Sdriddle

I would be very interested in any copies of lease agreements units have with cities in regard to use of city property for scout huts. Thanks for any help. sdriddle2@hotmail.com

I received a letter from our Council regarding United Way funding in our county. They have reduced our funding by 63% with no real reason given except that donations are down. They will give us 25,000 instead of 68,839. Obviously this is a major hit to our district, and they are asking us to call UW and let them know how we feel about it and also for us to help them reduce cost or help make up the difference. If you would like to help us encourage UW to increase the funding their email is www.unitedwaygrayson.org and phone 903-893-1920. Thanks

Boys plan the calendar. We have regular PLC's led by the SPL. Opportunities for advancement are presented and try to include in meetings and campouts. Biggest problem with advancement is getting them to bring their book and get it signed off. I have concerns about some of the scouts having the scout spirit signed off when they don't show it at the meetings. We have elections every 4 months because 6 months was too long. They seem to lose interest and get burned out after about 4 months. I think a real committee would be helpful, since we all have combination responsibilities it makes it hard

We are having a calendar planning meeting this weekend. It starts tonight with a sleep in at the church with movies, snacks and games and Sat. morning we will plan the next year activities followed by a dip in the pool. They have always had the biggest say in campouts themes and locations. They have the opportunity to go sailing at a local lake in 3 weeks if they can get the menus and such completed in time. Bottom line is, they get to choose what they do, but most don't want to put in the time to plan it. They are told that it is their troop and it is not the adults job to do all of the plann

First, a troop profile: 10 boys from a small town 30 minutes from anywhere. SPL- 13 yrs old and Homeschooled with dad who tries to camp when he can and finally got a job that unfortunatly will keep him from attending meetings and campouts. Has 4 other younger siblings and only have one vehicle due to recent auto accident. Good dedicated kid. ASPL- 12 year old with completely uninvolved parents. Bit of a smart mouth and annoys most all the other boys. Likes Scouting. PL- 13 year old (my son) used to really care, but has lost most of his drive due to other boys not caring abo

I saw the first half of the show and they did zoom on the Scoutmaster patch. She even commented that is was hard not to act like the SM. It was funny when whe said the the troop back home was going to rib her good for not having on a neat uniform, tucked in and buttoned to the top. I am sure she did not intend on spending the whole time in her uniform, but they tricked them and took away all of their things except what they were wearing and told them to jump ship and swim to shore. Most of the clothes the people were in were inappropriate... Armani suit, strapless sundresses, heavy jeans, etc.

Depending on the size of your pack, giving all of the awards out at a pack meeting will take way too long. We are still small enough to do that, but as you get larger, the pack meeting will need to be reserved for only badges. Are your dens performing at every pack meeting? The skits and songs are the heart of your pack meeting planning. The parents are not interested in coming just watch somebody else's kid get alot of awards while theirs never leaves their chair. You have to do what works for your pack. We generally do not have any boy earn his rank badge (bobcat exception) until close to th

Sorry, we did that last year too during open house. We didn't have much of a display table, just the cubmaster and cc in uniform and a smile. I think they had some handouts and maybe some pictures. They answered peoples questions and let them know about school night coming up. They kept track of what den the kids would be in so we could be prepared for school night. Sure took a load off to know that we would have a tiger den! We will probably do it again this year. We had a lot of success with pitching a tent on the playground during recess and talking to the kids about camping, and placing ar

One table at the open house with various items made by scouts, pictures taken at cool events, etc should be good enough. In my experience, the people that show up are usually already committed to joining and don't spend a lot of time at the display table. Being a rather small town, we try to encourage the current pack members to attend school night as well to receive their year pins. This way the prospective members get to see who is in their den (everyone knows somebody here!) and if the parents of the whole den are there, they can decide on leadership and meeting times that night instead of

How do you know what the suggested order for the Troop Program Resources is? Scouter magazine referred to Emergency Prep as the next theme but I haven't seen any "list". The boys are picking the ones they want to do, but it would be nice to know what is "supposed" to happen next month to encourage the boys to try a new theme idea. Sheila

At Pow Wow last fall the council had what they called a "Fireside Chat". Units submitted questions prior to lunch and the Council Exec. answered as many as possible. There was no "fire", "side" or "chat". It was informative and you could have asked a question about finance, but most questions were program related. I recently read that they are going to do it again at Pow Wow this year. I don't see how the Boy Scout units have any input in this though as it was strictly Cub Scout Units present. Hope this provides you with any insight... Sheila

Webelos wear the blue loops to signify cub scouts, just as the leaders. Some troop incorporate the loop color change into the crossover ceremony. Red is only for Boy Scouts. Sheila

Here is an example for you: CC/COR is responsible (volunteered) for letting brand new troop know about merit badge college. I call her the evening of the last day to sign up to see if everything was handled as I had not heard anything. She says she signed up her boys but did not have time to call everyone else (appox. 8 families). After several calls to district and other parents, we are allowed to turn in forms first thing the next morning which she graciously does since it is her resposibility. She always makes sure her boys are taken care of, and shows little concern for the others. Wheneve

I can almost guarantee that the IH doesn't want to get involved and will leave all decisions to the CC/COR. This is unfortunate. The CC/COR takes everything personally and thinks we are all out to get her. The worst thing I can think of that has happened is that when she doesn't followup and take care of Committee business, we step in and do it for her so the boys don't miss out on anything. Sometimes she gets offended if you call and remind her of something that needs to be dealt with and then accuse you later of trying to take over. It's a huge mess and I am working on it. Small town politi

No serious offense, the CC/COR has personal issues with a married couple who provide a lot of support. The district is aware. I was wondering if it was as easy as "see ya later" or if they had to go through some kind of procedure. Sheila

What is the procedure for removal of a volunteer? Does the CC or the COR have the power to remove someone from leadership? What if the CC and COR are the same person? This hasn't happened yet, but I know it is being considered. We are a new troop that is imploding from within so please pray for us to get along and get with the program.

I attended Pow Wow last fall put on by Circle 10 council (Scout Central). During lunch they had a Q and A session and one was whether they were considering a program for Kindergarteners. The answer from the big boys was that it had been reviewed and there is no plan at this time to implement a program for them. They also said that there was no plan to put the Tigers in blue shirts. Sheila

Following these rules will usually let the boys compete in our district race with the same car. You just have to do what works in your pack. I haven't had any problems with anyone with these except for my husband (LOL) who thinks they are too strict. I still would like some input on open class restrictions. Sheila Pack 3 Pinewood Derby Revised Dec. 2002 Basic Rules: All cars must pass inspection to qualify for the race. The inspection points are as follows: All inspections will be completed prior to the Derby Day! No last minute inspections! Car must be made

This is my fifth year planning a derby and would like to know what rules other packs use for an open class. Our regular rules are pretty restrictive to try and keep the race on more even ground. This is the first year I have had enough interest in an open class and am looking for input. THanks a bunch, Sheila

I can see the reason for the guides, because a few bad apples can spoil the barrel. We had a person on our roundtable staff that actually wore the webelos colors and the pins her son earned, and told everyone it was right to do so. Our district obviously knew about it and didn't want to lose a worker bee by correcting her, I guess. The uniform was so junked up with pins, patches and other items, that it looked tacky. I always see alot parents wearing the parents pin necklaces and ribbons and in my opinion, don't seem to blend with the uniform very well. Perhaps National need to sell smalle

If you can find people to be honest enough, some troops have admitted to letting that requirement slide. I know of boys who were allowed to hang on the side of the pool and they still counted it. That teaches a worse lesson than moving the requirement to the swimming merit badge in my opinion. Probably, enough people complained about kids not being able to do it or that the troops were signing it off regardless that they decided to change it. Sheila

Let me clarify, the pamphlet is current (2001 printing) but the data inside has not been updated since 1983. Therefore, they have concluded that he should wait until BSA updates the books requirements to reflect current data.

The troop currently has a 6 month limit and will only let the boys work on 2 at a time. Where do you suppose this came from? Also what do you think about not letting a boy work on a merit badge because the books info is out of date (atomic energy)? Sheila

Bob, Our district chair has said that he would offer Troop CC to us and it would be about 1.5 hours. What do you think he could be leaving out? Sheila

We purchased a track from an oar company up north somewhere. Found them by searching for tracks on the internet. It is made from solid hardwoods and has good instructions and quality. We have only used it once and it was nice. I am looking forward to seeing how it will be after a year in storage following their suggestions. Sheila