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 climb up the side ofthe thing to throw the garbage bag in. discover halfway up that the bag has a hole in it and is leaking STUFF in your hair.

there are probably more but those are my favorites.

oh sometimes pre week setting up the wall tents for the campers and staff and finding all sorts of state of decay, rot, mold and such on the tents that weren't properly stored all winter long. discuss the hazards of black mold and whether bleach really does a good enough job to use the tents for the summer.

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, dining area/kitchen, talk about a couple of different kinds of tents/sleeping bags and where to borrow equipment in your area. Have boy scouts along to act as the parents and teach any of them that need help setting up a tent they've never seen before and take over setting up the campsite when the kids get tired of that and want to play a game.

play kickball or maybe capture the flag, have a list of other kinds of activities you'd do on a pack campout.

maybe do a cub scout outdoor craft thing with a list of other ideas.

then collect over at the kitchen to go over some of the cooking rules, how to light the stoves and lanterns, make some food rotate so everyone sees how to make something in a dutch oven, on top of a gas camping stove, foil meals and directly over the campfire itself(coals) pass out some cub scout grub handouts to give them ideas on thigns you dont' have time to cook.

eat and show proper cleaning up,and any other food related safety issues.

break into groups and have each group practice a skit, song, run on, etc.

start a cool campfire and gather everyone for a short campfire program doing the skits and songs.

as the fire dies down, talk about a scout's own service,

hit on any youth protection rules, safty rules that you didn't cover

and open it up for questions and answers round robin style.

then have everyone gather for

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*

Webelos leaders should have OWL-outdoor webelos leader training, called by different names it seems in different councils, and is the equivalent of what the boy scout leader are taking.

*note, for our pack we do swimming in the summer at a local community pool with built in lifeguards. We still do buddy system and swim checks to guage ability groups and designated swimming areas of the community pool. Less risk than if we take them to the river/lake without lifeguards on duty. In that instance you can appoint your best swimmers as lifeguards and still suffice, but I'd err on the side of caution when dealing with little guys who may not know how to swim at all.

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 to online.

there are two trains of thought, put everything in your real name, own up to what you say, don't delete anything and just be who you really are online. Or put everything in an assumed user name, be careful where you post personal and private info and sort of keep a cloak of mystery about yourself online. The first may seem like a good idea, but the 2nd is what we recommend for kids for the most part to help keep them safe from predators and stalkers online.

The first seems to be what bsa wanted on the my scouting forums--user name could only be your real name for instance, and all your contact info out there for everyone by default. Maybe that's why the myscouting forums didn't take off, too many people not really sure they wanted that much of their personal info sitting there looking at them every time they posted their opinion. that and BSA didn't have good/fast enough servers to make it a useful service.

as an adult I'm not comfortable with the first level of public openness online. I often am home alone when all my boys go off to summer camp, or my husband travels for work and I live in a rural area surrounded by the 5th largest city in the US.

I don't really want everyone to know where I live and what is all going on in my life. I filter things a bit to at least give myself the illusion of safety. I go by a user name online, I don't have all my info hung out to dry on the internet.

Sure there are things adults need to be reminded of--basically that anything you say online will come back to haunt you, that nothing is really safe online(not even private websites) and be careful with the subjects you share with minors about your personal life--- but not being able to answer an email from a scout without also emailing their parent isn't going to keep anyone any safer.

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 want it to say to get someone in trouble.

Perhaps the unit could have an email address and any communications directly to scouts should be cc'd to that email address as "evidence" that nothing inappropriate was sent? of course my son's email address it set to automatically forward all his emails to my account, and I am comfortable with that level of security for my son. that would be an easy solution to always having an adult on the emails, but parents would be encouraged to do that level of protection themselves.

facebook and other social media BSA should just send a warning to adults to keep certain private life details as a scouter off of any facebook account interaction with scouts. that could be political discussions, say that you had a fight with your boss. or maybe the adults don't need to be friends, that the communication from the troop facebook page should be put up by the troop webmaster(a scout)?

txt messaging I'm still going with I don't need a copy of the txt messages my son gets from scouts or scouters. the sheer number of txts my son sends each month, well I just don't want to wade thru all of that even if I did have unlimited texting on my phone.

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 friends might be wishy washy but more for the fact that scouts don't really need to be getting all your status updates that may or may not be about scouting, and the way facebook keeps changing the privacy settings it's very likely to accidently see something publicly that you aren't supposed to have public.

Now what about the boy who just turned 18, and has been texting with his a teeny bit younger friends. all of a sudden he can no longer text them anymore, or only if they mention the word scouts in the txt?

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 cub scout photos. Each den is responsible for bringing stuff they've done to fill tables worth of gear. Decorate the room with camping gear if you can.

then after a few people are there, have a little intro with flags, teach a bit about the bobcat, a little bit about how scouts work (by grade, for school year), and a bit about the committment (our dens meet 4 times a month for the most part plus pack meetings).

Then we try to get the kids playing a game(sometimes before that if the kids are antsy)

you could do matchbox cars down the derby track,

you could do silly olympics type games.

our first roundup the boy scouts came and made popsicle stick bombs with the kids and they played on the playground.

our first real roundup where we got 30 kids growing from 4 scouts who stayed thru that first year--we had a roundup(might want to save that for the fall) with a fake cow to rope, a saddle to sit on, and a fake cow to milk. we also iced a twinkie with green icing and stuck pretzels in it. it was a combo pack meeting and roundup because we didn't have any reason to do it separately.

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 meetings is a great way to have the parents pull their scout out of cubs. especially if you have hover parents.

to deal with the hover parents in webelos, you can ask them to wait out in the hall, you can ask them to sit in the back of the room and not to interrupt. you can give them jobs, and you SHOULD put them to work like merit badge counselors "teaching" a webelos activity pin.

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 the posters at the next Pack meeting. Have your Cubmaster (CM) invite the boys in the kindergarten class to the Pack meeting so they can see the fun they can have as a Tiger Cub.

Happy Tigering! Remember - Tigers are G-R-R-R-R-R-E-A-T !! "

Yeah if you see a post in the cub scout forum

and it references TIGER cubs,

you could quickly check out a place that lists the tiger achievements and electives --like boy scout trail perhaps-- and figure out that this is a Tiger elective.

Or you could be perhaps a little bit nicer and ask

so, um, is this part of a Tiger achievement or elective? The meaning of PSA escapes me.

instead much nicer to poke the OP.

We gave the tigers some ideas to think of what is good about scouting, great about tigers, and they did it like a run on at a pack meeting.

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 badge.

then we make it very easy to get outdoorsman and readyman

and then we rotate thru doing a badge in each content area,

then do a badge in each content area again. by the time you do one in each content area twice you'll find that most of the boys will have the badges they need for AOL. especially when you tell them they have to complete one in each area.

let the boys determine how much of each of the

remaining badges they want to do. pick the most fun/active parts of the badges to work on. don't turn it into school and print out the worksheets.

It's nice to focus a bit on how some of those badges and requirements line up very closely with what is in the trail to first class. of course for a few boys that's gonna make them think, so I have to do all this stuff over again?

we usually end up with 2-3 in each den who do indeed finish all 20 badges. and others that get as close as they want, and decide to finish the badges that really interest them(like you'd do merit badges that interest you after doing the required ones).

the last few months, you are focusing on them leading their own meetings as much as possible, really learning their scout joining requirements, a few extra hikes and campouts, and some joint troop meetings. if you don't have something active going on right up to the bitter end, they will get bored in the meetings and not want to stick it out til you reach the end of cubs and can join a troop.

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 units never see that person except to get signatures on adult applications. I'd rather be the cc and put grandma that doesn't come to much as a cubmaster.

You really can't do anything without having a meeting with existing parents and let them know how bad it is. you should have a meeting ahead of time with the cc and de and anyone else you can get ahold of from the current committee plus the pastor who seems to have a vested interest in your pack. maybe he would take cc temporarily if he wants the pack to continue.

once you know you have a skeleton crew from existing parents, you can go forward to fill holes. skeleton crew = 3 committee, a cubmaster and a den leader. I'm not even talking about a den leader for each den at this point.

I know it does sound bad to do recruiting and send people away if you don't get a leader, but in many of the soccer and baseball leagues, if a parent doesn't sign up to coach and asst coach, then the team doesn't form. Parents have heard of that kind of thing before, they aren't going to be totally surprised by your demands that they choose a leader before they can have any meetings.

I do think you'll lose scouts if you take them from a super small pack to a pack with over 100. if they wanted a giant pack they probably would have already joined it, wouldn't they?

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 to continue thru til August roundup. that THEY have to step up now and do the JOBS until they find a replacement in August roundup or it stops now.

The pack needs to give the illusion of a united front going forward that they are as committed as you are in order to roundup and get a few spring scouts to do the fun summertime events, and to snag a few more parent/suckers to help them out.

2nd is applications for transfer or applications for leadership. give one of each to each parent in that parent meeting. It must be dealt with immediately.

3rd you CAN do meetings all together, ideally it would be at a school or place where everyone can meet together but for their den time they must go off to a separate place to do their stuff so you can emphasize that each of the dens NEEDS their own den leader and assistant.

you have to also figure out how to make it a bit fun and convenient for the parents. make some brownies, have some punch, have a bunch of resources sitting out on the table(but don't go overboard with ideas or they'll freak). go over the fun things you want to do with the boys over the summer and into the fall, and get the parents a bit excited about it. bring in a translator to help with the esl issue.

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 you have 15 boys, 1 parent per scout would have to step up. you need to explain it to them. the pack requires a cc, treasurer, secretary, cubmaster, asst cubmaster, leader and asst in each of 5 dens, that

explain to the parents how cub scouts work--that it is parent run. put the focus on the parents have to do the work, there is no person at national, council, district or the chartered organization that is going to do the work for the parents and that you can no longer do two jobs. blame it on council if you need to since nobody but cc can be dual registered.

==> so the new pack requirement is that every parent must fill our a leader application. Get the CC and COR to realize that this is a requirement to make the pack run and go forward with it.

Each boy must have a parent choose a job title (even if it is committee) and pass the background check. my pack did this when we had 15 boys and no parents signed up for any jobs except 3. We are still doing this when we have 45 boys. when they join they pay the cost of their background check(registration and insurance) and must do youth protection training and committee training. and then they must choose 1 pack job to have their name on and one pack activity to help run.

at recharter time, most parents who are not actually wearing a uniform and doing a job will drop to the scoutparent position(free at recharter time) but we don't really tell them that is an option.

doesn't mean everyone steps up, but it pushes the issue to the forefront, everyone MUST do a job of some kind. You can make brownies? you are now in charge a snack rotation plan for the dens and pack meetings.

next, with a small pack, don't tell everyone to go do their stuff at home. have all dens meet the same place, same night of the week. consider weekly meetings, 3 weeks are den meetings, 1 week is the pack meeting. if you can't get the committment, push people to the closet to that you can do.

having everything at the same place, means everyone has back up. this is key when you are getting new people to do stuff that they don't know how to do, don't want to do. they need to know you have their back.

you can do a joint gathering activty, joint flag ceremony, and then each den goes and does an activity. if you don't have a den leader planning anything, give them ideas. that means everyone may do something with trees for a couple of meetings --go outside and collect leaves on trees n a mini hike(yeah not really LNT, or bring some leaves from home), next meeting tigers do a leaf rubbing, wolves make a leaf collection, bears do pressed leaves and webelos work on identifying trees from the leaves and pictures in a book. don't do the same activity with each rank or they'll be bored next year. try to separate it out.

once a month work on a belt loop together as a pack. once a month do a pack meeting, and whenever possible make it a destination/outing/event. go to a baseball game with group rates, give out awards as you first enter the stadium before the game starts, sit together and cheer on the team (having done rules of a sport and the baseball belt loop ahead of time will fit most ranks).

go to a city center/mayor's office. talk about government, do a flag ceremony outdoors, talk about citizenship.

at roundup, have everyone come and sit down at tables by grade. advise them that you are a new pack, pack getting restarted, whatever. and that at each table is the boys in certain grades. that just like the local sports, before you leave the table you must choose a coach and asst coach and team parent(den leader, asst den leader and committee member/parent coordinator).

Explain the training required and if possible figure out how to get all leaders to take training together. talk to a local business or school/college computer lab and see if they will let you bring everyone in for an online training session, discussion, yearly planning meeting and refreshments.

good luck

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 a newsletter, someone to fill out tour permits, break it down into little jobs and get each parent to sign up to do one thing.

otherwise the pack will be toast in a short time.

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 they want to do. but 4th graders are still really really young (9 in most places) and how much they can truly do for themselves will vary widely. step back as much as possible and don't do anything for the boy, instead teach the boy to do it for himself.

the parents either are helping with an activity pin(webelos badge) or they are not hanging in the back of the room talkig. put the parents to work. get each parent to "teach" one of the badges, you fill in the ones that you know, and coordinate finding someone to do the others. check with the local boy scout troops to see if a boy or adult will help with any of the projects.

get a joint troop/webelo outing at least once a year as a webelo den. Have your boys starting acting as a patrol, planning their meals for campouts with help, setting up their own tents, tenting together as much as possible, and cooking most of their own food.

parents will want you to cover everything in the meetings. it's the heart of the 2010 program, boys are too busy involved in scouting, soccer, football, karate and more. tell them up front that there is no way you can do it all in the meetins, but you do want the boys to get used to working with an adult that is not their parent on a small group basic in something that is NOT school.

I will add that if you use the worksheets at merit badge.org, you use them to organize YOUR thoughts, don't turn the activity badges into HOMEWORK PACKETS for the boys to do.

parents don't sign stuff in their son's book. they can mark it with a sticky note if they know their kid did something. get the boy to bring their book to an approved adult(it does not have to be the den leader) for signature. download something like cub trax, but only use the main page to look at the den as a whole. it takes too much time to fill in a spreadsheet for each boy and it gets too important to fill in all the holes, rather than making sure the boys know the stuff.

try to get thru to everyone that webelos is still cub scouts "do your best" but that just half heartedly trying something isn't gonna cut it. you want to see them try. if the achievement says tie a 2 half hitches, it seems that over 18+ months of the webelos plan, they should be able to actually tie that knot, not just play at it.

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 about 1 badge per month, with some overlap of some activity badges we do start one month and finish later.

We tend to do the most of the "artsy/crafty" badges first when the boys will be more apt to want to do those, and do the more outdoorsy stuff later, although that is not a hard and fast rule.

We usually have newbies so we have to do bobcat and do some team building with communicator (messages back and forth) in August/sept and maybe a game for sportsman.

do fitness partly in a meeting or 2 and send it home for some one on one with their family.

spread out citizen with outdoor flag ceremony practiced with each boy leading, a visit to a state capitol building and some patriotic (by veteran's day)

outdoorsman at the same time as the above, 1 thing per meeting, to keep it from being boring--to prep for a campout and/or hike in both sept and october- this keeps us busy til almost December.

then we do part of artist making a christmas gift, have parents do the faith requirement. might do a craftsman project that could be a gift too, while focusing heavy on the oath, law, outdoor code stuff once everyone has that bobcat badge.

in january each boy does their own derby car with hand tools start to finish and a display stand. this MIGHT finish craftsman, but usually not. we'll pick it up later on with some leather working, each project usually getting a little bit more difficult.

finish artist and webelos badge by February.

then we'll hit on handyman and bike repair/auto, naturalist on a spring campout/hikes, usually throw in showman, and something else toward sportsman.

by May we'll usually have 8 badges and partial on craftsman and sportsman.

over the summer we'll suggest boys work on traveler and family member--most of them start it, but don't complete it.

we do aquanaut and one of the technology badges(engineer or scientist) at day camp plus a meeting to fill in the holes-there are always holes a week long (or long weekend) campout in the summer will give us forester and geologist, finish naturalist or outdoorsman if anyone didn't finish those, maybe something else toward craftsman and another sport for sportsman.

that gives us a total of 13 plus partial craftsman, sportsman, family member, traveler but there may be holes in those badges which will be worked on if needed in the fall/spring.

when we come around to august and roundup of new scouts again the den as a whole has to make the decision if we can handle new boys in the den who just joined and get them thru those initial badges all over again.

we usually take them so we have to touch on fitness, citizen and outdoorsman again, but that's ok those things are good to review. of course, we only do a little bit of them in the meetings again, along with finishing sportsman badge.

while doing citizen review in sept, we cover scholar(good citizen of school). that's 14

then we do readyman in october (and touch on parts of fitness-health and safety) that's 15,

family member usually the meal planning for the oct campout with the outdoorsman stuff

and maybe a trip to the laundromat, the rest at of family member at home. that's 16

then we finish up craftsman by christmas with a harder/cooler project that the older boys now can handle. that's 17

We start really pushing the arrow of light requirements/joining boy scouts stuff at this point--note we do oath and law at each meeting, one beginning one at end of each meeting except when we run out of time. so they know it by now, they need to know what it means.

boys choose if they will make a derby car or help run the derby if they are tired of it in January. January engineer or scientist whichever wasn't done at camp that's 18

February traveler with the map and compass stuff that's 19 and start on the last badge Athlete to do the 30 days of physical fitness stuff--right before they cross over. tell them to talk to their troop and do it again for tenderfoot right away. this also helps them get ready for any backpacking or longer camps as a boy scout they'll be more physically fit.

that's all 20 badges have been touched on.

I have a couple of other hints in a minute but this is WAY long. not really sure why I typed it all out except to hear myself think.

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 that hard.

so usually the T 2 1st is a separate thing, and doesn't require any other merit badges to accomplish. so don't tie it to pioneering, swimming, or any other badge. thing of T 2 1st as being the intro to things like swimming and knots. they do it as an intro. Then if they enjoy say knots and lashings, they'll then go seak out the pioneering badge.

I also think most of the boys will be lined up first day at camp for a swim test, and if they pass that, they get the swimming part signed off in their books fairly easily, so you don't even have to include the swim requirements in your trail to first class instructional time.

I think of totin chit, fireman chit, knots, flags up down and fold, hiking safety, you could do the hike and orienting a map and such. you could easily fill each day with the things the boys need. realize most boys will come in with some of the stuff signed off and they'll want to only do the few things they need help with so your plan may need to be easily changed on the fly as to the boy's needs and interests.

as for signing books. I prefer to see a list of items signed off by you but not in their book. then depending on the troop's interests and requirements, they can sign off those items, or test the scout on each thing before signing up.

I'd like to see a T 2 1st class instruct the items and let the troop test and sign books.

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 honestly that we try to have the den leader get SOMETHING for each scout in their den. so each boy gets to come on stage and get something(or in front of the campfire), but if it doesn't work out, so be it.

then we do a song/skit/activity.

and then we line up the 1st year webelos, and they don't need new hats or neckers or books, so we give them a boy scout oath or law coin for their pocket to acknowledge they've done a year of webelos and are now considered webelos 2's in our pack. We ask them to help us change the bear den into webelos. they change out hats and neckers and pass out new books to the boys that are changing to webelos 1's

then those guys call up the wolves, and turn them into bears, they call up the tigers and turn them into wolves. then we see if we have any sibings or new scouts we can turn into tigers.

that way everyone still gets to come on stage and graduate to the next rank.

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 unrelated scouts to two separate households, stop at first hour, drop off scout, pick up scout's dad/mom so they can drive to second house and drop off second scout, then drive back to first house to drop off the adult.

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 home in the vehicles provided (perhaps he has a 2 seater vehicle, or even have a seat belt isse--I had a seat belt latch break one time), or the other people loaded up and left him and he never could have caught them in his car without speeding so he proceeded home. We've had a few boys turn 18 recently, and leaders were concerned about the transportation issue, when they rode with adults without other scouts. so that is also a possible explanation.

or he could say something else that warrants a clarification that the ypt says something different (1 adult, 2+ scouts at all time in a vehicle--doesn't matter if it's on a crowded highway, or that other cars in their group are following them on the freeway).

if you do not get a satisfactory answer, I would discuss it privately with the committee chair and at that time consider taking it to the DE/SE.

The rules say "Notify your Scout executive of this report, or of any violation of BSAs Youth Protection policies"

talking to the scoutmaster allows you to determine if this was a youth protection violation or a misunderstanding of some kind.

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 online donations for those who are interested (council has that set up)

and I ask for the envelopes to be returned within 2 weeks with a donation enclosed, promise of a donation or zero written on the donation line.

then I collect about 5 envelopes back from a pack of 40 boys, usually a couple of grandparents donate $100, and a few throw in a $10 bill. On average we collect $250 a year for council.

In the past we WOULD get that money back in camperships, as we'd have a few boys apply for camperships to the webelos encampment ($180 per boy, plus $140 per adult for 3 nights, 4 days). Last year we had 2 boys ask for camperships and they were both denied. The pack covered the campership amounts requested (about $150 total) and has not done a FOS presentation yet this year.

I'm not certain if those two things are related, but our DE hasn't even asked us to do a FOS presentation yet and I'm still a bit cranky about the denied request for camperships.

BTW our pack recruits in a poor school district with 12 schools where most boys get free/reduced lunches (some schools are at 95% ffree/reduced) and the pack does all that it can to NOT pass the cost of scouting on to the parents for that reason.

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....