This edition of the Scoutmaster Podcast I share ten things that will help make your summer camp stay this year a success and answer an email question about the patrol leader’s council. All this and your messages in the mailbag! Visit our YouTube Channel! Scoutmaster Podcast 175 – Summer Camp...

Wanigan is borrowed from Ojibwa word for “storage pit” as a name for a storage box like the ones shown here.  In some regions a houseboat, temporary hut on a log raft, a small house, bunkhouse, or shed mounted on skids may all be called a wanigan. Rob built the wanigans shown above and decorated them with woodburned illustrations from the book Cache Lake Country; here’s a few more shots of Rob’s work: Click to view slideshow. This page of the July 1953 edition of Boy’s Life describing how to build a wanigan and a tumpline was posted at Paddle Making. The Wanigan – Storage for Canoeing and Camping...

How well are we applying the patrol system? I often ask myself this question and I am constantly looking for ways to improve the experience for our Scouts. I’ve set up a patrol system survey to see how the patrol system is used in other troops, ( there aren’t any ‘right’ answers). If you have a few minutes I would appreciate your participation!...

Here’s some summer camp advice from a former camp director to anyone  fortunate enough to spend a week at summer camp as a Scouter. Your camp director’s biggest difficulties aren’t caused by Scouts or their staff but by ‘adult’ leaders who accompany the Scouts to camp. Don’t over-do it and make yourself into a time bomb. If you are hot, tired, hungry and thirsty get cool, rested, fed, and hydrated. I tend to be cranky if I don’t look after myself  (years of observation prove that many of my fellow leaders may share the same problem). Camp staff members are totally dedicated to making...

Marbles Camp Axe Great fit and finish for a very good price. The marbles is a bit larger than most camp hatchets or axes and it’s a quality product. Available from Conoho Creek Outfitters available at Amazon Sarge Boy Scout Knife Well made pocket knife with a classic, utilitarian design. Available from Conoho Creek Outfitters available at Amazon Marbles Back Pocket Dual-Grit Tool Sharpener Great tool for maintaining axes, hatchets and pocket knives this coarse and fine grit carborundum stone should be in anyones camping tool kit. Available from Conoho Creek Outfitters Available from Amazon Marbles Camp Axe Review (and more!)...

Two key skills for Scouters – sometimes we all feel that plate spinning and/or cat herding is just about all we ever do!   Click to see full sized image PDF version of Two Key Skills for Scouters Two Key Skills for Scouters...

Effective Scouters are alert to possibility, to the challenge of the moment. If we aren’t watchful, though,  those transient moments of possibility become obscured by our preoccupation with competence. There’s no inherent virtue in being an experienced Scouter, after all if you stick with something long enough you become experienced. Hopefully experience leads to competence, but competence shouldn’t obscure possibility; As we get more experienced, we get better, more competent, more able to do our thing. And it’s easy to fall in love with that competence, to appreciate it and protect it. The pitfall? We close ourselves off from possibility. Possibility, innovation, art–these are endeavors...

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