fotoscout

Ill take a month off before I do it again. We just had our Pack Campout this past weekend. This pack hasnt camped for probably twenty years and with the exception of me, none of the leaders are campers. Last year I did a Den Family Camping Trip. This year, after sitting through Baloo, I figured Id do a real Pack Trip. We started off with about 40 families signed up. Then the weather reports started. In the end we had abut 20 families and 1.1 inches of rain from noon until about 10:30pm on Saturday. What a shame you might say! Not in the least!! Ten of my boys showed up with their D

Bob my point stands. Let me rephrase your initial response for you.....Foto you may want to look at the only if part of your sentence. And I would have said, good point Bob, thanks Ill rephrase it.

Bob, I dont get your point, except for the excessively literal interpretation of my words. Whether I ask them, or tell them, (and youll note that I did not say require them), is a mute point. Whether I supply my own knives or have the boys save to purchase them, or, suggest that the parents buy it is a mute point. Where they buy it, is another mute point, except that it would be nice for them to all have CS pocket knives with a sheath that they made themselves. The reality is that some will follow the recommendation, and some will not. What I can guarantee with 100% confidence is that

TwoCub, Many of these techniques work in principle, and they are all terrific ideas, but say you have a boy who only attends 70% of your meetings. Then there is another boy who is very often sick, and the regular routine of boys who miss meetings for one reason or another. At any time you would have the potential for not collecting dues from any these boys. Over time, this will add up to a considerable amount of money. Im sure that you, like me and many others, always buys enough supplies for all the boys in your den. So now youve spent money with no chance of recovery because if th

We don't pay den dues per say. We pay $7.00 pre month, period. Preferably paid as a lump sum at the beginnings of the school year. 50% of the money goes to the pack fund for registration, Boys Life, badges, patches, awards, etc.... and 50% goes to the den. The Pack does not pay for shirts, trips, or other special events. The Pack will pay for special "speakers" at a pack meeting, or will supplement Blue and Gold activities. The Den portion goes to Den expenses to be used at the discretion of the Den Leader. Any Den funds left over at the end of June revert back to the Pack Fund. For us th

TwoCub, How do you plan your activities with people comming and going all day??

My District, and all the other districts in our council run Webelos Woods. Unfortunately, this year our district lost the oppurtunity because of a scheduling conflict with the Council Scout Show. Cub Scouts are discouraged from attending Camporees. Webelos are welcome, but no formal invitations are tended. I think Webelos should be made more welcome at these events as daytime visitors.(This message has been edited by fotoscout)

My wife wont let me by any more toys, so I bought one for my son. Its the headlamp style, and wow what a light. This one runs off of 2 maybe 3 AAAs. The battery life seems to be endless. The earlier models had no throw to them. Although this one is still more of flood than a spot, it does seem to throw enough light out in front to be useful while your on the trail. I think its an Aurora. Oh yeah, I really like the white light.

Why is everyone so fast to take swipe at the parents? I see this comment over and over again in this forum, Its a Problem Parent not problem child, or some variation of it. I think thats presumptuous and disrespectful of any leader that takes this position from the get go. First off, these parents bring their son(s) to Scouting because they want what we want for our children. There motive is the same as yours, they want the best for their children. They want their child in an environment where they can flourish. In addition, child development experts typically recommend that ADD/ADHD chil

Sager, What you say is correct, swimming and floating with a life jacket are two totally different things. However, with the swimming skills come confidence and presence of mind, the ability to think straight when necessary. Ill use your example, feet downstream and head up to see where Im going, you were able to do this because you (1) knew how to use your body to make it happen, and (2) you had the presence to remember it. A non swimmer in a life jacket would not have reacted as you did. Life jackets have become a crutch for many people. They are a necessity for young children, a

Eammon, Your compassion here is admirable, and I certainly wouldnt advocate removing this boy before I felt that I had given it my best, and, that the boy was given a good opportunity to adjust. However , I would avoid keeping him on in the den as a personal challenge or even worse, keeping him in the den to the detriment of the other boys, if over some period of time, (a few weeks), he could not control himself within an acceptable standard. First and foremost in my book is the self esteem of all the boys. If this boys is hitting, then he is negatively impacting the self esteem of

Most of us have some grouse about uniforms. Much of that evolves around what we want the uniform to do. No one uniform will serve all of our purposes, so if you are going to buy one uniform.... What function(s)should it serve? What function should it not serve? I'll go first: It should quickly identify the boys as Scouts, and it should display there achievements. It should not be the ultimate outdoor clothing set.

This is effectively a no brainier on more than one account. First is the absurdity of a passenger in the canoe. Were not talking about taking the ageing SM Emeritus on a canoe trip. Were talking about a young boy. Does anyone expect that he will sit in the middle of the canoe with his hands folded during the entire trip? Hire a personal Lifeguard. Tremendous concept!! Maybe his parents will also hire someone to do his Eagle Project for him. Next is the issue of contribution. If the boy has not paddled, then he has not contributed to the adventure and he has not participated in

Good Morning, DS, my humble apology, I think you know my thoughts about professionals! Mr. Robby - I'm glad to see that we are not alone! I expect that the next 2 dozen posts will be from all around the country (world) with affirmations about how much detail is communicated about WB. Great!! It we say it, we can do it! The point is, that for anyone who is interested in getting the answers, those answers can be found without much effort. Unit leaders, Training staff, Commissioners, Professionals all may have the answers. But if they dont, the ultimate go to guy is the S

masses of unwashed volunteers Be careful on that one KS, BW will come after you! No seriously, I dont know what it is with you guys from the rest of the country (not the Northeast). THERE IS NO SECRET! Here, if you ask the question you get an answer. We talk about it at Roundtable, we talk about it at training, and we answer all questions anytime they are asked. What I wont do, is give away the punch line. Those of you that have been there know what I mean. I will not go into great detail about each and every minute of the course. It would be counter productive, and not in t

Hello Kevin and Welcome, First for the hitting. That's a no-no! If he can't control himself with respect to hitting then he stays home. Period. There are many techniques for dealing with ADD & ADHD children. Youll find some helpful ideas here in the forum. However if the boy is truly disruptive to the den and disrespectful to the leaders, you can insist that the parent accompany the child to all activities. Furthermore, you must inform the parent about just how much control you want the parent to exercise over the child. Every leader has a different threshold, every child has di

Has National ever "Pulled" a council's charter? If so, why?

During the 80s I worked with a client who occupied an office in the United Way Headquarters building. A magnificent building, built on the banks of the Potomac River in Old Town Alexandria, Va. I remember thinking to myself, how could a charity organization build such a grand edifice to itself? This took place during the same time period when the UW executive(s) scandal was underway. To top it off, the client was a Washington lobbyist. So, anyone that might have the false impression that the UW sits on the moral high ground, might just want to reconsider their position.

Ed, We recently lost a 16-year-old girl in our extended family. I know how difficult this is for all involved, so please know that our thoughts are with you and your families.

If I understand you correctly you are not looking for more skits, songs, ceremonies, or jokes, you are looking for new ideas for each den to do at your pack meetings. I am sure you know that the old standbys of opening, closing, songs, skits jokes, flag ceremonies, escorts have been proven over time to be durable, flexible, and worthwhile program elements. Most have the uncanny ability to evolve with time and current events. But as a formula or recipe its always nice to have some new ingredients to work with. How about trying "The News". Local news can be a fun thing for the boys to do.

CMRAY, Here is the web addresss for Codyak Uniform Exchange. Personally I think ebay is a better place to get uniform parts. http://www.globalserve.net/~codyak/CUBCodyAK.htm I hope this helps you.

Thanks TwoCubDad, I'll try it tonight!

The neckerchief is a great part of the uniform. What would a baseball uniform be without baseball socks? It's the same thing here. The BSA stock slides on the other hand should really be trashed in place of something that offers the parents some value for their money. I've lost count of how many slides the boys have lost or broken. Yes broken, some of them started to fold the tangs into the neckerchief in an effort to stop the slides from being lost. After a few episodes of folding and "unfolding" the tangs they simple broke off. Some of my parents have been back to the Scout Shop three a

Those 25 short minutes will carry this boy for a lifetime. Good for you! Better for the Boy!!!

Newbs, welcome and good luck. Yes ! Family camping and they all happened to be wearing Orange tee shirts. I believe that the last name started with a T. It was great. Actually the Cub Scout Leader book tells us not do achievements at den meetings, so your old den leader did get something right. I cant tell if you approved or disapproved of the boys doing all the achievements on their own. But I can tell you this, if you chose to do achievements at your den meetings there is a huge challenge in trying to make some of them FUN for the boys. Everyone here had great suggestions fo