts:D It is going to be fun!!! Right now, we are trying to find out which is cheaper per person, driving or the train. Right now, we know that the train is about $400 per person, round trip.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Anyone who is going out to the Sierra Nevada, Log Cabin Wilderness Camp (L.A. Area Council) is on the eastern side. I'll be working there all summer.

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

So many things I wish I could do this summer. But I can't :( can only chose a few things.

Congrats, Eric, on your Eagle Rank!

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Just came home from scout camp. It was incredible. We ran it on our own, and cost half the price of a normal scout camp. Plus, we did water skiing:D . Every morning, we had a patrol challenge. Wether it tested basic scout skills, or taught you some new ones (like tree climbing. It's just like climbing a rope, only you have a rope attached to your waste and another one hanging down so you can put your foot in it. Both of those are on the main rope that feeds into the belay device). I got 5 new merit badges, including the motor boating and water sports merit badges. Plus, we did the mile swim while we were there.

Everyday, each patrol was graded on their campsite. We had to go out and find a place to place our site (We were in a camp with platforms for big 12 person tents that didn't have the tents on them at the time. Lucky us!) and were graded on cleanliness, gateway, campfire, ax yard, etc. including bribery (our leaders loved our cheesecake we made for them:D ) We finally made a draw bridge for a gateway. I don't know how long we have talked about making one for the troop. For rope, we used twine. I found a bucket with a big roll of it in there and we went crazy with it. It was so much fun!:D :D :D

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I've been in boy scouts for almost five years now, and I'm the SPL of my troop. We just got a ton of new scouts who bridged over, and we have two months to train them for camporee. My troop takes camporee very seriously, and has won best troop overall two years running, so we are putting together an intense, sped up program to teach the new boys the skills they need for their events.

I also have a question. My district's camporee this year has a ridiculus event called the pancake toss, and I was wondering if any other districts were having to do that as well.

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I have been in boy scouts for 11 years. Currently have my eagle and one of the main things that has kept me in it is the Order of the Arrow. currently the secretary. I am a vigil honor member. Its a wicked awesome organization!!!!!!

Venture Crews are great as well.

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Something very awesome was the 2005 national jamboree!!!!!
Everybody invloved would say that!!!
YIS - To all you scouters!

Re: Anyone Involved in Scouting out there?
 

Never heard of that before, but one can only imagine. We started a Venturing Patrol lately, and our president is from Michigan. Her old Crew made pancakes one day and got one stuck in a tree.

We decided to start a venturing Crew because our BSA Troop was doing everything a Crew does.

As for OA, I haven't been to impressed with our districts. It seems like all we do is have lock-ins and stuff like that. But I can see it as a fun group.

Man, it would be awesome if we could do that, but it costs to much. But it always sounded like fun.