Twocubdad

Remember the good old days when cows were known for being contented? I did my part at dinner tonight!

That's all a terrific way to teach more advanced first aid, but I'm reviewing Readyman with my Webelos II den with an eye toward the Tenderfoot requirements. For tenderfoot, they are required to know first aid for minor burns, cuts and scratches, blisters, stings, ticks, nosebleed and frostbite. Not much blood and gore there to get things going. The Readyman requirements are actually a little more exciting, adding rescue breathing, severe bleeding, and heart attack. We didn't pull out the ketchup, but did get involved with the rescue breathing. Still, all-in-all, it's more classroom work that hands-on.(This message has been edited by Twocubdad)

COOL! When's payday?

I tend to think the shenannigans at Roundup night were a small part of the problem. However, here's how we prevent that in our district. Having more than one pack (sometimes several) recruiting at the same school is the norm for us -- we tend to have very large elementary schools. In those situations, we try to have someone from the district committee or commissioner service serve as the host for the event. They do a short program for the boys, introduce the folks from the various packs and then direct families to the registration tables. Everyone always plays together nicely. We let the packs know upfront that one of the rules for the evening is no soliciting. Most of the families have some idea what pack they want to join anyway. Although I'm also committee chairman for one of the packs, I've been a Roundup host for three years now. I know the guys at the other pack and work with them at day camp. Prior to Roundup night, we work together to do promotions at the school. I make a point of noting that both packs run the same Cub Scout program and do the same sorts of activities. The most important difference between the two is meeting times and I encourage parents to register with the pack that best fits their schedule. I'm careful to keep my comments balanced (although I know for fact certain that our pack is a whole lot better than theirs. ) Invariably, we end up doing some horse trading during the night, trying to find dens with space that meet on the nights convenient for the new families.

Emily Latella, actually. Roseanne said, "That just goes to show you, if it ain't one thing it's another." Thanks for the links.

The awards are being presented at a pack meeting at the boys request.

Anyone have any ceremonies or ideas for presenting Cub religious emblems? The presentations will be made at a Pack meeting and the minister of our CO has agreed to participate. Thoughts?

Trailpounder - here's a hint: look at a map of the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, eh? (I've gotta say I loved the two Canadian moose in Brother Bear. We took our Bear den to see the movie -- with a tour of the projection booth, cool! -- and all the kids walked around, you know, talkin' like hosers for two weeks, eh?)

Is it too late for a joke? City cousin is visiting his country cousin. Country cousin has a pet three-legged pig that has run of the house. He sleeps on the sofa, eats from the table, does anything he wants. City cousin ask the country cousin why he lets a pig have run of the house like that. "Oh, that's a very special pig," the country cousin says. "He saved our lives one night when the house caught fire. Ran from room to room waking every one up. Even drug grandma out of the house himself." Well why does he only have three legs, city cousin asks? Country cousin says "Hey, a pig like that you don't eat all at once!"

If I'm required to produce a 30-year-old card to prove I earned a knot, then if the council can't find the corresponding advancement report, the knot should be free!

mlk jnrstarthsn nijkb uhaehgh5y uhbjiqg rg 5qe ugyhnwtyqtynqtyq jbhu 67mwrhjnwu fvg hjbsrtumsrum gvfytmub vjhygftu (That's me banging my head against the keyboard. That feels better that rehashing this thread. Although I must say the Beatles diversion held promise for awhile.)

They are (or at least used to be) available at the Scout shop printed on 8x10 poster board. Our shop also sells oversided embroidered versions of the real patches, if you want to make something a little nicer using them.

I took Eamonn's original questions to be more rhetorical than some of you apparently have. From this and other threads I know Eamonn understands and supports quality goals. Rather I believe what he was asking was, what is is about quality goals which would make some one trade their integrity to meet them?

Our local PD has several bike patrol officers who have a prepared bike safety program. They did a den meeting program for us a couple of years back. They already have handouts, coloring books, etc.

From the several posts you've made regarding this, I take it that all your protests have fallen on deaf ears. You've been up and down the chain of command, worked all the proper channels, now how about this for an idea: If your council does it the way ours does, the QD awards are given to the district chairman at the annual council awards banquet. When they call your district, make your way to the mic and announce the following: "In my opinion this award is being made under questionable circumstances and is unearned. I have made my specific reservations known to the council officials but they are more interested in meeting numerical goals than they are overall good of the program. While I wish to express my deep appreciation to our DE and volunteers who have done their best to deliver a quality Scouting program to the boys in our district, I cannot accept this award in good conscious and respectfully decline to do so." I bet that gets their attention.

Not something I received, but something we gave. When my cousin received his Eagle a couple years back, my brother, another cousin and myself (all three Eagles) gave him our grandfathers's old Scoutmaster's handbook from the 40's. Our grandfather had died several years earlier and this cousin was probably closer to him as a little boy than any of us. He was the first Eagle in his troop and they made a big deal of the presentation with lots of letters, flags from the Capitol, etc. But I'll guarantee the handbook was the most meaningful thing he received. Our problem is that we still have one cousin left who just made Life Scout. We're going to have a difficult time coming up with a similar gift for him. I know that's not something you can necessarily replicate in you own situation, but maybe it spark an idea for you.

I'm also a woodworker (Ed, what do you build?) Genealogy/history buff

A new Philmont belt. My old one shrank. (And for future reference, if you ever ask for anything from the Philmont trading post, as for in in August. No one's there in December. My wife got lucky on about her 30th phone call.) Like, Ozume, I got a digital camera, which is sort of for Scouts. We have a good one my wife needs for business, so this is a less expensive one I get to keep.

Allowing Scouts to pick and choose among camps is a great idea. Aside from the benefits to the scouts, competition among the camps for campers will make them better. If a camp is having a hard time attracting campers, the council needs to figure out why and make improvements. I like SST's approach: work to improve your local camp, but if it's not up to snuff, go elsewhere.

Since our crossovers take place on the stage at one end of the church's activity center, it's more of a theatrical prop than a real bridge. It's constructed of two 2x4s, about 4' long standing on edges. The surface of the bridge is 1x4 planks about 3'wide nailed to the 2x4s. There are holes drilled into the corners to accept broom handle-sized dowels. The dowels have metal eye screws on the top for a yellow rope which makes the hand rails. The whole thing is painted Cub blue. It's kind of cheesy, but it works.

Commandopro -- In three or four posts you've said how lousy the Cub Scout program is and suggested that the lack of quality of the CS program is the root of BSA's "crisis of epic proportions." How about providing us with some specifics to make your case.

Let me say that I have no first-hand experience with GS, so all I know about GS is from conversations with a couple GS leaders and the "background radiation" that anyone with kids hears. My perception is that the GS program seems to be more nimble and quicker to change. They seem to add new program elements and different tracks girls can follow. This could be a plus of a minus, depending on your point of view. I also get the impression that male volunteers aren't welcome, or at least are looked at with some suspicion. I think that leads to a view of Girl Scouting being more militant feminist than they probably are. They also seem to handicap themselves by having a strongly top-down organizational structure. I know our local council generally has a couple thousand girls on a waiting list to join awaiting new units. Roundup nights (held in the other corner of the school cafeteria from us) sound more like volunteer recruitment than girl recruitment. I may be wrong about this, but it seems to me that GS troops are more like our dens and patrols that packs and troop. From the couple of GS leaders I know, they don't seem to have the support and bench strength that our pack and troop committees provide.

A dad in my pack is also an ASM in the troop. He made a point of telling me that his sons didn't sell popcorn this year as a "protest." He thinks the council keeps too much of the profits. So I said to him, that being the kind of guy who puts his money where his mouth is, that he would write a check to the pack to cover the amount his protest cost us and that he of course wouldn't complain when the council started charging troops $5 a head to use the council camps. His response isn't appropriate to include here, but had something to do with cattle, then walked off.

Seems like there are always someone who thinks the boys need to "jump ahead" so when they get where they're going, they've already done what they're going there to do. I had a running conversation with a Webelos leader over introducing more camping skills to the Webelos. This guy had an older son in the troop and was "shocked at the new Scouts poor camping skills." He insisted that the Webelos be able to run with the big dogs as soon as they crossed over. To which I replied, isn't that what Tenderfoot, Second and First Class ranks are for? Let's assume there is a huge intimidation factor in a BOR. Isn't that part of what the boys are learning to deal with? I'm assuming the boy who vapor locked has recovered and is once again a functioning member of society with no obvious scars or marks, right? Didn't he learn something or maybe gain some self confidence in the process? These guys think they're doing the boys a favor. They either think they can remove all the rocks and twigs from the trail and make it easier for the boys, or are the same guys screaming at the T-ballers becaused they missed the turn on the double play. Niether is doing the boys any favors.

I believe the knuckleheads at Gitmo have been declared "illegal enemy combatants," and are not officially POWs. I'm not sure of the exact legal distinction, but one reason is that they don't have to be afforded all the protections of the Geneva Conventions. The other reason is that the Geneva Conventions were written to cover conventional POW, i.e., uniformed members of regular armies. In many respects, the international law to cover these guys just doesn't exist. I don't see where we have an obligation to provide these guys access to American attorneys or courts. On the otherhand, I don't see how we have the right to keep them for years on end without. If they aren't POWs but are being held for conducting "illegal combat", then they need to be charged, tried and sentenced for their crimes. Of course the problem is who tries them. They've not necessarily committed war crimes, per se, so The Hague won't work. We could send them back to their countries of origin, but I imagine they would be immediately released in some cases and immediately executed in others. We need to figure out what we're going to do with them. Unfortunately, the administration doesn't seem to be in any hurry. But two years is time enough to get going with it. As to Padilla, until Congress declares war and/or suspends habeas corpus, Padilla has the same rights as any other citizen. If he is suspected of treason, arrest him. If he is convicted, hang him. That, at least, is in the constitution. That Mssrs. Bush and Ashcroft think the civil rights of an American citizen on American soil can be so easily dismissed is of much greater concern to me than anything Al Qeda could concoct.