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Lynda J

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Posts posted by Lynda J

  1. I agree that marital status should not be a factor in who is a leader. But I do have a major issue with a 22 years old who get pregant and is not married being a SM, or even an ASM.

    We try to teach the boys to make good moral choices. That hopefully they won't have sex outside of marriage. So we now have their SM pregant and not married. This isn't the example or the role model I would want for my 14, 15, 16, or 17 year old son.

    I havebeen in scouting many years. Had my first Brownie troop at 22, when my daughter was only about a year old.

  2. My wonderfully wise Gran use to say.

    "A kid needs to eat a peck of dirt a month just to be healthy"

    I think she was right. Not kids never really get dirty. If they touch something someone hands them anti bacterial soap.

    We use to clean up before meals, at bedtime and if we were going to be seen in public by someone other than family.

     

    It is sad that kids can't be allowed to be kids.

  3. Wehave aboy in our troop that is 15 and just finished 2nd Class. Same thing won't bring book,he has only completed about 5 badges and those were troop done ones. Has about 15 in his incomplete file. He' emotional maturity level is really that of about an 11 year old. Most of the time when we are camping he roams around like a chicken digging in the dirt. But he has a good time and I don't think advancement is a big thing for him. So we simply leave him alone and let him do his own thing.

  4. When I joined this troop there was a troop rule that no electronics were brought to camp or troop meetings. If a cell phone was brought to a meeting it was to be turned off during the meeting.

    If aboy brings a game to camp it is taken up and locked in a car. When his parents pick him up they are told he is not to being it again. We also don't allow boys to bring cell phones on camping trips. The adults have their phones for emergencies.

     

    What we do in once a year we have a GAMEING CAMPOUT. The boys can bring their games. This year we used a church fellowship hall. THey bring their TV's, games and what ever else needed.

    The only thing they are required to do is cook. And that can be easy stuff. But in order to earn this camp out there can't be any violations of the game rule at other campouts. We have now had our game campout 4 years.

    So give them a yearly gameing event but set rules for it.

     

  5. I agree Vicki. The only time any of my boys have been allowed to "sleep in" was when one boy had a bad headache the night before. But nothing else gets you that right at camp.

    I also have a big problem with the one adult and one Scout left in camp alone. Haven't they taken Youth Protection Training and know about being two deep.

  6. One thing that impressed me was the daily newsletter. It is handed out at the leaders meeting each morning. This is also when you get your coupons for ice so make sure all your leaders go. You each get a coupon. Plus check in was really easy. We did our swim test at the Y here and took the paper work with us. One thing be sure to send someone to the orientation meeting before camp.

     

    Badge program was really wonderful. We went the 3rd week of June and the heat wasn't bad at night. Didn't have any mosquitoes. Did have copperheads and poision ivy. Lake water is COLD.

    Our boys want to go back in a year of two. Kevin is thinking about taking their CIT program and working there in a couple of summers.

  7. Where do you stop banning. I had to treat a kid at school the other morning. He had on shoes that were not tied and in order to walk and keep them on he had to slide his feet. Lots of the kids are wearing their shoes the same way. He was sliding his feet across the dirt in front of the school and managed to stab a pencil through the bottom of his shoe into his foot about 1.5" deep. I helped him to the office. The nurse wasn't going to be there until late so the principle ask me if I had my first aid kit with me. (she knows me well) I treated the kid and recommended that the contact his parents and let them take him to the Dr. Had his shoes been tied and actually fit his feet this probably wouldn't have happened.

    If we start banning things like shoes, pants that are to big and hang below the crotch then where to we stop. Banning orange shirts. Our school already bans any solid colored tee shirt because of "gang colors" As far as I am concerned lets go to uniforms.

  8. How can she expect the boys to follow the rules is she shows no respect for those rules. This included how the uniform is worn.

    We had a leader in our area that cut her pants off and made capri pants out of them. THe new DE informed her that unless she was willing to represent the uniform properly she was not to wear any part of the uniform. Plain and simple.

  9. Taking prank pictures has been going on ever since I can remember. There is one of one of the girls in my old scout troop sitting behind a tree taking a leak. She is now an attorney. These pictures are in the scrapbook that my mother

    put together 45 years ago. The boys in my troop have almost every summer taken "shower and latrene" pictures. I don't know that you will ever stop it totally.

  10. If this man is a convicted felon he should not be at meetings with the boys and certainly not on camping trips. He isn't registered with BSA. Our CO requires and any adult attending camping trips be registered with BSA. Plain and simple.

    You also need to include your Unit Commissioner and possible your District Commissioner in meetings with this parent.

    I would also contact the previous troop and find out exactly what happened. He this man broke someones are in an argument you do not want him any where around the boys. We had one parent that had been in prison twice on drug charges. When her son joined the troop it was made clear that she could come to COR's but could not attend any other events. While her son was in the Pack and Troop she was sent away twice more. They finally moved out of the area which was very sad for me because this young man now has no positive role models in his life. I know she hasn't put him back in Scouts because the only reason he was in was because he is Kevin's age and in 3rd grade their teacher came to me about getting him in. It took me a month to get her to sign the papers. I paid his registration and after that I found him a sponsor to cover his expenses.

     

    But no way would I allow this man around the boys.

  11. THANK YOU LOKI. This is what it is about. You couldn't find training in your area, so you went somewhere else and got your training. Then you came back and started training adults in your area. This attitude give the boys a much better program.

     

    As a ADC I would love to have you in my district.

  12. My dad started taking me camping with him when I was 2. That is 58 years ago. He always used DOs. He passed away in 84. All the camping gear was stored in the trailer. When mom passed in 93, I went through the trailer and found all the ovens and skillets. They had been lovenly oiled and stored in brown paper bags. I opened up each and every one of them and there wasn't one spot of rust on any. He always stored them in brown bags. I still store mine the same way.

     

    He also used foil and ashes to clean them. He would rub ashes inside them then scrub with a wad of foil. When they were clean he wiped a coating of oil and bagged them

  13. Two years ago our troop took part in our Spring camporee. It can turn cold in Texas in March. One patrol planned nothing but cold food for the entire trip. When we left it was in the upper 70's. Saturday morning it dropped to the 40's. They had nothing hot to eat. We didn't come to their rescue. But guess what. We have camped many many times since then and never again have they planned an entire campout of cold meals.

    They also now have backup of ramen just in case.

    We do have a troop policy that you can't use ramen as your main meal at camp.

  14. I don't know if it was the same two Scouts that went to speak to Congress but if it was. They are twins from Longhorn Council. They were working on their cycling merit badge on the bike trail just behind my shop when they heard screams coming from the Trinity River. A 6 year boy had fallen in at the spillway. They got off their bikes and jumped in and saved him. They got him out and were in the process of getting back on their bikes when someone stopped them and got their names and troop numbers. When ask how they knew what to do they told the EMT's that they had just finished Boy Scout Aquatic Camp that summer.

     

    They are from a troop from West Fort Worth.(This message has been edited by Lynda J)

  15. Another suggestion on a simular subject.

     

    As a Unit Commissioner I do not recommend that the CM/SM and CC positions be held by a husband/wife team. Have a unit I am working with right now that the CM (husband) has been transfered out of state. THe CC (wife) is of course also leaving. Currently they have no one to take either positions but we are working on it. I know it can be hard to get these postions filled. And that many times husband/wife teams take duel postions. But it can also be really hard on a unit if both move.

     

     

  16. Something like this happened when Kevin first joined the Pack years ago. Had a committee chair that was a total control nut. She even told parents and leaders that she was the only one allowed to attend Round Table. Since I hadn't done Boy Scouts before I didn't know until I ran into someone at the Scout Shop and they ask me why I didn't come to RT. I told him what I had been told and he informed me that he wanted to see me at the next meeting. I went/

     

    If looks could have killed I would have been dead when the CC saw me there. At our next Committee Meeting I questioned other things she had been telling us. But didn't think much more about it. We had a Family Camping trip coming up in about a month. The Friday morning of the camping weekend she called the Scout office and informed them that she would not be going on the outing and that there was no one else trained.

    They called the CM. He explained that we had parents that had taken off work early. Since he was an Eagle the ask if he could come to the office. He took off work, went to the Scout OFfice. They did a short training and let us go. THe did tell the CM that we had to get someone else trained.

    THe CC was livid. Quit the unit. I got talked into taking CC. I was CC from Tigers until we left to move into the troop. Whe she quit it was ReCharter time. Igot the paperwork stuffed into my mail box the day before it was due with no instructions. I went to the Scout Office and got with the DE the next day and got it all done. We were one day late because we had to get things changed at the bank because she was also the only one on the signature card.

    We also got all of our leaders and part of the parents trained. WIthin a month of our outing I went out of district to get Baloo trained. ALso took any other training I could find. I love training. Love getting with other Scouters to just brain storm ideas.

    This woman had been causing problems for the adults for some time but this was the first time she had actually done anything that had a direct effect on the boys.

  17. Get your Scout Masters Training complete ASAP. Then suggest to the current SM that you "transition" into the position of SM. Start little by little taking on more of the SM responsibilities. Maybe start with overseeing the PLC and let the boys take on more.

    But go at it as this will make it easier when he does leave, the boys and parents will have become accustom to your leadership style.

  18. When we purchase new Pamphlets we check which Requirement book they match and write the year on the front of the Pamphlet. This way we know that the requirements match.

    Also when updated pamphlets come out I go through them and check for the changes. I will then print the changes and staple them into the front of the pamphlet. So many times the only change is how something is worded.

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