fgoodwin

Why bother? Just send your kids to Lakeland, FL and let the cheerleaders there do it for you (and videotape it at no extra charge): http://www.theledger.com/article/20080406/NEWS/804060542/1004/News

Then by all means, feel free to ignore it . . .

Not sure why you would have that reaction - NCAPM originated in 1983: http://www.childwelfare.gov/preventing/preventionmonth/history.cfm As a UC, I always encouraged my units to have their unit YPT during April as part of NCAPM.

John, yes, our Council offers a full EBOR panel to review a Scout's project proposal, but it isn't mandatory. If the Scout wants to submit it for a member of the DAC to review & approve it, that's also allowed.

National Child Abuse Prevention Month, 2008 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/04/20080401-8.html A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary April 1, 2008 Children are the hope and promise of our Nation, and our society has a special duty to ensure young Americans get the care and attention they need to succeed in life. During National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we underscore our commitment to preventing child abuse and neglect so that all children can live in safety and security. Parents have a responsibility to safeguard their children from danger and to provide the love, protection, and guidance youngsters need to grow into confident and caring adults. In every community across the Nation, good and courageous citizens are improving the lives of our most vulnerable children with acts of compassion. The strength of America lies in the ability of our citizens to make a positive difference in the lives of our young people. My Administration is committed to the safety of our Nation's youth. In 2006, I signed into law the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which was designed to protect children from sexual and other violent crimes, help prevent child pornography, and make the Internet safer for our children. This law expands sex offender registration and notification on a nationwide basis, provides a statutory basis for the Project Safe Childhood program, and gives communities and law enforcement the tools necessary to keep children out of harm's way. Additionally, with strengthened Federal penalties, we will ensure that those who prey on our children will be caught, prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law. As we observe National Child Abuse Prevention Month, we reaffirm our loving commitment to America's youth and our dedication to building a society in which all children can realize their full potential. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 2008 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month. I encourage all citizens to help protect our children from abuse and neglect and to take an active role in creating safe communities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this first day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second. GEORGE W. BUSH

Crazy_TP_Lady, welcome to the forums, and thanx for reviving this thread. I think the "necessities" depends on the audience. Adults will have a different take than boys. As an adult, the souvenirs I look for are a t-shirt or affordable golf-shirt and hat, with the camp name / logo on it. I'm not big into patches, but I know some folks are, so a varied selection of patches & pins would be nice. Some folks like leather belts & brass buckles with the camp name / logo. Walking staff medallions seem to be popular with those who collect such things. I know the boys like ice-cream, gummy bears, etc. I'm not up on the latest snacks, but offering a few treats to supplement the dining hall fare is always popular (I have mixed-feelings about sodas, but I know the boys like them). Offering a few emergency provisions to replace forgotten items (instant cameras, shaving cream, razor, toothbrush & toothpaste, moleskin, etc.) is helpful, if not otherwise available from the health lodge.

You might ask the parents what they think -- there may be good reason why this particular Webelos doesn't want to continue, and anything I offered in that regard would be speculation. I wish all our boys had leaders as interested in them as you seem to be -- good luck.

I've sat on several EBORs and I've never heard of such a thing. Our council provides two EBORs for the candidate: the first to review & approve the project proposal; the second is the actual approval of the Eagle rank. District "pre-review" of the project proposal seems a bit much to me; I wonder what is covered there that can't be covered during the actual proposal review? Or is the purpose of the pre-review to make the actual proposal review & approval a formality? I agree with what the others have said, if push came to shove, I think a Scout would win on appeal as this certainly walks & talks like a dreaded added requirement.

scoutldr writes:Nothing wrong at all...as long as Dad is a registered Merit Badge Counselor before they begin work.Agreed, and I would add, as long as the SM authorized the boy to work on this MB beforehand.

I think the twelve points are equally important -- but I know that certain ones receive more attention than the others, just as not all of the "Methods" receive equal emphasis.

eolesen writes:If the only role of the Chaplain's Aid is to do the opening and closing prayers at meetings, then it's not worth filling the position.If that's all there was to the CA, I would agree with you -- but if you've taught TLT to your leadership corps and studied the position description cards, you know as well as I do that there's far more to the CA position: At a minimum, the CA should be encouraging the other boys to earn the religious emblem of their faith. The CA can work with the PLC to develop an appropriate recognition when awarding the religious knot after a Scout earns his religious medal. The CA works with the PLC to ensure that program planning accounts for religious holidays and that spiritual emphasis is included in troop activities. Unless your troop doesn't eat on its campouts, the CA can lead grace before meals. If your troop is chartered by a church, the CA can coordinate the troop's participation in Scout Sunday observances. The CA POR can be as much (or as little) as the Scout and his mentors want to make it.

infoscouter: what a great resource! And ScoutNut mentioned DLs, which I completely forgot about: DLs see the families every week or so, so they are a great channel to get info out to the families. Our pack used a "pack box" kinda like the RT box: instead of a folder for each pack, we had a folder for each den, so announcements, newsletters, etc. all were provided in the folder for the DL, who in turn handed the stuff out to the families. The box was managed by the CC (but really, it could be anybody) and at each committee meeting, the DLs would pick up their stuff, then distribute to their families at the next den meeting. In a large pack, there would be way too many families for a CM to contact each individually, so I think a Pack file box is a great way to go.

I won't add to what the others have said, as their comments are right on the money. But I would suggest that you direct your questions to your SM and Troop OA representative -- only they can tell you how OA is perceived by the boys in your local troop. They can also give you the names of the chapter (district) and lodge (council) advisors, who will be more than happy to answer any questions you might have about OA. Congrats to your son.

See if anyone on the Pack Committee is handy with WORD (or better yet, Publisher) and would be willing to put together a monthly pack newsletter. In my son's old pack, the newsletter was done by the CC, and when I took over as CC, it was my pleasure to also take over the newsletter, until I found another volunteer who was skilled at Publisher. To save postage, we printed the newsletter and had it available at each pack meeting -- and parents never failed to get one, because each month, we listed the awards earned by each boy, by den. We also had den news, a calendar of upcoming activities, a short status of of our bank account, a CM corner, announcements of pack & district activities, and anything else anyone wanted to publish.

In two different Cub Packs I was involved in (one as CC and the other as ACM), we did a uniform inspection in December as part of the Pack's service project, collecting toys for Toys for Tots. After we collected our toys, a uniformed US Marine would come pick them up, and while he was there, we asked him to inspect our boys. Obviously, the boys were impressed by the spit-and-polish of a member of our uniformed military, but you never saw such chests being pushed as by those boys (and their proud parents), when that Marine walked the line and asked each Cub about his various awards and patches. If you're pack (or troop) is having trouble getting your boys to wear their uniforms (or wear them properly), announce that the military will do their next inspection and see if their attitude towards wearing the uniform doesn't improve!

Anne, I suggest you take a look at the actual TLT syllabus, then compare it to the info in the slides. Ideally, the SM should train the SPL, who in turns trains his ASPLs, and as a group, the boy leaders should train the other boys (PLs, chaplain aides, etc.). The SM should provide his "vision" for the troop, and hopefully, during the training each youth leader will develop a "vision" for his position that is consistent with that of the SM. I believe the PPT follows the TLT syllabus, but expands upon it in places; one glaring omission: the TLT syllabus refers the boys to the BS HB for the requirements for the Baden Powell Honor Patrol Award -- but I don't believe the HB actually lists those requirements, so whoever wrote the PPT added them.

That's why I need pictures in a book!

FYI: A power point presentation of "Troop Leadership Training" (TLT) is available on the National BSA training website: http://www.olc.scouting.org/resources/index.html http://www.olc.scouting.org/resources/TLT.ppt

I just got a copy of Sports Illustrated's "Book of the Outdoors" by John O'Reilly (1959), published by Golden Press. Its 324 pages long and handsomely illustrated. The text describes the many and varied outdoor activities that were popular with Americans of the late 50s and early 60s. It has chapters covering: field & forest, seacoast, swamps & marsh, mountains, lakes & streams, plains & desert, salt water, and islands. You may recall that 1960 was also the 50th anniversary of BSA, and to celebrate that milestone, Golden Press also published the "Golden Anniversary Book of Scouting" by Bezucha & Rockwell (1959), 165p. For those of you who were Scouts at that time, the pictures and text in the two volumes bring to mind the wonder of the outdoors that is so lacking in our culture today. (aside: how is it that we, as a society, can be so concerned about the environment on a global scale, while simultaneously spending so little time in the outdoors locally?) I know you can never go back again, but you can get copies of these two books on Amazon, starting at 80 for a used copy of "Outdoors" and $3 for a used copy of "Scouting". A little investment makes for a great nostalgia trip!

Research debunks health value of guzzling water http://tinyurl.com/24sha2 Wed Apr 2, 2008 6:32pm EDT By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The notion that guzzling glasses of water to flood yourself with good health is all wet, researchers said on Wednesday. Dr. Stanley Goldfarb and Dr. Dan Negoianu of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia reviewed the scientific literature on the health effects of drinking lots of water. People in hot, dry climates and athletes have an increased need for water, and people with certain diseases do better with increased fluid intake, they found. But for average healthy people, more water does not seem to mean better health, they said. As far as facilitating toxin excretion, Goldfarb said that was not verified by any sort of scientific study. [excerpted]

OK, one last question to clear a final bit of confusion: you say you've conducted NLE both in-house and at district training, and that the leaders in question have had it. That being the case, why is it so important for them to qualify for NLE credit using old courses? Why not focus on getting them credit for the NLE classes they've actually taken? In other words, if they've actually taken NLE, what is the relevance of the credit (or lack thereof) of the old SMF and CSLBT courses?

Argyle, now I'm really confused -- why would anyone consider CSLBT and SMF as being "100% trained" for a Ship position? I don't know what training was / is offered for Sea Scout leaders, but assuming Venturing Training is required now, Venturing Leader Specific Training could not have been offered prior to the roll-out of Venturing in 1998. So any training acquired prior to 1998 (in the examples you mentioned, 1991 for SMF and 1994 for CSLBT), besides being for entirely different programs, completely predate Venturing as a program (its possible Explorer leader training might substitute, but you make no mention of your leaders having Explorer training). So maybe I'm missing something, but even if they got credit for SMF and CSLBT, how could that possibly qualify them as being "100% trained" for a Ship adult leader position? You could argue that they've already received the equivalent of NLE as part of their prior training -- I wouldn't have a problem with that. But NLE alone doesn't make them "100% trained" as a Ship Officer, if they need VLST, and haven't had it. So I would suggest, that if they still need VLST (and it sounds like they do), they might as well go ahead and take NLE ("only" 90 minutes!), so they can rightfully wear the "trained" patch for their Ship positions. I'm sure I've mis-understood something, so please feel free to enlighten me . . .

Anarchist: I joined several years ago, and I noticed every few months, my profile went blank -- so I would diligently redo it. After 5-6 times, I finally said the heck with it. And apparently I'm not the only one. We'll see how long it "sticks" this time.

Argyle writes:I emailed the District Commissioner. His response, well, he didn't have a clue what I was trying to ask him.The reason you got no response from the DC is because you asked the wrong person. You need to address your questions to your district training chairperson. As a former DTC, I would say your folks need to present a trained card to document their training. I know a "Scout is trustworthy", and our district had an "amnesty" period (well-announced several months in advance) in which they would agree to credit a person for training with no evidence beyond their word that they took it. The amnesty period is now closed and all such claims must now be accompanied with a trained card -- no card, no credit. Meaning you have to retake the course if you want credit for it. You need to ask your DTC (not your DC) what is the policy in your district. Simply filling out a trained card won't do -- I doubt you could get any blank ones, as their distribution is limited to district training chairs. With respect to your second question, if they completed SMF (or whatever the SM basic training course was called at the time) and CSLBT, and produced cards showing that, I would give them credit for NLE and Position-specific for CMs and SMs. Ask your DTC for the local policy. I'm curious why they want or need credit for SMF and CSLBT in their new roles a mates on a Ship?

MarkS is right; we should all do CPR the way we were trained. It wasn't my intent to override the First MB based on an AP story; I simply wanted to inform folks that the standards are (once again) changing.