April-D

Did I miss something or did the BSA discontinue the raingutter regatta boats to only the catamaran style kits? Does anyone know if these will fit a standard raingutter?

I will say that when he said "like I'm going to stab you" it wasn't a QUESTION... he was making a STATEMENT... like I AM going to stab you.

I have found out today that these two boys definitely have a personality conflict... and the instigator seems to have a way of wanting to just say things to hurt people's feelings -- I've witnessed it first hand at Day camp this June, it was pirate themed, he went out of his way to tell another boy that wore a pirate hat for the day that he was stupid, that his hat was stupid. He just isn't "nice." Not that I can expect them NOT to be nice all the time but he just seems to go out of his way to be mean.

Walking down the hall at school and telling one of my other scouts who was wearing a Tony Hawk t-shirt "you're not cool enough to wear that."

And mom proceeded to tell me that these two boys have a personality conflict. I have no problems with this other boy (the pirate) ... still issues are with this other kid ("blondie")

So I have a large den of Bears. And, of course, we have some personality conflicts. Who doesn't. Generally, I let the boys work things out on their own and move past it. Tattle Tails and pettiness drives me batty!

But at my last meeting, one of my bears was being THE BIGGEST smart mouth to my assistant den leader. basically telling him that he didn't have to do what he said or listen to him because he's not his dad.

Well, I'm not his MOM either but he BETTER listen to ME! My asst. den leader was BESIDE himself . I, too, am STILL quite irritated about the entire thing.

So, would you address this with mom first OR with scout in front of mom or with scout in front of mom and assistant den leader.

I, personally, feel he should formally apologize to my assistant den leader.So perhaps having the assistant den leader there wouldn't be a true sincere apology because it's at my request right then.

I want this scout to understand that this is NOT what scouting is all

about... it's about building character, having and showing respect, showing compassion. You know, basically all of those character connections that they're supposed to be picking up along the way.

UGH. just wanted to see what anyone else had done in the past before I

handle this.

--- I will add that it was told to me that as I was discussing when we would begin working on the whittling chip... one scout said, yeah, we gotta take the safety class so that we don't stab ourselves or something and this little boy then said "like I'm going to stab you."

I did not hear it... this is all heresay... this all happened in the same night... ??? I dont even WANT him carrying a knife in my home or at any den meetings should that be the case?

I read this on a Yahoo group I'm on -- no one has answered but I'm curious as to the answer for the same reason she is... anyone heard anything?

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Does anyone know if advancements (ranks, patches, belt loops, pins, etc)are going up in cost? I received a general notice from BSA on-line catalog that they will be increasing costs throughout their catalog beginning August 15th (which also happens to be the day that our national scout store will have the new uniforms in stock - coincidence?).

We were hoping to mail out our end-of-summer newsletter, fall flyers,

and pack fees reminder next week, but now I'm wondering if we are going to have to adjust our pack fees for increased costs for advancements?

-=-=-=-=-=-==-=--

We have a LOT Of "over achievers" (lol --that's totally tongue in cheek) and certainly don't want to lose money so if we need to increase our fees a little bit to cover the increased costs...I certainly want to know BEFORE printout our parent hand out.

Has anyone ever prepared a Christmas parade float? What worked? What didn't? Any ideas, suggests, comments?

I'm on another scouting Yahoo group and someone had a suggestion for Blue & Gold 2009... here is a synopsis of her e-mail:

The theme for this year's Blue and Gold is American ABC's. As an

assistant cubmaster and with the help of the current cubmaster we

came up with an awesome idea but are unsure of how to reach scouts

across the nation. Our idea is to request postcards from dens,

packs, and troups about what is new with them for the year and have

them mailed to us in Plattsmouth. When we receive the post cards we

will send one out from out pack. The postcards will be then used as

our decorations for the Blue and Gold. Some ideas on the cards would

be activities they are doing or how they celebrate different

holidays.

We thought of this as bringing scouts across the nation a little

closer in lue of everything that has happened in our council and to

let our boys know that there are more scouts than the ones that they

see on a regular basis.

If someone has some ideas on how to get the word out that would be

greatly appreciated.

--------------------------------

Then another scouter on a similar board is doing somethign similar but (more along the flat stanley line) but is tying in a few loops to that project... and I though... why not COMBINE the two?

Here's his information:

=====================================

am tying a ton of stuff to this project (geography belt loop and/or pin, any rank achievements/electives pertaining to geography, journal-keeping, writing correspondence, computer/Internet activities (including working towards the Internet Scout Patch), cooking (explanation to follow), kite making, etc.).

My boys have been told that they are to tell all your Packs about this part of FL (I've lived on the SE coast for approx 20 years & had no clue there was a part of FL like where I'm living now, just 60 miles West). We are trying to include Stanley in as many "area specific" activities as possible (some families are able to do more than others). The boys must include an area specific recipe (something with gator, swamp cabbage, etc.). They will be telling you about area people, industry, legends, etc.

In return, in addition to taking Stanley along with your Scouts, could you give us some insight into your specific area (especially if you live in a part of your state that might be a little different than what people normally think of when they think of your state)? Also, can you reciprocate with an area recipe?

Come B&G time, since this year's theme is about America, we will be incorporating this project into our B&G celebration. Minimally, the boys will be required to mark a large US map with the location of their "Pack Pen Pal" and they will be making whatever recipe you send, as part of our menu for the event. I'm hoping to get them to tell all the guests a little bit about what they learned about your area of the country.

I thought if I gave my boys about 3 weeks to take care of their part, we'd get the packages off to all of you with enough summer-time left to give you about 3 weeks (including time to repackage) with 2-3 weeks to spare before school (& regular meetings, for some) resume. We're meeting on July 8 to package everything up.

There are a few Packs that I don't have mailing addresses for. I will email those of you separately.

==========================

SO.. I created yet ANOTHER Yahoo group for the purpose of listing your pack information if you're interested in this project -- at least for the post cards... .

I wanted to let you guys know about it too... because it's such a fun idea!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bng09/

We pretty much follow the guidelines that have been mentioned in this thread. Our Round Table is the 1st Thursday of the month and our Pack Leaders Meeting (that's what we call it) is the 2nd Wednesday of the month.

For July we are discussing the following -- just to give you an idea of what we cover...

 Treasurers Report

 Re-charter (we have a woman that has done it for the past several years and she won't be doing it again this time so we're goign to have to be sure all our den leaders are up to snuff on making sure we have all their kid's information for packmaster.)

 Pack Master (we just upgraded and changed to a dot net version)

 Scout Info (discussion of how we're going to do re-registration this year and verify all our scouts' informatioN)

 HL news alerts (we are allowed as a pack to put scout information in our HOA's e-mail news alerts which we'll use as recruiting and event advertisement)

 summer events (we'll talk up all the details for the remaining summer events -- ice cream sociall, horseback riding clinic, etc.)

 2008-2009 Calendar (we'll go over the new calendar make sure all the dates are known for any big events)

 Monthly Meeting Structure (we're changing up our pack meetings entirely into a activity/center driven "meeting" instead of letting the boys sit for an hour and be bored to tears)

 New Leader Packets (we're going to make these this year and distribute them to any new den leaders)

 Award Board (we're making an award board instead of handing out baggies and handshakes)...

 Den Interaction (we're going to change to have our older boys become more "leaders" for the new ones... bears to tigers and webelos to wolves)

 Meet the Teacher (we're goign to set up a mock campsite outside and possibly do a flag ceremony before the entire thing)

 Rally (go over the wonderful powerpoint presentation our CC prepared for us to use and pretty much go over what we'll be doing in September)

 Facility rental for PWD (our school charges an OUTRAGEOUS fee for this now so we need to find a new place to have this)

 Facility rental for B&G (same as above)

 Adopt a Street (we have adopted a one mile stretch of road in our town to clean up... going over the information about that)

.... so we talk about a lot of important things... and then open the floor for new business....

hope that helps.

We generally, like others have mentioned, NEVER have parents that aren't involved in some leadership role attend.

Do any of you prepare either or rely on the BSA documents for your handouts?

I'm interested in knowing what, if anything, anyone does for their new leaders...

as well as new parents coming into Scouts.

Yeah, I've been around for a little bit...

so OA -- Order of the Arrow -- that's a BS thing (ooh wait, those initials don't translate ideally)... that's a BOY SCOUT thing right?

I honestly don't really know what they are... any resources to look it up? I mean, I found on the internet http://www.longhorncouncil.org/oa/default.htm which is one near me... ?? but it still doesn't tell me WHAT it is.

At Roundtable meetings and at our council camps and such I see some wearing a patch on one of their pocket flaps... can someone tell me what these are?

OH my GOSH that so cracked me up. Yes, that'd be like telling them they're a broken record -- I made the mistake of doing that to my own son and he asked what a record was. Times times times...

Any-who, I would love to see a photo of whatever version you come up with!

We are having our crossing over campout this weekend and we're (for the first time to my knowledge) wanting to do a scout sunday service... no one stepped up so I'm going to do it... I was told to make it completely non-denominational as we have several different faiths represented as well as a Jewish family. I have NO clue how to accomplish this...does anyone have anything you'd care to share as I don't want to offend but do feel it is important to have one.

Thank you so much for posting this! This is great information.

On a message board group I frequent, I've read rumors that the BS are changing their official uniforms... is this true? I haven't been able to find anything to substantiate this claim but was curious if anyone has heard.

I created some awards featuring a Norman Rockwell scouter image and we printed them off on 8x10 photo paper. Everyone was very happy to receive these. E-mail me off list and I'll be happy to e-mail you one.

aprildriggers@sbcglobal.net

I am posting to this thread because it's the most recent and becasue for some reason, I'm unable to open a new thread... does anyone know how I can get a message to tech support? I've been trying to post a new thread for a week and keep getting this error message:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14'

[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]

Line 1: Incorrect syntax near 's'. 

/forums/post_library.asp, line 91

One of the things our Pack does that I don't understand is when we award boys their rank, they use the parent's pin to pin it to the uniform but pin it upside down. When they do their next "good deed" then they can turn it right side up. It seems like, to me, that this process is putting an extra requirement on the boys that they don't have to do. Does anyone else do this?

So my den has completed Achievement 7, we've done all the arrow points for 13 and will be for 19 in the next month. I need ideas for a conservation project... what have you guys done for this?

So the requirements for the Art Loop go like this:

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ART ACADEMICS BELT LOOP

Complete these three requirements:

1. Make a list of common materials used to create visual art compositions.

2. Demonstrate how six of the following elements of design are used in a drawing: lines, circles, dots, shapes, colors, patterns, textures, space, balance, or perspective.

3. Identify the three primary colors and the three secondary colors that can be made by mixing them. Show how this is done using paints or markers. Use the primary and secondary colors to create a painting.

________________________________________

So anyone want to tell me what #1 means in layman's terms -- I'm not an artsy-fartsy person... creative? Yes. Artsy? No. I have no idea what that means.

For #2 is this just any drawing in general?

How have any of you helped your scouts earn this loop?

where can I find the instructions for how the totem is supposed to work building up to the rank patch? Once they've completed three ENTIRE achievements and 10 electives or ???? I can't find it. Thanks!

it must be just a council by council thing because I finally got through to a person and she said if it's just someplace local to us only for a few hours, we don't need one so that answered my question... I didn't realize things were just council by council... it seems like it'd make more sense to just be black and white but there are so many grays with scouting it's just mind boggling!

We have a silent auction every year at our B&G Auction -- I heard someone say that technically we're not "supposed" to do this... what are the rules for fundraising? Is it because the BSA/council/district isn't getting a cut or? ?? Anyone? Anyone?

Texas Motor Speedway offers a scout discount for one day and we're going to take advantage of that as a Pack. However, since we will all be going separately and just sitting together to watch the race.. is a tour permit required?

I guess I don't really understand when to use these and when to not.

OOOOH... me luff motorcycles. One of my best friends on the planet races Ducatis for CCS and CMRA. I'm a race junkie!

I, myself, had and sold a Honda CB-1 -- she was awesome. little 400 and I named her Smurfette (yes, she looked JUST like her). I had her customized, dropped her a little...rode like a charm. Had a better offer come along and she got dropped (to a new owner, not as in crash-bam-boom).

I've got my eyes on a Ducati Monster dark -- I have a soft spot for the stripped down street bikes... but after riding a Ducati 999 around the track once or twice... I'm telling you... never thought I'd be a big fan of them but boooooooooooooooooooooy that was schweet!

You guys outta go check out some of the CCS races that come your way!

There's one in Houston, TX tomorrow ... www.ccs-south.com I think is the website. Those are a fun time to watch.

I'm a 2nd year Cub Scout mom and Leader from Keller, TX.

Me personally, I love to cook, ride motorcycles, horses, hike, shop (I AM a woman by God), fish, ski - move me to a cabin in the Rockies and I'd swear I'd died and gone to heaven. But until that time comes, I'm living in surburbia -- in my very own Wisteria Lane (that's the name of the street on Desperate Housewives in case you weren't privvy to that little nugget).

I was in girl scouts as a child but didn't stay with it because of transportation issues (to / from meetings). It never was a priority in my family to be involved in anything... so being involved wasn't ever A priority for me. But now that I have children... I want THEM to be involved and realize the impact a group can make - even a group of 2nd graders! They're awesome. It's MY priority for them to be involved so thus it is a priority for them.

Last year I was still figuring out what this all was about... this year, I've got a rather good idea of that and have been led to become our Pack Secretary and Blue & Gold Coordinator (pray for me folks!).

My kiddo was excited at what Scouts has to offer, but honestly, I feel like I have a lot more fun! This is WAY better than my girl scouting experience ever was.

I always knew I wanted to work with children at a young age -- until in college, I discovered how LITTLE teachers made. So, I went into law instead (hee hee) and taught Sunday school on the side. Now, I don't teach about Jesus (per se other than through example) I get to lead young men. I almost find I get the most warm fuzzy feeling knowing that these parents are entrusting their most precious of assets to me, knowing that he'll be better for the time after... that he'll come away from our meetings happy, excited, learned and eager to continue... so far, they all have! That's my reward ten times over!

While I don't have the experience a lot of you do -- and am still learning my ways around the terminology and lingo, I have done both Tiger and Wolf leader training and have attended a POW WOW / university of scouting as well as our monthly district roundtables.

I look forward to the discussions, the information overload and so far I'm loving the professionalism on the board. I was on another board and was basically told that I needed to know my role and to step back and bake cookies when I had a question about how something was handled.... wow...

BUT any-who...thanks for having me and I look forward to hanging out with you guys for years to come!