gumbymaster

This might make it difficult for our scouts to do the shopping at a local grocery store. I guess maybe the local CVS would work, but the price and healthfulness of the menu might suffer.

At the Day camps and resident camps in our area; the summer camp staff decidedly does NOT certify completion of the requirement or sign off in the book. They will provide unit leaders a listing of what was worked on, but as they do not even perform an attendance of who was at each session, they could not know which scouts did or did not complete the requirements. That said, our pack has pretty good adult representation at these events and follows along with the Scouts, so they usually do have a good idea of which Scouts actually did and completed which requirements. Often, the Den leader

Sometimes you just have to have to engage in tough love. First, because the Lion program is a pilot program and is trying to measure it's effectiveness, you really should keep the Lion dens to 5-8 members each, anything else will skew the evaluation results. Thus you need at least two coaches (not den leaders) for your Lions program. I agree with others that the Tiger den is also too large, and it will only be worse as the boys become bears and Webelos. Break the den up now. My suggestion for the Tigers ... 1. First, set the expectation. Tiger parents are to participate in all

Not printed, but I am pretty sure I have a Data CD (or DVD) of NCAC's 2012 Pow Wow presentations somewhere.

I am not defending the practice, but let me play devils advocate for a moment. SM: "Johnny, could you help the troop by doing a presentation on your recent visit to the high adventure troop?" Johnny: "No" SM: (thinks to self) there is a lack of scout spirit here. Moving a little closer to a grey area ... "It is our expectation that the older scouts will do presentations for the younger scouts." It is not technically a requirement, but if an older scout is unwilling to do things to help their troop - whatever those things are, Scout Spirit could be called into question. Sometim

The one thing they never make more of is land ... once it is gone, it is gone. While I have not seen the data, it is often told to us in the Webelos to Scout transition that getting the Scout to attend summer camp is the single largest factor in the retention of that Scout. A week of self-determination, away from the constant directions of Mom and Dad will do wonders for the self-esteem and confidence of that Scout. Camps are very different, if the one you are going to is not doing it for your unit, there are many others around (at least for most the country). Camps do not need

We too have had this challenge. For our CSRT, our team decided to stick to the point of the scout law and theme used in the next month's pack planning for cubmasters, as we felt this would be most in-line with the needs of our leaders. So in September, instead of using "Thrifty" as the point of the Scout Law, we stuck to "Kind" with the Creepy Crawler Theme to prepare our leaders for their October pack meetings. That said, we did still do the group session on Cub Scout Cooking for our interest topic, as that was also timely as many of our pack have Fall camping planned. It also helpe

First, I will concede to Eagle dad that these comments are more focused on the needs of (a subset of) girls, and not the current male youth membership. One of the challenges in our discussion is that it devolves into statements like "the girl scouts have their own program, if they want more outdoors let them change their program". OK, this is a fair enough statement; however, the girl scout program has evolved into its current form because that IS what the MAJORITY of their membership/leadership want, if not, it would change. If the BSA opened up to girls, it would not be the instant

You could also consider using the patrol method The Patrol Scribe would be encouraged to take notes of the announcements and upcoming events. If they are absent, the Patrol leader could appoint a substitute. When A Scout misses a meeting, they should contact their Patrol Scribe to learn what they need to know. I'm not saying parents should not be in the knowing whats going on loop, but we need to encourage the boys to take responsibility for getting the information they need, processing that information, and reacting to it appropriately. In this case, the method of contact (p

A favorite for my pack is "Rock, Paper. Scissors, Snake" Basically it is the traditional game of Ro-sham-bo when two scouts approach each other; however, the scout that loses, then has to follow the winner. (i.e. he puts his hands on the others' shoulders (or the shoulders of whomever is at the end of the snake). If the leader of a snake of boys loses, he (and the rest of his snake) join the end of the other snake. Even though the boys in the snake had previously lost to their leader, they are excited for their snake to be the ultimate last remaining snake - its a lot of fun. When on

At least as far as Amazon Smile, this should not apply to you. You never receive the donation to make, nor do you even get a statement. Amazon is making (and taking credit for) the charitable donation made based on the value of your purchases, to the qualified recipient of your choice - but it is their donation, not yours.

As @@Chisos said, as a Webelos, he can attend Boy Scout Events ... however, technically this needs to be either with two cub-scout/webelos leaders OR you the parent attending those events as well. Another option would be to work with the Webelos (AOL) Den leader to "work ahead" and complete the AOL adventures quickly. He could then have the AOL, join the Troop, and if he wanted, comeback and be recognized for his AOL when his friends are. As others have said, he cannot work on the AOL and Boy Scout advancement (including Merit Badges) at the same time. Depending upon the willingne

My Council is my Smile recipient, and as I get of lot of things for both home and work through that account - it's probably worth more than my FOS donation - too bad that doesn't seem to count to the DEs and what not.

Two plus decades ago, when I was a summer camp program director, my camp manager who was an active girl scout leader approached me about running a week of Girl Scouts at our camp. We already did a week of Webelos, two half-weeks of Cub Scouts, and three weeks of boy scouts. Over the course of the summer, the camp was underutilized - it was a small council at the time. The Girl Scouts had also recently closed down and sold their own camp; so I thought that this might be a neat idea to try. I acquired the literature for different Girl Scout ages and their badges and looked at the cross ov

If we take @@Eagledad's comments regarding the program changes in 2000 or so as accurate .. 1. the BSA introduces training materials to bring the new female scouters up to speed. This also benefits male leaders without prior experience. 2. This is necessary because the Female leaders, generally/statistically, do not have the outdoor experience that Male leaders who grew up with the program do. OK, but, unless we were to ALSO let girls join the program (and thus obtain the outdoor experience as a youth) this will ALWAYS be a problem for our female scout leaders - the BSA accommodates, bu

I'm not sure I really want to drop back into this fray, but circling back to the original topic (although now we are in I&P that may be moot) ... All of this powerfully held, sincere belief on the part of our membership is why unless the unit is a Church chartered unit being used as an extension of the Church's ministry; it is probably not a good idea for a youth member, who in being true to their own convictions has to do their prayers a certain way, may not be a good choice for a CA POR. Now for a little levity (or irreverence depending on your take of the world and sense of hum

I forget why exactly - if it was a camp School thing or my Summer Camp, but I was given/wore the Western Region patch for a number of years (then I moved East and became a normal scouter ) Other than that, I've only seen them worn by the people with the Gold/Yellow area shoulder loops.

Hopefully, before this topic devolves into an argument over whose more this and whose more that ... I wanted to raise a couple of comments and thoughts. My first is the concern that if you leave it up to the boys (i.e. they vote), and the majority of them are some form of Christian, then the majority would approve ending all prayers that way, and the unit might risk disenfranchising the non Christians. Now, many of our youth are smarter than that, especially presented with the alternative positions of why that may be an issue, so rather than voting yes or no, have them as a group thin

I've noticed this difference between my son's troop and the troop of my youth. Note this may also be associated with the relative size difference of the units (his 20 young boys, 3 patrols; mine 60+ distributed boys 6+ patrols) For my son's troop, they first determine the number of seats that cars of camping adults generate, then, if needed, inquire for additional seats (this is adult to adult); the SPL then organized who goes in who's car - generally they try to split up siblings and parents and children for the ride up, for the ride back they usually organize by dropoffs. In my troo

While I will generally agree that a "by-laws" may be overkill, I do think that: 1. Some "structured" discipline policy (there are many examples from many units on the web) has some value in making sure that the adults treat the youth fairly/the same for similar magnitude issues rather than at the whim of how much the leader(s) like that particular scout or their family. 2. Defining "Active" has value. Under the Guide to Advancement, if the unit does not have an "active" policy/definition, then the Scout is considered active simply by virtue of being registered and in good standing (i.e. not

My 4th year of camp staff, the night before camp started I fell down a couple steps going to dinner, and after an ER visit had a cast. I was still on-time to report to work the next day. At first it was thought to just be a sprained ankle, but at the follow up a week later, it was a greenstick fracture. By no means as bad as you describe, and the camp did make allowances for my uniforming when I had the full cast - I was on an air cast by the follow up. They also made the golf cart available as I needed it (to get to the campfire bowl, etc), but mostly I just hobbled around the hills an

If the merger was a formal one, usually the merger means the surviving entity retains the rights and obligations (including prior contractual ones) as well as assets and debts for both entities. Thus, as a merger, the mega church would be the owner of equipment and the CO of record. Now, I have not read a charter agreement, but I would imagine that the BSA probably has an explicit clause in there that if the signing CO (the old one) ceases to exist (or has a change of control), then the charter itself becomes null and void - releasing the mega church from the obligation to continue to be

One year on Camp Staff, the Camp Director wanted to effect more control over the choice of language used by the staff. His solution was word substitution. We were instructed that we could use the phrase "Schibeck" (apparently a manufacturer of outhouses) as a substitute for the more common excrement term. It worked - of course at first the staff just used that word like crazy, knowing that other campers had no idea of the intent - it was funny for them, but after a while it just took, without being over used. In fact, I would venture to guess that cursing even decreased, because by t

As with any position, it has everything to do with how it is used (or not). To me, to be a POR the bugler needs to be the unit's clockpiece. Someone who helps the SPL keep events on time and moving. He wakes up early to give everyone else the reveille call, or knows when assembly calls are needed. Maybe he coordinates the honor patrol and flag ceremonies while the SPL gets the rest of the meeting together. As for Eagle POR; again, as most units use the bugler (if they even have one) just to do the flag calls, I can see why it would not count. I do not know if SM appointed project a

When my son bridged last year, I stayed on as the cubmaster. Even before this, I regularly and frequently offered to step down and be a supportive ACM if any of the parents would like to step up to the position. There were a couple of reasons I stayed on... 1. I like the job, and the satisfaction when the scouts have fun 2. While I am sure other parents would have stepped up if I left, it was lukewarm excitement to someone volunteering if not needed. 3. Being involved with the district, University of Scouting, Roundtable staff, and generally being knowledgeable about the new program ch