5yearscouter

Beavah, In answer to what you said "Da Handbook is rarely current" yes, I know. The newest equivalent of the Advancement guide with some interesting changes is due out at Philmont this week. so handbook and Advancement guide (ACPP or whatever it's called) etc details requirements for advancement. We could do an overview in bylaws (or Guidebook) that says ranks go in this order, you get scout badge with scoutmaster, after that it's scoutmster confernce and board of review, and blah blah. summary paragraph or two maybe? for the COR bylaws say that they are annually elected and p

I agree Beavah there are just so many documents one should stay up to date on to truly do justice to "following the rules and guidelines of the BSA" that it gets overwhelming. If you'd like to write up a summary of each of those publications--a list like that would fit nicely in a troop guidebook-- it would be marvelous!! I doubt you have time or inclination to do so though, do you? When BSA keeps changing the documents, it's going to be nigh on impossible to keep a troop detailed bylaws up to date. every time BSA changes, the other documents have to follow. Now a bylaws could

if the form said "Adults authorized to pick up scouts from Scouting Events when the parent/guardian is not available." that might be clearer. I'm really not sure that camp/troop goes to a lot of effort to track who is bringing a scout to events. As long as the scout has the permission slips signed, he could be delivered to the troop meeting place for the event by virtually anyone, ride with a friend's family who lives nearby, or come in on bicycle, walking or city bus even. Pick up seems the more important thing that should be monitored and it needs to be clear, *who can pi

I'm in line to possibly take over as committee chair. I don't really want the job, because in any troop changes, I'll be up against 3 guys that are the "old guard" that have been in the troop for many many years. They don't want things to change and do put up roadblocks. Their kids have eagled and aged out and they are coming less frequently, but hit every committee meeting like clockwork. They were in on the last revision of the bylaws in 2003 or 4 and took out a bunch of stuff. So I guess the bylaws and such used to be about twice as long as it is now. :| The bylaws are not

Well the troop has been in existence for over 80 years, the constitution, bylaws and standing rules predates most of the adults in the troop. they are most likely changing COR's at the end of the year, since our existing one is going thru bankruptcy. so along with that, they will redo the bylaws. they want something in writing about how their meetings are run and finances, and are people appointed, elected, who gets to vote on things. stuff that we should just "know" but well we deal with adults who need things all spelled out and just cause the BSA documents for troop committees says t

Jet, I think I was standing in line in front of you checking in my son at Camp Raymond Sunday..... I've seen NYLT staff patches up above the right pocket for many years. NYLT patches I usually don't ever see those on uniforms at all.

yeah, I tried that one but they want more than that.

Just got a copy of the Troop bylaws 58 pages long, constitution bylaws standing rules and a parent guide thrown in for good measure. old, outdated, includes uniform info (red tabs and red topped socks) and old advancement stuff. So we need to scrap this thing and start over. who had a good, reasonable, fairly short bylaws for their troop?

Thanks! I forgot to look at the Med form FAQ. Forms should not need an FAQ and a full page of directions to fill them out.

BSA Medical form has a spot to list names and phone numbers "adults authorized to take youth to and from events" and "adults not authorized to take youth to and from events." Going thru the troop med forms getting organized for summer camp and see parent have taken that to mean many different things. We have parents who have listed only the parents on the list of who is authorized. we have parents who have listed only troop particular adult leaders (who by the way are not going to summer camp) and we have parents who have listed friends and family members who could take sco

Well just talked to Joseph. the unit wants to include girls and wanting girls to wear the cub/boy scout uniform. They don't have council's permission to do so. Seems he's been in a few meetings trying to not get his head on a platter about the whole thing. oops! And the pack in question isn't even one of his units, he was just the guy who answered the phone when the newspaper called. It was a fairly short conversation before Joseph changed the subject to something more pleasant for him. it seems like the pack in question contacted the newspaper to get more publicity and to

well of course if a cubbie has camped 100 nights I'd give him the patch that is available at the scout shop. but that is going to be very very unlikely IMHO, and that patch is not necessarily an "award" since the one at our scout shop is totally unregulated as a temporary patch. like I said I might count cub camping to get the award for a boy scout, but I wouldn't track cub camping for this award. http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/Youth/Awards/NOA.aspx since it says it's for boy scouts and venturers.

The boy scout trail list of things that would qualify as camping makes sense. Your unit could probably edit that list to fit your needs, that makes logical sense, and then the key is to apply it equitably to all scouts in the unit. Things count or don't count, don't be wishy washy, that's when parents get upset, to see something done differently for their kid than other kids. It's a boy scout award IMHO, it's not mentioned as an award available for cubs in any of my cub scout literature. I would probably not count cub scout camping. I'd say if you need to count the 4-5 nights of webe

I'll have to call Joseph Curtis and find out more about it. He used to be my DE and is now field director in Grand Canyon Council. Very interesting stuff!

I vaguely remember that if you write the name on the outside of the aluminum foil with mustard or ketchup from a squirt bottle it will survive the charcoal. anyone remember? you could do ham, butter, brown sugar and pineapple in alum foil, they don't take long at all to get warm, just gotta melt the butter, even if the pineapple isn't baked, it will still be tasty. dessert we've done a stale plain donut placed in the foil, butter and brown sugar and pineapple wrap it up and put in the coals and you make a mini pineapple upside down cake.

My pack we give the card and belt loop or pin the first time earned. and give a card the first time earned as a webelos. any other time you want to work on the requirements, you can send your grown up to the scout shop to buy duplicate belt loops or pins.

If you look at the old Cub Scout program helps guides, they didn't do much of any of the achievements and electives in the den meetings, instead they focused on the theme activities which sometimes counted as something. so in theory, parents were supposed to do most of everything at home. In comparison, the "new" cub scout delivery program has plans to do a LOT of the achievements and electives within the den meetings. Parents and scouts are sent home with homework to complete, which in many instances ends up being fill out this worksheet or handout (just like school). so to BSA it

Oh we have a Bear den leader with the similar problem. She regularly puts in for 30 or more belt loops for boys--oh these are the ones they've earned all year but we never put in for them, to the tune of hundreds of dollars for just her den of 5 boys. We have a budget for 2 a month, so yeah I guess since August they could have earned 20, but 30? we ask her to tell us which 2 are the most important this month and submit the others next month, cause we will only pay for 2 a month. I hate that rule, because occassionally the Webelos will do 3 or even 4 belt loops a month--like when workin

Well you wouldn't want to move them on to webelos right after they earn their Bear rank, cause right after their Bear rank they should be working on all those very very fun Bear electives!! You gotta be sure you are completely done with doing anything in that bear book , cause if you call them webelos and start on webelos, you can't go back and do the bear stuff once you start on webelos. Our pack graduates the boys to the next rank about the last week of school (last week of May, next Weds as a matter of fact, May 25th). That gives them a new hat, necker, slide, and BOOK. The new book

If you want quick success you can do pita pocket pizzas --fill pita with spaghetti/pizza sauce, cheese, wrap in foil and put on a small amount of coals, wait a minute or 3 and flip over. I think coal prep is the biggest issue with those, if possible, put something in the coals that can get hot--like a cast iron skillet, or a big flat rock, so they put their pita pocket on top and then flip it over but the coals dont' burn a hole in the aluminum foil. you could take a small tortilla, add precooked chicken and cheese, fold in half, wrap in aluminum foil and as long as it gets warm and

Quote rtullier: "Just as you state in your post, in one of my previous posts to this thread, I described the hours and hours and hundreds of my own dollars that I have given to the Cub Scouts to date. Given that you don't know the people involved and their respective actions that were felt by many parents at the event to be unwelcome at best, and offensive to everyone present, you are, respectfully, not in a position to judge this situation and the use of the term "allowed". " hahehahehahehehahea I'll raise you your one year in scouting, and your hundreds of dollars-- take what you'v

Right now the troop uses scoutlander website and sends most emails out thru there, which does not keep an archive of what is sent. A troop email address could be used to send copies and auto archive, and for those without login status to the troop email account, they could just cc to the troop email address so there is always someone else on the email and it can be archived. That's what I'll recommend. I'm mention to the troop the it looks like BSA is trying to make a social media guideline and that youth protection is their concern(2 deep, no 1 on 1 contact) and suggest that

Just like the written word here on these forums gets picked apart, disected, turned inside out and tone is lost in the delivery, the same is true for emails and other electronic communication. by email you can't tell intent, you can't see the joking raised eyebrows and hear the chuckle under the breath when someone isn't being serious. so words may get twisted and exaggerated. In person you can sit and talk to someone, if you walk off they have an opportunity to still try to get your attention (even if it's with yelling). with electronic communication if you get upset you can delete, block

Trying to decide if I should bring this up in committee meeting Monday night or if I should sit on it and wait to see if BSA clarifies the policy. since it mentions youth protection policy, it seems as if it would apply to all adult leaders.... In the short term, it may be best to NOT collect all the scout's personal email addresses (a project that has just been started in the troop) and to start using a troop common email address for most email communication so a copy is archived at gmail.

1. faulty track our pack uses a wooden track that is at least 20 years old, made by hand when the pack ran it's first race. Each year there are a few complaints about the track having some faster than other lanes, or lanes that aren't smooth. each year we suggest that the parents that don't like the track figure out a fundraiser to buy the brand new fancy metal tracks that everyone would want to see. The closest fix we've ever gotten is someone counter sunk all screws so none stuck out to catch a car. someone this year sanded and repainted the track and then applied a bit of wax to make