Mom2Scout

even if it's just asking the simple question, "Have you ever thought of...?" And during this situation with Covid, where there are restrictions or opportunities that youth may not even comprehend, I think some adult input might be helpful. No one has ever lived through this before. ^^^ this When I say my scout is a germophobe, I mean it. Like getting him to go out at all this summer has been a chore. I was looking for ideas that I could seed into his mind as safe, because he doesn't look at doing anything outside of the house as safe. For instance, weeding... that's a safe a

The bummer summer has bled into next year! Gah. My scout's HA for this year already got rescheduled to next.... so glad we got to go to World, at least!

Fingers crossed here, too. My scout is signed up to go. He's older, so he would be aged up/out by the time the next one rolls around.

No graffiti here in rural Virginia. Yes, it is for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge, so the 8 hours have to be to one org. I'll give him some ideas about outside clean up, but it is July, so very hot and humid. There are a few trails around here, so maybe that would work too. Our troop has sort of adopted part of a trail locally anyway.

Hey all, I have a germophobic scout who needs to perform 8 hours of service for a merit badge. Have you encountered this before with another scout and have ideas that would be something a scout could do? The normal opportunities our community has are out (library closed, for example). I'd prefer he do it before school starts to just knock it out since it would be the one thing for that merit badge that would hold him up. Any ideas? Thanks P.S. He went to the first meeting our scout troop had clad in rubber gloves and was a strict adherent to the masks/don'

Thanks so much for your response! My kid really wants to go and if I have to troll the council website for when they put out a link, it may be a good, long while. I want to make sure he signs up in enough time to secure a spot.

Can anyone explain the difference between registering my scout as a participant vs. registering him as a participant of our council's contigent? (not yet live to do online yet) I checked a neighboring council's page and their contingent is taking 160 and cost is 1700 per scout. Registering as a scout costs 1200 on the jambo page, so ??? I don't know what difference it would make aside from the extra $500 (assuming travel expenses?) cost. Do regular registrants get grouped together vs. a contingent of scouts you could potentially know? Summit is only 4 hours from our house, so we coul

We got a large group of AOLs who bridged over. They were allowed to form their own patrol to stay together... and the results are mixed. The issue we are having is they have bad behavior. They don't have older scouts in their troop to model good behavior for them. They have learned to not respect the rank of older scouts in the troop. It's like their patrol is an extension of Cub Scouts and not what it should be. They are so unruly, several scouts in our troop no longer want to camp with them.ever.again. They finally now have an ASM assigned to them, but not looming over them like t

I took a class on this topic at U of Scouting in my Council. One of the things they suggested was to give the Den parents a break (who doesn't love a break!) and have your scouts go take over a den meeting at least once. Let them see your scouts in action teaching their kids, showing up in their uniforms, and talking about the fun they have had and are having. Cubbies love games! Have your troop plan a game for them to play. Get den chiefs in the pack. You are more likely to get AOLs to bridge to you if you maintain a presence in their pack. Also, if you do a summer camp, you wan

Have you considered Messengers of Peace? https://www.scouting.org/international/messengers-of-peace/ If you put a M of P emphasis on a service project and share, you are spreading the good that scouting can do for a community. Also, don't be shy about letting local media know when you are up to a service project. Our troop has increasingly been relying on committee members to keep 2 deep for events to make sure we have coverage. Hopefully, M of P will inspire kids to do service outside of their scouting.

Not really. Ours is more like a wear your uniform to your church service that day and let me know kind of thing. It's not even put in our calendar of events because some churches do the Scout Sunday a different day than the one that BSA sets aside for it. This weekend my scout is going to a church that does celebrate Scout Sunday. The patches are always so cool. It's a tradition to collect them for him.

I'm going to weigh in here... I do the JTE for our troops. It is very confusing to do anything when both troops use the same number. There was some finagling for Council so that we could enter JTE for the girls troop. In addition, the JTE excel sheet and a lot of boiler plate things do not let you add a letter and only accept numbers in the field. Our girls also do not wear a G on their sleeve after our troop number, nor do the boys. It would have been easier to have separate numbers from the get-go. On another note, council folks have messed up our popcorn prizes because th

We have linked troops and our girls haven't yet gotten a female AOL to join. Mostly, it has been friends convincing other friends to join. I imagine that it will take a while for more girls to join Cub Scouts and matriculate up. Our Webelos activities are also done as a linked group. Our girls are out there showing off their skills. Maybe what you need is some good PR? Hit up the newspaper for a interest story. Have them show off skills at a community event. Recruitment is really a year long process and not just a few months before bridging ceremonies. One activity we do ever

I would start with recruiting at least a small cadre of adults before recruiting scouts. You need engaged adults to help shoulder the burden or you will burn out quickly. Get your leadership together and then start reaching out. As someone who lives in a rural(ish) area with, as kids say, "nothing to do", offer a vibrant program that dovetails into the rural culture. Be willing to bend your vision to meet the community at least half way. Oh, and get your program out there --- newspaper articles, Facebook page, IG, etc. <--- Kids are very social these days.

My troop is in NCAC, so we will do it next weekend and the following will be picking up. Has everyone else switched over to those tags? Last year, we noticed a steep decline in houses who put out food. We think it is because the bag is more of a visual reminder to put out food than a tag is. Those sticky note things fell off of doors, mailboxes, etc. They just did not stick well in the colder weather at all.

Search me. It's a troop fee. At least I don't have to pay for each and every badge or patch like I did when my daughter was in Girl Scouts, so that's something.

We are up to $90 with the $60, $6 Council fee, and a $24 troop fee. So yeah.

I anticipate less folks opting for it because of the rate hike a'coming! It's just one more thing that makes scouting an expensive thing for a kid to do.

So true. Our troop structure is slated to change at our next COH. The boys will divide themselves into patrols, hopefully by identifying interests (and friendships). This was definitely a parent topic at a Webelos night. Our SM explained the patrol method and how the boys will form their own patrols in the near future. And why it was so important that they be allowed to do this.

Our troop does it this way. Grubmaster for patrol is selected at meeting before campout. They work out the menu. He knows then what to buy. Mom of Grubmaster takes Scout to store and loads up grocery cart, incurring an $80 grocery bill. Mom turns the receipt into the treasurer, with list of scouts in the patrol who partook of the meals prepared with ingredients bought so that their accounts can be debited this amount/and if negative, their parents can get a statement showing how much they owe. Mom gets either a credit to the scout's account or a check back. Generally, sh

Honestly, the popcorn kernels should be doing some math to figure out how much more in sales to plan to absorb these costs the best the troop can. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Maybe adding on some table sales will help.

Hey all. We took a friend and her son with us to the Jambo on Thursday. They had a great time! Beckley is in the mountains. The start of our day was a tad cool, but the fog/mist burned off pretty quick. We didn't start to feel hot per se until later in the afternoon. There were lots of water stations to refill once your water was drank or got kind of warm to drink. Our Scouts went in their Field Dress (Class A) uniforms. This made it easy for folks to see where we were from (National Capital Area Council) and thus strike up a conversation. We saw a mix of some folks in their C

Our troop has a policy where they ask that merit badge counselors who retain blue cards return them to the advancement chair for safe keeping if a long period of time goes on between when it was started. Thus, if you are holding a blue card for six months and no scout contact, turn it in to the advancement chair for safe keeping. I do not hold blue cards. I feel that is a scout's responsibility. Plus, if they have a blue card in the zipper pouch of their book, then they know what they have to work on as a visual reminder. If the scout forgets to bring his blue card, I know what should

Um, yeah. I posted in a local group that our Troop has a girl troop and 95% of the posts were negative. I am not kidding. On the plus side, we might now have insight into why recruitment doesn't seem to be working (not much interest) and how our Scouts might be treated in the public at popcorn tables in the future.

My thoughts on this... encourage scouts to share with their patrol leader when they see others who do good turns. This can be passed up the chain and perhaps tallied for a mention at a COH. On the flip side... there are a few rude scouts in my son's troop and he has a hard time dealing with that because he gets bullied at times in school. I told him that perhaps he should gently remind them that a scout is kind and courteous. It may just get them to stop and think about their behavior.