ccjj

My son wanted a tan uniform as soon as possible. Being a single parent at that time, he went to many trainings with me, and the trainers were all in full uniform. That was what he saw, and what he wanted. Plus, his blue uniform was getting a bit on the small side.

Our pack used to have a crossover/campout at the end of the year. On Saturday night we would have our crossover ceremony and all the boys would cross into their new ranks. On Sunday morning, my son just had to wear his new tan uniform, because he was a Webelos Scout now.

As for that uniform lasting, it didn't last too long before I needed to pass it on down to some other boy. My son has outgrown many uniforms during his time as a youth. Luckily, we have a uniform closet that I am able to get shirts from.

ccjj

While in elementary school, my son wore his Cub Scout uniform to school on meeting days, until he had gym class on that day, then he wore a scouting t-shirt.

While in middle school, he sometimes wore a scouting t-shirt to school.

While in high school, he often wears a scouting t-shirt to school, and several times has worn a full uniform. Several of his teachers came to his Eagle Court of Honor last week.

On the girl scout side, my daughter wears cub scout shirts to school all the time. Once I got her some girl scout shirts, she wears them as well.

To her first girl scout meeting, she wore her boy scout troop t-shirt!

ccjj

Our troop just had its first Eagle Court of Honor. The troop committee decided to purchase the Trail to Eagle plaque with all the rank badges on it for each Eagle Scout.

Since we had to rent a hall for the CoH, the troop also decided to put up the deposit for the hall to help out.

My son enjoyed his CoH, and we had just over 100 people there.

ccjj

In June, my daughter will be attending her first day camp as a Girl Scout. Unfortunately, I have to take so much time off work as the Cub Scout Camp Director that I am unable to go with her. But, she will be with me at all of the weekend family camps and resident camps.

ccjj

The pack I was last with charged $25.00 for new Scouts and $20.00 for returning Scouts. From that fee, they pack paid for re-charter, PWD cars, and neckerchiefs and slides for graduation. Popcorn sales helped with costs of awards and such.

ccjj

My daughter is finally able to enjoy herself as a Dasiy Scout, instead of just a tag-along. My son is in his senior year of high school and just earned his Eagle. I have been his den leader, cubmaster, and a member of his troops committee. I am also a trainer and cub summer camp director.

We did a Mom & Me Daisy overnight in December, and my daughter asked if we were sleeping in the tent! She is so used to camping with us. I had to explain that for a while, her Girl Scouts camp in cabins. In May, they are having another Mom & Me overnight and there is the option to sleep in the camps platform tents. I told her we would do that.

Her GS Leader said that even though there are changes coming down in September, her troop will still bridge to Brownies in May. Because she is in the transitional year, she can be a Brownie for 3 years. Some Daisy troops in the area are electing to do Daisys for 2 years, others are going to bridge to Brownies after this year. It is confusing at times to me.

ccjj

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"So if the boys want to play basketball for the pre-opening gathering activity and carry it through for the entire meeting, what's wrong with that?? It's not the Scoutmaster's program. "

But, if they do that for every meeting that is not right. My sons former troop did just that. The SM said this is a boy led troop and if that is what they want to do, then they can do it.

If the opportunity to restart a former unit did not come when it did, my son and another boy probably would have quit.

ccjj

I have had my first pair for over a year. The only problem I seem to be having with them is that they are starting to get little balls of stuff on the inner legs. I am not sure of the technical term for that.

Otherwise, I enjoy them. I am the cub summer camp director and wear them all summer. I just had to get a second pair this year.

ccjj

When my now 12th grade Eagle Scout was in kindergarden, the teacher asked what his mom did for a living. He replied, "She sells drugs." Then didn't say another word. When I got to school to pick him up that day, his teacher had some serious questions for me.

I told her that I am a Pharmacy Technician. I work for a chain pharmacy and have for over 13 years. Before that I worked for an independent pharmacy.

ccjj

We did a BoR for Tenderfoot a couple of years ago, and the Scout standing before the board was just shaking. We kept telling him to calm down, that we were just going to talk to him, and ask some questions. Finally, he seems to calm down. Towards the end of the Board, we ask him if he has anything about the troop that he wants to tell us. His reply, "He lied." I ask him if he would care to explain that statement, to which he told us that one of the other boys was telling him that in order to pass your BoR, you had to walk between a line of adults and they kicked you as you walked by. If you walked by without yelling, you passed. We started laughing. No wonder he was shaking at the start.

ccjj

I send out emails to the entire troop once monthly.

Most of our information is given to the boys EACH WEEK at our troop meetings. I have one parent who calls me and asks why she wasn't informed about something. I ask her did you ask your son? Her reply...you know he forgets before he gets home. In turn, I tell her that it is his responsibility to inform his parents of what is going on. This young man is a Life Scout, working on Eagle, and currently our SPL. HE needs to be more responsible. Sometimes I think that he doesn't want to do those particular activities and chooses not to tell mom and dad about them.

ccjj

I am the advancement chair for our troop and I do attend most of the troop meetings. As soon as a Scout has his SM conference, he usually comes and asks me when he can have a BoR. If I have enough committee members at that meeting, he can have it that night. If not, I let him know that at our next meeting, he will have it. That gives me time to call some other committee members and ask them to come to next weeks troop meeting.

ccjj

As part of one of our patrols meeting last night, they went over all of the new requirements as a patrol. The PL is Second Class, and he thought that all the boys in his patrol should go over the new requirements. These boys are mainly 11 and 12 years old and starting to use the internet more, so he thought it would be a good idea for them all to go over them.

ccjj

Eisley...where did you see that no person registered with a Scouts unit should sit on his Eagle Bor? I am just curious, since in our district, the Eagle Bor is made up of the district advancement chair and one other person from the district, plus up to4 members of the Scouts troop committee.

My son's Eagle BoR had 2 members from district, and only 3 members of our committee. Neither his step-dad nor myself could sit on his BoR.

Just curious.

ccjj

My son just turned in his application for the second time. He used the 2004 version, instead of the 2006 version. After he went and had everyone sign it (again), we found that there is a 2008 version. But, luckily we don't have to use it.

ccjj

I have been the course director for several Den Chief Trainings. The flyers put out by my council does state First Class or 14 years old. I will NOT turn any Boy Scout away from the training, regardless of his age or rank. If I get a call from a troop or parent, I tell them to register the boy, and write on their registration form that they talked with me and I ok'd the boy.

I have found that often an 11 or 12 year old Boy Scout is more willing to be a Den Chief. As they get older, they get busier and being a Den Chief isn't just important to them.

My son started as a Den Chief shortly after his 11th birthday. He was the only one in his troop interested. The rest of the boys were 14 years and older.

ccjj

My son had his BoR for Eagle tonight and he passed! His journey began as a first grade Tiger Cub in the fall of 1996 and on January 28, 2008 he passed is Eagle board as an almost 18 year old senior in high school.

There were many times where he almost quit Scouting due to one reason or the other, but he always had the Eagle rank in his sights and dreams.

I just had to share!

ccjj

We did a Medeivel theme for resident camp a couple of years ago, and made pvc pipe bow & arrows as a craft. The boys really loved it, and they got to use them to shoot at our castle. The dark knight kidnapped the queen (me) of the camp and held her hostage. As our battle came to an end, the dark knight released his hostage, and agreed to become a Scout. We then had the boys lead him in the Cub Scout Promise. It was a great camp!

ccjj

Disclamer...this is long

Dark-Sucker Theory

For years, it has been believed that electric bulbs emit light, but recent information has proven otherwise. Electric bulbs don''t emit light; they suck dark. Thus, we call these bulbs Dark-Suckers.

The Dark-Sucker Theory and the existence of dark-suckers prove that dark has mass and is heavier than light.

First the basis of the Dark-Sucker Theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. For example, take the dark-sucker in the room you are in. There ismuch less dark right next to it than there is elseshere. THe larger the dark-sucker, the greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark-Suckers in the parking lot have a much greater capacity to suck dark than the ones in this room.

As it is with all things, dark-suckers don''t last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the dark spot on a full dark-sucker.

A candle is a primitive dark-sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You can see that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark that has been sucked into it. If you put a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, it will turn black. This is because it got in the way of the dark flowing into the candle. One of the disadvantages of these primitive dark-suckers is their limited range.

There are also portable dark-suckers. In these, the bulbs can''t handle all the dark by themselves and must be aided by a dark storage unit. When the dark storage unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable dark-sucker can operate again.

Dark has mass. When dark goes into a dark-sucker, friction from the mass generates heat. Therefore, it is not wise to touch an operating dark-sucker. Candles present a special problem as the mass must travel into a solid wick instead of through clear glass, This generates a great amount of heat and therefore it''s not wise to touch an operating candle type dark-sucker.

Also, dark is heavier than light. If you were to swim, just below the surface of a lake, you would see a lot of light. If you were to slowly swim deeper and deeper, you would notice it getting darker and darker. When you get really deep, you would be in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats at the top. That is why it is called light.

Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in a lit room, in front of a closed dark closet, and slowly opened the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet. But since dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet.

Next time you see what is called an electric bulb, remember that is really a dark-sucker.

They are not light bulbs.....they are dark suckers.

Our DE went to our schools and did the boy talk. He handed out fliers that had our contact information on them, and the night and place of our round up. We share our 3-5 grade school with another pack, and by our DE doing the boy talk, he wasn''t trying to sway the boys to either of the packs. He just gave them the information.

From that boy talk and round up, we only registered Tigers and Wolves. Neither pack was able to recruit any new Bears or Webelos. Hopefully, that will change in the near future, but at this time our pack sits at around 20 boys.

Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you. I was starting to have withdrawls.

I may not post often, but I read daily

ccjj

The original poster stated that Tigers are not supposed to work on electives until after completing their rank. They can work on electives at any time. They just can''t receive the yellow beads until after earning their rank. This is just like the Wolf and Bear ranks. All Cub Scouts can work on their electives at any time. They just can''t receive the yellow beads or arrow points until after earning their respective ranks.

Sometimes, based on what is happening in the area, the electives are fun things to work on in the den, even before rank is earned.

ccjj

I can't even begin to count how many books I have read this year. I hit the library at least once a week and get between 4-8 books each time. I read mainly at night before I go to bed.

Plus, I read to my 5 year old each night. Once she learns to read more, she will begin reading to me.

ccjj

Camp Tapico in Kalkaska, Michigan is a patrol cooking camp. There is no dining hall. They offer the usual camp programs, a cope course, and tons of mosquitoes. Sometimes, its a race between the deer flies and the mosquitoes to see which are more annoying.

ccjj