molscouter

Why can't they do popcorn sales? All you need to do is drop or mail forms to them. Regarding dues, a couple of questions. Are these den dues or pack dues? If they are den dues, isn't it up to the Den Leader? What are the dues used for? Supplies, pack income? If a boy misses a meeting because he's sick, do you normally charge him? This alone might answer your question. The pack I serve is lucky. Our popcorn sales more more than adequately meet the financial needs of the pack and we don't have to charge dues.

I'm not sure where you are going with all of this. Read the requirements for the Readyman badge (required for Arrow of Light). It covers a lot of the same first aid elements as the tenderfoot through first class ranks require. Read the Athlete badge. Sounds a lot like the tenderfoot requirements. Read the requirements for the Personal Fitness Merit Badge (Eagle required). Several of the general health related requirements are very similar to the Fitness activity badge. You need to start thinking of the activity pins for what they are, quasi merit badges. If you look a

SWS, You said " If I stick it out with the pack through May I will also have earned the Cub scouter award, but that will be three months later. It will also delay any tenure for the boy scout leader training award." I don't believe this is true. Tenure time within one program (Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc) cannot overlap, but tenure time in different program areas can overlap. For example, if you are, say, Pack Committee Chair and Assistant Scoutmaster, you are picking up tenure for both the Cub Scouter Award and the Scouter Training Award. You can't use a year as a DL and a year a

EP or Lifesaving would count as one of the Eagle required badges for Star/Life/Eagle. The other could count as one of the optional ones for any of the three ranks, or towards a Palm later on.

Jamboree might be a huge reason. Most of our older boys are headed there and not to summer camp.

Our basic rule of thumb is that it counts as long as it isn't troop meeting night. Our troop meets on Monday nights. Summer trip to the water park on Monday evening, no. Food drive on Saturday morning, yes.

texas5, keep in mind that the Webelos program is a little different than the younger Cub program. First, it is supposed to last 18 months or so. Second, the activities become much more den centered. His Webelos leader is the only person allowed to approve advancement (except for Webelos badge requirement 1, parent readng the parent's section of the book). Most Webelos dens work on one activity pin a month. If he gets too far ahead, he may get bored later repeating things. Check with his den leader as to what he/she has planned and work on any pins that they won't be doing in a den. Some

First, just pick your son up 15 minutes early. The coach doesn't need to know why. If a coach is that controlling, why play for him? Second, we have this conflict (and more) with my son. We established a priority list for what he will go to if a conflict arises: 1. Single performance (band or choir concert); there is only one opportunity to do this. 2. Game (repetitive, but more important than a practice). For Scouts, this means a campout. He can decide between a game and a campout. But he isn't on any traveling type teams either. For a Friday game, I will drive him to t

No, in Webelos, the Den Leader approves all activity pin and rank advancement. He/she may designate someone else(like an assistant), but he/she does not have to. There are some pins it makes perfect sense to allow the parent to sign off (Fitness and Family Member come to mind, both involve working in the home environment). One of the parents for my den was an RN and taught the Readyman badge, so he signed for that one.

There isn't a whole lot you can do about it. All that will likely happen is that the boy will show up next meeting with everything signed off in his book. Since Mom/Dad are Akela, if they say he did something, he did it, even if you know otherwise. When you get to Webelos, you have a lot more control. Also, artificially saying that nothing will be awarded after the May Pack Meeting is wrong. The rules are that he gets at least until he enters third grade. I note that you live in Massachusetts. My brother lives there and I know his son doesn't finish school until around the middle

firstpusk, So us layman are supposed to differentiate between the ACLU and the ACLU Foundation? If you type in either ACLU or ACLU Foundation into a search engine, you get one web site. Seems to me that it's one organization, even if it is set up as two different entities. Pretending otherwise is the type of legal nitpicking that makes people suspicious of attorneys in general. I took the quote off of the main page. I'll nitpick here. 3.5% from attorneys' fees is not none, which is what that page implies. The annual report is not obviously available off of that page (it m

From the ACLU website: "The ACLU is supported by annual dues and contributions from its members, plus grants from private foundations and individuals. We do not receive any government funding." So if the ACLU is funded as they say they are, they shouldn't need to receive any attorney's fees. For those that argue that it is only the overhead budget that is funded as outlined above, it would be interesting to see what, if any, portion of this "non-profit" group's budget comes from attorney's fees. I'd be willing to bet that they would be less than anxious to have their books audited.

The WDL can designate someone to sign for a particular activity pin, if he/she chooses. For example, for Readyman, one of my parent's was an RN and taught that portion of the badge for me. I had that parent sign off on the requirements for all the boys. The 3 that clpagel cited are examples of ones that the WDL could allow the parents to sign off on, or at least portions of them. But the WDL does not have to do this.

Ed, you forgot to mention that he doesn't have time to correct the list himself and has to have others point out the errors. I have neither the time nor the desire to see if these errors are actually corrected. Some of the errors are so obvious it makes the entire list laughable. Sooner or later the ACLU is going to screw up and the Boy Scouts or some other targetted group is going to own every piece of tangible property the ACLU has. I'm reminded of the black man or woman (I forget which) who ended up owning a Klan building as the result of a suit.

"and after attempting to resolve a billing issue at one of my wife's screening exams - "sorry sir, we can't discuss that as you are not on her HIPAA authorization form"" Who's name was on the bill? I always kid my wife on this, because often the bill is addressed to me. I've refrained from doing it, but I always feel like asking "You didn't have any problem billing me, but I can't ask a question about it? I guess I don't have to pay it then?" The fun part comes when she gets reminder calls on appointments. If I pick up the phone, they will identify themselves as "Sue" and of cour

When I did this three years ago, I had two rules. First, each boy had to have a parent present (both for safety and so both Scout and parent would know the rules). Second, there would be zero tolerance for fooling around. These were given to the boys and their parents ahead of time. Also, remember to remind them that earning the Whittling Chip only gives them the right to carry the knife at Cub Scout events. It does not mean they can carry it at school or anywhere else (and I would leave them at home for pack meetings as well). Not that it matters to a Bear den, but once my oldes

"As for the BSA uniform not being mandatory, it is in our troop. No uniform, no meeting. Sorry if you don't like our rule, but its what we wanted and the parents agreed and understand. If you was on the football team and showed up without your uniform, you would sit on the bench all day." And how do you enforce that one? Physically remove the Scout from the meeting? Not give credit for him being there? Are you checking the socks (after all, they are part of the uniform)?

Technically, the new Webelos/AOL requirements become mandatory in August 2005, which means this years Bears could use them. However, since no one has stocked the old book since last spring at the latest, the new ones are widely in use now for Webelos Is and are for all practical purposes mandatory now.

As a WDL, I asked the boys if they wanted the second belt loop or if they just wanted the credit towards the activity pin. Most opted for the latter. This became even more prevalent once reached 2nd year. Caveat, the pack I served had no problem physically awarding a second belt loop to a Webelos.

She can't see how they could have completed it by now? It's been a couple years since my youngest was a Wolf and I know that some requirements have changed, but as I recall there were around 50 subitems spread out over the 12 achievements. If a boy did one and only one thing a day it would only take 7 weeks to complete the badge requirements. Maybe you should point that little statistic out to her. And let's be realistic. "Okay Billy, today we're going to do a forward roll. Good job. Well, that's it for today. Tomorrow we'll do a backward roll and the next day you can walk the board" i

Actually, Maryland won the 2002 NCAA Championship. Syracuse took the crown in 03.

Belinda, don't worry about it. Handtools work just fine. I would advise buying a cheap coping saw at your local hardware store (ask them, they'll know what it is) and lots of sandpaper. You could borrow the saw from a neighbor even. While you are there, buy a tube of graphite dry lube (again, ask them). Open the tube, pour some into a sealable plastic bag and put the axles in. Shake the bag a couple times a day for 2-3 days. Be creative in your design. My younger boy (now a Webelos I) this year decided to make his look like a river boat using the kit and a piece of balsa wood.

Try this link for the Excel software. http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/9152/home.html There is all kinds of info on it and links to even more. A couple of years ago I didn't have Excel either, but the tracker did work with Quattro (Wordperfect's Excel equivalent). I don't remember if all the bells and whistles worked, but I was able to keep track of the boys advancement.

I would think the pack/troop ought to be paying for the awards. In fact, the pack and troop I serve don't even pay for badges of rank. The council has what is called a gold unit program, wherein units that meet their Friends of Scouting $ goal (and the goal is based on number of scouts in a unit) get the rank badges "free". Arrow points, activity pins, merit badges, etc, are paid out of unit funds, as are belt loops the first time a boy earns them. Replacements or duplicates are at cost to the parents. Full disclosure, popcorn sales are always robust; neither unit is on a shoestring budg

Is the Derby during a pack meeting or a separate event, say on a Saturday? If it's during a Pack Meeting, I'd be inclined to say no. If it's a separate event, I could at least entertain the idea of it counting, since it's something out of the norm. Better idea, go to a high school, junior high or even grade school basketball game. Boys or girls. Most play a couple times a week and admission is cheap (or even free for students).