blw2

good idea, but I would caution about focusing on a failure. He didn't fail, if the goal is to become a good man.

that's exactly my thought process, qwazse. besides the pride of accomplishment and bragging rights, etc.... A primary advantage to earning the eagle (and this is from my aged and experienced perspective, not having earned the rank) is for the resume. A letter of commendation can mean a lot for that same purpose. I was actually thinking of a letter, not written "to whom it may concern", but to "the scout and all who view this letter".... something printed nicely that would be suitable for framing but that could also accompany job or college applications as a reference letter. It might also serve as a keepsake or reminder of good things for the scout.

This year will be my first year running the recharter process. I'm wondering what most folks do with the folks that will soon be leaving? our recharter is due Friday Jan 31 our B&G and WEBELOS crossover is Sunday Feb 2 (not even a business day after recharter!) I can understand that we need to recharter the scouts, but it hardly makes sense for 2 days. but my real question is what to do with some adult scouters we have a couple committee members that will be leaving with their son a month after re-charter. I figured I'd talk with them, but my thought is to just not recharter them. and we have the den leader, who has a son in bear den, but has said that he's out. My thought is to recharter him as a committee member. What would you do?

How about a nice letter of commendation or plaque from his SM, pointing out the good he has accomplished and the respect you have for him?

my thoughts, exactly!

Our pack pays for the adults dues. The philosophy from before my time is that we aren't going to ask somebody to pay to do work. It's relatively small money and I think we all can afford to pay, but it is nice. Especially when i'm already begging somebody up to take on a job. It's awkward enough hitting the parents up for the pack and national dues and fees..... then telling them they need to go spend $100+ for a uniform. Yesterday, our committee met (I wasn't able to attend) and decided that we should pay leaders dues for University of Scouting coming up soon. personally, I think that's ridiculous, but since they decided I'll submit my receipt. I've bought enough other little things for the pack and den along the way that I just figured was my contribution to "help the pack go". I'm learning that some of these folks don't spend a nickel beyond the pack dues for their sons. Whatever.... that's ok by me. I'll continue to NOT ask for reimbursements for everything I do.....

I'm curious about these. I've never seen it done. My pack encourages what they call "class A's" to the pack mtg, and "class B's" other times.... But most of the leaders model a class A with a field uniform shirt, jeans or non-standard "pocket pants", and whatever socks and belt they happen to have..... Looks like I might be taking over as CM next year, and I've been seeing mention about inspections form time to time. Seems like an interesting idea, but I can see that it would very easily cross a line or two.... of calling negative attention to a boy not in uniform and may seem a little bit too "military". So..... how do you do it?

interesting. I've see popsicle sticks sanded into very nice looking knifes for soap carving too.... But all of this seems like a whole lot of work to me. Why not just use a real knife????? Or a table knife to "simulate a sheath knife???? and if the scouts are that fat fingered, or you are that paranoid..... either get a ultra cheap pocket knife, maybe from a thrift store, and dull the blade.....??? OR tape over the edge of the blade....???? Any of these options would be a whole lot less work!

I once saw a show where he squeezed the juice out of a dung pile straight into his mouth. I actually think, just based on a few partial episodes I've seen, that his shows might be interesting if they didn't go for the shock value of these gross out survival methods. I guess there's value in the lessons, but it just seems like it's done more for the ratings and shock value to appeal to the general masses.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Fortune%20Products%20FLM-200%20Cauldron%20Flame%20Light%2C%209.75%22%20Bowl%20Diameter%20x%204.5%22%20Height%20 Strips of fabric to look like flames, mounted above a fan..... sometimes with lights, although for your purpose I would think red and orange fabric would do. I've been toying with the idea of buying this or similar for use in pack meetings occasionally. Just wish it was bigger. For yours, do you have a way to power a big box fan?

too cold in a hammock? Just hang it over your camp fire!

As a dad of two little girls behind my cub scout, I wish that it were true. .... but I acknowledge it could get sticky. I think somebody would have to spend a lot of time thinking it through first, but off the cuff I can picture separate girl only dens working, under the same pack My little girls come on most all of the pack outings and many of den outings. They don't come to the den or pack meetings regularly though....

We have 13 folks I think registered, den leaders + CM, ACM, CC, CO Rep Our CO Rep is completely not involved, except to sign apps when we chase him down. So that makes 12 "active" take away 3 DL's and a few others that never participate in the committee mtgs that leaves us with approx. 7 active committee members. 7-13 is Not a bad number in my opinion IF they were all energized and very active. Sadly, they are not in our case. They are present and moderately active at best. I do feel like it would be possible to have too many general committee members with no specific "title", but how many is a good question. the old 80/20 rule.... with say 45 boys as an example would mean a pool of maybe 80 parents considering a few brothers and a few single parents or parents that travel for work. 20% would be approx 16 active parents. Decent rule of thumb I think

As a parent and scouter in the middle of cubs, I see merit in your comments Stosh. Our pack tends to make B&G totally a celebration of the Webelos 2 boys. What I have observed so far though, is that the bling doesn't seem to overly impress most boys like it probably once did. Tigers maybe a little but from then on, not so much. It almost seems more like a shoulder shrug as they look at the award they were just handed, and a mental voice saying.... uh, another stupid patch.... whatever..... Personally, I would rather see a nice ceremony for those boys that earned the AOL. maybe a nice slideshow of the den's years in cubs.... a few words summarizing what we hope they all take away from cubs, and leave it at that. Let the troops do a welcoming ceremony if they want, for those boys joining.... even if they weren't cubs.

yeah, I never heard the add on that it was for insurance. I have only heard that a scout is "supposed to wear" his uniform when traveling. I pretty much figured that it wasn't a hard rule. as a side update, the trip to the fort went well, or so I hear. My whole family ended up with some sort of flu bug, over the weekend so we missed it this year.

I've got one of the platypus filters, but I have to say I've never used it. I really bought it more as an emergency/disaster thing than for camping though. I was hoping that more folks would chime in with experiences and comments. I guess, as brewmeister pointed out, they aint too popular.

If I were meeting at a government school, I would make that den meeting off site. Find a park someplace...... Make the parents in charge of bringing the knives, and require that parents be present and actively involved for this den meeting. That's what I'm going to suggest to our DL.

Yeah, I'll bet some good memories could be had, by dropping in the wilderness someplace with minimal supplies, and no "brought in" bamboo poles etc..... with minimal stuff to simulate a real scenario such as "lost on a day hike" Like Less Stroud used to do on his show survivorman. Give the boys some good lessons, and some good times. As long as the weather is mild, they would be ok even if their shelter was sort of a flop. they'd still be able to lash together something and would be ok for a night..... drop in with a knife, a flint steel, maybe a can of sardines per scout, canteens..... and the laces from their boots

If you're getting at a big picture trend of not rejecting Obama and such..... I personally am thinking that it's too early for any such of a trend. The uniformed masses are still uninformed..... way too many people just don't care enough about politics to open their eyes......and the existing conservative establishment isn't strong enough all around. The radical shift that's needed doesn't have enough really strong candidates yet to get behind and the ones that exist don't have enough traction in the media, etc to get through to said uninformed voters.... I want to think that it's gonna have to collapse before people start waking up, but my fear is that even if or when it collapses, history will have been re-written by the pro politicians and media, so the uniformed will remain fast asleep.

ok, so instead of cutting the standing tree, cut the one "in the truck". Now I'm tracking with you.....

That's a great point jblake47, the opinel blades might be a little big for whittlin'

I actually think the better approach, if you can, would be not to go to the truck and get the 5 poles...... that's too easy and that short cuts the learning. "you don't have an axe, eh?" "Do you have a sheath knife?" "can you find something to lash to it as a handle" "No, Do you have a swiss army knife with a saw?" lad makes a mental note, maybe one of these would be a good toll to bring along! ok, don't have any of that stuff...... you can't make a shelter that way then. What else might we do? if they do have it, they'll see how truly hard it is to do, and will then appreciate how nice it would be to have a machete or other tool. Make it real. Much more satisfaction and learning that way.

I ordered an opinel for my son last year, engraved in response to a thread on this forum He's a bear this year, & I bought it early as a sample, considering ordering for all the boys in the den as a gift. (I gotta get on that! thanks for the reminder!!) I'm big on made in USA, and not so much a French stuff, but I have to say it's a really good product. Customer response was great, asked a few questions and they were fast in reply. We haven't used it yet but it's a really nice low budget knife. Best I've seen for a kid I think I bought the round tip one. Wanted carbon steel, but the round tip is only available in stainless. I actually want one for me, too.

Ok uniform police, where is it written.... Specifically re. Cub Scouts if that matters..... that you should wear the Field Uniform while traveling? We have a family RV/tent camping trip coming up at Fort Wilderness. Our pack isn't a full uniform outfit, but I'm a fan of the uniform method so I have been trying to set an example. I'm just trying to wrap my head around what I want to do re. wearing my uniform..... and having my son wear his. Since nobody else will be wearing it, I don't want to force him to be the only one. We don't have any formal scout events planned, it'll just be family get together and fun. I'm considering just bringing it and wearing mine on our full day, Saturday, around camp. I have no question about wearing it when going to a council camp, but this is different. More relaxed.... and I know the other leaders won't be in uniform, and only some of the boys will be in T-shirts. What would you do?