eghiglie

Basic economics say when income is cut, costs must be cut

This depression will be over, I just don't know when.

My unit has lost 3 scouts because of financial issues, this was 1/3 the membership.

I've not yet seen a commish wear unit numbers

kittle

A step like this is not taken without an explanation. What was the reason for the revoke?

There are a lot of "ifs" and "should of's" here. But in any case the boy should of been given a chance to refute whatever charges were made.

Good luck

Many of the myths are very funny and I've heard quite a few of them, yet no one can show me a National reference that says a partial is only good for six months (true story of a nearby troop and they refuse to remove it).

I even know of a Troop that at the SMC for any rank you are retested for every requirement from every previous rank and you can fail the Eagle SMC by doing the clove hitch wrong.

I love the one that I've heard recently that an Eagle Scout project must be 1,000 hours, cost at least $2,000 and ONLY scouts are allowed to work. This was actually said by an Eagle Scout who is now 35 and in charge of helping Life scouts pick Eagle projects at a nature center.

Others that I enjoy are about sheath knives and axes.

Three weeks ago my son and I went to the gun range to shoot pistols. When he was talking to a friend of his at another troop he was told by a scout that he is not allowed to ever shoot a pistol because he is a boy scout. He just chuckled.

Whatever mistakes or improvements could be needed, I do pray it helps grow the movement to its previous numbers.

The new LNT trainer patch for the scouts is very nice looking.

It is much nicer than the little strip I earned when I took the class

I echo what Johnkc said

Fast, Good or Cheap Pick Two of the three, most Americans voted for cheap and then go after Good or Fast. We're all guilty of it.

The rant on just the BSA about the Chinese goods is not correct. Who will make them? Our manufacturing infrastructure is not what it used to be.

The rant needs to be directed towards the folks in DC and each State Legislature. They need to reverse the pattern.

This does make me sad.

One day there will be a clear answer to this. One troop in my area requires the boy to get a letter from the SPL that he is a good kid. The Troop also has a very low advancement percentage and the SM retests a boy on everything at each SMC.

Thankfully my troop is small and I can get to know the boys.

Following the wide leverage in the rules from what Council has told me, a boy or two has advanced 'just because'. They can do the actions required such as a knot, but the 12 points are never followed. One boy brags that he is in detention every week, than comes to me to sign off the Cit in Community blue card.

The two boys who advanced 'just because' didn't stay on either. Somehow they got bored and moved on.

LOL

This is sad, and the example set is not accurate

There is the argument that our Nation has always celebrated events with fireworks.

Our Council forbids this because fireworks do cause the most injury to people, never mind kids. Think of the litigation from an accident where the scouts sold the mortar that started a forest fire and burned down half the town.

Just because someone is doing something wrong doesn't make it right, not matter how profitable it is. Does this mean we should rob banks?

As twocubdad says what does the SE say?

Our council is cutting down on districts also, we're going from 13 to 10.

I'm not sure what the new unit count is but the number of registered youth has gone down.

A knot would be nice

Also, if the card is revoked, it puts the boy in an tough spot as he has to remove the flap.

We just issue the card, if they buy the flap we're OK with it, but we tend to check them more often for the actual totin chip card.

I work for a company that makes missiles, As a software architect for the missile code I also get to see missiles get launched. I guess I'm a rocket scientist.

These are a lot of fun because they use compressed air instead of an engine. With the right conditions the rocket can go pretty high.

http://www.freewebs.com/lorus14u/rocket-boys-rocket-launchers.pdf

I built the launcher a few years ago for $20

DO NOT USE AN AIR COMPRESSOR TO CHARGE THE LAUNCHER. USE A HAND PUMP ONLY. This is from experience watching a colleague of mine try to be smart. One of the end caps blew off with force.

Last night I did the TLT, spent a few minutes on Goals and then switched to meeting planning. Got dark early.

Afterward we worked on the paper rockets. Launched them in the dark, for the most part the boys got it.

my shirts are similar to ntrog8r

The first shirt is the full blown shirt, required stuff, all the knots, Nat Camping School patch, Lodge Patch. Powderhorn dangle, tiny small OA sash on button. I wear this one with my two beads and only at CoH.

the 2nd shirt. It has just the lodge patch and the other required stuff. This is what I wear most of the time. I leave the beads off.

I must point out though that I do not like anything around my neck. To me its a choking hazard (woodworking, lathe operator in my early twenties).

Being a SM of a tiny troop spare time is a luxury, someone told me that it takes six months to prepare for a WB course and I don't have the time.

In my district WB is pushed strongly, almost everyone at RT has at least two beads. Quite a few have three and two have four. Twice a year I get told I need to go to WB and I just let them know been there, done that, got the beads.

When I was a scout in the 60's the SM would more often than not stop fights and arguments by grabbing both of us by the neck and slamming us toghether.

Teachers were allowed to use their shoe on our backside. Nuns could use a metal ruler.

We did many stupid things, like not wear seat belts or bike helmets. We were taught how to respect firearms and my grandpa's gun cabinet was never locked. If we ever touched one he would smack us. We carried a pocket knife because it was a tool. My 22 hung in my room and the box of cartridges was right next to it. But if I took it out of the house without my dad he would here about it and ..........

Cars had metal dashboards

Yet we turned out OK.

Now the rules favor tolerance and calls home to parents who don't care. Tools are now weapons and quite often more injuries occur because I have two boys who are not allowed to camp unless a parent accompany them.

However, even BP found that teenagers in 1907 had issues to deal with. So for the most part kids have changed, but stayed the same.

The new course was great! Learned a lot.

The old timers make fun of us newbies because we never took the old course where they had to hike uphill 10 miles each day in the snow with a 50 pound pack. Even in the South.

I learned a lot about leadership that I use in my job.

Troop 2 is better!

We do something like this now with a slight twist.

Just had a car wash. Raised $1,100 total. Seven scouts and seven adults for a total of nine families participating.

The number of hours each person worked was added up and divided into the total, this came to a certain $$ per hour for each. Each family was credited with an amount. Not everyone worked the same amount of hours.

I met a UK troop this summer.

The shirts they have are sort of nicer than ours, but the leader said that durability is an issue for the price they pay.

scoutldr has the correct answer

Do you really think it would be better?

The council I'm in won't return a phone call until the next day. Many times they ignore problems instead of solving them.

The council north of us is just as bad. We love to use a facility they own for NRA functions, they rarely return a phone call.

I don't think the grass is greener on the other side.

Warren,

Best of luck to you.

When I was a cub leader we purchased Packmaster on the promise it would integrate with our local council. They want no part of a direct interface to them, saying that too many errors will occur and mistakes are hard to fix. They encourage us to use Internet Advancement, meaning we have to retype some information.

Our troop from 2007 used Troopmaster but the AC started to rely on the manual advancement forms, Council would lose a number of these.

So we went back to using internet advancement, we have not made a mistake ever, at least the boys are getting the correct credit.

But this is 2009, data validation techniques have come a LONG way.

As a software architect I know this as part of the system I design require validation.

Warren,

Best of luck to you.

When I was a cub leader we purchased Packmaster on the promise it would integrate with our local council. They want no part of a direct interface to them, saying that too many errors will occur and mistakes are hard to fix. They encourage us to use Internet Advancement, meaning we have to retype some information.

Our troop from 2007 used Troopmaster but the AC started to rely on the manual advancement forms, Council would lose a number of these.

So we went back to using internet advancement, we have not made a mistake ever, at least the boys are getting the correct credit.

But this is 2009, data validation techniques have come a LONG way.

As a software architect I know this as part of the system I design require validation.

Narraticong

After I read the posts I spoke to my 14 yo son and his non scout friend. The last thing they want is a power point, too much like school, so hence the paper rockets. Even a sit down training at the table is too much..........

If I can only get the same no powerpoint rule at my job or even at Church on Sunday!!

Thanks

thanks for the advice

My son went to NYLT and there was great slide deck there, it was 30 minutes long, but attention spans..........

We going to do paper rockets and launch them with compressed air (20 psi max).

My kid's school does like wingnut's school

The school is 501c3, a non-denominational Christian school. We have a 'fundraising' account that we are charged, if we go over the amount the school lets the kid have 25% of the overage to use for lunch or whatever.

Our Troop has scout accts and they work OK

Our Council pays us 35% of popcorn sales, we credit 30% of this back to the boys in there scout account to pay for dues and trips

Our Council pays us 40% of family fest sales, we credit 20% back to the boys, the other 20% is used to fund the family fest booth. The portion back to the scouts is put in a scout account.

The Treasurer and Financial Secretary of the sponsoring church reviewed this plan and determined that the amounts in question are negligible so they are OK.