Thanks to everyone and yes, I've signed up on Newboxers and went to the
letterboxing.org site first to read over it prior to considering for my
girls. A few things I wanted to reply to as I do understand the concerns
out there.

Stellabaker123@aol.com wrote:

>Instead of the troop going letterboxing, you may try one patrol at a time.
>This is about four or five girls at the most.
>
I'm not sure how many girls, especially older girls, are in some troops,
but my troop consists of only 6 girls, two of which are iffy on the best
occasions. :) This means I could be taking as few as 3-4 but as many as
6 at any one time. I am considering placing one at our local Camporee,
if the idea goes over well. However, if I did that prior to going
hunting for one, that would mean not starting until mid-May which is
when Scouts is generally in limbo until fall, placing us not doing it
until next October at the earliest. Summer, especially for the older
ones here, is full of scout/church/youth group/band camp, girls off to
stay with the other parent (for kids of divorce), family vacations, etc.
summer is simply not do-able.

As for a troop stamp...I'm just not sure. The kids will want to leave
their own mark and I'm not sure how a troop of 5-6 placing their
individual stamps would be any different from a family who would each
have their own stamps (or I'm assuming they would, as I've seen many
websites for kids' stamps and instructions on how to make them) or from
each of the girls finding it on their own and placing their stamp. I'd
like further explanation of this one, please, as I know my girls and
this may be the deciding factor for them (the reason being that all the
"fun" things they've come up with lately have been shot down either
through Safety Wise or the Council so this would be simply another
restriction that, to them, will make no sense).

The Leave No Trace rule is one that would, of course, be drilled into
the girls' head prior to going and myself and my co-leader would be
watching to ensure they followed that rule. It is a fundamental rule of
Scouting and one that, at their age, I'm not sure I'd have too much
trouble with. These girls have spent much of their free time in
community service in parks so have a healthy respect of other peoples'
property and what kind of damage negligence and apathy can do.

Elaine

Hi Elaine,

Try to keep your troup searching for boxes in non urban settings.
There are plenty of letterboxes that they can find in the "woods".
Some planters have several urban boxes that can go missing very
easily. City boxes are difficult to hide due to their nature. Likewise
they are difficult rehides for the finder. Most city letterboxes have
to be found with extreme stealth and rehidden the same way. These
boxes should never be searched for in a group,while other letterboxes
in the country setting can easily handle groups.

The stealth requirements of city letterboxes could be compared to
foreign spys making "drops", or the sneakiness of drug dealers making
their transactions. Obviously you would have to give your own examples
and those would have to be more appropriate for your group than the
two I cited.

Don

Welcome to the wacky world of Letterboxing! Some letterboxers make
their own logbooks, some with few pages. Many boxers are unable to
visit their plants for frequent book replacement. If the book itself
has only a couple dozen pages, a group that stamps one stamp to a page
can easily take up half the book in one visit. Same goes with micro
boxes. The box can be so small that it can only hold a tiny log.
Putting all the individual stamps on one page or using a group stamp
will certainly be appreciated by the creator of such boxes.

Personally, I even have two signature stamps with me at all times, one
quite small for those tiny logbooks and a larger one for the others. I
have carved stamps with kids as young as seven in classes with the
park department. As eighth graders, the girls in your group will
certainly be able to create wonderful stamps. If you look in the
"Files" section of this page you can find signature stamp carved by
twelve year old friendof mine. Look in the Signature Stamp folder
created by Legerdemaine.

I think the idea of creating a 'training box' of your own for the
girls to find is a wonderful one. Not only would you be contributing a
creation of your own for all of us to enjoy, you would be able to
better understand the concerns being voiced here. Good Luck! Funhog



> As for a troop stamp...I'm just not sure. The kids will want to leave
> their own mark and I'm not sure how a troop of 5-6 placing their
> individual stamps would be any different from a family who would each
> have their own stamps (or I'm assuming they would, as I've seen many
> websites for kids' stamps and instructions on how to make them) or
>from
> each of the girls finding it on their own and placing their stamp.

>Your small trooop sounds ideal for boxing. Some large
families do have family stamps that are used when
boxing together. If you go with individual stamps try
to get more than one on each page of the log, some
logs fill up fast and placers don't always get to do
routine maintainence. I know the feeling of getting
activities aproved, don't get discouraged get them
boxing. If you can't get the girls together for boxing
go on your own to get some experience.

summer is simply not do-able.
>
> As for a troop stamp...I'm just not sure. The kids
> will want to leave
> their own mark and I'm not sure how a troop of 5-6
> placing their
> individual stamps would be any different from a
> family who would each
> have their own stamps (or I'm assuming they would,
> as I've seen many
> websites for kids' stamps and instructions on how to
> make them) or from
> each of the girls finding it on their own and
> placing their stamp. I'd
> like further explanation of this one, please, as I
> know my girls and
> this may be the deciding factor for them (the reason
> being that all the

> "fun" things they've come up with lately have been
> shot down either
> through Safety Wise or the Council so this would be
> simply another
> restriction that, to them, will make no sense).
>
> The Leave No Trace rule is one that would, of
> course, be drilled into
> the girls' head prior to going and myself and my
> co-leader would be
> watching to ensure they followed that rule. It is a
> fundamental rule of
> Scouting and one that, at their age, I'm not sure
> I'd have too much
> trouble with. These girls have spent much of their
> free time in
> community service in parks so have a healthy respect
> of other peoples'
> property and what kind of damage negligence and
> apathy can do.
>
> Elaine
>




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