JeffD

Mr bob - that was another question i had. our boys are required to read a book every day for school.

http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBSMADS1VE.html

Name Any Merit Badge: This Scout Has It

By FRANK GLUCK Sarasota Herald-Tribune - Published: Nov 28, 2006

BRADENTON - Thomas Hall didn't set out to become a Boy Scout merit badge superstar.

But while other scouting high-achievers around him were satisfied by earning a mere few dozen merit badges, the 18-year-old Bradenton high school student just kept ticking them off.

Then, about a year ago, Hall realized he had 105 and was within striking distance of earning all 121 merit badges, a feat few have achieved.

"I just kept getting all my merit badges and I figured, I'm pretty close, I might as well go for it," Hall said.

To reach the 121-badge summit, Hall took a trip to Oregon to snowboard (for the Snow Sports Badge), bicycled more than 150 miles around Manatee County (for the Cycling Badge), and had to clean out a sink or toilet trap (for the Plumbing Badge).

Hall's journey began in May 1999 when he earned his Disability Awareness Badge and wrapped up Oct. 29 of this year when he cast a line in a Manatee pond to earn his Fly Fishing Badge. As a result, Hall is now in rarified air among Scouts.

About 900,000 boys are active in Scouting nationally, according to the Boy Scouts of America. More than 110 million boys have been affiliated with the organization since it was incorporated in 1910.

Fewer than 100 Scouts have ever earned the maximum number of badges in the organization's near-century of existence, according to Scout experts. Hall's feat may be a first for southwest Florida.

"It's extremely rare," said B.J. Maynard, a unit commissioner for the Scouts' Manatee County District and a 35-year veteran of the organization.

The Manatee district will honor Hall during its annual awards banquet Jan. 25.

Scouting is something of a family tradition in the Hall household.

Hall's father, Don, is Scoutmaster for his son's Troop 8 in Bradenton. Thomas Hall's two older brothers also were in the Scouts. All three earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

That accounts for his twice-yearly trips to Boy Scout camp, where participants can easily earn multiple badges for such outdoors skills as camping, fishing and rock climbing.

The idea behind merit badges is simple: Character comes from learning something new to achieve a goal. The number and types of merit badges have changed through the years but always have covered diverse subject matter.

Now Hall can hold his own in conversations ranging from coin collecting to nuclear science. He has molded fiberglass, which was harder than it sounds, Hall said. He has learned how to manage his personal finances, which he labeled a yawner.

Hall plans to attend Manatee Community College in the fall. In the shorter term, he has signed up to be an assistant scoutmaster.

However, his days with the organization are coming to an end, he said.

"I've done about as much as you can do in the Scouts," he said. "I'm going to try to work on my SAT scores right now."

Michelle -

we have ~15 W1 and 10 W2 scouts, and the others all have about 15 in them. so we are a pretty good sized pack.

our pack alternates dens - and the dens choose a leader to call the color guard forward. they then lead the pledge, oath etc.. all scouts in the den usually march behind the flags. this is followed by a webelos who will recite the BS information.

John -

i agree that most scouts **should** be proactive enough to search out opportunities... even if they need a little nudge

my question was more - am i thinking correctly that to LEAD a flag ceremony, a scout needs to be the one who issues the commands.

I am thinking that if they carry the flag, or if they act as part of the color guard, they are PARTICIPATING and not LEADING.

is this correct?

For the Cub Scouts, it seems that all are required to lead a flag ceremony for one requirement or another.

Not that i am trying to overanalyize the program at this young age, but if a flag ceremony were held, wouldnt there only be 1 leader (calling the commands)?? i would think that if you carried a flag, or simply walked behind someone carrying the flag, that wouldnt satisfy the requirement.

Since i have tigers, we only need to participate, but when looking at some things for a higher rank with another leader, i am under the impression that they are not going to be able to get their W1 boys to lead a flag ceremony. Our pack has den meetings in the same place and each rank alternates the flag ceremony.

thoughts??

if he picks up any trash beforehand - i think that qualifies towards the leave no trace award - so long as he also uses a mulching mower and doesnt bag the clippings (leave what you find...)

I did explain it that way to him.. i more laughed at the way it was brought up. it almost sounded like an older kid trying to get by on a technicality... or a lawyer parent

i just wanted to hear if others had some more outlandish things like this come up.

actually our boys are doing great and all the tigers have earned their bobcat. a few have even volunteered to recite it before the entire pack at a meeting. as a group i am just hitting the point where some kids are starting to miss meetings because of sports. we never had more than 2 kids (out of 19) absent from a den meeting until this month.

I was going over completed requirements/electives at a meeting and had each of the parents compare notes to make sure I had everything recorded correctly.

One of the tiger electives is to ride public transportation (bus, train, etc...). The parent asked if i could count the school bus he rides 2x per day - afterall it is public.... i had to chuckle - just a little.

so we have 186 days of school in a year... assuming you go to school every day, you would get about 37 beads - just from that elective

so what have you heard from the parents

maybe its too harsh for tigers to know that they shouldnt bully others... or too harsh that wolves are told a scenario where other boys are throwing something at them and how they can get out of a bad situation.. or harsh for bears and webelos to know that there are consequences to their actions... both now and for the rest of their lives. lets leave that to the parents and teachers. we just need to show them how to camp - build fires - and get cool badges. (please note tongue firmly planted in cheek.)

it sounds to me like people are more interested in not hurting anyone's feelings than anything else. afterall, you dont want to be known as the 'mean leader' who doesnt let you have any fun and is always there to keep everyone in line....

hey 'its me' -

whats the reasoning behind a "descrete turning in of the 'chip' until cross-over"?

not to beat the dead horse in front of the wagon - but shouldnt others also learn from this? maybe learning from the mistakes of others will mean that another boy wont have to go through the same as this boy did. they would learn that there are consequences to their actions.

i dont think he should give up the 'chip' in front of all at the next pack meeting - and i am sure some of the kids likely know whats 'really' going on , but if the kids knew there were real consequences - and not just idle threats - they might think twice..

just my rambling $0.02

i think i am closing in on whats happeneing here.

about 1.5 yrs ago - the boyfriend moved in with the mom. this also introduced another boy into the house. ever since the oldest boy moved in, the youngest (and my tiger) has had a dramatic change in personality. i am sure he is being bullied by the 2 older boys in the house and is just trying to gang up on someone smaller than he is.

you ask - how do i know he is bullied? the same 2 boys are the ones that get yelled at after each meeting for running around and screwing around on the microphone. or if a picture is to be taken, they are doing some sort of jackass stunt to be noticed. and last night they grabbed the slide from one of my tigers and were playing keep-away from him. when the mom told them to stop - the one boy tried to hide the slide in his pocket and they said they werent doing anything. both boys are pretty husky (pushing 200 lbs and almost 6' tall) and the tiger they took the slide from is not near that size. their brother - and the tiger i talk about - seems pretty small compared to the other tigers in the den. if youve ever seen the movie Billy Madison - think of the O'Doyle family

if the kid sees it all the time in the home - he thinks it is normal and will show the behavior elsewhere.

eagle-pete - i agree theres more to it than just being uninterested. if i were to speculate - it sounds like he is acting out for the attention of his mother.

All members of the Boy Scouts of America are expected to conduct themselves in accordance with the principles set forth in the Scout Oath and Law. Physical violence, hazing, bullying, theft, verbal insults, and drugs and alcohol have no place in the Scouting program and may result in the revocation of a Scout's membership in the unit.

" I would suggest that the Tiger in question sit with her mother during Pack meetings. It does not matter if he sits with the Web 2 den. What matters is that he is with his ADULT PARTNER. "

good advice - thanks for this

Events he likes?? - running around the other tiger leader has talked to him before about his attitude and has been telling me for a few weeks that he doesnt want to be here (in scouts).

You are correct tiger cubs is supposed to be adult/scout for all events. The mom had asked at the beginning of the year, as a favor, if one of our leaders would watch her son since she was a leader. The other leader agreed to keep an eye on him for the meetings.

I completely agree that he needs to have an adult with him at all times. As I mentioned - mom is a Webelos leader and seems to be more involved with the older son. I dont know if the boyfriend of the mom is involved with the kids or if he even lives with them.

My opinion right now is she needs to step down as a leader and concentrate on both of her kids - or concentrate on the younger kid who would be less likely than his Webelos 2 brother to act up in the meetings. I also think the pack leaders might be worried that she will quit if

As for the unprovoked incident - my wife witnessed it and it happened to my daughter I didnt find out about this until after the meeting as I was busy with uniform inspections and awards. My wife was sitting next to my daughter (who was playing with a toy - content with herself) and the scout was on the other side.

My wife was paying a little more attention to the other scout as she has known the boy's mother when they were in a moms club. This was also as he was chanting his hatred of Webelos. She found that behavior weird as he used to be a much happier kid. Meanwhile mom was with the other scouts and had a den meeting while the rest of the awards were being handed out but thats another rant 

I was obviously upset that it happened to my daughter, but I would be upset if it happened to ANY of MY scouts or their siblings.

we have 1 tiger who can be disruptive at most of the meetings. he seems to have a bad attitude about most of the events usually saying he doesnt want to participate. most recently, at a pack meeting, he was chanting "i hate webelos 2" loud enough for most at the table to hear. he then turned to a 4 yr old girl and said he was going to "beat the crap out of her". you can also count on him to show up to the pack meetings wearing only his blue shirt and leather shoes as part of the uniform (i think he got 40/100 points in a uniform inspection).

from his actions this year, i believe that the only reason he is there is because mom is the Web.2 leader where brother has been going. by his "i hate webelos 2" chant, i am sure he is looking for attention. when he was talked to that night - he said nothing was wrong and went back to his moping.

i know mom is not involved with him, and he has had 1 meeting where he had an adult partner (boyfriend of the mom). it seems to me that he might have a better attitude if he had someone there with him, but right now it seems he is only there because its cheaper than a year of babysitting.

it unfair to the boys that want to be there to have someone who is diruptive all the time - but i am more upset at the unprovoked threat he made towards the little girl. thoughts??

here is how i relate the story to another 'real life' scenario.. a little off topic but bear with me.

this past new year's eve, a neighbor was quite ticked that another neighbor was lighing fireworks in the streetwater drain in front of his house. this neighbor went outside a little past midnight and words were exchanged about why fireworks were being lit. the fireworks crowd consisted of about 6 adults and a couple teenagers - most of whom had been drinking... the neighbor had a handgun. an argument ensued and the fireworks crowd threw some bottles at him - he brandsihed his weapon to gain the upper hand in the argument.

no shots were fired, but he recently pled guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and faced 5-7 years in state prison.

like this neighbor, the scout had to make a choice as to his actions. he could stay with the other boys in an obviously charged situation, or he could leave. the scout, like the neighbor, made a choice to stay. they also made the more important choice to brandsish a weapon. both made stupid choices.

the boy was lucky that no more serious injuries have happened. plus, if these are the events that you have heard of, i would be interested to hear what else has happened. like any weapon, this should only have been done as a last resort. this scout should have left the scene. this issue, to me, goes much further than just revoking whittlin chip - and the scout should be reminded as to how serious it is. had this happened later in life, the scout would have been arrested for the same actions.

whats to say that he doesnt get ticked enough to stab another next time? kids rarely have a true idea of the finality of death. i would hate to read a post where a scout was killed because of the utterly stupid actions of another scout.

THANKS!!!!

ode to the internet.... loads of info.. not all correct

Our cubs participated in a district camp this past week. The events (as explained to all) were inclusive of bb gun shooting and archery. THey were supervised by a cerified director and a safety course was given (very brief) before they were allowed to shoot. Each scout was given 5 shots at a target.

The way it was explained to me was that all scouts participating in this would get to earn the bb gun shooting belt loop. When i looked at the belt loop requirements (and also knowing this loop can ONLY be earned at campouts like this) i know we didnt cover the requirements as described below. First, the boys werent even given the opportunity to fire 15 shots as stated, as well as adjusting the gun sight. Pack leaders seem to be fine with it as the kids 'did their best' -- what would you do?

Requirements for the BB Gun Shooting Belt Loop

The BB gun loop, pin and letter can be awarded only by a certified Cub Scout BB gun shooting director at a BSA approved camp. The safety and shooting participation belt loop (BB shooting) can only be awarded with approval of the camp BB-gun shooting-sports director to Cub Scouts and Webelos Scouts who meet the following qualifications:

- Complete camp basic BB-gun marksmanship safety course.

Complete the following shooting requirements:

- Fire five groups of shots (three shots per group) that can be covered by a quarter, and then adjust the BB gun sight.

- Fire a pro-marksman score of five bull's-eyes-TQ-40-in five shots each, achieving a minimum score of eight per shot.

i agree with your comments about taking care of the gear scottteng - i just found it weird as i called eureka after posting this and they told me that stuffing into a larger bag is what they are now instructing their customers to do. and to only use the included bag as a carry item.

maybe my answer from them will vary based on who i get on the phone

i think it comes down to this. if your gear is clean and you take car of it - it should last you quite a long time - regardless of what methods you use. the only tru way to tell might be to pack and unpack it daily to see which ones fail first. (even then you might argue that you need a larger sample of tents to detrmine if your problem is a fluke - but thats left to my old statistics professor)

and from the eureka site - http://www.eurekacampingctr.com/eureka/text_1.asp?s_id=0&tx_id=68

Storage

* Make sure the tent is completely dry, then store loosely rolled, in a dry, cool place. To prevent dust from collecting on the tent, cover it with a cloth. This allows the nylon/polyester fabric to breathe.Color Transfer

* Ideally, the tent poles should be stored in their fully assembled state. This reduces the tension on the shock cord, prolonging its life. We recommend that the tent bag be used only as a carry sack and not for storage.

hmmm - loosely rolled - close enough to stuffed?

btw - this tent is one we use for family campouts so i am not as worried about having it in the smallest possible container. so the larger duffel i have that can be used isnt as much of a concern

i was reading about the best way to store a tent we use for campouts. i had always cleaned it up - rolled it up - and stuffed it in the bag.

reading through the website for eureka, they mentioned the best way would be to have it loosely stuffed into a bag large enough to hold it and that would help to preserve the waterproofing and by not folding it you dont build creases.

any thoughts on this?

john -

one thing we did on our hike was for each boy to find a leaf on the ground. we then made a rubbing of the leaf which covered 5D

my son told me he likes scouts more than anything in the world.

he wants to work on his pinewood derby car (there is a race at an upcoming campout) and he has sanded it just how he wants. we just painted it silver (looks metallic) and he can wait to paint the racing stripes on it.

now - heres to keeping scouting fun on the path to eagle