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Lynda J

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Posts posted by Lynda J

  1. Our Charter Org rep is a Criminal Investigator with the Police Dept. He runs background check on all leaders, Cub and Boy before they ever go to BSA. They also include a copy with registration when it goes to Council. Have picked up two new adults with DWI convictions. The CO talked it over and since these were over 10 years old they kept them in. Had one with a drug conviction and even though it was old would not let that person have a Den.

  2. This has come up before of other sites.

    I have a problem with gambling and scouts.

    In all States gambling under the age of 21 in illegal. If a leader is allowing boy to gamble which other laws is that leader encouraging the boys to break. And it doesn't matter if they are only gambling with chips or toothpicks. It is still gambling. Very different from playing a game of hearts or such.

    If you are planning a good quality scout program why is there space for gambling in it.

     

     

  3. Thanks for making ita little clearer. I was just doing the short and sweet. I am really proud of two of the boys that were taped out. Both are in their second year. Made 1st class just before they had been in a year and have almost 20 days of camping. Good kids. One has 12 badges 5 of which are Eagle. And is working on two more Eagle badges. Very focused and loves scouting.

  4. My daughter got me a set of ski suit liners. They are silk. Love them. If it is really cold I put them on under my thremals. I also wear sock liners under wool socks with hiking boots. Never have cold feet.

    The nice think about the silk liners is they are warm but light weight and if it warms up they don't make you to hot.

  5. Don't know about this one but I love the ones that you snap the package and they will heat for 4-6 hours. This past weekend we did Camporee and it got really cold. I snapped one and tossed it in the foot of my sleeping bag. If my feet are warm the rest of me is fine. I crawled in two hours later the it was toasty warm. A lettle to warm with me in there so I just took it out and put in under my cot. They are cheap, I think .79 for 3 of them. They have bigger ones but the hand ones have always been plenty for me.

  6. This past weekend we went to a Mountain Man Camporee. One patrol planned nothing hot to eat.

    Cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and supper, Sweet rolls for breakfast. They were complaining that they didn't have anything hot to eat (it got cold). We ask them who planned their menus. They all agreed they did but each said I wanted to cook though. So we are camping next weekend again. They did their menus Monday night.

    They are cooking, and when they finished their menu sheets they each signed the back.

    Lessons learned from making mistakes will stay with them far longer than having someone step in and make sure they have what they need.

    It is truly necessary for the boys to do this type of thing.

  7. Our SM was just tapped for OA. He is a great leader and the boys adore him. When the OA reps came to the troop for elections. They ask if any adults were eligible. The other two ASM and the CC all looked at each other. We were not aware that adults could be tapped out. As is happen there were 6 of our 8 CMs there. OA had the papers for the adults. They went to another room and filled out all the information and turned it in. We did not know if he was going to make it until the morning of tap outs. He was late getting to camp because of work and they wanted to make sure he would be there. Boy I would love to have had a picture of his face when they tapped him out. We had 4 boys and one adult. Pretty good for a troop of 16 boys.

    I think that OA is even more boy run than the troop. I know our Lodge Advisor keeps a pretty tight handle on them but also gives them almost total control. My kido was also just tapped out. I have told the advisor I will do what I can to help.

     

  8. Our elections were last month. The OA rep came to the meeting. Ask me who was eligible. 1st class and having camped at least 15 nights.

    I gave him 6 names. He talked to the troop about voting. Explaining that it is not who is popular but who they think has shown leadership qualities. That they could vote for everyone on the list, no one on the list or the scouts they felt earned the honor.

     

    We had 4 boys elected and they were tapped out this past weekend at Camporee. Two were not. One boy was hurt. He just finished a term as SPL. The boys were uphappy with him. He treated the position like a joke. And the boys vote reflected that. He is going to apoligize to the troop. He understands the main reason he was not voted in.

    Back to the original question. If the new scouts are on your roster, they may be included in the %of Scouts eligible to vote. So I would say let them vote. Even if they only vote for one boy. They start being part of the process.

  9. NEVER NEVER use soap on dutch ovens when cleaning. The material will absorb the soap and the next time you cook in it your food will taste like soap. I have used dutch ovens to cook for over 50 years and the best way to clean them is to use warm water and a big wad of aluminum foil.

    Scrub the oven out, turn it upside down over the fire and dry it. When cool rub down with a light coating of oil and store in a brown paper bag.

    This is the only way my Dad would store them. He passed away in 1984. Mother left all the caming gear stored in the camp trailer. In 93 when she died I cleaned out the trailer and donated all the gear to NoArk Girl Scout Council. There were 9 dutch ovens and not one had one spot of rust.

     

  10. Well guess we would have been in big trouble when I directed day camp this year and our DE played flag football with the kids. Just like I did and like most of the leaders that wanted to did. Sorry we have become so scared of touching that kids aren't getting "good touching" any more. Hugs. Pats on the head, pats on the back.

    Folks. I hug my boys. Each and everyone of them from the 11 year olds to the 17 years olds.

    And guess what. They hug me back.

    Play with the boys. Tell the CC to stop being so scared and learn how to have fun with the kids.

  11. I could have written this post a year ago. I started with Tigers. By the time my boys were Web II's I was sick of the pack. Tired of the bickering, infighting and such. I was really glad to move up into the Troop. Problem is that the Pack in now in trouble and our DE has ask me to come back and help.

     

    But I don't know. Some of the same people are there still and believe me. I will step on some toes if the district wants me to get things straightened out.

    But once you move into working with the troop you will love it. I am ASM. The gal that I shared the den with is now Committee Chair.

    Working with the troop is totally different from pack life. The boys do all the work. You have very little planning to do. And if you do let it be a "boy run troop" You can sit back and really enjoy.

     

     

  12. When my boys crossed over last year I got the arrow kits from the Scout Shop. I painted each one with the achievements each boy had earned. Then mounted them on a board and had a silver plack made with his name, the pack # and the date on it. Kevin's is now handing on the door of his bedroom. There is a wonderful cross over ceremony using the signs of the arrow.

  13. If I have a boy miss more than two meetings without contacting us then I find out why.

    Recently a boy missed 3 meetings. I tried and tried to call but the phone was disconnected.

    I finally went by his house. Come to find out his grandmother was being treated for cancer and he was her primary care giver. he had no way to get to and from. It took me about 5 seconds to take care of that and when I went back and told the other leaders in the troop we all stepped in. When we had scouts someone went by and stayed with her.

  14. Not exactly but close. When I was with the pack and was CC and Advancement had one DL that never had anything for her boys at pack meeting. I couldn't get her to turn in any advancement information. Until May. Then she turned in everything. The sad thing was that by them all but 3 of her boys had quit.

    FOr the sake of the boys get this under control now. Talk to the DL, If that doesn't work talk to the CC. If that doesn't work then go to your unit commissioner or district commissioner. If that doesn't work go to the council office and talk to the District Ex.

    Then do like so many of us do and take the den over and get things going.

  15. I don't know about other councils. But in ours if we turn our recharter in on time all of our Rank Advancement patcher are free. If it is not turned in on time the troop has to pay for them.

    If you have a rather large hard working troop this can save you lots of money.

    Another thing you might bring up that might happen. If a troop does not get their charter renewed, then the scouts are not registered. If during that period of time they earn a rank, they may not be eligible for that rank since they were not registered.

  16. Our troop was chartered in 1956. Been very active all those years.. Six years ago the person responsible for doing the recharter didn't get it turned in and our charter lasped. Well guess what. Now our troop has officially been chartered 6 years. So all that history is now off paper.

  17. I can tell you the main reason I stopped having my den meet at my house. I ended up being the babysitter. Had one mother that wouldn't come and get her son until after 8:00.

    As far as "wives" not liking it. Since about 80% of Cub Dens are lead my MOTHERS, don't think that holds true.

     

    I also think that it may be an insurance and legal problem. People are so quick to sue that I would prefer not to have a bunch of kids at my house.

    We met in a Scout Hut furnished by our Charter Org. That way we had storage for all our supplies.

     

    As far as parents staying. It was fine with me as long as they were there to help not sit on the side and talk. It isn't a social hour.

  18. No we can not plan our legacy. The ones we try to plan don't normally work out.

    I hope my legacy will be that I improved one childs life.

    I look to my parents legacys. Both of my parents were very involved with kids. They were on the charter committee that started th NoArk Girl Scout Council in Arkansas. Had GS's before I could be in. My dad could be hard. When he passed away in '84, one of the boys I had gone to school with ask if he could speak at the funeral.

    Our community is a rather small town. There were over 800 people there. Many in both BSA & GSA uniforms. Ken got up and stated. "Roscoe is the reason I am where I am today. I was headed down a path of destruction and he was the only adult willing to yank me up, take a belt to my back side and get me turned around, and for that I will be grateful the remainder of my life. It is also the reason I have the need to be involved with youth groups today"

    At the time Ken was the District Attorney.

    He was right too. He had been in lots of trouble. My dad touched one kid and gave him the focus to get himself turned around.

    When mom died in 93. There were over 200 Girl Scouts in uniform at the funeral. She graduated her last troop from highschool when she was 70. Her only request of any kid she worked with was that for each year she gave to them they give one year back to kids. To my knowledge it is still working. Because 40 years after getting out of school 95% of the members of my scout troop are still giving back. Hopefully my legacy can be half of thiers.

  19. I think that what I have learned from scouting is that I haven't learned 1/3 of what I want to learn.

    My wonderfully wise Gran believed that only by giving back to we prove our worthiness.

    Her favorite statment was

    "your community is like a tree. You are either a leaf that feeds and nurtures it or you are mistletoe that sucks it dry. Be sure you are always a leaf". 45 years ago she was right and she is still right today.

  20. If we reward a scout for not meeting the standards then we as leaders have failed him.

    We have seen this in school. Pass the kid even though he can't read. Then suddenly he is out of highschool and can't read.

    We learn from our mistakes.

    Failing teaches us the value of success.

    If we never learn to fail how can we appreciate our sucess?

     

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