shortridge

I live a few minutes from Delaware's Atlantic coast, so my daughter and I have decamped about an hour north and inland to my parents' home. We're getting lashed by some pretty intense wind & rain right now, but the worst is yet to come overnight - the eye set to pass by the coast around 2-4 a.m. Hoping to get back home tomorrow afternoon to check out any damage. Fingers crossed for lots of folks tonight.

Back in the day, my council had a Camping & Activities Director. That job appears to have been subsumed by the job of Support Services Director, which includes camping, activities, resident camps, day camps, civic service, etc. To confuse the matter, my council has three full-time Program Directors. They serve as summer Camp Directors, supervising summer Program Directors, and also advise other council program stuff (civic service, activities, OA, etc.) The DFS position in my council is described as the COO, Chief Operating Officer. Don't forget camp Rangers.(This message has been edited by shortridge)

Ditto what Beavah said about the creepy factor. Keep those phone records, notes of dates and times, etc. - this is almost guaranteed to end up on the SE's desk. And if you have friendly relationships with other female unit leaders, you may want to discreetly check with them to see if they've experienced similar things. My gut says you're not the only ones he's doing this to.

What exactly does "play in the fire" mean? Does he keep poking sticks into the flames, stirring up coals, flicking cinders around? Does he keep building and lighting fires when there's no reason for it? Does he keep flicking a lighter or lighting matches for no apparent reason? Try "assigning," in a friendly way, of course, him to earn the Fire Safety merit badge. That might be a start. Or make him fireguard for a weekend when you do all campfire cooking (no stoves) - responsible for monitoring safety and fire LNT practices for the whole troop. He may surprise you.

So let's say you have Scouts fundraise until they hit the goal of $5,000 for the year for troop operations. Then anything they raise above & beyond that goes straight into their individual Scout accounts. Correct? So what happens when a Scout joins mid-year? Even if your fiscal year runs July-June, Scouts joining in February (e.g., former Webelos who've just crossed over) would automatically get a percentage of the money into their Scout accounts straight off the bat, without having done anything to support the troop. The boys who worked the first half of the year (or, more likely, their parents) could claim they were "cheated." It's messes such as this that make me despise Scout accounts. They put the Scout above the group, instead of the group above the Scout. Keep it simple. Put everything into the general fund, make a budget, stick to it, let the PLC decide how to use it on program.

Ahhh. Apparently the chess nuts and composite materials geeks both know how to write checks to promote their pet projects.

Calico said what I was trying to say, only better. That's exactly what I did when I earned my Wolf badge. My family didn't attend church, though we had in the past. We had a family discussion about what I thought God meant or was, about why we didn't go to church, about how other families believe different things and do different things, etc. "I don't think a scout should miss out on getting his rank badge because he can't complete one part of a requirement because his family chooses to not attend a church." And no Scout *should* miss out. The BSA says its policy "is that the home and the organization with which the member is connected shall give definite attention to religious life." Just because a Scout doesn't attend church, synagogue, temple, etc., doesn't mean they can't be Scouts.

Heard requirements are due out Sept. 7. Think it's kind of silly, myself. Singling out one game out of the hundreds out there - what are the criteria?

Stosh - What exactly does the campfire tripod do / how does it work? I'm just not able to picture that in my mind.

That requirement should really be left up to the parents. If their religious fellowship is their family, then the Cub should talk and find out ways to help the family. On the other hand, if the family's OK with doing a service project to help the CO, that would be fine, too.

Tin candleholders Paper origami gift boxes Rope buttons

The DE has told me he wont come,"someone local should do it" and is not a salesmen at all ... I told Council face to face "I need help" and they looked at me with blank faces, the DE, former DC and Recruiting chair then talked about the weather! Call your council office and ask to speak to the Director of Field Service, Field Director, District Director or Senior District Executive who supervises your area. Tell them just what you told us and ask for help. In particular, explain that without more leaders, you won't be able to recharter. That is just inexplicable. It is the DE's job to be a salesman and support units.

What is a non family Cub?

Whenever you get a large group of people on a small plot of land, that's going to have a significant impact - more so than a bunch of small groups. And the unfortunately common practice of car/trailer/plop camping, coupled with inexperienced leaders, can leave big scars. The best thing we can do to encourage stewardship as an environmental ethic in our outdoor adventures is to go backpacking, and use smaller groups while we're at it. (Skeptic - I think you mean Pinchot. Pinochet was the dictator of Chile, who lessened the impact on the environment by murdering people.)

Good luck! Is this your troop or your pack? Sixteen hours of sleep? Uhmm ... that's optimistic. It'll be more like 10 by the time they get done with it. What is your plan for meals? Boys cooking? Campfires or stoves? No matter what the age, trim those "fireside chats" down to 5 minutes, max. Better yet, make them activities. Do Kim's Game for a hiking kit, use an LNT game to teach one of those principles.

As a consumer, I would *NOT* provide my credit card to a group of people standing outside a store selling anything - especially not running it through a device that hooks into someone's personal smartphone. The information security issue and potential for some unscrupulous person to use a skimming device just weigh too heavily on me. Even if the seller is wearing a Scout uniform. Sorry. I'll just go back in to the grocery store / KMart / pharmacy and use their ATM to buy my Trail's End, thanks.

Counting "service hours" shouldn't really be that much of an issue. The *minimum* required for rank advancement to Eagle is 13 hours (one for Second Class, six each for Star and Life). Spend a couple hours washing dogs at the animal shelter, sorting cans at the food bank, shelving books at the library, cleaning up a trail at the state park or reading to youngsters in the local read-aloud program, and any Scout worth his salt can knock those off without lifting a finger. Opportunities are endless. As others have said, this is completely kosher - just the sort of thing Scouts should be doing. Go for it!

At the very basic level, the jokers are looking for attention. They don't care if it's negative or positive. Blowing up at them isn't going to help - they're deliberately trying to get a rise out of whoever's in charge, and get attention from their peers. I'll bet they do the same kinds of stunts at school as well. The SPL should ignore them and move on, and then hold them accountable at the end - assigning them specific duties based on the discussion, or asking them to send out their notes of the PLC to everyone else. Make it clear without saying so that that's juvenile behavior. On the subject of groups not paying attention, like Stosh describes, you might want to also look at the physical setup of your troop and patrol meeting space. My old troop used to meet in a church classroom. For troop time, we all sat on rows of folding metal chairs, facing the speaker, SPL, SM, etc. That structure made it easy for small clusters of boys to sit together, whisper, joke and clown around. It was very aggravating and not conducive to paying attention. One setup that immediately nullifies the opportunity for that type of behavior is a large circle or horseshoe. Everyone is in the "front row," so to speak, and no one can hide their cell phone behind someone else.

Additionally: Get the boys planning now about how they'd like to welcome the 7 new Scouts when they cross over next year - first few meetings, first few campouts, special adventures, etc. Will they want to use that opportunity to split into two patrols, both with a mixture of experienced and new boys? And make sure your adult leadership takes a look at the logistics and finances, as well (meeting space, patrol corners, event transportation, gear). If both adult and youth aren't prepared, you're going to lose most of those new boys.

11 boys is just barely a single patrol (especially with two of them unable to attend meetings regularly). You don't need an SPL and ASPL. Focus on being a single unit first, with a PL. That's the most important job in the troop. With regard to the ASPL who had a rough time during summer camp - how much advance warning did he have that he was going to have to be SPL for camp? How much training did he get in his new position beforehand? He may have planned on a fun summer at camp, just helping out the SPL, and found himself unexpectedly in charge. That can be a lot of pressure.

Perry was the Texas chairman for Gore's campaign, back when he was a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives. My understanding is that a lot of conservative Democrats hitched their stars to Gore's campaign, as the alternatives at that point were Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson. Perry became a Republican a year later, and then was elected statewide as Texas agriculture commissioner in 1990.

Beyond the patch and the card, there's not really an official award. Many, many packs and troops have traditions of presenting each AoL recipient with an arrow mounted on a plaque or piece of wood. But that is entirely optional.

Maybe because fewer kids play lacrosse than baseball, and it helps them stand out?

The basic method of the Roundtable will be to put leaders in the position of being parents and Cub Scouts, so they will FEEL the excitement and fun this method generates. I know this is a teaching method in vogue - "Let's pretend to be Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts so we can know what they want/need/do!" - but I think it can easily get to the point of silliness. Role-playing as a training method is fine, when it's structured - illustrating how to help a homesick camper, or ways to get a patrol's attention, etc. But just telling 30 adults "Time to play Cub Scouts!" can quickly devolve into ridiculousness.

Trevorum - I'm in no way disputing the importance of this issue, but I'm just wondering where you got your info about suicide being the leading cause of death among teenagers. The CDC says it's accidents (unintentional injuries, 48 percent), homicide (13 percent) and then suicide (11 percent). Cancer is 6 percent and heart disease 3 percent. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db37.htm