Scoutfish

I haven't used it for camping. It stays on my son's bed. But when we bought it, it was folded up to about the size of a normal suitcase: 22"X18"X9" Probably weighs in at around 10 to 15 pounds. But I have thrown it on the floor as is and slept on it. Felt like I was on a full size /full thickness bed. Like I said, if you have bad back issues, you could throw this on a pile of bricks and sleep very comfortably.

Normal isn't a specific number because there are so many "normal" reasons: * The program might be great, and the scout is having a blast, but it's not what mom or dad needed it to be (babysitting service)and are "tired of it". * Scouts decide they like "X" activity better. * Financial reasons including even the gas required to get to meetings. Jobs have been lost, bills adding up. economy in the tank...Some people are too proud to explain it and just disappear. * Other packs, which can break down to several reasons: * A particular friend to the parent/scout becomes DL in another pack and mom/dad/scouts treally wants to be in that den. * A CO of a different faith may start a pack.Mom or dad may have been waiting for that faith to start a pack.Might be the absolutely same program, ....but it's "X" faith! *Every pack is different with a different chemistry. They may fit better at another one. * Parent "A" and parent "B" do not get along at all.Fighting, bickerings, gossip 24/7. One parent leaves pack to avoid drama ( has nothing to do with pack itself). *Another pack might be closer to home. This one is another reason and just happened to our pack: This year, one of our DL's who didn't see eye to eye with the rest of the pack, started up a new pack at another CO that is 12 miles from our CO. He lives 2 miles from our CO. I live 2 miles from his brand new CO. We criss cross to get to our CO's. Approximatly 18 scouts of various ranks live within 1 mile of the new pack's CO. Some of those scouts lived on the other side of that Co - which put them up to 16 miles from our CO. Those Scouts can drive for 5 minutes versus 25 minute due to distance and traffic issues. To be honest, had that CO had a pack when my son joined up 2 1/2 years ago...I'd be at that CO instead of the one 12 miles away. That DL started out as a Tiger DL graduated up each year until being a Bear Dl last year. Some of the boys have been with him since being a Tiger. Nothing personal to us, but they are sticking with the DL they always have had. There is alot of familiarity and comfort with that. That goes for both scout and parent. Say what you want about the pack being great and friendly - most scouts tend to recognize and associate with the den first, pack second. They spend 2,3, or 4 weeks a month with the den, and only 1 night a month with the pack..at which time they are grouped by dens. At things like B&G, PWD, and campouts, they are grouped, clustered or divided by dens. Den flags, den yells, den activities, den awards.... We may see the pack as the main overall unit, but the boys may see the den as the bigger picture. As a new CubMaster myself, I understand the "taking it personal" thing, but try not too because most of the time, it was not personal to the parent or scout. Matter of fact, if things are going well. we as Cub Masters do not exist, DL's get the attention. As CubMasters, we may feel like we are the head of the household so to speak, but like I said, that's not who alot of scouts or parents see it. At any rate, we went from 60 scouts last year to 120-130 scouts. By recharter, we lost 5 or 6 . by Feb, we lost 3 or 4 more. Right now, we went from 120 to about 85. Honestly, 85 is a big amount. And roundup starts next week. 3 schools 3 rallies, 3 signup nights, 1 new scout/parent orientation meeting!

I read this while looking up something else. Centennial Quality Unit Award The Centennial Quality Unit Award recognizes outstanding packs, troops, teams, crews, and ships that conduct quality programs for their youth. All members, both youth and adults, of a pack that earns this award may wear the Centennial Quality Unit emblem (pictured to the right) on their uniforms, and a streamer may be displayed on the pack flag. To qualify as a Centennial Quality Unit, a pack must meet all of the following conditions: 1.We will have______ percent of our direct contact leaders complete Basic Leader Training and Youth Protection Training. 2.We will provide excellent programs to achieve our goal of _______ percent youth retention, recharter on time, and will recruit _______ new members. 3.In the spirit of the National Parent initiative, we will recruit _______ new parents / adults to assist our unit program. 4.We will have _______ percent of our youth earn advancement awards. 5.We will have _______ percent of our youth participate in at least _______ outdoor experiences or group activities during the year. 6.We will conduct annual program planning and will provide the financial resources to deliver a quality program to all members. Additionally, the pack must meet two of the following conditions: ■We received _______ visits from our unit commissioner this year. ■We will support the council by participating in Friends of Scouting and the annual product sale. Cub ScThough it is possible to qualify as a Centennial Quality Unit for meeting only six of the 8 conditions above, out leaders are encouraged to aim for all 8. These qualities have been shown to be critical indicators of successful pack operations. So I suppose requirement # 1 is a moot point now as it has to be 100% I can't figure out the math: "To qualify as a Centennial Quality Unit, a pack must meet all of the following conditions:" There are 6 listed, then it says: "Additionally, the pack must meet two of the following conditions:" There are only 2 listed . This now brings the REQUIRED amount to 8 items. But then it says: "Cub ScThough it is possible to qualify as a Centennial Quality Unit for meeting only six of the 8 conditions above, out leaders are encouraged to aim for all 8." So...you are required to meet 8 of 8 requirements, one of which( #1) is now changed, but you can get by with 6?

That was a comment directed to me from Scoutnut when I had a question about the National Summertime Pack Award. Now, if I understand what you are asking, and if I understood Scoutnut's answer - as well as some others since then: 1)As long as you have at least one activity each month, then you have earned it. AT LEAST ONE, but can have as many as you want. 2)Wether any scouts show up or not, and when they show up, even if they do not participate ( for whatever reason I can't imagine)...you still arranged the activity. 3)The award goes to the pack for planning and holding the activity. Not to the scouts for showing up. That is what the individual and den awards are for. The only issue I would see as towards "qualifying events" is if you are a full year pack and conducting regular den meetings. They would not be "events" under normal circumstances. "The purpose of the National Summertime Pack Award is to encourage packs to provide a year-round program by continuing to meet during the time periods when school is out of session for several weeks or months." ----> http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/cubscouts/leaders/awards/unitawards.aspx(This message has been edited by scoutfish)

I would like to point out that I do not garantee the accuracy of anything I just said. I am only giving my understanding of it based on what homeschool dad told me.

Jamist, Truth be told, the dad of twin tiger age home schoolers had a friend who's kid is a scout. He called the COR, who gave him my number. I told him what scouting was about and invited him to our first leaders and first den meeting to see what it was like. Granted, I did tell him that until we do our first roundup meeting, things were kinda calmer, but he got the idea. Now, after talking to himand feeling him out, I discussed being a Tiger Den Leader. I also gave him a Roundup poster. Home schoolers have district groups too. They have their own version of PTA ( for lack of better word) and forums just like this for home schoolers/ parents. Pretty much, he is going to post on their group site, their distric site and also word of mouth. The cool thing is that these parents are kinda like acting teachers, principals, pta and such that arrange field trips, get togethers, activities, fall festivals, etc....they just don't have a school. These people are practically scout comittees and adult leaders just waiting to be asked.

I've only done it once, and that was during BALOO class. We made the tinfoil tents , but used hamburger patties. Really large patties. Then you could ad sides such as green beans, potato slices, corn on the cob ( 1/3 ear size pieces)...whatever. One thimng I learned though was that using 1 or 2 cabbage leaves on the bottom creates a protective layer that: steams and keeps the main food from burning on the bottom. Also, to grill chicken breast thouroghly without overcooking the other ingredients...cut the breast ino 3/4 inch wide strips with scizzors.

You might want to be carefull here too. If a friend is just doing this as a favor because somebody just wants to know... you could be asking for not only a lawsuit, but your friend could possibly lose his job. Now,if the Co has a requirement that all adult leaders ( which doesn't apply in this case) sign off on a back ground check that is conducted professionally, then that is a different matter. Looking at the youth application, I get the impression that the whole reason behind the secondary adult application is just for the info: name address, employer, phone and e mail address. Not to make sure that dad isn't a psychotic individual who took time to enroll his kid in scouting. If that was the case, dad would probably be crazy enough to say that he was the parent/guardian who,s address the scout lived at...you know, to keep it quiet from mom.

Definantly look into finding AT LEAST 2 more den leaders for these boys. Last year, our Bear den had 22-24 active boys. One DL and 3 ADL's. I tried and tried to get the DL to admit we needed to beak the boys up, but he wouldn't see it. I ended up bringing it up at the leaders meeting and feelings got hurt ( mostly the DL's wife for some reason) We constantly had to break the boys into 3 groups just to get anything done. Advancement was always lagging and boys were waiting on belt loops, pins, etc... It wasn't that the DL was a slacker, it was that there was way too much paperwork, too much advancement and too much attendance to keep track of. As gfar as being nervous, well, I think time will take care of that. Pretty soon, you won'tlok at those boys, or their parents as "public" , but rather, you will see them as extended family. Matter of fact, give it a little time, and you will know those boys better than some of your family!

I copied/ stole this from www.boyscouttrail.com I did not write it, I do not claim any responcibility for it either. I just thought it was cool: So, the next time my pack is planning something, and when we decide that "we did that before already" about an idea, I'll remember this blog. Sure, I might have done "it" a few times, you might have done "it" a few times, but some of the boys will be doing "it" for the very first time. And the boys are the reason we do "it".

Oh yeah, it was Pittsburg, Pa. Yens, pop and pet dawgs!

If you have a SAM'S CLUB around..... For about $90 ( yeah, I know, kinda high) you can buy a 4 inch thick latex memory foam bed pad. One side is egg crate, the other is smooth. We bought it for my sons bed. It is awesome and it's the treal deal latex memory foam. You can lay this thing on a pile of broken bricks and sleep like a baby! Again, the price is steep, but we aren't talking about a minor muscle ache either! Money worth spent if you want to sleep at night!

Tonight, we had our first den meeting of the 2010-2011 season. So far, we signed uo 2 home schooled Tigers with possibility of getting 7 more home schooled kids overall. I recruited my first Tiger Den Leader. I recruited my first Webelos-I ADL. And I handed the teasurer a donation check for $100.00 from a fellow for who'm I installed 6 garage doors today. And nobody caught on fire!

SSScout: " Packs created the terms "Web 1, Web 2," or "Jr. & Sr. Webelos". I don't think (cite and correct me here) that there is anything ""official"" about those terms." WEll, I can't speak for anybopdy else, but we say "webelos I" and "Webelos II" because it's shorter than saying "Webelos 1st year"and "Webelos 2nd year". And after they earn their Arrow of Light, they are still Webelos....who just happened to have earned it.

Hopefully, it will never come to this: In firefighter school, I learned that potato chips are the choice of people who like to start fires (arson) without leaving a trail. Completrely burns up..no residue that can be distinguished from the rest of the fire. No, not usefull, but intersesting piece of trivia.

Had I know the impression I was going to give when I said "SOUR", I would have explained further. It was sour because of the fine crust of the food that was left in it. Been sitting on my counter for about 2 weeks. I kept telling myself : "Tommorrow, I am going to get the rest of that out of my DO." But well, tommorow is always a day away! The last thing I cooked was a peach dump cake, so I had the fruit as well as the cake mix turning various furry colors! It cleaned out just fine, but I desided to clean it again and reseason it even thought it wasn't necessary. The stink is just the stink of oil covered metal heating for an hour. I also use a paper towl to let the DO ventilate. And it's a deep dark bronze/brown color. Right now, it doesn't smell at all, just the oil as I was seasoning it.

So they lost the first aid bag, but manage to hang on to the scout whiskey bag? LOL! Short of being lost in the mountains and running into a moonshine still....I don't think spirits will be much concern. But make do, in the sense that you have to make do with what you have left after losing alot of what you had to start with...Yeah, I'm cool with that. Make do as in "Not spend money and used leaves for bandaids and vines for slings because I am cheap and lazy" ? No, not cool at all.

Gary, no offense, but you sound like a broken record. You keep saying that there is only one program. Great! Nobody ever said otyerwise. But how people follow or use the program is a different story. Those are trhe tweaks. In another forum, you yourself said that within LDS, some leaders are "voluntold" to lead. It is expected and required of them. In other Co( non-LDS) I have read that you have to be a member of the CO to be a leader. In the end,I think you missed the point of my post. So LDS does not stick around til Sunday when at camp. Okay, I'm cool with that. If that's the way you want to do it, it's fine with me. I do not care. It doesn't affect my pack at all . We will stay until Sunday afternoon or so. Your time frame, your leadership policies, your "tweaks" don't affect my unit, and mine don't affect youirs. So whyt make a fuss, right? And that was the whole point of my post!

My pack is a 9 month pack, yet we still didn't have any problems with scouts earning rank by the time B&G came around. But , we didn't make a big deal of them having it done. Matter of fact, it wasn't a goal thatw e set out towards. But it was cool if it was done by that time. Now, that's figuring that the scouts atttend 98% of the meetings or so. No, not an exact number, just a reasonably close guess. The cool thing is this though, scouts who did not attend all the meetings for whatever reasons, had time and oppertunity to get rank by the last pack meeting in May - which happens to end our 9 month "active" season. Now, even though we were a 9 month pack, we still had plenty of time..if you keep track of it. Like I said earlier, you can combine meetings. As wolves, we took a field trip to our local police dept. We also had a flag raising ceremony while there. In the end, a scout can accomplish: Achievement 3 "What makes America special" sub-achievements f and i Achievement 7 "Law Enforcement" All but sub-achievement c Achievemnt 11 "be Ready" Sub-achievements a - e Achievement 24 Sub-achievemnts b and c Having a denner help "plan" that field trip to the police dept. No, we don't try to cram as many check-offs as we can into every meeting, but in reality, talking about what to do nd who to call during an accident? Either police or fire....so it naturally fits. The police dept has a flag pole. By having the scouts raise the flag and having a ceremony keeps the scouts busy and allows the late showers extra time while also letting the police relations officer a few extra minutes to get ready based on how many showed up. So if you scan ahead, you can groups some achievemnt activities into smaller related groups. This way, you can kill two birds with one stone, and you don't have to rush the scouts or take the fun out of it by having to crack a whip. (This message has been edited by scoutfish)

Well, if each unit wants to tweak a tiny thing in THEIR program for thie own use. I'm cool with it. It's not the same as if they demanded that we all change and use their tweak. I'd bet my paycheck that every single pack, troop, crew or whatnot DOES use more than 3 tweaks...even if they are not consciously aware they made those tweaks.

Good Call Gern! I do believe you are right: A scout who tries his best to make an attempt to do a duty to a god, but finds out he can't..after an honest effort to try- Meets the rrequirements. I see it the same as making an honest attempt to try and enter a cave by a claustrophobic person: They may spend hours prepping, thinking and analyzing it, they may try to educate their fears, they may just want to do it, but after hours of trying....still can't. But they did try. They did do their BEST to do it.

WEll, the local tour permit application doesn't break it down to just a meeting. It only goes as low as a 1 day event. Now, I may be wrong, but technically, this would just be a meeting at the fire station, not a trip to a fire station. Just the same as when the parenst bring their kids to the CO. Almost every part of the form is based on traveling to "X" as a group, even if hiking their. The back side concerns pretty much driver and insurance info. But, if you want to be safe and say you have your bases covered...fill one out anyways. It can't hurt. Plus, your council will tell you at that time with certainty wether or not it is needed.

WEll, the pirate theme isn't so bad. Like I said, we live on the coast. Our CO is about 1/2 a mile from the intracoastal water way and 8 minutes ( by hiway) to the actual beach. WE have those big box beach stores too: Wings, Waves, Eagles,Shark Attack, etc... You can but a plastic pirayte sword and eye pacth for a $1.50. Pick up a bandanna at almost any gas station or dollar store for ..a dollar! Well build simple "treasure chests" out of plywood or shelving board to meet craft skils and woodworking achievemnts. Since we are so close to the beach, we can shoot over to the beachby dens and combine Pirate Hikes along with tteasure hunts( clean up trash off the beach and offer prizes for the rarest pieces of "treasure trash". We might even do a compass class and make up maps and "X marks the spot" treasure maps for each den. Overall, I think the worst part will e listening to a bunch of adult leaders running around and saying : "Arrgh, me laddies. What advancement have ye in mind today"?

I am BALOO trained. And we do all kinds of stuff. But we just never themed it. Not saying it's strange, it's just that we never did it. I guess our theme was family.

I spent alot of time at Pope the next month or so too. A few weeks before, I just had finished having all the background checks performed to do some work on a parachute packing facility and another sensitive area. After 9-11, I was the ONLY garage door technition in the system. At the time, there were about 15 other guys at my company who had previously een on Bragg and Pope, but I was the only one who was able to get in after 9-11 until about 3 months later when a few others were able to have their checks done. Funny part wa s Bragg. Hwy 210 goes right through the middle of it..unchecked, no security or anything. But every right or left turn had an armoured HummVee sitting sideways in the road. I did jobs on Freedom Parkway, Gruber rd, F street, J street, 49 doors at the motorcade and the new dental clinic .