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perdidochas

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Everything posted by perdidochas

  1. Moosetracker, I like your description of how a troop should be re: parents. The troop my son just joined did exactly that. All the new parents were invited to take part, be it as committee members, or as prospective assistant scoutmasters, with committee membership being highly encouraged. Our troop has a lot of parent involvement, but our role is not to lead, but to administer. We take care of paperwork, accounts, t-shirts, etc. The boys decide what to do. It's been hard as the former Webelos Den leader to sit back and let the boys do what they need to without my leadership, b
  2. Didn't your Scout also have a responsibility to his patrol or troop?
  3. I'm sympathetic to your scout, UNLESS he knew ahead of time (i.e. before Friday before the campout) that he would have an assignment due Tuesday morning. IMHO, as a former teacher, it is just wrong to assign a lengthy writing assignment on Friday and have it due Tuesday. Kids need to be able to manage their time. Now, IMHO, the scout should have worked on it during the campout and on Sunday night as well.
  4. Not enough info about the Eagle Scout, but to me if only 4-5 show out of 64, that shows a lack of leadership (or at the least, either choosing dates that conflict with a lot of other things, or that Eagle candidate has irritated the younger kids).
  5. Have you invited the Webelos dens to visit your meeting? Have you offered Den Chiefs to the Webelos Dens? Both are good recruiting tools.
  6. Webelos isn't really a two year program. It's a year and a half program. I've lucked out with my den. All 5 of my AOL recipients crossed over, and look like they will be active Boy Scouts. I also had 2 late comers who didn't earn AOL, but will be active Boy Scouts. Now, I'm advancement chair of their Troop.
  7. Unless the boys were ten for 6 months, 4th graders can't get the Arrow of Light. If they were ten for 6 months, then they were pretty old 4th graders.
  8. >How many of you have been faced with a new Scout in your Troop, proudly wearing >his Arrow of Light patch, and he can't say the Oath or Law? The requirement doesn't say be able to say it when they enter Boy Scouts. Keep working on it, they will start to remember. >Just got 3 new scouts crossed over at the end of May. Our Troop was there and >watched as they each received their Arrow of Light. >When we open our troop meetings the Scouts usually do both the Oath and Law. > >None of these new Scouts could do it. They will be able to do it. Give them a
  9. They are in a den, but a smart Webelos leader starts to treat them like a junior patrol, IMHO. I just crossed over my Webelos Den to Boy Scouts (7 boys). I had been giving them increasingly more choices and requiring them to do more decision making.
  10. Does the "associated" Troop offer you Den Chiefs? If not, this is a no-brainer. Tell them to put their Den Chiefs where their mouth is. Do you have space for any more den chiefs? If so, what's the problem?
  11. I will have to third the den chief suggestion. Den chiefs are great to have. They give the boys somebody to look up to, and they are great assistants.
  12. I built one similar to this one. My original had a sophisticated trigger system, but I found that just holding it (like this one recommends) was easier and more effective. http://www.testecvw.com/carl/images/water_bottle_launcher.pdf For rockets, simply make a nose cone out of foam and make fins out of cardboard or foamboard.
  13. I think we are part of the overscheduling craze and are greatly hurt by it. I bet that we will find that there is a greater % of Eagles in the next 10 yrs than in the earlier 100 yrs of Scouting. On the other hand, the other scheduled activities are increasingly taking more time. Band practices for example are much more intense than they used to be. It's hard to be in the band and in any other activity. The same with football and other high school sports. Not only do they have practice, but they are also expected to hit the weight room, etc.
  14. SCTDad, You missed what happened. The boy that reported it was the intended victim. The younger boy was the pawn. Two older boys the main perpetrators. I think the punishment of the younger boy was appropriate. He tried to persuade the other boy to drink it. The intended victim didn't fall for it. However, I think the two older boys should be punished much more harshly that that. At the least, they need to be suspended from troop activities for a few months and make a formal apology in front of the troop.
  15. "Yeah, I have a lot of problems with the selective religious affiliations that the Scouts have as well. It's a tough nut for me to crack as well. I am a Christian, but I disagree with the Scouts having such a close affiliation with the Catholic Church and the LDS. " Honestly, I don't think the above response is very scoutlike. Please defines what you mean by "close affiliation." Also, while the LDS connection is because the LDS have chosen Scouts as part of their youth training, the Catholic connection is simply because the Catholic Church is the single largest Christian denomi
  16. Parents as Activity Badge counselors is a great idea. I've tried it, and it works fairly well.
  17. The CM is clearly overstepping his authority. CNY, IMHO, is in the perfect position to clear this up. He simply needs to take the book, and show the requirements. Mention to the CM that it is a requirement to know those for AOL, but not at this time. IF that doesn't work, the Webelos Den Leader needs to take it up with the district scout exec. Rules are rules. If you're going to be by the book, you truly need to be by the book. I'm a WDL, and thankfully I haven't had to deal with such things (I've been a den leader longer than my CM's been in the Pack, so I pretty much tell him how i
  18. Let me get this clear: Scouts are messing around during freetime. Scout A goes to Scout B's camp and steals their stick. Scout Bs demands their stick back. Scout A jumps on Scout B1 and throws him in the briarpatch, and then jumps on and strangles Scout B2, throws him on the ground, flips him off, wishes he were dead. Then B2 gets up, and Scout A hits him. That is the way I read your description. If that's the case, B2 is the scout who was strangled. What did the B scouts do wrong, other than verbally get angry about a silly stick? I would ask that if Scout A goe
  19. Brent, That Tech swimming course sounds like fun to me (but then again, I'm an aquanut (former assistant scuba instructor, research diver). However, I do agree that it seems to be a bit of overkill as a college graduation requirement.
  20. Just a bit of trivia--the "Den Mother" in those photos is model Jerry Hall, who was Mick Jagger's longtime girlfriend.
  21. "Yeah, I suppose that's a possibility as well. I haven't really analyzed it from that side. But I have noticed that when I introduce myself as the Step-Dad that 99% of the time the conversation ends with a kind of "your not needed here" eyeroll look. " Why introduce yourself as step-Dad? Why not just as Dad, and let them figure out the step in context?
  22. As a 4th yr Cub leader (T,B and W) Not sure about what to say about the step-parent issue. I couldn't tell you if the adults with a boy are step-parents or parents, unless the adult makes a point of it, or I meet the biological parent of the same gender. I treat them all the same--as people that are trying to do their best to raise a boy. Scouts is about turning boys into men. Cub scouts does that with adult leaders doing most of the work. Boy Scouts does that by putting boys into the position to lead and learn, sometimes by trial and error. In terms of costs, I think scouts is stil
  23. Read it with the Scouts at every den meeting. Have the scouts in pairs quiz each other.
  24. JoeBob, That was my first thought as well. That it was about the Hangman's noose, and maybe some knots used in adult activities.....
  25. Apache, I would just CC or bcc another adult leader whenever I communicated with the boys directly. It can't hurt.
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