trainerlady

Buffalo, Thanks for the info on Camp Davy Crockett. I'm looking for a camp for my son next year, we'll be out of the country next summer when his troop camps. They go week one, 2 days after school here in Michigan gets out. To all of you that say let him go to camp - NO!! If you guys can travel from teh Gulf Coast, we can come down from Michigan. Thanks again for the info.

Looked at one of the new micro fiber shirts at my old Scout Shop (yes I quit, couldn't take the BSA Supply crap anymore). Whoever thought these things up is nuts. The back vent is definitely not lady friendly. The first words out of my 11 year old son's mouth was ladies couldn't wear them because their bras would show. The back vent is abolutely idiotic. We had complaints in the store when I was there about the new Venturing shirts and women have bra issues with them. The new BS shirt is even worse. At least the Venturing shirts didn't have a roll up back flap. The back flap doesn't even roll up it just flops up with a swiss tab type affair an inch or so. The material is absolutely creepy feeling too. My 2 kids said they's never wear something that feels like this stuff. The 2 staff members in the store said that even though they get a free set of micro fibers (to show the new stuff) they won't wear them unless they are forced to do so. Personally, I don't think the material will last a week at camp, let alone a couple of years of regular unit wear. They are more expensive than the current nylon stuff too according to the store staff. Poly/wools are a better choice than this crud. And I'm not a fan of dry clean stuff. If ist Scout wear it should be wash and wear, durable and affordable.

Try the Windsor Scout Center. You can find the number on the web, I go into the www.scouts.ca site then look in the Ontario section under Tri-shores, or call 411. I think they have a list of units in Windsor with contact info and I'll bet at least one of them has experience with Haliburton. The Greater Toronto Scout office could probably give you some contacts as well. My nephew's old Scout group went but he was just a Beaver then. Don't know what his unit was. You might also want to check out Scouting Life the Canadain version of our Scouting magazine. I know they post them online.

In my five years of Cub Scouting the following numbers were achieved in my Pack. 4 years ago - 4 AoL earners, 1 Boy Scout after 1 year, not in Scouts now 3 years ago - 3 AoL earners, 1 Boy Scout, still in scouts, going to quit due to schoool and sports 2 years ago - 5 AoL earners, 3 joined Troop, 1 lasted the year and is still an active scout (not an option has a Eagle Dad and 3 older Eagle brothers, just earned 1st Class over winter) 1 year ago - 6 AoL earners, 3 started in 2 different Troops, only the 1 in non-traditionally joined Troop is still active. First year someone joined a troop other than the big brother troop (traditional troop). This year's crop - 9 AoL earners, 5 in 2 different Troops, 2 of 5 are not active, 1 for sure is dropping. Tradiditnal troop 1 left in program , 1 not active, different troop 2 active almost 1st class each, one dropping out. Reasons for dropping: 1) The traditionally joined Troop for our Pack believes in 1 rank per year (boys don't deserve Eagle until 17 yrs +). 2) Until this years crop none of the boys had camped, been held responsible for all their work to AoL, or ever been to a Cub Summer Resident camp. 3) This years crop had 5 only children, Mommys weren't ready to let go. No camping or activities without a parent going. Not flowing well with the traditional Troop. 4) Not making progress in Troop (see above). 5) High school too intense - too much homework, too many activities, GIRLS, CARS. 6) Cub Pack was clueless about programming at Cub level and didn't have a clue about BS level. 7) Traditional troop has no use for Cubs, therefore no conncetions for young kids parents to see anything ahead for their kids. 8) Parent burn out, leader burn out. 9) Finally, NO Coucnil or District Webelos-to-Scout transition program, and no support for those that'd like to institute a program. Hope this helps. Good luck on your thesis. TL

BP, Please re-read my post. I recommended REI for RENTING equipment. No one in my area rents but REI. If you want to buy the pack you rented they will put your rental fee toward that purchase. Yeah they may charge more for some stuff, they also cahrge less for a lot of what I have in my store. They also have people that know what the equipment features are, how to fit it and real life plus/minus factors too. Expert asistance can be worth the mark up at times.

I did WB 18 months ago, waiting for a good time for my beading. As others have mentioned you'll have at least 1 or 2 ptrol mates that can help you out with a tent for a weekend. In my patrol 1 member brought 4 backpacking tents for those that didn't have them. We took my 4 man (according to the box)tent too and all shared it for gear and dressing, I slept it in too. As for a pack try REI if you have one near by. Its worth the small (one time) membership fee to be able to rent a couple of pieces of equipment every now and then. They rent a variety of packs and will fit it to you before you go out. If you decide to buy a pack after your rental they apply the rental fee to your purchase. Have fun.

For the knee sock fans out there - I ripped into the box today and put a pair on as soon as they came in. Wore them for half a day. Nice foot fit, true to size (at least for me) and not too tight over the upper calf. Just in time for spring and summer camp. If I could dump items out of my store I would get rid of: - all plastic patch hanger things, sharp, tacky, and a pain to count - drawer pulls and coat hooks - haven't sold one in 3 years, just another box to dust -all video tapes - does anyone still have a tape player? -all the private labelled, cheap camping stuff that breaks on the first or second use. -all the different neckerchiefs - have one for cubs, one for boy scouts, and one for adult leaders (may be one for Webelos) -all the cub neckerchief slides - one universal slide for all -all cub scout handbooks, at most a Tiger/Wolf/Bear in one and Webelos in another What I'd add: -good quality, brand name, competitively priced camping equipment -a warehouse that never runs out of basic scouting supplies (bookss, uniforms, advancements) -have an integrated cub handbook - no need to pay for intro to cubs, Bobcat pages each year, many of the electives are the same, for that fact many of the requiremetns are the same too. Have a requirement - ex. Your flag, then have 3 levels of complexity, one for each T/W/B. -product training for store staff members - I can't tell which backpack is best because I don't backpack and have no info available to me to help you the customers. If I get the chance I'll pass these thoughts on to the powers that be. Keep the ideas coming. If you feel strongly about your idea follow up your post with an email or call to Scoutstuff.org.

AJR Knee socks ARE COMING OUT THIS WEEK!!!(caps for extreme joy) Yeah!! Should have mine in the store tomorrow. Can't wait I don't like the current ankle high socks they cut my calves in half. Old knee socks are on their last legs.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and insights. Some more info on the situation. Mom has a job that requires her to work mostly afternoon shifts during the school year and have short day shifts and lots of vacation time during the summer months. Hence she can do lots of activities with ASD boy and his sister over the summer. On the evenings she can arrange off during the school year she attends scout meetings with her son or GS meetings with daughter. On the nights she can't attend Grandma or Grandpa attend the meeting with the boy. They all live together anyway. Mom has made it a point to do ALL the online training there are and go to in person training and UoS when she can. When they started scouting in a different pack (they moved)she was an ADL (work situation was better then too). Mom has offered to plan meetings and get supplies for the den leader that complains she never has time to plan anything for the meetings. Mom even bought the DL a copy of the Den and Pack Resource Guide this year to help her plan meetings. DL says she can do better than that, but doesn't. DL as a rule, looks for the fastest, easisest way to get as many requiremetns done at once as posiible. She double, triple and even quadruple dips the boys through their badges. ASD boy however does each step of each badge and shows it to her. He completes the online worksheets and gives them to her too. I think this maybe causing some of the tension between him and his den mates. Den meetings used to be 1 night a month for 2-3 hours. Now DL had figured out that the den is behind and schedules meetings that are inconvenient for not only ASD boy but others as well. The den has gone from 7 boys in September to 3-4 boys now. Den meetings were set up at the beginning of the school year to be on second Thursday of the month. Mom arranged her schedule as best as possible to be off that night. Now meetings are whenever DL feels like it. She'll announce a meeting in a week, Mom makes arrangements, then DL bails out and changes days or drop the meeting totally. Mom and boy are then stuck if Grandma and Grandpa can't step in and fill in. Mom hasn't signed off any badges except Family member and handiman. ASD boy has presented DL with his work for everything that wasn't signed off at camps. While Mom advocates she doesn't fluff over anything. She wants him to work with others. Her goal is that he is adjusted well enough to the troop and them to him that his first summer camp in the troop be done solo (no Mom in tow). As for changing packs - at this point in the year not really worth it. ASD boy's pack will be shutting down for the summer in about 6 weeks (baseball season you know), most of the rest in the area end for the summer in mid May. Current pack does NO summer events. Grandpa and Grandma won't go to a site other than school - numerous reasons invovled. If he goes the Lone route and plays with the troop no need to find a new pack for fall.

I have a friend with a son in a very poorly run Cub Pack with untrained leadership. Her son has Aspergers (Autisim)and her family uses scout activities as a reward system for proper behavior. Mom is a fully trained leader (only one in pack and they won't list her on the charter) but due to work schedules can't DL. He loves scouting and to help his social skills the family takes him to just about every council and district event there is. He does summer resident camp, cub day camps (3 of them last summer) every year. Last year he was the only boy in his den to either type of camp. As a result he has earned all 20 Webelos pins, a belt full of loops and the matching pins, and has completed all of his AoL requirements except the age/grade part. He won't be eligible for cross-over/AoL until December of this year. Here's the problem - his den leader and den members are deliberately excluding from activities and meetings. The den doesn't have a set meeting night. This week's meeting was set to occur while the scout in question would be at the local Cathedral for his religious medal presentation (the Archdiocese has a special mass 1 time a year mass to recognize all scouts - boys/girls, campfire members and other youth groups that earn medals it's a BIG deal if you are Catholic). Mom addressed the situation with the DL and was told "big deal he's already done it". Well it is a big deal because the main reason he started scouts was to work on social skills. This is the 4-5 time this has happened this year. Den members call him names, luckly he doesn't get it. DL tells boy to sit down and shut up when he tries to help the others learn to do something he knows how to do. DL complains about boy's bad behaviour in front of the rest of the den. Boy doesn't like sitting (one of his quirks), DL sees this as misbehaving. The DL says she won't give boy AoL until a year from now because "they don't do early advancement in this pack". they all have to get a rank at the same time or its not FAIR, someone will have their feelings hurt because boy has his done first. (This pack hasn't crossed a boy over in 5 YEARS, no AoL in anyone's memory, never had a 20 pinner)Yet after a lot of fighting with Mom, DL and CM boy was given Webelos in November, rest of boys got theirs last week. Boy has found a troop he loves that loves him back. The troop has several ASD kids and just lets them be. He fits in, loves it and is talking about being an Eagle. DL stated she didn't even know what and Eagle was and why would you want to be one. Other than transfering Packs does anyone have any ideas? Boy goes to school with his den mates. Another pack could be very difficult for him to settle into due to his ASD. I say go play with the troop regularly, do Pack meetings and activities and push for December cross-over AoL. All thoughts welcomed. Thanks, TL

Check with your local national scout shop. At mine we have a baggie of old and new buttons. We just give them away when someone asks for 1 or 2. Never needed to replace a whole shirts worth. Also inquire at your scout shop about a replacement shirt. National lifetime guarentees all garments. The fact that 2 other shirts survived the cleaners and 1 didn't could be seen as a defective product. Good luck.

My council also charges training and district events the full rental fees for the use of camp buildings and facilities. We have cabins that have toilets and showers that go for $600-$700 a weekend (they sleep 60). A simple cabin, a well head outside and a laterine rents for $11 a bed per weekend, but the hitch is you have to pay for all the beds not just the ones used. We also have a 45 day cancelation policy. If your course/activity isn't filled to a certain level 45 days out you're cancelled. My WB class had to pay for dining hall rental, field rentals, cabin and campsite rentals (one weekend of each), staff quarter rentals, pavillion useage, propane and energy surcharge, contingency fees of 25%, copying services, food costs from the dining hall for the first weekend at usual rates (about $25/weekend/person). All said and done course cost participants $265. And the council wonders why we can fill a WB twice a year. I know councils can't give a way paper, toner, propane, staff members time but there has to be a better way. A few years ago Girl Guides of Canada and Scouts Canada raised their membership fees from $40/year to $140/year, a huge jump, but all their trainings and district events got substanially cheaper. The explanation was they were now covering "expenses" with membership fees and didn't need to make up the difference on events. End result more kids at events (in my area anyway - I live in a border area and take my kids abroad regularly), and an installment payment plan for memebership fees.

E92, Your local folks opted not to order more stock. I got 120 Centennial Bobacats the week before inventory was scheduled to start. I haven't ordered for the New year yet, we re-open tomorrow at my store. Stock will be available around the country if not from NDC directly. It takes some leg work to find what you need, but it can probably still be found. Shame on your National store staff for my trying other stores around the country to get what you need. That's our job. NDC can tell them exactly who has what and how many (reccords are a couple of weeks old but still usable). I get calls from Florida, Kansas, and New York regularly. I will call them in return. I also use Texas, Alabama, and Louisianna too.

Hi All, The word we have in the National Supply stores is that the badges (ranks too) will be available until the end of the first quarter of the year OR until supplies are gone. In my store we have about 300-400 of each merit badge. I knew a lot of boys would finish them off over the Holiday break. My just crossed over son was one of those boys (he got his first MB and it was Carpentry). So I ordered LOTS!! A brother coucnil in state had a BS day camp to do all the badges between Christmas and New Years. I'll be more than happy to help anyone get their needed badges, just IM me.

The new Astronomy book is already out. We received them in my store during the last quarter of the year, can't remember for sure when it was. We have been told February for the Robotics MBP. Geocaching came in 9 months ahead of what we were told. May find out more after inventory is over next week.

Merit badge books and the badges should be in all National Supply stores this week. Mine come on Monday. The position of my Council's advancement committee is once the books are in the stores the badge goes live.

I have no clue as to what the requirements for it are, but I'm getting a dozen of them in to my store on Monday. If anyone has a link to the requirements I'd love to get a hold of them. Thanks, Trainerlady

My former pack did something differrent every year. Last year the DL made time capsules for each boy to open a year after crossover - they were rather cheap and chintzy looking. The year before the parents purchased the shadow boxes from Supply and re-created the boys blue Cub shirt. At the price of those boxes you could go to a frame shop and frame the real shirt. This year I got each boy a hiking stick and medallions for each rank he'd earned in his career. My pack required the departing boys to pay their full year's dues even though we left in late Novemeber. As a result, as DL, I had a year's worth of dues to play with, we didn't spend anything on the couple of meetings we had (we were visiting troops for most of the fall). The combo ended up costing about $30 per boy. It sounds bad, but I wasn't leaving any den dues unused - we paid it, we were going to use it. Some sour grapes on this topic.

92, I tried one on and have one on order to replace the one Santa will be bringing me for me store. I also ordered the sizes that weren't "pushed" to me. In theory I'll have all the sizes available in stock by Friday. Box, If your Council store can't get it in for you in a timely fashion, I can arrange for Santa to hook you up too.

92, Not quite sure what you meant by question #1. As for #2, we do aim to please in our store and I think we do go the extra mile to get what a customer needs/wants. Charlotte treats phone/web orders as a necessary evil and they don't ususally care if you're happy or not. They sure treat us as an inconvience to their lives. As for anyone ordering for the Holidays do it quick. They aren't shipping to stores after next Friday (12/10/10). The warehouse will be counting starting the following Monday.

Scoutfish, Veteran bars are not restricted to the best of my knowledge. Why the ding bats in Charlotte wouldn't sell you one over the phone or via the web has me baffled. I suppose they wanted your unit's chartered date off your re-charter forms or something. I wouldn't even begin to know what paper work is required for a vet bar. A veteran pin on the other hand could be restricted since it's for personal service to the BSA not for a unit's tenure. But I've never sold one of them so I'm not really sure if paperwork is needed or not. I'll gladly sell you as many as you want. PM me and we can work it out.

Check out your local National Supply Scout Shop for these jackets. We all received our initial order of them the day before Thanksgiving. They are a nice weight of material and not itchy like the current red ones. Already sold one at my store.

Thanks for all the great ideas, please keep them coming.

Due to our previously planned family vacation my son will miss his first BS summer camp. He crosses over in a couple of weeks to an area troop. The troop camps the first week of summer camp at our council camp. I know the staff member that runs the provo program at the camp and several other camp staffers and they all tell me that the council's provo program is not a great set up. I want his first BS camp to be a good experience, not a bad one. He has done several CS summer camps and church/YMCA camps so staying at camp "alone" shouldn't be a problem. I know some camps are better at provo than others, but don't know which ones they are. We live in SE Michigan, I don't mind driving 3-5 hours (council camp is 3.5 hours away) for a good experience. I'm also considering volunteering at a camp too. As a BSA employee there is an expectation that we volunteer. I am not a helicopter parent, just using my gas wisely. If I drive a long distance each way to drop and pick-up and need to volunteer, I might as well stay where he goes. We have also considered asking another local troop to take him with them later in the summer, but we aren't sure how that'd fly either. Your thoughts and suggestions will be appreciated.

Tokala, Your course was only $175 mine was $265, clothing extra. Wish I'd come your way. Courses here are offered yearly in the fall. We have had problems filling them. Mine was given a week extension on registration by the Central Region because they knew that there'd be 3 cousres within a 4 hour drive of our site canceled the same week as we were supposed to close registration. All the cousres started and ended within a 2 week span of each other. It is always a struggle here and in the neighboring councils to fill courses. There are 4 councils around us that cluster, us and 2 more that try to go it alone. I couldn't imagine trying to cluster 7 councils together to it twice a year, but that'd be the only we get 2 courses a year to go.