LauraT7

thanks for the WB - i missed you guys! had a problem with my antivirus program - for some reason it doesn't like this site and I can't get in with it on - go figure! so I shut it off when I'm here and i get to visit with you all again! on those "Action packers", any idea who makes them? i've tried Rubbermaid and Suncast websites and can't find them. Suncast makes something similar - it might work - kind of a tough plastic garden caddy for the patio - about $70 - k-mart sells it. We need to do something, our patrol boxes are a disaster - but can't get everyone to make

Wow! I'm surprised, too, that troops 'take off' in the summer! around here, CUB PACKS will stop meeting for the summer, but will still have activities,to get their quality unit award. Most Troops may have a reduced meeting schedule, but they do still meet and activities INCREASE once school is out. In our troop, we meet year round, the first Monday of the month is PLC and committee meeting, and we meet all the other Mondays. We even meet on monday holidays - although the meetings tend to be low-key on those mondays. Our troop traditionally does something that i think P

i have looked at plans for alot of chuck boxes - but last weekend we saw a troop with what looked like rubbermaid ( or another brand) small cabinets on wheels. i want to say they were either gray or green w/ red - plastic - about 3-4' high, looked like two doors on the front? kinda like a deck box. has anyone seen these? know who makes them / where to get them? are they really expensive? I'm thinking that these may be easier to keep clean than the wooden ones, and lighter, too. Wood is SO heavy. Any idea where these are from? laura

Just a note to say "THANK YOU" to all the scouters who have the patience to work with boys like my son. These boys can get SO MUCH benefit out of the scouting program - if given the chance. On a recent outing with a new scout parent, (who was frustrated with the behavior of two of our boys - one of which was my son) I had to again try to explain the difference between ADD /learning disabled kids and 'normal' kids who "just need discipline and consequences" to this parent. Like many whose kids have no social/emotional dificulties - he just wasn't buying it. Funny thing is

nldscout's idea makes ALOT of sense - you might ask the price on the whole assembly from all the different suppliers, with a BSA discount. Not only will you get a better price, but you will have spares for future repairs! We sent a tent to Johnson for a replacement zipper, they were extremely helpful, fast and inexpensive. they gave us a scout discount, and shipping was speeded up because I used a (personal) credit card for payment. We also have a spare set of poles, and a tent repair kit (zipper tabs, stake loops, patches and eyelets) from them very reasonably. I would recome

Recently our troop planned a trip to do some whitewater rafting. Although i am the Activities Coordinator - another leader took care of all the arrangements as he had done the trip before. As the trip came closer, and we arranged to do the swimm tests of the new recruits to qualify them for the trip - some other safety issues came up - like - we thought that the trip was guided by professionals, but it turns out the outfitters just gave yuou a raft, equipment and a map. many of our new boys did not pass their BSA swim test, and with no guides and not sure of the 'whitewater training

only two leaders - one who only attended as a 15 yr old scout on a previous trip - I'd be a little leary of sending a group off with ONLY them. there are a number of scout camps and places that will send you with experienced GUIDES for a nominal fee - you might want to check with Napawon, and some other scout camps that do trips. Our troop attends Canoecopia each year in Madison, WI - a great resource for canoeing info, equipment, outfitters and locations - maybe they could help you with information to set up a trip. http://www.canoecopia.com/canoecopia/ it is sponsored

Things to send in the CARE packages - anything he would not like to "waste" his OWN money on, or things that might not be available at Philmont - batteries, film, disposable /waterproof cameras? soap, laundry soap, a roll of quarters for the laundry? sunscreen? bug spray? a bandana later on when he's lost/worn out his? snacks that 'keep' when sealed - chips, those tuna/chicken salad mixes that don't have to be refrigerated (if he likes them), peanut butter and crackers, anything "home baked", or a local treat or delicacy from your home town? a phone card to call home, a new music tape or

Good Post KoreaScouter! I would say our troop is a car camping troop - with leanings toward a backpacking troop. Our troop's history says it is/was a "high adventure" troop - and this "reputation" is hard to live down - especially when they did their 'high adventure' NOT under BSA guidelines, and only recruited boys from other troops for these trips - they didn't TRAIN boys for the trips. Now we are trying to teach the older boys to teach the new recruits how to camp, plan, etc. And we still have some adults who think the "only" way should always be light backpacking, leave-

A classic example, Eamonn, of something taking on a life of it's own and obscuring the original purpose. We ran into a similar thing with a daycare renting rooms in our church - and then complaining about the sunday school invading "their" space, church posters, crosses and Jesus pictures on the walls. Luckily we had a firm pastor and grounds committee that pointed out that they should never forget the purpose of the building was to glorify God - not the daycare. in a nutshell, that is the problem - as long as the purpose of the fundraising benefits the BOYS for things that THEY

KWC - we did that last winter - at least the shelter part - the boys created their own shelter out of tarps and whatever they could find. In teaching "leave no trace' however, meals were on cookstoves and no campfires were allowed, and no cutting of trees or brush. It was a great outing, the boys loved it. Except for one thing. In winter camping, with NO CAMPFIRE - the only way to keep warm once the sun goes down is to get in your shelter and sleeping bag. it made for a LOONNNGGG winter night - going to bed about 7 pm! LOL! the boys were up with the sun in the morning!

"In all cases, while their funds were not against the rules, there was a lot of in-fighting in those units over control of the funds as well as philosophical debate over what the unit should pay for and what the parents should pay for and what the Scouts should pay for. " having just come through two years of such infighting, to the point where it hurt the boys and the troop (which has a 80+ yr history) to the point of almost dissolving the troop - I can tell you - that scene AIN'T pretty! We lost friends, reputation and boys in that squabble - and in the end, came out a stronger an

In Girl scouts, we did a "solo" wilderness test for a patch at camp - but were were to camp on our own - cooking meals, too - and complete a service project of some kind - mine was marking a trail with plant identification signs - which meant more equipment than just sleeping gear. I seem to remember making a pine bough bed and having a tarp over me - not a tent, though. We were allowed to talk - IF we happened to see someone - but few did actually see anyone in the 24 hours alone. so what ARE the boys allowed to take on an ordeal? and what about us oldtimers? if I sleep on the

file Topic replies time - Pages dsteele 55 12:23:42 PM Chippewa29 1 11:43:18 AM leonus 6 11:43:02 AM When I get on the bullitine board, this is all I see - the topisc are gone and i can't open any threads. for some reason, i CAN start a new thread - but once I post it, I doubt I'll be able to get back into it again. I have asked Scouter for a reply a few weeeks ago - but no response. I asked again today. anybody know why this is happening? please reply by e-mail. as I won't b

I must be really odd. I LOVED my Girl Scout uniform, and wore it with Pride. I had a kind of reverse-coolness thing going on with scouting as a kid - because I could never hope to be 'cool' in school - the acheivements I earned in scouting meant that much more to me. But I, too, wanted to drop scouts in Jr high. I had too much homework, switching schools was tough, my friends went to another school, and my parents put me in confirmation. I felt I had too many things going on,too much pressure and felt lost. My mom let me drop out - as long as I kept an 'at large' status. (kind of like a '

Couldn't you just get a couple of those tracking posters from the catalogue? or maybe one for each level of scouting for the pack? Webelos, wolf, bear, tiger.... Then when the boys crossed over, you wouldn't have to pull out just a few of the boys from the list - the whole list would have moved on.

Only if the boy applied for a campership. Then the troop would pitch in - the amount differed - depending on need, participation in the troop, the amount of the troop treasury, and the number of boys asking for help. the troop will often provide uniform parts from the uniform bank, 2-3 free new camp/troop t-shirts, and other needed equipment as we can come up with it our council policy is to pay for HALF of the cost of camp for a boy; the boy, his family and troop are expected to come up with the other half through the troop, fundraisers or their own funds. This has become a proble

Cool thing is that we have found out that we have the USS Cobia ALL TO OURSELVES! this means that we can quarter the men in one area, the women in another and the boys in the larger Crew Quarters. We will have the adults take shifts, and will have 2 adults awake and with the boys all night (per Cobia rules) but not sleeping in their area. I haven't got an answer yet on how many cubs will be coming, but their leader has told them to plan on one adult/ one child. We've got some openings, Sparkie - Do you and your son wanna come? now my next question is; do we have to file a d

Our boy scout troop is going to overnight on a WWII submarine in a few weeks. It's a maritime museum, lock-in kind of thing, not a campout, per se - it' run totally by the museum and they do it for all kinds of kids groups. it turns out that there are lots of open berths on the sub, and we thought it would be great to invite some webelos to go along with us. If we do, what are the requirements in terms of adult / child ratio for Webelos? Are webelos still required to have 1 parent / 1 child like cubs? or can there be less? We need to figure this out right away and get the

Hi! sounds like you have some good ideas going - the only thing i would add is to take advantage of any events and activities offered by your district or council - as their larger size might be able to offer you activities, training and resources that are tough to do with just a handfull of boys and their familes. Network with other troops - especially other small troops at summer camp and at camporees, etc. often if you both want to do something like a caving trip, or canoe trip, BOTH troops can get a better deal if they combine to get more guys on the trip. We had a small tr

We are blessed with not only a strong charter org and it's staff and facilities, but it's continued support by the same church congregation since pre- 1911 - when our "troop" started it's own scouting movement and joined BSA National as soon as it became available in our area. Our Charter rep has been active in scouting for over 30 years, and the minister of the church takes her interest and responsibility to the troop very seriously. We can never say enough "thank yous" to the Methodist church in general, for it's long support of scouting, and to First United Methodist of Woodstock, IL

here's a good one I'm recommending to our troop - as my son and I are also involved in working with Golden retreiver breed rescue and re-homing - the search and rescue, bomb and drug sniffing dogs and handlers are dear to our hearts. MOST of these dogs come from shelters and rescues and are retrained for their jobs in the police, fire, rescue service and military. http://operationmilitarypride.org/packages.html the above link can provide you with info to send care packages for a dog / handler team. how cool is that?

I had talked to one of the managers of the MSN group (AFTER I impulsively invited all of you SCOUTER.COM people to join us) and they are thrilled to have additional voices on their board and to see the chat room being used. They feel the two boards complement each other, as MSN has chat capabilities that Scouter doesn't and Scouter has resources they can't hope to match! the Tuesday night is arbitrary - just a mutual night we picked - but it can be any night. If you want to find someone "live" though, on another nite - a few suggestions - post on BOTH boards ahead of time when y

IMHO feeder packs should NOT exist. The Complacent attitude promoted by "feeder pack" mentality is a big factor in losing so many boys at the Webelos to scout transition year. It may be convenient for a CO to sponsor both a pack and a troop, and if they work well together and a large group of boys move up into that troop each year, than that's fine. IF the boys are happy,(and I judge that by if a majority STAY in scouting) and IF the troop and pack don't put limitations on the boys - such as giving them the idea they are expected to go into that troop automatically. You will alw

The problem I have with most fundraisers that sell items is twofold - first, as someone pointed out, most sales are inspired by friendship, guilt, charity, whatever - but the person buying the item is being solicited, they aren't looking for that item. (IE - I am HOOKED on GS thin mints cookies and will search out a scout to buy them from, because you can't get them in stores at any price) second, for the charity involved, the profit margin on the item is usually not worth the effort expended by the boys or parents that manage it. You could get alot more "bang for the buck" in oth