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!"

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.

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

Welcome to the new Boy Scout Common Core standards.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.