DYB-Mike

Im a bit of a history buff too, Eagledad. Its from my reading of history that I formed my opinion of Chivalry in the context of its time. I had used Cheerful Eagles suggestion that we should be careful in our use of symbols and traditions. In Star Wars Light and Dark are clearly defined and each acts in the way you would expect and our boys know that. To me it was personally troubling to read in real history of knights acting in such an unchivalrous manner as ordering the slaughter of all the inhabitants of a town, men, women, and children, based upon the actions of those few in co

Funny how things are. We are very sensitive to not wanting to unintentionally offend Native Americans by making mistakes in their traditional dress or ceremonies, but yet we have no problem with wrapping a sheet around ourselves, sticking leaves in our hair, grabbing a big cup of wine, and running around shouting toga, toga! As a person of Italian ancestry who is very proud of the contributions of Roman culture to Western Civilization, I should be gravely offended by this mockery of the adult Roman citizen and his formal dress, but Im not and even if I was Im sure people would look at

Hi SctDad Glad to hear your Blue & Gold was a success. We held ours back on February 10 and Im happy to report ours was very successful as well. I had written on another thread that we were using the Chinese New Year theme. We had Chinese food delivered (they gave us more than we ordered so we had plenty for folks to take away). There were also theme decorations and activities. The boys put on some great skits; one brave scout even came on stage in his boxers for one skit. We leaders even took turns telling corny jokes. We did award presentations. The awards were

I think theres a place for the likes of Star Wars and Harry Potter in Cub Scouts, but only as the subject of a skit, activity, or Pack Meeting theme. Lets face it, the boys love them, it keeps them interested, and some positive influences can be gleaned from much of this current fiction (even SpongeBob extols the virtues of friendship). As for serious ceremonies I agree that we should stick with real people with real traditions. On thing I dont believe Ive read in this thread and the spun thread is that Native American culture is something the United States, and thus the BSA, can ca

Hi Moxieman, I did email the District office but they never responded (see the first post). Since this venue on the Forum presented itself I thought Id give it a shot. A follow-up email to the District wouldnt hurt. Im also trying to pinpoint the best person to approach at District Roundtable. Thanks for the post. YIS Mike

Hi folks, Something Ive always felt about the work-related trainings Ive attended over the years is that, compared to the actual presentation of the material by the instructor, the interaction of the class participants themselves was of equal, and often times of greater, value. By listening to and sharing ideas and actual experiences related to the material with my classmates I came away from the trainings with a better, more real world, sense of the training material and how to apply it. I had a discussion with our Committee Chair just the other day about how the Cub Scout portion

Hi folks, This topic and your ideas are timely for our Pack and myself as we are beginning to talk about spring recruitment (our Council is pushing it and we havent done it before). Personally, my youngest son will be coming in as a Tiger as his Webelos II brother crosses over this May. I am planning on being my Tigers den leader as well as retaining the ACM position. I specifically wanted to address the recommendations of cub day camp for cubs recruited in the spring. I am going to sign my son up in the spring and I had planned to volunteer and take my new Tiger to day camp this

Greetings Scouters Update on the MOS patch. My son and I just attended another Museum of Science Camp-In. This will be his last as he is a Webelos II. Both he and I got patches for this one. At one point I happed to be passing a group of MOS Camp-In staff having coffee and, on a whim, asked if they retained any overstock of old patches. Yes they did was the response and a short time thereafter I had not one but three examples of my missing patch! I couldnt thank them enough! Another proof of the old saying it never hurts to ask! Im still looking for the Klondike pa

I kinda have to agree with Evmori. Without more details one cannot really conclude that anything is going on. Do you know the scouter and his son? Is there a reason to suspect abuse? What were the shower facilities like? Were they an open, communal space? This makes me think of the motto of the English Order of the Garter: evil to those who evil think.

If my memory of Youth Protection training serves me correct, NO male (or female for that matter) adult leader, heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual (havent heard any comment on that one), is allowed to sleep alone with a scout unless it were his (or her) own son. Then theres Two Deep Leadership, which helps to insure that an adult leader does not find himself/herself alone with a boy. The boys are taught to follow the Buddy System, which helps to alleviate the possibility of a boy finding himself alone in a restroom (or anywhere) with an adult. Safeguards are there.

Thanks, Nessmuk, for the reference to Kiplings If. I was never much for poetry (maybe Im too manly, HA HA) but I looked up the poem and found it to be really moving and inspirational (pardon my unmanly emotions). All kidding aside, I agree its something the boys would benefit from hearing or reading and Ill be passing it along. Thanks again, YIS Mike

Hi folks, Not sure if this really belongs here but it seemed the most logical choice available to me. Just a nuts and bolts site question how long does it take for a unit to be added to the All Scouting Units on the Web section of the SCOUTER site? I joined the Forum back on 01-04-08 and submitted my unit shortly thereafter (I dont remember the exact date but it probably was within a few days of joining). Ive been waiting with great anticipation to see my units name up in lights but it hasnt appeared yet. I thought about re-entering the unit data but I didnt want to mess

Greetings Fellow Scouters! Does anyone out there have a Great Ponds District (Old Colony Council, MA) 2007 Klondike Derby patch they would like to trade? My son, then a Webelos I, participated in the Derby and I went along as a helpful parent. My son got the patch and its now on his patch vest. I didnt try to snag one at the time but now that Ive signed on as Assistant Cubmaster and have begun collecting the patches for events Ive participated in, Id like to try to find one. Ive contacted the District office but without success. Now that I think about it, does anyone have a

Im sure the scouts are going to go crazy over Pack378s Star Wars B&G. My six year old who will be a Tiger Cub this September eats, drinks, and sleeps Star Wars. His big Webelos II brother and his friends are also huge fans. They have all seen the movies again and again. I am often asked technical questions about things Star Wars that I have either long forgotten or come from the prequels. I collected a little memorabilia from when the first three movies came out but in my humble opinion, for variety and quantity, what was available back then is nothing like what kids have avai

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to respond. The information and ideas are very helpful. Our Pack meetings (Pow Wow is a nice touch, mtm25653) are about an hour long. In the past we did not follow the themes. We start with a flag ceremony, then usually move on to awards and advancement recognition. Sometimes announcements are made within the meeting, other times at the end. We have had parties with refreshments for Halloween (costume party) and Christmas (Santa with gifts, a.k.a. pinewood kits). Our February meeting is the Blue and Gold banquet, March is the Pinewood Derby, an

So thats what happened! I dont think theres any need worry about the Google search at this point. I was just going to make a post in defense of the venerable Webelos name but when I went searching for the thread I got a website cannot display this page. That campfire has been put out. Thanks for the explanation. YIS Mike

Hello Scouters! Heres a basic question: what do you do at your pack meetings? I know in theory that pack meetings should follow the monthly theme and include theme-based participation (skits, songs, demonstrations, and displays) from the dens. How many of you follow that model? How much den participation do you expect (and get)? If you dont follow the theme what do you do and what do you expect/get from the dens? How long are your pack meetings? Do you serve refreshments and, if so, who provides them? How often do you have Special Guest Presentations, if at all? In p

Yikes! I guess bullets and dashes don't take? Sorry about that! YIS Mike

Hi April-D et al, The following is our draft agenda for our Chinese New Year Blue and Gold: h 4:00 p.m. V Opening ceremony (flag, Pledge, Oath and prayer, opening remarks); youth awards starting with Tiger and working up to Arrow of Light (Webelos actually cross over at a May camp-out); skits and songs. h 5:15 V 6:45 V Dinner (Chinese cuisine), grace said by Chaplains Aid from Webelos II Patrol. h 6:45 V 7:15 V Adult awards, Wood Badge beads presentation, Grand Howl for adult leaders. h 7:15 V 7:45 V Chinese Lion Dance (professional troupe) h 7:45 V 8:15 V Coffee and dessert,

What Eolesen said, although it can get a little old after a while. I am/was a member of an ancient coin forgery detection forum (havent been back in while) that had this one particular bomb-thrower who spent his time accusing established coin dealers of selling forgeries and disparaging well-known experts in the field. He was constantly getting into verbal battles with the regulars and was periodically censured. The forum owner was somewhat controversial himself. It was fun at first but began to wear after a time and actually reached a point where it began to sour me on a hobby I had b

Ive checked my profile info by using the link on one of my posts and found all the information that I submitted so far is there. Its too bad folks dont use the profiles. As a new Forum member (and fairly new scouter) Ive been reading a lot of the older threads. Theres a lot of great information there but sometimes a post begs the question where is this poster from or what position does he or she hold or whats his or her experience. I click on the profile and blank. I can sometimes piece the information together, especially from the prolific posters, but it would be nice to see a prof

Hi! Heres another suggestion: Does your Internet service provider allocate you free web space? The ones Im familiar with, Verizon and ATT, do. I wasnt doing anything with my Verizon space (20 megabytes) and after seeing a lot of great Pack sites out there on the web I decided to use the space for our Pack. Im not super tech-savvy myself but the site building tools provided with the space allowed me to build, in my humble opinion, a pretty decent site. Ive posted pictures (52), clip art, links, our pack roster under password protection, upcoming events and other information and I stil

Our Pack is holding our Blue & Gold next month as well. We went with Nationals monthly theme Chinese New Year. We will have a buffet from a local Chinese restaurant and have gotten a local martial arts academy to put on a Lion Dance for us (for a fee). Weve gotten some inexpensive decorations online, which include some Chinese New Year decorated take-out boxes to put the scouts awards in. Were going to have standard stuff as well, like skits and awards presentations both for the scouts and leaders. I plan to have the cubs give the leaders a Grand Howl after they get their awards. Ou

Of course the neckerchief isn't cool anymore - too many adults are wearing it. That doesnt seem the case to me, at least in this neck of the woods. I went to District Roundtable last night and, aside from my own, noted only two other neckerchiefs both Wood Badge. All others were either bolos (not many) or open collar. In an earlier post I mentioned our big brother Scout Troop. I talked with their Committee Chair (open collar) who informed me that the Troop does wear neckerchiefs on special occasions. The neckerchiefs are custom made and are actually held in Troop storage. The b

Im sure many of you have seen the recent news story about the Boy Scout who foiled an assassination attempt of the President of the Maldives. Kudos to that brave scout. Its nice to see some good scouting news. What got me though was the description of the scout who was wearing his blue Maldives scout uniform with a blue kerchief. Kerchief? While I did note that the definition of kerchief includes neckwear, nonetheless I could not shake the image of the Boy Scout Babushka! YIS Mike