moxieman

Voluntold--the act of others volunteering you for a job without your consent before hand. "Hey, Jerry! Too bad you missed the district meeting last night. You've been voluntold to head-up spring camporee."

AlabamaDan, the sky (and your unit's bank account) are the limit for summer trips. Some of the activities troops in our district in Central Maine have gone on have included: An extended weekend to the Eastern-most point in the USA (Lubec, Maine) with a trip over the border to Campobello Island to tour the Roosevelt cottage. Campobello Park (or whatever it's called) in the past has given deep discounts to camping scouting units who do a service project for the park (like clean-up litter). Weekend canoe trips on the Moose River bow trip in northwestern Maine (considered a good beginner

Well, I tried providing feedback at the website link provided in the first post in this topic. It's been deleted. (shrug) I guess they don't care about this obvious done deal. Feedback was basically a summary of what nearly everyone else here said in regards to yet another change to this form.

ScouterAdam wrote: Oh, and bring a lot of patches. But remind your scouts that in Canada, they call them crests. That way your scouts won't look so confused when the Canadians ask if you want to trade a brand-name toothpaste with them AND they don't look confused at your scouts when they ask the Canadians to trade material for patching their pants.

This just hit the online edition of Maine's second largest paper. Katahdin Area Council has fired one of their high adventure staff after he survives going over Allagash Falls (roughly a 40 foot drop) in far northern Maine. He was demonstrating the proper way to NOT go Rump-Bumping in a river. http://bangordailynews.com/2012/07/13/news/aroostook/scouting-staffer-safe-after-rump-bumping-over-allagash-falls-fired-for-safety-violation/ He's fortunate he was only injured and fired rather than wind-up in a coffin.(This message has been edited by moxieman)

Almost word-for-word what Eagle90 said. I've seen the splintering on several occasions in the past in my rural district. Usually one of the two splinter units withers and dies, but not always the group of parents who think they can do things better (and can't). These days, the district discourages this and our commissioner staff* have enough members to usually have someone ready to jump in and help try and settle the disagreements. *--We're lucky, our district was the first to reach (and probably only one right now) the 3-to-1 units to commissioner ratio in the council. One of the ast

EagleDad Wrote: What makes Tigers so difficult is they are toddlers, the rest of the pack is not. They can't read or write and they haven't had the discipline of a year of 1st grade to develop the patience of listening. Thus that age requires as many adults as all the other age groups added together. This is probably why in many other nations with scouting for that age group, they have them in their won separate unit. For example, in Canada, they're a Beaver Colony. Down Under they're Joeys. By the way, the Canadian Beavers are the oldest such group and most other programs for th

I'd take #9 one step further and allow coed scouting if that is the choice of the sponsoring organization. The USA is one of the few countries left without a coed scouting option at all levels of the program.

They now wear a yellow cord around their shoulder instead of a patch for that position: http://www.scoutstuff.org/denner.html Now, if you have a vintage Cub Uniform he fits in, then he could wear that patch.(This message has been edited by moxieman)

Most interesting from my days as a scout: We planned meatloaf in a dutch oven...but forgot the cover to the oven. No problem as scoutmaster had an old street sign in his car (procured in his college days). But a steel street sign apparently doesn't distribute heat as well as cast iron. We wound-up with Carbon Loaf. I don't know how we got chunks of it out of the oven, but after bending my scout-issued stainless steel fork trying to stab a chunk, I chose to pass on that dinner. One my brother likes to tell the scouts in the troop he's SM in is the time his patrol decided to try and mak

COOOOOOOBBBBBBBRRRRRRAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! I was in scouting in the mid-80's. Our patrol HATED the G.I. Joe cartoon series/comic book series, so what better way to express our hatred, then to become the Cobra, Anti-G.I. Joe Patrol. So our call was just like that of the Cobra forces. Our flag was the Cobra flag....and I still have it.

One more update. My brother has been going through Ideal Embroidery in Florida for custom patrol patches for his troop. Sorry, I forgot to ask what he's paying, but from my understanding he's been getting a good deal. http://idealpatch.com/

Custom can get expensive, but if that's what the patrol wants and they're willing to cover the cost, then go for it. Scouting Magazine has contact info in the back section for several embroidery companies. However, the smaller the batch of patches you order, the more you will pay per patch. Most have a minimum of 12 or 24, but they are usually cost prohibitive if you order less than 100 or so patches at once. Previously mentioned is Patchtown, which has many specialty stock patrol patches already designed: http://www.patchtown.com/ Class B is just like Patchtown in that they have

Pine Tree Council has four camp properties. All are used off-season to one extent or another. Cost varies depending on what part of the property you use. The current rates sheet is at: http://www.pinetreebsa.org/camping/shortterm/welcome.htm In addition to the above, Camp Hinds is home to the council's winter camping weekends, aka "Okpik" and also host a week long winter camp (like summer camp, but in the snow!) during February school break. Scouts stay in the training center (see the rate sheet above) most of the week, but work on winter badges. Weather permitting, they learn how

Well, after you've made-up the requirements, if your scouts complete'em, you can award them a fake MB. http://www.boyscoutstore.com/duck-tape-merit-badge.html Make sure you explain to'em that it doesn't count towards advancement. And as for the requirements, you need to include MacGyver in there somewhere.

AHGnBSAMom wrote: "I doubt most Boy Scout troops rock pink rain ponchos while camping, like my Tenderhearts, but appreciate your concern!!! :-)" (chuckle) You'd be very surprised by the Pink Flamingo Patrol that showed-up at our 2011 Klondike Derby (winter scouting event where scouts pull equipment from station to station on a homemade dog sled with the scouts acting as the musher and dogs). They had pink everything: pants, jackets, knit hats/mittens. Their flag was pink. Their SLED was pink. At lunch, they served their cooking judge on pink flamingo themed plates with pink plasti

Eagle92 wrote: Give you an idea on size. Up until a year or so ago, it was a 4 hour trip from the NW corner to the SE corner fo the council. With the internet spur, it is 3:15. Only 4 hours across your council? Try THREE HOURS across my district from one corner to the other. Of course, we're the 2nd largest district, area-wise in the northeast and cover half the territory of our council (which has 5 districts). There's a reason, I list my location as "Maine Wilderness" in my profile. That said, our district provides a lot of the things previously mentioned by other posters that we

My council doesn't do this...yet. But considering the success I keep hearing from our neighbors to the east, it might happen here in the future. Here's the link to the info on the program next door in Katahdin Area Council: http://katahdinareabsa.org/assets/Announcement_Email2.pdf I am on the "border" between the two councils. Maybe I need to hunt down a scout to my east and support him. My local IGA is one of the participating IGAs in the program. The three one-time snap offs in this case are: Dunkin Donuts: Free hashbrowns with combo purchase IGA: $5 off $50 purchase O

How could I forget this one. The annual West Point Invitational Camporee holds their 50th Anniversary Encampment this weekend, 4/27-29, at the West Point Military Academy in NY. Details: http://www.usma.edu/uscc/dca/clubs/scou/index.html Your unit must be invited to attend. You might want to save the above website if you think your unit might be interested in future ones. One of my district's units will be there this weekend--one of their Eagle Scouts is a cadet at the academy and is sponsoring their unit's attendance.

ZScout5: It all depends on the kind of camping your troop does. You don't want a huge 4 man A-frame backpacking, while at Camporees/weekend car camping, they would be just fine. As others have pointed out, the Eureka Timberline series is a good all around scout tent. My brother's troop has some Timberlines (well close relation also made by Eureka, the Vista) that have been in use since we were scouts 25 years ago. They're showing their age now and are finally being retired, but yes, they've been used/abused by scouts in the troop for 25 years. Another I've had good luck with is th

I live in Maine. I'm surprised trailers are cheap here. Cars are NOT. Excise tax is based on a percentage of the MSRP of your vehicle when it rolled off the assembly line, regardless of how long ago that was or which # owner you are of the vehicle. The percentage decreases for x number of years, but it is based on that MSRP that hardly anyone ever pays for a vehicle. That said, as much as I'd appreciate you giving our state a little extra money, it may not be setting a proper example to the scouts. Yes, this would be thrifty, but it could also be skirting around local laws. I do

This September marks the 50th Annual Moosehorn International Camporee outside of Calais, Maine. Information is under the Activities drop-down menu on the Katahadin Area Council Website: http://katahdinareabsa.org/ More info will be posted there as the planning committee continues to work on it. Here's an article from Scouting Magazine 7 years back about the 42nd Camporee: http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0509/a-meet.html(This message has been edited by moxieman)

I see no one has made note of what else happens with rising fuel prices: Rising food prices. Food has to be transported to your local market and it takes fuel to do that. The increase in the cost of fuel is passed onto the consumer in the increased cost of food. One of our supermarket chains, Hannaford, is nicknamed "Can'tafford", and it's the least expensive the few chains up here in the Maine wilderness. I'm sure being the end of the (US) pipeline doesn't help much either. Personally, I'm not traveling for pleasure as much as I use to, nor am I volunteering at as many scouti

Lots of ideas have already been covered, several of which Madockawanda 271 currently does, including: Service hour--one day every week, there is a service hour followed by an ice cream social. Any OA member, even those not attending camp that particular week may attend. Brotherhood conversion--I'm not sure if it's every week or every other week, but this has been offered in the past at camp. This year, they're offering an OA Specialty week at camp. See page 3 of the Camp Hinds brochure for details: http://www.pinetreebsa.org/forms/boyscoutcamping/hinds/2012HindsProgramGuide.

According to Scoutstuff.org: Excludes: Uniforms, program insignia (ie patches/badges), literature, Pienwood Derby, advancement items and gift cards. So it's the usual non-sale sale of the stuff most aren't shopping for.