blw2

Bad form under the guises of Scouting.... probably. But I think a lot depends on contexts...... Kids are around it......We're Catholic and drink at almost all church functions! I think for us if it's a kid focus thing, booze is left out..... but I'm imagining an evening social thing as described.... my guess is that the kids didn't notice. I've seen something new....actually twice now. Kid of a similar thing. I think actually looks worse. Once at our recent University of Scouting a leader form another unit, and again on a pack overnighter with one of our leaders. I think it's called "Vaping" or some such thing...... it's a little pipe/cigarette thing hanging on a neck lanyard, and they are puffing away on this thing like a cigarette. I just found it in bad form, and almost said something to the leaders both times.... but in both cases youth weren't present. I know there's a rule about tobacco, but this aint tobacco!

I found a place online. they didn't have it as a stock offering, but I described what I wanted and they quoted a cheap price......tald me they'd have to use a generic fleur though, afraid of trademark issues.... well, I order a couple. they came in huge, the size of the military stuff. The fleur looks ok, well not really. Way to pointy so not really a close match. Very disappointed but at least I'm not out much money! If I were in the market for a machine, I'd look into one with embroidery capability for just this reason. I know there are places all over town that could do it. I just don't want to, or have time to, drive all over town. Just surprised that this isn't more of an interest for folks. Oh, well..... guess I'll stick with my pin on one..... hasn't been too much of an issue so far.....

That's exactly one of the things I was thinking..... Also, I'm just really not all that interested in eating what they cook..... but that's based on my assumption they'll be having ramen (even if it is cooked) and such.... I gotta admit, adults on their own appeals to me even more than adult patrol, BUT I would think a mix of solo and patrol cooking could have advantages..... even for the boys.

I'm a CS guy, getting involved with our CO's troop. Talking wit the SM the other day, and was surprised to hear that the adults will eat whatever the boys are cooking. I thought that the norm would be more like the adults set up camp near the boys for emergency response and guidance, and that the adults could even lead by example.... that it's possible to eat "this good" if you plan and work for it! So how does your troop work the food at camps?

our pack deals with the same thing..... usually nobody signs up, not even most of the leaders until the last day or two.... or even after the fact as you describe. We too, are suckers I guess. Want as many boys and families to come as possible. It seems to me though, that a lot of these trips would be better with smaller groups anyway.... so what I think we SHOULD do is this: If we guess that 60 people will come, we should make reservations for say 40. If the deadline comes and we can get a refund, cash in on any open spots and call it there. Be hard nosed.... If we can't refund the spots, keep on taking new folks until the spots are full. No calling to get more, no juggling, no worries. It's a shame in many ways, but I think things generally would be a lot more enjoyable for everyone (except the extreme procrastinators)

Yeah, I can see that too early might be a problem..... but waiting gives time for the scouting spark to extinguish and let other interests get in the way. Hopefully WEBELOS will continue to be fun for him so he sticks around.

My wife is a SLP/AVT... and my son his a minor case of the same thing. My understanding is that with APD, the ears work just fine. He can hear everything mechanically.... he just has trouble processing the sounds to split out the important from the non-important background noise. It is not a hearing loss. The FM receiver helps, not like it would for a hearing impaired person, but by amplifying the important stuff so that it's easier for him to hear the speaker above the background. It sounds like your son's case is much more severe than my son's, so I really can't understand what he's up against..... but my guess is as long as his WEBELOS leader and Scout Master understand the problem I would think that he would be just fine. He's gotta learn to deal with real world situations and scouting is another great opportunity for that. I suggest giving the leaders a short bullet list outline of the tips and tricks of things your sons need to do.... - Sit in the front of the room - attend to the speaker - PA systems really help, especially in rooms with bad acoustics. - etc.... You probably know them all Just my unprofessional observations of watching my wife work with my son and watching what he does in different situations .... I think the minor level APD that my son has is really a lot like a "typical boy". I've all seen the boys that have "selective hearing". How many times have we heard wives complain about husbands doing that. I'm pretty sure I have it in a minor way, just never knew it had a name, as I've always struggled to listen to a speaker if I'm sitting in the back of the room or in noisy environments. I have a naturally learned tendency to just do many of the things that my wife says my son needs to do..... Ask your speech therapist about a computer program called Fast forWord. I think this is the link http://www.scilearn.com/products/ Something my wife as a Speech therapist had access to. Used it for a year or so. I gotta say it really helped my son to "train his brain". Doesn't eliminate the problem of course, but it helped.

so ballpark.... what does a DE make?

I know that guys was demonstrating, but it sure looked like he was working hard. I've gotta say I've never worked that hard with my thermarests. Pull them out of the bag open the valve and spread them out a bit. go about my other unpacking business...... later on, a half breath blow or two to firm it up and I'm good. No exercise required. A few weeks ago when researching the totally inflatable Big Agnes and similar, I found a guy online. I think he was trying to make a start-up company..... selling sleeping pads with a dry-bag type top. Basically inflate the bag just like this guy was doing with the garbage bag. Secure the bag's top, and done. Looked pretty slick for an inflatable.

Is that camp tek thing the same as the one Thermarest sells? I was looking at these air only pads the other day, considering getting one. For now, I think I'll stick with my self inflating thermarest pad..... A friend got a thermarest cot recently. Looks very interesting to me but I didn't get a chance to try it out!

We had two scouts Wolf year, "earn" a high number of elective arrow heads. 1 had 7 silvers + the gold the other had 5 silvers + the gold. I'm convinced the moms went through the books and pencil whipped it. One of the electives was to present something to the den or pack. It never happened..... so I asked about it. She read from "her" book something entirely different than what I was seeing. OK fine, she says it happened..... it happened! then the funny thing.... neither one bothered to sew them onto the uniform!

I'm a bit fuzzy on the tiger book, but I believe that is correct. I seem to remember one for model making, that my son earned a few times over.... Read the section of the book at the start of the electives section. It'll tell you.

I gotta admit, I never really understood all the comments about pants failures and the strong need to find substitutes. I have a pair of the switchbacks.... I think about 2 years old now. Haven't been worn very hard.... couple camp outs, and mostly indoor type meetings. I hate them... but only because the leg zippers fall right at the knees so they make horrible shorts and are equally bad as pants. ..... wearing them over the weekend, and a cargo pocket failed...... the bottom seam where it attaches to the leg just unraveled. Didn't snag on anything, and there wasn't much in the pocket.... just an almost empty wallet, and my son's necker and woggle. No telling how long it's been unraveling, but I didn't notice until the woggle fell out. half the pocket is gone! wow!

I hope this isn't hijacking too much..... So how does one become a MBC? What qualifies a person for a particular badge? I might consider volunteering for our troop if it would help.

I assume you're getting at grasping the knife and cutting towards yourself.(?) I actually did touch on that when I helped with the whitlin chip. It's all about knife control, having a good grip on things, and trying to cut towards a stop. That's another of those "rules" that I think are problematic......

Agreed. When using the table knives for whitlin chip, I saw that it was just natural to not follow the rules as the boys would have done with a real knife. The boys who's parents supervised the use of a real knife were better off. Originally, I had planned to buy knives for every boy as a gift, but then second guessed that as the den grew too large for my wallet..... but also second guessed since I thought some parents might object, even though I was going to make it clear that it was the parent's knife to give to the boy.

I'm trying to imagine what a boy would do with any of the knives pictured here, on a camp out. .... except for maybe a special survival training outing. In all my years of camping I've never needed more than a small pocket knife to cut some small twine or rope..... or whittle a point on a stick for roasting hot dogs..... exceptions I can think of would be a filet knife if fishing. a hunting knife if hunting dear..... oh wait, scouts don't hunt.... but if they did they wouldn't need anything over 3-4 inches. ah, maybe a kitchen knife if car camping and cutting veggies or something..... I'm not at all opposed to having big knives available for training.... but I just can't imagine a need otherwise. Not trying to argue, but trying to help you see the some of the logic that you are likely up against in trying to sell others on a rules change.

There was a thread in the last month or so on just this topic. I'll bet if you do some key word searching it'll come up. My 2cents...... it's all together too much work. With parent supervision and approval, these boys can handle a real knife. They are plenty old enough. by Bear, and even by Wolf. and for soap carving, a standard table knife works fairly well for initial practice and don't waste time with other soaps, use ivory brand if you are going to carve soap.

I gotta say that through the years, I personally have injured myself more with folders than fixed.... but mostly when doing stupid stuff. but then I've carried and used folders a lot more..... When I was little, and I have seen this in my son and other cubs I work with, that they don't have the strength and dexterity to safely operate folders.... even some non-lockers When I helped lead our Whitlin' Chip class for the bears recently, I personally struggled with the idea of teaching the boys to open and close a pocket knife. I can remember being hurt by simply trying to close a non-locking folder when I was little. I think the lesson/rule of folding with open hands is .... well... kinda dumb. When I close a knife I grip or pinch the blade and hold it for control. Letting it snap closed is dangerous.... I also understand the greater utility that can be had with some fixed blades..... chopping down a tree for example. BUT I would argue that's more of a survival thing. The correct tool for that job would be an axe. For whittling, a small fixed blade is the right tool for the job, but for casual whitling, nothing wrong with a good folder. and in the end, I agree that most boys don't need to be running around with a Ka-Bar or bowie. For lessons, sure. For true survival mode camping, you bet..... but just not justifiable IMHO for general camping.

my son is the same age. Just today, I signed him & I up for WEBELOS Akela Weekend. Council run camp, Saturday round robin of activities to introduce Bears to WEBELOS, and WEBELOS to scouts. one night, followed by flags, scouts own, and departure on Sunday AM. This happens in March for us. Up until about two weeks ago, I didn't know that it included a program for Bears/rising WEBELOS. I thought it was for WEBELOS only. Maybe something similar in your parts, equally as badly promoted.

now that's just plain funny! ..... "Medals, the new armor."

anotherguy .... wow, 24 is a big den for sure! Why don't you just have three separate dens? ~~ and how do you all handle the inevitable issue of cubs not happy with being split form friends, or not getting into the den with Leader "A", or whatever..... I just forsee a lot of disappointed scouts either way you split it. Pack18Alex..... I'm interested in the patrol idea for WEBELOS. I'm sure we can get through this year since it's mostly over, no worries.... and Patrols seem like a great intro to Scouts. It's right along the lines of what the DL was thinking with "co-leaders". I'll have to study up on that for sure to be able to make good suggestions to the DL. I'm just not that familiar with WEBELOS and Scout Patrols yet..... ..... but what is everyone's thought on how best to affect the split and avoiding disappointed scouts? I can surely imagine my son being very turned off and likely even wanting to quit if he was split away from his best bud(s)

Yeah, through all my rambling thoughts.... that's how I'm leaning.... I think that probably makes the most sense...... but I'm not the DL in question. and if not know.... what if we gain 2 more boys, or 3... or? There has to be a point when it's just too big. I used to be his ADL before I was tapped to help the CM, but I honestly never felt I did a very good job at it. Partially because we never really worked out a mutual 'plan', and partially because what he really needed was a cat hearder & I just wasn't all that good.at it. He made a good point.... the big problems really come when there's turns to be taken..... like the den carries the flag at pack mtg. all the boys want to carry and there's no way that all of them would ever get a turn. Or some skits when it simply would mean that they all can't participate. The rest of it is manageable with a good parent or two helping and herding....

Just had contact form 3 more boys that want to transfer to our pack. All Bears. Currently have 12 boys on the roster in that den Usually 8-10 show at any given meeting, +3 makes 15 boys. I know the "book" says a den is usually 6-8 boys. We like 8-10 8 of our boys have been together since the beginning of Tiger one of the others joined at the start of Wolf, and goes to school with most of the others at our CO's school. 2 joined at the start of this year...... I think 1 as an existing friend of the other boys. I was talking with the DL. He feels that where we are now is workable, but around 12 or more at any given meeting might be too much. Talked about splitting. Seems that it'll be hard friends want to stay with friends, or a boy might prefer the old leader vs the new.... Also talked about having a formal assistant DL or even a "co-DL". We could join for the opening and closing, but split into two groups for any activity. I feel like we should see how the rest of the school year goes since we're through most of it..... But I certainly want to do anything I can to not over load a good DL. the other part of me thinks that if we're gonna split, now is the time so the 3 new boys don't get settled..... and we might be able to tap one of the new parents to lead it. He wants to stay the course and see how it goes. So the questions: How big is too big? How have you handled splits of existing dens?

I just signed on as CC to my Pack's CO's troop. They were very small and the size just exploded with a big crossover form my pack and a few other new adds. They currently use Troopmaster, but don't have a good email group thing going. Basically are using a photo sharing site that just has one group that includes everyone.... committee, leaders, parents, and scouts are copied on everything. SM asked about setting up group email like I use with the pack. I looked at the Troopmaster Web email tool demo online. I'm not set up in the troops stuff yet. Looks very old fashioned and clunky, but playing with the demo on-line it's hard to tell how well it works. I see that you can set up various groups Do you have to log into it to send an email? Does it work well? Please comment and elaborate re. your experiences with it. I use emaildodo.com with the pack. I was just looking at Google Groups. Looks very promising. but figured if they already have a tool, maybe we should use it. I just feel like Troopmaster looks like it shot straight out of the 1990's...... but if it works...... why not.