AZOwl

Folks, Thanks for the input... Pack...Our Pack and Troop are very tightly linked...and at our last Pack/Troop family camp, we had 37 people...so numbers I suspect will be somewhere between 30-50 people attending. Heading to the backcountry with cubbies is a no-go, so we're front-country bound...The plan is to take the Boy Scouts on an overnight backpacking trip to get them some space and separation, and give them a different experience from the cubbies... Old Guy...This is for next summer, not this summer. They don't even open up reservations until 5 months out. I did talk to He

Looking for advice from our California brethren, or those that have been to Yosemite recently. My Pack and Troop are planning a Family Camp/High Adventure next summer. At this point, I figure there will somewhere between 30-50 people, which puts us squarely into a group campsite. I've been researching such campsites, and it looks like YNP has several, but they book only 5 months in advance, and because there are limited sites, I suspect that they are booked in a matter of seconds by people hovering over the 'enter' key. So I am looking for strategies for making sure we have somewhere

Seeing as how I am from AZ, and right in the middle of the Mormon Corridor, you'd think that religion would come up a lot. But really, it doesn't. Our Pack and Troop is wildly diverse, from very conservative Christians, to a Jewish family, to bordering on pagan or shamanic traditions...And we embrace that diversity. When I went to Woodbadge, they pounded diversity into us (and this was a 95% LDS staff)...And when I was on staff, with a different 95% mostly LDS staff, I never 'prayed' so much in my life. But that was ok, because it made me expand my own thoughts on religion. In practi

And that is exactly what I am hoping must churches do...Focus on the boys, and the advantages of Scouting, instead of obsessing about one thing...Hats off to that church for being so accepting of all, regardless of faith!

In the spirit of qwazse's thread about how to talk to the youth about their objections, I'd like to offer this up. This was prompted by a video I saw on CNN about a First Baptist Church in Alabama who is refusing to let their local troop meet there anymore. There was no mention as to whether they were chartered there, or just meet there. But over the past week, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how this all works out, and I put together the following letter to the Pastor, which I will be sending today. Its respectful, doesn't flame him or his beliefs, but does ask him to reconsider his

The same way I would address this with a family that was thinking about walking away... Pointing out that this really changes nothing, except that National is no longer forced to kick a boy out because of his orientation. That gay youth and adults have been here all along, and that they might even be friends with them, but don't know that they are gay. It sets things back to the way they were before the 1990's, when sexual orientation wasn't even part of Scouting. This really has no affect on the straight youth and families whatsoever, but keeps Scouting open for all youth that need

My thoughts are simple...If I can't have sex on a campout or an activity with the Mrs...Then they shouldn't be having sex with anyone either. We also just covered the Family Life MB in our weekly meetings. And while my unit is wildly diverse along religious lines, and I had to tiptoe through the parts about what it means to be a man, and a father, I definitely got the point across about sex being intended for reproduction, and that if they aren't ready to be a dad, then they should wait, because the only 100% foolproof method is not to do it. Having said that, do I really think that th

Nick... How is it a compromise with the world's view...Most WOSM organizations do not discriminate against LGBT members.

Relapse... Its an incremental step...Not a perfect solution, and in my opinion just extends the surgery and healing process, but in time I see it passing for the adults as well.

Hey,it wants a message more than 10 character, but the new topic works

So you're telling me that homemaking skills are not valid? Cooking, cleaning, sewing, but most of all BEING INDEPENDENT isn''t something worthwhile? Let me tell you, my mother, bless her, taught all of her sons how to cook, clean, do laundry, sew, iron, and in general take care of themselves...None of us had to rely on anyone else to do these things...And not an alternative lifestyle badge, but how about a Diversity badge? Learning and accepting (maybe not condoning, but at least accepting) how other people live would be a bad thing how?

My wife was looking through our set of Promo Jambo patches for Grand Canyon Council. These are double-sided patches, featuring Warner Bros cartoon characters, and she found one that was inverted...the front is upside down, and the back is right side up. Can someone give me some feedback on how collectible this might be? No way to do images here, but if you go to the patch collectors page on Facebook, I was able to post pics of the normal, and the error patch there.

Thanks, Dean...I did talk to Grand Canyon Council and they said I needed to do the National Tour Permit for both, which I've done for the past two years for the Troop for our High Adventure trips, so that's not an issue. The biggest hurdle was just making sure the Pack could do it. And I agree, the med forms could be a pain, but that's a requirement for going, so folks will just have to do it. My Pack is really outdoors-oriented...We have three campouts scheduled between now and June...Fortunately, the Pack and Troop are linked very closely, so we just end up doing some joint activities,

So thought I'd run this past you folks... I have a Pack and Troop that are tightly linked. We meet at the same time, and the same place, and participate in many of the same activities, where appropriate. Our troop is considering doing an extended trip in 2014, 10 days to Yosemite and Sequoia and that area. Since several of the families have youth that are in both Pack and Troop, we would like to invite families from the Pack to join with us on this trip as a Family Camp. I've just looked at the Guide to Safe Scouting, and there is no mention of a time limit to a family camp for Cubs,

Eagle92...I LOVE that Guidebook...You know the old joke about Cub Scout R&D, right? Its not Research and Development...Its Ripoff and Duplicate! SctDad...Send you that PM...I'm really looking forward to doing this. I've always been a huge proponent of Cubs Camping as a way of preparing them for bigger and better things when they move up to Boy Scouts, and I can think of no better way to retain kids than to appeal to their sense of adventure. Keep it coming folks!

Ok, so I got a bad case of helium hand and volunteered myself to organize a Council-wide Cub Scout Family Camp...Here's some background... I was the Camp Director for a District-wide Cub Family Camp in October that went over very well. We had 30 families attend, which was good to start. Had some great volunteers to help plan the thing, man stations, and so forth...This time, however, we are going to open it up Council-wide in order to increase attendance. This is also hand-in-hand with my Council's push to get Cubbies out camping and use it as a retention tool. Council is also promoting g

One of the many hats I wore last year was as a Webelos Den Leader...We had a boy join in Sep, and another one that transferred from another unit in Nov/Dec, plus my own son that had been in since Tigers...And I had no Webelos I's at all... So in talking to the parents, we decided to fasttrack both of the newer boys so that they could earn their AOL along with my son and crossover at the same time. With parents that are engaged, and with the focus on the program, a boy can easily earn his Webelos and AOL in six months. In the end, its up to the parents to decide how they want to handl

Funny you should ask this...We just went through our annual budget meetings last month...Here's what we do... First and foremost, a Scout should earn his own way. So, we have put together a Scoutfund for each boy (basically a subaccount in the general fund) where a boy can accumulate money to pay for scouting-related activities. The committee reviews the upcoming budget and determines what percentage of popcorn proceeds we need to pay for our anticipated costs. The remaining percentage is allocated to the boy's scoutfund account, based on his sales. For example, this year we allocated 13

Proud Eagle: I don't think its a LDS vs Traditional issue in this area. We are semi-rural here, with most people barely pushing lower middle class, plus we have a fairly high ratio of retired vs family-rearing households. My gut feeling is that people don't really realize what Scouting is really about, and they operate under stereotypes like helping old ladies across the street, and marching around kinds of stuff. Our Pack has focused on adventure and we get published in the local paper several times a year. And there are times when I wonder if people really give a damn anymore about

Kudu: We definitely focus on the adventure aspect of Scouting for our Boy Scouts. We encourage our boys to go to school on Monday and tell their friends what they did over the weekend...And when their classmates give them crap about being a Scout, I tell them to challenge their friends to step up and do what we do. On the Boy Scout level, we are somewhat limited as we are a young troop and have only one boy over the age of 14, so they aren't ready for some of the High Adventure stuff yet. For the Cubbies, which follows right into the Troop, we developed our own outdoors/hiking program wit

Yeah, its kinda funny that I recruit at sporting games and practices, but its the most likely place to make that initial connection with boys and their parents. Since many of the boys are single-sport boys, we make the parents aware that there is another option once the sport is over. We also recruit at all of the local town events (Halloween, Spring Festival, Labor Day parade and Festival), and about anywhere else we can. Our schools will not let us come in and do presentations/classroom talks etc, so we are limited to flyers in the school office, which is not real effective. The larger

I'll take you one better than that...Every year I author an entire DVD slideshow with music and everything showing our adventures, and each family gets a copy...

Thomas54: Although we are charted to the American Legion, we meet at a local church's social center. They have several rooms we use as breakouts, and a large room where we can all meet together. Dens are autonomous, but are encouraged to do joint field trips where appropriate. Other options for meeting space are limited, because we live in a small town and there just aren't many options. I don't think its the meeting place, as it works out fairly well for us... AKdenldr: We do the standard recruiter patch for those boys that bring in another boy. The non-LDS churches locall

I just posted a long, rambling message in a different forum (open forum program) that talks about a lot of these things...I struggle with retention and recruitment on a daily basis and it frustrates me... I'll summarize my thoughts here, though... The biggest issue with recruitment and retention is not DL burnout, but is parental committment. If we were just Babysitters of America, we'd keep every kid. Drop and Run? Great, we're all over that. But ask them to stay for a meeting? Good luck with that in many cases. But we expect parents to be involved in their kid's lives, and frankly,

Looking for feedback, as any good woodbadger does... I am very frustrated about getting and retaining both Cub and Boy Scouts in our Pack and Troop, but mostly with the Pack...Here's the background. I live in a smallish town in Northern AZ and am CC for our Pack and Troop. There are 3 LDS Packs in the town, and one traditional (mine). Take a look at my list of what I do to recruit/retain and see if I am missing anything: I go to where the boys are...Swimming pools, little league games, soccer games, and we set-up recruiting stations at various local events. We are very visible t