ShutterbugMom

The first person I called was someone on the committee. She felt it should be left up to the troop.

Thanks for all the replies. I did talk to our Scoutmaster last night and he is opposed to them also. The female leader that took the phones also sends out the emails and I see she has now added a #6 rule to the list of no phones allowed whatsoever at meetings or camp outs. It was not there before. There has also been a rule for years of no flip flops or sandals. I assume this to include slides and crocs. A small group met last night to finish geocaching and 3/8 of them had on unapproved footwear....yet nothing was said. So I feel as thought all rules need to be enforced or none. I am fi

That sounds how I would expect it.....using it for what it is needed for. Not for video games or social media. (My scout does not have social media.) But for information, scout skills and taking pictures I would be in favor of it.

I checked on that right away and they said it was up to the Troop.

Thank you for all the replies. I am glad to hear it isn't in the scout handbook and I am thankful most of the units let them use them responsibly. I feel like that is the best course of action. They are usually banned in our unit but we were told that they could take them for SeaBase. I am very disappointed this leader took it upon herself to take them from the boys and none of the other three leaders stood up to her and told her it had already been discussed that they could have them. So, most of the boys had NO cameras. My son had a waterproof camera and did take pictures, but there is

I thought someone here with more knowledge than me might know. Does it state in the Scout Handbook or the Troop Leaders handbooks that scouts may not have cell phones? I cannot find it, but we were told by a certain leader that this is the case. Let me be clear that I have no problem with cell phones not being allowed if it is announced ahead of time. I do have a problem with a leader that takes my son's phone when he didn't have it out and she made him (and the rest) dig it out of their bags. These are all high school age boys at a high adventure camp and they had them for pictures

Wow! Thankfully he doesn't have asthma. That is really scary. It was sunny and in the 50s this weekend -- but went down to freezing overnight, so I am guessing he was near it in the evening. He said he tried to stay away and stay upwind, but it got realy smoky once because someone put a green log on it. They were cooking over a camp stove. He should have been well dressed enough to not really need to be near it. I don't think he changed clothes all weekend. He had on his class As with a shirt underneath, plus he had a hoodie he wore a lot. And he had a winter coat and hat for

He got allergy shots for 5 years and they really helped. He rarely gets season allergies symptoms now -- maybe a day or two in the spring and again in the fall. We have him use Flonase most of the year and Xyzal during peak times. Hmmm. That might help, but he would probably not want to stand out like that.

I am looking for suggestions for someone who may have encountered this before. My son is a 3rd year, although he took a year off last year. Anyway, he has very bad seasonal allergies, which we can deal with, but he is super sensitive to the campfire smoke. He is very excited about Scouts now and wants to finish his Eagle, but needs 11 more nights of camping. In the fall, he was a bonfire party on a Saturday and was so sick that he was out of school until Thursday. He went to a camp out this weekend, and wasn't too bad when I picked him up in the late morning, but went rapidly downhill wit

Many aspects of the world in general nowadays seem to think that white males, including boys, are the enemy. And I tell you I did have to report it to the school when these little middle school girls who think they are high and mighty (again just a select few) told my son they wanted to cut line (while playing a game) and he said "No, I was in line in front of you." The girl and her friends replied "You have to let her, because you know about "Ladies First." He said "No, I don't. We are playing a game and we are equal." and he held his hands out to keep them from going around him and some

Well, we have several girls in the pack that mostly feeds our troop with several girls and moms that can't wait for their girls to join the troop so I am afraid we will basically be coed. I am not thrilled and neither is my son. And I am truly not anti-girl but I am sick of all the girls and their moms out to prove "anything boys can do, I can do better." Strong girls who see themselves as equals I am all for. Women and girls that continually put down men, I am not. And that is what I see happening. My youngest quit for a year over bad behavior of other boys but has just rejoined (his c

I so disagree with this. If BSA wants to start a separate girls program, that doesn't both me at all. And that is what they say, but that is NOT what is being done. I am a mom of boys only, so I am sure that colors my view. The rights of boys are slowing being eroded. Boys are not allowed to have ANYTHING to themselves. Girls are allowed now in Boys Scouts, football, and baseball. But boys are expressly forbidden from volleyball, softball, Girl Scouts and Girls on the Run. I should be clear that my boys don't want to join any of the traditionally girls groups but the rights of boy

I have a general question for girls joining a troop now. Didn't I read that girls would have separate troops with different Scout Masters, etc, although the same committee could have two different troops -- one for girls, and one for boys? Right? But then I read that the girls can meet at the same place and same time. Would they be in a separate area or would they be mixed with the boys? Just asking because I thought they would be separate, but now it seems like they won't? Thanks!

This is exactly the issue I have with adding girls. I have two boys, 6th and 11th grade, who have been scouts since first grade. My youngest, for two years in elementary school, was subjected to teaching assistants / teachers who had them line up girls in one line, boys in another. And then they said "Ladies First" and the girls ALWAYS went first -- which means they were first to activities and first back to prepare at their desks. After this went one for awhile, he was very upset. As he said "I thought you said we were EQUAL!" Which is what we have always taught the boys. (Of course we

Wow. That was really not helpful and kind of mean spirited to be honest. I'm sorry I asked. There are 4 of them moving as a patrol and they have been arguing among themselves for several weeks about the best patrol yell. I thought if I had a few fresh ideas for them maybe they could all agree and get started on the right foot. And FYI our troop patrols use their yell at the end of every meeting.

Our Webelo 2s are officially crossing over this weekend and have voted to be coyote patrol, however, they cannot come up with a short patrol cheer that everyone likes. Any suggestions? I've google searched and found a few funny ones that 10 year olds shouldn't use, but nothing else catchy. Thanks!

So now our Webelos 2 have a dilemma -- we've finished the ones that changed the most, however one scout missed quite a bit. With the new changes, however, he won't have as much to complete to catch up -- so I guess this is good, but it's kind of unfair to the ones that have completed everything? Also, he only needs one elective which he has completed (he has two) but the others completed 3. On the flip side, they ADDED to the Duty to God in Action, so the ones completing the religious emblem, have had MORE activities added to complete it now, so that is a little frustrating. But I f

Our pack is very fortunate that we get to sell drinks at the county fair. It is incredibly easy since it is very hot and the customers flock to you. So basically, we are asking each family to have someone spend 4 hours there to sell the drinks. It costs them nothing but a little time, and it is like pulling teeth to get people to volunteer. Yes, it's sweaty and loud, but easy and actually fun. I would be the happiest cub scout leader if everyone would volunteer (the committee and den leaders volunteer, but it is super hard to get others to volunteer......but we are working on it!)

I'm glad to know I am not alone in this frustration. I guess people do what they want to do. In relation to not showing up / not answering e-mails, I wish the other parents would realize we are 100% volunteers that use a LOT of our time, so the courtesy of a reply or saying they aren't participating anymore would be great. I feel you pain about the planning. Last year, I spent a BUNCH of time planning and organizing our Christmas party. We had 14 registered and only 4 showed up! It was so disheartening. And I get nearly zero parent participation. We finished all our requirements for th

Are you saying the kids thought it was boring? The Engineer badge. Okay, I must have a "strange kid" -- he loves to build things and he loved making the game. (Of course, both my husband and I are engineers and two of his grandparents are scientists.) He also loves to read and plays basketball and competitive travel baseball (less someone thinks I make him sit around and do educational stuff all day...LOL!) I have looked around our area and so far I have found NOTHING. I was hoping their would be a couple field trips where they could earn part of their badge there. Not in March....m

My husband is the den leader, and is an engineer, so that's why we are doing it. We thought we could do it in March while the weather is still iffy here, and we plan on the outdoor ones after this. We wanted to do the Into The Woods elective this month, but the trees have not even started to bud out, so we plan to do that next month. We also have spring break this month and a pack meeting, so we have less time for meetings. I should also mention we have BEGGED all the other parents to lead any elective and NOBODY has volunteered. We have 10 in our den, but a couple of them are sporadic

Yeah, those are the ideas I was trying to think of -- we just want to make sure it is something doable and fun. The table was the suggestion in the book. You don't think they would like a display for their future arrows? They just watched the current Webelos 2 receive their arrows so I thought they might like that. On the flip side, we did Game Design during the winter months. Two of the scouts were TOTALLY into it (designed board games and played them). The other two in attendance were uncontrollable, ran around, and wouldn't work on them at all. You just never know. We defini

We would like to do the new Webelos Elective Adventure: Engineer this spring. Has anyone done it yet? We are wondering how we should go able letting the boys plan / design their own project and building it. We would like to get it done in 2 den meetings (or 3). So, does anyone have any ideas on what we could encourage them to design such that they can build it themselves with some parental help? I think the example in the book is a table. That would be fine, but I'm guessing not many of our parents want to go purchase the wood needed for that project. And we are really tired of mak

I totally understand about not having a "one and done" mentality. However, it does seem ridiculous that the den leader would need to go one 3-4 hikes just to ensure everyone has had "time" to complete it, or doing the cooking, since that is a bunch of prep work. We did the hike twice, the cooking twice, several other activities twice. Out of our 9 boys, we have 6 I would consider "active." Of the parents, two families really help a bunch. However, I would like to see the other parents step and lead a bit. Yes, we have asked. Multiple times. Via e-mail and straight to their face. It'

Thank you all for the replies. We are doing the cooking and hike twice and repeating several others. Some of the ones I find to be a struggle are the ones like the fitness trail / obstacle course where they are supposed to repeat it twice and show improvement. It is hard when there are 3/4 of them at the first meeting and 3/4 at the second, but not the same ones...then half are done, the other half are only half done. Sigh. We had a third day we were going to do it and it rained. Of course, we also had some really bad behavior and one of the boys broke one of our stations (he knocked it