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raisinemright

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Everything posted by raisinemright

  1. Had somewhat a similar issue a few years ago. The Blue and Gold was to be planned by the W II families. They never got around to it, so 3-4 weeks in advance, pack leadership took over and planned it out. We gave notice of the date and time. A week or so before the event, one of the crossover families told us they were going to be at another family event, implying that we should change the date for the other 20 families. Sice we had already boked and paid for the hall and catering, that wasn't going to be happening. I spend a lot of time on the phone with them trying to massage the sc
  2. We've got a brand new troop. When we began 4 months ago, we appointed our SPL. Only two boys meet the troop qualification of 1st Class or above right now. We're going to make it a six month term witt the SPL having the option of another 6 months at his discretion, so essentially it's a 12 month term but he will have the opportunity to bow out if he decides being SPL isn't really his calling.
  3. Look up Young Eagles online. It's a program run by the Experimantal Aircraft Association and takes kids flying. A couple years ago, I hooked up with them and we had our Pack Picnic at the local airport. Each scout and sibling got to take about a 20 minute flight and everyone had a great time. Due to having to move, we're not with that unit anymore, but they did the airport picnic again last year. Absolutley the best and most exciting event ever. We had some leftover popcorn from our sales and each pilot got a can.
  4. I have an 11X17 tentmahall. We mostly use it for family camping. The other 7-8 tents are more conducive to scout stuff. It's really big and very hard to set up alone. Can be done but it's really a 2-man job. You also have to be careful where you go. I've been to a couple campgrounds where there's not enough room for a tent that large.
  5. We're in almost the same situation. New troop. In four months we're up to 14 boys. One Liufe, One Star, 1 2C, 1 Tenderfoot, 10 Scout. Yep, that's pretty scary. The life scout is SPL and doing well. We broke into two patrols two weeks ago when we hit 11 boys. Three more just joined. First patrol based campout is next weekend. They're not really planning anything big but it should be fun. All the best. Run with it and have a great time.
  6. Yea, it doesnt breathe much and could really use an inside zipper. I dont zip it all the way. In winter its not too bad. I tried it in the summer once and almost drowned. I want to stitch some small vents into it.
  7. OK guys, this is going to sound kind of stupid, but it works. I have a military issue body bag. I get in my sleeping bag and zip up the body bag. Keeps me nice and toasty on those cold winter campouts. Plus, there are six convenient handles should I expire during the night.
  8. My son has been anxiously waiting for this badge. He is a member of a FIRST Tech Challenge team. He's done just about everything for the badge in the last few months.
  9. 3. I have a 15 degree bag that is ready to be retired, a 35 degree for most trips and a 45 degree for summer. My son has a zero but we just moved to a state that's a little more temperate, so I'm going to get another 15-20 deg. bag.
  10. Upon my "retirement" as a DL, I was given a card with a restaurant certificate with enough for a nice dinner with my wife, but not enough for me to want to take the kids along. (perfect) I've gotten a couple other nice token gifts over the years. The best was a Gerber multi-tool. Our old pack has a tradition of giving a hiking staff to leaders who are "aging out" and moving up to Boy Scouts. Due to a forced job change, we had to completely leave both troop and pack and move out of state. They got me a special retirement gift of a handmade staff with the troop number engraved on
  11. Of course you should award it. A few years ago, we had a kid join my sons Webelo II den. Once he found out about AOL, he wanted to earn it. We spent a lt of extra time with him and as a den tailored a few meetings around helping him earn it. He just pulled it off.
  12. My son's shirt says that he's a member of Boy Scouts of Am rica.
  13. WOW! Sounds like some committee members need to re-read all the rulebooks. The time to stop this nonsense is right now. SPLs are voted by the troop, not the committee. Now I really sound like a hypocrite. Our troop is brand new. Like, 6 weeks old. Only two scouts are above 2C. (Life and Star) Only two of the other scouts were even cubs, so they are all brand new at the Scouting game. The senior guys were appointed SPL and ASPL for a very strict 6 month term at which point all the scouts have ben told we will have scout elections. For an established troop, comittee should have v
  14. Not supposed to, but with a smaller pack, sometime you gotta do it. I was DL and ACM for several years. For about 2-3 of them, I was a ASM too.
  15. OK which one to use. One cold winter night on a patrol campout I hit the sack a little before the other leaders. We had two tents pretty far from the scouts. I heard two leaders crawl into their tent and beging to cary on a muted conversation. Then my tentmate came in. He was going to use a silvery mylar emergency blanket inside his sleeping bag for a little extra warmth. Now, if you've ever opened one of those up, you know it's absolutely impossible to do it quietly. But he tried. I never let on that I was awake. The otehr two guys were still talking. After about two minutes
  16. I wouldn't worry about going from hot to cold. Years ago, I decided to do my wife a favor and turn on the self cleaner to the stove while she was gone. (Just married, never had used it before) I forgot to look in the stove before I started it. An hour or so later, a loud racket started coming from the inside of the stove. A cast iron frying pan was inside and getting so hot, it was shaking in the stove. I broke the lock open and using about four potholders, i removed the pan and tossed it out the back door into a snowbank. It sizzled and sank into the snow in a rush of steam. We still u
  17. We would get a whole bunch of dollar store stuff and a few donations and give out tickets for the raffle. Sometimes we would also sell some tickets for a quarter and raffle off a BB gun. (to the parents) Council people were usualy in attendance and never said anything, probably because it was internal. We had a snack shop set up, lot's of big screen video. THe former cubmaster also built a car with a wireless spy cam so we races the car with the in-car camera.
  18. No hard fast rules. My two boys were up for new rank, Tenderfoot and Life. At their last meeting before we moved out of state, I sent an e-mail to the SM and asked if we could bend the normal traditions to get them SMC and BOR the same day. My Life left about 2 weeks before his ASPL duties were over too. If he agreed, I was going to have the boys request the SMC and BOR. He beat them to the punch, scheduled it and presented their patches immediately. They had to back date the one son but circumstances overruled the normal traditions. It made them very proud to earn rank from the
  19. I've got two comments. I used to take a city bus to school. One winter day, I missed the last one, so, I walked 7 miles to school. Missed the first two classes but I showed up. No big deal. As far as overprotectives, we were going on a winter camp once and one of the mom's who's son and husband were both going asked at what point Scouts cancels for dangerous weather. I laughed and told her that if you're prepared, five below zero isn't dangerous. She laughed, as I expected her to. I woke up at 4am and thought about going and checking on the scouts. Naaa, if they're cold, they'll c
  20. Guys, Your advice has been very good and I appreciate it. Heres a little more info. Our goal is to mostly recruit home schooled kids and there are some decent networks in the area. I had to move here about 8 months before my family came, so I got hooked up with another troop to help as an unofficial ASM. Since the family moved here, weve been with them but the troop is nearly 40 miles from home. Since my presence there was only temporary, Im leaving under very good terms and intend to have some co-activities with them. Weve also been invited by another troop to shadow as well
  21. Frankly Beavah, there is no such thing as balanced news, nor should there be. Everyone has a bias. THe idea of non-biased journalism is relatively recent. Back when most cities had two or three daily newspapers, a reader bought the one that's editorial policy closely matched his own, or he bought the one that did not so he could see what others were thinking. Personally I lean very conservative, so most of my reading goes that way, but I do read the opposition as well. My favorite resource is www.freerepublic.com. Members will post a column or news story and then others are free to ad
  22. Hi y'all, For the record, I've been involved as a leader for about 8 years. Den leader, Asst Cubmaster and Asst Scoutmaster. Sometimes all at the same time. We had to move a few states away and there's an opportunity to start up a new troop. Coincidentally, one of the other scouts from our old troop moved to the same area as us. Between us, we have two trained leaders and three scouts. Life, almost Star and almost 2C. We've had plenty of interest among several families in our area and last week got the approval of a charter organization. Don't have a committee chair yet t
  23. Barn. We had this discussion when hunting for a used trailer. You'll rarely have stuff heavy enough that you'll need wheels. You can also hang stuff on the inside doors. I'd really like to have one where the door opens up and becomes an overhang.
  24. I quit after Webelos. There was no encouragement to continue. When my son joined Tigers, one of our first things was a show and sell for popcorn. He was really shy and I figured he'd spend the entire time sitting under the table sucking his thumb. Instead, when we got there, a Webelos scout who we did not know literally put his arm around him and said "let me teach you how to sell popcorn." Knocked him completely out of his shyness as he approached everyone at the store. Years later, he's a Life Scout, has had oportunities most kids don't even dream of, has been in troop leadership as a
  25. Your talk of the donation reminded me of one. I went to a local firewood dealer to get a trunkload of wood for a weekend campout that was going to concentrate on fire building skills. As I was loading my van, I was talking with the owner who asked if it was for camping. I told him it was for a Scout trip. He then told me that he never charges scouts for firewood. And he really loaded me up.
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