Knight

Wow - terrific ideas. How about an inexpensive little stuffed tiger and put a Cub Scout logo on it? Present it with a certificate that says something like "Mary Smith - World's Greatest Tiger Tamer." Maybe I'm not too clever, but, then again, kids like stuffed animals.

I'd work with the CC to find a parent who can do communication tasks - hopefully with that person using the boys to do some of the work. The SPL should be designating and working with a lower APL/PL to help out. In the absence of a designated adult leader, it seems like the CC ought to be carrying a substantial load of the comunication responsibility.

scottteng: The summer camp at Tanah Keeta is a very good program - my son is very excited about going back again this year. The caveats: A. The hike and orienteering sections were awful. B. As with anything else in Scouting, results depend upon the boy and the Patrol / Troop. A final note: Tanah Keeta's man-made facilities are uniformly, well, a dump. The boys learn to "rough it" by living in hot, humid and buggy conditions with very crude facilities.

Look at pictures of Americans over the past 30 years and you can see the general increase in average weight. It has been documented by innumerable studies. Go to your local council and look at pictures of Wood Badge classes over the past three decades. The increase in sizes is right there. My observation comes from when I go to roundtables or large gatherings of Scout leaders. There, I see lots of very overweight people. I really don't perceive this to be as much of an issue in my individual local units - I perceive there is a wide mix of individual body types there. My perception of over

I'd suggest calling Scoutstuff.org and asking them about a rush order. I'd bet they'll accomodate you. I found some official Scout shirts very cheaply by looking around at www.craigslist.org

Parents on a new scout campout - certainly - but we need to educate carefully the parents to keep their distance. We recently has a Second Class Scout at a camp where his family went along. The family set up their tent away from the Scouts. Nevertheless, that Scoout many times many times reverted to the cry of "Mom!" when he could not find something or did not know how to accomplish this task or that. Buffalo is right: "Most likely this will be their last campout with the Scouts (unless they are a leader) because as their boys get older, it will be very "uncool" to have mom

Has chivalry been completely excised from BSA? The Oath and Law are all elements of chivalry, but nowhere does the word itself or discussion of the cohesive whole concept appear in current BSA literature. Even in these excellent forums, my search found only twenty threads mentioning the word. Hmmm...

Thank you for your reply, jblake. Point well taken. It saddens me to see people lugging around all that baggage all the time. Coming back to the topic, I'm hoping to elicit suggestions and discussion as to how we all can encourage weight loss amoung Scout leaders and ways to make it happen in the Scouter program.

Ohio_Scouter, That's a great idea. No single soution is going to fix the problem. Cub Scout leaders, Committee Chairpersons, will never go to Philmont nor would I want to make it a mandatory requirement. Nor would all adult leaders feel comfortable in an outdoor / athletic setting. Aduiltn leaders bring a wide variety of skills and capacities to the organizations. But your suggestion, along with many other ideas, is part of a large range of things we need to be doing to get this problem under control. I believe the fat leader problem needs to be added to every council, district and u

Hi. I'm a newbie here and hope I'm not out of line, but I really wanted to share my observation of a common issue I see. I know I'll offend many; nevertheless, I think the topic is a 900 pound gorilla in the room that everyone ignores. Fat Adult Leaders I know fatness and obesity are a problem common to all Americans, not just Scouters. However, the beer belly adult leader (male and female) seems to be the norm. I believe we, as leaders, are not setting good examples of living the first part of the third duty in the Scout Oath ("keep myself physically strong") when we are so overweig

"Paper Eagles" Generating lots of merit badges and signing off on requirements without a fairly high standard of quality / competence is doing a disservice to the Scouting program and the boy. Just like "grade inflation" in occurs schools, so too does this problem occur in Scouting. Look at the definition of "Eagle Scout" in original Boy Scout Handbook: "The all-round perfect scout." This is an extremely high standard. Yes, as a parent, I consider my sons to be incredibly gifted and talented. As an ASM, I'm very proud of each of the Scouts in our Troop. BUT... "all-round per

http://stores.ebay.com/My-Worldwide-Scout-Guides-Shop_Leader-Plume-Hat-Patch_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ4QQftidZ2QQtZkm This seller has plumes from around the world. Also, keep searching ebay in general - BSA pins show up from time to time.

I am glad to have found this forum. The information here is very useful and helpful. I am an Assistant Scoutmaster and also a Pack Committee Member. I am also a former Cubmaster. Together with my wife, we have been very active in Scouting. I have two sons - One is a Webelos 1 and the other is a First Class Scout. We live near Boca Raton, Florida. Translated, that means rat mouth. The original name is "Boca de las Ratones." Boca also means a bay. Ratones refers to the pirates or "rats" who hid in the bay. Boca de las Ratones = bay of the rats. I hope perhaps I'll be able to