MikeS72

Our Troop allows phones prior to the meeting. Once the meeting is called to order, they must be put away. Scouts may bring them on outings, to be used in the car on the way to and from. Once we arrive at the event, they are to be put away. We do have the occasional request for a phone to be used for pictures, which is granted when appropriate. The Scouts may use them in their tent at night, until lights out, and with headphones only.

IF everything holds true, this is how things should work. A CO may choose to remain a boy only pack, with no changes. They may choose to sponsor both an all boys pack and an all girls pack, who operate independently of each other. They may choose to make the existing pack co-ed, with dens that are gender separate; girls in one den, boys in another. At this point there should not be any co-ed dens. If a pack chooses the co-ed model and does not have enough girls for separate age appropriate dens, they may have a mixed age den of girls. (kind of like back in the dim past, when dens were made up of boys from the same neighborhood, regardless of age) The current plan for troops is that if a CO chooses they may remain boy only. If the CO wants to bring in girls, it will be in a girl only troop. That troop can share a COR, committee, and ASM's, but must have a different SM. At this time there should not be any girl patrols in a boy troop. I do not know if this will hold true a few years from now, but as of now it is the way things are supposed to work. There are numerous published records and charts detailing these options, they just do not get reported accurately. I am sure that most of the news coverage has been done by people who do not take the time to actually research the facts before writing or going on air with an inaccurate report. Time will tell. Regardless of how things play out, I intend to do whatever I can to see that the pack and troop that I serve in, and the units I serve as a commissioner succeed.

Those socks (with the garters/green tabs) were the bane of every camp staff member, when at the end of a long summer we had that tiny tan that went from the bottom of the shorts to the top of the socks.

Entered the program in November 1964; and in it for the long haul. If we cannot adapt and change we will indeed wither and die. As for OA, chapter meeting tonight. Chapter Advisor is female, as are 3 other senior adult members.

Maybe it was being in a troop on a military base in the 60's (Eagled in '71, a month before turning 18), but those berets reminded us of the Green Berets on base. My troop went to the beret and we loved it.

Welcome, from a fellow Beaver. MT-14, 1972

I would try Goof Off. I have not had grease on my uniform, but did use it to get rid of the staining left behind after finding that our local Scout Shop used a spray adhesive on uniforms before sewing on the Council Strip and World Crest.

Having been in troops on military bases for many years, we did indeed know how to make that beret look like Special Forces. In fact, some of our Scout leaders were Special Forces.

You state that you were part of a consolidation of Packs. Are you are no longer with the original CO? If so, that may be why you had to take on a new number. It is not unusual for a CO to ask to keep the Pack or Troop number, so that it is available should they decide to jump back into the fire and sponsor again.

Have to remember that one when the next name discussion comes up at our Commissioner meetings.

Based on the second link, they were modified by someone who did no research as to what patches go on that shirt.

A lot of people are misinterpreting this requirement. The new requirement is not 72 total hours in a year's time, the 72 hour rule is that if a single event covers 72 hours, adults must be registered. In many cases, this means either summer camp with the troop, or Cub resident camp (in our Council Cub resident camp is 4 days).

We do not look at it as freeloading, as the DE is the one in our District who sets up school nights, is the one who visits all of the classrooms at the school, arranges and pays for the building use permits. All we have to do is show up at the school on the designated night, explain the Pack's programming and organization to parents, and sign up those new Scouts. We are not in any way against the decision to allow girls into the organization, our current boy only model is due to the size of the meeting place available to use via our CO. I understand that school night may well be done differently in your area, and if we expended a great deal of time and expense to set up a recruiting night I might feel the same about another unit coming in uninvited by us. I would however, regardless of how the recruiting night is organized, be more than willing to tell any parent with a daughter interested in being a Cub Scout which local units offer a girls program, along with contact information for that unit.

DE. It was not said in a 'this is what happens if you don't take girls' manner, but rather to state that if the Pack that normally host the school night at that particular school will not be taking girls, they will try to find a nearby pack that is going to have a girls program attend school night, thus giving those family an alternative. In our area, each Pack has one or more elementary schools that we draw from. Not that we are restricted to children from that school (we have children from all 4 of the schools within 5 miles of our meeting place), just that we do not actively recruit as a Pack from the other 3 schools. If a child wants to join because he has friends in our Pack, that is his choice.

Not necessarily. A CO can choose to remain an all boy pack, they may choose to sponsor an all boy pack and a separate all girl pack; or they may open the existing pack to girls, who will be in gender specific dens. In those case where a pack does not have enough girls for a grade level den, there can be a multi-age den of girls. We were told that no pack will be told they must be co-ed, but that when we have school nights those pack who choose not to accept girls will have representatives from other pack present to offer those families a place to go. I cannot imagine that if we have a family come in with both a son and daughter who want to join, they will put the son in one pack and the daughter in the one who accepts girls. Those packs who choose to remain all boy will have to understand that they may lose some boys due to the resulting family decision as to where they can enroll both children.

You are not suffering from memory loss, at least not when it comes to the older Cub uniforms. Back in the days before the strip was changed to read 'Boy Scouts of America', it did indeed say 'Cub Scouts BSA.' Those of us who are old enough (I first joined in 1961, back when you had to 8 to be a Cub) remember that uniform; along with Lion being the top rank (no Webelos back then), rather than an introductory Kindergarten program. We also remember the brief period in the 70's when the Boy Scout uniform was changed to say 'Scout BSA', rather that the previous and current 'Boy Scouts of America'.

As an Arrowman who did Ordeal, Brotherhood, and Vigil all as a youth member, I will admit it took a little while to get used to the idea of female Scoutmasters and female OA members. I do not see the potential for girls to be eligible for election to be sad, but simply a natural evolution of bringing young ladies into the broader Scouting family.

The way this was explained in one of our Commissioner meetings, is that if the activity is 72 hours or more (read: summer camp), all adults must be registered. We were told that part of the reasoning for that was the people who would attend Monday/Tuesday, skip a day and come back for Thursday/Friday to try to skirt the 72 hour rule.

I very much remember watching things unfold as NASA worked to get them home safely. Just a riveting as watching the Apollo 11 landing, although I will admit with that one I shed a few tears upon hearing the phrase the Eagle has landed.

We do not allow electronics out during the day, they can chose to bring and use them in their tent prior to lights out, as long as they are either muted or have headphones. A couple of them found out on a recent backpacking outing that the phone is useless after the first night unless they add weight carrying a battery pack.

I have seen the same thing happen with individual dens in a pack; boys who seem to 'earn' every rank with very little attendance and participation, or who 'complete' every requirement for a Webelos activity pin in 30 - 45 minutes. They then move on to the troop and flounder, unable to move past the initial Scout rank in over a year. They do not seem to understand how they were able to get credit for an award in Cubs while not completing all of the requirements, but cannot do so in a troop where Mom or Dad are not the ones who sign off on requirements. While I can understand that a Den Leader may not want a child to 'stand out' by not being called up with the rest of the boys for rank advancement, that is far better in the long run than having that Scout quit a year later because he is no longer being automatically recognized with everyone else. One of the things we now do to help alleviate the issue of 'everyone got their rank tonight except me', is to award that rank at the next Pack meeting after it is earned, rather than a mass award at the end of the year. When they are all called up at the same time, everyone notices the boy whose name is not called for advancement. When rank is awarded as soon as earned, that does not happen.

When I asked the same questions I was told they requested and were granted a waiver.

I questioned that when I first started helping out with them as Webelos, and the fact that he would only be 10 years and a couple of months old. I was told that they had requested a waiver so he could move up to Webelos with his friends (even though he was a year behind in school), and that if he completed AOL he could cross over with them last month.

We just had a fourth grader who turned ten in early December, completed his Arrow of Light requirements, and crossed over with the rest of the AOL boys last month.

Still have my garrison cap that the troop wore just before converting to the red beret. Unfortunately the beret has long since vanished.