King Ding Dong

Faith, when you look into venturing. Pay close attention to some important rules. Boy Scouts who earn First Class can continue earning MB and advancement up to Eagle. Girls do not earn MBs or BS advancement.

Forum is better, not fixed. Still problems with editing occasionally. (Text box is blank). Sometimes end of line characters ore omitted. Posting on an iPad is a problem as the text box only appears at the bottom of the page and keyboard covers it. But yes, it was a good day.

You know the birth dates so you can do the math, but these are the Boy Scout joining requirements. pg 17 Boy Scout handbook "be a boy who is 11 years old, OR one who has completed the fifth grade OR earned the arrow of light award AND is at least 10 years old, but is not yet 18 years old. Earning Arrow of Light at 9 will not cut it. The reasoning behind the arrow of light exception is the requirements have prepared a boy through his activities and associations with troops to start early. Remember Webelos is about an 18 month program, in the second year they generally cross over to the troop in the feb-April timeframe to get them acclimated to the troop and a couple of weekend campouts under their belt before the weeklong summer camp. Now there is also the principle that we do not punish the boy for the mistakes of adult leaders. So if the damage has been done and the parents and boys can't be convinced that it is better over the long term to follow the rules (not a bad lesson to teach children). You, the parents and this rouge DD can walk this up the chain all the way to National and see if you can get a signed commitment to waive the joining requirements. Don't know if you will get it. Good luck.

I don't know the official National policy here but from a practical level this is going to blow up on these parents when it is time to crossover to Boy Scouts. You will have a child who is only half way through fourth grade becoming a full fledged BS and be expected to handle the change which I can testify is dramatic. They may look real cute together in their matching uniforms and this will certainly make life simpler for the parents in the short term. An additional downside is they will likely be in the same new scout patrol and not learning independence from each other. Unless the youngest is exceptionally mature I see nothing positive in allowing this. Oh and what is a DD? Designated Driver? (Sounds like he needs to sober up)

I don't care about the youth, great experience for them. It's the old farts that bug me.

Getting his Eagle at that point in his life could very well tip the scales between a positive outcome for his family and a negative one.

My youngest was six the entire 1st grade. My oldest was still 5 when he started 1st grade. I don't really understand your question. Why would you want a kindergartener to start Tiger with a bunch of 1st graders ?

Welcome. There is some great knowledge here. Post often. Keep in mind most of us believe Eagle is not the destination, just a milestone on the journey. If you went through the entire scouting program you are the first.

I have found you pretty much hear crickets when you try and address the issue of heterosexual male sexual behavior. I suspect it may be that many us were in violation of the virtues of Scouting at one point. (or at least would have if had the opportunity) Is there one of us that would deny advancement or eject a Scout if he fathered a child ? Maybe a few but not many.

If you have a way of transporting, it can be a decent fundraiser. I sure would rather take a Saturday afternoon and run a pinewood derby for some pack than follow my son around with a wagon hawking crummy popcorn. He would have a lot more fun as well. No laughing, smaller packs just don't have the resources to purchase, maintain and store a track. $300 is a bargain for them.

Strike 3 is jumping the shark. I bet you got that from Fox and Friends, Drudge or 700 Club. I think what happened is some pamphlet got put in a goody bag at an event a troop visited and the mountain out of molehill folks turned it into some double secret alliance. Other observations are valid. You may get to be an assistant but not a leader. (They view men as evil creatures, like the BSA does gays). They are selling off primitive camps so they can build modern ones with climate controlled cabins, WIFI, lots of concrete and vats of glitter glue. Like Sandels Resorts. BSA accepting girls in cubs or scouts would be viewed as a hostile attack upon GSUSA, not likely in the near future and a PR disaster. Big bad BSA taking away our cookies. That said some packs go rouge and let in girls. There is that 11-13 donut hole. Except if you join BD's troop.

Well I certainly hope my popcorn money doesn't go for their travel expenses.

Does anybody know the details on the voting members? I know each Council sends voters. How are they selected? How representative are they? Large and small council get same number of votes? Or based on membership, number of charters organizations, membership? Youth or adult ? Does the structure effect the results like in the US House where more voters voted Democratic but the structure of the districts resulted in more Republican seats? Is this a open or secret vote? Most importantly will I know how my Council representatives voted? I suspect the answer is no. A shame.

That is the same logic that has or had the TSA strip searching "grandma". You investigate something because it is suspicious. A group whose stated position is tax revolt is cause for suspicion.

What distro of baggies thing do you do? I suggest outside at the end if possible even if it means no closing flag ceremony. Talk to the den leaders and other parents in the pack. If you have a CC, them as well. Build some consensus for change.

EmberMike I will certainly feel your frustration, but to give up is really not an option. Certainly not the message I want to send to the youth.

Absolutely. If it passes those most opposed will part ways further weakening their influence. It is a question of when not if. However I am not optimistic at this point. The old scouters are casting the votes not the youth. We are having a year end COH, picnic and adults vs scouts softball game right about the time the announcement is due. Very inconsiderate of National to schedule this for today. Will be very interesting to see if the topic comes up and what the reactions are. If it fails, I wonder how quickly they will scramble to make an executive decision ? The current policy has to change to something else.

One aspect we failed at as the year went on was incorporating the month values theme. We are primarily a values organization. Lists of games on UsScouts.org. With the weather nice I bough 200 cloth spins at Walt world for $4.00 took them out to the field and played clothspins tag. Leaders joined in also. Several had to drop out from exhaustion. Was a good moment for the CM to corner the parents and let them know about their responsibility to step up and take a POR themselves. The whole you are a partner in this pack also and need to help it go as well speech. One goal I have for next year is weather permitting, get them outside. Budget permitting would love to have as many of them as hot dog cookouts as well.

With den activities at a pack meeting, what makes it different than a den meeting? Isn't the point to bring the pack together? To show the cubs they are part of something larger, sort of like a camporee or jamboree ? We are still looking for that magic formula also. Our best one this past year was each boy got to smash a pie(shaving cream) in the face of their chosen adult for each $150 in popcorn sold. Guest speakers are ok but need to be very short. The worst thing we did was make the cubs sit through the FOS representative pitch. Poor cubs.

Jblake thanks for your comments. Good advise. In this case the scout was not conducting a safety audit, just being lazy. He is also allowed to sleep solo in his own tent. Can't cite the source but IIRC that is not advised. I saw the same thing this past weekend on the bike trip. A not very active in the troop older scout attended the bike campout for 1night/day only with his mom. Not sure of her position currently but she had a uniform with some bling. She allowed him to set up his tent in the parking lot IN THE BED OF A PICKUP! Away from the 2 patrols. Fortunately the park rangers came by and nixed that plan. I was racking my brain for an ecological reason, but turns out it was to keep vagrants out of the park. Still don't think he had to move to the patrol camp. Sigh. One more thing to add to my list of stuff wrong with this troop. Not ready to stand up and start demanding changes yet, I am still new to the troop. I am mentioning my observations to the CC.

I get tagging along with the pack on outings but how does that work with the troop? I thought that was a big no, no. Screams of "this ain't Webelos III" and "this ain't family camping" and such. Does summer camp allow it also?

With Rick Perry leading the way the likely response from Texas will be talk of 5 things, "second amendment remedies" and succession chest beating. Followed by "God hates fags" country songs and WNA II (war of northern aggression II) and, uh, hold on, uh, mmmm, uh, I forgot the 5th thing. Oops.

I suggest reviewing and replying to post 6 above.

I have worn the microfiber switchbacks for at least once a week for two years with no signs of wear and on at least 8 campouts. The microfiber shirt is another story. Lots of damage on the collar.

I cannot offer advise directly on purchasing a track. I have looked at the costs involved at my old pack and they were quite high for a device only used for a couple of hours once a year. My old pack found it much more economical to rent one from others. Another larger pack was able to get Lowes to build them a wooden track as a donation only needing to add the electronics.