sheldonsmom

Today is the 2nd anniversary of the tornado that killed 4 boys and changed forever the lives of 100+ more. Remember all these boys and their families today. Keep teaching your troops/crews/packs all the first aid you can. It is never wasted time.

As my mother always says: "If everyone is jumping off the bridge, are you jumping, too?" Just because every other country has national healthcare, doesn't make it right for America!

Hal, You must have missed the people's republic of Lincoln and half of Omaha. They are most certainly democrat!

To err is human, to really foul things up you need a bureaucracy!

Along the same lines..... My Eagle son received many letters but our personal favorite was the one from the Department of Justice. The envelope was addressed to Eagle Scout son but the card inside was "congratulations on earning the Gold Award. You are a young lady of accomplishment."

When my daughter decided to study culinary arts (2 years), many people critizied the decision and said she should get a bachelor's in business and study culinary as a minor. My Eagle son will go to boot camp next year and many people are telling him that is a mistake. He should get a degree first. Why are we telling our children to go thousands and thousands of dollars into debt for a degree? A degree in business will not help my daughter get a job in a restaurant or catering business. She does not want to start a company or run a business, she just wants to be a chef, not a restaurantuer

I am often frustrated by public education being the sacred cow in budget cuts. Here in Iowa, the govenor has said that education will face no cuts but everything else will. Judiciary has been cut to the point some counties cannot hold court sessions! There are almost no court reporters left. At the same time, here in our town of 60,000, our school superintendent is one of the highest paid in the region, more than even Omaha which is many times larger! I do not advocate cutting teacher's pay, but do we need all those administrators? Our bus routes here allow rides for anything over a m

we have a unit targeted at home schooled boys since they were being missed in roundup and some (only a few) local troops had issues with home schoolers. We are also trying to start a deaf troop since we have a school for the deaf here. Lots of boy interest but not enough adults since many boys are "boarders".

Welcome from your neighbour to the north! I am in Iowa just north of you. Pull up a log, Theresa

Just a random thought on the topic.... Every one must lead something at some point. A husband will lead his family, a father will lead his children. Leadership is a skill that can be taught. A great leader is not born being a great leader; he must learn somewhere. No man is worse off for the training acquired in scouting.

Our crew took the train this year. Less time then driving without the hassles of flying. My $0.02

Hello, and welcome to the campfire. Pull up a log! T

Hi, Welcome to the forums! Our tiny pack watches the thrift stores carefully (found a brand new cub shirt yesterday!) and also eBay and shopgoodwill.com for scout stuff. We also have talked to larger packs in our area about any extra uniform pieces they might have available. Check with your council office, too, to see if they have a uniform closet of donated uniforms. Wish I had a better answer for you

I wholeheartedly agree! My house could really use the Home Repair merit badge!

XL, I think you are missing the point about telling parents one thing and allowing another. My concern was and is that alone. Little Johnny Boy Scout may very well be homeschooled (mine are, just for the record). My son is also, at age 17, in the Army Reserve awaiting boot camp. It is not that a scout was exposed to something like this. The issue is about ADULTS telling parents one thing and seeing nothing wrong when rules are broken. I expect Scouters to be trustworthy as well as scouts, don't you?

We use only the age. Because most of our boys are homeschooled, our grade system is a bit different. (A boy might be in 2nd grade math and 4th grade reading). Have you asked the parents which they prefer? If it was maturity issues, they might prefer him to repeat the scout level but the decision should be made with their input.

Personally, I would start with a SM conference on what the law means. Also I would ask him why he thought he could not complete the requirements. There really is no easy way to approach this. Few things anger me more than cheating/lying and I tend to have knee jerk reactions to it.

Just talked to PRAY and this is NOT true. They have tested the medals and submitted all the appropriate paperwork to the PTB. Even the books have been tested. How did we live to adulthood? This is so ridiculous.

Beavah, Just to clarify, I never said the parents didn't blame their son. They did and he was punished accordingly. But, the leaders had told boys and parents that these movies and games would not be present. To me at least it seems that the boys are being taught that rules are made to be broken. If the parents of a 12 year old boy are told that there are going to be R movies then they can make the choice of whether or not to send Johnny to the campout. If they are told there will be no R movies, and then the movies "appear" at camp and are watched by one and all with the blessing of th

I want to clarify one point. The scout did NOT blame the others for his actions. He confessed because he knew he had done wrong and should be punished for his own actions. The mother did punish him. The parents were upset that the games were there in the first place. Isn't it ironic that the only boy to be punished for breaking a troop rule is the one that confessed. The adult leadership's attitude was more that the parents knew the rules would be broken and it was no big deal. If the boy had not said anything to his mother, she would not have known, eh? It took courage to say, I have

My mother says this test is similar to the one she took in the 40s. Or just read the Little House books and look at her teaching exam! http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/2333-American-Education,-1895.html

After reading the topic on pornography, I am wondering about another problem. A local troop has an annual "fun campout" to which boys may bring electronic devices (game systems, ipods, tv, movies). The rule was that no games may be rated above teen and no movies above pg13. Parents of new scouts were told that this would be strictly adhered to. After the campout, a scout came home and told his mother that many games of mature rating had been played and a few r rated movies had been aired. He confessed to his parents that he had played one of the games and it was bothering him be

gwd This is what it is all about! It is why we put up with the paperwork, the bookkeeping, and council!

Ciao to a fellow Italian! I was born at Vicenza Army Hospital when my dad was stationed at Aviano AFB. He was the Cubmaster there for my brothers but we won't discuss what years!!!! Welcome to the campfire.

We use a den chief for the Tigers especially for games and high energy activities. It also gives parents a chance to go over electives and schedules for go see its. Just my $0.02 worth.