Ron,

First - welcome to ETS! And as far as Scouts goes, there are quite a few active Scouters and several Scouts here, so many of us know the jargon...

<sigh> To your question: That all started for me about a month after I got married, when I took my bride on what she describes as her first REAL camping trip - Alaska, January, skis, packs, etc. It was about 10 years after that that we got soft and bought a tent... anyway, I fretted then about what "extra" stuff to carry and I guess it hit its apogee when the kids were 11 - 16 on a winter trip thru the Boundary Waters.

But as for Scouts - knowledge + some extra stuff, gained about at the same time, but DON'T ever let them depend on you and what you may be carrying!

What I do - and I am ruthless about this in a fairly benign way - is make each and every scout responsible. They ALL carry a ready pack or equivalent at all times - meetings, camping, day trips, community events, you name it. They only forget once <grin>. And we check contents regularly and practice with most of the gear. You cut yourself around one of my scouts, and the FIRST thing they're gonna ask you is - "Give me a bandaid out of YOUR FAK so I can patch you up... because MINE is for YOU to use ON ME if I hurt myself - unless you don't have a FAK..." They start fires with BSA HotSparks and tinder they prepared themselves (I'm not even sure they remember how to use matches anymore... yeah, but it's a matter of pride with them to use a spark instead). They always have raingear. Water. Red and white lights (we like our night vision) ETC. Are they perfect? Heck, no! And I'm careful to not be critical if one shows up with something that is just a piece of gee-gaw junk - I just make them use it and nature takes its course... some of the lads are pretty disadvantaged (THANKS AGAIN, PARAMEDIC_PETE!) and I or another adult will sometimes slip a little better bit of gear to one of them when it's appropriate.

I've got a bunch of city boys, most (not all) of whom would never get out past 30 feet from an automobile if it weren't for Scouting, and I truly believe that any of them that have been with us for more than a month can take care of business if they ever get in a bind. Not pretty, not professional, but they can make it. They're good boys.

Let me give you an example - very trivial - of how this feeds back in a positive way. Several of us were at an OA Section Conclave recently. Somewhere on the other side of the reservation, a scout in another unit tore the heck out of his pants - in an embarrassing location. Cltuching the shreds together, he slinked around thru the woods until he found our unit and asked for help. I was amused. "Sam, why did you come all the way over here to find us?" "Because I know your troop carries all the stuff we're supposed to carry..." Of course, he was right, and he was loaned a needle and thread ( a LOT of thread, LoL). And... I have run across that scout 3 times since then and guess what - he's become something of an "apostle" in his troop now and carries what he fancies our scouts carry.

So what do I carry extra now? Not much. I have an extended FAK - not complete; work-in-progress. I carry knife sharpening items that I am comfortable loaning to a scout with a dull knife. Much of the other items I carry above-and-beyond are what I carry anyway. Things like a poncho liner; a military poncho (soon to be replaced by a Tyvek tarp + ground sheet); a couple of HD large garbage bags (JUST IN CASE someone forgets or tears up raingear). A better repair kit than most scouts carry. Umm - I guess I'd have to really paw through my stuff. One of the things to watch out for: Scouts start paying really close attention to whatever "extra" items you may carry, exactly what style or brand of thingamagig, and then decide that they are gonna die if they don't exactly emulate your gear. (only a little hyperbole...) Discourage that as nicely as you can. They can get into a stupid "arms race", expecially those with indulgent parents. I'm almost sorry that I switched to a CamelBak for my daypack...

Hmmm. I think I'll demure for now on more specifics. This is more of a philosophy thing for me - I want our scouts to take care of themselves as much as possible. They get it - there has been more than one duct tape "bandaid" applied to a minor cut because the scout did not want to draw attention to the fact that he FORGOT to replenish his bandaids... and similar expedients. I always compliment the scout for taking care of his problem and then go chew out his Patrol Leader privately for not checking - it works fairly well.

I'll lurk for a few days while you gather some more info from the other folks here.

Regards,

Tom