GS-CS_leader

John, (you can drop the "Ms."--I think of my login as my online first name) A few more comments on your suggestions (Thanks for your response!) >....makes sense for the CC to sit down with both his own COR and the >gaining unit COR, > as well as the gaining unit CC and perhaps Cubmaster. Mergers take >planning and focus > on the youth to make happen. Impatience hurts, not helps, the process. It's not quite a "merger". We bring only 1.5 dens (with a total of 10 boys) and 3 leaders (2 "trained"), and none of the key pack leadership positions, CM, ACM, or CC. That

John-in-KC: >YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR SON can change packs at any time, for any reason, or no reason > at all. As a parent, your first interest has to be the growth and development of your child! I'm not interested in taking my son and myself and going off on our own. Funny thing is that I didn't feel this way when I first started to think about our options, but I'm now committed to either finding a way for all of us to continue, or to have myself and my son drop out with the others. >As a Scouter, any movement of a unit requires coordination of the committee members with

packsaddle: > What I'm suggesting is to 'call the question' for the other pack leadership. Pack B's CM wants his pack to stand back until the dust settles between us and our council. Right now my pack's CC's goal is to get the DE to admit in writing that there is no official rule preventing us from joining another pack. I think he thought that might be good enough to allow us to go off and join the other pack. But it's going to be tougher now that it sounds like Pack B might require us to get our current council's cooperation for the change. So then I think the next step is to

> Regardless if your pack dissolves or if it merges with the other, your current DE is going to > lose the unit. We had a similar situation years ago and I sympathize. Intelligence and > motivation must not always be part of the job description for those positions. I believe that one problem is that council staff is rewarded for numbers of boys and units, not for making sure that the boys are well-served. Also, they do not usually have a personal stake in it in the form of having their own sons being affected by what they do, nor do most of them seek out the job because of a

>It sounds like the only "problem" you have is with that one committee member. Well, it's more than that (see below). The committee member with objections is the Scoutmaster of the BS Troop that the pack is affiliated with (let's call the one we want to join "Pack B"). The deal is that she personally knows our pack's Unit Commissioner. Pack B seems to be building up from a near collapse that caused them to lose their Bear and Wolf dens to another nearby pack. It sounds like she has a lot of influence in the pack. The person I've been talking to is a super enthusiastic Tiger leader w

If anyone is still following this thread, we've run into problems in trying to switch packs. Please see my new thread called "turf war...." also in the "Cub Scout" forum.

My tiny "dying" pack wants to join another nearby pack, however even though the school is only 2.5 miles from ours, it is in a different council. The other pack was initially enthusiastic because they lacked the two dens that we would provide. But that pack is now backing off because of the warnings of one of their committee members who knows the unit commissioner of our pack. She says that our council will "is going to scream bloody murder if our Pack picks up your members". Our CC has just written a letter to the district executive asking him to clarify the situation and to let us know

Here is a list of the requirements for bridging to Juniors: http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30298.asp I had forgotten about the requirement for a summer activity. I'm surprised that I forgot given that I was annoyed at a parent's reponse when one of the girls was upset because she didn't earn the bridge (she was not the only one who didn't) because she did not participate in either of the two summer activities that our troop did. The mother said that she "didn't know" that participation in one of the summer activities was required even though I put it at least twice in t

About levels of GS: There is an overlap year between each of the GS levels which makes it easier to keep a two-grade level troop together. So you don't have to split into Brownies and Juniors next year. Also, if they all start as Juniors, the younger ones won't need new vests and books after only a year. My own troop has both 5th and 6th graders (and an 8th grader, but that's another story...) Girl Scout program and grade levels or age: Daisies: K-grade 1 Brownies: grades 1-3 Juniors: grades 3-6 "Teens" or "Studio 2B": "ages 11-17 (note most 11 year olds are in 6th grade) o

Getting back to the topic of Bible stories in "Boy's Life": My family chose not to subscribe to the magazine when my son joined Cub Scouts because my husband flipped through a current issue and was uncomfortable with the Christian feel of the Bible stories since our family is Jewish. My husband was a BS back in the 70's and did not remember "Boys Life" being quite as Christian. Interestingly, we may end up with a subscription after all because we are thinking of switching to a pack (our current pack is folding) that automatically provides a subscription as part of the required pack fee. L

I am truly shocked at the insensitivity of some of the responders to this thread. Do people not understand that while this country is wealthy overall, there are areas with true poverty? My former GS co-leader told me about families she met in rural Kentucky who lived in shacks without running water. They got their drinking water from a nearby, probably polluted, stream and did not understand why she brought her own water with her when she came to babysit. Some of the school kids were found to be saving parts of their free school lunches to bring back home to younger siblings. The problem is th

This stuff is nearly perfect for my needs. More details follow. For bulk order information from the manufacturer, see bottom of this post. I tested the "Badge Magic" on my troop of 4th and 5th grade girls who had a bunch of badges and patches that I wanted to get on their vests so that they could wear them before they "bridge" and get new vests in the fall. We used the "merit badge" pre-cut circles and the "cut-to-fit". I was worried that the merit badge circles seemed to stick out a bit around their Junior badges, so I had them trim the circles to the inner circular line. But when I emai

Most religions and belief systems believe that they are "correct"; the few that don't think that no one knows for sure what is true. I myself believe that some of my beliefs are irrational, but does it mean anything for a person to believe that his "beliefs" are wrong? However, there ARE some religions that believe that theirs is only one of many true paths. For example, the Bahai, Hindu, Unitarian/Universalist religions all believe in the validity of other religions. So while they believe that they are right, they don't think everyone else is wrong, let alone "damned" (a concept that do

ScoutNut: thanks for your input. To reply to your post: > What difference will that make? Most councils do not require that you sign up > as a Pack/Den or be a member of the council to attend their Summer Camps. If we did change packs and councils, I wanted to be able to attend camp with our new pack since I think that would be a great way to get to know some of them. In fact, having looked more closely at the neighboring town's council's website, I have decided that we should definitely switch to a pack in that council. For one thing, our neighboring district's RT location

I'm just thankful (to "God"?) that the current national BSA officials (or local officials with the power to revoke a person's BSA membership) are unable to read minds and thus determine whether or not any individual's "belief in God" conforms to what THEY think it needs to be in order to be a member of the BSA. Otherwise, I'm quite sure that a lot of good people, both scouts and scouters, would be kicked out, including many people who are not simply atheists or agnostics. I think that the BSA policy-makers either do not understand or would like to ignore the fact that many religions do not hav

Good points, Lisabob. I'd thought of two of your points, but not put them explicitly on my list. You are right that we need to remember to keep the boys needs and feelings in mind---they are the reason that we're going to all this trouble! Activities: I'll definitely ask about activities. In fact, I'll ask to see den and pack calendars for the previous couple of years if they have them. I've already taken a peek at one possible packs calendars that they have on a website. It certainly gives you an idea of how active the dens and packs are. The other reason that I've been looking ca

Update on my situation and request for more advice: Our Feb rally night was a bust. Only one family of a kindergartner showed up. They were interested, but have not returned calls and did not attend a committee meeting they were invited to. I think they were not really interested once they realized that they would have to start up a den themselves rather than just having their grandson (who lives with them) join a den run by someone else. At our the last pack committee meeting, the current CC pointed out that with our pack's small size (down to 11 families next year after two move),

Warning about staples: use small staples. I once used staples for a Halloween costume to attach a "tail" to a pair of sweatpants and in some places the staples sheared the threads of the fabric and made small holes. I can't quite remember if that happened when one of the Brownie moms in my troop used that method to attach patches. When I sew on patches either by hand or machine, I use a couple small pieces of masking tape to hold the patch on, removing the tape as I get up to that spot. Next time I use the machine, I'll try the clear packing tape mentioned by sweetspiritpamh. The "invisi

As you will see if you browse these forums, there is a lot of variation in troops---some are well-organized and some are on the verge of collapsing; some are very safe and some are "an accident waiting to happen". Try to get to know the adults who are involved in the program. Are they the type of people who follow rules carefully or not? Even if troops are ideally "boy-led", I think it is usually the adults who set the tone for the troop. If possible, try to attend some programs and events. You'll see for yourself if the boys are running around wildly ignoring safety rules or if safety rules a

Ah yes, I should have realized that somewhere there had to be info on the Internet about the history of the BSA. Here's a website that answered most of my questions: http://www.troop97.net/bsahist1.htm But no information in the above about the "segment" patches that go around in circles on the red CS vest. Anyone know when those were introduced? It seems strange to me that there are no standards or formal requirements for these. Some packs seem to go nuts over them, giving them out for what amounts to doing little more than a 10 min activity. Last year our CM gave out three segment

In 1969, I started as a 2nd grade "Blue Bird" which was the equivalent in Camp Fire Girls to "Brownies" for Girl Scouts. (Incidentally, CFG pre-dates GSUSA by a year or two and back in the 60's and 70's at least was actually much more similar to BSA than GS, except for the name.) I seem to remember that Cub Scouts did not start until 3rd grade back then. So does that mean that Wolf and Bear Cubs used to be 3rd and 4th graders respectively? Then Lion would be 5th grade, so Boy Scouts would be for 6th grade, as it pretty much is today, except for the Webelos who get their arrow of light and ente

I don't buy replacement badges. The council shop is 20 miles away, so the girls are not going to do it either, and I don't think they are supposed to be able to buy their own earned badges. I've warned the girls and their parents sternly that they should not expect to be able to replace badges and patches if lost. In the case of participation patches, you can't buy replacements anyway. They don't care about lost patches as much as I do, but it irritates ME to go to the trouble of keeping track of which ones have been earned by which girls, buying them, and sorting them to be awarded, only to h

Thank you ASM59 for responding to my post. Sounds like the badge magic has some of the same problems as the spray-type "patch attach", so you have to be careful when you use it. But at least it doesn't smell toxic and doesn't require 24 hours to cure. But since you didn't mention problems with the badges falling off (my main concern) it sounds like it might meet my needs. I'm thinking of using it for the girls' "Sign of the Star" badge. I really want to make sure that they are placed right (it's a special kind of badge that has a particular position), but I don't think I want to use up time in

Great idea about making fabric vests. I think that since the vests aren't an official part of the dress uniform it isn't even a problem for people who follow uniforming policies down to the socks. My guess is that the official ones are made of felt for the same reason that my old Camp Fire Girls vest from the 70's is made of felt: cheaper to make because no binding or hemming required around the edges. However, I've seen some of the current Camp Fire girls and boys (it's co-ed now) with their vests and it looks like they are made of fabric these days. Felt is not very sturdy and can't be washe

Yes, I agree that sewing is best. And for the patches with a sewn binding, I can hand sew one as fast as I can machine sew it. My own daughter sews on her own badges although I help her by machine sewing the irregularly shaped ones with no edge that are difficult to hand-sew. And I'll continue to sew on all my sons patches until he has the coordination to be taught to do it himself. When the girls in my GS troop bridge to Cadettes in the fall, I'll probably sew on all the insignia onto all their vests for those badges like the Brownie wings and rainbow bridges that don't come as iron-on (as t