Our scouts carry - and use - what we call "Ready Packs" or "Be Prepared Packs". They do not show up for anything without them - some even carry them to non-scouting functions. It's a big deal to me and to our scouts. (Like many of us here, they tend to carry more junk, er, gear than they strictly need - that's more of a struggle for me than them not carrying the right things.) Their gear is far from perfect/ideal/complete, but they have the basics covered. I try to issue them maps of some sort before every trip, which can be a real PITN here in the poorly-mapped MidWest.

Now go to summer camp or a Camporee. See the scouts with day packs? They're from our troop (and a couple of scouts from other troops who have camped with us and "got religion"). A few younger scouts in other troops may be wandering around with some archaic facsimile of a "desert canteen" until they get razed out of it by older scouts, and a few others will have a water bottle on a sling.

What does the Boy Scout Handbook stipulate a scout should have on him on EVERY outing? The "Scout Outdoor Essentials". Should we run a formal long term camp or council or district event and ignore that? Every place I have toured/visited/been does and the folks in charge - professionals and volunteers - either scoff or get a deer-in-the-headlights look when I try to discuss it. What's wrong with that picture!!!??? Pardon my army expression, but I believe in "train-as-you-fight"... there ought to be a less militant expression for scouts that expresses the same sentiment and it should be the adjunct to "Be Prepared". This, and similar issues, drives me up the wall about scouting in general. I have concluded that these things are unsolvable except at the unit level, which goes back to my "get involved with a troop" challenge.

BTW, every week at closing I ask for a current events synopsis. The boys have caught on that, in the context of scout meetings, I am interested in stories of lost hikers, community disasters around the world, cultural upheavals, etc etc. Collectively they amaze me - they voluntarily offer well-thought out opinions on the situations and point out the good and bad. I didn't even have to ask about the topic of this thread, and they tossed in that this is "the same place" that a lad went missing from recently (the unfound lad) and discussed the similarities on their own - their conclusions were 1) Buddy system and 2) Ready Packs. I'm not sure how well they translate that to themselves, but it seems to be worthwhile to spend 2-3 minutes on those topics once a week.

I'm going to go outside now and get some hot-weather exercise or the little rats will run me into the dirt at camp... gotta walk the talk.

Regards,

Tom