dedkad

Every year at Scout O Rama our troop hosts an event that I find to be pretty boring. They make fire starters out of wax. They don't even let people who come to the booth touch anything because of the hot wax. You look at our booth and the lack of people stopping by and you see other booths from other troops and how much fun people are having at those booths and it makes me sad. Our scouts tend to sit in our booth the whole time, so they don't get out to see the other booths and see what exciting things the other troops are doing. I am encouraging them to do something a little more exciting

Krampus, you have a very smart PL.

Sometimes there's nothing wrong with posting to a Lazarus thread. Many issues that were relevant years ago are still relevant today. The discussion years ago was dominated by a few individuals, so it's nice to get some more opinions from others. I've been off this site for awhile, but I came on tonight to specifically look for this topic because I had a run-in with a new crossover's mom. The mom has some trust issues and won't leave her son unless he's supervised by the other parent. The mom wanted to bring not just the younger sibling to Camporee but the husband too. They wanted it to be a fa

Our troop doesn't pay registration costs for the adults to register as leaders. Is that deductible too?

I've researched further and now I'm thinking that maybe $3,500 is a bargain. Los Angeles charges $4,800 to $6,000 depending on which added tour you want to attend, Oregon is $3,500, which also includes an east coast tour.... Every one I looked at included an east coast tour except Sacramento, which you could choose to just do the Summit only or the tour too, but even the Summit only cost was around $3,000.

Our troop is in California. I inquired at the Council level about their plans for sending a contingent to Jamboree. They tell me the cost is going to be $3,500. The cost includes an east coast tour of an additional 5 to 7 days to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and other parts of Virginia. I'm told that this added east coast tour is typical of "virtually every west coast council contingent" going to Jamboree. $3,500 and 16 days or so seems like a lot of time and money to me. Is this really typical for troops coming from the west coast?

See, this is how you should present the issue to your CM.

Yes. Probably same for all the OA units, but ours wears the full Indian garb and bangs on a drum and everything. Very cool ceremony. When my den got their AOL, I didn't use a script. Instead, we took a journey down memory lane. I walked the audience through my boys' Cub Scout years starting with the first recruitment meeting my son and another boy attended as 1st graders. I briefly went through each year and had each boy come up and stand with me when I got to the year they joined. I talked about some of the fun things they did as Cubs and the growth that I saw in them as a group. When I got t

Yes, TV stations do that sort of thing. You and your parents need to get over your fear of asking. I found that most businesses are eager to help. And it's not like you'd be the first person ever to contact the TV station to ask for a tour. Our TV station does tours all the time. My Cubs even got to be on the evening news. Calling would be best.

To kick-off the PWD "season", our pack holds a Lego derby on the evening that the blocks of wood are handed out. Kids can build their cars ahead of time at home, or use spare Legos provided by other kids. We purchased special Lego axles so they can race on the PWD track. There are no winners or losers, just kids having fun racing cars. The kids are definitely capable of building their own Lego cars and it helps build anticipation for the PWD, which is much more structured. We also have a sibling race after.

I am so sorry for your loss.

My son's troop pretty much plays dodgeball every meeting, if there is time.

That's what our troop does.

I had a cousin die from running a propane heater in his tent. Don't do it.

Tell him to leave all of his law enforcement equipment at home or be prepared to field lots of questions about it. When we had a California Fish & Game person come to our pack meeting in full uniform, the boys were more interested in the gun, taser, billy club, and whatever else he was wearing. Cool stuff for sure and I got a big kick out of it, but the warden seemed to be disappointed that it was all the boys could focus on.

OK....

I wouldn't cancel. Worse comes to worst, just consider it family camping, not a pack event, and hope no one gets hurt, since you probably won't get an approved Tour Plan without a BALOO or OWL trained person.

My first thought is that your pack is depending too much on District activities to build your pack program. District activities should be a supplement to your own well-rounded active pack program. If boys from your pack are able to participate in the District events, then great. If not, they should still have plenty of fun things to do with your pack throughout the year. Have your boys build Cubmobiles in the spring when they have more time to build and practice, then let them race the cars in the fall at the District event. New fall recruits don't have to participate in the District event, bu

I hereby go on record that I don't think we should slander innocent people, I said we shouldn't worry about slandering "innocent" people. Everyone is considered "innocent" until convicted in a court of law, but it doesn't take too much sense to know when someone is guilty of unacceptable behavior. In O'Scouter's case, we weren't talking about a single instance of questionable behavior, but rather a plethora of concerns that when taken together would most certainly warrant a need to be brought to the SM's attention in order to protect the boys.

My Webelos made their own stick puppets and scenery and wrote their own play for a puppet show to put on at one of the pack meetings. It was a huge hit with the pack and the Webelos loved doing it. Cub Scouts are not too old to enjoy a good puppet show. The sillier the better. You could even incorporate your puppet into your monthly Cubmaster Minute. The boys might actually listen to what you have to say if it is being told or acted out by a puppet.

I think you did the right thing by contacting the other troop. Hopefully we are past those dark days of sweeping things like child molestation and other offenses under the rug due to the fear of slandering some "innocent' person's name. As BD said, "The boys safety is all of our responsibilities."

So I didn't see anywhere in the link where it said the Scouts are representing their fundraising as a troop fundraiser. If one, two, or seven Scouts want to go around collecting aluminum cans, scrap metal, or working odd jobs to help pay for their individual participation in Scout activities, then how does that automatically become a Troop fundraising activity that would face IRS scrutiny?

I've been surprised how long the batteries in my LED lanterns last. I think you will be perfectly happy with LED. Not having to deal with broken glass or mantles is a huge plus. As a backup, I always bring with me a Luci lantern, which is a blow-up solar-powered lantern. They are only about $10 and they are great for backpacking too because they are so lightweight and compact.

You wear a costume to work on every Halloween...