Scoutmaster Podcast 9 Three key Scouting resources every Scouter ought to have and read. In This Podcast Second chances [2:54] Wobegon Scouts [11:10] Three important resources [14:24] A Scout is Brave [21:35] Podcast Notes Scoutmaster Jerry’s Scoutmaster’s Minute blog and podcastSo let it be written… Advancement Policies and ProceduresUniform and Insignia GuideGuide to Safe Scouting Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
This article is from North Carolina’s Winston-Salem Journal Keeping Guard: Summer camps following a strict regimen to prevent the spread of H1N1 virus Getting dirty is as much a part of the summer-camp experience as campfire songs and swimming. But this summer, cleanliness has made its way onto the agenda, as summer camps try to prevent outbreaks of H1N1 flu, or swine flu. In North Carolina, 47 people became ill with symptoms of the H1N1 virus after spending a week at a Boy Scout camp in Haywood County, and flu outbreaks have been reported at several other summer camps, including at Duke University and in Randolph County....
Below are several resources for Scout Leaders to educate themselves about how to properly and responsibly prepare to react to the H1N1 flu virus outbreak. In addition to monitoring these sources I will keep an eye on our school district’s webpage for announcements and check in at our local council for direction. Our scouts and families know if school is dismissed we generally don’t hold Scout meetings. We’ll take a few minutes to review the guidelines below with our Scouts at our next meeting....
What is age-appropriate has been a fertile subject for discussion, conjecture and urban legend in Scouting. Judging the suitability of an activity and which Scouts can appropriately participate is an important skill for Scoutmasters. This page on the BSA website explains how to determine what activities are appropriate for different ages of Scouts. Here are some tests that prove valuable for any activity: Matches the training and experience of participants. The group has the ability to successfully complete the activity....
At the end of a portage last summer I met a party of canoe trippers who were beating a hasty retreat. One of them wore a bloody bandage around his right ankle owing to an accident with an axe. This sent a shiver down my spine as I silently congratulated myself on the ‘no axe or hatchet’ policy for our crews. Our decision not to carry axes or hatchets was not based on fear but the calculated management of risk....
The Boot Campers of Cold Water Boot Camp USA dive in and experience the three effects of cold-water immersion – cold shock, cold incapacitation, and even hypothermia. The project provides valuable information of how to survive an accidental fall into cold water. The demonstration forces the Boot Campers to face the indisputable fact – that the difference between becoming a statistic and a survivor – is wearing a life jacket!...
The spectacular Frontline documentary on PBS by David Breashears on the 1996 Everest tragedy includes interviews with expedition members and interactive maps of the mountain and the accident. The documentary is a fantastic case study in risk management, judgment and decision making and is highly recommended as a Scouter training tool. On 10–11 May 1996 eight people caught in a blizzard died on Mount Everest. Over the entire season, 12 people died trying to reach the summit, making for the deadliest day and year prior to the 16 fatalities of the 2014 avalanche and the 18 deaths resulting from avalanches caused by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake....
By Jeremy Joslin, M.D. from Medicine for the Outdoors It always happens by accident. You’re using your new, lightweight pack saw to collect downed wood for an evening fire when the saw slips and slices into the back of your left thumb. Blood flows immediately, and you feel a rush of pain up your hand. You’re four days’ hike from civilization and the cut looks like it needs stitches. Let the first aid begin....
Poison ivy (toxicodendron radicans) is the most common of the urushiol producing plants in the eastern U.S. Contact with urushiol oil is the substance that causes an allergic rash in 90% of the population. Even a tiny amount (1 nanogram, a billionth of a gram) of sticky, resin-like urushiol oil will case a skin reaction. 1/4 ounce of the potent oil would be enough to cause a rash on the entire population of the earth!...
Dr. Paul Auerbach discusses blisters at Medicine for the Outdoors: If a blister is caused by pressure (ill-fitting boots), you have a couple of choices. As mentioned above, prior to actual blister formation, you can protect or pad the area. Once a blister forms, the blister site can be padded with moleskin or other adhesive foam, so that rubbing no longer occurs, the blister should be ringed with a doughnut of padding and left intact....
This may sound pessimistic – but it is an unfortunate reality. Sometime, somewhere this month (and every month thereafter) a Troop of Scouts will start off on a hike that will end in some sort of tragedy. The major tragedies we see on the news – a lost scout or group of scouts, a serious injury, a death – all probably preventable. The smaller, yet often more poignant, tragedies don’t get publicized....
I have been saying for years that all that needs to be done for purifying water by boiling is to raise it to the boiling point and have received many skeptical looks in return. Here is a reasoned examination that explains exactly why this is true; The fact is, with a water temperature of 165 degrees F (74 C) it takes just half an hour for all disease causing organisms to be inactivated....
The season of the tick has returned – time to review appropriate strategies to prevent Lyme disease and a host of other tick-borne agents. Most everyone in this part of the world knows someone who has had or is battling Lyme disease. Knowledge of how to properly identify, avoid, remove and treat the bites of ticks (despite years and years of educational efforts) is still low. Conflicting advice, old wive’s tails and urban legends still persist....
From the CNN website: A 12-year-old Boy Scout missing for four days in North Carolina’s wilderness wandered away from his campsite because he was homesick and planned to hitchhike home, the boy’s father said Tuesday. Michael told his father he slept in tree branches during the night, drank river water and prayed he wouldn’t get sick. He said he got homesick because some of his closest friends had not gone on the camping trip, so he planned to walk to a highway and hitchhike to his home in Greensboro, North Carolina....