SctDad

I know that there is a lot of controversary on what should be limited. Here is a simple one on printed material. If it is limited sales, Meaning you need to be 18 to purchase then it should be considered banned. I know Maxin, FHM and Stuff are kind of borderline, but last time I looked, they were not restricted sales. As for the phone issue, well I think this just goes to support what a lot of people said in another thread about cell phone restrictions. Just one more piece of evidence where they should not be allowed. This is a serious issue. Our school system gives all students 6th grade and up and all teachers laptops for study and stuff. Some used them to make pornographic videos. The student sent in the wrong file as homework and a teacher got it as an attachment. It almost cost the whole system their computers. It was a big deal and they wee thinking about charging the students with distribution of child pornography. They were all underage. Anyway I know that the scouts will keep trying, but we need to be vigilant in protecting our youth.

I remember reading that Speilberg helped with the Cinematography MB. As for Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford was listed as being a scout and writing the Reptile Study MB If you want to go with the negative portrayals, how about the movie "the Last Boy Scout" I thought someone would have brought up the Motto and stuff being used there by now.

I have to agree with the Lifesaving MB. That was a tough one for me. But I made it through with lots of trying. As for other awards, the mile swim took a lot out of me. But I finished it and it was a great moment when I climbed out of the water and they handed me my patch. Maybe one of the things that I should not have done was take both of those druning the same week. Or maybe it helped. Who knows.

I tried posting somethign earlier but ran into technical difficulties. Remember that the program is for the boys. If you are going to turn them away then you are wrong. Two boys to add to your 8 is not that many. You may find out that the parents have something that you can use for earning you activity badges. Maybe there is something that you have not found out about yet. Don't give up on these boyys. Let them be a part of your team. But when they do come in have a meeting with the parents and let them know that you have standards and expectations. You have been successful so far and you want to keep that going for your future eagles. All of your boys have that potential. Maybe your CM has seen how you do things and has faith and trust in you that you can handle this effectivly. Hope things work out for you.

The one sheet slot table, (knock-down Table) is a good pland and I have seen many troops and patrols use them.

My question is where does this RM think htat he is going to set up the ranges. Usually the Camp Directors already have an idea where they want things set up. I hope that this RM is not planning on setting up for a pack event, as we all know that Archery and BB Gun shooting are restricted to District/Council Events.

I have to agree with all the other. Why should you be calling your son if there is a tordano spotted. That call should be going to the leader. Who probably already knows about it. We have to take weather training. Most carry some kind of weather alert device. Most can look up and see if things are getting bad. The SM has put these rules in placed to avoid other problems that come with it. Back the calendar up 20 years. How did your parents handle contact. There was limited contact. The parents trusted that the leaders were competant could take care of the scouts. Let the leaders do their jobs

Sorry. That is what I get for posting when I am tired. Need one of two things. More sleep or more coffee.

Sometimes there is also good Karma. I remember when I started last year I had a young Tiger Scout come up to me and say that he wanted to be an Eagle Scout. I told him that was great and that we needed to work on his Tiger first, but I would help him with what ever he needed. I look foward to Eagle ceremonies in about 10 years or less. OMG that don't sound that far away.

How is the BSA Sueing Orkin. I did not know the the epaulets were strictly for the BSA

Try this link. YOu should only be able to get them from national. http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/images/pdfs/70-381.pdf I know when I got our pack flag the falg alone was $40 and the lettering cost us another $70. So look at what you want to say on the form.

Ours went OK. We had some volunteers there. I myself went. It was nice presentation. I got some of the patches. Just wish I had the money to get one of the prints.

Check your local pools and see if there is time available to go swimming. Our local YMCA let us swim for free for our swimming belt loops and achievements. We also did a bowling day last year. Maybe miniature golf day. Have fun.

As you already mentioned, you know that you need the training. So that is out of the way. Program helps are a good start as they help you understand some simple projects that the boys can do for their den meetings. http://www.scouting.org/CubScouts/Leaders/CubScoutHelps.aspx Also there is an online library of resources on the national site http://www.scouting.org/CubScouts/resources.aspx Alway look over the BALOOS Bugle. Great compliation of activity resources there. http://usscouts.org/bbugle.asp Fast Tracks is a schedule of meetings that may help you in that they already have everything laid out for what to do each meeting and will have your advancement completed in a timely manner (Usually in the spring) http://www.scouting.org/CubScouts/FastTracks.aspx Also, get the parents to help out, the boys belong to them too. I hope this is a good start for what you are looking for. There are also hundreds of other scout planning websites that you can find through any search engine. Good luck and welcome to scouting. (An hour a WEEK. HAHAHAHAHA. Maybe and hour a week per Cub Scout) (But I still love it)

Leaders (Mostly Cubmasters and Scoutmasters). Have you ever been on a camping trip and taken a moment to watch from the shadows. Just to see how this pan out in your absense. To see if things kept moving or if they fell apart. Last weekend we took our pack to the council campgound for a pack campout. We joined up with another pack for combined activities. On Saturday night, I had gone over to talk with their leaders about the Sunday morning activities and Church service (which all of my boys went to without complaint. And yes they sang). After about 20 minutes I walked back to my campsite and as I walked up I stopped on the road. I could see all the parents, scouts, and leaders, but they could not see me due to the light under the shelter. I watched as all of the Cub Scouts were sitting around the Campfire, with leaders and parents passing out all the things needed for Smores, and everyboy waiting eagerly. This was a good moment because I sometimes have a hard time getting parents to do anything. I evcen got a chuckle when one of the boys pulled his marshmallow out of the fire and tried to eat it off the fork. Only to learn that it was hot. He was fine but it was one of those little things that I remember. I then went in and sat down with my son and we spent some time roasting marshmallows and eating smores. WE got to spend some time together, which is nice due to the fact that it is not as frequent as I would like with all the things that I have to do with the pack. Do any other leaders have stories like this? Times that make all the sacrifice and stress worth every minute and dollar that you put into the program.

I tend to be an early riser. I was up at 0600 this past weekend. You mention Reveille, that is actually the alarm on my phone. I wake my son by about 0645 - 0700. I woke one boy up this weekend as I was splitting down some kindling to get the fire going.

Gern and packsaddle So if I come across a 13 star flag can I just toss it in the trash or wad it up and throw it in the fire. Your comment makes no sense. The Flag of the CSA (or stars and bars as they are mentioned here) are part of the US history. They were once the flag of the confederacy. There is nothing racist or derogatory about them. GET OVER IT. THey should be treated with the same respect as any US flag, current or past. cardinal50 chance are if you are doing this for a ceremony about the Civil War, the see if you have a local 'Sons of the Confederacy.' They will probably know the customs of the time or how it should be done.(This message has been edited by SctDad)

I read this and think about one of my scout parents and his son. It seemed like for the past few campouts, he would always wake up just in time for breakfast to be served. We used to always poke fun at him and he took it in stride. Imaging our faces when he walked out of the tent at 0630. I almost choked on my coffee. We all looked around and asked who was done cooking. We look at it like this. You can get up on your own, but anytime after 0700, there will probably be a lot of noise in camp. As for how to resolve the issue with the SPL/ASPL. Get a bugle. You don't have to know how to play, and if you don't it may get teh out of bed earlier.

For our Cub Scouts, we HIGHLY reccommend that they leave all electronics at home. We also tell them that it is their responsibility and that we are NOT responsible for ANY damages. I have only seen two Nintendo DS's show up in camp. Both were not a problem, because I asked the boys to put it away and only use it at night if they are having problems sleeping. No problems to date. As for cell phones, I ask that the youth leave them at home, as they have parents usually with them. I also ask that the adults put phones on silent. We did a pack campout with another pack and their leader would call me when we were ready to go to the next event to make sure that we were ready. It worked out good. Could we have used radio's? Yes if we had thought about that. I agree that things should taken on a case by case basis.

I have been working on my staff and have recied some comments on it here recently. It is real simple right now, except for the fact that I have wood burned the OA indian chief near the top. I am also working on the arrow in it too. I have found some new suggestions here and I am looking forward to starting some new things with my pack.

HICO_Eagle I agree with you on that. Many parents who put their kids into Cub Scouting do so because they think that it is interesting and that they want their son to try something different. as for boy scouts, you find many parents (Mostly fathers) that were scouts themselves and they remember a lot of the things because it ws drilled into them as a youth. If someone is that concerned maybe they should bring up to national a Troop/Crew/Team trainer position. But do you really need a patch to do your job. I wear my Cubmaster patch. But I also serve as den leader for my sons Wolf Den. I will be his Bear Den leader soon. I am not going to change patches because all the dens need to see that there is a pack leader.

I think that it may be because there are three types of Den Leader training. Tiger, Cub Scout, and Webelos. Boys typically stay in Boy Scouts longer than Cub Scouts. Five years vs. 8 years. (Roughly) And when parents sign up to be Troop/Crew/Team leaders they finish the training once and that is it. There is a higher need for more training and a position to help coordinate that training is helpful. There is a higher turnover of Cub Scout Leaders. Boy Scout leaders tend to stick around longer, sometimes for Decades. The is my 2 cents

I think that we may be getting off topic. The main point of this thread was that someone stole the boys patrol flag, (which was never seen again) and flagpole, (one scout was going to use as a whitling project)and that I cannot see how they could do something that is that destructive. I merely mentioned that we used to do something like this when I was a scout, but we never damaged or defaced a flag. And it is not like the boy with the knife could say that he did not know it was a flag pole. It had the breakdown part in the middle for easy storage.

Great Job. It is nice to know that there are crews doing great things. I know when I was a police explorer, we helped with parking and stuff. As for more training, I know in NC you have to be 18 to take an EMT course. But if you are interested in some more medical work, maybe you can check with your local EMS company and see if they need some help with disaster training. This may be somethign that could be interesting for all to see.

If I remember correctly, when I was looking through the insignia guide, it stated that hats could be worn inside during cermonies. Just not to be worn during religious ceremonies/services. Also if you look at many of the older pictures and you will see scouts wearing hats during indoor activities. I think the beret would be something that can be interesting.