Its Me

jeesh Dan, we have had all these discussions before. Each time they are different. New people replying or older forum members contribute something new. These all shape and construction the discussion to where we learn something new from these "old" discussions. And its a fairly defined topic not just scouts with ADHD.

In order of importance A nearby pack that will make weekly/monthly meetings easy. Kids your boy likes. One with a Cub Master A schedule extending at least six months out. One that Camps twice a year or more One that does pine wood derby Participation in Council events Leaders with TRAINED patch on their arm A functioning Committee A training Chair/Leader. One with ties to a Boy Scout Troop

My son is joining a troop where he will be in a New Scout Patrol. I am not sure if this new Patrol will need to build their own box, but I am curious as to what belongs in and the type of euipment you would chose for a new patrol box.

Ignore her. For all your council relations use a District executive. Keep this lady at arms length or better. I don't see you having many options other than keeping your distance and waiting for her to crash out of site. I haven't seen unit commisioner at one of our pack meetings or committee meeting in two years.

The schism can be seen right here in this thread 7 replies with 4 boy scout leaders blaming cub scout leaders for their losses. Stop blaming cub scouts for ailments in the boy scout program. Boy scouts shouldn't even need a "prepared" scout. So how could we prepare them wrong? The schism comes from frustration on the part of the boy scout leader who loses a five year scout soon after joining boy scouts. He blames the previous progam or the implentation of the previous program on that loss. The cubber camped too much and stole their magic, we camped too little and didn't prepare, w

"Just when did the great Schism between Cubs and Boy Scouts occur and how do we fix it?" I don't know when occured. Maybe its always been there. But there is a poor attitude towards each other. I say that the meetings look dull and Boy Scout leaders right back, thumping their chest on how they teach boys to be men not little childern to cut and paste. That's an insult to all cub leaders, but I suspect this is a rampant attitude within the Boy Scout leadership. That their job is more important. How do we change this? Proper training to tame inflated egos would be a start, but mo

You just described our Bobcat ceremony. I don't have it in front of me but blue was for this and yellow was the sun, and orange was something else. A final mark went on the parent's nose. I never saw a parent wipe off that mark during the ceremony or meeting. They all wanted their boy and them to be seen my someone at home with the markings. This is a well received ceremony and there is no reason you should not do it.

Well, just to close this out this thread with how our ceremony went. We used a scripted ceremony available on line in which a chief, a guide and a medicine man lead the ceremony. In this ceremony, the medicine man tells a story about Akela as a youth shooting a flaming arrow that saves a hunting party. We tweaked it here and there and added another guide. I was the medicine man and I dressed as an Indian, with a miss-match of spare costume parts from our dress-up box, a $10.00 head dress and a very real looking stone tomahawk. I had a dad beating a drum in the background. The affect

Too prepared? Eagledad wrote that he lost a den due to a "been-there done-that" attitude. I am not sure if you re-visited this by speaking to boys and their parents if you would come to the same conclusion. MY den just had their arrow of light ceremony saturday so I will comment while it is still fresh. The tenderfoot requirement is a cubscout refresher. Now I don't have a problem with this because all new scouts will be brought to the same level. Plus, when teaching math for example, each progression is a mix of old and new stuff. But I could see where if these requiremen

Is your question in regards to before they cross or after? The transition from Webelos to scout could be considered a two minute ordeal just replace his epoletts(sp), new kerchief and a hand shake. When does the transition begin? If we say it occurs during Webelos II then as a Webelos II den leader I am just a prep school for boy scouts. I don't think so. I think the "transition" should occur after the cross and in the Boy Scout troop. Attention should be given to make the boy feel accpted amoung his new peers. I will say that our attendance at a council organized Webelos mini-c

I will suggest that you encourage your senior patrol leader and all patrol leaders to address the webelos directly and as equals and as often as possible. The troop youth leadership should want them to join. The words, expressions and interactions your senior patrol leader will have with the boys will out weigh your interaction by four-fold. The troop that did a skills day, taught by the boys to our boys was "way cool" according my son. Any activity that gets your boys and the new webelos to rub shoulders will be a good activity.

The "cut & past den" makes me chuckle. I now wonder if it would have been better had I been more of a cut and paste den leader. Rather than address every issue brought up in three pages as to why my expectations were not met I will say this. I am looking at attending Troop #2's weekly meeting and I am looking at going on a campout with troop 4. Thanks for all the comments.

I will say that Lisabob nailed the issues. My expectations were too high. I may have expected a derivation of a cub scout meeting (to be honest ours pack meeting aren't all that great. I did expect more spirit and life in the scouts. The scout master, no complaints a nice guy and didn't look at me as though he was sizing me up. The ASM, nice guy spent a lot of time with our Webelos. But it really looked liked like a civic association meeting, with an opening pledge and then down to business so we can get out on time. I disagree with the poster who wrote that this is the forum we us

We sang at woodbadge. A lot. We sing at church. We sing the national athem at sporting events. We sing school fight songs to show spirit. Even saying this, singing was just a part of my overall statement. Are we raising future Rotarians or serving as a fun youth group? I have seen posters on this site state their scouts were doing all sorts of neat things but the neighborhood kids still thumbed their noses at scouts. Could it be that they our weekly meetings snuff a lot of the spirit from other aspects of scouting. I am just surprised at how mondane this troop's meeting w

I sincerely appreciate that lessons need to be taught before activities are under taken. For example, one most know the rules and good practices of canoeing before one actually gets in a canoe. However, after Webelos Readyman, cub scouts summer camps and first aid taught at each rank in Cub scouts, even CPR has been previously taught to my cubbers. It's not new. The instructors did a good job. No complaints there. CPR is a serious issue and needs respect. But that is no excuse to ommit the fun and scout spirit within scouting. More songs. For goodness sakes there isn't enough

We visited our fourth troop last night and it was another low in dullness. The previous troop meeting we went to had an old man teaching the aviation merit badge. He lectured and then showed posters. I thought that was dull. Last night we went to a different troop and watched a CPR trianing course. I think a Rotary club meeting would have been more exciting. In a church hall devoid of color, there were no patrol flags, no scout posters, no outdoor stuff anywhere. We heard no patrol yells or troop cheers and saw no presence of troop spirit. No songs, skits or any merry making. Just t

Heeleys are great fun. They have been around for about three years. They look like normal Rebock's but tip up the toe and you are rolling. Put your feet in-line like walking a tight rope and you are zooming along. But crashes occur and now most schools and malls have now baned them. However, I have never seen kids roll on table tops. They would never walk on a table top why would they heeley on a table top? Out of control kids playing tag (also banned at some schools) may get hurt wearing heeleys or not. I am not a big fan of ever increasing rules. Standard good conduct rules should c

My Webelos II den is visiting a troop next week. Over the years my den has gone from as many as nine boys down to four. Should I email those that have left cub scouting and offer that they could start new in a boy scout troop? Any chance that these boys would return?

We are the west coast of florida. It should be around 50 at night and upper 70's during the day.

Well here is what I have learned from experimenting with flaming arrows. A 7/16" woode dowel rod with no fletches (feathers) has a completely unpredictable trajectory when shot from a 70# compound bow. Max height for the wooden dowel 100'. An aluminum arrow with fletches when shot straight up with a compound bow nearly disappears from sight. Estimated height ~400' A childs recurved bow with a 20# draw will manage to get the 7/16" dowel rod about 60' of height. When shot from the child's bow the wooden dowel even without fletches has a near enough predictable trajectory.

I must say that where his scouting friends go has been a concern of mine. There are 13 Webelos crossing over from 3 different dens. Although there are different dens we have done several Webelos specific activities including two Webelos only campouts. As a group they are pretty tight. Not all are brother tight but true friendships are there. Personalities have been sorted out so that they all pretty much mix and mingle. Comfortable would be the best word to use on how all the Webelos interact. The bulk of those crossing over will go to 3XX. The bulk of our Webelos who crossed over las

We have visited a total of three troops. Troop 00X ~12 Boy, Troop 2XX ~ 40 boys + Venture Troop 3XX ~50 boys + Venture Troop 00X had the fewest boys. Our vist consisted of an afternoon in a church parking lot building a tower with the Boy Scouts. The adults ran the construction and directed the boys to perform specific tasks. The Boy Scouts yelled at our Webelos and told them that once they joined the troop they could tell them to shut-up. I asked one of the parents if they did camping, and they do about two campouts a year. Did any of the adults have wood badge traing?

We have had two committee meetings in three years. None this year. When we did have a committee meeting if we got half the den leaders we thought it was a good turn out. Of course the results of this neglect is that we won't have a blue and gold this year. The Cubmaster and his wife the CC run the pack meeting and while at one time they did a good job their interest has waned. They have put three boys through this pack and I believe can't wait for their last to finish. The Webelos leaders are pretty good. I think that after you have a couple of years under your belt you learn wh

Ok, its now my turn in the barrel for an AOL ceremony. I like one of the on line Ceremonies where the little Akela shoots an arrow into the air to show other braves the way. Here are my questions. I want to tell the indian story dressed as an Indian Medicine man. Too much? Disrespectful? Tell me how to make a flaming arrow. What gifts should the boys recieve? I saw one AOL event where they got an arrow and a framed certificate. Is this the norm?

Many posters in the Backpacker forums are former scouts. The anti-scout slant may come from encounters with scouts on the trail. Posters have nemtioned how the boys can be noisey and that all they ever get asked from a boy scout is "how far to the next...". In general what's good for scouting is good for backpacker magazine.