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Everyone relax and take a nice deep cleansing breath. Youth protection is indeed an important class but it can be done in very little time online or alternatively buy the DVD from national and have your troop trainer do it with every leader in the troop. Make everyone sign in on an attendance sheet with their full name just as it appears on their BSA membership card. Remember councils computer does not know that the Bob Smith of troop 99 that took youth protection training is the same as the Robert L. Smith that is registered as an ASM. Due to problems in the past my troop requires all adults

Face it Eamonn the credit card generation would call you and I cheap. The other way to look at it though is that we are practicing the virtue of being thrifty. That gives us a nice scout law basis for our cheapness. As with anything one has to evaluate the pro's and con's is the particular experience worth the extra expense or should one take the longer stay more personalized trip you describe in your post. When I get scouts including my own son that call me cheap I just reply yup and proud of it I am Thrifty.

We always use a printed ballot with names and check boxes and the boys are told again and again that they can vote for as many as they think are deserving. Sometimes head scratchers come out of the votes.

I am in agreement with the majority so far no lying a little avoiding but all fessed up in the end. The next time we did first aid practice though I would have someone (one of the spitters) research and do a talk about disease transmission via saliva. Severe punishments for minor lies need to be rethought. What kind of punishment would you dole out for: "Gee Miss ASM you sure look nice this morning" when the truth is she looks like the north end of a south bound mule. Plus who is brave enough to sit as the judge.

http://www.bacarrowhead.org/training/CSLeaderSpecific_34875.pdf Copy of manual courtesy of Baltimore are council arrowhead district. Not my council not responsible for any of the copyright violations involved just FYI. Caution is a PDF that will download to your computer then you can save, print or view as you wish. The same district offers the old one if you want a side by side comparison.

We tell them to do this as a matter of course some of them have lots of shirts from staffing day camps and buying camp shirts. A lot of the older ones just buy a 5 pack of white undershirts and throw them away after a days wear. I am beginning to see the sense of this. T shirts from favorite bands or other things can be costly and hard to replace if lunch is on you in the dining hall. Summer camp is not the place to show off your best duds.

This is your chance to prep the boy for his BOR you know what questions the committee wants the answers too and the scout may have done them to his eyes long ago. Ours is prone to ask what campout he was cook for his patrol on and what was the menu. Remember even though these are people he is acquainted with the scouts get nervous so if he has just refreshed on a question he feels more comfortable. Our committee likes to ask dumb stuff to my mind too like the exact day scouting was founded and founders full name. I told em they better not ask me that one I have no clue and won't remember if yo

I am sorry I did not mean to imply that military trained RSO's were creating problems on a range. They are mostly respectful and very aware of safety concerns. The adults causing problems were cub scout leaders walking out onto live ranges and giving junior rangemasters a hard time. I have had several former military and police range officers do BSA training while I was running a rifle range and other than the differences in terminology and realizing that boys are not quite the same as adults they are very well trained.

The emphasis is quite properly on shooting sports. A firearm, bow or wrist rocket is a tool used in that sport much as a bat, balls, and gloves are used to participate in baseball. The weapon aspect comes from the mindset of the user. Any of the above tools has the potential to be used as a weapon (with the possible exception of the glove). I would submit that the preferred weapon of the above tools at least on a cub scout level would be the baseball bat. Much more lethal than the BB-guns, cub pull bows or ROFLMAO wrist rockets. I like the way the BSA runs the cub scout shooting sports program

The more the merrier the more training the better. The problem is the BSA has the right to enforce their own rules on shooting sports under their umbrella. We do not go down to the ROTC officer at the local school and demand they enforce BSA regs there. Military RO's repeatedly use the W word. This is scouts we are not in the business of killing and maiming. The military very appropriately is. All training and language must be Mom friendly. BSA in following the no aiming at people policy has banned laser tag and paint ball altogether despite the hue and cry that generates on occasion. On the o

Having been shooting sports director for day camp for two years I am in full agreement with the BSA policy in this matter. The shame is that it is not really the boys that would cause problems but some of the adults. There are plenty of other organizations where the serious enthusiasts can get more shooting time 4H and young marines spring immediately to mind. No one is saying that parents cannot set up a practice range in their backyard or on granpa's back 40. Shooting sports is an important part of BSA's overall program but the cub scout program is severely restricted for very good reasons.

http://www.kcci.com/news/16579043/detail.html We need to keep these scouts and their families in our prayers!

We need to keep these scouts and their families in our prayers!

Technology like most things is a wonderful servant. Best of luck with your garage sale but nowadays I log into E-bay and buy things from all over delivered to my door. If you have stuff left over I commend it to your attention. Most wonderful servants make harsh taskmasters though. My kids take online classes and are relentlessly reminded of due assignments. I pay most of my bills online but they do tend to be a little relentless with the reminders. Everything is a trade off. One must always remember who ones customer is and why they come to us. Our local scout camp has spent a lot of money bu

Yawl just haven some fun with us right! Today it is over 90 with over 90% humidity next cool day we will see will be November. Summer camps have not started yet as kids just got out of school this week our troop is going the end of July. Week after next we will have over 100 for day camp we make em take a drink of water at each station and they all thrive on it. The idea is to have em tumble into bed exhausted when they get home isn't it?

That much money sitting around is a problem it looks like someone is running the troop as a for profit business. An accurate treasurers report should contain the amount that is held in the personal accounts. That money should be used for scouting let the boys take their trip fees, summer camp fees, even new uniforms out of it whatever is left when they quit or age out should return to the troop not be issued to them in check form. The troops share of the money should be used to update equipment as needed and to provide program. Give scholarships even to new boys for summer camp or maybe even f

I like what the other SM is doing encouraging the younger boys to run with the caveat that they have to want to. With an 11th grader even though until now they have been a dedicated scout the likelihood is that Job, school and social activities will soon crowd out scouting. There is a position for these older boys it is JASM. Most troops are heavily weighted to the younger scouts and they relate well to a younger SPL ours tend to be in the 14-15 year old range. Once they can drive (15 here) they are not around much any more. If your son really does not want SPL then have him choose what he wou

The best organized trailer I have ever seen belongs to the shooting sports team they use it for hauling guns and supplies to their competitions it has custom made cabinets lockable to hold the various types of firearms along with all the cleaning supplies and safety gear. The troop trailer is another story. The organization does not seem to survive contact with the users thus seems to be an adult exercise in futility. At this point with gas prices being as high as they are the troop trailers main function seems to be luggage compartment for all the boys gear. We are maximizing the seat capacit

A lot depends upon the person the cot is for. Try them out if possible some of them have a bar across the middle like an old fashioned sofa bed and are not comfortable. Some have weight limits. I ended up purchasing a hammock instead. Two of these: http://byerofmaine.com/amazonas-traveller.htm much lighter and more comfortable one could even backpack it.

LOL That's the dangerous part one may find out how to earn ones very own decoration!

The idea is to get them hooked if you have to fish em like a bonefish do it that way if they are hitters expect more from them. Rank wise I expect them to have their service hours recorded in writing preferably on a letterhead of the organization with a signature of the supervisor that way it becomes part of the book they should all be keeping of their scouting career. Around here they have a much more onerous 125 hours I believe requirement to graduate from high school. We do let them double dip those with proper documentation.

Neckerchief's themselves are troop option and our boys voted not to wear them of course the climate may have something to do with that. They have voted not to wear hats too.

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Barney Frank (D-MA) get a pass because their favorite constituency hates BSA with a passion. We should see what we can do about un-electing the others. A small contribution to their opponents maybe?

The current uniform was introduced in 1981. To all of us over 40 the green uniform shirt would be the one we remember from our youth. The eagles current members are in their early 60's so fit into this group. I think that having a "rock star" endorse BSA even obliquely does no harm.

The way it works is the day school lets out they become wolves having moved on to the mysteries of second gradeness. They will be in a wolf den for day camp working on wolf requirements. One has to draw a line somewhere and their tiger days are numbered. Most day camps have boy scouts (den chiefs) to help, this really helps getting them to the bathroom. You send two cubs and one boy scout, reserving the adults for serious stuff like taking pictures. Use the boy scouts to keep em in line they will listen a lot better and you will still have a voice at the end of the week.