ScoutNut

How about your local high school, or community college? Contact their art department, computer dept (graphic arts), or even fashion design dept. Are there any little tourist shops in your area that sell any kind of hand made stuff? Get contact info for their artisans. Hit local flea markets. You can usually find someone who makes their own stuff.

"All I want is to be sure the BSA is disclosing that some units may have additional fees on top of the BSA registration." Well it is clear that your council is not planning on communicating that little piece of info until AFTER they have the completed, and paid, applications in hand. Since your council head is trying to make himself look good for promotion purposes, he is doing all of this so he can toot his own horn on the number/increase of registrations in his council. ​Personally, I would not go along with his agenda. You are there for the boys, not to get him a promotion.

Picture frames do not have to be fancy, or expensive. Get some cardboard boxes from your local grocery. Cut out squares of cardboard for your base. The square should be big enough to glue a picture inside with about 1-2 inches of room all around it. The "frame" gets glued onto the cardboard base around the picture. Craft sticks are great for this (and for a lot of other craft stuff), and are pretty cheap ($3.99 for a box of 1000 at S & S Worldwide online). You can have the scouts decorate them however they want. You can also get the boys outside to pick up old twigs. Twigs make a great rus

We have gone with local parks in the past. Just saying that Summer is not the optimum time to find one available. My council usually does two BALOO trainings. One in Fall, and one in late Spring. I doubt that we would have a decent location, the staff, or even enough participants, to field a Summer BALOO course.

Some resources for you - http://pinterest.com/lrumburg/webelos-craftsman/ http://kevindevin.com/?p=2883 http://pack152.net/Webelos/craftsman.html http://www.cubroundtable.com/assets/pdf-documents/Craftsman-Activity-Badge.pdf A simple internet search for - webelos craftsman wood projects - brought up these, and more. Have fun!

One issue about summer BALOO training is where would it be held? BALOO should NOT be done indoors. It should be held in an outdoor camp setting. Ideally in a campground that the Cub Packs will be using. Just how easy do you think that would be in Summer - the busiest camping season? All of our local BSA Cub camps are booked solid for Summer weekends. The same goes for Boy Scout camps. County/state campgrounds are usually booked up too. I don't know about you, but I am not volunteering my backyard for BALOO training. Not that a city backyard would be a very good camp experience!

So, what this boy effectively wants to do is to work in 2 Cub levels at the same time. Sorry, not going to happen. It has to be one or the other, and since the Scout has has his Bear paraphernalia already, he is a Bear Cub Scout. One question - where is he registered? Your LDS Pack, or the non-LDS Pack? If he is doing everything with the other Pack, you should contact your council registrar and make sure that is where his primary registration is. If anyone comments about his early graduation to Bear, simply tell them that he is not a registered LDS Cub Scout.

While a Committee Chair can DO any number of various different jobs in a single unit, they can only be REGISTERED with BSA, as Committee Chair, and the Charter Organization Representative.

After playing all day on Saturday (and Friday evening for some), our boys, and their families, were hungry enough Saturday evening to eat anything that did not move out of their way fast enough! We did a substantial breakfast on Saturday so that everyone had the energy for the long day. This was often bacon/sausages, dutch oven egg scramble mess, fruit, and bagels. Lunch was usually light. Just fruit and a sandwich that could be done on the fly. Saturday dinner was when all stops were pulled out. Meat main course, fruit/salad/veggies, starchy/potato thing, and of course, dessert. Su

While my son loved pioneering, he also just loved to knot, and splice, and whatever he could do with two pieces of rope. He liked the creation process, but knot tying to him was something soothing he could do to relax, yet keep his hands, and mind, busy. For an active guy with ADHD that was a great find. My girls made woven/knotted hair scrunchies on one of their campouts. I believe this was for one of their badges, and all that was required was to make one to fulfill the requirement. These girls made these things all night long. They made them while sitting around the campfire. They made t

If you are looking for something craft related, how about macrame? Square, larks head, and half hitch, knots are the basic knots used in macrame. Keep in mind that 6-12 years is a big difference in ages. The kids will all have different attention spans, and dexterity. I would use very basic patterns for the youngest, and get a bit more complicated for the older ones. Also keep in mind how experienced at knot tying the girls are. You might want to have some patterns/materials on hand for the few girls that are more experienced. Take a look at this site - http://www.free-macrame-p

We usually do the big breakfast on Saturday morning. Sunday is a simple, minimal clean up morning.

Wow. You have "researched" all (you feel) there is to know about Venturing, and yet have no knowledge of the basic rules and reg of your own Scouting program? Somehow I thought an Eagle, even an immature 15 year old Eagle, would be, at least vaguely, concerned about following the rules. Guess not. However, not to let him off the hook, but it seems that this is the kind of thing that has been modeled, and encouraged, by his Troop. What a shame.

I never said that it should not be supported. However you stated - " But why should Venturers be allowed into the OA when they have their own society that Boy Scouts/Varsity Scouts aren't allowed into? If Venturers are allowed into the OA then Boy Scouts will want to know why they aren't allowed into the Corps of Discovery? Then we would have 2 societies that let both Venturers and Boy Scouts join." What I said was it is a want-to-be organization that is under 1 year old. There is no way that you can say that Venturing CURRENTLY has "their own society". It might be true 10-20 years d

The Corps of Discovery is something, relatively, brand new, is not anywhere near national, regional, or even local, in scope, and is not recognized by BSA. It is currently considered a "grassroots movement" that was started in 1999 by a Crew in the BSA Northwest Suburban Council in Illinois. It faded out, and then was restarted last year, in 2012. So, I would not paint this as "their own society that Boy Scouts/Varsity Scouts aren't allowed into". I would call this a struggling start-up with a long, long, way to go to prove itself as a viable organization.

Chill out BadenP - ES441 is a 15 year old YOUTH member. No, he is not a Venturer, but from his past posts it seems he is planning on joining. Yes, he is a bit of a fanatic about Venturing, and does spout off quite a bit on a program he has no first hand knowledge of, however - keep in mind - he is 15.

Not really "circular", or "drivel". Simply a bad editing job. When BSA first introduced the "Scout Parent", and "Parent Coordinator", nonsense a number of years back they seemed to slap it on the Adult Application at the last minute without a proper proofread. So, instead of simply adding PC as another option for the CR to be able to double as, they added that rather awkward last comment instead. Of course BSA could simply drop the whole silly "Parent Coordinator" title altogether. I don't think that there are that many folks out there that need a separate, "snazzy", registered ti

Nope, National rule. Read your adult application : "No one may register in more than one position in the same unit, except the chartered organization representative (CR) (who can multiple only as the committee chairman (CC) or a committee member (MC)), and the parent coordinator (PC), who may multiple as chartered organization representative." Your Pack's Cubmaster (CM) was registered in only that position. Same goes for your Committee Chair (CC). They can both do as many other jobs as they want to, however, they can only be REGISTERED with BSA, in your Pack, as CM, and CC.

Per BSA you can be REGISTERED as only EITHER Cubmaster (CM) - OR - Den Leader (DL), but NOT BOTH. This means you can REGISTER as CM, but do the jobs of BOTH CM, and DL. Unfortunately, even with a very small Pack such as yours, burnout on your part is a very real possibility if doing both the CM, and DL job. FYI - Your Pack MUST have a registered Cubmaster to be able to re-charter. For den leaders, all that is needed for re-charter, is ONE REGISTERED den leader in the entire Pack. So, the boys in your den are Wolf Cubs? Since you were the Tiger.and Wolf den leader, you shoul

Tie up all of the crazy, semi-crazy, and act like they are crazy, politicians. Lash them to a pole. Stage a giant BBQ. Is THAT what you mean by making the world a "better place"?

From the Guide to Safe Scouting - "Adults and youths of the same gender may occupy dormitory or single-room accommodations, provided there is a minimum of two adults and four youths. A minimum of one of the adults is required to be Youth Protection–trained. Adults must establish separation barriers or privacy zones such as a temporary blanket or a sheet wall in order to keep their sleeping area and dressing area separated from the youth area." Per BSA, in a Boy Scout Troop, a YOUTH is defined as anyone under 18 years of age. I am not sure why you keep separating out the

28 Tigers! Yowza! That's 56 folks at every Tiger meeting! That's not a den meeting, that is a convention! Seriously, requiring Cubs (or the Cub's parents) to purchase new den numbers every year, not to mention the hassle of tearing off the old, and sewing on the new, is just plain silly. Also, if you get a family that uses the fabric glue instead of sewing, you could be talking about buying a new shirt every year. Our dens keep their number until they finish Webelos (or change to a Webelos den emblem). Then the "old" Webelos den number becomes the "new" Tiger den number. If we need t

Tim, per your council, Tidewater Council, they require all TOP UNIT LEADERS, and COMMITTEE CHAIRS, to be fully trained for the 2014 charter year. A top unit leader for Venturing is defined as the Crew Advisor. This does not include Crew Associate Advisors, or Committee Members (although having all adult members trained would certainly be a very good thing for the program). To be considered trained for a Venturing Crew, Tidewater Council council requires Venturing Youth Specific Training, and Position Specific Training. Please note that Committee Training can be done online, and there

Our Pack spends the money we make on popcorn to fund our Pack program for the year. We do not charge any Pack dues at all. We include the council incentives in our popcorn sale. The boys love them, so why not? We also give the top 10 sellers the opportunity to toss a "cream pie" (foam plate filled with whipped topping) at the leader of their choice. This is a highly anticipated part of our December Pack meeting!