oldsm

I don't know where people have gotten the idea that Scouting is or should be "free". I know we never stress that! Aside from looking for bargains and ways to do things without wasting money (a Scout IS thrifty), we make it clear to our families that the money spent will have a direct impact on the quality of the program and what their son gets out of it. People "waste" a whole lot more money on "important" things that deliver a lot less (think movies, eating out, the latest styles, downloading from iTunes or Netflix, etc.) It's all about choices and priorities.

Christians also believe in the Old Testament. While some protestant Christian denominations focus almost exclusively on the New Testament, most Christians (I think) also understand that the good news of the New Testament makes sense only in the context of the Old Testament. Don't forget about all the O.T. prophecies of the one true Messiah. In a Scouting environment where non-Christians are present, I think it makes sense to stress our similarities more than our differences. At any rate, I think we all believe in one God, whether we call him(her) God, or Yahweh, or Allah, or some other na

Dave, welcome to the forum. I think you'll be glad you found it. There is a lot of very good information shared freely here, along with some you probably can discount. Don' be a stranger - chime in when you have something to offer. All opinions are welcome.

He'll eat a couple of other things: white bread (Wonder bread - all air) raw carrots pancakes cookies Won't eat: any soup other than tomato beef stew (canned, home made, or made on site) foil dinners (beef or chicken) cheese (including mac 'n' cheese) baked apples whole-grain breads "heavy" white breads (Kaiser rolls, etc.) oatmeal potatoes (baked or boiled) tortilla wraps tacos / taco salad salad fixings (except carrots) tuna Of course, if the Trading Post is open, he's the first to want to go there. We've learned not to let him go buy candy & j

I have a new Scout, age 11, who has an extremely limited list of foods that he "will" eat. This is not a case of "cannot" due to any kind of food allergies. At summer camp, the scout spent at least 24 hours in the health lodge because he didn't feel well - basically because he wouldn't eat. This is NOT just a camp phenomenon. It happens at home too, as well as on troop outing. His patrol mates have tried to incorporate things he'll eat into their menu plans, but then the boy accuses them of changing the menu. It has become a point of contention within the patrol. I've discussed this

The cigarette...err, MEDIA pocket on the left sleeve is ridiculous. Our troop doesn't allow media players at meetings - only in the car on the way to an outing, and no one has yet put his MP3 player in the pocket and snaked the earbud wire through the hole. The pocket, as the designated spot for the POR patch, is almost impossible to sew into. I ended up removing the pocket, sewing on my SM patch, then sewing the pocket back on. Another useless feature is the tabs on the long sleeve shirt for holding the sleeves rolled up. The problem is that the sleeves are cut too narrow to be able to ro

I have one young man in my troop who seems to have a problem with telling the truth. Not that I've seen it in him more than in any other boys, but I recently got the other side of the story from the boy's dad. Here's some background. This scout just came back from a weekend LNT Trainer course - the first in our troop to have done this. The troop is going camping this weekend and he was looking forward to beginning to train the troop on LNT techniques. I think he would have done a great job. He is enthusiastic about it. This week he told me he couldn't go camping this weekend because his p

Who says the PL should not cook or be the cook on the duty roster? Whatever happened to "leadership by example"? The PL may be responsible for putting together ("overseeing") the duty roster, but if he doesn't do his share of the work, whether he likes it or not, is just setting up conflict within the patrol: think the "big boss" mentality of the old-style of leadership. Shared leadership says that the PL helps with the grunt work, too.

By now, probably everyone has heard this story about the 6-year-old Cub Scout who took his fork/knife/spoon to school to eat lunch. My question: Have we as a society gone too far with zero-tolerance policies? ==================== 6-Year-Old Scout Suspended for Bringing Knife-Fork-Spoon Utensil to School Six-year-old Zachary Christie was so excited to become a Cub Scout that he brought his camping utensil to school. The tool serves as a spoon, a fork and a knife, and Zachary wanted to use it at lunch. What Zachary didn't know was that the gizmo violated his school's zero-tole

My Council did a couple several years ago. I don't recall many people from the public showing up. Probably poor location and little public publicity. The 2nd one had about 5,000 scouts present. It was held at a well-known fairground facility. There was significant public presence, but I don't know how effective it was in terms of image. The goal of both presumably was to create a venue to promote Scouting. The only charge was to the scouts who were participating and demonstrating what they do. The public was welcome at no charge. I think any cost was offset by the per-scout participa

Why is the Committee approving the calendar? The PLC sets the calendar with input from me (the SM) and the Assistant Scoutmasters. We publish the calendar, and that's when the Committee finds out about it. The Committee's job is to support the program, not hinder it. In the several years I've been SM, there's never been an issue. If someone can't attend a meeting because it conflicts with some family plan, then that person just misses the activity. The troop goes on.

Does anyone know where I can download a copy of the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook in WORD (.doc) format? It used to be available on National's site and on nesa.org. However, all I can find now are the RTF and PDF versions. The PDF version is now "fillable", which would be fine except that the narrative sections have a separate field for each line, which makes it almost impossible to write a narrative. There is no "wrapping" from one line to another, and as the text gets to the end of a line, the entire line of text gets smaller and smaller. This makes editing and error c

Patience and tenacity sometimes are rewarded. A major local news story today reads, in part: "After a one-year hiatus, the local Boy Scout coffee stop on Interstate 95 will be returning Sept. 4-7 to the Waterford weigh stations. "In a decision later supported by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, the state Department of Transportation, citing safety concerns, denied Boy Scouts the right to hold a 24-hour coffee stop at the weigh stations last year. So local legislators, led by state Sen. Andrea Stillman and state Rep. Ed Jutila, passed a bill earlier this year that specifically allowed local Scouts

I am curious how your troop handles the Historian responsibilities. When I joined the troop, someone passed along a plastic tub with a bunch of memorabilia: old programs, correspondence, a few pictures. I don't know who maintained it: scouts? adults? Nothing is very well organized, although some items were inside a binder. It was definitely a manual process that appeared mostly to be a collection of stuff that would be of value only to someone who wanted to search through the troop equivalent of your grandmother's attic. I'm not sure how far back the "archives" go - the troop was established

The new socks fit my feet comfortably enough that I don't need liners or wool socks over them for extra padding in my boots. However, the tops are too tight for anyone who doesn't have chicken legs. After wearing the new socks for a couple of hours, there's a very distinct narrowing of the leg where they go into the socks. Changing to a larger size makes the rest of the sock too big. A related uniform defect is the tabs on the sleeves for holding up rolled-up sleeves. The sleeves are too skinny to even roll up to my elbows, let alone up to the tabs.

Just found this on Foxnews.com. How terribly sad. I can't begin to imagine the effect on the troop and the scout's family, but his parents' attitude speak volumes about character. My prayers for all involved. ============== Monday, July 27, 2009 The parents of a 14-year-old Boy Scout from Edina who collapsed and died during a hike in New Mexico say there's nothing anyone could have done to save him. Timothy Nunn died Friday at Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico. The cause of his death isn't known. The boy's parents, Jim and Zibby Nunn, said in a statement that th

NancyB, there is a fundamental flaw in your reasoning about a cell phone being a safety thing because you had to wait for 6 hours to find out about your son. Your not knowing was undoubtedly a horrible experience - more than I can imagine. However, your knowing sooner would not have had anything to do with whether he was safe or not. You were really only concerned about your own comfort and peace of mind. I'm glad he was OK. More parents need to let go and let their sons grow up without being constantly tethered. Isn't that part of what scouting is all about?

When I was in high school in the early 70's, we had to take showers after PE. The shower was a maze that everyone had to walk through - you couldn't avoid getting wet - and the gym teacher handed out towels at the end. The school had a pool, and all swimming was done au natural. Today's generation won't even change clothes if someone else is in the tent with them. ("Somebody might see my boxers...") At least these guys don't go around looking like plumbers.

I had a similar situation a few years ago where a new scout had forged signatures in his book. I found out about it when one of the older scouts (who had been authorized to sign off on certain requirements) brought to my attention that some things had been signed off with his initials, but they weren't in his handwriting. I had an after-meeting SMC with the new scout (with an ASM present). Dad, who had come to pick up his son, insisted on sitting in. As soon as Dad realized that his son had forged the signatures, he took his son and said "We're outta here if this is the way things are goi

Simple. Forget the electronic games. Talk to the PLC beforehand and get their buy-in. The scouts in my troop have had a "game night" (an all-night camp-in) for several years. The only entertainment allowed is BOARD GAMES and movies on DVD or VHS. They set a rating limit. Sure, some try to sneak in the "R" rated movies, but they police it well. Only once that I know of have the adults had to step in. Easily monitored. Board games that are always popular: Chess, Risk (sometimes have 2 of these going), Connect 4. Monopoly (there's never enough time to finish a game at home), and several other

Although I enjoy a meal cooked in a Dutch oven, it's too heavy for backpacking. Takes up too much room, too. Avail yourself of a couple of Back Country cookbooks. These have terrific recipes. The boys have learned that a little extra prep work at home pays huge dividends with the variety of menus they can have, makes food easy to carry with no need for regrigeration, minimizes on-the-trail cooking time and mess, and is fun to do. It's fun to watch the patrols start to compete with each other for who can have the most interesting dishes. [digression] As much as I hated powdered milk w

Search Under Way for Teen Hiker Missing in New Hampshire Mountains Tuesday, April 28, 2009 (AP) CONCORD, N.H. Crews soon will resume their search on the ground and by helicopter for a 17-year-old hiker in the White Mountains who has been missing since Saturday. WMUR reports the search is scheduled to resume at about 8 a.m. Tuesday for Scott Mason, an Eagle Scout and high school junior from Halifax, Mass., who headed up Mount Washington early Saturday planning to hike 17 challenging miles in one day. Lt. Douglas Gralenski of the state Fish and Game Department said Monday Mas

About a year ago my son, who volunteers with the local ambulance company as an MRT (medical response technician - sort of like a junior EMT), was helping with a 19-year old OD victim at the local hospital ER. He was doing compressions when the doctor finally pronounced the young man. My son took it very hard. He wanted to visit the grave a year later only to find out that the deceased had been cremated and there was no interment site. He is now taking an EMT course. He still wants to "help other people at all times."

I'm not sure which MB's I'd drop but, unlike some posters, I would not combine the 3 Citizenships into one. Each of these addresses a different aspect of citizenship, and there is a very logical progression from Community to Nation to World. There are some very different concepts. I strongly recommend that my scouts start with the local and work up to the global view. Consider, too, that the critical thinking required for World is quite a bit higher than that for Community or Nation. It makes sense from a developmental standpoint to steer younger scouts (6/7th grade) to Community, 8/9th g

My council uses blue cards. The scouts in my troop ALWAYS have a filled-out blue card BEFORE they contact a counselor, whether at camp, an MBU, Jamboree, or at home. No exceptions. Our District Advancement Chairman insists on seeing the physical blue cards before he will agree to an EBOR. Given the propensity of Council's ScoutNet records to be in error, those blue cards are frequently lifesavers...