Melgamatic

We had a similar problem. We needed to remove a den leader (reasons not important here, but no one was in disagreement and we learned that many people had left the pack due to the den leader). I knew, mostly from these forums, that we had to involve our CO. We don't have much to do with our CO. The Pastor signs our charter, and she is nice to us, but we don't have any other relationship. Only one family out of our 50+ families attends our CO Church. We meet in the local schools we serve because the rooms are better and we sometimes can't get the CO's hall when we schedule pack meetin

My family vastly prefers the spiral bound version. It lies flat; that's everything to us. I've also had the binding break on the bound versions, due to us trying to keep it flat once too many times. The spiral bound are more expensive ($8.99 vs $14.99). I think I read on this forum that some people took their bound books, had the binding cut off in a big paper cutter, and had Kinkos (or Staples, whatever) do a spiral binding. I think it cost $2 or so, so you could make your own.

Your council may have their own rules, but on a BSA level, and where I am, this is just plain not true. In fact, I don't think we've ever been camping where there were flush toilets. We've been at district camporees with 300-600 cubs distributed in campsites across large reservations with not a flush toilet to be had for miles, and our own pack has camped alone in state parks, also without flush toilets. As a matter of fact, the big council camporee is coming up with 3000-5000 cubs, and our big advertising pitch is that for the first time we'll have some flush toilets! Melgamatic

I think there are very few official national guidelines (I think they say refer to your Council's guidelines), but I'm under the impression that banner advertising was forbidden by most councils. Does the "webs" free website banner at the bottom of that website bother anyone? I know you're getting the website for free, but you're advertising the ISP....

The "Crips" were founded in 1971, and the "Bloods" in 1972, so they're coming on 40 years. "Cripes" is what you say when you see something surprising!

Agreed. If they meet the requirements they get the award. I'm just not sure if you can meet the requirement of "visit...a meeting of a Boy Scout troop you think you like to join" if you have no intention of joining any troop. That's my philosophical issue. Thanks, Melgamatic.

We are reviewing our Webelos II cub scouts to make sure they are all ready to receive their Arrow of Light awards next month. We do our Bridging Over and AOL presentations together at our March meeting. For most of the requirements, we can easily confirm completion by the boys. One of the requirements dealing with Boy Scouting are causing us some angst for a couple of the boys. "After you have completed all five of the above requirements, and have a talk with your Webelos den leader, arrange to visit, with your parent or guardian, a meeting of a Boy Scout troop you think you might like

I don't mind you mentioning it to him, but I really don't have any interest in harrassing them if they aren't interested in making the Katalogs public. If they haven't decided, or aren't sure, that's fine with me too. I do not really want to bother them. My offer was really only because it would be easy to make them public for free and help out the collecting community, but I have no vested interest. I have my copy (which I use nearly every day building my collection), so I'm happy. If they ever want to sell new copies, I'll buy one of each from them. -Melgamatic

I like the new uniform shirt a lot. To me, the fabric is a giant leap over the previous generation. My only negative feedback is that for a tall person such as myself, the tail of the shirt is not really long enough to stay tucked in. The shirt sizes are sort of strange, and the size that fit me previously is way too big, and the next size smaller is way too short. -Melgamatic

In an earlier post, skeptic wrote "Reminded me of 1959 when I told my parents I wanted to go to Colorado Springs. They said, what does that cost. Cost, for going from So Cal where I lived, for our contingent, was $450, plus $50 estimated uniform expense, and any spending money; so, at the time, about $550." Just for informational purposes, $550 in 1959 adjusted for inflation to 2007 is approximately $3872 (inflation data for 2008-2009 not available yet). I believe this is more than the amount many scouts will spend this year. Also, the $50 estimated uniform expense in 1959 is $3

I was able to contact one of Joe Price's sons, who forwarded my email on to another son who was in charge of Joe's estate issues, but have not heard anything for the past 2 months or so. -Dave

How much more mature are the boys going to be in the three months between March and the end of the school year? Sounds like a crummy excuse; something else is going on!

Where we do agree is that the commercial PWD software seems so good, and is so reasonably priced ($59 for Grand Prix Race Manager, $49 for Derby Master) that this is a case when you might as well buy well-supported commercial software. -Melg

I have two comments: 1) DerbyMaster is $49 and works great, so I'm not sure why I would suffer through a lesser freeware or shareware tool. If it was $200+, sure, but for $49 (and our pack has been using an old version for years, for our original $49) why bother. 2) The general comment made by gpraceman2: > Well, as the adage goes, you get what you pay for. > With commercial software you are not only paying for > the license to use the software, you are also paying > to get support if you have questions on using the > software and especially if you ru

Ha! I read this completely wrong: > He had a scout who did his Eagle project send him a $1000.00 bill > (for re embursement) I read this as "the scout sent him a one thousand dollar bill to cover the expenses he had for the scouts project" - the kid was reimbursing the sponsor for his costs... Not "the scout sent him an invoice for $1000 in order to recover the scout's expenses!" I couldn't figure out why everyone was so shocked!! -Melg

The size of government, whether you look at it from a purely Federal viewpoint, or combined Fed/State/Local, is purely cyclic. If you look at the official data from the White House's Office of Management and Budget (table 17.5, it's called) you see that both went drastically down in Reagan's first years, then slightly up, finishing slightly above where he started. Here's the Fed graph: http://uucurl.com/x.php?p=2912 and here's the fed/state/local graph: http://uucurl.com/x.php?p=2913 GWBush did better than I would have guessed, but I also believe that there is an ex

I just finished my ticket, and my last step is to find a good event or location at which to have my beading. I'm not sure what to do. As a Cubmaster, I'm not so anxious to have a ceremony at the pack meeting. The training benefits the cub scouts, and that's why I took the course, but I'm already far more trained than the other leaders and I'm not so excited about taking up pack meeting time. Our district already had their annual awards ceremony. Our roundtable gets only a few leaders each month, so I'm not really sure what do to. So, especially for those of you who are either Cub

There is (was?) a Kahuna's Katalog of the Every Boys Library. First printing was in August, 1990. It has 538 pages, detailing every version of every book, so that means there were a lot! I have a nice PDF copy of the KK of EBL, but I have been unable to get permission to freely distribute it, although I've been trying. -Melg

A fun problem, but I think I recall this happening to many appointees on both sides of the aisle. I think unreported nannies are the most common reason for congressional rejection of both Democratic and Republican candidates. I guess it would be easy to be cynical, but I think my opinion is that this is what happens when you have an absolute microscope on a moderately wealthy person's finances and taxes. I'm not sure anyone, even most middle class people, would survive the microscope without finding some minor (or major) issue. The history of appointees for all major positions is f

I know that even with our 3-year old aluminum Best Track, there are some lanes that are faster than the others. There is an easy solution: run all the cars in all the lanes. We have a 6-lane track, so each car races 6 times. We have around 50 cubs, but we start at 9am and are done before noon, staging each set of races every 45 minutes with the tiger cubs starting first (and then they can leave if they want or need to). I know lane 6 is more bumpy, and lane 2 is very fast. Doesn't matter. Their overall score is the average of their 6 races. DerbyMaster takes car of setting up

I received my invite early this week, and at this point I think I will attend and bring my wife and 10-year old son with me for a nice western vacation. My sister moved to Denver and we haven't visited her there, so we'll go a few days early and then drive down. The point about not attending a session you know a lot about is very interesting. I was planning to attend the Cubmaster sessions, but I'm very comfortable with that topic already, so maybe I need to try something different. I'm having lunch with our Council SE next week, and maybe he'll have a suggestion for me. I never m

There is an easy way to deal with people like this: push them hard into getting more involved. It either turns them around and gets them onto your side, or they can't take it and leave. If the third possibility happens, where they refuse to help but stay in the pack, it puts you on firm ground to say "I asked you to help me, now shut up." If he joins up he has to take the training, maybe drinks a little of the koolaid, understands better where you are coming from. I think this guy is your next ACM. -Melgamatic

There are four great Kahunas Katalogs. Cub Scout Literature, Every Boy's Library, Merit Badge booklets and Boy Scout Handbooks. They are each extremely detailed extensive catalogs of all the various editions, printings, versions, etc, with all the tiny little differences listed, etc. For example, a 1915 Every Boy's Library version of the Boy Scout Handbook came in two minor variations, with some text on the spine being very slightly different typesize (7.5mm vs 8.5mm). For serious collecting they are must haves, along with the Fisk and Bearce book. I'd love to publish them freely on t

Perfect! Got exactly what I need. Thanks, Melgamatic

For our pack meeting this coming Friday night, as a gathering activity, we have 50 nice sets of rope segments, but need a nice single page knot tying reference that I could photocopy and hand out. Can anyone point me to a nice free cub scout level knot tying card on the web? Thanks in Advance, Melg