FireKat

Don't forget the gummy worms!

No, it is not that obvious unless you have delt with one of those. They are 'glory hounds'.... just in it for what they(or their family) will get. They come in and disrupt your units function sounding like they will do so much but end up doing very little except taking credit for what others do. Cross them and they will do all sorts of things behind your back (like going to council) while smiling at you. My best advice is watch your back (for the knife) and do as others suggested by letting him leave and fail on his own. Gloy hounds fall flat on their faces when they do not have other peop

(Whup...whup...WHUP..WHUP) sound of a helicopter parent getting too close. Your ASM sounds like he is over protecting his son and family. Did I read it right that the wife is now CC for the new crew? Does the son or family have a beef with the boy who was warned? If so maybe they went over your head because they want a different action. We have some of those types in our group. Hard eggs to deal with. see thread on helicpter parents.

Bullmoose, your name is a clue to the answer. Read Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919, 26th president of the United States). I grew up in forests. My dad was a forester who did not believe in the clear cut ideas. He would carefully cut out timber without destroying everything around the area. Many times you could not really tell that trees had been removed. That allowed the younger trees to mature. Now they run over anything too small to harvest and have to wait for new seedlings to start. Here are a few thoughts I learned running in the forests: Learn to listen to nature, impossible to do if y

Thanks all for the suggestions. I knew when I had kids I would probably be a bit over protective (read, helicopter) so I trained myself to stop and let my boys mess up. When it came to some of their activities where I might try to interfer I took my camera. Instead of trying to fix it I took photos of them learning. I ended up with some great pictures of them. The camera kept me feeling like I was part of their experences without interfearing. Besides, they now have photos they can show to their friends and laugh over. Our scoutmaster does a great end of year photo presentation of diffe

Thanks for the concern but my son is not in a rush so it is just an inconvence. I am more concerned with the 17yo that might be comming up soon. There is a bit of discussion on net meeting types of BoRs. If things continue we might go to that. As far as the flu, as in the 1918 one, it is usually secondary infections which kill, not the flu its self. We do have other things running around here like whooping cough. With that andthings like MRSA, I do not think trying to control the flu is going overboard. I am not in a panic over it but we are reducing group activites. (Edit for clarity)(Th

I don't know where you are at but we are in the affected county in Texas. Unfortunatly, it is not hype. Many things are being cancled, including my son's eagle project review board. Start making alternate plans now as this may be around for a bit.

Hmmm.... THis brings up a few questions. Why did so mony line up for riding with one leader and not dividing up between the drivers? Was it the boy or the leader causing one boy to be singled out? How does two deep leadership cover a single adult with one scout that is not related in one car?

Simple answers: yes and no. A unit is a pack, troop, or crew. Dens and patrols are not units but pieces of a unit

My sour point is trying to get kids into scouting from a poorer area where, for some unknown reason, has thought Boys Scouts no longer exist. Even at Tiger age we compete with gangs. Many have no real idea what scouting is about. If the parents truly understood scouting, they will then work on finding the money but as scouting had retreated into the shadows, they don't understand it. Boy Scouts are so rarely see in uniform, doing good things (like bell ringing). Something needs to be done to let average people know about scouting, then more money will come. I wonder about y'all's cost/boy n

You are on the manicured planet where $100 is no big deal, not in the dirt with the average laborer who struggles for weeks to months to squeeze that much money out of their paycheck to paycheck life. (Not a personal attck on you E. I value your opinion a lot. this is a real sour point for me) Ok. So you charge families $100 to $500 to get their kids into scouts. You tell them this at your roundups. How many do you think will sign up? If you live in the rich, gated communities where the CEOs and such live, they might not even blink. If the school is in one of the poor side of town

I'm thinking of something like $50 -$100 per family... What planet are you on??? Families around here can barily get uniforms or books! Now you want them to pay a fee to council?? My families cannot afford to do the cub camping at council and most of the boys in our troop can't afford summercamp except for our fundraiser (which have dropped due to familiies in our area lossing jobs). If thy do fees it will truly become a rich kids program. Our area is high in hispanics, I thought the point now was to get them in, not keep them out with more fees!

Please! Dont talk about fees! Charging more fees will make more of our scouts vanish! Yes, councils struggle for donations. If they made their expenditures more visable again they might get more. Our council used to post an annual report on their website but they have not done that in years. Why? Instead, they print a flashy, glossy flyer that has no real info, just fluff. Some marketing firm must have gotten in and convinced them that fluff will do more than hard fact and info. Have you seen the New Leaders packet? Absolutely useless. No info to help them be a leader, just a bunch of f

I go on some of the campout with the boys, but being married makes it easier as other half is there too mosst times. I have also been on campouts w/o hubby. One was when a sister of one of our scouts wanting to go (this was a river trip). She was of age for venturing but there was none in our area and she also wanted to keep an eye on her brother who was one of our older scouts. He was still recovering from a serious brain injury but wanting to get back to all the fun scouting things. For her to go they asked me to be the buddy of the girl. I also go when one of the other moms would like to

Out of the three voted for, how long do you think they will last? Too many just want to asay they are OA but do not do anything after ordeal. There needs to be a better way to select OA members than a popularity contest of an election. Many times the ones that would do good in OA are not voted for.

I don't know if anyone else has run into this but I am really getting upset with FOS because of it. Every time I talk to a paid pro (with maybe one or 2 exception) about a problem I need fixed for a boy they just change the discussion to FOS. I do not get the help I need for the boy because of this so I try another PP and the same happens. I do not want to discuss FOS when I have a big problem that needs solving. What happened to being for the kids? Professionals reading this: DON'T turn every discussion to FOS! Help us solve the troubles and you will get hasppy scouters who will tell t

Sewing is a lost art. I would rather see them held on by staples than the parents' pins. I have seen packs that think that is the purpose of the pins. I try to treach the boys to do it themse;ves. It is a skill all should learn.

We dont use troopmaster or anything like that. It is priced too high. Tracking the little achievements for rank is not the job of the adults in a boy lead troop. The boys learn how to track and report them to the adults. If something happens to their record they then learn how to fix it. It is part of the growing experience. The adults may help but the boys help each other fix it. The boys do that in a boy lead troop. In an adult lead troop, the small details are watched by the adults (ie troopmaster). Yes, we have boys transfer in and out. On out I tell them to present their book for lo

pack, our board does sign the book (not as requirement but good for the boy's records) The signatures are required on the offical paperwork to council (even if using internet advancement). I have always worried that the boys don't get copies of that paperwork. That is why I give them copies of the IA reports. Then they have a copy of the dates of their BoRs if their books go missing.

If they bring a list of the requirement on a piece of crumpled paper with the proper intials, that is just fine with me. All I want is to see that they did what BSA reqires. Not that they have a book.

Ed, that is irresponsible. If contacts are not reachable, I would not hesitate getting social services involed.

Gunny2862, what is grown up? 'I may be getting older but I refuse to grow up'

As long as the parent/scondary contact can be reached by phone it should not matter where they go. Let the parent have a bit of a break if they want/need. My daughter-in-law can't wait with 4 boys (5.5 if you consider dad)!

Missing/ damaged books have happened. That is when trustworth comes into play. Most of the time the boys and the people who signed their book remember doing it so they go and get the intials redone. date4s are not that critical. In the long run it teaches all to track and backup their info.

Eagle92, your comment on not having things recorded by council is one reason I ended up as AC. Too many things are overlooked by a too busy council. We had boys transfer in from large troops using troopmaster whos dates were all messed up. Some are given ranks even before they were Boy Scouts. Hand writing massive advancements of summer camps and letting council enter them has caused some of the boys MB not to be entered. I print each boy's advancement record from ScoutNet on a regular basis. I give the printouts to the boys and ask them to compaire them to their records. This leaves it to