Gidget

John: Thanks for the tips! I've been told before that we should be utilizing the OA for Day Camp promotion, but was never told how to access or utilize them. This year it came up again after National Camp School. As in the past, the people we sent were told to utilize the OA, but not given any information as to how to access or utilize them. I'm going to figure we're probably a wash for this year, but will pass this information on so that we start our contacts in October 2004 for the 2005 camps. We do utilize Boy Scouts at Day Camp, and have had them move on to paid staff positions

Hi, fotoscout. I'm the District Cub Scout Day Camp Chair. We're currently trying to get help from the Order of the Arrow for camp promotions. This falls under their responsibility, but we're not having a lot of success. (It's our first year trying. I think we'll have better luck next year because we'll start asking for help earlier.) The adults on our District Day Camp Committee (8 of us) have put together a skit that we take out and do at the pack meetings in March and April. Roundtables promote to adults. To get attendance you need to promote to the cubs. We have 30 packs, so sche

I've been involved with Cub Scouts for 9 years. I've been a district trainer for 7 years, and trained at the council level as well. When the new cub scout training syllabus came out a couple of years ago - 3 I think, I was shocked. I've done the best I can to support it, but I still can't believe what was done to it. I feel that the previous course was more cub scout oriented - more program centered. The current course runs like an administrative manual. Even when you add the personal touches - the "pizzazz", the materials lack cub scout spirit. I understand that a panel of volunteers

The Leader Specific sessions (Tiger, Cub, Webelos, Pack and CM) aren't exactly the same. The structure is the same, and some of the topics are the same, but the information varies from position to position. Scoutldr: Regarding your council doing the advertising - Our DE makes sure that our training is in the council newsletter, but we provide the information that's printed. That way we can give specific information regarding what training is being offered. Your Training Chair, or the person coordinating Cub Scout training (sounds like you) should be controlling the information going ou

" Medical services is one of the few commodities that we purchase upfront without knowing the price. The main cause is insurance." I've worked in insurance for 20+ years. Insurance really isn't the main cause. The main cause(s) are a lack of understanding by patients that they are consumers, and need to be responsible in their purchase of health and dental care. Another cause is the rising number of law suits, (some are appropriate, some aren't) that are forcing practitioners to pay for sky rocketing malpractice coverage. FOG - if this was an initial visit, along with the extract

I read this thread last night and woke up this morning thinking about it. (OK, that's kind of scary!) I don't really understand why at times there seems to be so much hostility towards the DE. Now, before there's a response that lists all of their faults, I don't know any volunteers (and our district has some incredible volunteers) that at one time or another hasn't made life difficult for another scouter. Since I've been involved in scouting (9 years now) I've viewed DE/volunteer relationships as a team. You don't necessarily have to be friends or get along all of the time, you jus

I should have said that the reason I was laughing is because we have volunteers in our council and district that act like they think they're the part of BSA Internal Affairs. I guess that's not really funny, but Dave, you've just given a tool to deal with them! Humor! Never thought of that before! Thanks!

"The black loops are worn only by official members of the BSA internal affairs department which investigates secret uniform violations of a punishable nature -- JUST KIDDING!" Laughed pretty hard! You made my night!!

Just a question for you. Does your pack have the highest number of people attending, or, do they have the best attendance because, using the number of adults that could be there your pack has the highest percentage of leaders attending? I was in a pack that had 6 leaders. (13 boys) All 6 leaders attended RT - 100% attendance. Other packs received awards for attendance because they had more people attending, but, based on the actual people that should be there, we had the best attendance in the district, and never were recognized. That was a hard thing for our pack to swallow.

OK - you can tell your buddy to put a sock in it! I called my council guy and he looked up your reference and told me that the Camp Comissioner (*Note - there is no such position as a Day Camp Commissioner) is similiar to a Unit Commissioner. They work with the packs to ensure camping opportunities. They report to and take direction FROM the Program Director. He said in our council, when they're used, they function like SM's at Boy Scout camp. OK - I probably shouldn't be so aggressive in my response, but honestly!! Sometimes the cubs are more mature than the adults!! Gidget

I have the last two versions of the Day Camp manual from school, and I don't recall seeing a "Day Camp Commissioner" position in my material. What is that? Here's an idea. Ask her to write documentation for you. Like your Day Camp manual, with policies and procedures for lost boys, emergencies, YP, etc. And possibly to put together the program material or training material or camp orientation material for your walking den leaders or station leaders. You, of course, would have to review and approve it. DS - Is there a different Day Camp school for military units? Gidget(This

Hi, Joni. Interesting situation. One of the things I did this fall was put together a "What will I be doing" sheet for the Program Director and the Camp Director. While the camp book from Day Camp school has job descriptions, it doesn't really explain the practical application pre and post camp, and since they've merged the Day Camp school sessions into one, you don't get it there, either. It's been an eye opener for a lot of people, and it's ended up being a good check list so that tasks don't fall between the cracks. Our positions for camp on the district level are District Day Camp Cha

Just a quick question. I notice Senior and Junior forum designations. What does that mean? When does a Junior become a Senior and a Senior become...well, what is the next level?

Just finished with Pow Wow. Know how we came up with courses? Hit on Pow Wow sites and dumped their courses and descriptions on to an excel spread sheet. Had over 250 course ideas for cubs when we went to plan Pow Wow. have stored ideas for University of Scouting if we go that direction. Have about 250 options for that, too. A lot of the Pow Wow registration material has the session descriptions, so a trainer can take that and make up their own material.

Louie: No, your advancement chair is not supposed to question you on the advancement information you turn in. At every training I've ever attended we are told that regarding advancement, if a parent or leader says it's done, it's done. The next time it happens you may want to ask the woman why she's quizzing you - say something like this: "I notice you always ask me a lot of questions when I turn the advancement information in. Am I not filling the form out correctly, or am I missing information?" Put the oness back on her to explain where she's coming from. She may be jealous