Roadkill Patrol

I learned at my WB course that Baden-Powell's ideal scout troop size was 48 (8 patrols of 6 scouts) when I asked why there was a limit on the class size.

Awesome post!! This is the way I feel participating with my son during the 7 years he has been in scouts.

The Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx was great until they came out with the 62/62s/62st line, although it is for the serious geocacher. I sold my 60CSx and bought the 62s mainly due to the 3-axis compass. You had to hold the 60CSx very level in order for the compass to operate. The 3-axis compass on the 62s can be held in any position without a glitch. The other nice thing is the new "paperless geocaching". When I download the geocaches into the device, all of the detail you see on geocaching.org is stored as well. This way you can look up the difficulty, terrain, see the logs, etc.

Although for scouting purposes, our camp uses the E-trex and they work great.

As reported on CNN, he wasn't even registered. They gave him a shirt because he was the popcorn chair:

"A Scout Circle Ten Council official said Langbert was never registered as a leader in the first place."

Congrats on finishing the first weekend. Hope your second weekend is right around the corner so you don't get bored in between. Our weekends were back to back this past August so there were only 4 days in between. I actually liked it because it kept me focused. We had no problem bringing our project together and it was great that our whole patrol went to camp on the Thursday afternoon before the Friday start. Gave us time to finalize the project and perform our service patrol duties without pressure.

I use to be a Fox

and a good ole Fox too!

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Since becoming a scouter, all I had to do was contact the OA rep from my old council and he transferred the records from 1985 to the new lodge. Had no problem whatsoever.

I can safely assume that I will be a Fox. They published the den pages with pictures of each den member and the den chief and the last picture in the group was the critter.

Scoutbox, thanks for the extra ideas. We had an orientation day last Saturday so we could get some of the paperwork out of the way and are heading into our first weekend this Friday. Thanks to practice ahead of time, I was one of the fastest wogglers. Sounds like it is going to be a great time.

Go Foxes!

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Just to throw my 2 cents in on the original question of which training is required, the tour permit does have the following statement:

"At least one adult must have completed Planning and Preparing for Hazardous Weather training for all tours."

It's not a hard course (which is available on-line) and it has been required for a short time now.

When one of our scouts took Photography at camp, the requirement the first day was to turn in the blue card. The counselor added his name to the roster and said that was all for today!?!

Our troop uses both internal and external MBC's. When I signed up to be a MBC in my 3 areas of expertise, the form asked whether I wanted to only be a MBC for a specific troop or council-wide. I could only choose our specific troop as I could not guarantee that I would be available to help others.

I would take it to follow the merit badge requirements. Merit badges are usually worked on alone or with a buddy.

In the G2SS, under the title of BIKE SAFETY, it states "The following guidelines and procedures apply to BSA unit, council, and national program activities". This means that the rules relating to biking are to be followed at scouting functions. Individual activities are not covered under the policy unless you were to plan it as a troop activity.

Another conflicting case was the Cub Scout Horseback riding beltloop which could be earned by Tiger through Webelos. However the G2SS stated that only Wolf and above could ride horses. Beltloops for Cubs are like Merit Badges to Boy Scouts, they are not part of normal scouting activity unless specifically planned that way.

Finally got my documents for my class. Turns out they emailed it out, but misspelled my email address. All set to go now!

ctbailey - Thanks a million for the link!!

Thanks for some of these ideas. I am headed to Wood Badge on 8/20 and again on 8/27 for the two weekend deal. I have not received any kind of list of stuff to bring, although I have been hounding the council rep for the info. They said it would be coming soon, but that was weeks ago. We were suppose to get this "list" when we registered for the course, which was back in May. Not a whole lot of communication going on regarding the course I am taking.

So again, thanks for your ideas so I can start my own list.

Next Saturday, our local pack is holding a Star Wars recruitment event. They have lined up a group who perform with the costumes (storm troopers, darth vader, other popular characters) and will have a movie complete with popcorn, hot dogs, and the like. This is mostly for the kids to keep entertained while the leaders speak with the adults.

Love the campaign hat!

I also make sure I take some extra rope that I can use to help attached the bedsprings to the frame as there are always some springs missing or over-stretched.

While sealing by OA Brotherhood at Fall Fellowship last year, I was in charge of the detail that fixed all of the camp bedsprings. You would not believe how many were missing or ruined by the end of the camp cycle.

I like the board idea between the mattress and bedsprings. I may try that this year. Even doubling up the mattresses last year didn't help as much.

TwoCubDad - what size is your board? I never measured the normal cot size to see what the length and width were. Thankfully we take our troop trailer so getting it there is not a problem.

Is there any camping with tents or is this indoors? Sounds more like a lock-in.

You are by no means alone. My son has had issues too with being picked on in the troop and it does blur the lines between ASM & Dad. Whenever possible, I try to get my son to talk to the PL or SPL as much as possible, or even another ASM. He doesn't want me dealing with it because he says it will only get worse if he is deemed to be "runnning to daddy". This other scout that picks on him also does this at school, where he has talked about it with his teachers. Thankfully, this boy finally left the troop on his own.

The problem with this dad approving his son't requirements are not going to stop even with the program changing. It may slow him up as a Bear, but when his son gets to Webelos, then the dad will be a Webelos leader also, and approve his requirements then as a leader even though his son will be in Webelos I and he will most likeley be Webelos II leader. Some people will never change doing something once they get away with it the first time.

Hopefully if the scouts reach the troop level, there is a strong process in place for signing off of advancements. I could see the dad being a leader and causing a problem. He would probably bully the SPL to sign off his kids advancements and put through bogus merit badge work.

I know on our troop level, we have a rule that no leader sign off on their own son. So as an ASM, I handle the Scoutmaster Conference for the Scoutmasters son and grandson. We have found this to be the best method so the boys get a more well-rounded program.

I made a couple of calls and found out about the COR signature. Apparently, the person who has power of attorney for the COR has been signing the documents. They are working on getting someone else from the CO to be the rep.

The meeting I was at was kept on task by the secretary and the agenda and the cubmaster kind of directed things along.

I don't know about the signature issue. I will have to find that out.

I am a Scouter on the troop level, have been for a year and a half since my first son joined Boy Scouts, and my second joined Cubs. I decided on the troop level since the pack already had enough Scouters in it.

I asked this weekend about the Committee Chair and Chartered Rep, since neither were at the meeting I went to. Come to find out, the Chair has not been at a meeting for 6 months and that no one from the Charter has ever shown up. Come to find out the Charter Rep is 80 years old and she is currently in a retirement home. Guess it's time to find new people at the top level.

Reading IM Kathy's statement:

"all our other events were 100% free. paid for by the boys fundraising efforts."

This hit the nail on the head in my thinking of the pack's fund. I am not looking for a handout or demanding a subsidy. If the boys are raising the packs' funds mostly through their efforts in popcorn sales, why shouldn't they benefit from it more? I am not truly complaining about the raise in dues, just the fact that they pack is not spending more on the boys who bring it in.

Liken this to your reaction to the following scenerio (regardless if real or not):

Since our government maintains a deficit, people understand that taxes need to be raised in order to fund the government. But waht if the government was in a state of surplus, would you still be ok with the government raising taxes? Or would you be outraged that the government was raising taxes when they really didn't need the money?