infoscouter

Our council has created a Diversity Award

http://www.northernstarbsa.org/Forms/NSC/Diversity/DiversityAwardApplication.pdf

It includes a patch, but its not a merit badge.

Was he an OA member? There is a ceremony, called the Broken Arrow ceremony. I saw it performed at a Scouter's funeral and it was very impressive.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pineapplefish56.net%2FScouting-Fun-DOC%2FOA-BrokenArrowCeremony.doc&ei=xni2ULTIIev-2QXh3IHoCA&usg=AFQjCNGD7YJBD4pVAPclc9iPO08OqRPcWQ&sig2=a8nbkmpDEOSiOeFaiEAl3w

Our district gives several awards which are not "standard" BSA awards. If you hover over the "Awards" tab here: http://threerivers.nsbsa.org/index.aspx you'll see most of the awards for which individuals can be nominated. Pretty much everyone who gets nominated for a Hot Spark or a Spousal award will get one. The others get a little more competitive, since there can only be one of each of the "of the year" type awards. We're still big enough that we can give three DAMs, I believe.

In addition our DE gives an award called the "Rivers Award" to the volunteer(s) who keep the district 'flowing' behind the scenes.

The budget for the awards has to come out of the event budget, so don't go whole hog on 10 awards if you're not going to be able to attract enought folks to pay for the plaques/certificates, unless the DE can get a trophy shop to donate the awards.

In my district, it would be our Vice-Chairman, as outlined in the Handbook for District Operations (see p. 7)

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/commissioner/pdf/34739.pdf

Unfortunately, all the other literature I can find is silent as to what to do. I assume you convene the nominating committee in a special meeting, and fill the vacancy ASAP, but I'm not sure how, absent a special meeting of the district (incluing Charter Reps and Members at Large).

Here's the order form: http://www.scoutstuff.org/media/content/docs/pdfs/Flag_Order_Form.pdf

It's my understanding that the flags are supposed to be uniform across units, and so only official flags are "allowed". The big sticking point in making your own would be obtaining a logo for the center, since they aren't available for purchase separately.

We had a couple winter CubANapolis races. Instead of cars, one year the Scouts made snowmobiles. They added "skis" and windshields instead of wheels to the boxes.

Another year, each den made Santa's sleighs. These were more a cardboard construction they pulled along the floor. Two Scouts were "reindeer", the rest of the den were "elves". Each den had to race from station to station. At the first station they loaded the sleigh with presents, at the second station they had to slide through a "chimney" (a tube of boxes laid on their sides & painted to look like bricks), third station was decorating a tree (sort of pin the ornaments on the tree), at the last station they delivered the presents. All of this was timed with the winning den earning some sort of doodle for their den flag.

I don't believe proxies are allowed, but your council by-laws would govern the procedures. You really need to check with someone in your council to see.

And then there are the Lutheran Pioneers: http://www.lutheranpioneers.org/ and Lutheran Girl Pioneers: http://www.lgp.org/

This group is endorsed by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, who discourage their members from joining BSA or GSUSA.

In the den, my go to game has been Steal the Bacon, but the with a pack of 12, now I play it as a pack game!

If you have two pack meetings you're probably not really going to cut your attendance by 1/2. The Scouts with older siblings will come to pack meeting A with their parents. The Scouts with younger siblings will come to pack meeting B with their parents. The parents with Scouts in both age groups will NOT be happy - "Why do we have to come to two meetings?". So depending on your membership, you'll get 60-70% and each meeting with overlap between the two.

If you've go that much overlap, then you'll start to either shortchange one meeting because its too much work, or do exactly the same ceremonies; games, etc. and both and bore the folks who are in the overlapping group.

The Guide to Safe Scouting says:

"Appropriate adult leadership must be present for all overnight Scouting activities; coed overnight activities even those including parent and childrequire male and female adult leaders, both of whom must be 21 years of age or older, and one of whom must be a registered member of the BSA. The chartered organization is responsible for ensuring that sufficient leadership is provided for all activities."

So it's up the CO, through their relationship with the adult leaders, to ensure that sufficient adults are present at an outing. "Sufficient adults" is going to vary, based on a lot of factors - where you're camping; what activities are planned for the event; youth behavior or health considerations; age of participants are all factors we consider when deciding how many adults we "need" at an event.

This can also work the other way. If you have too many hovering parents, you can allocate the 3 or 4 or however many adult slots to those with particular skills/training required for the event and wave goodbye to the parents in the parking lot.

:-)

Amangi - your council numbers are the same as what my whole district puts on in a year. We literally have dozens.

It would help to know how many youth you are serving in each program (and what you're including as "events") to know whether/what to suggest to cut.

Maybe the answer is to manage the events differently, so as to reduce the work load of the committee.

We always do group meals, but we have access to a kitchen and a large grill, so we can cook pancakes or 40 hamburgers all at once.

One trick to making this work over camp stoves, is to make things that are "pre-cooked", so all you're doing for the group is reheating. For example, you can make sloppy joes ahead at home, pack the mix in bags or containers and just re-heat on the stove top.

Here's a resource from the Scout Shop which may be helpful:

http://www.scoutstuff.org/bsa/literature-media/cooking/cookbook-scout-s-lg-grps.html

Older style First Aid kits used to look like tackle boxes or hard sided plastic cases. Many EMTs I know have now gone to soft bags like this: http://www.theemsstore.com/store/category.aspx/categoryId/296/Gear-Bags/

Or you could look at something like this:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200481224_200481224?cm_mmc=Google-pla-_-Safety-_-First%20Aid%20Kits-_-22167&ci_sku=22167&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw={keyword}

I've never seen a list of what BSA suggests is in a kit, just put together items which seedm most useful

All of my sons cars were made with coping saws and lots of sanding. We didn't make extreme or fancy designs, just basic cars. Somewhere we found templates of several different shapes.

My husband has tools from here to kingdom come, but they are all for working on automobile engines. We have very few woodworking tools, and what we have I've bought. I thought about buying a scroll saw, but other than the Pinewood Cars would have had no use for it.

So, power tools aren't necessary. A vise is a good idea to hold the block of wood steady, the new 3M sanding sponges make sanding easier for little hands. Go back to the basics and you'll do fine.

All of my sons cars were made with coping saws and lots of sanding. We didn't make extreme or fancy designs, just basic cars. Somewhere we found templates of several different shapes.

My husband has tools from here to kingdom come, but they are all for working on automobile engines. We have very few woodworking tools, and what we have I've bought. I thought about buying a scroll saw, but other than the Pinewood Cars would have had no use for it.

So, power tools aren't necessary. A vise is a good idea to hold the block of wood steady, the new 3M sanding sponges make sanding easier for little hands. Go back to the basics and you'll do fine.

Your parents are treating the meeting like social times for themselves. There should be some of that - but their primary purpose is to be there for their sons.

Take away their tables. MAKE them sit with their sons. They should participate in the songs/games/ceremonies. They can't do that if they're on the other side of the room "chatting". Rather than having to keep reminding them to be quiet and pay attention, make it possible for them to participate by re-arranging the room so they are in the heart of the action **with** their sons.

Use the gathering period before the meeting and 10 minutes or so at the end (especially if you do refreshements) for the social time. That way they'll still get to chat, but will also be engaged with their sons.

Some of our patrols use these:

http://www.stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=ZAG+ROLLING+WORK&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=020800R&SDesc=FatMax%26%23174%3B+4%2Din%2D1+Mobile+Work+Station

They have smaller bins for utensils, etc., bigger bins for pots & pans.

The handles telescope for storage; the big wheels handle rough terrain. They stand up to abuse and can be cleaned with a hose.

We have a mix of stoves - the younger patrols use big Camp Chef stoves, which come with their own carrying bag. They are much to big to fit in a patrol box

http://www.campchef.com/explorer-deluxe.html

There is a web sited devoted to Scout history research: paxtu.org

It includes extensive bibliographies, including this one, which lists many local council histories: http://www.paxtu.org/Paxtu_-_BSA_Bibliography_-_Part_A_-_100815.pdf

Our per Scout cost was $115 per Scout. It will go down this year, since we have a free place to meet.

YOu can figure out how much it costs per Scout, by using the Pack BUdget template.

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/xls/13-273.xls

FIll in your income & expenses & how many Scouts you have. It does the math for your per Scout cost.

Councils use financial recording systems which are generally divided by categories which broadly align with the council's overall budget. So the general ledger system will have line items for X District -- Activities, which is then subdivided by the activity name - Fall Camporee, Klondike, Spring Camporee, (sometimes) Cub Scout day camp (that can also live in Camping)- District Dinner. Similarly there's a line item for Training, subdivided by IOLS, WLOT, BALOO, basic training, etc. Those code numbers you put in budgets or write on checks represent the General Ledger account that the monies flow into and out of.

All the money is the council's. It lives in the council's bank accounts and is allocated to the various activities by the event chairs when they write the budgets, subject to council approval.

In some councils, if an activity generates a surplus, that surplus then lives in the line item for "X District -- activities" or "Y district -- Training", can subsidize other events of that category. In other councils, any surplus moves back up the ledger to the general fund.

**Sometimes** DEs or Field Directors have the discretion to move money around between funds, issue purchase orders (up to certain dollar amounts), spend money of Roundtable, etc. All districts are required to "zero out" their accounts at the end of the year i.e. move any surplus or loss back up to the general fund.

Different councils do this differently. Financial controls are tighter or looser based on how well employees respect their spending authority, the personality of the Finance director and his/her philosophy about fund accounts, the pressure the Scout Executive feels to keep the budget down or make their FOS goals.

If you have the "full" suite of Microsoft Office, Publisher and Word have templates for newsletters. I use OpenOffice, for which you can download a number of templates. I also use PrintShop from Broderbund - they often have sales and you can get it right now for 29.99.

When I need things reproduced, if I get them to the DE early enough, he'll print them for me, but I keep that to a minimum. I don't like killing trees. Instead, I'll have the info posted on the district web site, or sent out to the e-mail list. I used to do an actual newsletter which I e-mailed, but haven't been good about that lately.

So, instead of having everyone make the same craft, I'll buy the materials for one or two crafts. As a I construct a craft, I take step by step pictures and write descriptions of each step. Then I e-mail out the document. I realize its less "hands on", but it helps give ideas without a great deal of expense.

Some things I pay for myself. Often I demonstrate recycled crafts or games, so I don't have a lot of supply costs. Other times, I demo activities that I'll be re-using for a den or pack meeting, and the pack pays :-) We have an end of the year "roundtable bucks" auction. I have a budget of $150 for that - which is partially paid for by surpluses from other district events. I use my Coke Rewards points, Kmart/Sears rewards, Oriental Trading points etc. to buy things I think packs could use or benefit from.

I use Pinterest to keep track of ideas I come across for theme related material, and then shop the sales at JoAnn, Michaels, Party City and Oriental Trading. Sometimes I buy things months in advance - but then my problem is finding where I "safely" stored them!

Your questions sound like excellent fodder for a Scoutmaster Conference. You have a small enough group that you could pull each boy aside for 10 minutes for a couple of meetings and get a much better idea of his hopes/dreams/vision of Scouting. SM conferences are not just for rank advancement, but for any of a myriad of reasons, including getting to know the boys in your unit.

Make sure they know what you're doing, otherwise the other seven will think the first kid in in trouble!

Alternately, just have a brainstorming session as part of the first few meetings. Take 20-30 minutes, get some of that big chart paper and have the guys throw out ideas. Devote part of the session to "troop governance" and part to activities. You may get more out of them when they can bounce ideas off one another than from a 'fill in the blank' type survey.

If you're talking just about district events - for Boy Scouts:

Fall & Spring Camporee and a Klondike

For Cub Scouts - Fall, Spring and Winter day camp type events and a Loop-a-Looza.

For all - a Scout show at the local mall, which includes the district Pinewood Derby; and the district awards dinner (mostly for adults, but families are welcome & Eagle Scouts & Silver Award recipients are invited)

OA events for those who qualify. The OA runs an ice fishing derby which is open to the public, but primarily attended by the Scouting community.

A local Venturing Crew runs an 8 week long swimming course on Saturdays, which is treated like a district event - they have access to our online registration system, etc.

Eagle preview twice a year.

Trainings - too numerous to list.

So that's just our district. In addition there are council-wide events, like the merit badge day at the National Weather Service, or the Latino Scout festival. Events like that may be appropriate for your council and are 'special interest' types of things.

The last thing I would think about is whether the events are needed for JTE. The first thing I would consider is quality and value. Our camporees are outstanding, Scouts from other districts attend our camporees, both to get our ideas or as substitutes for their own, because theirs are so poor. Our Cub Scout events are starting to get the same reputation.

If your scouts are staying away in droves, then consider how to improve a few events, rather than having several poorly done. However, if they're well attended and the evaluations are good, why is there a problem? If they're losing money, you need to raise fees or get a better control of the budget. Most of our events generate a (small) surplus or break even.