trainerlady

The troop I serve could use a few more trained parents and our main ASMs and the SM need to be re-trained, they all sleep with their sons. They are also all male. The moms that camp all sleep in their own tents and the boys in theirs with a friend or by themselves. The boys seldom put up or take down the tents. Our troop also has almost as many dads on a trip as they do boys. I don't camp as often as I'd like due to my daughter, she can't come to BS camp and I don't want to ditch her every month for a weekend. My son and 2 of his firends are the only boys that regularly camp with out a

Gas prices have changed the way I look at weekend campouts. If SS had a ball game in the middle of the weekend, and needed/wanted to play in it, I used to have no problem taking him to camp on Friday, coming home, going to get him on Saturday AM and bringing him back Saturday after the game. Then going back to camp and getting him on Sunday. This was a standard practice in our unit. We camp within 30 miles of home most of the time so it wasn't a big deal to disappear for a couple of hours between meals/activities. SM's kid was the worst offender for this practice. His mom would do the drivin

Got an email on Thursday announcing a new SE for the Great Lakes Council, part of the Area 2 merger. One of the key points we were told before the merger was that we'd have lots less high administration and more DE's. Well now there hiring a new SE for a council that isn't supposed to exist anymore. So where is the reduction in top executive staff happening? More lies about how the merger was supposed to happen and the benefits we were supposed to see. So far the wonderful unified Michigan council has instituted a fee for signatures for volunteering at the national/regional levels, pro

I haven't watched the videos yet but I have a question for those more knowledgeable than I. Do I need a tour plan if I have an ad hoc group of scouts attending an out of council summer camp together? If so who would fill it out? I'm an ASM do i have access?

Canadian Girl Guides and Scouts Canada members use patch blankets. I've been to several international events with Canadian kids and adults and their patch blankets are quite neat. Some have even been cut in the middle to create a poncho type thing. The members can use them as a blanket on their bunks/sleeping bags if they get cold or wear them over a jacket as a poncho to add warmth. I have 1 friend that has over 20 year of patches on her blanket. Both sides of her blanket are just about full. A patch blanket always seems to start up an intersting conversation between two Scout/Guide

I'm going out on a limb here and saying that we get rid of the academic merit badges or at least cut down on how of them there are. Do we REALLY NEED 3 different citizenship badges? Family life is a make work project IMHO. A well functioning family will do this already and a poorly functioning family will never get through it, either way its a bust of a badge. Communications is really just Public Speaking with a twist or two. Don't know how it is else where in the country but my kids do boat loads of presentations and speeches at school why repeat in Scouts? If the concensus is having an

Wish my troop had had this problem. We have too many parents that want ot do things with the troop to the point that some boys miss out on the events. This weekend we are camping in a cabin at our local scout camp (not the cabin that caused all the problems last month and a different camp too). There are 17 kids and 7-8 adults going on the trip just over an hour from our meeting site. Last weekend we did a curling event, had 13 boys and 11 adults. If you don't sign up early for events in our troop you dont get to go. Along with the other problems my troop has we seem to run a "fun w

Bridging in our multilevel troop is very similar to crossing over to the next level in CS. Since we have over 30 girls in the troop we have some girls bridge levels every year. Sometimes its only 1-2 from each level sometimes its 8-10. We do our bridge ceremony at a park with a bridge, very pretty site. We send the Ambassadors to the far side of the bridge they receive the Seniors crossing to Ambassadors and they pin on their bridging pin/patch. Then the Seniors go over and receive the Cadettes that are crossing over, repeat the pinning portion. Then the Cadettes go over, now the whole t

TAHAWK, The fee is the idea of the paid staffers, primarily the higher ups. The underlings don't seem happy about it either. They're the ones getting the flack over it and having to enforce it. Those in the ivory towers that can't be accessed don't care they just want money.

IM Kathy, Don't know if my daughter's very large GS troop is using the new badges the right way, but here is how they are handling the 3 different programs. All girls in the Cadette/Senior/Ambassador troop we have (about 35 girls) can work on any badge from any of the 3 levels. They work on their age appropriate journey and Silver/Gold awards. If they are going to a campout and doing badge work they will vote on what level and which badges they want to focus on as a group. Then everyone partakes and receives the badge completed. Daughter is a Cadette and has 1 new badge at each leve

AK, Nike has some great points. May I add a couple of things. Have your new GS leaders check with their council and see what activities are already going in their area. Things will be winding down now spring is here but most councils have huge activity programs that are council run. The 2 councils I live in/near both publish 200+ page books every fall with activities that range from songfests to high adventure campng, glass blowing to SCUBA diving, mall lock ins to backpacking trips. Some are open to individuals to sign up for some are troop only activities. These books usually ha

Lisabob, I do remember that you are from Michigan, the northern section if I've figured you out right. Please let me know what is going on in your "old" council area. There are 2 paid Pros going on this gambit. Each was the paid advisor on the last jambo for his respective "old" council. Michigan has been merger central for the last few years. Last jambo fell about 10 months after the first merger in the state. Each original council sent its own contingent and staffer. Lots of things were coorindated but not everything. This time around they both get to go again. Less to coordina

If the embezzler was like some in this area (GS cookie money and a couple of BS people) then he'd "borrow" money when he "needed" and put it back when he "won". The amounts were never huge in any one transaction but they added up to some serious amounts when you totaled it up over the course of the "borrowing". The article didn't say he'd taken all of it at once or how the "distribution of funds" occured. NOT DEFENDING THE GUY. (emphasis not yelling) Just a possibility of how it never got noticed.

Basement, Haven't read the article referred to in the post this was spun from yet. But here's my personal experiences. My old pack had $5,000 in its account total. But most of the money was in individual scout family accounts. I think we carried about $3,500 in family accounts and about $1,500 in general operating funds after popcorn and other fundraising funds came in during the fall. By spring we'd be down to a hundred dollars in general funds but still have family account money. But it still looked like we had $3,500 in the bank. Big brother troop had accounts totaling over

Don't know about Philmont or other HA base advisers needing to cough up cash. Probably won't be long if you are a council lead crew, probably not if you are a troop going on your own, but who knows. We have 2 DE/DDs that are acting as ASMs for jambo. This will be their second go around with jambo. Their primary job resposnsibiliy is jambo. Recruit, order equipment, accompany, etc jambo. They are DE/DDs for the time when jambo isn't consuming all of their time. These 2 gentlemen were the first in the council to recieve assistant staffers to cover for them when they are gone or otherwise e

Kc, Only put it in to monetary terms given the situation my friend and possibly I are facing in my council to get signatures needed to volunteer at a national level event. Council wants another $155 to get the signatures on top of everything we volunteers here already give. I agree that my time is priceless and for the most part I do get more than I give at times. However, when I'm told that what I give isn't enough I get PISSED. Maybe my kids' school or our church would be more appreciative of my time donation. As a matter of fact my kids' school is more appreciative. Went to

When I worked a real job (pre National Supply) I was paid in the $20/hour range. I was not paid well for my skill set and knowledge but it was going rate in my field at the time. So if you figure a troop/pack/den meeting a week lasting 2 hours (pre opening to closing) (8 hours a month), monthly campout (36 hours of active duty/on call time at night), roundtable once a month for continuing education (2 hours), a trip to the scout shop for this or that at least once a month (2 hours round trip). Add in at home prep time for a meeting or special event of 2 hours a month and I'm at 50 hours easil

Just got home from roundtable. Spoke personally with the other field director, at least that was what he was before Area 2 passed. Now that the whole state of Michigan is one mega council not sure of the guy's new title. Anyway, he claimed he knew nothing about it at first. All he wanted was my friend's name. Told him that wasn't happening. No sense in getting my friend in trouble. After pushing the issue for a couple of minutes and a crowd gathering nearby he confessed about hearing about the proposal. Turns out that the suggestion across the new council board (possilby all of Michigan)

Just had a friend call me and tell me that in order to get his paperwork signed to volunteer at NOAC he had to cut the council FOS program a check for $155 ( family level suuport in our council). He thought the DE was messing with him, so he went to the council offices and talked to a field director and the CFO. Both told him that was the new policy and it would be published shortly. It would apply to all regional and national volunteer spots (NOAC, Jambo, etc). So now on top of paying to serve we have to pay extra to volunteer. I guess our council is so broke that this is seen as a goo

Not needed IMO. Have yet to see a good one in our troop or any that I have visited or interacted with. Election of an SPL leads to a popularity contest, not the election of the best boy for the job. In my When is enough enough thread, 17 was our past SPL and the current ASPL was involved in some of the monkey business too.Current SPL wasn't on the trip because he didn't want to go. He hasn't wanted to go on any of the last 3 campouts and isn't signed up for hte next two either. I'm sure he'll be pressured into going by the SM. Should just be removed and be done with it. SPL for mo

My Council fees are DOWN about $300 from the last jambo. National fees are $800 or $850 per participant of our $1500 fee. But since the boys are travelling by bus the costs are still higher than we had hoped due to the costs of diesel for the buses. Propane costs for our camps have gone through the roof too. So the 3 shake-down camps at our local camp will cost more than 3 years ago.Council raised weekend rates last fall by $10 a site or cabin to help off set the costs of fuels. Prices are going through the roof around here. Gas, diesel, propane, and food are all a LOT higher than 3 yea

The rest of Guiding and Scouting world calls today "Thinking Day". So Happy Thinking Day and Happy Birthday to the Baden Powells.

Just got back from meeting with the CC, SM and ASMs that were at camp and one of our troop Dads that is a juvenile probation officer (the committee brought him due to his expertise in youth behavior). Got the concerns sorted out and clarified. 17 had 4 other boys throwing knives with him by the end of the evening. All four will be sharing the cost of the drywall repair. The SM went out on Saturday night and got supplies to repair the wall after 17's Dad came for him. The council was alteredd to the problem today, they were closed yesterday and the ranger was out of camp on Sunday when

Basement, Not an Eagle yet, still needs to do a project. Not the kid of anyone important that I know of. Not even from the community where the troop meets.

We've known 17 for jujst over a year. Only seen Mom once and never met Dad. A broken home is a good guess. 17 rides his bike to most in town activities and gets rides home if it is dark or bad weather. His parents have never driven for an event. He has been Life since we started with the unit. Was SPL when we joined, then PL for son's patrol for the next term or office. 17 is one of those kids that can snow an adult into thinking he is the greatest scout in the world. Knows what to say, when to say it and how to say it. When adults aren't around he is a BRAT to say the least. I hav