dedkad

You must be in my Council.

Yes, I would most definitely do Readyman for a 3rd time. I bet if you put the boys on the spot who already did it twice and gave them a scenario and asked how to treat it, at least 1/2 of them would get it wrong or incomplete. Besides, if their previous exposure to Readyman was during camps, the boys are already excited and inattentive, plus many Council-run camps are notorious for signing off on requirements without accountability.

With a little thought, you can make Readyman fun, so it won't be a repeat. I like the idea that others suggested about having those who already learned the stuff teach the others who haven't. One of our favorite Readyman meetings was when I printed out a bunch of gross pictures of cuts, burns, nose bleeds, snake bites, bugs, frost bite, and road rash. The boys would take turns being the victim and the medic. I would tape an injury picture on the victim. Then the medic would come in and identify what the injury was just by looking at it and simple statements from the victim like "I burned myself on the grill." In that case, the medic had to determine if it was a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree burn, then treat it properly with the first-aid kit I had on hand plus other items that I threw in to confuse them. They really enjoyed that meeting. We also played Readyman basketball over many meetings where I would ask boys first-aid questions and if they got it right, they could take a step closer to the basket. When I was finished with my questions, they would all make 5 attempts to shoot a basket from where they stood. I did this at every meeting and kept track of the points and presented the winner with a prize at the end of our "basketball" season. We also had an EMT come in and talk to the boys, and he brought the fire truck with him. There are lots of ways to present the material so it seems new to the boys. It doesn't hurt to reinforce what the boys have learned, and it's a big confidence booster for the boys when they are presented with information, and they can say to themselves "I knew that!"

How's it going' date=' Mr. Troll?[/quote']

 

That's my thought too.

My son's troop alternates each year between two different camps. One on a lake and one on the ocean. From how much I've heard the boys and leaders raving about the ocean camp, I'm sure they would probably go there every year if finances weren't an issue. It is awfully expensive compared to the lake camp.

Pack camping is family camping - for the entire Pack, Tiger thru Webelos. It is a great opportunity for the entire Pack family to get to know each other, become closer, and share the vision of Scouting. That is how you get adults committed to helping "their" Pack.

Nothing better than having a captive audience of adults for 24 hours or more to recruit your future leaders.

Advancement used to be about recognizing acquisition of skills and knowledge. Now advancement is about recognizing exposure to skills and knowledge. Advancement used to be about passing the test. Now advancement is about showing up. Advancement used to be about youth meeting the expectations of leaders. Now advancement is about leaders meeting the expectations of parents.

Welcome to the new Boy Scout Common Core standards.

If there is another church interested, I would approach them with the possibility of a change. Go through from scratch and make sure they are fully aware of what chartering a unit means. Enlist their assistance from the beginning and maintain communications with the right people. My church CO? Met the secretary once or twice, never met the pastor, I dealt with the Council Chairman. They are the people who make the decisions in the church anyway.

Stosh

As far as what their Pack's needs are for a CO, I think Jo is perfectly qualified to have that discussion with her church. However, I think it should be pointed out that Jo needs to get the District Executive or his designee involved in this process. It is the DE's job to approach the church to explain the rest of the picture and the legalities of being a CO.

Dedkad -- if you were coaching a sport would you meet with the players before the first game? Of course!

 

Counseling a MB is more than grading their papers. They are supposed to be learning from you. If they complete requirements before meeting with you, what have you brought to the table? Of course there are probably requirements which Scouts could complete before meeting with you, but why miss the opportunity?

But it seems like Family Life is kind of a unique MB, and I'm not really sure what they are supposed to be learning from me. A lot of the requirements are to be done with the family, which makes sense because every family is different and has different values. Some families are religious and base their foundation on that. Some aren't. Some are big families, some aren't. Some believe in spanking their children. Some don't. Every parent has lots of opinions on the way children should be raised and how families should operate. There is nothing right or wrong about most of those ways, and I didn't see it as being my place to tell them how to run their family. I envisioned it being more of a discussion with the boys about their thoughts on family, and I would chime in when needed, rather than me actually teaching them something. What have others done with this MB?

I am also a brand new Family Life MB counselor. Actually, I'm brand new to the whole MB counselor thing. I've been called by two pairs of boys already. Am I supposed to meet with the boys before they even get started, even if there isn't anything to talk about yet? I figured they could start working on their 90 days of chores before we scheduled a meeting. Are we supposed to meet in person if they are proposing project ideas, or are phone calls sufficient? I certainly plan on meeting with them in person to discuss the things we are supposed to discuss, just not sure if a face-to-face is necessary to get them going on some of the requirements. Since they are from a different troop, a face-to-face meeting requires some extra coordination.

Agree with KDD. The belt loops my boys earned as Webelos went straight into a drawer. They were a waste of money. Earn the loops on paper but don't worry so much about the bling.

Scouter99 ... You are right. I hinted at it. What do you tell all the parents of the other scouts? It's a very important communication. They will learn about it from their own scout. So you better get ahead of the communication headache.

 

Unlike school and neighbors, scouting is a voluntary association and chosen because of the likelyhood of being with scouts of good character. Now a scout offered another scout an illegal substance at camp. Now the troop is a less safe environment for their kids. You have to explain to parents how this won't happen again when they trust you with their own scout.

 

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The reputation of a troop is a fragile thing. Because of BSA's recruitment model, the reputation is the life and death of a troop. A bad scout drive many scouts away. A bad reputation can kill a troop.

 

It's one of the reasons I take a more hard line view of behavior issues. I can sympathize, but I've got to protect the future of the troop.

 

 

Matt indicated in one of his posts that the legal system is now requiring that the boy take regular urine tests. I think that might put some parents' minds to ease knowing that this boy is being monitored.

I would re-do the advancements that were taught at Day Camp. For some Scouts' date=' reinforced learning would be a plus. For other requirements, perhaps the Scout who remembers best could tell the others about their experience and then the whole bunch could work on the requirements together. I know 45min or so session in Day Camp really isn't enough to go through some of these requirements. And the Scout skills learned now do carry forward with the boys. [/quote']

 

 

Agree exactly. I sat through some of the sessions at our Council's Day camp and was surprised on what they were signing off. It never hurts to reinforce the important stuff because I guarantee most of it didn't sink in at Day Camp.

I got "tricked" by the recruitment flyer. Brought my son to the recruitment meeting to join Cub Scouts, not knowing it would involve effort on my part. They get my son all excited about Cub Scouts, then tell me afterwards that if my son wants to do Cub Scouts, I would have to be his Tiger Den Leader and would need to recruit more boys to boot, since only 2 Tigers showed up for recruitment. Ended up being my son's leader all the way through Webelos, and loved every minute.

Church camps all over the U.S. run co-ed camps. It's definitely possible to make it work.

Scouts Honor that is all factual. I left out the part about scout who came up to me and said the boys in their hammocks under the big fly they erected we watching porn. I asked him how he knew that was what they were doing and he described in great detail the sounds he was hearing from the cell phone. I cut him off after about 10 seconds for I am certain an 11 year old talking like that to a adult is a YPT violation. We tried several times stalking the treehuggers but no avail. I was very sleep deprived that week' date=' it is all slowly coming back to me.[/quote']

 

 

Knowing that it was all true, I feel guilty laughing about it, but I can't help it.

My son's Scoutmaster sent daily emails to all of the parents whose boys were at summer camp this past week. It was exciting to read the updates and hear about all the fun things they were doing. It also helped put parents' minds at ease that everything was OK. He even listed the boys who received mail that day, so you weren't left wondering "Did my letter get there?" I received a picture of my son heading out on his Wilderness Survival overnight trip, which was a surprise because he wasn't signed up for that merit badge when he left. I guess my son changed his mind once he found out his other friends were signed up for it. Now when my son comes home tonight and I ask him how Scout camp was, I won't just get a "it was fun" response, I'll be able to ask him about specific things that he did which will be a great conversation-starter.

What didn't work was having it broken out to three meetings' date=' which one-two different scouts invariably missed one of the three, leaving me with a patchwork of complete/incomplete requirements. By the end of the year, I switched to once a month, two-hour long Den Meetings on Saturday Mornings just so we could comfortably conclude 1 pin (with 1 fun Belt Loop if there was time) in a sitting. Longer time, bigger projects, and no partials. [/quote']

 

I'd be interested to learn how you could possibly get the Citizenship Activity Pin completed in two hours.

A bit miffed this year' date=' the scout shop is only stocking the new "catamaran" style boat kits. Ugh. Cost $2 more each, all the "old" boat kits left over are no longer useful, and I need to check to see if we'll need new gutters (or buy the new "inflatable" track the shop sells to go with the new kits).[/quote']

 

 

Maybe your Webelos can work on their Craftsman Activity Badge by cutting the wood for your boats.

There's plenty of blame to go around. In the comment section on the article, one woman wrote that she lived on the same street as this guy and all the kids knew something was going on in that house. One kid was even hired to clean the house and found lots of dirty photographs. The commenter said the neighborhood kids told their parents, but the parents did nothing either.

The bigger the tent, the harder it is to find a level open spot on the ground to set it up. This becomes an even a bigger problem when you're sharing a campsite with others. I'd go for the smallest size that you are reasonably comfortable in. Since it's for Cub camping, it's not like you are going to be spending a bunch of nights in it during one trip. Personally, I can put up with most anything if just for 1 or 2 nights at a time. As ScoutNut said, you'll need at least a 5 person tent to accommodate 4 people. Also consider your air mattress situation. I don't have a battery-powered pump. I use our car's 12 volt charger to run the pump to blow up the mattress. Unfortunately, with one of our tents, the fully inflated queen-size air mattress won't fit through the door of the tent.

I wouldn't try to work on too many requirements at the campout. Keep it fun. The boys will be having such a great time they won't want to sit down for very long to listen to someone blab on.

You also need to decide if this is going to be a family camp or a den camp. Webelos are allowed to camp without their parents so long as you adhere to the two-deep leadership for an outing.

It's funny because my counter keeps going up, yet there are no new messages in there.

So is this kid getting into trouble and you want to reach out to him to set him on the right path, or are you nursing hurt feelings that he didn't want to be in Scouting anymore despite all of the effort you put into making it a great program?

Bear was one of my favorite years as a Cub Scout leader because you have so many Achievements to choose from and the kids' attention spans are a little longer. Choose the most fun Achievements, try to find out what they are doing that year in school and see if you can piggyback on any of their field trips or school events. Our pack didn't have Class B uniforms, so they were expected to wear Class A. We only met once or twice a month for den meetings, so our meetings were pretty long, ranging from 1.5 to 2 hours.

For quartermaster, have a "what's missing" game. Put out a few patrol boxes with a list of what's supposed to be in each box. Have one item missing from each box and see how fast they can figure out which item is missing from each box. Or a "what's broken" game. Have one non-working item in each box and see how fast they can figure out which item isn't working.