Nike

Alas, we don't use PackMaster. We have ScoutTrack instead, but I'll ping them.

As I move more and more to my iPad for most casual computing and rely on the laptop for serious projects, I find myself wishing that ScoutNet worked well in Safari or as an app.

Having a tattoo does not affect a military officer's career. Our officers are a pretty good cross section of middle-class America and plenty of them have tattoos of some type. Well, no facial tats.

However, military personnel of any rank can no longer get new tattos on any body part that is not covered by a summer PT uniform.(This message has been edited by Nike)

Frohes Fest, y'all!

At every Eagle board I have sat on, the boys always wonder why cooking isn't a required merit badge. Small engine and common household repair are also usually enjoyed.

Our PLC meets the same place as the troop on the same night as the committee. SM or ASM is always in attendance mostly as an advisor. It's part of the troop calendar and has been for years. The SPL controls the agenda with input from the SM.

I don't think a conference call or Skype would be nearly a useful due to the availability of distractions at home.

I figure the beret is right up there in the useless department: no brim, doesn't fold neatly or really at all, bulky in a cargo pocket, need two hands to put it on, hot in the summer and barely covers the head in winter, no ear flaps, and the fake leather band gives everyone a funky red line on thier foreheads.

Since your CoR isn't on hand much, I think it's time you went to the IH and told him as the CM that you do not believe the pack can function as a going concern much longer, and then you need to step down as CM effective with recharter.

It needs to fold and lie dormant for a year or two so that all the bad blood can move on. In that time the CO can decide whether they would like to continue to sponsor a BSA unit, and they and the DE can have sit down about what that really means in this day and age.

Socialism, socialized, socialist...we can go on about that for a long time.

However, it seems to me the biggest government factor contributing to the current financial mess here in Europe was governments officially lieing to one another!!! Governments were

knowingly submitting inaccurate or even absolutely false budgets to the EU.

The average German citizen is fed up, with everything. Just give him his DM back and take down all the EU flags.

Tampa T:

It's a good thing that no one from the local GS Council saw the girls doing that, or lots of inboxes would be very full today. Girl Scouts can not raise funds for others without specific permission from National. The girls can donate a protion of thier troop treasury, but that's it as far as cash goes.

It's no problem for Boy or Girl Scouts in uniform or troop t-shirts to go organize the food pantry or clean toys or even do a door to door food drive. They are providing free labor and service to a worthy cause.

It is a problem when youth are wearing thier official uniforms asking for straight-up monetary donations from the public for either themselves or another group.

No payment, no recharter.

Teach the boys and train the parents.

(I'm in an anti-non helper-parent funk.)

I am a bad parent. I don't let school or Scouts run our family life.

I have never told my elder son he couldn't do something because his homework wasn't finished or a project was due.

I have asked him how he intends to get everything done and participate in extra curriculars. He thinks about it and tells me his plan. I point out the flaws or pitfalls then leave it up to him. If he has to stay up past midnight, then he stays up. If he decides he needs to skip something, I remind him he needs to tell the activity sponsor in a timely manner.

Now will this work with Son #2 or the Pink Princess? Too early to tell.

If you as SMs, CMs, and CCs were presented with a child who dressed as a boy, wore a boy's hair cut, talked about boy things, acted like a typical boy, but were then told the child was actually a biological girl, she just preferred to do boy things and wanted to be with boys, what would you say?

Yes he can join.

or

No, Cub and Boy Scouts are boy centered organizations. Your child can join as a Venturer in late middle school.

Girl Scout Forums are lit up on this and the leaders are not happy. This child is still being identified as a boy by his parents. Cross dressing does not mean gay or transgendered. I know we'd lose girls and leaders over this, including me.

Girl Scouts USA stands for, and has always stood for, expanding oppurtunities for girls and women in our society. At the international level the World Association of Girl Guides & Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) promotes the safety, human rights, education, and civic empowerment of girls and women around the world.

Our US current vision statement is "Building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place."

At the international level, Girl Guides and Scouts are active in clean water campaigns, AIDS awareness/education/prevention, endemic disease abatement, local environmental issues, and a host of other things no one in America has to even dream about anymore.

For more:

www.girlscouts.org

www.wagggs.org

I asked my 16 year old son about this. He told me that boys are always aware of thier own perceived inadequacies and afraid the girls would notice.

It sounds like both CCs need to have regular calendar meetings as well as agree about entry/exit locations.

Does the church post a room assignments calendar? That might also help the wayward.

You get the training that the trainers are qualified to give. Do not ask for the national syllabus to any sort of training. A bare bones one is created then the councils have an enourmous amount of leeway in what they can add. There are not even nationwide titles for the training.

As for how to fix your daughter's troop, I can only say that if your daughter wants a more fulfilling GS experience, you have to be willing to make it happen and probably drag along some naysayers for a while. You also have to be willing to make things happen at the neighborhood level and go to bat at Council.

For middle school and up, GS now has the Travel and Series pathway, limited time groups that focus on a single trip or type of activity--kind of like a Council crew for one of the HA bases. These are mandated by National, but most councils are at a loss of how to consistently implement these two pathways outside the career development model. If you are a backpacker, and your daughter wants to backpack with GS, volunteer to run a backpacking series pathway. Lack of personal outdoor experience/skill is the number one reason leaders don't do things with the girls.

I don't know about GSA, but GSUSA has gutted the outdoor program for a few reasons:

1) There are no "methods" to Girl Scouting. National lives in NYC and is trapped in the NYC liberal bubble. They have little connection with actual Girl Scouts or leaders/advisors other than to get flaming e-mail about program materials or ugly stuff in the catalogue.

2) In the 80s, when I was a youth member, I noticed a swing towards career exploration and women's rights/empowerment. This was just after the defeat of the ERA and the rise of the Reagan Revolution. Girl Scouts seemed to become a feminist place of retreat. Apparently, uber-feminists (since most of us are actually feminist and don't know it) don't camp, kayak, sail, climb, hike, cave, canoe, etc.

3) As a country, this was also the time when more women were going to work full time and who wants to take a vacation where you cook, clean, and live rough? We started vacationing at cabins, resorts, and beach houses with maids. We've lost a generation of women with outdoor skills and successfully scared the beejeebers out of dads, who might be willing to help, with highly anti-male rules and regulations.

4) Don't mention a pit-latrine around most girls. They are absolutely committed to hot showers every day. Our GS leaders gave in to hair dryers and makeup on campouts. Spa parties are very popular. Because we recruited warm bodies and didn't have any expectations, program, or even methods, we got warm bodies with lukewarm skills who created lukewarm troops with lukewarm activities and lukewarm connections to the outdoors. Our membership also skews young with the big bulge at 2nd and 3rd grade. Many of our leaders in that age group have told me they are just so unsure of their abilities and don't want any of the girls to get hurt. Our camping training is laughable.

5) Girl Scouts has been higgledy-piggledy, flip-flopping trying to attract girls who would never be Girl Scouts instead of actually serving the wants and needs of registered Girl Scouts. Many events are indoor oriented because careers are generally indoor oriented. I got so sick of career exploration. If it's outdoors it's probably an environmental event because you can't go outdoors for the fun of it.

6) Our councils are not user friendly and many were in financial distress before the last round of mergers. We're in an administrative mess. Camps and gear are the first to go and last to be replaced.

7) Outdoor adventure is something many councils simply can't deliver because they don't have anyone working there who knows what to do and what to look for in establishing an outdoor adventure program.

8) Lastly, National got sick of hearing that the top three words associated with Girl Scouts were: cookies, crafts, and camping. They set about purposely to change that association. However, every little girl I talk to about being a Girl Scout wants to do three things: sell cookies, do cool crafts (pottery wheels come up often), and go camping. So, bit of a disconnect there.

Pretty much depends on what he does with the car while driving. For instance, my mom won't let my dad drive her car because he smokes in the car and drives like a freaked out demon on a bad acid trip.

If Mr. Advancements wants to continue, maybe someone (not necessarily AnnLaurel B) could drive him to the council shop, have a little lunch, shoot the breeze, and drop him off before the cows get home. He sounds like he's going to need it unless he gets himself another car.

My son, the SPL, is adamant that meetings start at 7 pm and are over by 8. He wants to be in the car on the way home at 8:15 since he left home at 06:45 for school. And, he's doing very well enforcing it, to the relief of all. There were some nights last year when we didn't get away until nearly 9 pm.

This works very well for the troop.

I've been getting Axel's Custom Shirts of Vail, CO. Beaucoup bucks to shop there.

Go outside. Just about any craft, game, or discussion can be done outside in or near a picnic shelter as long as it the weather isn't extreme.

Overplan your meetings. If you have a 60 minute meeting, make sure you have enough activities on hand for 90.

Bring your first aid kit. You'll need it.(This message has been edited by Nike)

TAC's cub camp is one week and you can go either as a parent/Cub combo and be buddied with others into a camp unit or register as a pack and have 1:4 ratio of adults/Cubs. But, you can't just send your son by himself.

The boys who go to cub camp always come back with great stories, and it's a nice adult bonding time if the pack adults can get along.

Seems you have two problems:

1. A Firebug

2. A CC that doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings and is willing to put that before the well being and safety of others and thier property.

Going to fire intervention is absolutely the proper thing to do with this boy. Otherwise you can count on him continuing to endanger himself and others.

And, as for the CC, I'd ask him what he's going to do when this boy causes serious damage to property and/or injures/kills himself or others.