SeattlePioneer

> Ahhhhh. Thank you. Despite having led a Tiger Cub Den twice and been a Cubmaster for two years, I had no idea. (And frankly, it's tiresome to have to struggle to interpret a lot of abbreviations when people could spell them out the first time). > Heh, heh! Unfortunately, that's what they seem like all too often to me! I didn't really mean to hijack the thread away from the original question though, nor to attack Renax particularly. It was intended as a reminder to our whole audience who could easily make things easier for readers.

Osama/Obama. Were they switched at birth? Was the man elected as President of the United States thae man who launched the 9/11 attack? No death certificate on Osama published yet.... Anything is possible! Now REALLY! I'm just having fun here!

I'm not believeing anything until I see Osama's long form birth certificate.

Oh, I think there are tasteful ways of doing lots of things if one puts ones mind to it. Without funding for councils, there arguably wouldn't BE Eagle Scouts. Raising money for Scouting is a fact of life. Part of being thrifty is for boys to raise money to pay for their own Scouting expences --- I might argue that includes funding for the council. However, there are lots of ways to do that, and an Eagle COH might or might not be a method chosen by a Troop or an Eagle Scout canidate. If a Troop chose aqnother method to help their council, that's certainly fine with me.

Yes, my son?

Unfortunately, we have yet another example of people using acronyms without explaining them --- a poor practice. Frankly, I have no idea what this post referes to. When people are writing posts, PLEASE explain the acronyms the first time they are used, even if they may be in common use. There are bound to be people who wont understand them.

Our district does callouts at Camporee. The callout team goes from troop to troop and does the callout before the assembled troop members. Effective, and just takes a few minutes.

Hello pchadbo, The DE is a fool. If I were treated that way I'd quit too.

> If you solicit a ride for a boy as a pack official and the ride goes bad, I wouldn't be surprised if you and the Scout Council and Chartered organization get sued. Lawyers are going to be looking for money. Unless you check, you don't know if the person driving has insurance, a driver's license or registration for the vehicle. You might imagine that there would be no problem, but you might be wrong.

Hello Raisin, > The Young Eagles flight sounds like great fun, but what about the 8 year old age limit they advertise? Was that an issue or did they waive it?

Hello Scoutfish, Of course, if everything goes OK, the position you take is fine. But suppose there's a traffic accident and the kid is injured, and the person providing the ride doesn't have a license or insurance. If you are being grilled by plaintiff's lawyer in a lawsuit, you might be pretty unhappy. We like to think that there is a bright line between doing things that are OK and doing thangs that are not OK, but often that's not the case. If authorities scrutinize a case, they may construe all the fine points against you and not give you the benefit of any doubt. If you want to be safe, you need to stay well away from potentially dangerous issues. That is the unfortunate fact of life in our litigious society.

You might CONSIDER holding the birthday party AS a den meeting, if you wished to do so. Lots of den meetings are held in people's homes. Get permission from the Committee Chair or Cubmaster, and perhaps include on the invitation that this IS a Den Meeting. If you don't want to hold it as a Scout activity, you could also specify that on the invitation, which would put everyone on notice.

Hello Moose, I'm not an experienced Popcorn Kernel, so I'll answer as a district committee person who works pretty closely with the DE. As a volunteer, I decide what I will do and how much I can do. I often have a meeting with the DE and outline what I figure I can do on a project. I'm open to negotiating with the DE about what I'm willing to do to work out the best fit I can. But if the DE or district officer want more done, they can rustle up some additional volunteers, or the DE can chip in his time should he wish to do so. I wouldn't let anyone push me into doing more than I wanted to do, especially if I'd informed district leaders in advance of what they could expect. Frankly, someone willing to be district Popcorn Kernel is taking on a pretty important and generally thankless job. SHAME on any district leader who dumped on a Popcorn Kernel! Another approach might be for a person to volunteer to do some specific things that might improve the sale results for the district ---- I mentioned the August Roundtable training I'm planning to spread to more units the popcorn sale business methods that the best units have found to be effective. Doing something like that might be very valuable, and there's no reason someone could volunteer to do just something like that, or offer to contact units to encourage participation as their only contribution to the sales effort. A volunteer like that might be appointed a Popcorn Captain, or perhaps a Popcorn Major reporting to the Popcorn Kernel! One advantage of offering to do that is if you can tell someone you are recruiting as the Chair for an activity that there is already an assistant to help, it makes it easier to get someone to take on the job.

I wonder if late spring is really rthe best time to conduct OA elections. It seems to me that would often be right after a new bunch of Webelos Scouts have entered the troop, and they may not have much of an idea of who is who. That might tend to lead to Scoutmasters suggesting people to vote for, lest no new Scouts not vote and cause few Scouts to be selected for OA.

Just in time for spring recruiting, the Chief Seattle Council in Seattle has established an excellent website on recruiting methods and ideas. You will need to take a couple of minutes to establish a free account, but it's well worth it. Lots of good ideas arranged in good categories, including those for Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing: http://seattlebsa.org/Membership/Recruiting-Ideas-and-Tools/

> I disagree with Scoutfish on this one. If the pack leaders arrange transportation for a youth, Youth Protection Policies Apply, in my opinion. For good or ill we have rigorous YPT rules. The tendency is to ignore them when they are inconvenient or difficult to do. I'm afraid Scouting is increasingly adopting glittering standards which are going to be increasingly ignored by unit leaders that find it impractical to respect them. I liked the suggestion of a Big Brother sponsor for this boy, although I imagine those volunteers don't grow on trees either. While unfortunate, a parent who announces that they are incapable of making any contribution to the pack, but are requesting burdensome special services is not someone I would accept for membership. We simply don't have the resources to provide such services. I'd prefer to be honest and upfront about that myself. (This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

Where's Kudu when you need him?

I think there was less confusion about counting the ballots for the Presidential election in Florida than in the typical OA election.

Sorry, if you are discouraging parents from attending you are encouraging a secret organization and activity in my book. If I found out someone was doing that I'd be filing complaints with OA Lodge leaders and the council Scout Executive. Frankly, the degree to which OA leaders keep posting on their methods of discouraging parents from attending OA events I find distrurbing. It's just WAY over the top in my view. You have lost the good judgment and perspective adults should be bringing to these positions, in my view.

For decades Scouting was as secret as it could be and still repeatedly appear on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

Nice story Eamonn. For my pack I issue boys a neckerchief cut from a decorated bedsheet as soon as they join. I cut slides from tree branches and drill a hole in it. The boys choose from among the slides the one that appeals to them. The idea is for the pack to encourage uniforming from day #1. After that uniforms are up to the discretion of the parents. I have some used uniform blouses I sell for $10 to those who are interested ---most are not. Often I encourage parents to consider buying uniforms for birthday or Christmas presents, or when a Scout achieves an award, such as Bobcat. If families want to wear just the neckerchief and slide they have been give, they are welcome to do so. Most get uniforms before long, some right away. My theory is that I prefer families to choose when and if such expenses should be incurred. Also, when parents become registered pack leaders, theyget the neckerchief ande slide just like their boys, with the Cub Scout helping put the neckerchief on their parent. Some parents have said their Cub Scouts really value their parent receiving their uniform. Personally I wear a full uniform myself as Cubmaster. My hope has been that other leaders would choose to buy into a regular uniform themselves, but that hasn't happened, not yet.

> My bias would be to suggest that's too much nose-to-the-grindstone stuff for one week of summer camp. And my bias is for Scouts to give Scouts substantial freedom to decide for themselves what they want to work on. It's not supposed to be school, but that's the way it sounds. I used to review the choices Scouts made and point out the difficulties or consequences of such choices, but they could choose what they wanted to do.

My pack recruiting night is May 9th. My campaign to get new parents to start contributing to the pack begins that night. Parents will be expected to fill out a brief questionnaire in which they identify the kinds of tasks they would either LIKE to do for the pack or the things they are GOOD at doing. New boys and parents will be forming the Bobcat Den at the next den meeting May 16th. I will be asking parents to do various tasks, such as helping with our Bobcat den hike and hotdog roast May 21st, leading Bobcat den activities and requirements, and leadin activities or activities at our June overnight camp. I'll be keeping an eye on how parents do those activities and choosing den leaders and assistant den leaders from among some of those folks. They will be awarded their Den Leader badge and pack neckerchief at the June campout as well, along with the new Scouts mostly receiving their Bobcat awards. I'll also be calling people and asking them to help with activities if need be. If they aren't willing to help, I'd expect to drop them from the pack at the end of the year unless there is good reason. Generally speaking, people can come up with an excuse once or twice, but find it hard to do so the third or fourth time they are asked. Once people have a good experience with helping they are a LOT more likely to agree to help again.

Trainers Edge ---- what a waste of my time! I thought this should have been billed as "How to Do Power Point." I really felt I had been deceived into taking that course.

Advice needed--- Are these storms Obama's fault or are they leftover business from George Bush? I'm guessing Bush was probably closer to where these storms got started.... Maybe they would have just been a tempest in a tea cup if Obama had made his birth certificate public earlier?