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MollieDuke

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Everything posted by MollieDuke

  1. I really believe that not only has our BSA program been watered down, but our entire educational system been watered down. As a teacher, I'm amazed at honor's level kids who cannot spell simple words or complete a simple set of instructions in order with no errors. That said, our troop feels so strongly about things being watered down, that we have implemented a 3-1 meeting rule of thumb. The first three meetings are by the book (new book), and the next one is an older book achievement or activity and so on. We also ask that each boy learn the basics and build on those basics. T
  2. Technically, due to HIPPA regulations, parents do not have to disclose medical information to anyone not a medical professional and even then, it's on a need to know basis only. That said, after HIPPA, our troop committee made a troop rule that anyone not having their form filled out and willing to disclose meds HAD to have a PARENT on every outing. Ironically, this came from a kid who was diabetic who didn't self medicate and got quite ill on a weekend campout and no parent around. My comment (to parents and non-scouters especially) when discussing the meds for ADHD is: If yo
  3. I feel that some of the reason for the MB changes to the camping is due to a situation I found myself in some years ago. I had a boy that had come to the MB counselor and said he'd camped with a "troop" for 5 days and nights and wanted it counted toward his 20. He talked about pitching a tent and all that, but......... COme to find out, this child had attended a "day camp" at a local park and was "camping" in his grandparents RV which is better equipped than my house. This MB Counselor was very upset by this finding and refused to finish this boy's card until he finished his 5 days
  4. Our EBoR's are district level, but our District Eagle person doesn't actually choose people to assist. We have a calling list of those willing to serve and we call till we get a few people and they all show up at the candidate's home troop on the designated night for the EBoR. We started doing that to try to avoid the local stigma of having SMs kids "get" Eagle by being the son of the SM. This way, our district group has the same folks all the time, the boys have usually already met them somewhere down the line, and the kids all know that none have ties to the home troop, so it seems best.
  5. One year, we did "Survivor: Cub Scout Edition" which was a real crowd pleaser. We competed with each Den as a "tribe". They got colored bandanas for "buffs" and competed in age appropriate games simulating the challenges in Survivor. At the end of the night, we had a fire and a talent show by the Webelo's Den that was doing Showman pin that month. It was really super. The Tiger Cubs won that year, so don't think it's shaded for age. You just have to come up with stations and places to hike to for the next challenge and stuff like that. No one got voted out, but it was great fun.
  6. I am going to jump in here to say that as a high school teacher, I've heard it all, I think. I will also say that to kids, due to their culture, these words aren't as offensive as they used to be for US at that age. If you don't believe how much they're being desensitized to it, listen to Insane Clown Possee....they have one song that uses the "F" word something like 97 times in one song. Believe me, kids don't care. That is not to say that WE shouldn't care. We need to make it almost MORE important to use better language. I have "classroom appropriate" language and "peer languag
  7. My son's troop has an honor patrol. It's their home patrol, but they are each assigned duties with the younger boys each day. For example: My son, Little Duke, sleeps with the Honor Patrol, helps them pitch their tent (which is one big communal tent at this point just for fun at their request), they make their own food, they have their own activities not allowed by the younger boys (like a hike each day with just them), etc. This patrol also goes on high adventure activities w/o any younger boys, but isn't really a "Venture" patrol as such. That said, each day the older boys are assigned
  8. Hi guys, I need help with jacket fitting for my dear hubby. He's about 6 feet tall and about 235 pounds with very broad shoulders/chest and upper arms. He's a firefighter and so his upper body strength is key to fitting this jacket. Normally, he'd wear an XL to an XXL shirt, but generally, they'd be a tad short. If I were to order this jacket for him for his birthday, should it be XXL LONG or XXL regular in anyone's opinion that owns one? If anyone thatt owns one would be able to measure from the collar to tail and from under arm seam to under arm seam that would help if anyone is wil
  9. I had an experience several years ago with a boy who didn't want to schedule his ECOH. I finally cornered him one night and asked him why. His mom wasn't around, it was just him and me. He finally told me he didn't like the Eagle Ceremony ideas used by the troop, didn't feel they fit him, and felt they were all just a canned bunch of words anyway. I challenged him to write his own "perfect" ceremony to see what the difference was, and we both loved it! I got him to propose this to the committee and he was allowed to have HIS own ceremony written BY him/FOR him. He loved it. It wasn'
  10. Hi Pete, I agree that I am sick of ADD/ADHD being used as a pass for poor parenting. That said, I work with Behavior Disability children and 99% of my students have ADD/ADHD and anger management issues. That said, I wish I had more parents like you. You seem to realize that your son has problems particularly when his meds run out of juice in the evenings. That's great! Most of my parents, if they even show up for a conference, just say that it's my job to control these kids and they basically don't care (which just makes them more angry and hurt, frankly). I do feel, though,
  11. I agree that finding your way is hard sometimes. I also was going to suggest Tiger leader as many have done. Your experience would be wonderful there. Not to mention that I feel that anytime you can find a leader without a boy involved is a good thing for objectivity. I would also like to toss out "Advancement Coordinator" into the list of possiblities. The reason being that I found it to be the best use of my organizational skills, my computer skills, and my cumulative experience. I am also a pack/troop trainer for advancement as well. I often get called on to do individual m
  12. Before I begin, let me say that I work with Behavior Disablity children. I know there are "poorly behaved" children and those with serious problems. That said, the school will probably not give you any information on this student since all info is on a "need to know basis" and you are not a participant in the school system, so you simply don't need to know from their perspective. I think the best way to handle this boy is to frankly believe he is classified as Behavior Disabliity which basically means he can't function in regular society which seems very evident. If he was dignos
  13. I agree with John on so many levels as to age. My son joined a Crew at age 14 (in fact on his 14th birthday), but he got overwhelmed early on with the requirements. He did finish his bronze award, but has no desire to do more at this time which is ok by me. I do feel we're bringing this down to boys who are too young in so many respects. I teach kids and I know they are just not capable of some of the intense organization and thought process of Boy Scouting at such a young age. I also have very few young kids who can read at the level required in the manual and MB books. May be a loc
  14. My friend who is the new advancement coordinator for cubs has been a scout, but it's been a long time for him. He's met the Webelos and feels they have those who seem ready and are in fifth grade crossing over this spring, but he was talking with one of the fellow Tiger parents whose older boy is a first year Webelo. He feels that since dad read somewhere that his boy could cross over "early", that he's been rather insisting he do so. Not sure what the motivation there is, since he's not even friends with the second years. He's fairly certain this boy is not ready mentally or emotionally a
  15. I would double check the rules for withdrawl of money from this endowment fund if you feel it's being overused. My personal donations are submitted DIRECTLY to Troop XXXX or Crew XXXX. I also submit a camporship in my father's name each year to a first year scout in a local troop "just because". Our local area has not sold it's camps, but they've tried. I think there has been a lot of financial trouble with many partnerships including the United Way. I never donate to the United Way either for the reason that I want my money used as I want it used, not the way corporate America feel
  16. I would double check the rules for withdrawl of money from this endowment fund if you feel it's being overused. My personal donations are submitted DIRECTLY to Troop XXXX or Crew XXXX. I also submit a camporship in my father's name each year to a first year scout in a local troop "just because". Our local area has not sold it's camps, but they've tried. I think there has been a lot of financial trouble with many partnerships including the United Way. I never donate to the United Way either for the reason that I want my money used as I want it used, not the way corporate America feel
  17. We actually had that trouble for the past two years with one of the groups I work with. Here's how they solved it and everyone loved it: One troop was going out of state on a "big trip". Concern for the young pups was high. Second troop in area was going to traditional BSA summer camp. Older boys bored. Young pups excited. Troop ONE opened their trip up to Troop TWOs older boys and adult leaders. Troop TWO, in exchange, took the young pups and adults to summer camp with them. Everyone got something and got the long term camping experience, but it had to be a shared effort.
  18. I'm posting this for a friend. Is it ever possible for a 4th grader who may be 10 to cross over to Boy Scouts? If I am understanding the requirements correctly, AoL MUST be 10 yrs 6months? Also, do the requirements mean 5th grade as the year requirement with the age requirement as AND 10, or 11, or AoL (assuming it's 10 1/2)? I also interpret this as being possible for a 4th grade 1st year Webelo to be barely 10 and upon gaining an AoL (which frankly sounds like the proverbial Eagle Factory of BSA, IMHO), can join a troop. Having little experience in Cubs for around 8 years
  19. Do I read it correctly that a boy who has completed his Arrow of Light can immediately join Boy Scouts their age and school grade notwithstanding? Doesn't this mean that some much younger boys will be able to cross over? I'm just curious with this because I was under the impression that the school grade and their age were the more deciding factors. As Webelos is a year-plus some program, I felt that it seemed to be a real rush job to try to get into BSA that soon. Anyone with experience in this? Thoughts on how it seems to work? Thanks.
  20. While I believe I now have my answer thanks to several PMs, I do want to respond to Scout just because he brings up a great point that after re-reading my initial post I agree sounded odd. That said, I have two boys, both seniors, that I'm told joined BSA two years ago just to put a membership in BSA on their college resume. I've never met these two boys and according to the scribes records, they both attended two meetings last spring and have never been since. I feel these two could logically be inactive. However, I have another boy who works every meeting night and has not been able
  21. I went back to last year's paperwork, and this particular paper was not among the recharter things I was sent for last year on any of the groups I work with. Seemed like this year on the forum was full of posts here on "active" and how you can't define active by percentages and such comments which I will not restate here since it has little bearing, and so I was surprised to see this on the directions. I think what I will do is, list those attending meetings/advancing/etc as active, and question mark the rest until I get clarification from Council. Only problem was that I have four rec
  22. In our area, there was a Venture Crew that recently folded also due to those older recruits leaving for college, but that said, there were problems prior to that. Example: While I believe that it SHOULD be a higher level of performance than Boy Scouts, I feel that a Standard First Aid course is a bit extreme. A healthcare provider type certification is a great mid-range program. Why do I feel this way? It's mainly due to the fact that these kids in our area were WAY to involved in other things to devote 16+ weeks of intensive training to the Standard First Aid course, so just didn't d
  23. I've been trying not to beat the dead horse to death on active scouts and advancement, however, I just got something odd from my local council office in my recharter packet and wanted clarification if possible from everyone (and YES, I'm also writing my local council on this)...... I got an instruction paper called Unit Renewal Application Instruction that seems quite official. It appears to have a revision number in the lower left hand corner. In the Youth instruction section it says to mark on the computer printout whether the registered youth are A=Active or I=Inactive. Now, if
  24. I have been reading several articles in many places lately about the fitness of today's youth for other reasons than Scouting. However, this post reminds me of a situation coming up for the second time within one of the groups I work with. Previously, we had a young man who was overweight as was his entire family. The father was actually having many health problems--serious ones--due to his weight. The son was having trouble making this exercise part of his life even for 30 days because of his at home lifestyle which was mostly couch potato. He wouldn't "do" the requriement. Well, prior
  25. My son uses Rocky brand hiking boots. They have been in the creek, hiking, climbing, cave crawling, all that jazz, but honestly, they look a little worn, but when you look inside them, they look new. He's had them for two years at least, but he'll never go with another brand. He adores them. THey are available at most outfitters. We got ours at the factory outlet in Ohio. For our money, they've been a godsend.
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