scottteng

Philmont Hymn Silver on the sage, Starlit skies above, Aspen covered hills, Country that I love. Philmont here''s to thee, Scouting Paradise, Out in God''s country, tonight Wind in whispering pines, Eagles soaring high, Purple mountains rise, Against an azure sky. Philmont here''s to thee, Scouting Paradise, Out in God''s country Tonight. This one ? MP3 here: http://www.troop288.org/songs/philmonthymn.mp3

Yes they want an App for each position you hold it is kind of silly but the person you are working under needs it on file. I don''t fill out the secondary ones with all the references etc. just write see other application on file there. So far I have main troop one, MBC, and Range Master apps waiting to see if I will need another one for district training comm. I suppose if you had the foresight to photocopy your original one and give two copies each time asked. When you get older it gets even worse then they want a class III physical for each position also except MBC signed by your doctor every year even when doing nothing more strenuous then calling range commands on the range. They do take photocopies of those though I just hate paying the doctor an extra fee for signing it when I am there anyhow.

I would explain to the Tiger cubs adult partners exactly how the Tiger program works that each of them will be expected at every meeting and that each will be expected to lead a months worth of meetings. Then I would tell them that between themselves they need to elect a Den leader and asst den leader to represent them to the pack and be responsible for keeping track of what adult partner is doing todays meeting. Providing an outside Tiger den leader is pack suicide, Tigers is where you grow your new cubs and your future leaders.

http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/21-117/index.html This is the Boy scout LNT training from the LNT website http://www.lnt.org/main.html The concept is to cause the least disruption so the place to set up camp is on a durable surface: asphalt, concrete, wood platform, rock, Adirondacks, parking lot, or summer camp platforms are the best places at a boy scout camp. Above ground fireplace is a must.

The scout in questions book is the definitive record in all levels of scouting. Therefore the scout is responsible for his own record. Other records are all secondary to what is recorded in the book. The den leaders responsibility is to sign off in the book and when a certain advancement is achieved inform the advancement person so that the advancement may be obtained and presented. Council will keep record of actual ranks awarded Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos, AOL. Keeping track of the boys rank is easy in cub scouts as it corresponds to their school grade whether the work on the previous rank was completed or not. For example my son has his Tiger, bear, Webelos, AOL but never completed his wolf rank as we were in the process of moving that year.

First of all take a nice deep cleansing breath let it out nice and slowly. Repeat and repeat again. A tour permit is a tool that the council and national have come up with to ensure that if you transport a troop or portion thereof that you have thought of certain things in advance. There are plenty of events where no tour permit is required for example the beaver patrol meets at John's house for a patrol meeting, OA members go to an OA function, two or more boys meet with a MB counselor, weekly troop meetings, any event that is optional no transportation required the example already sited is Univ of Scouting there are classes for scouts at ours we tell them but showing up is their responsibility.All of these things will usually be defined to be local(within ones council) and not overnite with the exception of the OA functions. Please do not bury your council staff in a flood of meaningless paperwork you may never live it down.

Au contrair your webelos are allowed to shoot bb guns but only at a council sponsored or district sponsored event. These usually consist of cub scout day damp and various council sponsored cub family camps held during the year. I would call the person in charge of cub family camp and ask which camp he has scheduled bb guns for. If none of this is doable you may go to your district committee and volunteer to chair a district family camp where with proper personnel, equipment, and locations all the cubs in the district have the opportunity to shoot bb guns. Your local boy scout camp probably has a location and may well have equipment available you need a shooting sports director and a range master for each venue. This is set up to stop packs from doing shooting sports on their own and to keep personal bb guns out of cub scout events. If you just want to do the book part call the council shooting sports people and ask them to have someone come to your meeting and do it. There is no need to pay an outside instructor. BSA and NRA work very closely but there are some differences in the BSA training due to the age of our average participant.

In days gone by when I was with a pack we had "professional" entertainment at the blue and gold. This is on the level of children's birthday party entertainment. One year we had a clown and another we had a magician. They put on a short program which the kids enjoyed. We were not aiming at entertaining the adults just relieving them of the chore of entertaining all those cubs and siblings.

Congrats: grandparents make the best cubmasters. Enough detachment from day to day child rearing and a focus on keeping everything fun. Let the den leaders and the parents worry about discipline your job is to show em a good time. Don't forget to get them into noisy stuff cheers, songs, instruments, even drums think of it as generational payback.

Officially they are a Webelos as of the last pack meeting of the previous school year they go to day camp as a webelos earn various stuff there some of which goes to their rank advancement. They can also work all summer on rank advancements and belt loops. The bar for AOL is just not that high. Extreme kudo's to the all 20 activity pins in 13 months that is a high bar. My son crossed over after only one year as a Webelos of course he was turning 11 in September and I was told that he would be forced to cross when he turned 11. One minor correction national has changed the rule it is now 10 with AOL reference the quote & link below. "Boy Scouting, one of the traditional membership divisions of the BSA, is available to boys who have earned the Arrow of Light Award and are at least 10 years old or have completed the fifth grade and are at least 10, or who are 11, but not yet 18 years old. The program achieves the BSA's objectives of developing character, citizenship, and personal fitness. http://www.scouting.org/nav/enter.jsp?s=by

In keeping with current leave no trace guideline which do not permit cutting of live wood what is a hatchet actually best at. Boys being boys they want to drag into camp an enormous trunk of a dead fallen tree which will need to be chopped up with an axe before use. Most of the smaller twigs can be broken easily because they must be dead and dry. We show em how to make a fuzz stick once but the preferred fire starter is monkey fuzz. If a 2"-3" branch is too hard to break it can more efficiently be portioned by a bow saw. We have campgrounds that we go to that they let people come in and drop off wood. This wood usually needs to be split as it is sawed into logs for transport. In my admittedly misspent youth I had a hatchet its purpose was to cut limbs from trees that were in my way as I made my way through the woods

With national constantly changing the MB requirements most troops are finding their library's severely out of date. The books are full of good reference materials but most merit badge counselors I know now prefer to have printed worksheets with the most current info. My son is now the troop librarian and he would have lots of fun with the bugs and spiders in the book box but laser print an up to date worksheet for a MB candidate. That is why we added Jr. Asst. Webmaster to the Librarians duties. Most of our information is now electronic rather than printed. The boys can print their own worksheets as well by linking off the troops website.

The larger axes are actually safer because the scouts must use two hands on them. The small hand axes are more portable but are one handed. Scout age boys are still developing the motor skills needed to use the one handed implements. The two handed swing gives much better control. We here would all much rather let em rip with the Boy axe (aka 3/4) with a roped off axe yard and appropriate eye protection. We have some scoutmasters in our district that allow no hatchets whatsoever.

Reading is my main amusement read two to four books per week mostly science fiction by do my share of biographies, non-fiction, and mysteries. I heard about the competition between Carl Rove and President Bush as well. I make both my kids read an hour per day also. If you can read you can learn most anything. I am also a counselor for Reading MB.

This is basically already in place. What else does one consider the tiger cubs adult partner. They attend every meeting and every outing with junior. If the den is following the program they get their rotating turn at leading the meeting. If after a year they have not been bitten by the bug maybe the pack is better off without them. If your pack is lacking adult leaders fix your tiger program and the problem will take care of itself.

"Any Boy Scout may earn any merit badge at any time. You don't need to have had rank advancement to be eligible." http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/32215/mb/index.html "3. Earn five more merit badges (so that you have 11 in all)" http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/resources/32215/life.html The real tip off is right there in the Life requirements so you have 11 in all I do not think the advancement people thought that this would be a question.

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/default.asp this is one of the sites I refer people to all the time it is well organized with lots of good info the links are never broken and they even have form fill available on some of the pdf's.

Lest anyone assume that a Pie Iron is only for dessert I commend to you the grilled cheese sandwich in one or even better grilled cheese with ham or other meat of your choice. To say nothing of the wide variety of cheeses that may be melted therein. Turning a simple lunch into a gourmet repast. Why whole restaurant chains have been built on the concept(quiznos).

Many times the calls will be out of your hands. My son was evacuated to the mess hall for one night at summer camp tents don't hold up real well in a tropical storm. The entire troop was permitted to sleep in the lodge when temps went below freezing on our wilderness survival trip. I know you frozen wasteland types do that all the time but our Florida boys just don't have the proper gear for it. They were thrown off the state park island they were camping on by the ranger who himself was ordered to evacuate for a storm that turned out to be nothing. The current hyper awareness of weather has made everyone a lot quicker on the trigger to evacuate maybe a little more wait and see what develops is in order. I guess it is better to be safe than really sorry. Some minor discomfort though can be a valuable lesson learned.

likewise: the time requirements in first class are stated, POR requirement as well and also the service hours the MB's are career earned. If you go by the earned in rank theory you might run out of eagle requireds.

The question is why anyone really wants to run microsoft anything ? Love my Firefox ! Check this thread out: http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=164310

One very common poisonous plant here in Florida is oleander. I knew a chef at a restaurant who had to call the poison control center to find out if the sea grape leaves that he had decorated the plate with were poisonous after a customer ate them. Field ID's are great but not to my mind required it is enough that the boys can describe the plant. Some people do not react to poison ivy my grandfather used to pull it up with bare hands all the time and never had a reaction. The other one to watch out for is anything that oozes that white sap when cut or broken it can be quite a skin irritant.

The outing needs as many nights as it is planned for except in cases of emergency. Troops that like to go places and do things will do what it takes. The most recent trip they were on was four nights they also did a three night during the school year it was a teacher planning Monday. Isn't interesting that teachers can only plan on Monday. Our local outings the troop goes on Friday evening departure time is usually 6PM. They set up tents in the dark winter and summer and have it down to a science by their second or third trip. A minimum of two adults stay Friday and lots of others usually show up Saturday AM to take part in the days activities including me. You want to have mostly two night trips because the boys need to have an opportunity to get their camping and OA eligibility nites in within a reasonable time. And there will be those times when murphy intervenes such as last years planned "wilderness survival" trip that the whole troop slept on the floor of the lodge because it was very cold. Or the Island campout that they were manditory evacuated from after the first night because of an approaching storm. The other thing we have done that will not be done again was stay over at our CO to get an early start in the AM the boys were just too keyed up and got no sleep.

They already do we call it summer camp. The young ladies and gentleman that comprise the staff are a crew the troops for the experience. I cannot for the life of me figure out why a crew would want to camp with a troop. Venture crews usually specialize in one or more "high adventure" activities forbidden to most members of a troop. The camping they may do is ancillary to this activity its not designed to be remedial camping for 14 year old girls.

Yes we are slothful here and have courts of honor only twice per year we had one boy get all three ranks at one court of honor his mom was real busy. He already had finished tenderfoot right after the previous COH and at summer camp finished up second class and first class. They had a little extra motivation there was a special trip for First class and above with swimming merit badge and snorkeling patch. Four days in the Florida Keys hunting for lobster with side trip to key west, sea base, and a boat trip to the reef. They just got back Sunday.