beardad

There is a lake up in the Marysville area that does this free kids fishing thing. I believe they supply rods and bait and such. I think its in spring or early summer.

I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the lake, but I bet you could google it. I found one put on the by Kiwannis club, but I thought there was another one on a lake.

We used to sell popcorn in our pack, but the dwindling return compared to the amount of work put in made it not worth it.

We do 2 fundraisers a year. this year we sold Sees candy bars. we got 50% of the profit from it.

in the spring we do a walk-a-thon. families can either pay the opt out (minimum fee) or can get sponsors per lap. some families do both. this is a good fundraiser, because there is almost no over head and it promotes exercize.

I would make a list of who you think would do the best job, and visit each person in order individually and ask them. It's harder to say no when asked face to face, rather than in a blanket call for help.

if the first guy(or gal) says no, move on down to the next person on your list.

I mentioned this is another thread I think. we usually manage about 1 to 1.5 years.

we have a culture in our pack and in our troop that only parents are volunteers, so we don't have any long time scouters. once the boys move on so do the parents.

I am contimplating this too. our pack averages 1 to maybe 1.5 years. I took over as CM halfway thru the year last year. and my youngest son crosses over to BS next Feb March. so if I stay on that will be 2 years.

I believe that the sales pitch is to find somebody to run the camp. it's been my experience that nobody actually wants to run the camp. it's usually the person who wasn't at the meeting where it was decided got volunteered for it.

I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. I remember my teacher telling us about it. We didn't get to go home early like othes we heard about.

"Ah yes. Things change, but the hoi polloi always have ways of identifying elites, and always fantasize about a comeuppance."

is this some kind of Star Bellied Sneech thing?

SP this just shows your ingorance. If you think Tattoos spawned from Prison society then you really don't know what you are talking about.

Tattoos have been around since at least 2000B.C. different cultures had different uses for tattooing but most cultures had some form. British royalty tattoo'd themselves for vanity reasons until commoners started doing it to emulate, then they stopped.

I don't know where yours, and others biggotted negative connotation comes from, but I would check it at the door.

I live in the same area as you and maybe your view of tattoos is some kind of counter-counter culture, because it is so prevalent and accepted here in Seattle. believe me I am probably the most conservative person on this board, but even I think tattoos are ok.

There are more of us than there are of you. pretty soon we will judge you for NOT having them.

I have never been involved in the planning so I can't complain too much, but ours is basically just a pack meeting with food.

they hold back the rank badges (or conversely the kids work towards having them done by B&G) and pass them out and they do an arrow of light ceremony for the 2nd year WEBS. sometimes if anybody from council can be bothered to show up they will do a FOS presentation. then we clean up and go home.(This message has been edited by beardad)

I have a few. all have some sort of meaning to me.I got my first when I had just turned 18. I am now 35. hasn't faded a bit. The ink has come a long way since the days when the blacks would turn green. if you have a modern day tattoo and it is faded. you are doing it wrong.

I also used to have my nipple pierced. that was an early 20's thing. it was a popular trend when I was in the Marines. took it out when my first was born. he tried to tug on it once.

actually Jhawkins has it right. This area seems to have it's share of back country elitists and NIMBY's. try asking on that same website for any information on the Bathtub lakes.

to be fair though it's not just Scouts. they hate all kids. Also balloons, campfires, and Dogs. NWhikers would be elated if all were banned from the earth.

I don't know if it is the same in other regions. I always chalked it up to the type of people that flock to WA & OR (most of the elitists are non natives)and the political climate that breeds this attitude.

they really believe that they are saving the world if they restrict access to land to only themselves and nobody else. their impact doesn't count.(This message has been edited by beardad)

I can tell you here in the PNW the hiking community doesn't have a favorable view of the Scouts. go to nwhikers.net and search for boy scouts. it isn't pretty, and a lot of it is just what basement is talking about. if you register to post, I wouldn't admit that you are affiliated.

A good portion of our back country has small limits of the number of people allowed in a group. 8 to 12 depending.

well it's relevant to the OP because unless this eagle college student had a son in the pack he wouldn't be allowed to be a leader. the troop either. in fact our troop won't even let the kids who eagled and aged out in our troop come back as leaders.

Our pack does not allow non-parent leaders. for right or wrong that is the policy.

We decided as a pack, that the work out weighs the benefit in selling popcorn. We have not sold in a couple years. the last two years we did Christmas wreaths and candles instead. This year I think we are going with Sees candies.

Basement, you don't have to sell the same popcorn as your council or district sells. your pack can do what ever it wants as a fund raiser. In the spring we do a walk a thon. almost zero over head and 100% of donations go to the pack.

We don't allow the parents to drop off at any level. they are excpected to pitch in and help. even in Webelos.

We do our Den meetings Wednesday evening 7-8 and we do our pack meetings on Wednesday eveing 7-8.

Wednesdays can get a bit busy since it is my wife's early work day so we are both up and out the door by 5:30am. then after school we have homework, guitar lessons and football practice. then straigt after football practice is scouts. dinner is usually around 9pm on wednesdays. at least until football season is over.

the rest of the week is wide open. I don't know why everything has to be on wednesdays.

We decided as a pack a few years ago to stop selling popcorn. for us, the little amount of payback was not worth the huge amount of work.

I don't know if national or council sets the amount of money that goes back to the pack, but it kept shrinking every year, with having to sell more and more (they set the goal based on the amount of scouts chartered the previous year, not taking into account cross overs and lost scouts)

I don't believe there is any medical benefit from Marjiuana that cannot be obtained in Pill form which they do make. If there was an actual need medically for it (which I doubt there is any) it can be obtained as a pill.

My son is right now at summer camp as I write this. He is taking 1st aid merit badge and wood working merit badge. you can probably see where this is going.

Earlier in the week he told me very entusiastically that he got to try out some of the stuff he learned in the 1st aid merit badge course, cuz he cut himself during the wood working one. he thought it was cool. practical application is the best way to retain information.

Thanks folks for all the discussion on this. I still don't have a clear picture of what happened. but I did get a chance to talk to my son again. (I don't know why they let him have his cell phone at camp)

again still not too clear, because I spend most of the time on the call trying to get him to hang up, but sounds like the over acting imagination of a 12 year old. basically he said the first day he saw a bunch of moms hanging out waiting/trying to see their kids. he said he didn't know any of them, but then his best friends mom was there, she was in the area already for a separate vacation so stopped in to say hi. so I guess he put this together to mean that everybody's mom but his was there.

on a good note, beside his self made homesickness issues, he is having a blast at camp. may actually come home with his first 3 merit badges ever, and should come home having completed all his tenderfoot, and most his 2nd class requirements completed. His troop isn't too big on advancement, and that is probably why it has taken him 2 1/2 years for tenderfoot.

Spouses of the leaders who went up. including spl's mom. that is what is weird. it's like the leadership of the Troop who should know better.(This message has been edited by beardad)

Another weird thing, is that it was the parents of the older scouts. this is my son's 2nd year at camp, and he had no problems last year. (at least related to this)