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IM_Kathy

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Everything posted by IM_Kathy

  1. someone mentioned removing shoes in houses. I will remove them when asked, but otherwise I don't... I'm sorry but I have planters faciatitus and a bone spur in my heel and without shoes and my orthotics going without them can be very painful and lead me to walking around with my cane and taking vicodin for the remainder of the day and possibly the next. sometimes there are reasons for people to do something that others think is "rude" or "disgusting"
  2. hats is always an interesting topic. I wear a hat almost all the time. I think the only time the boys in the troop see me without a hat is in the dining hall of summer camp. was always interesting when I coached little league because technially men/boys remove their hats for national anthem, but women do not. of course this goes wayyyyy back when women hats were pinned in and such. but with young boys they do not understand women can leave it on but they have to take it off - so I always took mine off as well. thankfully with the BSA I wear official BSA hat and can leave it o
  3. sometimes the activities boys pick just leads to having a meeting or two that would tie into a MB. my son's troop is doing ice fishing in february - they are having fishing MB councilor come in and go over the knots and safety on the ice... also having the owner of the pond they'll be fishing on talk about bait. It won't earn them the entire MB, but it will get them a few things done and then the rest is on the boys to do with the councilor later if they want to complete the badge. much the same way as boys working on communication MB or their star rank will lead different activities
  4. our cut off for troop outtings is the meeting before the event. for things like summer camp and jamboree's those are set by the council/district. if a boy falls ill or is for some reason unable to attend after signing up - if the shopper hasn't bought and can be notified then the boy will get refunded for the food portion of the cost. but that can really be a flip of the coin because it is up to the cook as to when they shop - like my son always shops on wednesday as I'm booked on thursdays. but most of the other boys shop on thursdays.
  5. I was in girl scouts for at least 2 years because I remember being a brownie and a junior and attending 2 summer camps, but not sure if I was acutally in more than that. I quit because by troop was a crafty group and I wanted to get outside and do things. My son's troop is looking for a new SM to step up in a year or 2... I have thought of doing so, but do prefer it to be a male. but when it comes to camping and teaching skills... for the last few years if it weren't for me there are a lot of boys that would still be at scout rank that are now 1st class scouts. I work with the boys
  6. It's interesting that your troop requires attending camp to get a POR. (den chief? webmaster? scribe? historian? ... a different discussion) Den Chief - the 2 boys looking for position do not want to be DC - and don't have the maturity to really want them to be good examples of the troop IMO webmaster - the troop uses googlegroups so don't need a webmaster - the SPL just posts upcoming info. scribe - the troop has never used historian - the troop does use, but it does require attending campouts as they take pictures and keep up our troop binder of photos of activities.
  7. don't know the answer for this - too many things we don't know about. I know my son's troop is dealing with similar issue but for a couple of boys working on Star. they did not attend meeting with elections and so are looking for SPL appointed positions - thing is they have had positions before and have not lived up to even the bare minimum of expectations even with a lot of guidance of adults and older scouts. so the SPL doesn't want to appoint these 2 into those positions. plus they don't winter camp and other than librain they need to attend campouts. I'm in support of the SPL -
  8. my son troop has a few with peanut allergies - we have pbj for boys that won't eat what else is there (just jelly for those allergic to the pb) we haven't had to deal with any special diets except for the catholic's no meat on friday, but then that's just cracker barrel and they will eat the cheese and crackers and leave the meat alone. we have had some picky eaters - my son was one of them... he didn't like eggs. so whenever his patrol would cook up some sort of scrambled eggs with meat they would call him over once the meat was cooked and he would eat just that rather than when th
  9. my son is a sophmore so that may make some difference. when he has scouts, speech, or debate (the later 2 are school activities he's in) he is allowed to stay up until homework is finished. same goes for a normal day for that matter, but normally isn't needed those days. I don't recall the last time he was grounded, but I would not ground him from a troop meeting, but depending on what he did I might for a campout. But our best punishment has always been "no screens" unless needed for school - that means no cellphones, ipods, video games, tv, computer... anything with a screen!!!
  10. the issue we have the most often is homesickness at the end of parent night. Unless they are spending the week we ask that parents visit just at parent night to avoid more of this. biggest thing we stress is that the boys are safe, that if there is a major storm that we will contact 1 adult to email out that all are safe. we have had a parent attend before that was a helicoptor parent - I had to get him to knock it off once because he was yelling at his kid after the SPL had yelled for round up. I simply went up to them and told the parent to stop that the SPL is in charge and when he
  11. when my son and a few of his buddies switched troops I bought them the correct numbers to switch to and had them all sew. out of the 4 only 1 would not have to be redone... the other 3 had really messed up... but it was something I felt important for them to do. my son has terrible small motor skills, and while sewing would be a great way for him to work on improving it I don't think a BSA uniform and sash that he wants to look good is the right place for him to do it. key for me with a boy in BSA and a girl in GSUSA is that as soon as they get a patch that needs sewn on I do it as
  12. one of the best ways to deal with this situation is to ask the band teacher (as with your example) if they would be willing to sign up to become a merit badge councilor. here there is no fee for MBC, but they have to take the online YPT. That way the teacher is the one seeing and signing off rather than the boy coming back and just saying what he did. My son used 2 MBC for his communication MB... he participates in Debate at high school - his debate coach is a MBC but works mostly for the troop in our town... but other requirements were needed to be done at troop level so he had a MBC
  13. I do trust the leaders in my son's troop. Being a scouter with the troop as well I know about YP... and actually if a parent really took the online class I don't think that would make them more trusting. YP works because the adults follow the rules. but if an adult wants to abuse a scout there are plenty of ways to go about it without anyone finding out. but that's where the other adults also have to watch the adults to make sure they follow YP. the way YP is actually set up it protects the adults more than the boys. when following YP it would be hard to abuse a scout unless the
  14. in the years I've been working with scouts I have found that the boys who retain the basic skills the best are the boys that attend most campouts and volunteer (or agree when asked) to help teach those skills to a younger scout. my son is used a lot in teaching skills... at one time he was a den chief and the boys that crossed over were further along than some that came from another pack. He's since held just about every position, but his favorite is Quartermaster as he hates how some boys don't put things where they belong and then no one can find anything. Plus during the beginning of
  15. thank you all for your input. I did track down a dad that would go since was still a little confused by it. Normally this isn't an issue for us, but the last year or so the active adults are parents of boys that are beginning to age out so it's getting a bit harder, but normally have at least 1 except the 1 we had to cancel (but that one was right at homecoming and had only a few boys going so not that big of a deal) and yes, do prefer to have a male attend, just wondering about whether would have to cancel without 1.
  16. I cannot seem to find what I'm looking for and wondering if any of you know the answer to my question. Son's BSA troop has cancelled once before because of not having an adult male on the campout though we did have enough adults - they just all happened to be female. I know with GSUSA a female is required. I know with Venturing that if there is COED then an adult for each sex is needed. But, for BSA is a male required? I hope someone can get back to me soon as final signup for our next campout is tonight and the male has had to drop. Just for the record, I do pref
  17. swimming was mentioned by a couple people... I'm the swimming person in my son's troop. Every year just after cross over we do a swim test day and do the rank rescues. Afterwards I talk to each scout and their parent and let them know... 1) they should take swimming MB this coming summer camp 2) they should take the swimming MB but need to work a,b,c 3) when I'm available to help with their swimming. all the boys that I have had pass the swim test then have passed the swim distance for the swimming MB... the biggest thing is that I sit with them and talk about pacing themselves. the
  18. to me it's not like I'm wearing my scout uniform out to pick-up guys... I'm not wearing it for a fashion statement... I'm wearing it to show I'm part of this group! And the group wears them tucked so I wear them tucked! biggest issue for women is the differing cuts of shirts and what will work to tuck them in... for me I wear a man's cut shirt as they are longer and so are easier to tuck and stay tucked. so when buying a uniform shirt try on the different styles and see what works best with the rules and don't focus so much on what looks the "cutest" on you!
  19. The Blancmange - thanks for the laugh... yeah - those in my son's troop know about it, but considering it's not quite as easy as just unzipping (have to have a little more room for it) I hide very well. and yep, pack out tp unless using kind that can be buried and in a place where you can bury it. And I always keep a bit of tp in my gear too - I take full roll to summer camp because I can't begin to count the number of times boys will forget to remove the tp before hosing out the latrines.
  20. being one of those odd-ducks that doesn't like food touching unless it's made that way... I like the plate with the 3 sections. I also have a hobo utensil set and a metal coffee cup. I like the metal coffee cup because with my girl scout troop I will just put water in it and set on fire and then use a coffee singles since I'm the only 1 that drinks it and I will only drink 1 cup. my son's troop has patrol boxes with plastic dish sets that hold up extremely well - only time we have to replace is due to someone keeping something too close to the fire or stove... but when he went to phimon
  21. my sons troop does popcorn and then 3 popcan collections each year. this year the boys are going to try wreaths as well. all profits from fundraising is split 60% to boy's account and 40% to troop account. the boys is based on amount he sold for popcorn and for popcans it's based on time worked. there has been discussions to increase % toward boys, but every time that discussion comes up again it's right around when we had a fundraiser that didn't go well. So it's been that % for some time, but each year the committee sits down and looks over the $ in account and what is needed fo
  22. I don't care where we camp and have for us to go... but my biggest issue is that due to knee injury I cannot squat and get up so I have to have some sort of tree deal for support. as for women going number 1 --- had enough women don't read - here is a men don't click... http://www.freshette.com/sports_travel.html best thing I have ever found... fits great in cargo leg pocket... but if you are ever traveling long distance and boys are going to just ask to pull off the road and run into ditches don't keep it in your pack that is buried under other peoples gear!!! as for the
  23. compared to my sons council your price is excellent. But he'll be traveling from Iowa and they have added visits to a Major League Baseball game, NFL Hall of Fame, Rock n Roll hall of fame, the St. Louis Arch, and a couple of other stops too... and the cost includes everything except suiveniers. But these are all places he's never been, and is excited that he'll get to see the NFL Hall of Fame before his dad ever will LOL
  24. popcorn does great around here for the packs... who can say no to that cute little cubscout that comes up to the door? but for troops, it's only the boys in their first couple years that do good... it gets pretty easy to say no to a teenager. biggest issue around here is time of sales... we sell popcorn in the fall... our school does a fall fundraiser, the band does a fundraiser, and the football team does a fundraiser. So people really have to make a choice in who/what they support. the other issue for the older scouts is time... fall is when my son is in debate which means everyd
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