Twocubdad

I've always noticed that on a weekender, that on the first night, the boys are too excited to sleep. On the second, they're too tired not to. How about this -- suggest to the SPL and PLs that they assign breakfast fire and cooking duty to the late risers. Insist that those boys do the work themselves. Having six of their cold, hungry buddies outside their tent should encourage them to get up. Peer pressure can be a good thing.

Our Pack campouts are very similar to what Pack38Scouter described. We camped this past weekend and had about 80 boys and 50 adults for one part of the weekend or another. We don't try to segregate by den or rank. The families just pitch their tent where ever. We usually have several formal program sessions -- usually working on beltloop. We try to have one breakout session where the boys work on rank advancements. Our Cubmaster runs the campfire and we try to leave time in the afternoon where the dens or other groups can plan skits. Two rules -- nothing too scary, and no bathroom j

I received my Eagle along with five other guys -- we had a total of 13 in our troop that year. A local businessman and old Eagle Scout did the presentation, but no other big speeches or individual elements. That was in '73 and most of our troop was attending Jamboree -- no one wanted to be the low-man. Later in the year we had another big flock as the requirements changed on Dec. 31. They increased the number of merit badges to 24 and some other stupid stuff, like dropping camping and cooking a required MBs. I thought that was the norm until two years ago I went to see a cousin

Looking at page four of the green Guide to Safe Scouting, under the sub-section No secret organizations, it says in bold type: All aspects of the Scouting program are open to observation by parents and leaders. Hard to observe a program if you cant attend it. The CO has the right to approve or deny registering someone as a leader, but unless the boy's membership is revoked, how do you remove someone as a Scout parent? (This message has been edited by Twocubdad)

Is it not a basic policy of BSA that all Scout functions are always open to all parents? If a mom agrees to abide by the Youth Protection rules, stick with the adult patrol, leave the boys alone, not hover, use an electric air mattress or commit any of the other sins of parental excess mentioned here, how can a unit prohibit them from attending?

Dens can meet just about anywhere that's practical -- see chapter 20 of the Cub Scout Leader book. Most of our dens meet at our CO in the Sunday school rooms. If a den wants to meet off-site, we ask that the den leader let the committee know. Tiger Cubs may meet at the home of the host Tiger/partner, but I'm not aware of any local dens that do that. Seems to me keeping up with a new location and providing directions for every meeting would be a hassle.

Thanks for all the good info. Since this will be a Cub campout, every kid will have a parent, so we'll be well supervised. I had also thought of using charcoal -- easier to control and replinish, if needed.

Does anyone have a good way of identifying/tracking hobo dinners? Will a name written on the foil with a marker survive the fire? We've got about 30 boys camping in two weeks and are planning to let them make hobo dinners to satisfy their Outdoorsman and Wolf cooking requirements. If we prepare them identically en masse, that defeats the purpose of them making their own dinners. But if we do it individually, then we need someway to keep track of them. To avoid having hot coals scattered across two acres, we need to cook them together in one fire pit. Is there a good way to know w

Doesn't seem to, but we've had it sewn on the new blue uniform for only a week or two now. I'll let you know.

Our Tiger badges were peel and stick and were no problem afixing to the totems. Of course that meant they had to be sewn, not ironed, to the uniform. If for some reason you have a batch that must be glued to the totem, try hot glue, but first rough-up the space on the diamond with sand paper for a better bite.

One more point -- Venturer2002, you wrote, "The phrase "under god" can mean what you want it to..." No, it can't. First of all, the plain meaning of the words does mean something. I won't bore you with a quote from Websters, but "under God" means subservient to God. Secondly, look back at the earlier posts regarding the original legislative intent of the words. It was intended to differentiate us from the "godless commies." And lastly, as a religious person, why would you want it to mean "anything you want it to"? If can mean anything, then it means nothing. If it has

Jefferson also wrote; "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." On balance, I'd say Ol' Tom didn't do too bad. Regarding this idiot high school principal, every year or so something like this hits the media. Some bozo badly mis-applies a particular court ruling, usually regarding scho

A very timely question in that I took Webelos Outdoor Training this weekend and just walked in the door from our den -- er, patrol -- meeting which was spent tying knots and learning to set up tents. The other Webelos leader in our Pack is also an ASM with the Scout troop. He has the same complaint. We've made it a program focus for our Pack to better prepare our Webelos for Scout camping. We're going to spend extra time teaching camping skills in den meetings and are also planning one or two Webelos-only campouts. While I think that's great, and the boy are really looking forward

If the BBs are done correctly -- at an approved camp with certified instructors, etc. -- it will be the highlight of the weekend. Your boy will love it. The program is extra safe and a very good learning experience. Not to toss another wet blanket on your plans, but you mentioned canoeing as an alternative. Cub Scouts are not permitted to use canoes, either. Rowboats are okay, but not canoes. Similar procedures apply as to facilities and trained supervision. Back to your original question. If you don't have a sleeping bag yet, you can get a acrylic fleece bag for about $15 at W

I called and got the dates for the southeast region. These are only the ones near me not all -- March 14-16, Browns Summitt, NC (Greensboro) March 21-23, Leesville, SC (Columbia) April 4-6 Covington, GA (Atlanta) I think the other dates are after these. There is no registration info out yet, but they have set these dates.

Thanks for the link to the emblems. We had our first Webelos I meeting tonight and the boys voted that we're now the "Crazy Silver Shark" patrol -- with the one added caveat that the Den Leaders have the right to limit how "crazy" they get.

Ditto.

Exactly, Rooster. One of the reasons I like the payment request/check request is that it keeps the approval or disapproval of an expenditure from being a personal thing between the treasurer and the person requesting the check. She simply receives the request, notes whether or not there is sufficient funds in the budget to cover the expense and forwards it to the CC for approval. I'd even present the forms to the CC during the committee meeting as part of the treasurer's report. That way, if the CC is the one not following the budget, it gets it in front of the committee without t

Bob White's point in the second paragraph, above, is exactly the one I was trying to make in my post regrading the Kentucky autistic Scout. It's a wise person -- much less Scouter -- who knows their limitations. As far as my expectations, I think there are two things to consider: first, is a matter of informed consent. From the scant information in the post about the Kentucky situation, it doesn't seem the mother did much to educate the Scoutmaster about her son's condition. At Cub Scout day camp we had a boy who's parents noted that he was ADHD on the medical form -- no mention o

I agree with everything that's been said about this situation so far. There needs to be a place in Scouting for this boy. But put yourself in the Scoutmaster's uniform for a mintute. Shouldn't he have the opportunity to say "Sorry folks, this just isn't what I signed up for." Not everyone has the patience, the aptitude or the interest to deal with this child. (Frankly, you could say the same thing about teaching middle school math.) I don't think it's a character flaw for this guy to admit it. In a perfect world, the Troop would welcome this boy with open arms. He would never get

I don't necessarily agree that treasurer should bear the burden of policing the budget. The committee chairman and, to a lesser degree, Cubmaster needs to do the heavy lifting. As treasurer, I think you can jump up and down at committee meetings as to budget and procedure, but when it comes to butting heads with an individual Den Leader, that's not your job. As a CC myself, I certainly wouldn't ask my treasurer to do it. Here's a suggestion. Develop a check request/reimbursement form and require that it be signed by you, and the CC and/or CM before a check is written. Set up a procedu

Do you have these expenses budgeted? If not, they need to be. In our Pack we budget $20 per boy per year for Den expenses. In a Den with eight boys, that's $160 per year the Den Leader can spend as they see fit. Rarely, however, do the Dens spend all their money. Most expenses are less than $10 and the Den Leaders often pay it and never turn in the receipts. On the other hand, we had one Den that needed additional money for a service project at our Chartered Organization. They presented the request to the Pack committee and we approved it. Personally,I question spending Pack mo

Yo, Bob, a question about commissioners. At our District Committee's planning conference awhile back, our DC said one of his goals was to re-organize the commissioner corps so that UCs don't necessarily serve their "home" units. Sounds like a good idea, since commissioners sometimes need to serve as a disinterested brokers when problems arise. Two weeks later, the same DC called my Cubmaster to let him know that the Pack needs to recruit a new UC for ourselves. The position has been vacant for nearly a year and "under-filled" for a long time before that. Which approach is right an

You're exactly right that the matter was not looked into thoroughly. That is precisely why the SE should be involved. But let's not get too full of ourselves here. We can debate an issue as an academic exercise, but we're never going to have enough information to make a real decision. We're lucky to get one complete point of view, much less two. That's just a limitation of the medium. I hope that's understood by anyone looking for advice from the group. I will say that in this instance we probably have more information to go on than most since the older boy essentially agreed wi

Yaworski -- YOU contacted the ACLU!?!?!?