RichK

My son's troop has adopted the FYFC enthusiastically - at least one of the ASM's who runs the 1st year program has. Even the CC refers to it as our Webelos III program. Some of the negative results I think I've seen include

The no fun summer camp - (on one night I resorted to giving some of the 1st years $5 to go to the trading post so the ASM wouldn't find them and make 'em work on requirements in the evening)

Mucking up the transition to boy scouts/independence

Meetings are odd - the 1st years have their regulated meetings, some of the 2nd years will help the ASM with his program, the ones who aren't helping with the first years are either hiding somewhere or wandering aimlessly.

Patrols are meaningless

The troop doesn't do any group things . . the 1st years go on their hike, but after that, no one older bothers to do anything that's not required.

The troop keeps an active count of such things as merit badges earned, eagle scouts, . .etc. This ASM also encourages the parents to pay $50 per merit badge to the scouts (This also helps the scouts complete the financial management requirement - though I don't know if any of the parents have actually done this)

For $10 per year, you can register a domain name with Google (https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/domain/new). This allows you to set up a website with Google sites - or you can point the url to a website hosted elsewhere. It also allows you to create email accounts (I think up to 100) which uses the same interface as gmail, but with your domain name. You get access to all their cloud apps as well.

I managed to create a pretty good site with their templates. I like it MUCH better than godaddy, which I've found painful to navigate through the advertisements. I find godaddy very obnoxious - they seem to want to sell me multiple domain names constantly (as 'investments')

Rich

Troop 676 - whose Scoutmaster is Ryan Jordan of Backpacking Light magazine has some great info:

http://troop676.net/resources/

Rich

My brother was in a wheelchair while I was growing up and I currently have a placard for my son (whose disability is one of those 'invisible' ones).

I think trying to make a learning experience of it would be great - there's the new disabilities awareness belt loop that could tie in. However, this would fall into one of my 'hot button' issues where I am unwilling to compromise (the other one would be littering). The cubmaster's choices would just make me squirm and I'd probably be unable to keep it to myself - this is probably unfortunate, since I doubt a heated discussion would benefit anybody.

I'm surprised that others haven't mentioned this to him. I would think the majority of people would respect the law and other citizens.

Rich

I attended my first Polar Bear as a assistant leader with my 1st yr son. We had a pretty cold night (-4 ish) and in the morning there were about 5 scouts who were in some distress - either lethargic or cold extremities.

It all worked out, but some of the comments in the earlier thread made me wonder. There were no bedchecks at night and in the morning, the scouts with the trouble were identified more by chance than by anything else. It seems that a quick fall-in with an inspection - to make sure everyone is properly dressed with dry clothes would help us positively identify scouts who were in trouble.

I was wondering what extra supervision or inspections other troops use at a polar bear.

Rich

One caution would be is he motivated to do a good or even great job - not just put together the bare minimum. I've seen a CC continue long after her son was out of Cub scouts and the program suffered. I think there needs to be some motivation for putting together an exciting event - either because your own child is part of it or as others suggested he's a former scout or just is interested in doing things right

RK

my pack uses facebook and shutterfly . . mainly for distributing pictures.

If you want to go with Google Sites, I'd recommend registering the domain name with Google, not Godaddy. with Google, for $10, you get individual email accounts (using gmail, but with your own 'site'.com)

I'm not familiar with the scout-centered services. It might be a good idea . . even if you are knowledgeable, you'll want to pass it off some day to someone who may have a tougher time maintaining a complex site.

I'm starting my 2nd stint as DL - went with 1st son from Tiger to Webelos. My 2nd son is a Bear, and I'm the 3rd (and hopefully last) DL for this den.

Anyway, I'd say I suffered from a bit of burnout with my older son's den. Essentially, I got tired of taking time away from my children when time after time, other parents wouldn't step up to help. It isn't the time during the meetings that I had a problem with, but rather the prep time that took away from other activities. During Den meetings, our time was either spent with me working with all scouts together or with all the parents who stayed helping out and circulating with all the scouts. My son never lost out on 1-1 time with me during the meetings.

With my current den I made things very clear. I'm having two meetings a month. One is a regular den meeting and each parent is required to prepare and run one. One is an outdoor activity (biking, hiking, or beltloop) with mostly low prep required. It's been great so far - I'm in Michigan, so the mandatory outside activity each month will be challenge, but hopefully fun too.

I remember one thing that happened with my older son . . when it was our turn to run the pack meeting flag ceremony, I arbitrarily said the kids with the best attendance could carry the flags (of course they all wanted to). I actually did a double take when I remembered that obviously my son was at the top of the attendance list. Thought about it, but didn't change my choice on how we were deciding. I did it unintentionally, but I wonder if the DL's kids do deserve some recognition for sharing their parents.

Rich

For my bear scouts I was thinking of getting a policeman to ride with us for the 'ride right' achievement. We have some regular bicycle patrolmen in our town.

Look at some of the information at this site:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/t676.html

I really like the Esbit stoves for cooking individual meals . . easily measured and safe.

rich

Try this site; go to the bottom of the page.

http://www.imrisk.com/

I don't hammock camp, but I bookmarked it because I was interested in some of the other gear.

Rich

Without knowing why all are attending, I would say too many. With extra adults around, it diffuses focus. Not sure what the political solution is . . my son just moved up to Boy Scouts and I've noticed most parents seem to hang out for the weekly troop meetings even. The Scouts seems like an adult club sometimes.

Rich

Hey all thanks for the replies - they were helpful. Parkman - I agree with limiting it to a den or pack visit - I think the written requirements are out of line and more involved than other belt loops. Scoutfish - you are right on a lot of points . . need to show common ground as much as the differences.

Eliza - regarding the Boy Scout MB, that's the one that makes me more uncomfortable . . the thought that it's set up to have the disabled scouts be used as the subject for a MB . . It's odd that it's inherently easier for the other scouts to earn the award than my disabled son . . I guess that's the point, but it's still weird.

I happen to bump into our CM today and he was all for a disability awareness pack meeting. My initial thoughts is to set it up with a number of stations . . maybe:

Paralympics and explaining physical disabilities

special Olympics and discussing cognitive impairments

An anti bullying station

A game or two demonstrating challenges.

a Speaker

and a final thought to anyone interested in this thread, i'd like to post this link:

http://community.specialolympics.org/service/displayDiscussionThreads.kickAction?as=82244&w=205164&d=193850

This is a very cool essay written by a young man on the use of the word 'retard'. Besides giving insight into this young man, I read between the lines and am VERY impressed by this young man's parents. Certainly John retains the credit for being a great human being, but (without knowing) I would guess that his parents were involved and did a great job of raising a son with Self esteem and self awareness. I think all of us parents should be so successful. Things like sports and scouts are invaluable in raising children to believe in themselves.

As the father of a Bear scout with a cognitive impairment (CI), I've thought to encourage the dens to earn the Disabilities Awareness Belt Loop. After looking through the requirements I have these thoughts on the subject

1. Doesn't seem like the requirements work well with stressing CI vs physical disability. To me it sort of feels like a 'freak show' a bit. Of course this might be my own unawareness . . certainly no one likes to be put on display, but it seems that a person with some physical impairment at least has a fuller understanding as to what he is taking part in.

2. I question whether a program stressing CI and going to special olympics or perhaps a local horseback riding facility (which I volunteer at) that works with CI riders would really get the correct message through to kids so young. Yeah we can explain it to them until we're blue in the face, but will they really get beyond the humor of 'the funny looking kid' that can only long jump one foot. Again, the 'freak show' aspect.

3. Looking at the requirements ( http://www.boyscouttrail.com/cub-scouts/acadsports/disaware.asp ) it seems that the requirements are a bit out of line with other belt loops. Most belt loops can usually be worked through in one session if not one hour. maybe some have some weeklong record keeping.

4. Maybe the solution is to attend a wheelchair sports association (there is one in our area) sporting event with a follow up den meeting discussing the topic and stressing CI. Not sure how they would feel about it if we visit one den at a time - theres a wheelchair basketball at the local Y - it might get sick of old after a few dens?.

5. I can see that the emphasis seems to be meeting people with disabilities and perhaps humanizing them to young scouts who only see the disability.

6. maybe it would be appropriate as a Pack meeting, having a sports demonstration or some other group come in. I would still like to have the follow-up den meeting - the scouts pay better attention in the smaller groups.

7. Why stress CI? Well, I know that two scouts are definitely classified as cognitively impaired. I'd guess there's two others that I don't know well who might be as well. There have been incidences of bullying and I think the CI kids are perhaps the most defenseless in such situations . . they don't respond well to it and it makes the other kids keep going.

All comments are encouraged,

much thanks for the input

Rich