NativeTexan

We have an annual tradition of making Christmas Cards for a local nursing homes. They are hand made generic cards made by our boys. We have used colored construction paper, glitter pens, colored markers, paint pens, found items, and natural items for decoration on the cards. They are a big hit.

Jim

Doesn't most of this belong in the "Issues & Politics" forum? Please bring it over there. I personally don't care for the tone around here (not just this thread) lately. Some of us may need take a deep breath and do a little soul searching.

This year we are having our annual "Family Fishing Fun Day". We fish, swim and picnic at this event. We are also having "A Day At The Creek" with the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts will be teaching us first aid, rope handling & knot tying, Leave No Trace, flag etiquette and flag ceremonies, and we will have a Whittling Chip course. We will also have a picnic lunch, door prizes and nature walk at this event. This give our pack a great opportunity to interact with our troop. We also have pack meetings each month one of which will be outdoors around a campfire.

We contacted some local people who brought their real race cars and street rods for the boys to look at and sit in. This worked out great!

The only parades our pack participates in are the ones in which can ride on a float (usually a lowboy trailer). It solves the problems of heavy flags, marching in order and tired kids. Good luck and have fun!

I just found this on my local United Way website & thought it was an interesting example of how to designate the distribution of funds:

"To make sure designations are properly recorded, please enclose a completed designation card or a list with the following information: employee's name, designated agency (if more than one, include all agencies), and the amount of the designation, and the address to be used for acknowledgment.

Example:

Bill Smith

700 North Street

Yourcity, TX 77701

Boy Scouts - $75.00, Family Services - $25.00"

Hey! Don't drag the beloved Dallas Cowboys into this discussion. You might just step on some toes! Besides, I don't remember anything about being a Cowboy fan on the leader application.

(Hmmm... Must have been posted by a Redskin fan...) (This message has been edited by NativeTexan)

I'm going to brag on the boys in my den a little, so bear with me. Last night we rode on a float in a local Christmas Parade. We allowed the boys to toss candy to the spectators with the understanding that they would not stand up on the float or throw candy at the people and their vehicles parked on the side of the rode. Numerous times I had to remind/correct/fuss at a few rotten apples for breaking the rules. By the time the event was over I was pretty upset at these boys for not following these rules and for disobeying me when I asked them to follow the rules. There are now thoughts of no candy next year.

The boys in my bear den had chosen to sit together as a group. Their behavior last night was excellent. They kept seated, tossed candy at the feet of the spectators and not once (to our knowledge) hit anyone or any vehicle. I am very proud of them.

Great ideas!

This year our pack is making hand-made Christmas Cards for local nursing homes and pediatric wards at local hospitals. The cards I have seen look wonderful! I am very proud of our boys.

Well... That does it. I'm removing the City of Berkeley from my Christmas card list.

Although I admire Mr. Newdow's tenacity and respect his 1st ammendment rights, I don't think I would enjoy breaking bread with him over the upcoming holiday season.

I asked my 8 yr old son who is a Bear cub what he was thankful for and here is his response. It is not word for word, but close enough.

"I'm thankful that God & Jesus are in my life. I'm thankful for being alive. I'm thankful for my family and all my friends." He paused for a moment in thought and added, "I'm thankful to be free" So I asked him to explain. He replied, "Well dad, I'm never bored. I always have something to do. I have church, school soccer, cub scouts, baseball and stuff to do here at home. You know Dad, there are some kids in the world that don't have toys or food to eat. I'm very lucky."

I smiled and thought to myself, "No son, I'm the one who is lucky."

I love the topic title! Kinda says it all...

Check the "Cub Scout" forum on this board. There is a thread that is discussing this very issue. Good luck. Here is the thread url:

http://www.scouter.com/Forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=20583

I have 8 boys in my den and 4 of those are either ADD or ADHD. The other 4 are extremely active 8 year old boys. The first couple of den meetings last year were a mess resulting in significant hair loss for this den leader, who quite frankly, can't afford to lose any more! So I started completely over and implemented some changes.

The first thing I did was have a den meeting with all parents and boys. As a group we wrote down our den rules. It was a group decision and involved everything from rough-housing to disrespectful behavior. This list was posterboard size and was posted on the wall for all to see and remember. The next thing we did was discuss the consequences of violating our rules, which is typically a good talking too and a "time-out" to think about what was said. We also implemented the good behavior candle and agreed that any adult present can blow it out at any time they see rule violations. It was also obvious that these boys needed to blow off some steam before we could get anything done at the meetings. In response to this we now play some sort of physical game or activity outdoors if the weather permits for about 15-20 minutes. These changes have helped out tremendously. We no longer have to post the rules. The first boy to arrive lights the candle and the last to leave blows it out. The boys know the routine of the den meetings and our "problems" are significantly less and things get a little better each month. Hang in there.

A local alteration shop in our small town charges 50 cents for the smaller (arrow point size) patches and on up to $2.00 for the larger (council size) patches.

I just read this on the CNN website:

D.C. appeals court reverses order favoring two gay Boy Scout leaders

Tuesday, November 12, 2002 Posted: 11:58 AM EST (1658 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two gay Boy Scout leaders lost their bid to return to the organization in a decision by an appellate court that overturned an order that the two men be reinstated as troop leaders.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals decision found that the Boy Scouts of America did not act illegally in barring the two men, Roland D. Pool and Michael Geller. The decision reverses a ruling issued last year by the D.C. Commission on Human Rights.

The appellate court said it based its decision on a June 2000 Supreme Court ruling. The high court declared that the Boy Scouts could bar homosexuals from serving as troop leaders. In that 5-4 decision, justices ruled that forcing the Scouts to accept gay troop leaders would violate the organization's right of "expressive association" under the Constitution's First Amendment.

In the ruling by the D.C. appeals court, issued Thursday, appellate Judges Michael Farrell, Stephen H. Glickman and Inez Smith Reid said they could not find any significant differences between the two cases.

The Commission on Human Rights had argued otherwise, saying that the troop leader in the Supreme Court case was a gay activist while Pool and Geller made no indication they would advocate homosexuality as Boy Scout leaders.

The appellate court disagreed, saying that the two men had been vocal about their sexual preference.

I just read this on the uniform inspection sheet:

"Webelos activity badges are worn on the light blue front panel of the Webelos cap or on the optional Webelos colors, if selected by the pack."

My form looks to be a little out-of-date and I'm not sure how this is affected by the new caps.

I also see the following on the sheet:

"Temporary insignia are not necessary in uniform inspection, but if worn, must be centered on the pocket..."

kwc57,

"The way I read the insignia information, the Webelo Den Number or Patrol patch is supposed to go right beneath the US Flag. Not an inch or two below. If you wear the colors, they are pinned touching the bottom of the flag and covering the den number/patrol patch. Is that correct?"

Yes. That is my understanding as well. It seems odd, but I can live with it.

momandscout,

The temporary patches and their placement on the uniform drive me nuts as well. My belief is that they go on the right pocket or hang from the button. There should also be only one worn at a time. Just last night, before a Veteran's Day ceremony, I was doing a last minute look over our boys and was surprised at what I found. Most of the boys would have passed a formal uniform inspection. There were two boys there from my Bear den that had dressed themselves and looked excellent. Pretty impressive for 8 yr olds in my book. However, when I looked over our CM's son, he would have clearly not passed. He had a temporary patch sewn on above the pocket, his Summertime Pin in the wrong place on the pocket flap and had his Father's Bobcat pin also on the flap (which I thought was very cool, but not a part of the uniform). Several boys also had their rank badges pinned on their pockets and not sewn on yet. Of the leaders present in their uniforms, all were dressed correctly. (If you're gonna talk the talk, you better walk the walk.)

I tend to cut the boys slack on are the Academics and Sports pin. If they wear them neatly on their hats, I will accept that. These boys are proud of those beltloops and pins and it doesn't seem right for them to be able to wear beltloops as part of their uniform and not the pins. (I'll probably take a tongue lashing on this one!)

I also let the boys slide if they have their Progress Toward Ranks medallion hanging in front of a sewn on badge in the temporary badge location. The patch that is usually sewn on is the World Conservation Award and the PTR covers it up completely.

I was very proud of all the compliments from the Veterans and community leaders about how well dressed and behaved our Scouts were during the 2 hr event. I personally believe that their behavior was at least in some way attributed to their good uniforming.

Uniform - having always the same form, manner, or degree : not varying or variable.

I got ahold of a Leatherman Wave this weekend. It felt good and I liked the one-hand opening function of the common cutting blades. I'm still a little concerned about the blade material being hard to sharpen, but I'm probably going to go with this one.

Thanks for the input!

I believe we would need to pass on resourcefulness. Scouting taught me how to use what was at hand to complete a task. I in turn am trying to pass this quality on to the boys in our troop and pack today. Many of these boys don't have to be resourceful at home or school or elsewhere in the disposable suburban environment in which they live. No finger pointing on my part. I just want to pass this on to them. I really find it funny when a new boy will ask "Why do you keep all those old coffee cans?" and one of the older boys will answer for me "So we can build stuff out of them".

Thanks for the great input. It looks like I'm going to be doing a little more research before I decide. I'm going to a couple of stores today to see if I can get my hands on some of these tools. I have only owned Schrade knives in the past so looking at the products from the different companies should be interesting.

I saw a Leatherman Wave yesterday that also looked interesting. The only Gerber I have found so far didn't have the features I was looking for. I'll let you folks know what I discover.

Hi LauraT7,

I searched using Google and came up with two different versions of the game. The second one looks like what you were looking for but the first one has some cool ideas that can be added into the second one for an even better experience for the boys.

I predict no sleeping on this night!

Guess the Body Part

One game we played was called "Guess the Body Part." She started off by telling us a spooky tale about digging in the basement a week or two earlier. She said that as she was exploring beneath our house, she had come upon a buried coffin. The coffin, she explained, contained the remains of the former master of the house who had died fifty years back. She then told us that she decided to put different body parts into paper bags and let us guess what they were many years ago. We all closed our eyes, and she began to pass around the bags. We found out later that she used food prepared different ways to trick us. She used two grapes for eyeballs, wet spaghetti for brains, dried cornsilk from a nearby field for hair, hard kernels of corn for teeth, baby carrots for fingers, and a piece of uncooked liver for a tongue. It was actually pretty gross, but I remember having a lot of fun.

THE DEAD MANS BRAINS

This scary story is a scary game that people play at Halloween. But it can be played whenever the spirit moves you.

The players sit in a circle in a darkened room and listen to a storyteller describe the rotting remains of a corpse. Each part is passed around for them to feel.

In one version, a player is out if he or she screams or gasps with fright. In another version, everybody stays to the end, no matter how scared they get.

Here is the story:

Once in this town there lived a man named Brown. It was years ago, on this night, that he was murdered out of spite.

We have here his remains.

First, lets feel his brains. (A wet, squishy tomato)

Now here are his eyes, still frozen with surprise. (Two peeled grapes)

This is his nose. (A chicken bone)

Here is his ear. (A dried apricot)

And here is his hand, rotting flesh and bone. (A cloth or rubber glove filled with mud or ice)

But his hair still grows. (A handful of corn silk or wet fur or yarn)

And his heart still beats, now and then. (A piece of raw liver)

And his blood still flows. Dip your fingers in it. Its nice and warm. (A bowl of catsup thinned with warm water)

Thats all there is, except for these worms. They are the ones that ate the rest of him. (A handful of wet, cooked spaghetti noodles)

I am also interested in acquiring a few or even one for that matter! Please let me know if anyone finds any. Thanks.

I carry a Schrade Old Timer with a 2.5" lock blade every day. On excursions I sometimes bring along a larger buck knife that also has a lock blade.