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Eagle94-A1

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Everything posted by Eagle94-A1

  1. Depending upon the camp, Archeology may be a awesome choice. I remember the camp I was working at the year Archeology MB came out. One of our staffers was either an archeology major or grad student, and was able to coordinate with his department college credit for working at the camp. There was a very strong suspicion that the camp was once a Tuscarora town, and the college had an interest in doing excavations at the camp. So the staffer and the Scouts were doing some of the actual work.
  2. Growing up and workign at , Camp V-Bar at Salmen Scout Reservation in Perkinston MS had the last 2 periods for free swimming, boating, and shooting sports. So kids had time for "me." Camp my son has went to for the past 2 years only offered one period of free swim. BUT they had a waterslide. I was told they had some evening sessions of free shooting, but that didn't cover archery. They also had some awesome activities in the evenings: water fest, dodgeball, BMX track, etc.
  3. Depends upon who was the provisional SM. Also depends upon what the camp posted in their guide book. I say that because I know some camps will put their 1st year camper staff as the provisional troop leaders. I was an exception, but that was because 25% of the provo troop were my scouts from the home troop. Some camps have the FYC staff sign off in the books, some have a handout, and some just state "This was worked on and your scout should be able to do." and leave the signing up to the troop. While I'm a big proponent of youth signing off on the T-2-1, and after January 1, 2016 S-T-2
  4. In my expereince: 1) destruction of property, theft, and assault, or the threat of assalut have been reasons to send someone home. 2) Every unit and camp is different. But usually the camp does need to be notified someone is leaving. 3) Some things I've seen prior sending home are warning, cleaning up something, i.e. bath house, latrines etc.On a few occasions no warning, straight to being sent home. 4) see below about protesting parents. 5) YES! 6) Again units and camps differ. Some of the stories I've witnesses or heard about. One time a troop decided to se
  5. After a term as PL at 10.5, my son was elected SPL at 11. A lot of srurpised looks from the older Scouts and adults. Including me. Immediate response after the election from the SM was that he will require First Class from then on. Forward 6 months to the next election. The First Class requirement was not in effect. BUT having attended the ILS-T was a requirement. Son was complimented on the job, he did, and surprised the heck out of everyone. Key was training and mentoring, and that goes for any age. As "Green Bar Bill" said: "Train 'em. Trust'em. LET THEM LEAD!"
  6. I prefer these two oldies, but goodies. "OUTING is three-fourths of ScOUTING" and "SCOUTING IS OUTING!" Both by William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt
  7. Not only can they work on it, but the Cub can skip working on the Webelos badge altogether and start working on AOL. My son realized that at 10.5, he can earn the AOL and Cross Over. Before the end of the school year, he will be 10.5, and has decided to skip working on the Webelos badge and get to work on AOL. His Webelos pins will be used as electives for the AOL.
  8. 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. We are the smallest day camp, but as a result of the WEBELOS WOODS, he have the largest percentage of 3 to 5 year returning partiicpants.
  9. With my own son, yes I do limit him. I do not want him taking MBs he can do at home. I told him point blank "no paperpushing MBs for you!" On the plus side, he realizes that and agrees with me. With the exception of Orienteering, he picked every single MB on his own. He asked for another MB to take, and I said 'If you like geocaching, you'll love orienteering since it's old school geocaching." And he did. Problem is that the camp we've been to limits who can take the 2 MBs he really wants to take: Rifle Shooting and Shotgun Shooting.
  10. Very fine line indeed. A trip that we planned 10 months in advance, one that required a 7 hour one way drive turned into a nightmare because of siblings. Long story short, because the siblings were not prepared for the cold, rainy weather we encountered, NO ONE (emphasis) was allowed to do the trail because of the whining and complaining of the siblings being left out of it. To add insult to injury, one of the siblings stopped up a toilet, causing a major overflow at the church we were staying at. That caused the basement to be flooded. As it is right now, I need to hold back my Webelos fr
  11. My troop, no matter what national says, has decided to keep the FB group closed. The leadership, both youth and adult, do not want to deal with any problems that open groups have, i.e. spammers, people making crude comments, ad nauseum. Parents are on the page, unit leaders are on the group, those scouts old enough to have FB are on it, as well as the SE and DD. As soon as we get a DE, he will be on it. This is especially relevent after what happened on both the council's FB page as well as a pack's page. On the council's page, one adult leader went crazy, after multiple attempts to go P
  12. The most my CSDC ever got in over 17 years was 55 Cubs. When oldest was a Tiger, we had 29 Cubs. That's when I was wrangled into being thw PD. The 2nd year I was the PD we had 55, and I made CSDC an almost year round priority in that I was recruiting folks, and promoting it, to get that number. This year we had 34 or 35. At least it wasn't the worse year I know about: 7 Cubs.
  13. I wish more SMs were like you. I had an election team talk about the commitments and the service the OA does. Also asked who did not want to be on the ballot. About 2/3 of the eligible Scouts declined. SM was furious at me for allowing the election team to talk about commitments, and allow the eligible Scouts to take their name off the ballot.
  14. I wish my camp had 1/2 that number. But my days of running CSDC are over.
  15. This is an extremely sensative matter and a unit leader will NOT get much information, if any, from the council. In one instance of a volunteer being placed in the Ineligible Volunteer File while I was a DE, I wasn't informed of any of the matter. Heck I found out the guy was reinstated temorarily per a court order when the guy showed up to round table, and I called the SE per policy. That's how close the info is played to the vest. HOWEVER, if memory serves, the COR and/or IH does have the right to contact the SE, and speak with the SE directly on the matter.
  16. Every unit does things differently. For some units, the troops does everything, in others it's a family matter. Some troops only have 1 ECOH per year, and make a big deal of it ( one troop chartered helicopter rides for their Eagles prior to the ceremony). Other units every time their is an Eagle, a special COH is done. And some units do it in conjunction with a regularly scheduled COH. While I personally would not have 2 separate ECOHs, I would have 2 receptions to celebrate: one east coast and one west coast. Also whichever troop did the EBOR, that's where I would have the COH.
  17. Eagle77, No problem! And I agree, there needs to be more free time at some camps for shooting sports, boating, etc. Heck I remember being talked into doing one of the handicraft MBs by my Indian Lore MBC in my free time. I enjoyed it. All, One thing I heard about, and visited the camp out of season, was 3 troops that had a campground and ran their own weeklong summer camp. I don;t know all the details, but I do know that for every so many Scouts you brought, you had to bring so many MBCs As for paper pushing MBs, One thing I have forbid my son from doing, and I strongly recomm
  18. No, I don't consider partials "failure" and that is why I used quotations marks in the original. However I have encountered some parents, and a few Scouters, who would view my son's time at camp as a waste since he didn't bring home and MBs. And one leader even used the "failure" term. Like you I want them to have fun and learn. I want to give them the freedom to do things, make mistakes, and grow physcially, mentally, and morally.
  19. Maybe it's me, but this past summer I limited the scouts to no more than 5 MBs, with none after dinner except Climbing ( only time MBC could get there). Camp we went to offers 6 classes before dinner, and only Climbing after dinner. Night time is activities AS IT SHOULD BE! ( emphasis, OK maybe a little shouting from the soapbox ) They kids need some down town. And I strongly suggested that they take the last period of the day off since that was when free swim and the waterslide was available. No arguments there. As for not suggesting parttials, things I think they cannot complete, e
  20. I think it's ironic that we need a bowstring for a my wife's bow, and I find out here that my son, who took archery at camp this summer, can make one. He knows we need a bowstring, but it wasn't until I just asked him if he could make one (after reading Rick's post) that he said he could. Going to put him to work.
  21. I know as a Cub Scout leader, 3 years as TCDL, 2 as a Wolf DL and 1 as a Bear DL, I'm burnt out. I admit each son got a little less out of it since they've done it before as a sibling, but overall it has been their experience. But I know my middle son is chomping at the bit to be a Boy Scout, and he just moved up to Webelos. One factor is that he has 3 friends in Boy Scouts already. Another is that he has a late birthday, and will be 10.5 by the end of May next year. He's already stated he is skipping working on the Webelos rank, and wants everything he works on to be applied to Arrow of L
  22. Scouting.org's search engine is the most useless search engine I've ever used. And in my job, I use a bunch. I've found using google is easier, faster, and more accurate.
  23. http://www.scoutstuff.org/media/content/docs/pdfs/6590UnifTowerPrcChgesFNL.pdf is the PDF with items and what not. Guide to Awards and Insignia link to Venturing section. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/Venturing_Insignia.pdf
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