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Lynda J

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Posts posted by Lynda J

  1. Used it once. The second time the shirt was washed the patches came off and the patch adhesive came off and got all over the clothes in the drier.

     

    Take the extra time and sew them on. I put snaps on the pocket for his rank patches. When he gets his Eagle he will sew that one on.

  2. My own children are grown. 33 & 36. In 1996 my late husband and I took Kevin as a foster. He was almost 4 at the time. When he got in first grade I put him in Tigers and started working with the pack. He is now in 6th grade is 1st Class and did his OA Ordeal this past weekend. He is a great kid and I love being back in scouting. Of course I was bound to be back. My mother graduated her last Girl Scout Troop from highschool when she was 70.

     

  3. With BSA a boy starts in Tigers in first grade

    When he starts second grade he is a Wolf and earns his Bobcat first, then his Wolf Rank. When he starts 3rd grade he advances to a Bear. Then in 4th grade he becomes a Web I and in 5th grade he is a Web II. When he had completed his Arrow of Light or 5th grade he advances into Boy Scouts.

    This schedule has little to do with when his birthday is. In my Cub group I had one boy that was a year ahead of the others and one boy that was hold back in 1st grade. He joined at that time and both are great scouts. And in 99% of cases the den leader stays with the den all the way through to Webs. And if you are like me cross over and stay with them in the troop.

    So when I would get a day camp registration form and the only information would be the grade the assumption is that the boy is in the rank level for that grade. So the first day of camp we were always having to move kids. And when you are dealing with close to 200 boys this makes it really hard on the staff. I ended up with one Bear den that started out with 15 boys and because of this problem ended up with 35. Which is to many boys for one den at day camp. Don't get me wrong. I love working with LDS leaders, there are some really great ones. My program director last year was an LDS leader. She was great. But when mixing non-LDS and LDS there are problems simply because of the difference in the programs. There has been talk of setting up a LDS district. I don't know it this is the best idea.

  4. No non LDS units don't always fill out their paper work totally. But if I have a boy in a pack that his paper work says he has just finished 4th grade I pretty well know he is going into webs. If I have an LDS boy that shows 4 grade he can still be a bear and in a couple of cases has been a wolf.

    I agree that lots of LDS leaders don't get the training. So many of them don't even have kids in scouts. It is a job assigned to them by a Bishop.

    They do it for maybe 2 years and are gone. I don't think that that builds for a stable program.

    Most of the non-LDS units will have leaders that start in Tigers and go all the way through with the boys. They are their kids and there is a personal investment. You want your own child to do the best he can.

  5. Where did the alcohol come from? Who brought it?

    These are two question I would need to know.

    If a boy brought it from home then his parents need to be told. If he bought it somewhere then the police need to know where he purchased it.

     

    I would sit down with the boys and their parents and make it very very clear that they are on probation. and any further fractions of the law both Scout and legal will result in being removed from the troop.

    I do agree that this is a safety issue. I also agree that it is a YPT issue. If something had happened to not only one of these boys but to any other boy on this outing whose rear do you think would be on the line. The adult responsible for the outing.

     

     

  6. I am in a district that is heavely LDS. I directed our day camp for 4 years and the LDS units drive me crazy. They advance totally differently than BSA. They advance on their birthday regardless of the time of year. And only about 10% of the units put what a boys rank is on their camp registraton forms. So when I had no rank I would put them into a camp dens and when they would get to camp I would have to shuffle well over half of them into the right rank units.

     

  7. Contact your local Astronomy Club. Most of them love having scouts come. Ours meets at the Science and History Museum once a month. They set up their telescopes in the parking lot and it is open to the public. I call them from time to time about bringing boys. When my boys moved up into Boy Scouts one of the guys informed me that he would Merit Badge Council the Astronomy Merit Badge it I wanted. As soon as Kevin finished a couple of badges he is working on he wants to do Astronomy.

     

  8. I have been hiking for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I hiked in old fashion squaw boots. Never had a problem. But I am older (58) and the ankles aren't as strong now.

    I understand the need for economy. But you can get good boots for a fair price. The one very important thing is to put them on in the store then find somewhere you can stand that in on a sharp angle. Make sure that your feet don't slide forward and cram your toes into the front ont he boot. Another good tip is before you go hiking trim your toenails close.

    I grew up raising horses and rodeoing. I always wore boots. When we got new boots my dad had us put them on, soak our feet in a warm tub of water and wear the boots until they were dry. They would fit like a glove to our feet. I have never had a blister from boots as long as I do this. I have had blisters form dress shoes. Don't like them. Give me my boots any day.

  9. John D. The $29.99 Nevado boots that I wore this weekend to outdoor skills training are about 1.5 years old. I wear these boots every day at work. And they are exposed to oil, transmissin fluid and antifreeze every day. The pair I work this weekend to outdoor skills training and about 1.5 years old. And still in very good shape. I work them to the last hiking trip. We hiked about 20 miles. I have never had a blister wearing these boots and have never had sore feet after a hike.

    I buy them and put them on and stand on an angle and make sure my toes do not hit against the toe of the boot. The very first pair of this type of hiking boots I bought are now about 5 years old. I now wear them to mow the yard. But I wouldn't think twice about hiking in them.

  10. Our District advancement chairman, who I just adored told me when Kevin moved up to Boy Scouts that I had to look at it like this.

    Train them, Trust them, Turn them lose.

    The movement to Boy Scouts is a movement to being able to make their own decussions and mistakes.

    We can not keep them from making mistakes and we should not. Without failing we do not learn the sweetness of success. I know parents that make it so easy for their kids to achieve that they never "don't succeed. Then suddenly when something happened and the kid didn't win first place and make the team they were crushed and to mad. "Someone cheated" or someone wasn't fair to them" It simply could not be that they weren't the best. Well folks. Not all of life is winning first place or making the team. But sometimes we lose. And those loses are what builds character and make us strong. So don't make it to easy for your kids. Let them struggle. Let them go through the process of failing and then learning from their mistakes and succeeding. YOu will have much better kids for it.

  11. Cub and Webs do not do temporary patches on their uniforms. As Boy Scouts you can wear temporary patches hanging form the button on the right pocket. These are for patches like camporee and such. But they are not physically attached to the uniform.

  12. I have been wearing hiking type boots for severalyears. I started wearing them at work because I am on concrete all day. I get some from Academy called Nevados for a couple of years. They cost me about $29.00. I get two paid one a half size larger than the other. In the winter I wear smartwool socks with liners and in the summer I wear light hiking socks. I love them And they last. I am in the auto remair business and they get all kinds of stuff on them and they hold up well. I also wear them camping and hiking. Did about 30 miles this weekend and not one problem.

    I know that some people would think they are just to cheap to be good. But I like them.

  13. I have one boy in my troop that was like this.

    Mom is a druggie. Dad and Stepdad are both in prison. He lives with grandparents and a mentally challenged aunt. They don't care what he does as long as he is out of their way. I got him as a Bear when his teacher came to me to see if we could get him in scouts. It took me over a month to run his mother down and have her sign the paperwork. He is such a great kid and loves scouting. He is now 2nd class. But he did earn AOL. But it took a lot of work on my part. THere is no support at home at all. But he is so proud of his advancements. Of course no one ever comes to COH or anything else. All through Cubs we just made sure someone covered his expenses. Now in the troop things cost more. I am talking to a local business man next week about sponsoring him. He had told me before that if I ever had a boy that simply did not have any money that he wanted to help.

    For activities I go by the house and get permission slips signed. Even though I know it isn't really right I will try to get two or three signed at one time. Because they are always dropping him off and not leaving the forms. Hopefully we will continue to have a positive influence on him and the cycle of drugs and jail will be broken. I sure hope so.

     

  14. we have an ASM that was doing the same thing. He was just out of the military and would bark orders at the boys. Finally the boys started complaining and basically ignoring him. Finally the SM went to him and reminded him that this is a BOY RUN troop. And that it up to the boys to make the rules. That they don't like the military push. He has stopped and everything is running smoothly for how.

  15. 50 years ago when I was first in Girl Scouts my dad (the leader) had a friend that was a total durnk. Dad would have him come to teach knots. This guy could tie knots better than an elephant can carry a trunk. And he could teach kids to tie knots just as well. Did my dad ever take him with us when we went anywhere? NO. Did any of us ever get in a car with this guy? No. Did we learn from this guy? Yes and more than just knots. When we started asking about why the guy acted like he did, my dad sat down and talked to us about the disease of alcoholism. How it hurt people and the people that love them. Did we respect this guy? Probably not. Did we feel sorry for him? Yes.

    Do I still know how to tie those knots I learn back then? Yes. Have I been able to pass his teachings along to scouts in my 40+ of working with both GS and BS and make knot tieing fun. Yes.

  16. Have #3&4 taken all their training, including BALOO?

    If not they can not be registered as the leaders as far as I am concerend.

    We had something like this happen when I was in the Pack. leader #1 was over taken by 2&3. 1 finally stepped aside. 2&3 fell on their faces and 1 step back in and picked up the pieces and got the boys to cross over. Of course when that happened they came into the troop. Our SM is a very strong personality. He makes it very clear that he is the SM and that he has 4 ASM that have all taken all the training and that he really does not need more ASMs. That the parents are welcome but that the troop is truly run by the boys and he wants no interference with that. So far we haven't had one problem with a parent. And I love being one of the ASM in the troop.

    We had one mother that was a little pushy and he set her up as the person responsible for getting transportation for our 17 boys to and from events.

    She is doing a wonderful job.

     

    But my first response to adults that are fighting is normally the overpowering desire to take them out behind the barn and paddle their spoiled little behinds.

  17. Last summer was my 4th year to direct our day camp. THe biggest fight I had with the person who did our inspection was over medical forms. I did not include them in the folder with the registration forms that went to the unit leaders. She told me that I had to do that. I ask her if she was willing to open the council and the camp up to legal action for violating medical privacy.

    That under federal lay we had to keep any medical informtion private. I had gone over the medical conditions with each unit leader. I also had color coded tabs for different medical condition. She stuck to her guns that I had to have those forms in the folders at the unit. As it worked out my program directory husband was helping that day. He is an attorney. I ask him what he thought. He told her that the information was private and should be available to the director and the medical officer only. That no other campers or staff should see the medical form unless there was a medical problem that made that necessary. Shut her up in a hurry. I had other problems with her. She didn't like the size of my red flags that marked the BB and Archery range. They were 18"x18". She said she wanted them to be 24x24.

    Thing is that in the standards there isn't a size given. Simply that they are to be visable.

     

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