Scoutfish

I was only asking about it being a Tenderfoot requirement because you had said he just recently crossed into the troop.

Was this actually a personal fitness course or was it requirements 10a & 10b of the Tenderfoot rank? If it ws 10a and 10 b, it can be done in 4 weeks which is the meeting equivilent to 30 days - do the physical challenges, and then show improvement 30 days later. As far as: "Oh, we'll just award it to him. If he wants to, have him do those later and send me an email." .... I suppose it depends on if he showd alot of improvement in the other areas and it was obvious that he would be able to show improvement in the push ups and pull ups had it not been for the splint. Ok

We went window shopping, but even so, we pretty much knew that the boys would go with our sister troop. They knew some of the leaders from previous years as DL's. They knew the younger patrols of scouts. Same CO. Meets the ssame night, etc..... And while I totally let my son make the decision, I do know parents wil have alot of input. If mom or dad has a cub scout and a boy scout, and both meet at the same co on the same night, then mom or dad will have alot of weight on the troop choice. At least our troop meets an hour after the pack does, so there is still freedom to choose

Beavah, Nah, I don't see the world in just black and white. I am willing to bet I see it in more shades of gray than the average person does. But, shades of gray do start with black and end with white. Or vice versa. Take your pick. But here's the thing: When you are at a Cub SCout camp - especially a council or district camp ) you follow a greater set of rules. Family may decide they will have family time back at their tent by eating PB&J or maybe taking a hike around the camp with just their own company. But things like knives and guns are a different set of circums

Well, you know your boys better than any of us could ever think to, but I also feel like it's too much. It is almost like a POR which Boy Scouts choose to go after . Our denner's duties basically consisted of collecting den dues and helping with the attendance roster. That was enough to make them feel important, feel proud and keep the other boys coming each month because they knew they would get a turn too. I do think you copuld adapt it to Webelos though. At that rank, it's not too much of a stretch. But I would make them sought out goals, not requirements for the positi

Time to start thinking Norman Rockwell.

Let me reitterate: A scout who does his best to wear his uniform right, and takes pride in his uniform is a noble thing; BSA saying that in order to correctly show your pride, you must wear a complete uniform - is a ploy to get scouts to spend more $$$$$ at the scoutshop.

Reminds me of something that was covered by 20/20 ( or similar news show) back when I was about 15 years old. They were taking on chainsaws. Seems a think tank group thought there ought to be legislation to outlaw homeowners from having chainsaws because they were so dangerous. But further inspection seperated the accidents into three groups of people: 1) Those new to chainsaws, 2) Those who had been using chainsaws for a fairly long time 3) Professional forresters and such. Well, in the group of people new to chainsaws, there were few accidents, but not too man

Two issues I have with the uniform: 1) Although I wouyld like a completely made in the USA uniform, I do not want to pay for a somebody who makes $75.00 an hour and gets 28 breaks aday and has to have another person change the thread on his sewing machine when it runs out becuase the union rules say so. Not when you could take that same $75.00 and hour and hire three people who would love to have that work and would actually put in an honest days work. 2) Yeah johnponz, WE get it. The guides say tat you cannot really be proud of being scout if you do not wear 100 % un

I have a question: When conducting OA elections at a troop, isnt there one or two OA members there to represent the OA lodge or chapter? What I am getting at is this: If somebody outside the troop comes to your unit and conducts an OA election, do they not leave with trhe voted for scout's names? I would think that the OA , their matters and what they do is outside of the ASM.s juristictionm, authority, or whatever you want to call it.

Laser tag? "You'll burn your eye out kid!"

I guess things are different in different places. Our DE goes to school during the day to get the boys psyched up. A week later, we have the sign up nights where the DE tells te parents how the program works ( yawn....). Then the DE lets reps from each of the 4 or 5 packs attending, speak. THis is where we sell what OUR pack does. What night we met on, why they may like us. Now, this is anot a "beat the other packs" contest. WE want people to choose the pack they like best, are more likely to go to and at their convienence. The idea is to get the boys in scouting.

Going to a boy scout camp while a boy scout activity is happening is not adding to the requirements. It's just taking advantage of oppertunity. Saying that the requirement is not considered complete unless it happens during a boy scout event would be adding to the requirements. Just going to look around and explore meets the requirements. We were still planning on doing this when we happened to get invited by the troop - which was also about the time district mailed us flyers for the camporee too. Killed two birds with one stone. And the way I see it is like looking a

Beavah< Thank goodness you stepped in! We were about to form a lynch mob if you hadn't! Okay, let go over something you said: "First, let's straighten out the "rules". Knife throwing is not an "unauthorized activity", eh? Those are the things on the G2SS list like not shootin' each other with squirtguns. Knife throwing is just fine at the Boy Scout level, but G2SS advises that it's not an approved activity for Cub Scouting. " Okay, not approved is the same thing as unauthorized. If G2SS say you are not aaproved to do it, then it is basically banned, outlawed, against

Winter camping in Nc isn't so bad..depending on your location. Dcember and January are really not that bad. Especially this year! February we camped out and it was a high of 67 and we woke up the next morning and it was 27 degrees . WEll, it was 27 degrees by the time we got the DL's phone to take a charge. By that time, it was almost 7:30 am. So it was probably 25 degrees at 5:45 am. So, I have a 20 degree Coleman sleeping bag. Sleeping in a pair of compression pants and a tek shirt was enough to kep me completely toasty. My son slept in his 20 degree bag with regular pajama

So it may be that the other leaders are not really against camping more often, but that they are just following the rules? And let me say: I think the 2 times a year cap is a load of crap[! But realistically, I do know that in alot of cases, if you can actually get a family to camp more than 2 times a year..you are 1 step away from walking on water! Alot of families are just topped out after camping twice as apack , then camping at least 2 more times at Parent/son and Resident camps. THis isn't even counting camporees or Tiger days, or other events. Then add in family vacations, w

I would tell them they are conducting an unauthorized and (really stress) a very dangerous activity and that it must stop immediately! I would let them know that they can stop right now and we let it go or the CD and Ranger will be notified immediately. You don't have to scream at the parent or scoutrs, just let them know that they are wrong, explain why, and tell them firmly that "but we are carefull" doesn't apply. Rules are rules are rules for a very good reason even if he doesn't understand. Again, you don't have to be mean or a jerk about it, but you need to be firm. In t

Council camp is just about 2 hours away from my house. I drive a 1995 Ford f-150 It does not get 50 mph. Not even close. Not even half that! So that means I will cut back on "frivilous" things like Pow-wows, and supplimental trainings . I like to take them each year just to learn new things since last time, but..... I will also cut back on going to Cub Scout camp oppertunities held by the council when my leadership isn't absolutely nevcessary. For instance: I do not have to be there when the council holds Parent/son weekend, but I like to go to all the sessions my cub sc

So I am thinking that you go ahead and impliment this with your patrol. Don't worry about the others. In a year, your husband can say: "Okay, look at the "X" patrol and look at what they have done, how well they did and what they can do." It will be easier to have the other boys look at what your patrol has done and get on board with it, and then pushing the rest of the adults to do it , than just trying to explain to all the parents about what it could be like. And if the other leaders don't want to do it, why should it affect youyr patrol. Start doing this with all th

From the spun thread, I mentioned a campout that my Webelos den went on where they were the guests of our sister troop and went to a Camporee. Okay, technically, we couyld ahve went as a Webelos den only, since it was open to Webelos scouts, but going with the troop made it better. The Webelos were integrated in as a guest patrol and even had a troop guide and PL ( for this event). So, the Webelos were assigned duties, given tasks to do and treated as a part of the troop and not just as cub scouts. They cooked, they did dishes, they halped clean up the campsite. This

Not being related to either lois or Clark, and not being a frontersman myself....All I can say is thia: Same program, just not as detailed. Think baseball. For the youngest guys, we have T-ball, as they get older, coach pitch. older and they pitch themselves. Show them a simple trap or snare. Show them how to make a cane pole from scratch. Build a fish trap . Make a wild fowl trap. How about showing them how to buld a fire lay and cook something on a spit? Could be a chicken that you already boiled beforehand ( to make it easier for you) or even hot dogs. You could do

I'd take it to mean exactly what it says: visit the camp, not a campout. Of course with our Webelos, it just happened to work out that our camp visit was during a Boy Scout Camporee that the Webeos were invited to attend as guests of out troop. They intergrated the boys into a "guest patrol" and assigned a troop guide and a PL to them. Technically, just visit the camp. But if you can work something else into it...that would be awesome!

Uaully with such things as this: We fill out the forms, but also input it in scoutnet advancement too. WE take our forms to the scoutoffice and hand them to our registrar. Then walk over to the scoutshop and pick up the patch, badge or whatevber it is the award entails. Mind you, some awards do not need paperwork or forms. Some are just part of doing a certain number of requirements and electives in a period of time or order. THose are not necessarily advancement awards, but just awards to recognize.

Don't forget looking in your cub scout leader handbook!

I don't think you will find an entire list of available awards. Maybe you might find an order form that the scout shop uses for a complete list, but it would be lacking the requirements and who can earn the award. Best you can do is print out your own little combined booklet from the various sources. boyscouttrail.com has a page that will direct you to awards from Tiger scouts all the way through Eagle. They also have Venturers and adult knots and awards listed too: http://www.boyscouttrail.com/awards.asp Giude to placement of the knots and what the knots look like: