fling1

Interesting posts here. You should all congratulate yourselves on building a 5-page discussion in this forum without calling each other names! Could this be the first?? The question of "morality" is a personal one, as several of you have pointed out. And whether a magazine on a counter indicates what you think it indicates is a matter for debate as well. But if your visit to Mr. Z's home is in the capacity of the unit's COR, then you have the added burden of deciding whether evidence at hand warrants action on behalf of the CO. It's not the Head of the BSA whose opinion matters (once t

The numbers posted surprise me. My son's patrol has been consistently asking $5/person for the weekend. They have had some creative meals and some basics. This weekend they ate omeletes and hash, sandwiches (lunch in the cave -- no cooking), loaded potatoes (they liked this one a lot... I expect they will use it again), and donuts (deep fried biscuit dough -- their favorite breakfast!) They rarely get all their food eaten. There are plenty of cheap eats that work well for camping: eggs, pancakes, stews, spaghetti, etc.

No, she was a sweet little thing. But she did let on that she did some drag racing in her wild youth :-) btw, I had to look up the Fabulous Moolah... she wrestled a title match in her seventies?? yikes!

I had a great parent (actually, she was this boy's great grandma!) who was like a second assistant. She always found a way to contribute and in particular she would help us tag-team a boy who needed a bit of a boost. I found a neat Wrasslin' Belt (think WWF championship) at the toy store for a couple of bucks and recognized her as a "Tag Team Champion" who was always ready to jump in the ring and take care of business. I gave her the belt and had her hold it high overhead while the pack cheered her, just like a true champion. Of course her sweet great-grandmother status made it all t

A couple of thoughts, in different directions... We usually cover this requirement as part of the SM conference, but we occassionally catch a scout in a very obvious demonstration of scout spirit and ask for his book right on the spot so we can sign it off. Immediate feedback has its benefits, and we can cover the discussion again at SM conference time anyway. I usually start by asking the scout what he thinks the requirement means... I usually get an answer along the lines of "be nice" or "do good turns" or if I am lucky, "make a positive contribution." Like EagleInKy, I have been maki

Arrow plaques are great! Our pack had the boys build their own arrow plaques over the course of several meetings. They cut and sanded and routed and stained the plaques. They cut fletchings and painted and assembled their arrows with waxed string (sinew substitute). It was a great project for them and a good momento of their Cub Scout careers. The arrows were presented at the graduation/crossover event (even boys who do not continue to Boy Scouts get their arrow to remind them of their Cub Scout days). As a gift at crossover, we gave the boys leather drawstring pouches, made from some n

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment... There has been universal agreement that Dan's son was facing an "added advancement requirement" by doing his "life project" and that his troop had strayed "too far" from the BSA's program. He described it as: He finished his Life project last Sunday, and the write up of the project. The write up includes copies of the thank you letters for the 6 people he called to donate money for this project. A write up of who helped and how long. Issues he had with the project. List of supplies and cost. Pictures of the project being built and pi

I promised to pass on any info from council, so here it is: Amusingly (to me), the laser tag issue is a far bigger issue out here in forum-land than it is at our council. The guy who placed the ad told me he had been called out on it many times already by people who quoted the G2SS to him and told him that it is a much-discussed topic on mailing lists and forums. He agreed that BSA policy prohibits laser tag. No surprises. He told me that the ad had been placed as a trade, after a staff development outing had been held there. I don't want to get anyone in trouble, so I'll not repea

This is all good advice, but I'm not sure it is helping River2k get his group motivated. When the scribe takes hardly any notes and nobody ever sees those notes (one of the examples given), the boys are being trained that the notes are not important. How do you make the notes important? How do you muster some ambition in the scribe to take his job seriously and make a difference in the troop? A similar question can be posed for each position. If the scouts prefer to barely scrape by with dull meetings, poor preparation and less challenging outings because the alternative is to actually w

I had a request to explain how the hammock city was erected. I though that a picture might be helpful, so here it is... http://www.scouttroop.org/oh/bsa/476 The only thing you can't really see in the picture is that the legs of the tripods are secured to a piece of re-bar driven into the ground. This prevents the legs from kicking out when you load up the hammock. The hammock will put a large sideways load on whatever it is tied to, so we make sure the tripods are up to the task by bracing their tops with the spreader bars and securing their bottoms too. I would bet that the stak

This gem got buried in the other thread. With your indulgence, I'd like to focus on this a bit more... River2k wrote:The PLC. Our Scouts meet once a month for a PLC. They are supposed to fine tune the following month's meeting plans and then plan a rough outline of the month after that (which all follows a yearly plan done in May). The SPL has no idea what to do, even after being given several suggestions by adults. The ASPL usually takes over the meeting and tells the rest what the plan will be. The Scribe takes few notes, if any. Nobody ever sees the scribe's notes after the meeting. Cam

I have used http://my.calendars.net . It is free and pretty easy to use. It will link events to a longer description or to some external thing, so if you have some web space as well you can link events to permission slips if you like.

Obviously, I am making a few assumptions, as I have no role in the production of the Fireside Chat: Ads are reviewed and approved before they are placed in the newspaper. Ads encouraging units to ignore policy, break rules, rebel against BSA, etc., would not be accepted for publication. For example, my assumption is that an ad that said, "For a great scout outing, come elk hunting on souped-up ATVs at Antlers-R-Us" would be refused. In order to validate these assumptions, I have a call in to Council. I was told that there was a specific Program Director there that was "promoting" th

I have seen this argument go around several times already, and I know that the concensus on this board is that "laser tag" is outlawed by the G2SS prohibition against "pointing any type of firearm (including paintball, dye, or lasers) at any individual" (which actually appears in bold and denotes policy). But just LAST NIGHT (how timely is that?), I was reading my new "Fireside Chat" (the council newspaper that comes every other month in Dan Beard Council), and saw an advertisement that said, "Make your next Scout outing great. Come to Laser World (or whatever it was)." It specifically adve

Just so, Hunt. I'd like to hear a bit more from Backpacker about how he has organized his patrols from year to year. For that matter, Backpacker, I'd like to know how you got such notable recruiting numbers... all Webelos? or other sources? How do you explain your success in drawing boys to your program? (Keeping them is a matter of good program, but recruiting is a matter of good PR and selling)

The most memorable fire from my rather short tenure as a boy scout was a 5' tall "log cabin" fire. The logs were more-or-less regular split firewood, pretty well dry. In every layer of the cabin, kindling was laid across the logs. It looked like a multi-story building where every log layer made up a story and every floor was made of kindling, if that makes any sense. There must have been more than a dozen stories. When it was lit, all that kindling produced a flame shooting up out of the skyscraper that looked like a jet afterburner pointed straight up. I was very impressed.

Thanks for the generous reply, Barry! (others, too) Your answers in the "what do you do" and "what do you say" categories were beautifully detailed and explicit. I love the "SPL locks the door" idea.

Premise: primary job of SM in boy-led troop is to train SPL and PLs in their roles. Question: How do you accomplish this on an on-going basis? What do you do every week to add value? What do you say and when do you say it? Do you "manage" or "supervise" or "oversee" them in their jobs? If so, by what process? I am looking for specifics in terms of getting good performance out of troop leadership, beyond a one-time training.

Our troop has a pretty long tradition with hammocks. Their very light weight and ability to work on uneven ground attracted our scouts years ago, when they were doing a lot of backpacking. We still have one or two boys who use the inexpensive net hammock. They climb in, drag a tarp over them, and clip a couple of carabiners to close up the hammock into a regular cocoon. (no surprise thuds that way!) But most of our scouts have a Hennessey Hammock, which is a bit more luxurious. We were really early adopters of the HH, so much so that we have an arrangement to sell them as a fundraiser. If y

Thanks, but I was not confused. I agree that patrols can camp at reduced strength, even down to 1 or 2 scouts. Regarding the "7 patrols" question, I was referring to your advice to "get back on track" in your post Sunday, 10/17/2004: 9:31:33 PM: The goal is to have a patrol of new scouts enter each year as a patrol of older boys age-out. Then again Sunday, 10/17/2004: 8:23:25 PM: When a patrol shows signs of diminishing membership the idea is not to re-organize the patrol but to recruit more members into it. I inferred from there that your recommendation is 7 patrols per troo

Sorry to join this late... BW, I have a data point for you. Two years ago, we had an unusual influx of new scouts, enough for two full NSP. After one year, 6 were left. Last year, we had two new scouts, and integrated them into the remaining (now "regular") patrol. Both are doing fine. Do I understand correctly that your preference would have been to form a NSP with these two boys? Do I also understand correctly that it is your preference that every troop have at least 7 patrols? Meaning at least one patrol for each grade level (or age-level equivalent, if you prefer) from grade 6-12?

Here's my understanding, fwiw: The salute is not just a hand position. It is the quick motion into the salute position, held for the appropriate amount of time, followed by the quick motion back to attention. In other words, a two part action: "up" and "down". In order to synchronize multiple saluters, you need commands for both parts: "hand salute" "two" (second part of the salute) Note that this is not just "to stop saluting" but "to perform the second part of the salute" (subtle difference, I suppose).

Thanks for the ideas, folks. NOLS and Solo were the sources that I spotted initially, but there doesn't seem to be anything very local from these outfits. MidwestMom came up with several leads that are at least within striking distance, thanks. I also got a private message regarding a recent course offered in town through a climbing gym (RockQuest). RockQuest tells me that they will likely offer the course again before too long, so that's a good lead also. I'll contact Council, too.. I should have thought of that!

Where do you find a wilderness first aid class? My local Red Cross chapter (Cincinnati) doesn't offer one, and a quick google search uncovers a few offerings in other states. Is this the kind of thing that is available only in regions with plenty of wilderness? Or is there a reliable source I have yet to identify?

I may end up flinging some canteloupes or small watermelons this summer. But post-halloween is always punkin season! Luckily, the G2SS does not specifically prohibit fooling about with midieval seige weapons (obligitory attempt to inject some relevence to the topic :-)