Twocubdad

Adult Association is a co-equal method of Scouting. Please not it is not the "Adult Leadership." but that's a different thread. Ya done good. I taught swimming for years. Sink or swim is a lousy way to learn anything. Part of our jobs is to provide Scouts with the tools to succeed, that includes both physical tools and knowledge. Asking a group of young scouts with neither the tools or knowledge to build council fire is about the same as asking them to build a jet fighter. What will they learn from the failure? Will they learn to build a fire next time or with they learn they can'

I recall someone took at defining this once, writing: "We hold these truths to be self-evident...." But maybe that's just an opinion.

Fred, We're neither that stupid nor naïve. My friend was a Scoutmaster for more than a decade, Silver Beaver, jamboree SM, Wood Badge staff, etc., etc., etc. In fact, at one time he ran the camporee under the long-held format. I'm not 100% sure about him being Camping Chairman, may have been program chairman. Either way, he was given the job with the mandate from the district key 3 and committee to improve attendance at the district camporees. The structure of camporee committee is interesting. Every year at the camporee a new assistant camporee chief is recruited from those pre

A friend of mine really screwed up and got himself appointed district camping chairman. He sent three years trying to crack the Ol' Boy network and effect changes to the district camporee. He had some great ideas -- a SPL council to get input from the Scouts, not making the weekend wall-to-wall skills competitions, but breaking it up with some interesting demonstrations (like military stuff, the swift-water rescue team or outdoor equipment suppliers), non-traditional campfire featuring Scouts' garage bands, etc. More of a jamboree feel than a straight, 12-hour day of endless scoutskill com

blw2 -- our guys are smarter that that. No way they make the offer, "if you don't like it, run it yourself." There are too many people tired of the BS who are more than willing to step up and make the changes (me being one of them). The couple guys who started the camporee format see this as their legacy to the district. They are very careful to select only Flav-o-aid drinking sycophants to "lead" the camporee.

My experience with out district camporee was very much like yours, Stosh. Lots of silly rules intended to maintain the status quo. No consideration of the Scouts' interest. Personally, I've never had a Scout come to me and tell me what they really want to do this weekend is compete in a lashing competition. Our camporee required patrols be between 5 and 8 members -- do the math. What do you do with a patrol of nine members? Patrol leaders cannot be 14 or older. A PL spends the time and effort to develop his patrol into a high performing team, but his birthday is a few weeks before the

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E, the National Camp School syllabus for Cub Scout Day Camp has been changed to reflect the new program already. Among other things, the round robin session on belt loops was dropped.

I don't think you will find large numbers who don't think bullying isn't a big deal. Clearly we've seen examples of bullying and the resulting damage done to kids. But the above quote does more to damage the cause of preventing bullying than just about anything I can imagine. Everything is now bullying -- it doesn't have to be bullying, just have to potential of being bullying. Under this definition, classifying a kid who has to rescued during the swim test as a non-swimmer is bullying. Making the kids who fight and claw to be first in line for ice cream move to the back of the line is bu

Stosh -- this isn't THE cheesecake recipe you've been holding out on us all this all these years is it? OMG!

I don't disagree with you on this one, JB. I find it a little silly that RSO is good for only two years but an RSO's ultimate supervisor, the Camp Director, is good for five years. Like you say, there's not much new in running a Cub Scout archery range, but the CD is responsible for a very fluid set of camp standards. Years ago I was a Water Safety Instructor for the Red Cross. Whenever I would teach a course, I would have the course information validated on the back of my certification card. Teaching a minimum number of courses would extend my certification. Up to a point, that seems like a m

I suppose everyone else is also getting banner ads for credit cards on this thread?

Here we go again. Another opinion from the cubicle farm in Irving. Publish the actual policy and let the units take it from there. If national can't write a lucid policy (and yes, I'm snickering as I write that) then hire someone who can. I was going to make Mozart's point. If I want to clean out the troop's account, a credit card will be the most difficult route for me. A couple years ago we had to have a paper check for something on very short notice. The treasurer was away for a week so, as a signatory on the checking account, I went to the bank and asked for a counter check. I was sur

In the grand scheme of the universe, this isn't something which keeps me up nights. Singing for lost items was a common practice in our troop when I took over as SM. My official position was to discourage it. A Scout is Courteous. The courteous thing to do is to help someone find a lost item and to politely return it to him when located. Still, this happens from time to time, usually from someone from outside the troop, like a camp staffer. Once in the past year the SPL held up some lost item at the close of the meeting. As the Scout walked forward to claim it, someone yelled "GREY S

Emergencies happen and there are contingencies to cover stuff. But two months out from camp, there are means to obtain a trained PD if the council is committed to providing the level of staffing required and promised. How many of these options have been explored? -- Offering to fly someone to camp school if a distant course is the only one that works. -- Assign one of the council professionals with camp school training to serve, even if only in a consulting/supervisory basis. I bet several DEs have higher level training, which could cover CSDC if the SE has the cajones to make them

Good to hear from you, old friend. Glad to know you're doing well.

I've had a number of Scouts express an interest in Hornaday over the years. Myself, I've spent a lot of time researching it and trying to figure out how to get the Scouts started and what we need to do to support them. I had the council's Hornaday coordinator do a presentation for the troop. Somehow it turned into a sales pitch for jamboree. I asked three times if he would talk about Hornaday but his only reply was, "we'll get to that in a minute." He never did. The council offered a Hornaday training session at our Scout University, so I signed up. The woman read us the same BSA web site

I always ask Scouts how the live the Scout Oath and Law in their everyday lives as part of the SM conference. I frequently get fairly superficial answers so I probe with a little more thought-provoking follow up. Thrifty, Loyal, Trustworthy and Reverent require more introspection than Kind, Cheerful and Friendly, so those are the points I most frequently ask about. In this regard, I agree with what Stosh has written. I don't have any problem discussing Duty to God with a Scout or any other point. But let us be honest with ourselves -- we all know this is obviously political. Maybe someone

It's beyond me how a council allows a camp to proceed without properly trained staff. What other positions do they allow unqualified folks to fill? Range safety officer? Health officer? Program Director is more than den leader for a really big den. It's about knowing the national standard for CSDC and operating a safe camp. One of the primary standards is having the camp director and program director NCS certified. Daped -- You may have been miss-informed about the training. CSDC certification is not a council-level training. It is offered only through National Camping School.

Anyone have a copy of the "Unit FOS Presentation Request Form" handy? Just sayin'....

No. Ain't gonna happen. Council boundaries are set by national. The physical location of the CO determines the council you're in. We once had a troop and pack chartered to a church which moved to a new facility a few miles away but in another council. In that case, their charter was moved to the new council. Otherwise, forget it. Then again, you may want to let the new leaders go at it for a while. It will give them something to do to work off the extra steam. A good learning experience too. Like allowing the Scouts to hike a mile or two down the wrong trail.

Why do we have any obligation whatsoever to comply with or even acknowledge a blog from new.scouter.com? Is there now a provision in the membership application requiring us to monitor and obey unofficial blogs from BSA? Do tour plans now call for me to scour the Internet for opinions of unknown BSA employees?

Calico -- I like your idea. My only change would be to specify which categories must have two MB -- obviously toward the outdoor/scout skills side. Pack -- I was hoping you would circle back around to the advising rant. Tenure is a wonderful thing, isn't it?! With OneCubSon graduating next month and TwoCubSon graduating next year, I've learned about FERPA. Every August, the boys and I swap tuition checks for signed FERPA release forms. I've only had to pull one out once, and that related not to anything specific with my son, but to general curriculum changes I felt amounted to breech of c

No PopTarts, no ramen noodles. And yes, by Scoutmaster fiat. Hot dogs are okay but Scouts are encouraged to make a meal of it, not just a naked dog on a cold bun. Years ago I and a couple ASM decided we needed to do something about the low state of cooking in the troop. We made sure the adults set a good example (that wasn't difficult), we encouraged the PLC to include cooking demonstrations in instruction time, had them set up patrol cooking challenges on campouts. One of the best things we did was created an "Iron Chef" campout where the patrols all set up their kitchens in a big circle

Heating bakes away a lot of the organic gunk and causes the polymers to link into longer chains creating a more durable surface. But I'll give the bees wax a try. I keep bees, so I have plenty.