SR540Beaver

Pack, You will have to kill the dog on a full moon and bury it 4 feet deep in the woods. Just kidding. There is the old remedy of bathing in tomato juice. I've never had the privilige of being sprayed, so I don't know if it actually works. Dogs have survived outside in the cold for millions of years. I'd let it explore its wild side until the odor wears off. Now if your dog is like my dog, it'll sit outside the door all day whining to get in. But that isn't really an option....is it?

Scoutmom, Boy! Do I hear you! We had four of us from the same unit at the same Wood Badge. We were all assigned to different troops with different troop guides. We had to sit down with one another and hammer out our tickets because many of us had the same ideas for ticket items. It is kind of hard for two different people in the same unit to get PackMaster up and running as individual ticket items. We worked it all out, but it really put a strain on us to come up with ticket items that didn't overlap. FOG, Your ticket items are supposed to relate in some way to your current position as a scouter. If you are working your ticket, it should be benefiting your program and unit......not getting in the way of it.

I don't think our options in this case is suspenders or plumbers crack. I think it is suspenders or pants around his ankles. I vote suspenders!

The Council's job is to provide leadership for the contingent and a means for boys to go to Jamboree. The Council's job is not to find staff workers for Jamboree. The contingent is job one for them. Making you aware of staff positions is second. It has nothing to do with making money. Most Councils expend money and time for Jamboree, they don't make money off of it. At our very first Jambo meeting, we were told how many positions there were for leadership and that they usually got far more applications than slots. They told us that if we didn't make the cut and still wanted to go, we could attend as staff members. I don't see a conspiracy here. They told us both ways we could attend. One is cheaper and almost surefire. The other will require a great deal of money, time and effort and you must be selected from a group of applicants. Most Councils have no problem filling the leadership positions fairly quickly and have an alternate waiting list. If you don't want to go that way, apply for staff.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, I have been selected to serve as one of the ASM's for our 2005 Jamboree contingent. Our contingent will consist of 144 boys. Currently we have about half of that number registered. Obviously, the leadership is charged with recruiting the additional boys. For those who have been in this situation, what are some of the effective recruiting techniques you have used? Our council covers 24 counties in Oklahoma; probably more than a quarter of the state. We have 4 troops that have basically been divided geographically. We plan on finding out what our boundaries are and then getting a list of units and contacts within that area. We will make an announcement at Roundtables and visit individual units. I was thinking of making a presentation board with pictures and text and providing registration forms with a cover letter for parents explaining info on dates, costs, uniforms, etc. We would list the leaderships names and phone numbers on the letter. Does anyone else have any ideas?

Please don't take this as bragging. My son is a straight A student, so it is hard for me to put my self in a parent's place who has a kid who makes C's or D's and isn't recognized. My son loves to sing. But like me, he can't carry a tune in a bucket.....even with a lid on it. I've never hurt his feelings by telling him not to sing or not to quit his day job. He'll figure it out on his own someday. I didn't make that good of grades in school and know the sting of certain people always getting the praise. But I'll freely admit that I didn't apply myself very much either. The long and short of it is that if we continually protect our children up thru their 18th birthday (or 30th in some cases), we are only hurting them. It is a tough lesson to learn, but it is the way the real world works. Those who excel will reap more benefits than those who don't. The flip side is this; how does the straight A student feel when his work goes unrecognized and is given the same credit that a D student gets? Will he continue to do his best when he knows that doing less will result in the same praise? Here is a question for everyone. Do you pay you children for good grades. My son has been complaining because one of his friends got $120 for straight A's. A number of his other friends get paid too. To my wife and I, paying for grades is wrong and sends a bad message. We reward him in other ways. But they are surprises and don't happen each grade period. It might be something like taking him to his favorite restaurant or buying something for one of his hobbies.

I am not opposed to going OoC every other year. I've heard nothing but really good things about our council's summer camp. I took my Webelos II son to visit a troop earlier this week and was visiting with some of their leaders. I was told that they NEVER go to our summer camp! Have not been since '94. It's too boring for older scouts. I didn't say anything, but wanted to ask how they could make that judgement if they had not been there in 10 years. It reminded me of a kid refusing to eat something because he is convinced he won't like it. You never know until you try it. Maybe it has changed in 10 years....ya think? The thought of going away for a full week to a camp 2 or 3 states away was not enticing at all to my son....yet. I think it would be boring to go to the same place year after year. Rotating one year in and one year out and hitting different camps on the out years seems like a good balance.

Merlyn, They must have some tough Boy Scouts in your neck of the woods. I've seen plenty of Scouts tying knots and providing community service. I've yet to see any around here tying gays to fences and assaulting them. Perhaps a change of location is in order for you.

Heck, if you're going to wear a uniform; you may as well have something to hang on it. We'd all look pretty silly just wearing green pants and tan shirts without any identifying marks.

The good Captain has left us. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4038505/

This is the website of Troop 623 with a remembrance of the young man. http://www.troop623.com/index.htm

Just when I thought I didn't need my super secret decoder ring anymore and put it away, this thread starts up! Sheesh!

I'm no authority, but I think the answer is fairly simple. The car can be shaped to look like anything as long as it meets the requirements for wheels, length, width, ground clearance and weight. I've seen cars shaped like tanks, jets, 18 wheelers, pickups, etc. One was even cut to look like a coke bottle. As long as it meets the "standard" BSA pinecar rules, the shape does not matter. The car that my son and I are finishing for our derby this weekend is cut so that each wheel has independent suspension for a smooter ride. The body is only about 3/8ths of an inch high. Springs are not allowed in pine cars, but this design actually uses cuts in the wood to make a suspension system.

EagleinKY, We have what we call Pow Wow Plus. It has courses that covers Cubs, Scouts, Venturing and Sea Scouts. Leaders from all areas attend. Perhaps something like that would encourage Webelos leaders to come to a Pow Wow where they can get Webelos to Scouts Transition training and Boy Scout leadership training at the same time. Ours has proven to be pretty successful. Just about every training available was presented plus some personal interest classes like knots, dutch oven cooking, flag ceremonies, etc.

Laurie, I suspect that your council has elected to retain the old training. That either means they offer it in addition to the new training or have not adopted the new training. My council has a course seperate from IOLS called OST (Outdoor Skills Training). It is an outdoors skills course that takes two weekends to complete. My understanding is that it was an old course offered by BSA that was so popular in our council that they decided to continue it. It is in addition to IOLS though and is an elective course that can not be used to count towards SM training.

BW confirmed my understanding while I was typing my message. Thanks BW! My son crosses over towards the end of February. I will be attending the SM/ASM Specific on February 6th and 7th and plan on doing IOLS towards the end of February. I plan on registering with the troop already trained. I've already taken Troop Committee Challenge and Merit Badge Counselor at Pow Wow back in November. I'm also goint to take Safety Afloat and Safe Swim Defense in the next month or two. Already had YP, CPR/First Aid, all of my required Cub training and Wood Badge. I'm hoping I can ease up on the training and concetrate on good old Scouting after I get a fist full of training certificates. Just one hour a week! LOL

Laurie, I'm confused by what you said about your husband's training. But then, I'm easily confused. I got the impression that you were saying part of his SM Specific training was outdoors. What I'm familiar with is the SM Specific training and Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills (IOLS). Both classes are needed for an SM to wear the trained patch or to go to Wood Badge. But they are not part of the same course, they are two seperate courses and can have a completely different set of people in each. Did I misunderstand you?

We have found that the easiest way to recruit a CM is to club them in the head when they are not looking. Once they are out, put them in a uniform and wake them up in front of a pack meeting. It helps if you place leaders at all the exits to block them.

Acco, I assume you are talking to me about the additional pants, shirts and socks. I'm not talking about souvenir clothing. The requirement we were given was for each adult and boy in our contingent to have 3 uniforms to take to Jamboree. You could take the patches off of your current uniform and sew the Jambo patches on and only buy two more. Or some people may already have two or three. I have one and so far have found that to be sufficient for meetings and campouts. I'll have to buy at least two more for me and my son each.

Saltheart, I assume everyone was in uniform in their loincloths and bear skin neckerchiefs.....correct?

A thousand bucks and two uniforms? Can I come be part of your contingent? Since we are further away, our cost will be $1,900 and we've been told three uniforms. With pants, shirts and socks for both my son and I; that comes to an additional $500 or so. Don't get me wrong, I'll gladly pay it, but it ain't cheap.

Congrats! Hmmmm, Ive got to get busy on the rest of those ticket items. I used to be a beaver....

Wow Acco, you've got it lucky if all the spots are already filled! We had the leader interview process back in December and was notified this week if we were chosen or not. It then falls to us leaders to recruit boys to make up the balance of boy spots that have not been filled.

I found out this evening that we have 64 boys registered with another 80 to go.

dancinfox, Will do. They just settled who the leadership will be, so we will be getting more info in the future. The coordinator told me yesterday that he would be getting an e-mail out to everyone in a day or two with meeting dates and such. I'm interested in knowing how many boys we currently have signed up. Part of our commitment was agreeing to recruit 9 boys if needed.