>>We just went to our first Camporee where the boys were checked on their equipment and their ability to use it proficiently in major outdoor skills.<<

Very cool! Good luck with that - see Sarge's comments about his experience as a scout - that kind of thing, with many variations, works. I've had the pleasure of putting together winter survival training a couple of times here for the scouts and every scout that has gone through that with me is a real trooper - and real believers in being prepared. (I had their pads and sleeping bags brought out to the site later, before they settled down for the night). Things like that can be really exciting for the boys, especially here in the seemingly benign and placid MidWest. Those of y'all who have close access to Federal Lands and wilderness have quite an advantage - we practically have to fabricate our situations in fantasy.

As for what we require the boys to carry - the scout outdoor essentials (I don't lay on hard about sunscreen). The only thing we require in addition to that is non-aerosol insect repellant for 3/4 of the year. When they first come to us, I start right away with them. Most of them get a 2nd class requirement checked off by me before they pass muster with the SM on joining requirements - the personal FAK. In any event, they have to accumulate the essentials and go over them with me, etc. We split small wood with our knives, make cotton balls & vasoline, learn how to use matches and FC rods, build fires, etc. - tell-show-do stuff and mostly I coach the older boys thru that so they are teaching the newbies instead of me, but that does not always work out. I help out a little here and there with inexpensive bits and pieces, and ParamedicPete has generously equipped two needy scouts (one with invisible parents AND poor; the other merely poor).

I guess there's other bits and pieces - I all but require them to carry a small repair kit and most of them have one that they assembled under my supervision. And boys can be real gear freaks, collecting all sorts of stuff. Oh - I make them carry a blade in the pack if they don't have the Toten' Chip yet, and they may only get it out with permission from an adult until then (or if an older scout is teaching them Toten' Chip)

I don't actually REQUIRE them to have a canteen cup or stainless Nalgene cup, nor do I require them to have a small inexpensive stove (pop can, esbit, etc), but just about all of the 2nd year and older scouts seem to aquire something reliable to heat water with. I've been derilict on the topic of water purification, despite having had to do that real-world for myself most of my adult outdoors life. My rationale - or poor excuse, I guess - is that surface water in this part of the country is sure to be full of agricultural chemicals and in many places, farm animal waste. But it's the chemicals that irk me - I'm just not up for teaching these youngsters wierd stuff like expedient activated charcoal filtering and frankly, I don't think it's important here. But that shortfall is irksome - I have to think about it some.

Anyway, we really only require basic, common sense stuff.

How do we induce them...? Heck, I don't know, John - I expect them to and they comply. I never yell at them or anything. It pleases me that they do this, and I let them know that it pleases me. I brag about them where they can overhear me. I'm disappointed (lightheartedly) if one forgets, but that's pretty rare. They're just kids - it's my job, difficult as it is for me, to act grownup <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Look, it's simple: The BSA motto is "Be Prepared... (...for anything)". Make a little adventure for them, let imaginations work, let boys be boys, and it all fits together. Not perfectly - but it works well enough for me.

It was a hot bike ride up the hill from the river today for this old desk jockey, so my brain's prol fuzzed up. I'm sure you can figure out something that works for your troop if you think it's worthwhile. Meanwhile, you've got an Eagle ceremony to participate in - enjoy the voyage, Eagle Dad.

Tom