Twocubdad

Break out the long johns, I agree too.

NJ -- you've really got to get back to me on trying to match the other half of this amulet I have. Poli Sci major -- check. Early career as a reporter -- check. I'm waiting for Rod Serling to walk in. There's a great book on the subject, "Cycles of American History" by Authur Schlesinger (he would be a left-wing Eastern revisionist historian to the rest of you). One of the points of the book is that presidential elections are somewhat independent of the major cycles of politics. Presidential elections are swayed by the micro-politics of a given elections just as much as they are the macro-political trends. Whether or not a president is conservative or liberal is relative to the period during which they serve. Nixon is the perfect example. His election had more to do with the meltdown of the Democrats in '68 than a return to conservative values of the "silent majority" as he would have preferred to explain it. As a result, Nixon's administration turned out to be one of the most liberal in history -- price controls, creation of the EPA, his nominations to the Supreme Court, opening China, etc. Clinton is another example (and I'm sure this will draw howls from the right side of the aisle). Following the cyclical shift to the right during the Reagan years, Bush 41 should have been a shoo-in for a second term except that 1) he ran a really lousy campaign, 2) Clinton (and James Carville) ran a terrific campaign, and 3) Perot sucked a net of two percentage points from Bush. But as a relatively liberal president in a conservative era, Clinton ended up having a comparatively conservative administration -- welfare reform, balancing the budget, etc. Had Clinton been able to keep his pants on and had the Republicans focused on something other than getting Clinton, there would have been even more conservative policies adopted.(This message has been edited by Twocubdad)

Gee, FOG, that's how I define conservative.

Looks like the server scrambled my thread asking for advice on dealing with an austic boy joining a Tiger Den. ItsTrailDay, who has some experience in the area, e-mailed me asking for more specifics. Here my reply: The boy is 6-years-old and joining our Tiger den. He seems to be very withdrawn and has very little interaction with other people. He is not at all aggressive or violent. He's started talking only in the past few months. His mom says he is on the level of a 3-to-4-year-old. Actually, he's a little guy, and if you didn't know anything about him, you would just assume he's an average, quiet 3-or-4-year-old kid. He has a "shadow" who works very well with him and could come to most meetings with him. Unfortunately, she's going away to school in January and will be leaving. My judgement that he would not be a disruption to the den, but there may be some activities that wouldn't be appropriate for him. His mother is another story. She is very assertive and "in-your-face" about her son, which I can understand and certainly have empathy for her situation. But she somewhat scares me. She's called me six times in the past four days asking what we're going to do. In fact, the potential den leader (a husband-wife team) has said they will take the boy, but only if we get them an assistant den leader who would be a "witness" if there are any problems. That's the level of concern that this woman generates, that people immediately start worrying about legal liability around her. It's hard to explain this in a short e-mail without sounding petty, but some of the other people I've spoken with who have worked with this family confirm my concerns about the mom, so I don't think we're too far off base. My concerns as Committee Chairman is that we provide a good Cub Scout program to all the boys in the den and that one child (and especially one mom) doesn't detract from the program. Secondly I want to protect my den leaders from a lot of unnecessary abuse from a parent. They've made enough of a commitment just being den leaders. Honestly, I think the boy will do fine in the den and will be an asset to the unit. It will be a good experience for the other boys to make friends with another Scout with a disibility. As a unit, accommodating the boy is something we need to do. I just don't know how to deal with the mom. I feel like we need to set up some ground rules with her, I just don't know what they should be. Any advice? * * * * * * If looks like several of you tried to reply to the other thread. If you would be so kind as to repost your info here, I will appreciate it. Thanks.

Anyone out there with experience working with autistic kids? I have a fairly seriously autistic boy wanting to join our pack and I'm looking for some input. Actually the boy seems realtively easy to get along with, but dealing with his mom concerns me.

Dang, EagleDad, I'm hoping to change to Twoeagledad a few years down the road!

Your argument contradicts itself, Rooster. You make the point that homosexuals shouldn't be in the military because they disrupt unit cohesion and could put lives at risk. That was precisely the argument against integrating blacks and women into the services. Whites, especially Southern whites, couldn't be expected to serve with blacks. Men and women couldn't serve together because, well we all know what will happen if you put men and women together. As you write, "By definition, being a homosexual affects how one may interact with one's own gender." Well, by definition, being a heterosexual affects how one may interact with the opposite gender. Secondly, you say that gays are different because their actions are immoral while being black or female is simply physical characteristic. At risk of offending those in the service (and I apologize in advance for making a blanket statment) I doubt large numbers of 19-year-old recruits give a whole lot of thought to the morals of the person next to them. On the other hand, I few biggoted individuals may have problems serving next to gays for reasons of their own prejudices, just like they may have a problem serving with blacks, women or various other minorities. But that's their problem and perhaps they should reconsider a career in the armed services. A professional military man may conclude that all these "social experiments," as you call them, negatively impact the fighting ability of a unit. I am certainly in no position to judge that. But our society has collectively made the decision that our military is more than just a fighting force. It educates, trains, provides employment, and yes, even character development for millions of people. If unit cohesion is the number one concern, whether a unit is disrupted by blacks, women, homosexuals, or other minorities shouldn't matter. If they create a problem, ban 'em all. On the other hand, if I'm a pilot on a mission, I don't give a hoot who works on my plane, as long as they do their job well.

I think the consensus from the other thread was to ask the Wood Badge course director what he/she prefers you wear. If he has no preference, then wear whatever official hat you prefer.

We've had a similar "Pack Owner's Manual" for several years. (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know the CO "owns" the pack, not the parents, but I didn't create it so please don't write.) We give this to the parents on registration night and then go over it with them at the new parents' orientation meeting. They also get a similar handout from the council, which I think is part of the national "Fun at Every Turn" recruiting package. There is some overlap, but our material includes more details about our pack. It includes a section covering uniforming, even including a check list to take to the Scout Shop. The glossary is probably at another level of detail. The comment we got from a couple of new parents was that they were constantly being hit with new activities and concepts that we never fully explained. What the heck is a District Cublaree? What's the difference between a Pack, a Troop and a Unit? That sort of thing.

I'd like to see a nice parka shell with a zip-out fleece liner and matching rain pants. I got a Columbia rig like this at Bass Pro Shop for about $125 (of course National would sell it for $300). I get more use out of the individual parts than I do wearing it all together. Three years ago our Council was asked to participate in the opening ceremony for an NFL game. Nearly 1,000 Scouts turned out. All those Scouts in uniform should have been really sharp. Unfortunately, it was really cold and rainy so everyone was in their foul weather gear and we all looked like a bunch of gypsies.

There is another way of looking at this. As has been pointed out, if shares are allocated to both boys and parents, two-parent families may have an advantage over single-parent families, who arguably need the money the most. But on the other hand, allocating shares to both boys and parents gives families with limited budgets a way of earning extra money for their Scout account. Even single-parent families can recruit other friends and relatives to help out if they really want to. The flip side of that is the well-heeled parent who doesn't want to work a fund raiser, but is willing to just write a check for the difference. One thing I would do would be to let the adults decide who their share benefits. You may be surprized at the adults who would be willing to let their share benefit a needy Scout instead of their son.

Thanks, Dan. Actually the glossary in the back of the CSLB is very thorough, it's really a matter of culling the terms which are important to new parents.

Good suggestions. I also think that instead of organizing it alphabetically, that I'll group the terms into three catagories: Program (Wolf, Bear, AOL), Organization (den, pack, district), and activities, (B&G, PWD, Camporee), and maybe "Other", but I haven't really thought it out yet.

At our recent planning meeting, one of the just-graduated Tiger parents suggested a Cub Scout Glossary for new families. He said that throughout the past year, he was constantly trying to crack the code of what we were talking about: Blue and Gold, Pinewood, crossover, etc., etc. Actually, there's about 6 pages of glossary terms in the back of the Cub Scout Leader Book, but this ties in nicely with the current thread regarding FAQ's for new Boy Scout parents. What would you add to the list? Tiger, Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Webelos, Den Leader, Cubmaster, Pack Committee, Den, Pack, Patrol, Troop, Unit, District, Council, Akela, Boys' Life, Blue & Gold Banquet, Pinewood Derby, Raingutter Regatta, Family Camping, Cublaree and Webloree (local terms for Cub and Webelos fun days), Den Chief, Denner, square knots (awards), FOS/Friends of Scouting, Trained (as in leaders), Whittlin' Chip, Youth Protection

MS -- I haven't done it with mutiple patrols, but we frequently cook with mutiple Dutch ovens using charcoal. We don't have a campfire, pre se, but a starter pile of charcoal which we use to feed the ovens. Using a charcoal chimney to get the charcoal going saves a lot of time. Seems you could have a couple Dutch oven stations going with 2-3 patrols at each.

That's interesting, I thought the medals had been discontinued. What's the procedure for ordering them? Does Council have to order them? I've been pushing all my adult leaders to work toward the knots for the past two years and finally have two guys who are about to complete the tenure requirement. I'd like to make a big deal about presenting the awards and the medals are pretty impressive.

NJ -- do you maybe have half of an amulet that was supposed to have been left with you by your 'real' mother? I'm curious to know if your half matches with mine.... We're right there on the bottle of Scotch, as long as it's a nice single malt. Macallen is always an appropriate gift. FOG, you survey is fatally flawed having left power tools off the list.

"Half your dates," FOG? I think someone's bragging!

So what would warrant a recision?

So what would warrant a recision?

Been there, Fish. You've been through training, you've read the book, now you've got those eight smiling faces looking up at you and you think to yourself, "holy smokes, now what do I do?" I agree with you that the leader position specific courses aren't very specific. You get a lot of policy, organization and background, but not a whole lot of practical information. Pow-wow or University of Scouting has much more information on actual, hands-on den meeting and activity planning. I joke that basic training is to keep you off the front page of the newspaper and out of your DE's hair. Pow-wow teaches you what to do with those eight smiling faces. Bob's right that there isn't a summary of the CSLB and that's it really isn't something you can condense. But if you're going to prioritize things, I'd look at the chapters on your specific program level and the ones on Cub activities. Probably better advice is to spend your time studying your son's handbook. That's the best resource for den meeting ideas and activities. Take an achievement, add the other elements of a good den meeting you learned about in training (gathering activity, opening, closing, etc.) and you've got a den meeting. Program Helps, which Bob mentioned, is also a good resource. It has den meeting plans down to the minute you can follow, if you like. But even if you don't necessarily follow all the meeting plan exactly, it still has a lot of good ideas. Although our pack doesn't use the monthly themes, it's still use it to get craft plans, skits, songs, etc. Try hooking up with other leaders who are a year or two ahead of you in the program. They can give you ideas of things that have worked for them as well as ideas for local outings. Roundtable is a good place to meet folks, if there aren't experienced leaders in your unit.

I guess what made me wonder is the number of ScoutReach units we have and the much greater number of paraprofessionals running around at the banquet. My impression of a paraprofessional was that they were kinda half-way between a CM/SM and a DE, working with only a couple units, but giving them support at the unit level beyond what a DE normally does. We seem to have enough PPs to staff the units down to the den leader level. How much traditional parental leadership is expected from the ScoutReach units? Or they pretty much run exclusively by the PPs?

Ron -- did I understand you to say that the boy just made Life and is already within 6 months of his 18th birthday? If he was 17 1/2 plus one day or older, all the rest is moot.

How about, "There is no meaning attached to the five points of the Star badge." Short, concise and correct.

Thanks for sharing, Dave. I used to have a painter who worked for me whose hands shook so badly he had to use both hands to hold a lighter to light a cigarette, and still had a hard time touching the flame to the tip. Of course, being a painter, it was undoubtably alcohol related. (That's a building industry inside joke.) You would watch the guy and wonder how in the world he could ever paint a straight line. But he had learned to adapt somehow and with his hands shaking an inch back and fourth could paint a perfect straight. He was really remarkable to watch.