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Buggie

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Everything posted by Buggie

  1. There is a dot/circle by the thread title, a star if you've posted in it. Not sure of the color because of color insensitivity. Click on that to go to the first unread post on a page. Course it can't tell where in a page you left off if you stop before you reach the last post on a page. Still should help you get to where you need. And the "go to unread posts" link/button helps find what to catch up on.
  2. As others have stated, option B. It's past the point of gentle touches. The parents are destroying the troop and though the scouts are not the problem, sometimes you have to do the painful act to prevent a worse event down the road. They have been endangering the troop on camp outs by threatening to pull out unless they get their way. They will continue to threaten the troop with dire actions to get their way. I would definitely have the district/council be aware of the what and the why, with the focus on the endangering scouts with threats to abandon scouts on camp outs and any other things t
  3. I've been posing the question to scouts during their BORs. "What would you like to do?" Hoping I could help facilitate the PLC to plan some sort of activity other than basic camping. Our older scouts don't care about anything. Younger scouts tend to want to do fishing. That's about it. Bums me out because I don't care for fishing, but I love hiking and canoeing. I have experience in two troops. My current troop doesn't do anything other than car camping that I've seen so far. They have a history of going out and hiking along the Ouachita Trail for a stretch of a few days. Because the cu
  4. I'm unclear on what constitutes a unit approval for a scout's Eagle project. I get that the process requires the scout to get the unit's approval (among other signatures) before taking an eagle project to the next level of the process before taking the Eagle Project Workbook to the Eagle Project Board. What I don't have a good handle on is what level of review is needed for the committee approval signature. We have one scouter who is saying all the scout needs for the approval is a general idea and concept to recognize if this is a project that can go forward. Yes? Sign and wish th
  5. Link to video This is someone's remembrance of his time in Cubs. I found it entertaining. With a point of what sells the program: camping.
  6. As Eagledad stated, it's not a real BSA event, even though it is a BSA event. Not youth run at all. The thing I hear the most from the scouts when they return are their stories about trading. In the PDF mentioned above, they want to get beyond the "garage sale" type of trading, but that's what happened most often when my son went. The "Trappers" are reenactment type folks showing various skills, and in some cases, letting the scouts try it out themselves. The big thing the "Trappers" teach is how to trade, and it all involves tall tales. Which is where the real fun is. Scouts learn to co
  7. Anyone heading to Trappers Rendezvous in January? I'm pretty excited about it all. It's a lot of fun for everyone attending. Link to Trappers Rendezvous on the council's page. it's held yearly by the Quivira Council there in Kansas
  8. This seems a little cross-wise and similar to things I encounter from folks now and then. A common confusion. Two deep leadership is where we want two adults with the Scouts in case of issues. The adults don't need to be joined at the hip, but within the same general nearby area. And like you pointed out, they both don't need to be registered scouters. Youth Protection is where there is no one-on-one contact between non-related scout and adult. We had a visiting parent accuse our troop of two deep/YPT violation because they were left alone within the same room as the scouts wh
  9. As far as I've seen, BSA does not state anything about the adults being related or not. And in some southern states (mine included), everyone is related to everyone. lol I am my own Grandpa
  10. Welcome to the virtual camp fire @DJsMommy. Thanks to you for being the CC of your unit!
  11. Even though it sounds a bit flippant, I rely on something from an old role playing game from long while back called Paranoia. In which the whole concept was that you were part of a team whose members all had secret assignments to betray various other teammates etc on the mission they were assigned to. The slogan was, "Trust no one. Keep your Laser handy." Commonly, we as a society want to trust those who have been around for awhile simply because we think, if they were "bad" they would have been caught long ago. We watch the new adults more closely until we're satisfied they are doing ok
  12. YES! Yes to the whole idea of scouts have outside lives too. Thank you for that! I had an SM tell me that my son may not be counted as "active for six months" because he hadn't been a frequent attendee to meetings and campouts over the last six months over the fall. Never mind that he had been in this rank for two years and fall was marching band season. I replied that he should talk with my son about what he was doing and see how active he had been over the last two years instead of the last six months in this rank. My son was active during non-marching band times, going to campouts wh
  13. But in all seriousness. I remember what it was like as a parent. You think, once I join there's no switching. I make it clear to parents that our most fervent desire is that their child enjoys and gets the most out of their scouting experience. We want them to succeed. If that happens with our troop, that's great. And if they want to explore other troops, that's also great. The most important thing for all troops is that their scout finds a place that works for them and that it is perfectly acceptable to search for a new troop whenever the scout wishes. I remind them that every troop has a dif
  14. I love troop visit nights. You meet the AoLs. You meet Parents. Engage with scouters. And you can realize, if you are watching closely, what people think of your troop. Be sure to talk up other troops too. Like they are doing great! They haven't had any emergency room trips this year. And so far no one has received any DUIs in the past six months. If the adult presses for details get vague, mutter about how you really can't talk about it legally.
  15. Thankfully you are capable of the task. I wish you well in your endeavor. For the rest of us, we'd probably use English in larger fonts and end words in "-o" while trying to convey some sort of unrecognizable accent. Though I do encourage you to kick this up the chain in whatever way you see fit. There are lots of languages that are used by scouts in BSA's many programs that should be reflected in the standard course material. Spanish is definitely one of those that is needed, since they do have the Boy Scout Handbook available in that format. Explaining what you're having to do and why,
  16. Oh yah, forgot the OP was about wood badge. I'll echo what other's have been saying. Don't bother with it until you feel like you want to take it. It does help with some of the folks who feel like non-beaded folk aren't worth listening too, but the true test is how you work with the scouts and scouters. Those who aren't full of the beads can tell those who have a good head on their shoulders and who are trying to improve.
  17. Useless or not, unless you're registered as one of the "student" roles (92U or 91U) it needs to be done so it doesn't count against the unit's training record. It's pretty important for units trying for the JTE and other such things. The standard BSA online training held some items I didn't know and a lot I did. IOLS was similar. The best thing the latter did was meeting folks in my area. But the biggest thing about the training and reading up on the Guide to Advancement etc, is that you'll spot all those pesky things that a unit does that aren't correct. I was slightly amused/horr
  18. Reading this made me wonder, do they have the "Communication" MB book on audio? Yes, my mind goes to strange places.
  19. @Setonfan I've no idea. I can only speak to what this DE said. It makes me wonder if others are doing this and if it is inflating the numbers. I have no way to judge the numbers being reported. I've not even seen numbers for my own council/district. I can only report what he told me regarding my daughter. Even if it was something that was inflating the numbers, I've no idea by how much.
  20. Exactly. I think we'll see the shift in numbers the next two years as the program gets going and the paper registrants, if any, aren't a part of the picture as much.
  21. My son's old troop had two nice alternative camping structures, instead of the standard tents. They didn't use them all year round, but they had them for various uses. One was a carport tent. It's main use was at summer camps, either as the standard weather coverall over the tables in case of rain or as a group tent where the scouts lined up their cots and slept in a single hut. The sides were lifted out and tied down for maximum ventilation and in case of bad weather, they could be brought in for extra coverage. The other was rather cheap to build and used at summer camp or at Tr
  22. Hey, everyone else's mileage may vary. I can only point to what I felt that my council did that feels wrong. And it could truly be a glitch. Course I share this council with at least two other posters here that I know of. *eyeballs them* It could also be a way someone (at some level in the org) is trying to bring cub scouts in. Here, a try before you buy program. No risk at all since it is so close to the end of the year. And if you're hooked, you pay the fees for the new year. Honestly, I feel it's more the enticement to try it out for those parents who might be sitting on the fe
  23. As I've stated, I'm good with girls in scouting. I've been amazed at the numbers for girl cub scouts being reported here on the forum and wondering how accurate it is. I've no way to judge. I've only seen one girl Webelos unit in my district and I only know of two others in the council. Not to say that there aren't more girl cub scout units in my council, but I'm not involved in them so I don't know anything other than what I hear or see. But in any case, after the last Webelos Woods event I was interested in a girl Webelos unit close to me. My daughter is interested in joining. I couldn
  24. Buggie

    YPT

    With all these posts, I lost sight of the original hubbub. But there are a few things I'd like to add/repeat. 1. I like my volunteer scouters vetted and trained. (Pretty much goes without saying, but I state the obvious at times.) 1 additional: Online training stinks. Oh, it's okay to go over the basics, but in the field training is so much better. And having folks who truly understand things is required. I have to ask the question, "where is that written" A LOT. My fellow scouters have all sorts of undocumented policies/requirements/etc. 2. There are times I can't afford anything
  25. Scouters in our pack/troop pay their own. Unless the upper echelon get some kind of secret deal and a decoder ring I'm not aware of.
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