SueM

How awful!! We lost a scout in our troop several years ago in an ATV accident and it was terrible! My thoughts go out to they family...and also to the troop as I understand how it affects them too!

Sue M.

Eagle Pete,

Wow! That IS awesome! Maybe you should get her some other critter patterns and set her up in business!!

Sue M

John in KC

LOL on the Hooter's calendar..I can't say that I've ever thought of any Owls admitting to getting one of those to add to their critter collection!!

It was funny because I was just at my friends' (and fellow Beaver!) house for a new years' party and he had a bottle of Bobwhite something or other wine and I teased him about what was doing having Bobwhites in his house...the cork of the bottle has 2 cute bobwhite on it and I kept it to give to someone for their bobwhite collection sometime! Do I hear any bidders???

sue m

Boy..that's a tough one! I think that the best you're going to be able to do is to have them try them on and see what fits!! The hips are generally the hardest place to get a good fit with the girls pants...I know that's not much help but good luck figuring it out!!

sue m.

Jerry,

Congrats on finishing up your ticket!! I've been done since October but I haven't gotten my beads yet because my presenter has had to go out of town everytime we had a suitable time to do it..we're shooting now for the District dinner on Jan. 18th! All my patrol mates got theirs in Nov. so it's been hard for me to wait...

Which Beanie Baby did you get??...The laying one or the sitting one with the log?? I have them both.

sue m

Eamonn

I would have recognized an Eagle Scout badge...and understood that..there is nothing exceptional about this that jumped out as something other than it is a beaver pin that just happens to be made in silver tone and like I said, she had no idea..I have no intention of passing myself off as a SB, but I can't see why I can't paint it red/white & blue if I want and wear it on -something- without offending anyone!

Ok..bumping this up to see how many WB'ers got new Critters for Christmas!

Aside from the pin that I discussed in the other thread...I got a really nice picture frame with Beavers all over it..and a nice beaver t-shirt! I also sent out some Beaver Christmas cards!

Sue M.

I'm thinking that maybe I can get some metal paint and paint my pin so that it's not obviously a silver beaver pin and I can wear it on something! It's a gift that means a lot to me and my friend had no way of knowing the significance in what it was...she was just adding to my beaver collection in what she thought was a very thoughtful way!

sue m.

> Oh, what the >heck. In scouting if you're not having fun and you >don't have food, you're doing it wrong. Go have a peek >at the site. you can't miss it.

Greying Beaver,

Great philosophy!! I have a non-scouting friend in another state who for Christmas sent me a BSA Silver Beaver tie tac for Christmas...I loved it and I didn't recoginize it at first as an official BSA pin until she told me. So now is my dilemma...If I put it on, or wear it on something (like my smokey hat or my red wool!) is someone going to yell at me for wearing it??? I want to wear it..it means a lot to me that she went to this much effort to find me something so special!!

Sue M. (another greying Beaver...but they have stuff in bottles to help hide that!!)

I think that we've kind of combined the 2 questions into this thread as we're all talking about how to maybe make it more effective rather than the original but to get back to that..I'm finding that it's most effective if when you get new adults into the troop, you tell them from the start that training is an -expectation- rather than an option if they're going to be camping or working with the boys. We start out with Fast Start and YPT asap after they come in as possible and then they generally have to wait for the BSLT to be offered, but most are willing to do it...especially if the troop committee will agree to cover the cost..which ours does. We have been having pretty good luck with this method.

sue m.

Ok...I'm not sure who on this forum I'd be able to pin!!..

Festivus..the holiday for the Restuvus!

I highly suggest that you contact a local troop and donate them to someone locally. There may be a new or struggling troop who could use them. Most troops have a "uniform closet" that they keep to help new scouts or scouts who may not be able to afford uniforms get one. I was trying to put together a used uniform drive to possibly send to a council in the hurricane areas, but none of them have responded to our inquiry of need.

Sue M.

Last year, I was on staff for our District BSLT...was scared to DEATH about doing it as I had just gone through it the year before and was really at the very beginning of my own "learning curve" and scared to death that I would not do a good job. I have a very hard time being "front & center"..but overcoming this was one of my personal reasons for going to Wood Badge!! We had a small group of both staff and attendees...from experienced scouters to newbees. It was very open and informal. We presented our materials and provided a lot of time for questions, general discussion and comments. The attendees were actually wonderful -contributors- to the program instead of just sitting there listening, because we involved them in the process by allowing them to share their experiences and I have to tell you that it was a wonderful learning experience for ME!! The whole group was very attentive through the whole course and appreciative that when the staff was not sure of something..we admitted it and discussed it. We got nothing but postitive feedback from the attendees afterwards, so we must have done something right! I'm looking forward to being on staff again in March!!!

Sue M.

My own personal POV is that there should be a balance of both...you need to allow some adversity to happen to teach the boys what they need to learn, but you also need to know when to step in an TEACH those boys what to do and how to solve the problem the next time. IOW's let them fumble through things a couple of times to see if they can figure it out for themselves before offering help in one form or another.

sue m

I might be misunderstanding your thought process here but -shouldn't- the amount of time spent on the project lean towards the boy putting more hours into it then others, since he can and should also include all the time that he's spent researching the project, or possibly soliciting donations of materials, planning etc. before the project is started??

Sue M.

While this is a worthy endevor, I believe it would not be allowable because fundraising is not allowed as an Eagle project, (aside from raising funds for materials) even though it would be going to a good cause.

You could consider a food drive for your local community food bank or Salvation Army food bank. We had a boy do this last year during this time of year. Perhaps you could get permission from a local food store to set up a collection site there? Do some promotions in local papers, etc.

sue m.

Coincidentally...I have a boy in my unit who came up with a similar proposal for his Eagle project. He has not started to seriously work on it yet, but I did take a brief look at it. I'm not sure about it myself, but what we have always done is to send it to the District Eagle coordinator and if he signs it, then we don't have a problem. What I would/will do though is before doing that, I'll sit down and review the whole thing with the scout and get a better feel for his thought process in doing the project and how he feels this shows leadership, etc.

sue m.

Ah...Smokey..I see you found us with little trouble!

Ya' done be Beaver's proud again because it IS true that Beavers ALWAYS lead the way in everything!! Beaver's never quit!! (well..other than that ONE Beaver who we know!!)

Sue

Joe,

I know exactly who made it..it was one of my Wood Badge Patrol mates..and it would be Mark. I'll email you privately with the details.

Sue M.

I don't think there's any one specific answer..I think it depends on who is willing to do it most of all!

When I was the troop secretary, the CC (who is also our Training Coordinator) would do it mostly because we started using TroopMaster and he had it installed on his laptop and would bring the laptop to meetings. We tried letting someone else keep the records then later for a while and found that they were not up to date..or would restore from the wrong save from Troopmaster, etc. so things kept getting messed up. Now, as Scoutmaster, I keep all the records myself so I'm sure they're correct and up to date and then I send the updated file to the other adults. I also am the one who ends up taking the advancement forms to the Scout office so I enter everything from the Advancement forms as we turn them in too. I do most of the troop administration since I am a stay at home mom too, so I can generally do it easier than most of the other adults.

I don't think anyone suggested or even implied that the purpose of this training was to teach you how to take boys sailing..or kayaking or whitewater rafting or what ever...I think that the point is more that we came away from our initial training sessions without a strong understanding of what we were -supposed- to be learning (various safety procedures) and didn't feel like we could actually provide "Qualified Supervision" in either SA/SD just because we sat through the presentation and got a signed card!

The first time I did the training, it was done as the program at our Roundtable...our local Ship's crew came in and presented it and I have to admit that when I was done..I can't say that I had any real confidence that I understood what was presented!! I found the link though recently as my son had done everything for the Kayaking patch except for needing the Safe Swim Defense so I thought I'd check to see if it was available online...once I saw that it was, we both did them and I intend to make sure I do them again on a regular basis, just to keep myself well reviewed!

sue m.

Sorry to hear that this was such a wasted instructional time for you...it's sad! If you would like to though, both those "training" courses are available to do online at:

http://www.scouting.org/pubs/aquatics/index2.html

It's very convenient. I have a page on our troop website where I put all these links for doing the available online training courses, including the YPT so there are really no "excuses" why my adult leaders are not "trained" in these safety subjects. They only take 15-20 minutes to do and at the end you take a test and after you pass, you fill out the form which is reported to your council and then you can also print out a page for your own records & proof too! We are going to encourage all our scouts to take both SA/SD this way too!

sue m.

My troop has historically been rather lax as far as uniforms go. One of my goals has been to try and improve this. one of the things that we do ask is that if a boy is not going to wear a uniform and only a t-shirt, that it either be a Troop "class B" or other BSA related t-shirt (like from summer camp) or a PLAIN white or colored t-shirt with no advertising of any kind...believe it or not, it's -still- hard to get boys to even comply with those simple suggestions! Believe it or not...we had a boy show up at summer camp wearing a Hooters t-shirt..sometimes have issues with boys wearing things with a confederate flag (this being the south..many equate it more with heritage and see nothing wrong with it, rather than understanding that it may be offensive to others or not consistant with the aims of scouting)

Anyway..what I started doing was at the end of the meeting when we circle up, I have the SPL or Quartermaster call for a uniform inspection item..sometimes it's scout socks, belts, full uniform and sometimes just silly stuff (like smelly socks!) for fun and to keep them guessing and to make sure that there were some times when ALL boys "win"...but I will bring a bag of candy and those wearing the "item du jour" get rewarded. You'd be surprised how quickly uniforms started to be worn more consistantly when they had a "reason" to do it! (even if that was just a piece of candy!!) I used this same method to help the boys improve remembering dates and times. I would either give them the date or some small bit of information about an event and the first person to answer the question correctly got the treat...it got to where as soon as we'd circle up, they would all start reciting every possible date and time and necessity for that event before I could even ask!!!

sue M.

My scouts call me Mrs. and the other Adults leaders by Mr. Sometimes the parents will refer to me as Miss Sue (if they have a reason to send boys to me for any reason), which doesn't bother me too much..that's a different case though. I generally call the scouts Mr too, though will call them by their first name too (since I do also have 5 sets of brothers in the unit, sometimes I have to distinguish which one I'm talking to better!) I always address the other adult leaders as Mr in front of the scouts and if someone comes to me or calls me to get my attention, I will also generally answer them with a "Yes sir..." too, to hopefully eventually intill this response in the boys too. (I do know of some local units where that is a real expectation!!) The only issue that I have with it is that saying "Yes sir.." becomes automatic because I'm mostly dealing with boys and men and I find I end up saying that it to the other females out of habit!!...sometimes they don't quite appreciate that though!

Sue M.