swilliams

My posts are guilty of going off-track. In my post about hosting the camping and backpacking meetings for adults, though, we're not trying to force the parents to become outdoorsy. We're trying to give them the option to see what it entails, in a way that's specifically geared for someone without much experience. It's up to them if they choose to do it, and I did express doubts about how many parents would show up. For some people, you can talk and explain and show pictures all you want, but they'll never really 'get' it without experiencing it. For others, it will be enough for them to s

Someone at Council pointed out to me last week that there are some religions that don't allow girls to wear pants. I hadn't thought about that. Still, it would have been nice to see some of the girls in the pants. Of course, at the same time, the Cub Scout pants are so ill-fitting that I don't know anyone who wants them! My boys always just wore blue shorts or jeans. On the socks... my boys love their scout socks and want to wear them even when they're not in uniform.

Thanks for this. Having just taken over as Webelos/Arrow of Light Den Leader (we only have one AOL boy and no leader for him, and our regular den leader's son has been in and out of the hospital), things like this are good to know. I've done my YPT, but haven't looked at the den leader training yet. For this first couple weeks I've just been duplicating what my older son's den leader did with the boys, and have been focused on making sure the AOL boy can earn his rank before crossing over. My older son joined the Troop at the end of April last year. He and the other new boys were all

Our older boys went spelunking in PA last fall. I stayed behind with the younger boys, who visited Indian Echo caves, but when the others came back with the few pictures they were able to get in the dark, it gave me a little claustrophobia. I'm glad this boy is okay!

Our Scoutmaster, who builds fires with the stick and string and sleeps outdoors on every single trip, claims he was never outdoorsy. I didn't know him when he was Cubmaster, but he (a Brit) says he was influenced by Bear Grylls, and he started getting really into survival stuff when he became Scoutmaster. At the same time, he keeps baking us treacle tarts in the cardboard oven, lol.

Our Troop is going to be holding "Camping for Dummies" and "Backpacking for Dummies", specifically for adults, during our regular Troop meeting times. We'll see how many parents we have attend. I think it's a good idea for those who might be interested but aren't sure what equipment they need, or what we do on our trips, but I have my doubts as to how many will show. I'll report back mid-March.

Poor leadership. While Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts are distinctly different, I've watched our Pack going downhill pretty steadily in the last two years - since we've had a new CC and Cubmaster. Den Leaders aren't trained and have no idea what they're doing. Wolf den is already wearing their ranks, even though we haven't had our Blue and Gold, and the Den Leader never gave me a single advancement report. That by itself isn't catastrophic, but is a good illustration of how we're not giving the support needed to our leaders and they, in turn, aren't likely to be giving the boys all they could t

Quick update. The MB counselor loved Bugleson's composition. Most of the calls were signed off, with four remaining; Officer's Call, Recall, Fire Call, and Call to Quarters (that lower 'C'). So... one more week should do it. This has been a very tough badge. Thanks again to all for your tips and suggestions.

Thanks for posting that link. That's our Council. When one of our ASM's said our council was an early adopter, I thought it sounded weird. The link makes it clear that each Pack can apply to be an early adopter. Makes much more sense! We've not seen anywhere near enough interest from girls for our pack to apply. We'll have another Webelos boy as of Friday, though, and his older brother is coming to our Troop meeting tonight to check it out.

Following. One of our Troop ASMs told me last night that our "council" is an early adopter. His use of the word. As of now, I'm not aware of any girls that have asked to join our Pack. (I have boys who are Webelos and Tenderfoot, and a daughter who will be joining Venturers in the fall.) As I'm not involved at the council level, I'm not sure what level of interest they've received or what their plans are, but will keep an eye on this should it arise for us. One of our biggest Pack issues is in not having an adequate number of adults who want to be leaders. It was a huge struggle to g

This has been a challenge for Bugleson () because he's a trombone player first. He wasn't used to the small mouthpiece, and it has taken him a good six months to get to the point where he can hit that high G with any consistency. Thank you, SSScout, for the recommendations. He ended up playing 'To the Color' for the Court of Honor. He stumbled once, but he's played enough times in public now that he knows to just keep going. He didn't feel comfortable enough with some of the other calls to play them at this venue, but he'll get there. Although he's allowed to use the sheet music

Our Scoutmaster always has hot coffee ready for the adults at the time of the wake-up call. That always makes me more willing to go camping. As mentioned by others, at our last Court of Honor, there was a slide show of some of the camping trips the boys had been on, and it really did have parents saying how fun it looked.

My son is our Troop's bugler, and has been asked to play at the upcoming Court of Honor. Because our troop doesn't usually have a bugler, none of us is an expert on which calls are best played at which times. Although my son has memorized the description of when calls are used (in preparation for his merit badge) some aren't so obvious when placed in a scouting application, rather than military. Our thinking, from internet searches and the description of calls, is that perhaps To the Color would work well, played before the Color Guard posts the flags. If anyone could give additional

bsaggcmom and WonderBoy pretty much covered it. I'm just here to second Janome as a good choice of machine. My old machine was a $2,000 Janome that had all the bells and whistles. I used it nearly every day for almost 20 years (fashion background). It finally died, and Janome didn't make the replacement part for it anymore. I decided against a top of the line machine for my next purchase, and bought a very basic Janome. Love it every bit as much as the first one. I'd look at the 2206 as a starter machine. For the patches with a stitched edge - like most council patches or POR patche

Just because you didn't hear it, doesn't mean it wasn't there. I never said anything to any of our leaders until this week, either, despite wishing my daughter could have the experiences her brothers will with Boy Scouts. She couldn't, so what was the point? Sure, we could have made noise about it and complained that it wasn't fair, but it's like my gruff old Command Master Chief dad used to say (repeatedly), "Life's not fair. Move on." My involvement with scouts right now is limited to awards chairperson for Cub Scouts, though I've volunteered to help with Venturers next year when my

We have the same situation - packs HAD been defined by which school you attended, but we've been taking boys from the two other schools since their numbers were too low to support a pack. Now having one of the other packs trying to get on it's feet again, this is worth looking into. I don't know their Pack Master beyond having worked together to round up unwanted Derby cars, and don't know who their committee chair is, but our own Pack Master does and they have a decent relationship. Meeting with our CC and Scout Master tomorrow night, though we don't really have any concrete info for Bo

This next year will be an interesting one for us, not only because of (potentially) having girls join. I say potentially because we have not yet had anyone approach us. What has happened in the last two years was that the two other packs in town have seen their numbers diminish to the point that both packs have been folded into ours. Just last week, one of the pack masters who had lost boys, but still had their charter, posted that they were hosting an open house to try and recruit and get their pack functioning again. Talk about being spread thin! Our former pack was based in Manhatta

Reading some of the responses to this, both here and in other mediums, has been interesting but not in a good way. So many defeatist attitudes, and so little faith in our own boys. About a quarter of the responses from supposed scout leaders leave me wondering if the person understands their own scout law? If leaders head into this with the expectation that it won't work out, it probably won't. I'll do everything in my power to see that this happens in the best way possible, and thank heaven we have a scout master who feels the same.

I completely disagree. I have a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout, and I also have a daughter who has always wanted to be a Boy Scout. I will fight for two things. The first will be for my boys pack and troop to remain as is. Boys only. The second will be to get a pack together for all the girls in our area who, like my daughter, are not interested in what Girl Scouts has to offer. Just because a parent has a daughter and wants them to have the same opportunities, that doesn't automatically mean that we want Boy Scouts to be anything different that it is for our boys.

Class participation was always part of the kids' grades in NYC - elementary school, so not the end of the world. One year my daughter came home with "meets expectations" instead of "needs improvement" in the class participation section. At conference I told the teacher I was surprised she was participating. He said, "She isn't, but I'm not going to penalize her for being who she is." I broke down and cried like a baby. It's been a rough road for these two kids, who are beyond the label of 'shy'. My other two are the complete opposite. We just returned from my older son's Court of Hon

Double post. Sorry.

My OCD doesn't like it, but that's how it's going to have to be - at least until we get a bigger shirt. Thanks to everyone. Off to get this taken care of.

Brand new scout parent here. My son has taken up the position of bugler for his troop. I can see how it may not be as time-consuming or require as much input as other leadership positions, but I'm glad it's an option for us. My son is a true introvert. Just knowing he will be the focus of attention, even though it's only for a few seconds of everyone's time, almost sends him into a panic. This won't be easy for him, but it will allow him to contribute in some way to the troop. He and the SPL agreed on which calls he would do, and when, and my son knows that he needs to show up a few minu

Can't seem to post a picture, either. Looks like I need a bunch of help.