Joni4TA

Right now our Brownie Troop is working on the "Her Story" Try-It, after just finishing the "Movers" Try-It. We just finished up our Cookie sales (thank God ) and the girls decided they would like to use their cookie profits to go to Seaworld or the local city Zoo. We probably made enough for the Zoo, so that's in the works. Also, the girls are in the process of planning their first Court of Awards for March 25.

What has changed? Our Council has never pushed "required" here. They've "encouraged" training, but NEVER required it. And they've certainly never demanded PROOF of training. And the fact that if folks can't cough up proof they are trained, they are going to be forced to re-train. This is new - that Council/National is making the push for mandatory training "or else." Not sure what "or else" is going to amount to, but I suspect the next step is going to be that they will disallow someone's registration at recharter time if they are NOT trained. And that will definitely be a

To comment on 2 things- FYI 1) I am OVER-trained for my position so my training is not an issue. However, If I were "just the Advancements Chair" or "just the Advancements Coordinator" I wouldn't even be making this post. I basically do everything in the Troop no one else has time to do (because they work during the day and I am a stay-at-home Mom), though my official position on my BSA ID Card is "Troop Committee Member." I make most Troop bank deposits, take care of most, if not all fundraising, handle all the Tour Permits and secure outing permission slips, I usually coordin

At our Roundtable last night we were informed that our Council sent letters to all the area Scoutmasters that said National had repaired their recording and registration system, and that our Council needed to re-create Adult Leader training records so we could report them to National. It says that each Adult Leader in the unit needs to provide PROOF of completing the required training for their current position. (As in a copy of their training card is preferable and a verbal claim of completion or "completion date" will work, but it's a last resort, and will only work during this amnesty

I was a Cub Scout Leader for 5 yrs Have been a Boy Scout Leader for 5 yrs And a GS Leader for 3 years though the service is broken up. One yr was back in 2003-2004, and the other 2 yrs have been 2006-2008. I have been the troop cookie manager twice. Currently a BS Troop Committee member, and a Brownie GS Co-Leader of an 8-girl Troop. I am a former Girl Scout as well, was a cute little Brownie with an acorn and a smile

Ouch... that is a horribly sad story

I FORGOT! The Troop Activity Notification form that has to go to the Service Unit Director, whenever there is an activity outside of the meeting place! lol

Thanks All. My last post was created after me getting into an argument with my husband about this stuff that's going on in our Troop, AND yes Beavah, you caught it right - my husband went behind the backs of myself and the committee's decision (which we just talked about it at our meeting 3 days ago), that this boy should not have earned that MB. He disagreed, but of course he wasn't the adult leader standing there at the merit badge camp freaking out because there was a missing boy. Come to find out, the SM was told by the boy's mother that the decision on whether or not the boy ear

1999, 2000, 2001 - no ID numbers on those cards for me. 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 - I have an ID number, they are all the same. 2006 I moved councils - I am missing the card. 2007 I moved councils again, I transfered membership but for some reason I got a new BSA ID # in 2007. I asked my current council why I have 2 different BSA ID #'s - they told me each council I move to I will get a new BSA ID #. I think that was hogwash, they just didn't want to admit they transferred me incorrectly.(This message has been edited by Joni4TA)

My son just went on a 3-day segmented 20 mile hike. He packed about 2 gallons of water (about 14 pounds right there - luckily there were 2 active springs on the hike), and the rest added up to the backpack being probably somewhere near 50 or 60 pounds pounds. He's 5'7" and weighs 187. He's not fat, he's a defensive lineman on the JV football team and a weight lifter. And he claims he did just fine with all his gear. In fact, he and the rest of the boys and the two leaders that went on the hike complained they had TOO MUCH FOOD, and wished they had left behind some of that food and water.

Ed, At 90 years old I am surprised these Code Pink folks can do anything except fart dust! The fact that they are setting bicycles on fire and smoking (smoking? I thought CA just outlawed smoking in public places, and even in your own car????) and hanging out in doorways of local businesses like hoodrats is amazing to me! Something tells me they are trying to relive their youth by bringing the Iraq war into a Vietnam frame of mind.

Some people have spent nearly 7 years on this forum (anniversary's in only a few short days, 2/21 to be exact) doing a whole lot of blowing hot air out of their ______ - errr - keyboard. Pretty sad if you ask me that they have nothing else to do in life. For someone that hates the BSA and everything they stand for so much, why do they continue to post here? For no other reason than to poke and prod and hope to engage folks into arguing with them so they can 'make points' for whoever actually reads what they grumble about. And guess what - they get what they want, every single time. It's not as

I am interested in this subject as well since we just had a SN Scout earn First Class, and that automatically put him into the "O/A eligible" category in our TroopMaster software. When I think of what the O/A SHOULD do and stand for, I can't imagine any of the 3 quite young scouts that popped up as eligible, actually being worthy members of the O/A, seriously!!

Seems to me the one thing that has been shoved down my throat both in BSA and GSUSA is youth-led, youth-run. I'd say if you could stick with that and take nothing else as written in stone, the kids will have themselves a pretty fair program. I agree, GS training is full of how to make swaps, cute flag ceremonies, thinking day celebrations, sing songs, sell calendars, nuts and cookies - but very little focuses on program and advancements. With 11yr olds, you have the opportunity to have 2 Junior Girl Scout patrols there... about 4 girls per patrol, and utilize the patrol method. That

Sometimes Girl Scout Troops don't 'do' anything because their leaders haven't gotten all the required training in and/or the limited leaders have trouble meeting the GSUSA standards for outings as outlined in Safety Wise. Example - I have been a Brownie Leader since October 2007. I took the required Orientation training in October. (3 hours, no cost) I took the required Basics training in January. (4 hours, no cost) I took the required age-level training in January. (4 hours, no cost) I am taking the required CPR/First Aid training in March. (8 hours, $55 cost

apparently in our troop - every single POR means... "hey the SPL gave me this cool named position... and now I can hang out and tell people I am the "_____" for our troop! NOPE - I never have to do anything, and in another 6 months maybe I'll get named something else cool too!!!" In other words, no - in this troop the boys have had to do absolutely nothing to live up to their POR's!

yes, it's fairly annoying, but it is what it is!

the repeat customer database is a great idea

Boy Scouts of America, Handbook For Boys, Copyright 1948, Fifth Edition, 7th Printing, June 1954 - - - says exactly the same thing jblake47 has listed!

I think I may need to resign my service with the Troop I am affiliated with. I am so disgusted I can barely open TroopMaster anymore. This is about many things... many Scouts have been allowed to 'slide' before I became Advancements Chair. But I think I have just about reached my limit and I have had it!! Some examples: 1) As I was reconstructing camping attendance over the last 2 years, plugging it into the TroopMaster software program - so the O/A Rep could determine who was eligible for an upcoming election, I discovered that one boy, who is already O/A, had only been on 3 campou

Yes, I think I was just being a little overly skeptical. In this day and age we get all sorts of phishing emails and junk mail. My initial thought was that the email was a negative one because none of the clickable links I hovered over actually appeared to go to a website I was familiar with, but once I clicked on a link it ended up at BSA National.

I actually have no real idea how our relationship with our chartered organization is. Since the CC, SM, an ASM, a MC and the COR are all members of the church that charter us, I would like to believe our relations are great. But I truthfully don't know.

yeah I plugged kintera.org into my browser. I get this message: "Kintera.org is no longer active. To get to Kintera.com please click here" "The Click here" link goes to - http://www.kinterainc.com/ which is a fundraising company. So in the email, one of the links that said it would take you to BSA's official website, but when you hover over the link it says this: http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=8eKJJZNCLmLTI6I&s=crLPL5PGIcJMK1NGLnF&m=hiLNKXPELdK0F I clicked on it. (Ignoring my instincts not to click) Sure enough it took me to BSA National! Perhaps the email i

All the links in the email refer to "kintera.org" as far as I can tell. It came from - Boy Scouts of America [scoutingfriends@netbsa.org] and was titled "Thank you Scouters" Anyone else get this email or familiar with kintera.org? The email says at the bottom: Links in this e-mail direct the user to URLs at Kintera,com,(Notice it says ",com" and not .org) a technology partner of National Council, BSA. No personal information is provided to any entity outside the BSA. E-mail address used was provided at registration or re-registration. Remove yourself from this mail

I can't say the salary thing surprises me either. While it seems like a lot of duckets, it's also a lot of work. The FOS Quota thing didn't shock me at all. The predominantly LDS Councils aren't the only ones that do that. "If a congregation does not meet that quota or produce "measurable improvement" over previous results, as an information sheet says its Scouts cannot be in the "Gold Club." Members in it receive 10 percent discounts for summer camps and 10 percent off many supplies sold at Scout stores." While in the Far East Council, we had a similar incentive - if our indiv