mashmaster

Thanks for all the feedback, the newsletter for this month is complete.  I think it is OK.

SSScout has a copy of it and can comment if it is good, bad, or otherwise :-)

<<

 

What do your Webelos say they would like to do?

 

My Webelos were bored stiff with the normal stuff. So what my camp did was create a 1/2 day WEBELOS WOODS program based upon what THEY wanted to do. 1/2 of the Webelos would be doing your standard day camp stuff: archery, bb guns, and fishing. The other 1/2 of Webelos would be doing Readyman, and outdoor oriented stuff: firebuilding and cooking, orienteering, hiking, etc.

 

Then they flipped flopped.>>

 

 

 

My present thinking is to do a day of hiking away from the camp we use for the program.  I'm imagining parents dropping boys off at a park which would be the center of the day of hiking and camping activities.

 

The first couple of days of day camp would focus on building den unity and Den Leader experience,  the third day would focus on hiking and outdoor experiences.

 

The Webelos program would focus on earning one of the required skill groups  --- hiking probably.

 

We have an area (Alki Point) a few miles away where this kind of program could be carried out,  including such things as a local  museum visit and a tour of the Alki Point lighthouse and a beach hike.

 

Have local troops contributed leadership to the Day Camp Webelos program?

We just finished with a Webelos specific camp here.  These are the things the boys liked most:

• Rappelling
• Rock Wall Climbing
• Kayaking
• STEM: Drones, Robotics
• Archery
• Air Rifles
• Pool of course :-)

When is was working in the pits for our district pinewood derby, I was running the lubrication station (that is where we retrieve the cars from impound and allow the owners to add graphite lube to the wheels), a cub came up with his dad. The boy tried to pickup the car but dad didn't let him. As dad was lubing the car, the cub (I think he was a wolf) looked at me and said rather sadly "he never lets me touch the car". Dad's reply was "I let you pick the color". I wanted to smack that dad and tell him "this isn't the point of all this!".

Ugh, that is so sad.

Our pack, we decided to bring band saws to a campout 3 weeks before the derby and we let the boys design and cut it out.  That mostly helps.

I live in Texas, what is this snow thing you speak of?

The girl scouts have the Powder Puff Derby, and our cub scout pack had plenty of female siblings building and racing cars. But I have been told that a lot of girl scout leaders think building and racing cars is too "masculine", so they look for more "feminine" activities.

 

There are a lot of parents that are concerned with guiding their children into "gender appropriate" activities (my daughter isn't allowed to play basketball, that's too masculine - she can play volleyball instead. My son isn't allowed to sing in the school musical, it's too girly.).

You mean their dads made the cars right :-)

I always wanted to pull the boy aside shine a bright light on them and ask them have they seen this car before this morning :-)

I hear ya. We had the issue many years back. The rules were 1) There are no dads or moms on camp outs, only Mr. or Mrs. X, 2) No one except the adults are in the adult camp site except in case of emergency, 3) Adults show the same camp site respect of the scouts/patrols that they show us, 4) If your kid is in trouble or having issues, someone other than you address it with him.

 

It ain't Cubs, so the run-to-mommy/daddy mentality is stopped in its tracks.

I am looking forward to Boy Scouts :-)  Six more months.....

Our units here tend to be mainly white as well.  Some are all hispanic and some all black.  Our unit has a small amount of non-white but mainly white.  Our area has a lot of Indian population and we have tried and tried to reach out to them but never had any interest.  I think sometimes it is just a cultural thing.   I wish I knew the answer to tap into that population because I think diversity is a good thing.

At least one person got the reference.

 

I sometimes feel like this place is turning in to that scene with the People's Front of Judea, the Judean People's Front, and the highly touted Judean Popular People's Front.

Oh I got it.  One of my favorite not scout appropriate movies.... 

Thanks for the feedback!

Sounds about right.  Personally, I have some girl siblings that would be better scouts than some of my boys.

I sincerely hope this policy reversal leads to a rapprochement between BSA and UUA. I also hope that more UU congregations will step up to sponsor units that may be in danger of loosing their original chartering partner.

UU?

I know UCC support the Baden Powell scouting program.

Ok I should provide more details :-)  I have been producing the newsletter for a year now and it is widely read by leaders in the district I get positive feedback from many of them each month.  Open rate of about 25%.  

The first page is always the overview page with the district events for the month and next.  We always include campground reviews, camping recipes, and camp trips with pictures of the units that send them in.  This month I have Philmont, Northern Tier, and summer camp trip reports with pictures.

So what I am looking for are articles that are interesting for leaders.  For instance, last month I wrote an article about using UTM coordinates, maps, and GPS units (phones) for leaders to use to teach the boys how to use them.  I have also written articles about how to work with food allergies when planning food for camping.

I read the Scouting magazine and always want to read an article that tells me how to teach something to my scouts.  

Thank you all for the feedback, I welcome it.

Ok we need something better to talk about than BSA policies and parents :-)

I write a newsletter for our district and am looking for topics to write about.  It goes out to all cub, boy scout, team, and crew parent in our district so anything that reaches those groups would be awesome.  Other than cooking or camping.... :-) 

Any ideas?  or better yet, contributions?

Thanks in advance.

(Topic name changed by a Moderator)

Our Lutheran church is in favor of the ruling yesterday.  They are not Missouri which is much more conservative.

Stosh,

 

I believe his point is that prior to now, the anti-gay policy prevented his tech company from matching donations and volnteer hours with the BSA and that this has now changed.

yes that is correct.  The money goes to BSA not the local unit.  I wouldn't call it a trickle.  My company alone donated $2.1 Million last year and we are a small to medium sized tech company.

As of today my company will match $1 for $1 for donations to BSA and also pay $ for every hour I volunteer up to $1000/year.  I am sure other tech companies are in the same boat.  That would not be an insignificant amount if Apple, Intel, UPS, .... started donating money.

One interesting outcome of the decision.  Today my work opened up $1 for $1 matching for BSA and they will donate money for every hour of volunteer work that I put in.  Assuming this is the same for other tech companies, suddenly the financial loss of losing LDS could be eased.

I believe that after the dust settles the issue will go away.  All leaders need to be approved by the LDS church, since the church is so against homosexuality, clearly they would never appoint(approve) a leader who is gay,  How can they be a member of the church if that is the issue.  If they are gay and part of the church then scouting isn't the issue they are dealing with.  Just my opinion that isn't work 2 cents.

Well it will be interesting.  My LDS friends don't see it as a problem since their Ward can approve or assign the leaders they want for the unit.  But they aren't LDS leaders for the church.

Well said.  For those that want to leave, I hope you can reconcile in your hearts why we are all here.  We appreciate and the boys appreciate what you do for them.

@@robhixkg welcome to the forum.

 

Have them and their spouses over for a backyard picnic.  Make sure the spouses are recognized for their sacrifice as well!

Love this idea!

I got a hiking stick medallion , loved it.

The camp I just came back from had a Robotics team from the local high school.  They brought a bunch of drone helicopters and the boys loved t.

Do you have access to a climbing wall?  That is another favorite.  And of course pool time :-)

I too got the good side of parents this week.

I was a patrol advisor for 13 young men (aged 9 and 10) to help guide them through camp and learning to work as a patrol.  Half were from another council and the others from our council.  The boys had a great time with many ups and downs in the 100 degree heat and overcoming obstacles like rapelling for the first time for example.  At the end of 4 days the boys all were sad it was over and wanted to know when they will see me again.  Most likely I will not see most of the boys in the patrol other than the ones that were in my unit.  At the end a couple of leaders from the other unit came to me and were very appreciative of my efforts and thanked me.  They told me that they were scared because they had never been to this camp and had no idea what to expect.  They said that my leadership and encouragement for all the boys made them feel at ease.  They even bought me a hiking medallion for my hiking stick at the camp store.  Such a nice experience, even though there was a parent that was the definition of a helicopter parent.

I will remember the smiling faces of the boys forever, such a great feeling. 

The forums tend to be filled with lots of posts of people complaining that scouting is not what it used to be or what it should be or what it could be.  I agree that the program isn't perfect and I see many differences from reading scout book for when my dad was a scout in the 1940s (how many scout books today would teach boys how to fight with sticks -- not that they ever needed teaching).

 

So my question is what can you do or what do you do to make your program better?  Tip O'Neal said that all politics is local.  My sense is that all scouting is local.  So what do you do in your troop to make scouting better?  Hopefully the answers will inspire, guide and provide ideas.

 

Here are some of the things that I do:

 

I'm a merit badge counselor for cooking, personal management, family life, citizenship in the nation, backpacking, camping, cooking and chess.  I take these seriously and follow the requriements and make sure that the boys actually learn what is required.

 

I"m an ASM and go on most campouts and do my best to encourage the boys to lead in the outdoors (as well as make sure other parents let the boys lead).

 

I like to play with knives and fire, and encourage the boys to do so at every (appropriate) opportunity while outdoors.

 

I spend one or two full days a year teaching the boys how to really cook in the outdoors as part of the cooking merit badge.

 

I give one or two lectures a year on how to choose gear for lightweight backpacking.

 

I work with the boys to plan exciting adventures such as camping trips, hikes, canoing trips and backpacking trips.  Putting the outing in Scouting is good, but making the outing really cool is even better.

 

I work with the parents so they understand boy-led and what scouting can do for their sons by talking about how boys grow through scouting.

 

I talk to boys about how they are doing, ask them if they are having fun, check to see if they are advancing and give them a high five for any job well done.

 

I talk to the boys and I listen.

 

I treat each boy as if they are the most important kid in our Troop.  

 

How about you?

Thank you for all you do.

I do stuff at my cub unit level, district level, and help out with training anyway I can and that my wife will let me.  

Then, on the other end of the spectrum, we have the parent that appreciates what you do .

I had a break from "Scout Skills" and was walking back to the Admin Pav to sit and cool off. I notice a boy and woman (his mother, I learned)in the middle of the field, obviously having a difficult discussion. I walk over and say "hello. Can I help?"

The Cub, maybe 8 years old, looks up at me and says "This (*%$##@!! bitch wants me to go home! I ain't

going no &^)*$$ place with this dirty (^%%$# ". I look at the woman, who smiles back at me and says " Yes,

he has a problem. And we have to leave camp for today." I ask how I can help? It is obvious to me the boy

suffers (and that is the word) from a condition I had only just read about.

The boy kicks his mother in the leg, HARD, and curses again. I tell him he needs to treat his mom better and some day he will appreciate her, she might be a good friend to have around some time. He curses me, tells me to "&%##$ off " and sits down in the grass.

I ask if she wants me to help her to her car? and she says yes. I pick up the boy like a bag of potatoes

under my arm and we go to the car, cursing and flailing boy in tow. I help her strap the boy into his

carseat (my work in the psychiatric hospital was useful again) and the boy settles down. He could unstrap

himself, but he doesn't. She thanks me and they drive off. Needless to say, I write a long incident report for the record. They do not return to camp that week.

 

Next year, I am Archery RO. The second day, after the safety talks of day one, the Cubs line up and have

fun hitting the targets. One Cub is very accurate and consistant. I look at the roster and his name seems

familiar. I ask the group of parent DenWalkers if his parent is among them, and sure enough, I recognize

his mother. This is the boy from the year before.

Now she has the time, she thanks me and I carefully ask if his medication has been adjusted? She smiles and says yes. Cub Scouting has been the outlet he needed, and (her words!) men like me were help to her.

 

This boy will have the most bullseyes and be one of the most polite, attentive Cubs that year.

Awesome story, loved reading it.

I love working with the kids, especially the Cubs. They get so excited about things that adults take for granted and they always want to learn more.

 

Most of my run-ins with parents come when I try to enforce the rules or even just common courtesy.

 

Like -

Kicking a kid off the archery range because he would not listen to directions (he had shot archery before so he knew it all) and he pointed a bow, arrow nocked, string drawn, at another child (his sister).

According to his mother he was just fooling around and would never have actually shot his sister.

My response was accidents happen, we don't "fool around" on the archery range, and it's MY RANGE. I am the range master, I make the rules, I get to decide who is allowed on the range, I am responsible for the safety of everyone on the range and your son must leave the range.  

She reported me to the camp director who informed her that it was MY RANGE, I make the rules, I get to decide who is allowed on the range, I am responsible for the safety of everyone on the range, and if I felt her son should leave the range then that's what should happen. She wasn't very happy with me or the camp director that day.    

 

Same day -

I am in the latrine (one hole) and a man walks in with his 2 kids (boy & girl). I said excuse me, could you all please wait outside?

When I was finished and went out the man proceeded to yell at me because his son got a glimpse of my rear end sitting on the toilet.

I replied that he should not have removed the "occupied" sign from the doorway (attached to a chain drawn across the doorway) and just barged in on me with his kids.

His reply - "How was I supposed to know that's what that sign meant".

I just walked away, shaking my head.

WOW just wow