Scoutfish

Yeah..... I still don't see where I have avoided or went astray from the suggested program. The purposes of Cub Scouting are - Spiritual growth Good citizenship Sportsmanship and fitness ..........COVERED Family understanding Respectful relationships Personal achievement ...............COVERED Friendly service Fun and adventure ..................DEFINANTLY COVERED Preparing for Boy Scouts Cub Scouting's 12 Core Values are - Citizenship Compassion Cooperation.........................COVERED Courage.............................COVERED Faith Health and fitnes...................COVERED Honesty Perseverance........................COVERED Positive attitude...................COVERED Respect Responsibility WOW! For a pack family campout, ......saeems like I covered ALOT of values and methods all in the span of 1 1/2 to 3 hours.

TrainerLady, Good call on the comma. That does change everything.6 months it is! I have found out that sometimes, you have to read a paragraph, read it again, then read it 3 more times. Think about what it means, then read it again. That comma does change the whole thing!

Gern, Problem is, BSA can't just hand out records of any person to anybody who just asks. Especially if the files aren't public documemnt OR is the person in the file hasn't specifically broken a law. That would lead to breaking privacy laws and defamation lawsuits. If a person did actually break a law and went through the legal system, those files would be public record ( unless a judge sealed them) and anybody could get a copy at any courthouse. If BSA keeps records of folks they just don't feel meet BSa criteria to be leade5rs or members...then they don'y have an obligation to show those records to anybody at all with the exception of the person who the file was kept of,

Yep, sure do! According to G2SS: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/GSS/gss02.aspx You need to have 1 trained adult for every 10 people and a minimum of two adults for any group. "All supervisors must complete BSA Safety Afloat ans Safe Swim Defense training and rescue training for the type of watercraft to be used in the activity, and at least one must be trained in CPR." and according to G2SS: "BSA groups shall use Safety Afloat for all boating activities. Adult leaders supervising activities afloat must have completed Safety Afloat training within the previous two years. Cub Scout activities afloat are limited to council or district events that do not include moving water or float trips (expeditions). Safety Afloat standards apply to the use of canoes, kayaks, rowboats, rafts, floating tubes, sailboats, motorboats (including waterskiing), and other small craft, but do not apply to transportation on large commercial vessels such as ferries and cruise ships." The kicker is determining if a 30 passnger boat operated by a state entity is considered commercial or not. I'd call your council to see what they say.

Yes and No! The way I read it and understand it: ( from Cub Scout Webelos Handbook #33452 / page 63) When you are working towards your Webelos badge, you are technically already working on your AoL badge, or at least, partial requirements needed for the AoL badge. You have to have two specific Ab's to get the Webelos badge. Those are explained again in AoL ( although it seems redundant). You have to earn 5 more badges total, ( although again, 4 will earn you the Compas Points badge). So basically, Once you earn your Webelos Badge, then earn your Compass Points badge, you only have to earn 1 more Activity Badge to have earned your AoL. It does not require you to earn a badge twice...BUT you cannot count a few particular activities that earned you your Webelos badge again for the AoL. Example: 1 Boy Scout Troop meeting and Boy Scout ORIENTED activity. If you used a particular boy scout outing to fullfill the Outdoorsman activity badge( requirement # 4), you cannot count THAT particular outing towards your AoL badge. That is if you happened to use Outdoors man as your third activity badge to earn your Webelos badge. Technically, you are working on AoL from the first day as a Webelos rank cub scout. But you cannot recieve it until after being an active Webelos Scout for a period of 9 months. but like written above..if you rush it, then too much substanance might be lost upon the scouts(This message has been edited by scoutfish)

Merlyn, THE 1st AMENDMENT: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Your arguement is null, void, and without merit. The first amendment does not say that people cannot have independant and personal religion in any form of government, or government sanctioned, support or recognized institutions. But it DOES say that I have the right to have my religion and you cannot take that right away. It also recognizes your right to not have religion and I cannot take that right away. The government cannot establish a religion or appoint an official one. BSA allows each unit, group, troop, etc to practice their own pre (meaning non govrernment) established religion/ generic - non denominational religion in their own group. Seperation of church and state only says that the government cannot create a religion and require the citizens of the Us to support, adhear to and follow that religion ( Think England before and during colonial times). It also means that the government cannot use any one religious priciple to enact laws and rule the country with said laws. But I would like to point out that by trying to prevent BSA charters, you are indeed violating the 1st Amendment. BSA is is not a mandatory membership group. You do not have to join,. I do not have to join. Now that I have joined, I can quit any time I want to , and do so without santions against me by the government. I also cannot be recalled by BSA at a later date. Now, if you want to have a AA club at school and there are students as well as leaders who have the time, motivation and willingness to do so...have at it by all means. You as a tax payer have that right. And just because the school is supported by public ( meaning you and I) tax money, does not mean the government supports your ideals or group. It just means that a group of tax paying citizens wanted to use a public owned facility to have their group, club, cult, whatever you want to call it... at a building that they paid for. If a school wants to sponsor a gay/lesbian club...go for it. If Pagans, Wicans, Star Trekians, Islams, Hindu's or Haley's Cometians want to have a get together...so be it. I'd only draw the line at groups that force people to do something against their free will or cause harm. So no to white supremicist/ Klan type groups, sacrifical groups , etc..

Yeah Lisa, I follow your line of thinking. The way I see it, it sounds like the "influential" older boys used peer pressure on a younger boy, but got away with it because the younger ( read: less mature) boy didn't stand up against the older ( considered: cool) and more experienced boys. So the leasson learned? Make sure you convince young guys to pull your pranks for you so that they will take the fall for your bad judgement. Maybe I'm wrong, but I see the outcome being exactly backwards. The older boys should have gotten the brunt of whatever punishment dolled out, the youger kid gets less punishment - this is a great place to have a lesson by the way. BOR's are held as scheduled.. and this particular event is brought up, discussed and used an a reason for showing the scouts advancement or lack of , based on living the Oath and following Scout Spirit.

Make your own! As a den activity for our Wolves, we all bought a yellow t-shirt in our son's size. Then we made stencils out of manillia file folders and let the wolves use fabric paint to make their own den class b shirts. In the ned, we had shirts, we didn't pay to have them printed, the scouts had an activity, and they were proud to wear their creations at den meeting s and to school, the stores, anywhere they go and do stuff. On the down side, constantly telling them "No, we won't wear that to the pack meeting." got old real quick!

I never really gave it any thought until the other night when one of us( a few leaders) were talking about random stuf after a meeting. But now my curiosity is piqued?

sailingpj, Background checks only work IF the person in question has ALREADY acted in the past. For example....JUST FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT... I had a thing for boys in uniform. But so far, I never said anything or acted on it. How would BSA check my background? They couldn't! Without any formal or written record of past "bad" behavior, it is the assumption that I'm clean. Basically, until anybody commits a crime and is CAUGHT, they have a clean record to which a background check comes back clean.

Basically sounds like an attorney is quick to jump the gun on something that is generalized. BSA has files about people......OOOOH My, that must be illegal. Nobody thought it might be just what BSA said it is: People deemed unfit to be leading boys around. But if BSA just up and decided to print this list in the local papers.......BSA would be faced with defamation of character and slander lawsuits( probably championed by the same lawyer of course!). And while naot declaring a blanket statement of all journalists - I do remember a funny, yet true saying concerning newspaper and news headlines: "Never let anything stand in the way of a great story....including the truth."

If you want to avoid un-necessary paperwork, you could order beltloops and pins online from scoutstuff online store. Just fill out the order form and give them a CC #. Of course, you will pay shipping and handling though. But sometimes.... a little extra $ is worth not having the hassle or headache. You just have to decide HOW MUCH is TOO MUCH.

DYB,

So, I was just wondering...and everybody I personally talked to doesn't know: The round 100 year patch that goes around the world crest - is that considered a temporary patch to be removed in 2011 or does it stay? Yeah, there probably are more pressing issues, but it's bugging me now! LOL!

Tough situation! I'd call his parents, then the COR and then The DE. After that, call social services and ask who the right person or agency would be to talk to. This could be an attempt at attention. It could be somebody just having a darktime in their life. It could be a cry for help. But any way you look at it, get somebody who is trained to handle it. No offense,but the best damn intentions can turn out disasterous. I spent 15 years in the firefighter/EMS/ water rescue field. Seen my share of attempted suicides and post suicide calls. Anything can and will set somebody off. It doesn't even have to make sense or have logic to it. It just happens.

Take a bag. No grab a handful of blue, red, yellow, and green marbles. put them all in the bag, shake it up and dump them on the floor. That's our layout! LOL! Well, the dens do stick together, but after that, those dens are scattered around and not with or near like ranks. We use the CO's sanctuary for pack meetings, so we are stuck with straight parallel rows. I do like info's plan. At the least, we should sit the ranks together

And that brings up another question. The 1st weekend of CSI, my wife may be attending a concert with friends out of town. The 3rd weekend,there are no plans for anything ...that I know of. I'm wondering if it would be worth it so go just for the 1st and 3rd weekends anyways. Money can't be refunded, but can be transfered within that fiscal year to other scouting programs. Of course, I'm not so sure I would ask to have 1/3 of my money transfered. Still debating wether to go for the two weekends.

Althoughmy son ( nor myself) were involved as Tiger Cubs, I think that is where most of our leadership comes from. The parents have to be involved. I think those who actually like it stick around as DLs and ADLs.

Althoughmy son ( nor myself) were involved as Tiger Cubs, I think that is where most of our leadership comes from. The parents have to be involved. I think trhose who actually like it stick around as DLs and ADLs.

I wouldn't mind starting a competing program just from the buisness side of it: Patches, hats, neckerchiefs,shirts, pants, socks, etc.......and you have to buy new ones each year or rank! ( evil laugh here) Whoops! let me translate that: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ LOL! What do you say Beavah? You want in?

I wouldn't mind starting a compete program just from the buisness side of it: Patches, hats, neckerchiefs,shirts, pants, socks, etc.......and you have to buy new ones each year or rank! ( evil laugh here) Whoops! let me translate that: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ LOL! What do you say Beavah? You want in?

I wouldn't mind starting a compete program just from the buisnes side of it: Patches, hats, neckerchiefs,shirts, pants, socks, etc....... Whoops! let me translate that: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ LOL! What do you say Beavah? You want in?

It's not specifically a Webelos den thing, but cub scouting in general. At our pack campouts, everything is scripted . Most of the time, I'm okay with that. But since it's a family campout, not every sibling nor parents wants to spend all day following an intenerary. Plenty of time for down time, but why not take the "organized " time and relax the standards some. Make the cubs really remember the fun they had at the PACK campout. Now, to be honest with you,I haven't given Boy Scouting much thought. As of right now, I don'tplan to go to Boy Scouts, but rather plan on sticking to Cub Scouts even after/if my son crosses over. Figuring that Boy Scouting is pretty much the SM and ASM (plus a few parents) I could be doing "more" with cubs instead of just hanging out in the shadows with the big boys. No offense to Boy scouts....it's just that I really enjoy working with the younger crowd. So as for the Boy Scouting side of it, my only invovlement may be den chiefs, troop/Webelos functions and such. Stuff done from the cub scout side. After Webelos scouts cross over, I could start over with Tigers or serve in another spot. Things may change later, but right now, I don't foresee doing the Boy Scout thing. But who knows?

Kings, I love it, My issue is that i over eat and end up miserable in about 20 minutes. You'd think I had of learned by now , but.... Bum's restaurant in Ayden is awesom. Talk about old school country cooking. Been 7 years since I ate therre, but the special was trout. Walking back to my car, I saw people out behind the restaurant cleaning fish. Not your frozen food kind of place. So here is one of my problems... Your Jambo in Kinston is the same weekend as our spring pack campout. Also our "Formal " Crossover ceremony with OA Indians and thuis year, we have both active and retired military conducting a flag retirement ceremony. I say formal as we had a basic ceremont Monday as a crossover. Kinda the justice of the peace ceremony as compared to a big wedding at our campout. Then during resident camp, our pack ( at least in the past) has their own summer fun day thing. Now, I don't want to lie, give out false info or whatnot, but I also know that in the past, not enough parents cared to volunteer, so our CM was also our CC. The ACM was the MBC The den leaders were committee members. No, not a good idea, but what can you do? Luckily, this year things are different,. alot of new scouts and alot of new leadership/ committee mebers. Now each position of any leadership or comittee is held by a different operson. Anyways, back to what I was saying. I don;t think my pack did much daycamp, resident camps or such as a pack or even as dens. Most of who did it , did it on an individual level. I do think out current Webelos II ( yes we call our 1st and 2nd year I and II) leader did it as a den last year. I'd love to do this myself, but again,I don't want to come of as "The new guy who id trying to change everything". Also,our council is having a 3 part CSI ( Cub Scout Investigators) camp. 2 different weekemds. Well, I'm sure your council has/ has has the same thing. The part that sucks is that our pack campout is held on the second weekend of CSI, which is also the same weekend as Jambo in Kinston. I wasn't a cub or boy scout as a youth, so most of what happens at Jambo or camps is totally foreign to me other than what I read here.

I'd say : "Until the Government mandates all male youth join BSA regardless of beliefs......argueing against BSA and it's policies ........It's just irrelevant!"