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Its Me

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Everything posted by Its Me

  1. After 3 emails and a phone call the family doesn't show-up for the group shop.
  2. We have had a Webelos campout planned since September for this weekend. It has been published and reviewed in notes and schedule updates. We have met and done a meal plan and shopping list. Tonight we go shopping with the boys to purchase the items we voted on and budgetted for. Now 11:00 AM Thursday, a scout and his dad who have been absent for over six months want to go on the campout. Is there room? yes. Can we accomidate? Yes we food shop tonight. Does this parent or kid have a behavorial problem. No Why now? His sport has ended. Nevertheless, I feel anger towards th
  3. Almost one month to the day after the event occured the boy has turned in his knife and a well written apology. The appology really hit the points that I would have hoped him to understand. He states that he is sorry for pulling the knife and that by so doing he violated the Whittling chip promise. He mentions the air potatoes and the hat incidents but he acknowledges that his reactions to these events were wrong. In general a well thought out apology. The note and knife were turned in away from the other boys and was witnessed by me, another leader and the boy's father. Soon after this t
  4. I think one could look at the drop in numbers at the Webelos level like this. Parents assume that exposing their childern to a variety of activities rounds out the child. Thus having been in scouting for four-five years they have completed this chapter in the child's development. So you have the been-there-done-that mentality. (been a scout [check here]). Time is freed to pursue other activities. Also if we compare scouting to sports, Boy Scout may be looked at in the same way as competitive sports program. More time, commitment, money and skills will be needed in Boy Scouts than
  5. As much as we like to talk bravado reality often gets in the way. Six men and one woman all trained for their rank, even four Baloo's and one woodbadge decided on this response. The boy in question is not from a strong scouting family. He is more likely to quit than to face harsh treatment. His parents voiced concerns that he was being picked on by his own pack. If we had brought this boy up to the middle of our Pack (~100+ boys) we may have brought attention to our cause but at what cost to the individual? The group of leaders with all the facts before them agreed that this wa
  6. Well the pack leaders met tonight with the primary topic being the knife incident. Here are our decisions. The knife and whittling chip will be discretely turned into the cub master until cross over. The boy will re-earn his whittling chip by re-learning and teaching one of our Bear dens the safe use and handling of a knife. The boy will write an open letter of apology to be turned into me his den leader. One of his parents needs to be present for all scouting functions. As for the bullying. Each den will be asked to review bullying with their den. One of the leaders will s
  7. SWScouter, I choose the oath and law that are the requirments for Webelos scouts. The boy is a Webelos II scout.
  8. This past weekend we attended a Cub world campout. I wore the uniform green pants, tan shirt and beads and my son wore a pack t-shirt. Maybe 10 of the 150 plus scouts worn a blue or tan shirt. What struck me is that I was one of maybe four adults out of 70 of which many were leaders, in green & tan. The camp staff were even all in T-shirts. In practice, we are not a uniformed organization. By choice packs prefer kids in t-shirts. Adults prefer to wear t-shirts. The uniform policy is not adheard too. The policy doesn't match the preferences of the group it w
  9. My letter to the Pack leadership The issue to be discussed along with the Webelos Campout The Issue Johnny Scout, with den 12, pulled out and opened the blade to his pocketknife to brandish and threatened other cub scouts with. This occurred on Sunday morning December 5, 2006 at the Cub-world campout. The Incident, On Sunday morning an adult from another pack brought Johnny Scout to me and said that this boy brandished a knife on other scouts while at a spot near the Baden Powel trail (the tree house tree). During this campout Johnny Scout, was under my guardianship as h
  10. This is the latest letter from the mom. "Hi again (Its Me) - Thanks for filling us in. We've had more discussions, more has been revealed. (Son) admits to taking his knife out Saturday night, but says he didn't open it. In either case, that is simply not ok! And he knows that! (Son)also says that the ones doing the throwing were not in our pack/den. He definitely felt singled out, rather than pack against pack or den against den. Thanks again. We're handling things on our end. Mom" I wondered if he would admit to the knife incident on Saturday. I was concerned that since only my
  11. I have learned a few more things. The mom has written me and relayed a story that while 12 feet up in the tree her boy had no alternative but to pull his knife as the kids were throwing the potatoes as if pitching from a baseball mound. The boy feared that he would fall and break a limb. The story was told that the boy was in a completely desperate situation, "that the brandishing of his knife was not at all casually or hastily done. It was done wrongly but reluctantly". I will add that when brought to me that the boy did not appear to be disheveled or have any bruises or marks that wo
  12. The story as I learned it. This weekend we camped at the local council cubworld. The site is 70 acres with about 20 acres left cleared for camping fields. At the edge of the wood line is a tree that in conducive to low climbing and has been labeled as the tree house. Boys gather there from various packs and play nice for the most part. But during this incident an air potato war broke out. An air potato is an invasive plant with a seed pod having the look, weight and size of a small to medium potato. A dad with one of my Webelos II boys in tow comes up to me and says very polit
  13. I don't disagree that it would be better from a development stand point and an individualist stand point to have the brothers reach Boy Scouts on their own schedule. But I can understand this from the father's view; with the pack meetings on different nights, at different locations and even different charterre there will be few common occurances. Plus the Webelos I den has only one other kid in it and the leader isn't doing much to begin with. Comparing moving up against an "ideal" webelos-I den and a perfect pack/troop relationship I would push hard for the boy to not go with his older
  14. I am a Webelos II leader. I had a dad approach me about the idea of getting his fourth grade son to complete his arrow of light before our our Webelos II dencross over in April. This way he can have his 4th and 5th grade sons cross at the same time. The younger boy wil be ten years old in February. As far as I can tell as long as his Arrow of light is complete he can cross.
  15. First Crossing, Alexander McKenzie's Story of finding a route across North America (Canada), some 20 year before Lewis and Clark had their adventure.
  16. I have been there for a Girl Scout day and they did a good job. I would build up to it with some space history lessons prior to going. It seemed to me that the girls really didn't know what the space race was all about. Cape Canaveral National Seashore is a great place to camp. Beautiful islands with good fishing and great bird watching. But I don't know about any near-by big group sites. Its a national park so you may want to give them a call and I bet they will provide some suggestions. http://www.nps.gov/cana/index.htm
  17. Injuries/accidents: If zero kids were hurt on campouts and events then great the report shows 0. If one kid sprained an ankle while hiking or one had a posion ivy attack during a clean up, maybe a deeep cut during a skills training event, what ever occured, report it.
  18. It's just strikes me as funny that one kid looks at his childhood and sees that it is fleeting. The other looks at his childhood as something to overcome until he can reach adulthood. Even at 42, adulthood looks pretty scary to me out there on the horizon. I am in no hurry to get there.
  19. My Webelo just completed his week long day camp with a sleep out at the end. Everything went well. My son is holding back tears as he describes his last summer camp as a Webelos. Even though I tell him that the Boy Scouts have great summer camps, its no use. The boy scout camp is miles away from the local cub scout camp is 1 mile away. Even though I tell him he can come back as a volunteer Boy Scout. Even though he likely has two more campouts in the fall at this cub scout camp, this is all no use, his spirits on down. He is growing up and he knows it. His bud whom he shared a
  20. Forums such as this one are difficult venues to hold discussions. I appreciate all the effort to make your thoughts and passions come through in black ticks on a white background. Some of the replies I would have liked to have seen develop into a full fledged conversation. It's just not possible with time lags and various posts in between. Maybe Boy Scouts is different than Webelos. I was never a scout, not one day, so I have nothing to compare it to. I will stand by my asssessment that the Webelos program is weak and does not hold the interest of the boys or their parents. And tha
  21. You people are over selling scouting to the point of exaggeration. To express that scouting is the unsurpassed program for developing youths is fictional. Its foolishness to consider that pulling him out of scouting will do irreparably harm. My son did very well in piano. At age 6-7 he was picking it up quite well mainly playing by ear. His piano instructor thought he had real talent then she raised her rates and moved. A few trials with other instructors proved unsuccessful. One could argue that I am denying his true ambitions to play the piano. He swims pretty well. I bet if
  22. mn_scout wrote "From looking at your posts from the past 4 months, this one seems to be out of the blue." Go back far enough and you will see two of my rants on the Webelos program. Eamonn wrote: "So, are we talking about what is best for you or your son?" Fair question. For me the answer is, get out. I took the den on a campout three weeks ago. A one nighter with just me, another adult leader, his wife and the boys. We had two Webelos without parents, two with and one bear cub. It had a big time feel of baby sitting. I could have used the time for some one on one
  23. He is just finishing Webelos I. We alraedy completed 7 of the Pin requirements needed for arrow of light. My wife and three kids are advid outdoor enthusist having backapcked through Yellowstone, parts of the Appalachian trail, the Boundary waters.... I don't need the scouts to get us outdoors. If I stay for his leadership development it will be three more years of before he is elidgeable. I am sure he would like to stay but he would be in activities 40 hours a week if he could. That's not possible with two siblings and active parents. He is already in a demanding private school, is
  24. My boy and I fight over Boys Life when it firsts arrives. Of course he wins. I just read it a week latter. My ten year old is most interested the jokes. However, I know he reads at least some of the articles because during a converastion with some adults last week he described how one troop rode their bikes across American.
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