TigerLisa

During the 2010 Centennial year, there were four "historical" merit badges introduced that could only be earned in that year...Carpentry, Pathfinding, Signaling and Tracking. Scouts in our troop earned and reported completion of 34 individual historical merit badges in 2010. These MBs do count toward advancement, and they appeared on all advancement and summary reports from ScoutNet...up until recently. BSA has apparently made the decision to completely remove any record of these MBs from their reporting system due to "abuses" by various Councils and troops. I guess what that means is people were earning and reporting them beyond the allowed period of time. Rather than leave the record of existing, properly-earned badges in the system for reporting purposes, BSA removed them entirely sometime in 2012. Scouts in our troop who previously had these MBs listed on their individual summary reports no longer have them. Does anyone else see this as a problem? BSA is telling us it's no big deal because "other records" can be used to prove the MBs were earned. I think it's ridiculous that they couldn't make a simple change that prevented anyone from reporting NEW instances of the MB without removing any record of the badges from the system completely. It just makes more unecessary work for parents and troops.

OwntheNight, that was a superb idea for how to end it! I say this as the poor Cubmaster who stuck myself with the job of re-pairing socks that had lost their mates or been re-mated with an unmatched partner. Out of 200 pair, there were surprisingly quite a few in that state!

We also did this recently -- at our November pack meeting. Our version was far less structured. We split the boys up into two sides, dumped the pile of balled-up socks (almost 200 pr. for about 30 boys) in a line down the center area between the teams, blew the whistle, and let them go to town. After about 10 minutes, we blew the whistle again, had the boys collect up the ammo and place it back in the center, and did the whole thing over again. They had a blast! The socks were donated to the local rescue mission to be handed out at their Christmas dinner. Win-Win.

I stumbled across the BeAScout page a couple of months ago and updated our "pin" information with our pack website and correct contact information. Since then I have received several leads from the site, a couple of which have resulted in Scout registrations. I've had mixed results with the follow-up tool for contacting the interested parents...twice the information actually went through, and once it appears to have been lost. Using the e-mail address the parent provides and contacting them directly (outside of BeAScout) seems a safer alternative. Still, it requires little effort on our part to keep the pin updated, so it is a no-brainer to do it and take advantage of the tool.

We started out with a custom web site hosted on Geocities (a former committee member designed it), which left us in the lurch when he flaked and dropped out. All of that content was lost to the pack. We then moved to Google Sites, which was easy to set up and update, but did not solve some of the privacy concerns that we had. Not everyone wanted to set up a Google account with all of the extra baggage that entailed. WE finally settled on Scoutlander, and that is where we stayed and intend to stay. We did a long-term domain name registration with GoDaddy.com so we were able to continue using our custom domain name, but it is redirected to the Scoutlander site. Everyone loves it, the content is secure to only registered members, and it is exceeding easy to use. The e-mail broadcast is one of my favorite features. I highly recommend Scoutlander!

Hello all! The campout went great. We had some wind yesterday which made setting up the camp kitchen a bit challenging, but no rain or thunderstorms at all. The temperature last night got to the upper 30s, but nobody froze and I didn't hear a single Scout complain...I heard some complaining parents, but I tune them out. The weather was perfect for breakfast, our Scouts' Own service this morning, and a rousing game of capture the flag. SO glad we did not cancel! Thanks again for all of the advice and encouragement.

Beavah, that's a good point! This person has also been a dedicated volunteer leader for many years, so I trust her opinion. The final decision was to go ahead with the campout, so away we go! The forecast for rain and thunderstorms has eased off a bit, but it's going to be C-C-C-C-C-O-O-O-O-O-O-L-D!!!

Beavah, thanks for your input. I did ask the person I felt was the most experienced local Scout leader/camper in our Council office, and her opinion was, "If I saw 50% chance of thunderstorms, I wouldn't even be considering taking Tiger Cubs up there camping." That's part of the reason I'm so conflicted about this.

The good news is that the forecast improves slightly every few hours...hopefully by tomorrow, I'll be thinking how silly it was that I had concerns. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

Found your old thread, Anamaria...thanks for the tip.

AnaMaria, I tried searching as far back as Jan. 2009 but couldn't find a similar question...I guess I didn't use the right search terms! Yes, it's hard to think about the disappointed kids, but imagining the possible worst-case scenarios makes it easier.

Our meeting space is at the elementary school where we are chartered, and they require 30 days notice, so that is not an alternative. We are trying to figure out if we have an alternate space in town to try and salvage some of the activities. Food shopping is tomorrow, so we should be able to make a decision before then. This is peak camping season, so a plan B campsite for 80 people at lower elevation (and less storm likelihood) is out of the question. There is no under roof shelter that I know of at this campground. Yes, I was also thinking of new campers getting turned off about the whole thing if it's not a good experience. Thank you for the comments, suggestions and questions...it's helping me to understand if we have considered everything before we make a decision.

Our pack is scheduled for an overnight family campout this Saturday at a state campground at around 6000' elevation in tall pines and surrounded by mountains. Unfortunately, the NWS is forecasting chance of thunderstorms and 50% chance of precipitation beginning Saturday night. As Cubmaster trained in BALOO and Hazardous Weather, I feel like the ultimate responsibility for deciding whether to go ahead with the event lies with me and the Committee Chair, although obviously our event organizers will be in on the discussion. My feeling is that if the chance of precipitation or thunderstorms is 50% or more, the event should be canceled on Friday afternoon (tomorrow) and families notified. I would plan to send an e-mail to everyone tonight indicating what our thought process is so that people can be prepared. If the NWS is saying 25% chance or less, then I would consider going ahead with the event and having an emergency weather plan in place for once we get up there. We'll have close to 80 people with kids ranging from Tigers up to Webelos. If they were all older kids, maybe on a Webelos-only camp out, I would think differently, but my gut tells me that with little kids along, we need to err more on the side of caution. I'm wondering if this sounds reasonable...I get the feeling that some on the committee would like to go ahead and just deal with whatever weather comes up, but I know that is the wrong approach with Cub Scouts. Not that it is an overriding factor, but if we cancel by 5pm on Friday, we get back all but $7 of our reservation fees. I have called our Council office and spoken to someone with a lot of Scout camping experience. She advised to be more cautious because of the age of the kids involved, but wouldn't really give a specific guideline. I guess I'm looking for a sanity check and advice on what guidelines others use. Also, what is the "gold standard" for weather sources to use? The NWS (weather.gov) paints a much more grim picture of the situation than accuweather.com does.

Okay, so it's not just us. We also keep a running list, but it's getting a little out of hand with 35 Scouts and several months of backordered items. We check weekly as well, and will continue to do that. Thank you for the responses!

We have had terrible luck both with our Council store and online at scoutstuff.org with finding some of the new belt loops and pins. I am curious if we are all in the same boat? Specifically, we cannot get the Video Games BL or pin, Nutrition BL, Hiking BL, Good Manners BL, Kickball BL....the list could go on. From what our Council store tells us, they have yet to receive the first BL of some of these so-called new items. I say "so-called" because they have been out for months already! I would be willing to phone order and pay for shipping from another Scout store if I thought someone had them. Our Advancement Chair is having to become an inventory control person in order to keep track of backordered items going back three months!