Twocubdad

I agree with much of what you've written, Fred, especially regarding the herd mentality. No, there isn't much informed decision making, mostly just following the den leader or the alpha kids in the den. Our troop was on the road to oblivion when my older son and I joined for just this reason. Prior to our joining the troop split off another troop and for three years all the Webelos from the pack followed their older brothers and den leaders to the new troop. I'm proud to say, that my son was the one to make the decision to stay with the CO troop and pulled a handful of his friends along. My fi

Wow is right. The DC should be removed for publicly criticizing one unit's leadership at Roundtable. The rest is just piling on.

When was the last time a troop was mobilized for a disaster? Generally, the instructions we hear in the media is to stay home and out of the way. These days, professional emergency services don't want a bunch of untrained soon-to-be victims running around a disaster site. Filling sandbags is the only thing mentioned which may involve Scouts, but we would have to drive 400 miles to do that. Once we had the troop set up a mobile kitchen, pretending that in the event of a hurricane we could head to the coast and set up near one of the staging areas for emergency workers. We set up at a c

Too tightly wound. Like a bull's butt in fly season. One of my guys favorite activities is playing capture the flag just as you describe, except they do it through the wee hours of the morning with all the adults asleep. They know where to find me if a problem arises. Does your CC or someone else in troop understand the difference between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts? If so, have them talk to Mr. Bull's Butt. The conversation needs to focus on his chastising your SPL. His opinion about the meeting aside, that was out of line. Since the SPL is your son, that conversation would be b

Our council hasn't lost a single Scouts over the issue. To date. Of course drops don't show up until the first wave of rechartering begins next month. Makes me wonder of the 'Bama boys aren't playing footsie with the same numbers. Stay tuned.

Reason we don't do Klondike #11. Down south in the land of the pines sleds don't make much sense. Dragging heavy sleds over rocks and roots only serves to favor brute strength. Not many troops around here backpack with sleds. Many of our Scouts have invested in and are accustomed to using these things called backpacks. Although the written guidelines neither require sleds nor prohibit carrying gear in backpacks, the Ol' Boys have determined all gear must be stowed on sleds. Same for sled design. The rules only specify the height and width of sleds, the Ol' Boys say sleds must look like

Reason 16 we don't do Klondike. Our district runs two separate camporees for younger and older Scouts, but even within the smaller demographic groups, there are still troops which create patrols specifically for Klondike. Of course the swear up and down they don't stack the patrols. My problem is that with this system troops with mixed-age patrols are required to shuffle their patrols by age in order to meet the camporee rules. So you Green Bar has spend a year training his patrol, developing a team and honing his leadership, but because his birthday falls a few weeks before the camporee, he's

March is a great time for survival camping in Carolina. Not too cold, no bugs yet. Our guys love doing this and put it on the calendar every year. Consequently, my greatest challenge as an SM is encouraging them to do different things every year to keep it interesting. Start with some instruction time during the troop meetings leading up to the campout, especially since you've never done it before. One of the things we do is to have the Scouts put together a survival kit. The only limitation is it has to be something they will be willing to carry on every outing. Demonstrate some uten

I was surprised to see that too. I think the belt loop program is a good addition I'd hate to see it go (and don't forget the corresponding pins which aren't easy to earn). If a DL is running a decent den program, most of the den is done with their rank badges by February. BL are great filler programs, either for the spring or sprinkled throughout the year. And you're right Base, but at 7 or 8 Shiney is pretty good motivation.

Slide 2 says something about changing to provide today's Scouts with what the both want and need. How many Scouts have complained that the program needs a greater emphasis on nutrition, religion and outdoor ethics? No, me either. One constant want since I joined in 1969 has been to cut down on the school-work merit badges, but I see no mention of that.

It's all about attitude. If they go thinking they already know it all and are going to be bored, they will. If they look at as another chance to camp and share a weekend in the woods with new folks of similar interest, they'll have a good time. My IOLS patrol was exactly as you describe. Four Eagle Scouts, a recently-retired Army Ranger and a mom who was totally clueless. But we had a blast. The troop guide wandered into our campsite to teach us knots. We spent the time showing each other fancy climbing knots and rope tricks. The guide finally quit trying to teach us anything, mumble

Our troop associated MBCs are the only opportunity our Scouts have for earning MBs the right way. We simply say "no" to our boys attending the local MB colleges.

The night this hit the fan (Thursday?) I spent some time flipping between CNN and Fox listening to the all-to predictable opinions on this. I can't say I'm a big fan of DD, but I will catch snips of the show here and there. Honestly, I find it repetitive. Watch two episodes and you know everything you need to know about the show. But I gotta think if you enjoy watching 13-year-olds run around in the woods doing silly thing and having fun, you will at least have an appreciation for these guys doing basically the same thing. I appreciate that they always close the show with a family meal, a

Ding! Correct Answer. Let the troop handle it. Nothing bad comes from 36 hours of lapsed registration. Anyone really think someone from the council will come in Saturday morning to purge the rolls?

I agree..I would award each category (age division) 1st through 4th with Some award and then Overall based on the average.to the Clans. I would say something like 1st Place Event = 5 points 2nd Place Event finish = 3 Points 3rd Place Finish = 2 Points 4th Place Finish = 1 Point Overall Scout = Highest Total based on Top 4 Finishes Overall Clan Based on Accumulated Scouts Scores Some Knuckle Dragging Traditions are Still as good today as they were 100 Years ago..I have never agreed with awarding everyone with equal awards unless everyone equally participates. If ya awa

Thank you for providing the standard response I got from the local knuckle-draggers here. Since they couldn't see any advantage beyond "the way we've always done it," they, too, assumed this approach was another wussy, everyone-gets-a-ribbon system. There is competition and there is fair competition.

This is one of the reasons we don't attend district camporees. A typical camporee the winning patrol may score 350 points. Third place may be less than 10 points behind. So while scoring things like leadership and scout spirit you're telling me the scoring system is accurate to one or two percentage points? Of course there is no accommodation for the things you mention like size of troop, age or rank of patrol members. The winners usually came from the troops which ran the events and had adults who knew the ins and outs of the system or who stack their patrols to ensure a winner.

Clearly Christ came into the world so that we may beat up one another in His name. And proving once again the world is full of jackasses of all faiths.

Except this is the sort of grass-roots pressure which caused companies like L-M to drop Scouting in the first place. Well that and overwhelming media bias (anyone else paying attention to the Duck Dynasty flap?) Perhaps a better approach would be for us to contact our Representatives and Senators and asking why our tax money is going to companies like this. It's all about money and power.

This Merry Christmas/Happy Holiday junk gets trotted out every year. Who cares? Last time I checked, Christmas is one of the holidays celebrated this time of the year. If someone wants to wish me a merry Christmas, fine. If they want to wish me a Swell Sewy Yelda (thanks for the list, NAE), that's okay too. If the want to lump all the holidays together, I don't mind that either. Some folks sure go out of their way to find thing to be offended over.

Just checking to see if my posts go through.

Perhaps not everyone thinks NOAC is on a par with jamboree? It's basically a convention, staying in a hotel/dorm room and eating in a cafeteria. You can argue attending the BSA annual meeting is on the same par.

So now, I'm able to open and create replies, but when I hit submit I get an error telling me my message must be minimum of 10 characters -- it doesn't recognize that I 've entered anything.

Not that it really matters here, but how does the COR get himself appointed as Institutional Head? The IH is the in-fact leader of the chartering organization and is the Institutional Head through BSA by way of his/her position in with the institution How do you appoint someone other than the in-fact head of the institution to be IH? I know that the in-fact leader of the chartering institution can also serve as COR, but he/she starts as IH and is appointed COR.

Harsh? I see nothing harsh whatsoever. A very gentle and well padded reminder of what his responsibilities are.