blw2

My 2 cents.... I'd prioritize an outdoor committee person over advancement. Someone to organize campouts or trips. ...because I see that as the core or most fun part of the program and it deserves attention....and the DL's probably track their own advancement anyway What we did the den leaders pretty much handled tracking the advancement and awards for their own dens. I tried really hard and eventually found a person to be our advancement chair, with the one of her primary roles of buying the patches and stuff and helping the DL's get organized with it. My approach was that the DL's

I would wonder if this is car camping, canoe camping, or backpacking. If car, or maybe canoe, and if a once off not to be a frequent thing.... I might consider this store-bought option. They work well https://relianceproducts.com/products/sanitation/191.html or as an alternative, for short trips or where you might have an option to dump regularly... see if anyone in the unit has a boat or small camper and might have one of these http://www.thetford.com/product/porta-potti-260b/

sidetrack I guess, but what do you mean by #5? #10 is interesting. I don't recall reading about any issues there one way or the other. We are not currently carrying any extra insurance.

I think this is a common area of confusion, and perhaps misapplication of the roles as intended. In the real world, I think it really boils down to the people involved, and who is willing to do what....and whatever that shakes out to be is kind of ok To answer your question as to what we did (& I'm not by any means saying I think this is the way it should be, because I do not think that it is.) Our CC did very little except to call and preside over committee meetings. Kind of acted like a moderator or mediator in a way. He never attended pack meetings or events and did not have a

ha ha....no, it doesn't sound like the same place. We were at Skymont in Tennesee I hope nobody got stung!

Yeah, I have often pondered this. My gut tells me that there are just not all that many folks that are a) hungry enough for scouting to sit back and "gossip" like this b) and have the time to do it c) and are "digitally inclined" to dally around in an online forum setting I think there are a lot of energetic volunteers out there that are willing to put their hour a week in face to face with their scout and their unit, but they have a limit Many don't go to round tables regularly, and this in my mind is sort of like a modern twist to the round table. Some of these folks do attend r

yes, I think it's helpful helpful to brainstorm ideas helpful in knowing that we aren't alone in some of these problems helpful as a way to just think about scouting and scouting type stuff every now and then helpful to see questions from others, that might not be something we ever even thought of before... thinking outside the box ....and helpful to read about a success story like yours every now and then. For many folks, those don't happen very often. Some folks have a personality type geared to looking for problems, dissecting problems, etc... in a way to be positive to other per

YES, I really do feel like the focus is more on showing that girls can do it. and that's not all bad, but it's not all together altruistic either.... Since I posted earlier in this old thread, my youngest is now a daisy scout and my wife the assistant troop leader. It really is a huge disconnect that my two daughters have to be in a different troop. They have different weekends at the same camp, etc... and I'm still left with this feeling that while I'm spending this time with my son, it seems like I'm avoiding spending time with them. I hope they understand the truth....I think

I never really understood the breakout into subforums all that much I log in, look at posts since my last visit....and never know where they are. It's just more work for me when I want to make a new thread, to make reasonable effort to get it into the right place answered about the cot in your other thread

I looked long and hard at them...but never tried one. I liked the idea for warmer weather camping where the air circulation would be nice. In the end, I figured that for the money, it's really just too heavy and too complex.

oh, one more comment about school visits... back when i was CM, my best recruiting year was when the Field Director was filling in for the vacant DE position, and visited our CO's school for a recruiting drive. He was a really nice guy as I recall, and I guess he had good energy that day and seemed to imply to the young would-be cub scouts that they could shoot BB guns all the time, and they even got to camp in the local NFL stadium or minor league baseball stadium and watch movies on the jumbotron. Had a lot of scouts join..... then drop not too much later when they discovered that we don'

I'll preface by saying that I personally have no idea what I would do differently, except to encourage the troop(s) to embrace the "disorganization" of letting the scouts OWN THEIR TROOP. with the goal of encouraging them to run a program that the scouts themselves enjoy. if they don't enjoy it, why would they invite their friends? that being the only recruiting tool that makes sense to me personally..... scouts inviting other scouts (and to a lesser degree happy parents inviting other parents) Even though I couldn't figure out a way to really implement it well back then, I've h

and pulling up the rear...North Florida council as of just a couple minutes ago notified us in a "newsletter" email.... Tour and Activity Plan Terminated The BSA’s Tour and Activity Plan is terminated effective April 1, 2017. There is no required new process, policy or procedure. Units will no longer need to file any trip forms of any kind. Scouters are reminded to conduct the Scouting program consistent with BSA rules, regulations and policies. Activity Pl

at summer camp last year, our troop was placed in the last of their sites to have the old wooden pallet platforms. They were in the process of replacing with concrete as I understand it. Anyway, these old and worn-hard pallets were capped with the oldest collection of small wall tents. Full of holes, missing door ties, etc... But the thing was, these were infested with daddy long legs there were a few other spiders too but not many.... We have a few scouts pretty timid with spiders and it was "entertaining".... Saw a lot of personal growth that weekend with these guys.

curious....have you read it? Is it more of a memoir, telling his stories ....or purely inspirational?

@@LeCastor if you catch this...I'm still wondering how you used it. Did you read the transcript or just take some excerpts from it....or did you play the video?

and then i should add that the follow-up would be to stand firm, and politely decline any and all that end up do trying to register.

Just say please, and be direct. I'd say that if the key three are all in agreement, there would be no need to piddle around it. Just tell them, "we'd like them to stop please. We are not intending to recruit lions." If the unit's key three aren't on the same page, then I see problems with it and no winning that one.

I meant his book is fiction, not the idea

well, yes.... and actually I tried to hint and advise him on several occasions to do just that.... that his job is to support his scouts.... to make his PL look good...... constructively show his PL how to do it... etc.... He was disappointed, but also understood that the other guy was....well more charismatic, for the lack of a better word.... & so that wasn't really the show stopper. And he certainly wasn't trying to sabotage in any way shape or form.... it was more about being lazy....and "if he doesn't have to do it then why should I?" But right out of the gate,

I think I bought it used on amazon but not too long ago I saw it on sale at scoutstuff.org....or maybe that is where I bought it. Can't remember for sure.... $99 wow, I should have kept better care of it! Been throwing my copy around in the truck, and eating lunch with it. A bit worn and dog eared now.

On this side trail of new scouts as patrol leaders... I think it's much more complex than to just state that it won't work..... I have some recent experience with this. Our troop formed a NSP when my son's group joined. Troop rule is that any elected or appointed leader must take the ILST, which the adults put on right after the elections. well, it was interesting to see my son's excitement. you see, his patrol wasn't fully formed yet as they some scouts were trickling in right around election time so even though my son and another scout were joined, their patrol didn't elect a

So I've mentioned reading this book a few times lately in various posts. Well, I finally finished it today over lunch. I highly suggest it. If you are here, you are interested in scouting and scouting stories so you will enjoy this book. The short of it is, this guy was a scout in the 1940's. Became a SM as a young adult and led a few units through a very outdoor adventure oriented program through something like 40 years. It's divided up into short stories, which makes it an easy read.... with a good amount of chuckles every few pages. Some of it is a bit dated, in that there were th

Here's what looks like a good tip to me.... http://scoutmastercg.com/keep-your-camping-gear-dry/ Yes, some of the best and most memorable trips are the ones with weather.... It seems more miserable when planning for it, than it actually is often times. My experience is very low turn out with the cubs, when weather is foretasted.... as in so low it was only me and son in one case, and in another only me a den leader and our sons..... these were council camps so it was ok and we didn't have to cancel out of lack of interest. Pack only trips a different story.....

yeah, well a little bit.....but still plenty of options 1) kinda big for one patrol, but that's an option 2) 5 + 6 3) 4 + 7 are all potential patrol sizes outside of that probably not a great idea but there are a few more..... .....and then those patrols could be made up of many different combinations of the individual scouts.... (ie John, Bill, Dave, Bob, and Ben in a patrol together, OR John, Steve, Pat, Ben, and Jake in a patrol together, OR .......) I'm extremely rusty on my permutation calculations.... but If I'm doing it correctly, its maybe 462 combinations with some limit