yellow_hammer

The Pack will probably tell you where they need someone the most. Try to avoid accepting a Den Leader position in your first year. Assistant Den Leader would be good - that would give you a chance to learn the ropes without the pressure of being in charge.

I REALLY like Vigil-Hiker's suggestion. It is a lot of work to pull the Pack together for a campout and in my experience it could be done much better if there was a person in charge who didn't have many other responsibilities. Having an extra BALOO trained leader is a big plus for a Pack so take care of that training at your first opportunity.

Where are you located by the way? Judging by your handle it must be somewhere in the South.

John,

It's difficult to make it fun with no help and eight boys if you let some of them get out of hand. Three of mine were "live wires" - good natured kids that couldn't be still very long. To hold their attention I had to keep things moving, there was no time to stop and take care of behavior problems on the spot so I just used this method to let them know they were out of line and heading for a consequence. After the meeting I'd have the boys tell their parent that they had lost a corner. Three of them didn't have dads at home so there weren't quite as many Akelas as you're probably used to.

With my approach *the boys make the rules* knowing what the consequences of not following them are in advance. All I did was enforce the rules they made themselves. In four years two boys had to sit out a meeting and return with their parent. The fact that they went through that tells me that the program was fun enough that they wanted to be there.

I use a carrot and stick approach to behavior. It's too late for you to do something this year but here is what I've done with cubs...

Carrot:

Get the boys to make a list of den rules. Put them on a poster that is displayed at each meeting. Light a candle at the beginning of a meeting. If one of the rules is broken the candle is snuffed out. If the candle burns down to nothing (it takes several meetings) then the boys get a treat of some kind. I've done ice cream parties and pizza parties.

Stick:

Each boy gets a cardstock triangle with their name on it that is displayed close to the rules poster. When a boy breaks a rule he loses a triangle corner (just snip it off). When a boy loses three corners he is not allowed at the next den meeting and the first meeting back he must sit in the back of the room with a parent. After that he can return to meetings as normal with a new triangle. If he loses three corners on his second triangle then he cannot come back at all - this has never happened with me.

Good luck!

I was a scout about thirty years ago. We camped often and went to summer camp at Comer in north Alabama. While there we slept in the canvas tents. I think it is part of the experience.

In all the camping we did we never had mosquito netting and I don't recall using any repellant. Were mosquitos just not as big of a problem back then or am I remembering the good and forgetting the bad?

Packsaddle,

I take issue with your argument. What you seem to be saying is that if you are pro-life and not 100% full-tilt no-exceptions pro-life then you are a hypocrite and all of your pro-life arguments are illegitimate.

Not so. There are almost as many differences of opinion among pro-lifers as there are between the two sides of abortion. Many people (on both sides) don't have fully formed opinions and are not ready to defend them against someone as fully armed against them as you are.

FWIW, I am of the opinion that life begins at conception and ANYTHING done intentionally to harm that life should be illegal.

I've got a pristine copy of The Compass Game at home. Send your address to my email address ( davidshockey at gmail dot com ) and I'll ship you a copy of it. Or I can scan it and send you the scan.

The most important thing to teach the boys is that when they realize they are lost they must stay calm and think about what they've been taught. If they keep moving they will get more lost or injured.

I've had a Whisperlite for years and it's still working like the day I got it. I've hauled this thing in high altitudes, swamps, wet, cold, airborne operations, loaned it to friends,... and it's never failed me.