Faith

Reading that and only dealing with cubs, I was wondering the same. I had no idea there were some still in scouting past 18 (I need to do some more looking into Venturing.) I like qwazse's response, I couldn't see myself viewing it any other way if I was in that position currently.

Hi all,

Yesterday a couple of us (CM, asst. CM, 2 den leaders and our DD) met at the library with some parents from the local elementary schools who were interested in their sons signing up for scouts next year when they enter first grade. After a minor...discussion (I will not call it an altercation) with our district director who was also there, this question came up. I'm gonna nose around online as well and see if I can find more information on this:

I was always under the impression that a scout had to be 7 OR in the first grade to join. My son won't be 7 until second grade (due to when his birthday falls) but he was allowed in last year due to his grade, not age. Is there any 'exceptions' to this rule that would allow a kindergartener or 6 year old into scouting (as a Tiger, not any rank that may exist in some areas for younger boys.)

I never knew of the 'onmyhonor.net folks' until today. As I said before, no one in my pack ever shared their feelings on this with me and I kept mine to myself as well. However today, I saw a bunch of them posting stuff from that site on FB (which is odd to me that they decide to do that today before any other time.) I have no problem with this (as a scout parent and a Christian) but I have no idea how this will impact our pack, if at all. I am happy that more boys will have a chance to be a part of this now.

I never knew of the 'onmyhonor.net folks' until today. As I said before, no one in my pack ever shared their feelings on this with me and I kept mine to myself as well. However today, I saw a bunch of them posting stuff from that site on FB (which is odd to me that they decide to do that today before any other time.) I have no problem with this (as a scout parent and a Christian) but I have no idea how this will impact our pack, if at all. I am happy that more boys will have a chance to be a part of this now.

Yay forum update! Loving the look of it (much neater imo), trying to see if I can find anything buggy while poking around. Comments to replies seem to have disappeared (unless I'm looking in the wrong area) but other than that I haven't noticed anything else.

Yes I'm loving the speed. And fonts and images and links - I'm too much of a forum nut to be here seeing this haha. Yay!

Welcome to the forum, hope to see you around!

Yay forum update! Loving the look of it (much neater imo), trying to see if I can find anything buggy while poking around. Comments to replies seem to have disappeared (unless I'm looking in the wrong area) but other than that I haven't noticed anything else.

Thanks you two Not sure where the comments went (the forum changed on me!) but yesterday I pretty much decided to keep it to simple targets and let all the other areas 'go all out.' Easy setup for us, a happy CM (I will make sure to make the displays colorful while being sciency in 'form') and happy scouts who get to shoot

Sounds like the type of manger that charges an employee to go create something "viral" for the website.

ok, for flashy.... fill the balloons with hydrogen gas.

Place a lit candle near by the target, maybe shielded form view by the boys.

Pop the balloon, bang!

 

and volunteer her for filling and resetting the targets!

I like a marriage of my idea with ScoutNut's

 

I am a bit confused' date=' you said this was for Day Camp, yet from your comments, it sounds like this is a camp for JUST your Pack. If this is a District Summer Day Camp, then there will be boys from all over attending. There will most likely be many who have never done BB's, or archery (not just the newbies from your Pack and those who missed a campout last year). Even if every single Scout attending the Day Camp has already earned their BB/Archery belt loops, a refresher on the rules before shooting is always a must. Kids forget. Also, if this is a District Day Camp, when you say that the Cubmaster of your Pack is "over camp", do you mean that she is the Day Camp Camp Director, or Program Director? If so, then she should have taken BSA Camp School training. She should know that the firing range is just that, a firing range, and only that. If your Camp Director (CD) wants a nifty way to tie the shooting range to the Day Camp theme I suggest Sir Isaac Newton. First, see if you can get enough lab coats donated for 4 groups of campers. With a typical Day Camp group being 6-8, you would need about 40 lab coats (this includes extras for adult staff). Contact area hospitals, and medical supply stores Make sure you have eye protection for everyone also. Talk to the Program Director about putting a camp station right by the firing range(s). The camp rotation would be to go to the science station first. The boys would receive lab coats, eyewear, and learn about Newton's 3 Laws of Motion. After that they would move to the range (with coats/eyewear), and have fun putting the Laws into practice. After their turn at the range(s) was done they would turn their coats, and eyewear over to the next group at the science station. If you will be running both a BB, and archery range at the same time, you will need enough coats/eyewear for 3 groups at a time (science station-BB-archery). The science station can be named Newton's Laws. The firing range(s) Newton's OutLaws. [/quote']

 

 

Bare with me, first time with all this this year and I tend to not clarify when writing in a rush. It's not just our pack, it is for our district. I have never met another person from the other 2-3 packs in our district (none showed up to our Cuboree last November) but they are invited to attend as well by our CM. As far as I know, they do not do much with us in general (I've heard of the other groups mentioned only a handful of times since I've been around.) That is why I constantly refer to just our pack - its all I know. I asked about inviting the other pack to join us at last festival here in town (to promote scouting at our booth) and was never given any contact info. I've looked around online (including our council's website) but all the numbers I found (and left messages at) were not responded to.

 

I know she has the title of something-director over it (they discussed that at the previous roundtable) but I could not tell you which one. I know she's taken many training courses over the past few years (some in this county, some in this state and some out of state.) Again, I don't know all the specifics. I've had so much thrown at me the past few months, its hard enough keeping up with everything I need to do. She's been a CM for 8 years I believe. This is her last event and then a new CM takes over our pack so I guess all those details didn't need to be shared with us newbies.

 

I was told there would be lab coats for the kids to wear, so that's a plus. Probably not 40 but I appreciate your suggestions, I will send these over to her and see if I can get permission to reach out for more. I love your idea about the station and firing range, thank you for contributing that! We will be running both (we have 3 people now officially trained to help out in this area.)

I did point that out, that we'd be forever 'restocking' on cups, balloons and water (not 100% sure on the amount of scouts participating but regardless we'd be doing it a LOT.) Love your idea about trajectory, I will pass that along. I have all ideas she will say no to that as well (it seems to me she's mainly going for eye catching 'setups', over anything else.) But regardless we can show that in our den to our boys if nothing else.

Well, after no reply from the CM, I asked her at the meeting today. She pretty much said no to all of it. Said we could brightly color boxes for them to shoot at with the bows and fill plastic bottles with colored water and have them shoot at that. Not sure what 'science' I was supposed to incorporate with those two ideas or why I was asked to plan it, ah well. Husband said no to the bottles (they covered that at training Saturday after this discussion), I told her clear plastic cups I would think would be better for the liquid, didn't get a response on that so we'll see come closer time.

This cracked me up, as I haven't seen one award or patch on any of the adult leaders in our pack yet. I'm not sure why (I know some of them have been in it 10+ years) but I can't recall seeing one. Therefore I can't say if it would 'bother' me or not, I highly doubt it although I can see where the excess may look tacky (I don't mean the stuff you rightfully earn but putting EVERYTHING on there, including stuff that shouldn't be on there.) I personally think the old patches are cool, I wouldn't mind seeing them if someone wore one around me (I'd have to be nosy and ask about their experience but that's about it.)

As for uniform pants (saw someone mention this), I think myself and our cubmaster are the only two that wear them. Everyone else wears jeans or dickies.

Our Tigers love to wear their uniforms but I've noticed at pack meetings that a lot of the older boys come in their school uniforms, not their cub scout uniforms. The neckerchief sliders are a PITA, we are forever having them slide off no matter how tight we get them on. I try to get our scouts to wear them to all our outings as scouts, to get them accustomed to wearing them later on as well. I know some scouts who haven't worn one from day one so I figure the earlier the better. With that being said, I agree with a majority of the comments in this thread and think there is room for improvement with the uniforms. Our boys have complained about how hot they get in theirs (especially when outdoors) but so far no one has refused to wear it (in our den.)

@ Packsaddle, what else do y'all do fundraiser wise? I'm looking for suggestions to present at the next roundtable since so many are against selling it. The prices are ridiculous, imo, I got quite a few complaints on the stuff I sold last year (they knew it was for a good cause but people will still complain, especially those that purchased from me online.) If there are better alternatives out there, I'm all for looking at them. We currently do nothing else but popcorn.

I will say right now I am a big woman. I had to go to the scout shop to get my pants as well, as I couldn't find the size I needed online. With that being said, all of the more fit (and probably more capable) parents who were given the option as den leader, along with me, refused to step up to plate. I'm sure they'd have preferred someone else more in shape but alas it didn't happen. Not one person has pointed it out (which I appreciate) and since becoming a leader, I have started watching what I eat and walking at least a mile everyday. Hopefully by next year these pants will be much too big, lol. But if not, ah well. I still get out there with the scouts and do my best, as they do. And I'm sure cookies does too

(And yes, its very hard sometimes online to get across your point without sounding rude - it happens to us all.)

We received a paper last year saying they would take no returns. What our pack did was get the scouts to go around, collect orders, then ordered only what an order was placed for (if scout A had an order of 20 bags, they ordered 20 bags, etc.) I'm not sure how they did it in the past (and I know there are many flaws here and is limiting us on sales we could do with supply on hand) but apparently they were burned many times in the past so this is what become of it. Some that ordered never turned in money, so those were the ones sold 'on hand' instead of placing an order. My son sold $770 worth, I think the highest was $1200 (and we only had maybe 18 boys out of...70-ish sell it.) A lot of our parents despise selling it (they sell so much for the elementary schools that this takes the back burner.) I admit due to his popcorn sales, we didn't sell a thing for his school this year (my friends/family said the popcorn was enough.) We talked about it at the last roundtable and I discovered many of our leaders are against selling it. But for those 18 that did sell, it helped cover quite a bit this year so I think if you're not gonna sell it, so be it, but don't say no for those that do (else we'd all be paying out of pocket for everything.)

I went cold turkey on all alcohol over 4 years ago and I don't miss it. Never smoked. No drugs. I'm incredibly boring.

But to me, the point of camping is not the cuisine. It is to enjoy the outdoors, yes and the companionship there of young people as well. I do not understand the need some people have to sneak off for any reason. If there is a serious need, state the need and then go take care of it. If you're sneaking, it is by definition a deception and violates the first law.

As for the firearm thing...some people do seriously need to compensate for their shortcomings, even if through playing out their fantasies.

I view the bourbon and such I enjoy as solvent....Helps break up the grease from the chicken wings......

 

 

I am going to say that just about the entire troop has Seen me on my back porch with the neighbor enjoying a cigar and beverage......the joys of a tight knit community....Had one mom try to make a big deal about it.....the minister said he was mad he didn't get invited.....Mr. B was drinking and smoking on his back porch......My son saw it.....No I wasn't stupid drunk....crown black is too expensive for that...I also enjoy woodford reserve...

 

I think the entire troop membership has spent a night with scout son in the man cave video gaming.....

I view the bourbon and such I enjoy as solvent....Helps break up the grease from the chicken wings......

 

 

I am going to say that just about the entire troop has Seen me on my back porch with the neighbor enjoying a cigar and beverage......the joys of a tight knit community....Had one mom try to make a big deal about it.....the minister said he was mad he didn't get invited.....Mr. B was drinking and smoking on his back porch......My son saw it.....No I wasn't stupid drunk....crown black is too expensive for that...I also enjoy woodford reserve...

 

I think the entire troop membership has spent a night with scout son in the man cave video gaming.....

These are great, thank y'all so much. I ran all this past my husband today on his lunch break and mailed it to my CM (along with the concerns.) I was thinking maybe each scout get a chance to perform one of these 'ideas' and then the rest of the shooting be the normal requirements of the firing range (maybe save these until the end of their turn.) I really appreciate all this!

I agree, I enjoyed reading this (and seeing this kind of chatter is part of my daily job, just glad I can join in here!) I look forward to seeing how our parents handle this in the future; if they leave or stick around. I know at our one overnighter everyone remained (rushed to get out of there the next morning but not the night before.) A lot of the points in here I've never thought about, the varying opinions here make me wonder how I'll feel about it if/when it happens.

Thank you for your suggestions Virden and your input Sqyire. I understand where you are coming from, I actually brought that up at the last roundtable (I asked if it was going to be part of the 'theme' or on its own like it was at the campout last year.) Our CM that is moving on is over camp (their last hoorah I guess) and she is the one that requested tying it in. I'm not sure if they would continue with those areas or not if we can't (this is my first year so I am unsure.) I will say that most of the boys who will be there I believe earned their beltloop at the campout last year (which will mean this is their second time at it.) Not all of them of course (we've had scouts come and go since then) but some of them have experience - some do not. I will mention all the suggestions here, so we can discuss both sides.