scoutmom

ExperiencedUniforms, I take exception to your statement that I haven't been taught proper scouting. Do you know how many shirts my son has already out-grown that I have donated to my Pack? No, you don't. Not that it's any of your business, but, I intend to take this shirt and frame it as a momento of his Cub Scout career. You have no idea how much or how little I have contributed to both my local Pack and to my Council. So please, keep your judgement calls to yourself. BTW, it was my den (at my suggestion)that built a "Uniform box" for the Pack, and my son's too small shirt was the first one in it.

One of my favorite, quick, easy skits goes like this: All boys line up facing the audience. Boy #1 turns to boy #2 and whispers in his ear. Boy # 2 says "Oh, no!". Boy #3 says "What's wrong" Boy #2 whispers in his ear, Boy # 3 says "Oh, no!" This continues down the line until the last boy says "What's wrong?" and the boy before him says "We don't have a skit!" The great thing about this skit is you can do it with just a few boys, or with a large group. It helps if the boys can "ham it up" a bit with he "Oh, no"'s

Sorry to disagree, but I have ironed patches on my son's shirt and they have stayed where I put them for over a year. I haven't tried taking them off the shirt and I don't anticipate taking them off, so I don't really care what it does to the shirt. He will get a new shirt when he moves to Boy Scouts. Maybe the patched for Boy Scouts are different, but I can tell you form personal experience, the Cub Scout patches iron on just fine.

Thanks for sharing that! The kids in my son's class have learned the "sign's up" routine from me (my son is the only Cub Scout in his classroom) and now his teacher is using it to get their attention! It's so nice to hear that that kids appreciate your attention even though they want to rebel against you sometimes. Congratulations.

I've been sitting here typing and revising and changing this response to jmcquillan for the last 20 minutes. There's a lot I want to say, but for the sake of courtesy, I'll just say this. If your "trail" makes you "quite happy", more power to you. I did not "discount" your experience, I simply disagreed with you. Your tone in your reply is one of condescension and I do not appreciate it. Until you have been the parent of a child with ADHD, or any other learning disability (or medical disability for that matter) you simply do not know what it is like. If my son's Scoutmaster insists that I remain at Troop meetings to keep my son in line, we will be finding a new Troop. I am happy to offer advice and share my methods that I use with my son, but he needs an opportunity to have some independence from me. It is important for him to find his way in the world without his mather always there in the background waiting to help him when he hits a rough spot. I believe the same is true for any boy, ADHD or not. This is a sore subject for me and I apologoze if I have been overly sensitive.

SagerScout, you are right on the money. I agreee with everything you have to say. jmcquillan, sorry, but Sager is right. Somethimes the parents of a child with ADHD make it worse. I can say that because I am one of those parents. I find that other adults have much more patience with my son than I do. Especially at Scout meetings. Here is a poem I found on the internet that related to ADHD. It's really directed at parents, but it's not a very long stretch to apply it to Scout Leaders. Here's hoping that Scouters out there will find the patience it takes to help young boys like my son realize their ful potential. Through The Eyes Of A Child With AD/HD Please tell me you love me, for I need to be accepted in your eyes. Please let me know when I have done well, for I need to know that sometimes I am like other children. Please share some of your thoughts with me, for my intelligence is not what is impaired. Please bother to correct me and keep me in line as much as necessary. I cannot steer myself. Please learn all you can about my problem. I need understanding as well as discipline. Give me your patience, because although it takes me longer, I need to succeed just like all the other children. Please make time in your day for me. I need to feel that attention and affection are things you want to give. I will not go away if you pretend I'm not there. Remember that I am a complex person with many traits that are right and fine. Please help me see those things in myself. You are my mirror. Please do not abuse me, for although I need a firmer hand than most, I feel lost and alone when I see rejection in your eyes. I have no motive, and all I can do is say; "I'm sorry" over and over again. Please remember that I love you, for you stand beside me day after day in this confusing and frightening world. You are the reason I am not alone. --Author Unknown

Congrats OGE to you and your son. You should be very proud -- popping those buttons off whichever uniform shirt you might be wearing today!

BTW, "something something" means I don't know what the words are! LOL

HELP! PLEASE! Wel, I guess it's not really THAT serious. I'm looking for the words to the "Little fishey song". It was performed last year at Day Camp and I'd like to use it for our Pack meeting this month. All I remember is: something something little fishey something something little dishey something something little fishey when the boat comes in. Hands together The you put your hands together and make like a little fish swimming while you repeat the words to the song and next is elbows together, then knees, then feet, then knees bent, then knees bent lower, then one foot up, then other stuff I can't remember. You end up hopping on one foot looking like a complete idiot and boy was it fun!! Does anyone out there know what I'm talking about or was this a figment of my imagination?

OGE, If that's the only thing they could come up with to criticize, I'd say you did a terrific job! I wouldn't worry about it too much. Maybe ask one of the other committee members what the common practice is. I have seen people with the velcro, too.

I have found that a general "we need help" gets us nowhere. What has helped our Pack is to break up events into small parts and ask people individually for their help. Example: for our Pinewood Derby this year, we had general sign up sheets available for Judging, set up, weigh in, etc. BUT, we then went to specific people and asked them if they could help with one part. We managed to have enough help with every area. When I was Den Leader, I decided I couldn't continue. I had a new job with longer hours and a longer commute and I couldn't devote as much time to the Den as they deserved. I advised the Den that I needed to step down, but no one agreed to take over. I continued to do my best, knowing I wasn't delivering the quality program the boys deserved. I muddled through until the summer. I encouraged parents to go to day camp as den guides (because I couldn't as I was on staff for day camp) and three of the parents from the den went. Well, they had a terrific time and decided that they would take over the den as leaders. ....and the moral of this story is, get the parents involved, start out small, and you just might be surprised at your results. Make sure everyone knows when your committee meetings are, invite everyone. Let them know that leadership is not an exclusive club. And then thank them and reward them if you can when they do volunteer. Little homemade awards go a long way towards motivating parents to help more. If possible, have the Pack but their Leader Shirts or subsidize the cost. Pay for the adults registration fee, pay their way to the Blue and Gold, pay for their training. If you can work this into your Pack budget, it will be worth it. Got a little long-winded there... sorry.

Wait a minute, I thought profiling was wrong! I mean the NJ State Police got in a lot of trouble over that. (small joke -- everybody laugh politely) I tried to update my profile, but it tells me I have the wrong password, but I can post with this password. I emailed to the "forgot your password" thingy. I will update as soon as I can.

Here's another situation.... Let's say, hypothetically, there is a large Webelos Den (say 13 boys) and instead of splitting it up, the Den has 3 Leaders. All the Leaders have son's in the Den. One of the Leaders' sons has received (not necessarily earned) many more activity pins than the rest of the den. At one Pack meeting when this boy received 6 activity pins, he turns to his mother and says "How did I get all these?" Some of his Den mates recognize that he gets pins no one else has gotten and are feeling resentful and question the validity of his "earning" them. How would a pack, parent, fellow Den member handle that one? Any ideas?

I don't really like the "door to door" thing myself. But that may be because I live in a rural area and not in a neighborhood or sub-division! I have let my opinion out about the Popcprn on another thread, but to elaborate a little bit: We can't run a 50-50 because the BSA (or maybe it's just our Council) says you have to give people something of value for their money and a ticket isn't something of value. We can't run a raffle for the same reason. Personally I think we're being a little hypotritical (SP?) selling Popcorn for $15 for a small can of Carmel Popcorn. Is that Value? Not to me. I have sold the Popcorn, and still do , But I am not thrilled with the quality and I only buy the popping kernels. Don't like the Microwave Popcorn, or the Carmel corn and that chocolate covered stuff is disgusting (in my opinion). I know it's a great cause and the council and the unit keeps most of the money, but I just don't see it as "value". Just my $0.02 worth.

Bob White, Not all of us Scouters are as pro-popcorn as you seem to be. Yes, we do the Annual Popcorn Sale, but, I am not thrilled about it. I don't like asking people to pay $15 for a can of popcorn when they can go to Wal Mart and get a giant can for $3. In my opinion, the popcorn we sell is over priced and I am not thrilled with the quality. I know it's for a good cause, and I know a lot of people will disagree with me. Our Pack has not had tremendous success with the Popcorn sale. I know Packs that do great with Popcorn, I just don't think it'a all that wonderful.

As the parent of a first year Webelos and an Assistant Cubmaster, I would recommend the following: Make contact with your local Packs. Don't wait for them to come to you (as out local Troop is doing). Work with the Webelos Den Leaders to arrange some mutual Troop/Pack activities. Invite them on a camping trip. Show up at Den Meetings and Pack Meetings just to say Hi. Encourage your scouts to be Den Chiefs -- I have been begging for one for three years and have had no response. I guess I think you should ne the initiator. Go get those Webelos and capture their interest. Don't wait for them to come to you - they might not.

I'm in Southern New Jersey. OGE, I can't wait to hear about your trip to the Pine Barrens to hunt the Jersey Devil!

Here's my 2 cents worth: When I started as a Den Leader a few years ago, it was because "there was no one else to do it". I got a Den of 10 Wolves. I begged and begged for an assistant. I had lots of unoficial help from parents but no one would commit to being official. Our pack committee was falling apart. The trett people who were consistently at meeting were moving on to Boy Scouts with their sons. I then started informing the parent in my den of every meeting. Everything. Committee meetings, Roundtables, you name it, they knew when it was, where it was and how long it was. Well, from this we managed to get 1 Assistant Scoutmaster (now Scoutmaster), a new treasurer, new Secretary, and 3 additional committee members and a Committee Chair. I still didn't get my assistant, but that's another story). My den grew to 15 boys at one point and I knew I had to do something drastic to resolve the situation. (splitting the den was not an option because the boys wanted to stay togeter and the parents wanted them together) So, I resigned as Den Leader. Guess what? Three new people signed up to be Den Leaders. We now have three Leaders and the den is a First year Webelos Den. It is working out great and I am serving as an Assistant Scoutmaster. I found that informing people of what was going on worked in our Pack. Tell them what's going on and when and they get interested. We are not in a similar situation because most of the Pack Leadership is from our Den and we will be crossing over next February. We are very busy putting the word out and keeping our eyes on potential replacements. I'm happy to say we have some good prospects.

You can't customize the neckrchief but you can make your own slides! My cubbies love making slides. Get them to make as many different kinds as you can think up. They love them.

From your description, things are out of hand. In my son's den (12 first year Webelos - big den - 3 boys with ADHD) his leaders (there are 3) Turn the lights off and quickly back on again to get their attention. It works pretty well all of the time. Yelling, well sometimes you have to yell to be heard, but yelling at a one kid about a wrong behavior, that is not acceptable. And push-ups! This guy is supposed to be a den leader not a drill seargeant. Go immediately to your Cubmaster and/or Committee CHair. This is not something you can let go by. You can not be afraid of hurting someones feelings because in the meantime, what is happening to the self esteem of those CUb Scouts in that den? Scouting is supposed to be FUN, not a punishment, and that's what this sounds like. Perhaps this man needa an Assistant Den Leader (hint, hint, that might be you) to take ofer the discipline ascpect of meetings. Use a conduct candle, reward with beads for good behavior and when they fill a jar with the beads they get a treat. Please don't let this go by any longer. The longer it goes on, the more boys will become discouraged and leave Scouting. And worse yet, more damage could be done to their self-esteem.

ScouterPaul: Sorry to dissappoint, I'm from NJ. But, I lived in the South for about 9 years and some of the words still pop out. Like Hey instead of Hi and y'all. I'm fixin' ta carry my Mama down to the Wal-Mart. cjmiam: quit bragin about that low body fat thing! I should have such a problem! bigbeard: Your welcome. BTW, I like what you have to say. In regards to everyone's busy schedules, riddle me this: How do I manage to attend a work related conference at one end of the state and also manage to make Roundtable at the opposite end of the state all in the same day?

While I was reading this thread, y'all have added a page! IMHO, you folks need to get off the computer and go Scouting with your Troops/Packs/Crews! Go camping, go hiking, go jump in a lake! With the proper Safe Swim Defense guidelines in place, of course! Just a little levity to lighten the mood.

Hey Dad, check your numbers again. It looks to me like the majority does use the Public School system. Results -- 23 total votes: home school? 6 / 26.1% public school? 13 / 56.5% private school? 4 / 17.4%

Rooster, I totally understand wanting to get away from Politics and Issues. I rarely read this section and even more rarely post on it. It is just exhausting reading the same arguements over and over again. Healthy debate is always a good thing, but I feel this forum very often crosses the line of healthy. I also feel that in their passion, many of the Scouters here forget the Scout Law. A Scout is supposed to be courteous, and that seems to be forgotten often. I hope you enjoy your break and I join ScouterPaul in his request that you not ignore us all together. I have learned a great deal from most of the Scouters here and you always seem to have valuable words of wisdom to contribute.

TJ, Forgive me if I am repeating anyone here, but I got tired of reading after page 5. To answer the question that you began your post with ("Now that we disagree, can we agree?"), I think the clear and definitive answer is NO.