ASM7

cwood Is this a pack campout or is it a council sanctioned event? If the council is hosting this campout, then they should be providing the range and instructors. If it's just a pack campout, then you have to follow Guide to Safe Scouting rules. Maybe instead of not participating, you should inform the others involved. Your pack may run the risk of not being covered by insurance should something happen. Always be prepared. It may be a good time to get those leaders to seek leader training if they aren't already trained. Doug

Treat this forum like a great big scout campfire. Everyone's welcome. Posters here are brand new, old hands, and everyone in the middle. No question is too stupid to ask. Some of us claim to be ex-spurts and can guide you through any encounter. Usually, the more challenging the better. I learn something new everyday. Doug Remember, with this campfire, sometimes it's a warm glowing, marshmellow roasting , bone warming type fire and it may be your turn to get some more wood or stoke it. Other times, it's so hot you may need to stand back or throw some water on it. But it's always there for y

I think I remember from my Cub days, that an assistant Cubmaster should be the liason for the Pack and Troop relations. I, personally don't think it matters, but would someone confirm or deny this. The more connections between Pack and Troop the better. Also, what is the rule for holding more than one position? Is that just within the troop or pack, or what? The Scoutmaster Handbook pgs. 136-137 gives a lot of insight for Troop-Pack relations.

Sorry for the late post. We are fortunate to have a scout storage room with a drop down ceiling. They make hangers for these grids in the ceiling. We use these to hang our tents on when not in use. The tents seem to always have some moisture on them even if not raining. This storage system keeps them dry and off the floor. The meeting before campout, scouts pack their tents and make sure they have no damage and they have all the components.

Welcome to the Forum Anarchist, The cook area tarp is a great idea, especially in your area and mine where "if it ain't raining it ain't training". And we're always training. We bought some of those new camo tarps and they really blend in better. For sleeping quarters, I prefer a philmont type tarp. (not canvas). The new high tech material tarps are great. The tarp allows lots of air movement. Thats a good idea for our leader patrol, "The Barking Spiders". The boys have seen our example and the older patrol likes the ease and accommodations of the tarp. The younger ones still need the privac

No, it wasn't a dig on Bennett. He didn't misrepresent Lincoln. I think that history has not included all of Mr. Lincoln's views on different issues. Some of the speeches he made could raise some eye brows.

Maybe Mr. Bennett should familiarize himself with some of the things Lincoln said.

Two points: 1. I don't think ASM1's post was meant as hostile and 2. Even veteran newscasters make grammar mistakes from time to time. I find some of these facts about PSAs interesting and I am interested in learning more. However I don't think that adding your Troop number at the end of is proper. Maybe add the number of the Council for more info. Are the PSAs available at the Council the same as the commercials I saw a year or so back? Doug

I understand the high cost of prime time but if they knew in advance that they would only run between 3 and 5 AM, why bother with the cost of making them. Why not pay the price and just run them in the recruiting season when school starts back.

I like to use the ziplock bag with the plastic thermal mug for cooking those freeze dried meals. Just put the bag inside the mug, add your ingredients and put the cover back on for a few minutes. Same clean up as Weekender.

It is a waste of money to run ads between 3 and 5 AM. Why not run fewer ads between 3 and 5 PM when kids get home from school? Who do we talk to about this? Following their logic, I guess we can go sell popcorn between 3 and 5 AM

ScoutParent About this safety break that you mentioned, I thought you were offering these refreshments for free and had a donation bucket for the troop. If you were selling these items for the specific idea of raising money then it is a fundraiser. We offered the safety break as a courtesy to holiday travelers. All items were donated for that purpose and our donation bucket, we felt, should go to some other worthy cause, because we don't accept money for what we think is a good deed and not even really a service project. I had originally planned for the donations to be for the troop, but on

I remember a couple of years ago the BSA started an ad campaign with TV commercials and billboards. I still see some old billboards but have only seen a couple of TV commercials. I remember the commercial I saw was a scout helping an old lady cross a gorge on a rope. Did anyone see these and what happened to them? Doug

One tip for river crossing is to have the scouts trade packs. If one goes in the drink his pack will be dry on the other scout. In northern hemisphere, when a sliver to half moon is present, a line drawn through each point to the horizon points to approximate south. Doug

bmchugh It seems to me that one of the lessons of Woodbadge is to teach what it's like for scouts to operate in the patrol environment. This experience was ruined for you and your patrol. I'm not aware of any policy that prohibits you from camping with your patrol. I had all male members in my patrol but the patrols that had female members camped together. It's not like we are not all adults and if a relationship did start, what's wrong with that. That is if they are single. We had a married couple in one patrol. Because of medical reasons the wife wanted to be near the husband. From what I

Ozemu I'm replying on the forum so others may use the info. I've never been to Australia, so I don't know if you have Pine trees there. If not, they are an evergreen tree very prevalent in the Southern US. The leaves are long thin needles. People here use then instead of mulch to go around flower and shrubbery beds. Our committee chair organized this so I don't know the name of the company that supplied them for us. But I will find out if anyone wants to know. The needles are delivered in a 53 ft long trailer from Georgia. We got 1200 bales. You don't have to prepurchase them and you d

Scoutparent We also do a traffic safety coffee break that was started this year at New Years. It was at our Welcome Center operated on the Interstate. I discussed this in a thread earlier and we also were going to use a donation bucket for the scouts, however this was frowned upon because this was treated as a good deed and scouts shouldn't expect pay for a good deed. I agreed and we used the donation bucket to allow people to give to Students Against Violence Everywhere, a national program started at the high school I attended. I urge everyone to re-evaluate the activities of the troop. If

stressbaby I know from experience that it is very hard to begin a new troop with all young boys and it is almost doomed to fail if the adult leaders do not conform to BSA policies. With a young troop, the youth leadership is probably not in place yet so the adult leaders should act as a patrol to set the example. 10 years old is too young to be a Troop Guide. It should be an experienced scout. You can't get around the young SPL because of the overall age of the scouts. If the SM is trained through Wood Badge, how current is that training? How many ASM's are there? and are they trained? If th

When you are out night hiking and you hear that unmistakeable growl, what do you think? "I hope it's not a bobwhite, eagle, buffalo, fox, beaver or any of those lowly creatures". No, what you hope it isn't is a Bear. And who said that Bears can't fly? We just choose not to. SR-389 Kodiak Bears

Yarrow I think it is up to the CE what type of incentive programs they have as long as policy is followed. We are pretty lucky because the council provides all of our patches. The quality unit patch is earned by the troops complying with the requirements of the quality unit award.

Bob White from your post on Aug 9 "Learning the importance of good grooming is more important than all looking identical. Nowhere does the scouting program ask, require or suggest, that every scout in the troop should dress identically. How does dressing identically help develop character, citizenship or fitness?" Check out The Methods of Scouting - Method 9

I was a little concerned about some of the things said in this thread so I talked to God about them last night. I was satisfied with the answers I received. It was a private conversation but he said he was available if you wanted to talk. Amen

OGE Welcome to the Bear Family. It was my wish for you to be a Bear. Nothing like being at the top of the food chain. Our yell was "WE EAT, WE MATE, WE HIBERNATE" with motions to go along with it. We have to be very careful where we do it. Say hello to your bear buddies for me. Doug I have finished my ticket and waiting on the ceremony.

We have a great Army-Navy Superstore here in town and he gives us a 10% discount. I bought my used Campaign Hat there a couple of years ago and it was $5.00. His website is armynavysuperstores.com. I think the hat is now $18.95. Lots of other things there also.

I emailed the guy, Steven Ledingham, who wrote an article about ADD and ADHD in Scouting Magazine. We were having some problems with handling one scout who was a problem. The scout also had oppositional diviant disorder. He gave some great advice. Since all kids are different, I suggest that anyone who might need some help to contact him personnally, Ledingham@aol.com . He also is a scouter and has written at least one book. Hope this helps.