gwd-scouter

Ah, kind words. Nice. Keep the royalities, but I'll do almost anything for a patch!

Never used "badge magic" but we do use badge bond, sold in the Scout catalogue. I works really well, dries fast, and doesn't leave the wet-looking residue around the badge. It is clear and any excess around the badge hardens similar to the way hot glue hardens and you can just pull it away. Very neat and clean. However, any of the glues or bonds will ruin the shirt. If you remove a patch, it leaves behind a hard crusty residue that will not wash off. So, we use badge bond for merit badges which in general are not going to be removed and for other patches that are not removed (such a

Has anyone done a count on how many posts are made to a thread before the subject turns to religion and the original thread is no longer discussed? Just curious...(This message has been edited by gwd-scouter)

Thanks guys for your posts. The Eagle ceremony in question is not for my son. He earned his Eagle in 2001 and he had a very nice ceremony - planned mostly from a combination of ceremony ideas he downloaded from the Internet, then asking guys in his troop to perform various parts. Because he had no help from the Troop in the planning, we always assumed that was the way it's always done. So glad to hear I'm not alone in thinking that the Troop should do something to help. This is our first Eagle since I became SM and he seems very reluctant to have any ceremony at all. He's really

ASM59 - your story is certainly disappointing and I can understand your Troop's leadership in their feeling to stop helping out the Pack. When I joined our Troop and took over as SM last year, I was hoping to have a few boys and fathers join when they got ready to graduate from Cub Scouts. I was their Cubmaster for a number of years and these families are members of the church that charters our Troop. But, when the time came, they joined another larger, longer running Troop. I was hurt, but decided not to take it personally as it is ultimately their choice. I'll bet you sure felt lo

Thank Eagle. Wow, Senior Forum member ranking and 100% quality all in one day! Open the portals wider guys, my head is swelling...

CNY: Thanks. As I mentioned in another post, my personal goal as SM is by the end of this year to be able to sit in my comfy chair and sip my coffee while watching the Scouts run the show! Big dream, but I think we'll get there. Two biggest concerns are still recruting new scouts and leaders. We currently have about half older Scouts and half younger. Not bad, but when you consider that all those life Scouts will probably reach Eagle in the next year and perhaps leave the Troop, we won't be left with many boys to run the show. The main reason we have so much difficulty in recr

Trevorum: I remember seeing such a list for our summer camp. Showed all merit badges offered, any prerequisites or money needed, and a guideline as to its difficulty and whether or not it could be completed at camp. If anyone knows of some kind of all inclusive list somewhere, sure would like to get a copy.

woo-hoo. Just noticed I've been upgraded to Senior Forum Member. I feel honored. Just wish I could contribute as much knowledge as so many other forum members out there. I'll keep working on it....

Question - what are the quality thumbs up or down used for?

Hi everyone. Been reading the posts about patrols for some time in hopes to get answers to our Troop's particular problem. I have gone into some detail about our setup in other posts but to keep it simple, for almost a year while we were reorganizing, we barely had enough Scouts for a Troop let alone individual patrols. But now, a year later, we have almost 100% participation from our 10 Scouts. Next week, Troop elections are being held. Last week, the guys formed two patrols. Somehow they just naturally formed with one consisting of mostly older guys and the other with all the

I know the feeling of getting less than warm reception to the idea of teaming up with another troop. While ours was struggling over the past year, I talked with SM of another small troop about the idea of doing a couple of joint campouts. He came back with "the boys aren't interested." Oh well. On the other hand, I've had another troop in town offer to have our boys join them on some of their more high adventure outings. Our boys - not interested. Oh well. Gern-I didn't sign on to rescue a troop either. My husband and I signed up as ASM and Advancement Chair when our youn

I have no problem with a scout joining whatever troop they like, even transferring from one to another. But, I so often hear on this forum that boys transfer from one troop to another because the one they leave has a poor program. "just don't seem to be running a good program and do all the activities we do" "something is wrong with their program..change it in order to keep boys" "if I was the leader of the Troop that they were leaving I'd want to try and make some improvements" I am SM of a very small troop. 12 boys annually. Most we ever had was 16 about four years

MTD-I have found 2000 and 2001. Neither is 100% Boys Life though. send me a PM and let me know where to send them if you still want them.

I was training Chairman for Cub Scout Leader Specific and NLE training for a number of years. Never was I more disgusted than when I spent time preparing for the training session, lined up a few assistants, arrived early on Saturday to set things up, and then only had 1 or 2 new leaders show up. A few times - no one showed! Training was always stressed during school roundup when new Cub leaders were signed up. Dates were given out. It always seemed that those people that signed up as leaders, then were too busy to take training, also eventually dropped out of the program - leaving

Anyone getting excited about Olympics starting tonight? Our family has a tradition for opening ceremonies. Always get together and try to guess which country is coming in next in the opening parade. You'd think it wouldn't be too hard since they arrive in alphabetical order (except Greece and host country). But, either the maps keep changing or we are horribly deficient in geography skills. We even forgot China one year! College son is coming home tonight to continue the tradition! Can't wait.

MTD - I'm sure I have somewhere some of the QU patches you want. Been in Scouting since 1993 so let me look in my sewing box. I'll get back to ya.

ScoutNut - yes, I too was concerned that we'd get a bunch of 10 year olds, but it seems (at least in these 2 small classes) all boys are 11 already or close to it. Also, the couple that are not yet ready are Webs II in the Pack and had not yet visited our Troop. Their Den leader was pushing them towards another Troop, so hopefully they will now give us a look and consider their options. I will bring up your other excellent recruiting ideas to our Troop Committee and see if we can't implement some of those as well.

Kudu, We forget to bring the clipboard and get sign ups so that I could follow up with parents. We did print flyers with several action photos of our Scouts and all my contact info, but of course (if my son is any indication) most of those flyers probably didn't make it home. One of our leaders is a teacher at the school and I will ask if she'd take a clipboard one day next week and ask the boys interested to sign up. Then, I will call the parents. Great idea, wish I'd remembered it at the time. The recruiting done at our middle schools by that large Troop I mentioned is n

OGE: We tried to recruit at one of the middle schools last Fall. Another Troop had traditionally recruited there and since they also recruited from another middle school, they were asked if they would step back and let us recruit alone. Biggest reason they were asked to let us have one of their middle schools was that they are a very large Troop and ours has always struggled to have more than a dozen boys (as I said earlier, the Pack we could draw from is reorganized every year and the private school is small). Anyway, the other Troop refused to step aside. The recruitment was confus

Why not a good idea to recruit 5th graders in February. Both boys that showed up this past Tuesday were already 11 years olds. We do plan to do a 6th grade recruitment as well, but couldn't do it the same day. We are planning to hold the 6th grade recruiting at beginning of school year this fall. Our Troop is about to lose 4 Scouts turning 18 in next couple of months. It has always been a small Troop (only 12-16 boys at any time) and losing four all at once is a big hit. We don't have a very strong feeder pack, nor a middle school available for a round up (all 3 in our area are bei

You might be using the Troop method if... Everyone is eating the same well-balanced, nutritous and perfectly cooked meals at campouts

Kudu, I had read your instructions for Middle School recruitment a few weeks ago and used some of your ideas earlier this week. A few of us gave a short presentation to 2 fifth grade classes and definately emphasized the "danger" of wild animals, the thrill of fire building, shotgun shooting, camping and cooking in the wilderness. The guys asked so many questions at the end, we had to cut them off or we'd have been there all afternoon. Each class (this was a local private school) had only about 8-10 boys each but we had 2 show up that night to our regular meeting. Have gotten a few

A quiz for the Scouts: 1. name the five wealthiest people in the world 2. name the last five Heisman trophy winners 3. name the last five winners of Miss America 4. Name five people who have won the Nobel Prize or Pulitzer prize. 5. Name the last five Academy Award Winners for best actor and actress 6. name the last decade's worth of World Series winners. Now, how did you do? Point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. Applause dies, awards tarnish, achievements are forgotten. See how you do on this quiz: 1. List a few teachers who aided your jo

Our Scouts planned a movie night as well. Actually a movie marathon. Just before we broke for Christmas, Scouts arrived on Friday at Scout Hut at 6:00 pm, bringing pillows, blankets, frozen pizzas, snacks and sodas. Then, popped in the first of the six Star Wars Movies and the marathon was on! One Scout's mom brought a nifty frozen pizza cooker and the Scouts made pizza, ate snacks, and watched Star Wars till the sun came up on Saturday morning. It was also wonderful that our CO let us use their large screen surround sound TV and DVD player. Totally their idea and those Scouts that