Rythos

Congrats! While lurking I've followed some of your story and its good to see things taking a good turn for your boys. Ry

Welcome to the boards, it has been a great resource for me, and its filled with plenty of colorful scouting characters which makes for many good conversations. Ry

I understand that numbers alone do not make a good experience or a healthy program ScoutNut. Adult leader training is heavily stressed in our unit and we are working towards 100% trained leadership including an increasing number of Wood Badge trained individuals so I feel like we have the training aspect covered. The boys who attend our activities seem to go home tired and dirty which for me is always a sign of them enjoying themselves (and hopefully learning a few things at the same time) "You might just have tapped the max you are going to get in your spring recruitment" This i

I am in a Pack with around 60 Cubs. We began our recruiting season with flyers passed out at all of the before school open houses, and flyers were brought into the offices of all the schools in the area and distributed to teachers mail boxes by on of the leaders spouses. Last night was our recruiting night and we had a grand total of three people sign up. One of the kids brought a flyer, one came from the open house presentation, and one came because myself and one other leader ran into them at the public library before the meeting and began answering their questions, which led them to

Someone also has to explain to me how a "Fiscal Conservative" in the White house has increased the national debt of our country by over three trillion dollars since taking office. It must be all the money spent on the timely response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, or perhaps the global spanning manhunt resulting in the successful capture of those responsible for the deaths of thousands of American citizens. This President and his warmongering policies seem to have done little more than mire our country in a horrific economic downturn and destroy what little positive world opini

The first round table that I went to was a kickoff for the year last month and it was set up to be a scouting information gathering event. You were given a list of 30 names and we had an hour to try and visit as booths as you could/that applied to your part of the program. You were able to get a brief overview of the topic and get a phone number and the name of a contact person within the district to call to discuss the topic with if you had questions about later in the year. I thought this was very helpful as it gave me 30 or so new contacts to reach out to and discuss a question or

I am looking ahead to next spring, and I was curious if we could invite our Pack (Tiger Cubs on up) to attend a Open House at the Camp I work at to do the climbing wall and other activities. This would not be a "Scouting" activity but simply just letting the families know about it and anyone who comes, comes. No uniforms or offical presence. This would appear to indicate not: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/ageguides.pdf I guess if thats the case I'm not sure why the BSA would not allow something that happens every summer our camp. Kindergarden aged and up campers climb

I would also recommend the podcast from national as well was the podcast for scout leaders over on www.cubmasterchris.com titled An hour a week. Talking and listening to other leaders will help give you a good idea of things that work and things that don't. Good luck!

15 boys is a lot to handle. Without a couple of solid assistant leaders I would come down on the side of splitting it up to make it easier to handle. I think it would improve the experience of the scouts.

"How do I get the meeting to run with an agenda" I was a pack committee chairman for many years and not use to a pack the runs like this one. I want more order to things. I don't want to step on any toes" How much responsibility do you want to take on? The more changes you want to make the more likely you are to end up with more and more jobs. Its kind of like going to Roundtable and asking someone how they got that Commissioners patch One way you could approach things is to take a look at how long the meetings are running. Are they normally running over the amount of time sch

I went with my wife to her allergist last night & asked about this. The allergist said this would have to be extremely severe & that is extremely rare! This may be true but if a parent tells me their child has an airborne peanut allergy that has the potential to cause a life ending allergic reaction I have no choice but to take it seriously. What I can do however, is have some detailed conversations with the parent of the scout. This will help to narrow down if the parent is trying to establish a peanut free outting just to attempt to reduce the risk of cross contaminati

Even if the child brings his own food, in the example given by the original poster the scout has an airborne peanut allergy. If the troop does not select menus based on peanut free options this scout will have to eat seperately from the rest of the scouts. This is a problem that will be come more and more common for scouts and scouters to deal with as we seem to be finding more and more kids with food allergies and sensitivities such as Celiac Sprue (the folks with the doctorates love to argue if more kids have allergies today, or if we can just detect more allergies with improved testing)

The biggest things to watch in my experience as the Director of Food Service for a Large YMCA Camp are processed foods. The larger the amount of whole unprocessed foods you can work with the better. Deserts like cakes, cookies, brownies are largely processed either with peanuts or in factories that handle peanut containing products. Things like snack mixes (chex, etc....) are often problematic. It is important to have any lables double and triple checked (I know it will kill some of the 100% boy led proponents but have an adult check it) Ensure the other scouts and scouters know abo

If cost is the primary concern why not subsidize the cost to some degree. Why not have the Pack pay 3.00 and the Scout pay 3.00 or something similar. Rythos

"Around here, Cub leaders can learn about new places from reviewing the council list of approved camping locations. If it's not already on your council list, you could volunteer to do the inspection and get it added to the list" I wish it was that way here. Our council refuses to keep a list and requires the Pack to Baloo certify each site they wish to use on their own. It would make things easier if they had a list so you get an idea of local places that have met council requirements in the past.

I guess I'm just not sure why McCain would pick her despite the fact that she's under investigation in an Ethics related probe? I would think with the generally negative opinion people have of the Bush way of handling things I would look for the most squeeky clean canidate I could find for VP. I understand politically why he made the choice, but I just think that it has the apperance (perhaps not the reality) of someone who did not recieve a large amount of consideration and examination before hand http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/02/us/politics/02vetting.html?_r=2&hp&oref=s

Do you see even the remote possibilty of situation being dangerous? If so why not follow the established procedures for that situation. Without the manual in front of me I believe you should contact the SE, provide all the information available, and let him/her make the determination on the need or not to envolve law enforcement etc..... If I recall correctly training seems to indiciate that it is not your job to make a determination on what should happen to the scout, but to determine if you feel someone is in danger and contact the SE. The scout needs to be responsible for his action

National is not required to accept bids, nor are they required to use American companies. I think most would agree, however it is always in your best interest to product your specification and then offer the opportunity to bid to companies and determine who can offer the best mix of quality, cost, and the ability to meet your supply needs. And not considering American institutions seems counter productive to a movement based on Civics. Failure to do so just leaves people feeling that National is not being the best steward of its resources. The Uniform has been expensive no matter wh

http://www.bsaswmc.org/youth/cubscout/summercamp/SC_CS_program.html That page has some ideas used for Cub Scout themes similar to you. You could use/modify them or perhaps contact the camp to discuss what other things they are doing that might be good options for you. Hope it goes well! Rythos

"I do think Eagling as a Boy Scout is really the route to go. Our crew is not conducive to assisting a boy with Boy Scout requirements and we don't have the resources nor the program to assist him with his Eagle." As Stosh mentions I would think that while it is an option for Scouts to finish the path to Eagle in Venturing/Sea Scouting, it would seem that it wasn't really the original purpose of the Venturing program. If the crew members are ok with the Crews agenda being built in part around finishing off Scout requirements I don't see a problem. I would think the only issue that

I've heard if that if it was even proven that BW is not perfect it would open a gate to the Astral Plane, sucking in every creature in a ten foot radius, and destroying both the Scouter.com and the Scouting Program. And if you know where that came from your my kind of Scouter Rythos

Not to channel Bob White, but why does it really matter what you feel active is, as long as he meets the BSA definition? Feel free to tell him he didn't hold the POR long enough, or he doesn't have the right merit badges, but I don't see how you can use your own definition of active as opposed to BSA's in this matter. Rythos

I'd recommend taking some/all the online trainings (http://www.scouting.org/Applications/MyScoutingFull.aspx) Orientation Training Fast Start: Cubmaster Fast Start: Tiger Cub Den Leaders Fast Start: Webelos Den Leaders Fast Start: Wolf/Bear Cub Scout Den Leaders Fast Start: Pack Committee Supplemental Training Safe Swim Defense Retake Course Safety Afloat Retake Course Weather Hazards Retake Course Youth Protection Training To recieve your "Trained" Stripe you need to take New Leader Essentials (This is not offered online) Your position spe

Botulism, and Staphylococcus are both caused by the toxins the the bacteria created on the food. The heat kills the bacteria but not the toxins Ry

And as far as the proper temps go: Whole Muscle Beef & Pork - 145 degrees Ground Meats (not poultry) - 155 degrees Poultry (whole or ground) - 165 degrees Holding temps are: Over 135 degrees for hot food Under 41 Degrees for cold good Cooling is 135 to 70 within 2 hours and 70 to 40 within an additional 4 hours. Food between 70 and 135 is considered to be in the Danger Zone, the temp range in which Bacteria will grow most quickly. One thing that many people don't realize is that several of the most common foodborne illness are caused by toxins, that are c