Tami the Mom

Thought I would come back and update, since this thread has gotten so much attention this week. My son went to DC training. His troop refused to acknowledge it, and gave him no credit or appreciation for his efforts. He continued to help at pack meetings for another year or so. We finally gave up on that troop and started going to a troop about 45 minutes from home, but getting him there every week proved to be too difficult, and when he missed a meeting he felt like he didn't know what was going on. After about 4 months of that, he stopped going to meetings and didn't recharter with any

Our pack always loved The Moose Song. Some people change the end (when the moose dies from drinking his juice in bed) but I never change it. In fact, I ramp up the sadness of it by howling and wailing until the kids can't breathe they are laughing so hard. It's always a favorite at pack meetings and at daycamp.

The Bobwhite patrol patch. Is there really nowhere it goes?

Where does it go on my shirt? I just got this crazy Bobwhite and I want to show it off!

Bobwhite! NE-III-183, one weekend down, one to go!

I think it would be helpful to you to sit in on any BSA training you can find. Extra training always helps. Is there a Venturing Crew you are joining into or are you looking to start your own? If you're starting your own, definitely get the training now and also seek the guidance of your local BSA and district advisors. You'll need a chartering organization and trained leadership/advisors for the kids.

I went to Northeast Regional in 2006 for daycamp director. It was fantastic! We learned a lot, but mostly had the most fun ever. It was from early Friday morning until Sunday afternoon, so we went down on Thursday evening. My certification is good for 5 years. My council paid the whole deal. I had so much fun, I jokingly asked the DE if I could go every year. He said sure, if I wanted to pay the $350 out of my own pocket. Um, no. It was fun, but I can wait 4 more years to go back!

Terrific! I was awarded the DAM last year, after being submitted by a fellow who won it himself at the same time. It was indeed an amazing and humbling honor. I think I hugged 45-50 people that night! I find that now, I watch fellow Scouters and think to myself, could I make a good speech about their stuff, enough to nominate them? Of course, the best story that goes along with this event was how I was notified. Our district commissioner, a very nice man who is NOT known for his sense of humor, called me one day. He said, "Hi Tami, hey - I have some great news for you. I just saved a bunc

I don't think you can expect anything productive to come out of *forcing* someone to volunteer. The trick is to get them to *want* to help out. We have more camp staff than we know what to do with - several who don't even have kids in Scouting anymore/yet. Why? Because we have so much fun, everyone wants to be part of it. And camp staff isn't just the 2 weeks we're at camp - it's monthly meetings from October to June, writing program plans, coming up with supply needs, sometimes hunting down those supplies themselves, setting up and tearing down camp. It's a lot of work, and they know it. Yet

Has your District Executive been helping with anything? I know mine would bend over backward to help a brand new pack get up and running. The biggest part of his job is building membership numbers, and new packs and troops are the fastest way to do that. Get him on your side and he can help you figure everything out. As for deciding whether to be ACM or CC, the thing to think about is, do you want to spend more time focusing on the kid-meetings or do you have more interest in the business side of running a pack? ACM or CM puts you in a position of spending lots of time with the boys - pac

I don't think I know anybody here IRL. If anyone is ever in upstate New York and you find yourself at a Twin Rivers Council or Wakpominee District event, ask if someone named Tami is there. I'm usually at all the Cub Scout events, even though my sons are all Boy Scouts. I love the Cubbies!

I agree - making one seems like a lot of work and expense, and very difficult to maintain straight tracks. We've loaned our track to an LDS troop who only has 8 boys, no money to purchase their own track. They sent us a folder of lovely thank-you cards from their boys and parents. When the time comes for us to upgrade to an aluminum track, we'll be looking to donate the one we have. I'd ask around and see if anyone could loan you theirs, or maybe even let you piggyback their day. Come in after their pack races, run yours.

This is something we always struggle with. One of the first thing I tell parents on sign up night is that their son will get from scouting exactly what they, the parents, put into it. I tell them up front, if you plan to drop your son in the parkinglot and come back an hour later, not work at home with him, and sit in the very back at pack meetings, scouting is not for you, sign up for soccer. So we get at least some participation. We're always looking to step it up, though. This year we are coming at it a little differently. We know that parents will never head up a committee or event.

Where's the AWESOME part..... We had 225 kids over two weeks, and only a few with discipline issues. Even the kid who kicked bruises on my leg and ripped a significant amount of hair out of my head came in and sat with me and talked afterwards, apologizing for his meltdown and gave me a note thanking me for helping him out. He's bipolar, goes to a special ed school for kids with severe emotional disturbances, and yet he managed 5 days of camp with only 1 outburst. His father told me he has to be physically restrained in school every day. I call that a huge success story. Everywhere I

It was two crazy weeks! No, we were Fiesta this year. Next year we're going with the National theme, so we'll be "Knights of the Roundtable" and in 2009 we are back to Space Camp. Well, where to start. The ambulance - ok, we started a new program for Webelos, which meant they were out a little further in the woods. So twice we had twisted ankles. Once, the boy said his pain, on a 1-10 scale was "15", until we made him lay down and raised his leg. Then his pain went to zero and he hopped up and back to the activity. The second boy walked himself up to the office, but after sitting for a f

I would caution against making your bank balance too openly public. Or at least do it in a controlled way. Not that you should keep it secret - never keep it secret. Just when you do disclose what your financial situation is, make sure parents know where the "extra" money will be going. We've had issues in our pack with parents who learn we have $300 in our account and wonder why we are selling pizza kits. Hmmmm.... could it be that we spent nearly $200 every time we do awards, and her den earns a lot of awards every month? Or maybe charter is due in 2 months and it will cost us $1000. Unless

My first official season as Camp Director at Wakpominee Cub Camp, and it was super! Over our two-week season we had 225 kids, plus all of their parents and a handfull of siblings. Here are a few of the highlights, I'll expand on them if anyone is interested. Physical assault by 10yo Police visit Ambulance visit Rabid Raccoon Projectile Vomiter Car Accident Thunder and Lightning Sing-along The Cherub Latrine Laundry Five Hours of Agony with the DOH (might have told this already) Why it was all worth it

We never sang as much as we do now. I love to sing. I do it badly, but I enjoy it immensely. So we sing. Repeat-after-me songs, especially gross ones, get everyone going. It's ok if some don't sing. The kids will. And the more you do it, the more they will participate. The biggest thing I can suggest is for YOU to learn the song completely, so you don't have to rely on songsheets. It can really kill the flow if you misread a word or lose your place and have to restart.

So, kraut-60, would you rather see the boys in their regular clothes than in the BSA shirt, slide, neckerchief and hat, if they choose not to wear the pants? In all the years I have been part of Cub Scouts, I don't think I have ever seen a kid wearing BSA pants or shorts. When asked, we tell folks not to worry about them, kids grow too fast to keep up, and the pants are so expensive. I'd rather see him in an official shirt and all the accessories, plus an activities shirt, than have him scrap it all and go back to his videogames because he doesn't feel like he fits in. I think a uniform b

We've gone thru Classb.com and a local vendor. Our classb designs were SP70 and SP502. Everyone loved them, they were relatively cheap, and the company is fantastic to work with. I called them several times to ask questions and get things straight in my head, and they were all super nice. My Girl Scouts used their sister site getyourshirts.com to order troop shirts for our trip to Hershey. When we went thru the local vendor, nothing but problems. First, we ordered navy, he got us royal. We went over to screenprint our own shirts, so here we are with 50 people who have just travelled 45 m

Every year at daycamp we try to give the staff funny nicknames that relate to our theme. A few years ago we were "Under the Sea" so we were all Spongebob characters. (I was Mrs. Puff! I still get called that sometimes when boys see me at the mall!) Anyway- this year's theme is Fiesta. So last year I was crowned "El Nacho Grande". Now I need to come up with names for the rest of the office staff! Help me! I need 8-10 funny nicknames. I'm going crazy with Babelfish trying to make up things myself, so I am begging!

Fantastic! We're still gearing up for camp. Yes, it is sometimes harder to get the grown-ups to get along than it is the boys! Talk to this year's camp director and program director. In our council, we're the ones who do what we call "travelling roadshows". They are mostly requested for B&G banquets. I am camp director, and this year I took one or two people from my staff with me to every roadshow I did, to help answer questions and for moral support. We got to enjoy about a dozen tasty banquets!

Hello! Well, we only include monthly themes when we are having a celebration type meeting - B&G, crossover, sometimes holiday parties also use the theme. We've also seen some resistance by denleaders to matching their activities to the monthly theme. They plan their meetings around what their boys need to advance. That's ok, I suppose. We ask them to help their boys prepare a show & tell of what they've done this month to present at pack meetings. We decorate the room with theme ideas, serve theme-related snacks.

We march in the parade. This year we made slides from little green army guys to wear! I recall that incident with the boy and the truck. My understanding of the rules, for which I have no source to quote, except my memory of reading it somewhere - is that ther are specific rules about riding on flatbeds. We've done it for other parades with no problems. We have the boys sit at least 3 feet back from the edge, nothing dnagling over the edge, nobody standing. They can wave flags or throw candy (if the event organizers approve candy throwing). When the truck stops - like for a judging stand

Well, we went for it! They were a HUGE hit! The boys loved them. Loved loved loved them! And the Veteran's at the American Legion thought they were awesome. I'm so glad for the feedback I got here! Thanks everyone! Oh, and in case anyone wants to make them for Veteran's day, I'll tell you exactly what I did. I got 3/4 inch plastic clear tubing - like fishtank tubing - and cut it into 3/4 inch rings. (It was $1.39 per foot.) Then we used "Shoe Goo" to bond the army guys to the rings. They seem pretty solid to me. My husband glued them Sunday night, we wore them Monday morning, and none of