5yearscouter

I'm not sure about this part - this merit badge is not suitable as a summer camp offering. because I could see adding boy scout summer camp requirements to this badge. -cleaning and disinfecting the boy scout latrines after everyone takes a shower on the last day before going home so mom thinks they stayed clean all week, but that was their own shower all week. Sometimes the showers have an inch of mud on the floor and the drains are plugged. -do KP garbage duty. Drag the overfull garbage bags out to the dumpster, find out the dumpster is 12 foot high and you have to c

That would be an interesting take on Baloo have the participants come in, fill out a permission slip, collect driver's info, med forms, then work together in small groups to fill out a tour permit. then take them outside and show them how to do an outdoor flag ceremony. you could cheat and do an up/down and fold so you don't have to take it down later. unpack a trailer/truck of what you'd probably take on a cub scout campout, you could have everyone bring a packed bag with their camping gear but you'll probably end up with too much stuff to deal with. set up tents, dini

Joebob wanted training all in one place. this isn't bad http://www.grandcanyonbsa.org/openrosters/docdownload.aspx?ID=67200 althought it's a bit difficult for a newbie to get. breaks down to all cub scout leaders need youth protection training This is scouting Fast start for their program level (so tiger, wolf, bear, webelos, committee, cubmaser) Leader specific for their program level to go on a pack campout and get a tour permit/plan someone should have weather hazards and baloo to take the pack swimming someone (several) should have Swim Safety* W

Oh I'm certain BSA really doesn't need to get involved in this at the unit level. But since BSA thinks they need to be involved, it would be nice to give them a heads up to rachet down the panic level a bit, and to give a few guidelines for safer internet behavior from the ADULT point of view. most internet safety hints are aimed at kids or scouts-- don't give out your name and address and don't talk to strangers, and be careful what you post online, and info about the dangers of sexting. But honestly, there are some adults that should be more aware of what they say and who they say it

So, What do you think a reasonable electronic communication with scouts policy should be at the unit level? Can we write something to suggest to National that would come somewhere between anything goes, and this level of treating the scouts like babies? Obviously it would need to be different for different levels of scouting. Cubs contact thru parents only? Scouts....... I really prefer email and other electronic communication with scouts because it leaves a "paper trail." of course it's easy to edit something someone sends in email to make it say what the scout may w

oh dear this is getting rediculous. A leader can't email scouts without including another adult. so basically to avoid the potential of getting an email from a scout and replying to the scout, the adults should only reply to the scout's parents, the scouts themselves don't get to communicate with adults directly. text messaging really isn't covered well in this, but it is awkward when I don't do text messaging at all, yet my scout does, so he can't receive any txt messaging about scouts without including some other random adult? I do think a policy that having scouts as facebook

well if you don't have recess then you can pitch that not only do scouts teach the sports and games that the kids are missing out on, but I'll guess the school doesn't do much field trips, so you want to hit that scouting is about OUT--so outdoors, outside, field trips to out of the way fun places all over town. and then make those outings happen. I usually have gathering kind of looking around at stuff and passing out paperwork and an introduction letter. show off some of the things we did the last year(or 6, I'm at 6 now!) lots of pictures, take a science fair board and cover it in cu

with such a small pack you guys really do have to figure out how to all get along. And I don't think it's right to tell all the parents that they cannot attend den meetings. We harp over and over again that BSA does not = babysitters of america, so you really don't want a drop off program of parents at this age. for tigers the parents have to be there participating with their scout 1 on 1 in everything. and in Webelos they don't need mom or dad hand holding right there in their scout's faces telling them waht to do. but telling a parent of a webelo that they can't come to the

we usually give them a scout coin from the scout shop--the ones with the law/oath/do a good turn. we seem to pick a different one each year based on what the scout shop has in stock.

Scoutnut quote "As the opening poster put his question in the Cub Scout forum, and specifically mentioned Tigers in his post title, I think he expected to get feedback from Scouters familiar with the Cub Scout program, and the Tiger program in particular. The PSA (Public Service Announcement) Tiger Elective is not new. It has always been an Elective in the Tiger Handbook. Renax127 - Get ideas from your Tiger Teams. Ask them what they like about being a Tiger. What they like about the Pack. Maybe have each Team do a poster illustrating what they like best about Cub Scouts. Display

Basement dweller, do you do an LDS 1 year webelo program? 9-10 months in Webelos is so short, there is so much more to learn and more fun to have in cub scouts IMHO in an almost 2 year webelos plan. it's all how you look at it.

eh you can do 20 months pretty easily in webelos, we cross em to webelos by June 1st (right after Bears). and the troops won't take them until about March around here and would prefer April or May. that's actually more than 20 months. Not really sure what we are supposed to do with them if you say don't keep them 20 months, but we end up with 20 months or more to keep them interested in scouting. we spread out the 20 badges. don't FORCE any of them to be completed. we do hold their hands to make sure they all get fitness and citizen and one other to get their webelos

Well it's true that it's very very difficult going into a room to recruit new scouts knowing that if you don't get adults, you can't take any kids, you have nobody to lead them. but that is what you have to do if this pack wants to survive. when I say you, I mean the pastor, the cor, any committee any existing parents, anyone in your existing pack that has any interest in the pack continuing needs to show to recruitment night and be on the same page for how to continue. I would not want to be a cubmaster with a crazy person at the cc job. I can deal with having an MIA COR, many uni

If you show ANY MORE to the parents that you are capable of doing it all--meaning YOU running a joint meeting for all dens for more weeks/months, then the parents will assume everything is fine, you don't really need the help you are just talking. so you have to come at it from all sides all at once and make an ultimatum. Help me fix it starting now, or go elsewhere. 1st is parent meeting, all parents must attend. here's a movie (down and derby, follow me boys, etc) for the boys to watch while we figure this out. tell them the situation, the requirements from BSA for the pack

um, having been in a situation like this, I would run. and hide. and find a working pack and not look back. That said, it is not what I did when I took over the pack. I took the job of cc, since then I could be the boss. Cubmaster's run the program side, but in the case of not having a cubmaster the cc acts as cubmaster until one can be found. if you are going to continue to try to fix/grow this pack, you need to make some serious changes. if you have no leaders, you have no pack. explain that to the parents. in order to have enough leaders to really run the pack, if

The answer is that unless you bring new blood into the discussion, there won't be any changes. You have to talk to the parents and get one of them to sign up to do a job. tell them you need them to do it for 1 year, or til next recharter, and this is what they need to do. if you can't get the big job, then get the other jobs that truly count, treasurer in the hands of someone who will have the best interests of the unit at heart, advancement with someone who will go get the awards and come to the pack meeting with them (or 2 people doing each part if it's too big of a job). someone to make

other suggestions: have the boys start leading their own stuff if they don't have a scout as a den chief--gathering activities, focus on outdoor skills if possible. have a list of things they should do. involve the boys in the set up and take down of their meetings, doing their opening flag ceremony. Have the denner take the role closer to den chief (or maybe as patrol leader) and lead and plan as much as he is able to. note many of these boys are not mature enough to really choose their own activities, but they can be lead into choosing from two things, or looking up info on one thing t

get the old copy of the webelos leader book with 4 weeks of meeting ideas for each badge. get the new 2010 webelos book use the 2 of them together to work out a reasonable plan of action, the first has a bit too much details that may not adjust to your pack's scheduled events, the 2010 program doesn't have enough details to actually finish all the activity pins(most people call them webelos badges,not to be confused with the Webelos Rank Badge) The 2010 plan completely skips a bunch of them, or details 2 projects for craftsman when you need way more projects than that. plan out abou

My experience is that the brand new boys will be "signed up" for the trail to first class program. They'll probably also take swimming and maybe they'll get to do a handicraft or nature merit badge like say leatherworking and geology or forestry kind of things. the guys who need the trail to first class are often discouraged from taking the harder merit badges like pioneering, because they just don't have the age/scout skills/interest. New guys need to do kind of easy merit badges that will give them that virtually instant recognition and encouragement that this scout stuff is not tha

We give out the rank badges as soon as they are earned, although we did make a pencil pushing den wait an extra month or so to get their bear badge, but that's a whole nother story. so that means by the time we get to the end of the year, we may have a kid or two in a den who are just barely finishin up their rank badge, some who are getting a gold arrow or their first silvers, or a kid who may be getting their 7th silver arrow (or 15th, don't ask!). our last pack meeting, we give out all those last awards, ranks, arrows, LNT, World conservation, a few belt loops, etc. I'll tell you

I've seen uncles with nephew in tow drive to a scout event, get out put on their scout uniform shirts to designate they are now doing scouting. and before going home, take off their scout uniform shirts before getting back into the vehicle to help show that they are now family and not doing scouting any more. it's sort of a silly little dance to go thru, but it helps them to clarify that a scouter isn't driving the scout here and there, but uncle and nephew are driving together. I have also seen some incredibly crazy maneuvering done in order for one adult to drive home two unr

well first you go up to the scoutmaster and you tell em that you saw just him and a scout in the car and you just retook your youth protection training online(cause you want to be sure you have all the wording correct in your mind before you confront him) and that that appears to be a youth protection issue. then listen to his explanation. Honestly, we had a kid riding with an adult alone that caused a stir, except well, nobody realized that the kid that doesn't look like the adult leader, is in actuality their adopted son. It could be that there was no other way to get all the scouts

FOS coordinator doesn't really take that much time. Especially if you want to do a low key presentation. I usually do it for our pack. I have the little cards with envelopes. I pass these out to each family one on one with a note about the costs of scouting enclosed in the envelope--and I note that mostly the friends of scouting dollars cover support staff salary at council, with SOME going into camp upkeep and improvement(mostly that is from big money donations from businesses) and helping to pay utilities for the council office. I include a link on the pack website to do onlin

generator screen projector video of the christmas fireplace thing that people use on their tv's when they don't have a fireplace, mute the christmas songs though.

Perhaps we should make a list of things we think Richard should include in the guide to safe scouting, and the things that really don't belong in there. it does seem like he reads here and makes changes based on what he reads....