SMT376Richmond KY

Boys saying "I can't..." My son in particular. Doesn't try just immediately says 'I can't". I'll also have to agree with Christy?(sorry if I got the name incorrect)man bashing. If you subscribe to the media's idea that all men are pedophiles and perverts. Why else would a man want to spend his free time in the woods with boys age 11-18 unless he was some type of pervert. Number one reason why the YPT guidelines are what they are today. I remember plenty of SMC with that were done privately in the 70's. Spending time 1:1 with the SM bringing up the rear during a hike just he and I discusisng things in general. We had some of our best conversations then.

Here's one for the group (I'm especially interestd in the Scouts views). Our Toop has been asked to participate in a Girl Scout Spring encampment where Brownies and Juniors will be taught camping skills. We have been specifically asked if we would cook lunch for the camp the Saturday of the event. This would free up the GS Troop to concentrate 100% on providing the training to the newer Girl Scouts. I told she who must be obayed the GS Troop leader that I would present this to the PLC that it was up to them the boys to decide. Question, since most of these boys will be working on 1st class by May 04 if they do this could it be counted as a service project? Also what do you fine folks think of such an idea?

I like the Scouts in here. As a Scoutmaster I like to here their responses to posts. It lets me know how something will play in front of our Scouts.

Thanks for the advice. Went shopping last night and the troop now(with the help of a good outfitter sales guy)is the proud owners of 4 Coleman Sundomes. Strange the guy wanted to steer us away from the high end North Face and Sierra tents I was dumbfounded. He reccommedned for our new scouts all 11-12, either the Coleman Sundome or the Eureka Apex with emphasis on the Colemans due to the standard alumnanim poles on the Eurekas and extra cost associated with getting the fiberglass poles. I looked at the floor demos of both and for the $30.00 seperation in price. Could find little difference in overall designs of both tents. Actually the rain fly on the Coleman looks as though it covers more area of the tent (especially if blowing rain around the door)and would be easier for new scouts to set up. The deciding factor was price(could purchase 4 colemans or 2 Eurekas for what we had budgeted)and the fact that we will not be doing much heavy backpacking for awhile yet. At 6 lbs each for in and out trips these should be handled ok as these scouts. For now we truck into a site and carry from the road or parking lot. The chuck box weighs more anyhow. Besides we have 1 Eureka timberline and these boys don't like to set it up as they think it too difficult and we almost always end up instructing them several times before the get it up. So thanks again for the info it was helpful.

I need some more of that sage advice that I keep commin back to the well for. What advice can you folks give on what to look for in troops tents? Praticular brands styles etc. We plan truck in and pack in trips so we need tents that are capable of both.

Wow! Thanks for the information Bob. I'll contact the council office to see what we need to do. Both myself and the Packs current Webelos leader have done everything required to earn Cubscout knots but they were never awarded. I doubt the paper work was ever turned in. I only received my cubmaster knot because the CC wanted to give me a good send off when we instilled a new cubmaster when I took the Troop as SM. I'm still a Committee member of the Pack so I make a point of this to the committee each year to make sure the leaders are recognized for thier efforts.

Question for the sages of the forum. If a scouter had completed the requriements for a particular Square Knot but through a pack or troop mistake was never awarded it can they apply for it now?

Speaking of themes trying to get our district to renew fall camporees, it's been years since there was one. At RT last night the RT chair suggested an environmental theme but there didn't seem to be many that were interested. Has anyone done or herd of a throw back theme? Many things in Scouting have changed over the years. Like the NFL did with the retro jerseys it would be neat to show boys how Scouting has changed over the years. I have several old merit badge books from the 60's and 70's we could get info out of. Use an older version of the Scout manual for the weekend etc. Of course the whole thing would have to hold up to G2SS & YPT. Which weren't around when I was a Scout. What are your thoughts?

SCTmom Yes we did have siblings invited. This didn't help either. We generally had a good turn out at the district fall cub campout then nothing the other times we were outdoors.

I'll somewhat repeat form my other post. I am wondering if they will change the Scout and Tenderfoot requirements too. I know this year my son who just transitioned this year keeps saying "gee I already did this is Webelos." some of the "New" scouts are gettin a little peeved that he is able to show them things and that he is so confident in his Scout skills. Not that he knows everything as a Tenderfoot but compared to the other 7 boys he is ahead in some skills. Now in my previous scouting life as Cubmaster of the pack the past 3 years. I couldn't get boys to campouts due to that little rule of camping with a parent or responsiable adult. Many in our Pack are single parent homes with multiple kids so they couldn't or wouldn't be able to participate. Even when he had day hikes it was usually the leaders boys that came thus why my sons Scout skills are what they are. I remember in WLOT we were instructed to teach fire building skills to the Webelos so we did. Guess what? They loved it. We had several boys go to different Troops duing my tenure as CM. At roundtables these Troops commented how well these boys did in the transition without any difficulties.

Sounds alot like the Tenderfoot requirements. Perhaps we should give AOL's that bridge over the Tenderfoot by default. This was a big complaint of my son. "Gee I did all this stuff for Webelos why can't it count for this." Does this mean the second years who are just awaiting tenure will have to complete these new requirements since they finished most in their books last year. We have 3 in the Pack that will have tenure in November two of which have said they will come to our Troop in Feb at Blue and Gold.

Thanks for the votes of confidence. Thought I was doing the right thing. Just to offer some clarification. The skipping was taking place in an ajoining pool down stream from the wadders the injured scout walked from one pool to the next and both scouts faild to see him. I didn't see him walking as we treating a minor foot scrape of another scout that dispite being instructed not to go barefoot in the creek decided to do so as not to get his Nike's wet. We had planned for the event even informed EMS which the fire Dept is our CO where we would be they had a 2-3 min ETA once we called for anything that warrented emergency evacuation. Since this incident didn't warrant this type of evac we didn't call them (benifit of being an ED nurse and trained to recognize what constitutes an emergency). Parents picked us up at the trail head where we had orginally planned to come out. However, since we had to hike up the ravine to the top of the ridge to receive a cell signal it resulted in our coming our further up the road than orginally planned about 2 mi and this was difficult to ascertain where we would come out on the map since the farmers drive was not on the topo map we have from USGS. I culdn't hike to the top of the ridge and back and leave the ASM alone with the 6 boys. Yes, in hind sight having 4 leaders would have been great but as we all know wanting and having are two different things. Spoke with our DE yesterday and he was happy with the turn of events said he was going to use it as an example at roundtable when we start back in August. Hopefully we will get more of the parents to complete forms and training so we will have more help on next outing. Still proud of the boys for how well they did and they showed it Monday at the meeting. They seemed more confident in our debriefing as we do after every outing. Not as many negatives this time out. Didn't even complain about the heat. They met a challenge and used skills unbeknownst to them that they actually learned and din't know it, and that's what the program is all about.

Hi all Need your input. We had our first hike in backpack campout of our new troop this weekend. Plan was the farm was about 5 miles from our meeting hall. Left cars at hall Firday evening and was driven by parents to short cut to site where we planned to backpack in. All went well going in only 1.2 mi had map and compass to follow up instruction of new Tenderfoots on thier Secondclass skills. All were very interested in using the map and compass to discover where we were and where we were going. Saturday wadded in creek and hiked length all had fun. One ASM had to leave camp at 4 for fire dept work. No problem left myself, and another ASM with 6 boys. Half hour later while skipping stones across a knee deep pool one of the boys actually walked into a skipping stone and cut his forehead. Being an ER Nurse I treated the wound but it obviously needed stiches. I made the decision to pack up and hike out since, if I was taking the injured boy to ER would only leave 1 adult with 5 boys. Clearly against YPT. Injured Scout was fine no S&S or concussion etc. wound treated and dressed appropriately (good chance for boys to practice first aid skills learned druing tenderfoot). I was proud of the boys on the way out as we had to take a different route so the cell phone would work. They really jumped in and looked after thier fellow scout during the 5 mile (with full packs), hike out with little complaints of being tired etc. Parents at Monday's meeting are questioning why we had to leave. When I explained YPT guidelines of no 1:1 contact with boys, several said "thats stupid". I asked them to come along next trip and to even sign up as ASM's so the next time this will not have to occur. Sound like I handled it right? Was buggin out appropriate for this situation?

Our Middle School went to one of those "standardized dress codes". You know the PC name for school uniforms in a public school. Well I asked if the Scouts will be permitted to wear the complete uniform on meeting days and was told this would be an example of unacceptable clothing. The Dress code requires "collared shirts with logos no larger than a quarter and tucked it, belts, pants in a solid dark color without cargo pockets." The principal said "that the patches on the the Scout shirts qualified as logos = to Tommy etc. That the pockets on the Scout pants were cargo pockets in which students could hide weapons etc. That the purpose of the dress code was to aid in safety in the school and foster non competition between the students who wore designer clothes and those that did not. That if Scouts wore thier uniforms to school one day a week then they would be set off as elitist amongst the other students." Well Duh!! Seems to me that they would want Scouting to be a part of the school environment to promote the very values that they and Scouting enstills in the students. That if you had Scouting participation then you wouldn't need the PC police in the school to begin with. OK off soap box.

Know what you mean I received my beads this past Saturday during OLT for the council. Really a fun ceremony my 15 yo daughter even liked it and she's into GS and things BS are "wierd". Congrats fellow badger. "I'm growin old and feeble and I can beaaaaaaaaaaaar no more." BOWB

Quess I'll tell the CO rep this so he can check into it. I know they are a non profit orgnization. But when I was CM they never asked for any information on the Packs finances but then he had set up the Packs account initially so he may have been receiving reports from the bank too.

Bob "Has the group you have formed done the required governmental filing to be a legitimate non-profit organization. If not..every dollar brought in by the crew is income to your organization and is taxable by the U.S. government. (At last report failure to pay income tax is not looked on kindly.)" Our Troop is not a recognized non profit organization by the gov. However, to open a troop checking account we had to obtain a Tax ID number as several banks would not let us open an account without one. Our Pack already had an account while I was CM so we didn't have this problem. However, the Pack also never to my knowledge paid taxes on our popcorn sales. Do you mean we have to pay taxes on what we take in from popcorn sales or fundraisers every year?

My young scouts learned this first hand at our recent spring camporee. Being only 3 weeks old as a troop we went to camporee with the expectation that these young men (all 11) would not fair well in the competitions. Therefore, the committee and leaders opted to use the opportunity for some tenderfoot instruction. While having patrol knot relays a group of older scouts 14-16 yera old came by and were chastizing our younger boys that they were too young to be scouts. Having just completed instructions on the taut-line I wasked our boys if they would want to challenge these older boys to a relay. The Scouts inour troop took up the mantle and did indeed challenge these older boys and they accepted. I provided the rules to both troops. We started the relays and when the older boys came forward to tie the taut-line they stated "how do I do this I don't know how." Needless to say our troop of soon to be Tenderfoot scouts beat these "older Scouts" hands down. It was the most remembered part of the trip for our boys. They have all said they will remember their knots for sure. Well time will tell but I am planning on hanging hitching posts to the walls of our Scout building for just such purposes as knot practice.

Well, our Troop is brand new and are "Cash Poor" we would be more than happy to assist your wife in her delema. Actually we are having our first fund raiser this weekend. A car wash so if your near Union City Kentucky and need a car wash come by the fire department and help the Troop out.

Good responses When I was Cubmaster I always wanted the boys to keep meeting over the summer as like someone posted no school or other things to get in the way. However, in our area baseball in king even more important than school and one of the Cubs mom was a teacher at the local school get that. Any how I was happy when I brought up activity ideas for June and July and the boys said "Aren't we going to keep having meetings?" I jumped at this opportunity to inform them that it was their troop that if they wanted to continue year round that certainly was a decision they could make. The all voted to continue our Monday night meetings and a car wash, swimming trip and summer camp schedule. Not bad for a bunch of 11 year olds.

How many Troops take the summer off for meetings? Our boys have decided they want to continue tomeet during the summer.

Ditto DS. I will definatly send a note home to the parents as I have seen "A Time to Tell" and agree parents need to know before hand. Spoke with the DE last night and he and I agree that this could have been horseplay but he agrees the Troop should have a discussion and perhaps add Troop rules on consequences to behavior that the boys vote on given that this is a boy led Troop. I'm not going to dig vey deep in investigation just going to get both sides of the story and any witnesses. The ASM's and I will have a discussion as to behavior at next weeks meeting. We are also going to keep a watchful eye out on the interactions of these two boys as well as the others.

Nice responses so far. I plan on getting the other boys side of the story and discussed the matter with the ASM's we have 4. We came agreeded that there was way too much horseplay at this camp out and that we will rein in the stallions a bit. Don't want to thier spirit but we can't have them beating each other up. I'm guessing that the whack was part of something that got out of hand while the boys were waiting in line for the Bathroom. I will definately have the SM conference with the two involved and investigate the other incident as well. Going to get the video from council as well on YPT to show to the Boys so they will all know where we are coming from. Hopefully we can nip this before it gets out of hand.

Wow can't believe I'm the only one thus far. I'm a male registered nurse. Previously of the ER type for 5 years, but having developed osteoarthitis from a Navy injury in 1981 and reinjuring it in the ER in 1999 my Ortho doc told me I had to quit bedside nursing so I found a desk job as a nursing administrator for a federally funded research center. Also provides me more time for Scouting as I have weekends and holidays off.

I need some help. Our new Troop or young boys nine 11 year olds had it's first campout this past weekend at the Councils Sprping Camporee. At our regular meeting this Monday night one mom apporached me afterwards complaining that her son told her Sunday, that another boy in the Troop (his Patrol leader it turns out)struck him with a cane and threw sugar in his eyes. When her son asked the PL why he did this the response was "cause I wanted to." This did shed some light on the pieces of cane pole I found in our CO's building where the boys had gone on a BR break after the 1 hour ride back from our Council's camporee. Which when I inquired at the time as to how this came about several boys pointed to the Eagle patrols PL as the responsiable boy for the mess. I thanked this mom for alerting us to the incident and assured her that myself and the ASM would look into it further, but that her son should have informed either myself as Scoutmaster, or the Assistant when it occured not wait to have her approach us. I asked her to inform her son that he needs to come to the Troop leaders anytime he experiences anything that makes him uncomfortable. The boy had already gone to the car and left mom to plead his case. I plan on a SM conference with him next week. After the meeting the ASM and myself held a SM confernece with the PL in question to garner his side of the story. I asked if he had any details on any incident that occurred after our return from the camporee or how I discovered pieces of a cane pole in the CO building after the bathroom break. He brought up an incident of improper sign language during the ride home that occurred while I was securing the load in my van from a boy sitting in front of me. Both the ASM and I stressed the importance of his setting the example for his patrol as a Troop Junion leader. I then asked him point blank if he had occasion to either accidentially or intentionally strike a fellow Scout with any instruments. He denied he had any involvement and didn't know what I was talking about. I brought up the first point of the Scout law and asked if he was sure that this was his story. That this type of behavior can not be tolerated by any boy much less a PL in the Troop. He asked "what if I have to get ruff with them if they won't do what I ask?" IN UNISON THE ASM AND I SAID YOU NEVER LAY A HAND ON ANYONE. If he is having difficulty with a Scout in his patrol he is to bring the matter before a leader. He then proceeded to tell us things that our sons and one of the other ASM's sons alledged did during the camporee. None of which seem to have occurred in our recognition. My initial gut feeling based on this PL's responses the busted cane pole, and body language is that he may have indeed struck the boy. Perhaps not intentionally in an attack but in horsing around. I get the feeling he is lying but many 11 year olds will when caught. I'd like some input as to what to do next. 1. Strip him of his leadership position? 2. Take the other boy out of this boys patrol? 3. Have the two boys sit and discuss the matter in a SM conference with the other ASM's present?