Eagle92

Basement, Sorry your time as a CSDC PD was not rewarding. I know that it was tough planning and prepping, but from the survey of Cubs I got 95% of the Cubs had a great time, 4.9% had a good time, and only 1 had a lousy time. That 1 is generally negative anyway, had him in my den the year before, and I put it downas just having one in the bunch. You also offer great advice: wait until son goes into a troop to help out as you need to bond. My rule in volunteering for these events is A) I'll help with prep work the day before the event and B) I'll do the campfire. This last event was interesting in that my Wolf actually finished his work early and went to camp with me to prep. THAT WAS FUN. But during the day, with the exception of playing messenger 2 times and getting a wet suit for a BSA 'guard working rowing , I was with him until campfire.

Gotta, That's one reason why BSA, and other organizations for that matter, are going to online/video training; consistency. I know for American heart Association BLS and Heartsaver training, the instructors plug in the video, and are really there to monitor that the folks are doing it correctly, and for testing. The video does the work. I bet that IOLS and BALOO will soon come out with video formats, with instructors there to showcase specific gear and to demonstrate skills. So part of the problem IS inconsistencies in training. Heck I know my BALOO training was a joke, being completely indoors. And I know my training course needs improvement, I need to get more equipement that packs woudl use instead of backpacking gear. Another part of the problem is that BSA changes policies, and it takes forever to get filtered to those of us in the field. One good example is no more smudgepots, tuna can stoves, Pepsi stoves, and other homemade equipment that uses liquid fuels. That policy came out in December, and folks still have not heard about it. i had some folks ticked off at me this past weekend as I wouldn't use smudgepots for the OA Callout Ceremony at the district camporee. Another problem is that I do not think some packs fill out the proper paperwork, or attend training for that matter. I know of a pack that I never, ever see doing training. Their philosophy is "we are doing this for our kids, and if we can't take our kids with us, then we're not doing it." They do not attend RTs, training, anything, and I have a feeling they will be the first ones complaining when all their leaders who haven't done YPT are dropped from their charters. Also I think the training records are so screwed up, council's do not know how to really verify that training has been completed, and thus approve those units that do turn in paperwork. Then again some of the program codes are so narrowly defined, i.e. according to training codes only ARC First Aid and CPR with AED is listed, none of the other programs, including AHA which creates the CPR procedures that everyone follows, are listed. I think they just approve it. EDITED: Forgot to add, in my expereince while girl scouts can do more things at a younger age, there are A) a lot more policies and paperwork involved than the BSA, B) programming is not as strong with constant changes to program (I actually had GS leaders coming to my scout shop buying the old Program Helps, How To Book, and other program materials to spice up the GS program), and C) maxes out a lot earlier on opportunities and activities than the BSA, hence why I see lots of GS join Venturing. (This message has been edited by Eagle92)

Gern, I too do not understand limiting an 11 YO's camping experiences. The only thing I can think of is that previously BSA limited the campouts an 11 y.o. Cub Scout could take, yes you were a Cub until you turned 12 at one time, and the LDS church has kept that formula.

I need to edit the last statement, It's approx $100 extra in taxes every 2 weeks.

Once, You will need permission of the local council since they own the council's name. Had a unit doing that locally, and they received a letter from the council's lawyer to stop or face a lawsuit. Now I have seen custom CSPs done, especially for Sea Scouts. Just need permission form the SE.

More on some patches. As for financial burden, for some families it can be. While I was able to quickly buy the correct numbers and trained patch after purchasing the green and tan ones ones everyone told me to get for my CU: the May 2008 pdf, local distributor, and national supply employee, I do know some families are being hit hard by the economy and have not been able to buy the correct numbers still. Heck if the the situation happened now, I might have said the heck with it too. And the economy is going to get worse. Read somewhere that a family of 4 making under $50K may be hit with an extra $250 in taxes every two weeks. Not many families I know in that brakcet can afford that type of hit to their wallets.

Moose, Please do me a favor,do not call the 18-20 y.o.s "Scouts" as they are now Adults. You can call them Scouters, you can call them ASMs, you can call them SAa, or the local term "GASers" wich stands for Gray Area Scouters (Adults in a troop, but youth in OA and Venturing.) However if they are Sea Scouts, you gotta say the "Sea Scouts" Thanks in advance.

Gary, #1 thanks for understanding #2 Thanks for rationally answering questions, leanring alot. Now in reference to only allowing 11years old to camp 3 times a year, why is that? I remember as an 11yo the two troops I was in camped every month but December (too difficult to plan a trip with everythign going on, had Christmas COH instead). So I did 1o campouts ( sorry I didn't do summer camp so I missed that month)

SR, In the councils I've been in, the Lodge chief is a member of the executive board. Districts mirror their council boards, hence the CC is a member. To be honest i've only had 2 CCs attend. 1 got disgusted with the way the adutls were acting, and he and his dad, who replaced me as CA, decided not to attend anymore. But yes I've seen it happen.

Gotta, I hate to say this, but as a former pro I can tell you that SDEs do not know it all. Heck I had to tell an SDE running summer camp, and hence NCS certified, that A)a youth protection violation did occur and he needed remove the peson form camp and call the SE ASAP, B)remind him that the COPE Course did need a certified COPE director out there running the course, including the low elements, and C) Safety Afloat did apply to the canoe trip he planned for the CITs so he better have a certified lifeguard in the canoe with my non-swimmer. I can also tell you that you need to follow the G2SS, and if there is ANYTHING questionable in it, side on the stricter understanding, Somewhere posted on an offical BSA website states that if you do an unapproved activity with your unit and an accident happens, BSA insurance will not cover it. And I have seen one person have their BSA membership revoked b/c they did not follow G2SS in the late 1990s. I am not going to comment on the legality of the isurance issue but that is found but checkout this site: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/HealthandSafety/Alerts/Insurance.aspx

I've done three in the past 13 months. And I use to do them alot when I worked for the BSA as well as in college. Lots of work, BUT Lots of fun. That said, while I plan on being on staff next year, if there is no conflict with OA as in the past 2 years, I will not be doing my normal job of running the campfire. I do not want to make the campfire stale and repetitive so 2 years in a row is good for me. I've been told I have a " strong back, weak mind," so grunt staff is for me next year

Moose, if the under 21 yo is OA chapter chief, he sits on the district committee and votes when he attends. This is how it was done in 4 of the 5 councils I served in. wasn't invovled on the district in the 5th one, so I cannot tell. Mostof the time they didn't show though. Also don't know about Venturing youth as I've never seen one attend.

Gary, If this sound like bashing, I'm sorry as that is not my intent. Hopefully you know this from our other conversations, both public and private. I think the biggest problem is the lack of communication on both the LDS units' and districts' parts. For what ever reason the LDS units i am most familiar with really have nothing to do with the rest of the district, and this appears to be common in my neck of the woods. I'll give you two examples, we had a CS family campout 2 weeks ago, which folks could attend just for the day, and the LDS pack didn't show up. And this past weekend was the district camporee, and the LDS troop didn't show up. I know that folks have tried and tried to get them involved, only to get frustrated at run around given as we are told that another person is in charge now, or never receiving return calls. So we've given up on trying to contact them.

JR, That is an understatement if I ever heard one Looks like I am going to try and find some trained strips someone made locally that match the old VLSC strips. That or use the old Trained strips I am trying to save. One other question, are cub scouts and leaders in the CUs now going back to the Aug 08 - April 09 uniform regs of green and tan number and trained strips?

My question is this: what Webelos doesn't like to camp? grant you 4 trips in a 6 week period is kinda rough;) , but the webelos I know loved to camp and complained that they didn't get to do an overniter in conjunction with CSDC, or cook for that matter.

AM, 11 members on a NC, no I have not. Members of the community who are not registered,yet anyway, yes. My district did that to get some fresh blood on the committee so we would not stagnate. Some were very well known, some not so well known. As for current district committee member being on the NC, only those members who were steppign down. As for going through the DE for nominations, I did that when I didn't have a district chair or nominating committee chair yet but wanted some names, but the dist. commissioner was also accepting them as well.

CT, Thanks a bunch! BTW Uniform inspections went well this past weeekend. Now my question is: if the red strip may not be available in the near future, what colot trained strips will Venturers and their leaders be wearing?

Ran, one word describes it: AWESOME!!!!!! Very knowledgable folks, and very patient folks who can teach a lot. I haven't been there in 5 years due school and family. Maybe this year.

Bart, Good point must be registered now, where as before he could be a TC adult. Ana Go with your gut feeling. When I crossed over to boy scouts with my original troop, I was there for about 5 months until it was announced that my old CM was becoming SM, as his son was in my den and crossed over with me and the previous SM had a heartattack. I had a funny feeling about him, and I was proved right later on. And while I was an adult with no children in scouting for a long time, and I know others who no longer have kids, or grand-kids in scouting but are active, one of the worse YP issues I faced was over in the UK at camp where a new leader with no kids and no history in scouting volunteered to be a cub leader and go to a summer camp with them. Luckily one of the Service Team members was a "Bobby" (and one who was authorized to carry a sidearm so Robin Williams doesn't apply)and dealt with the situation.

if you are in the OA, go to the Carolina Indian Seminar in January as their is someon who teaches a class or sell them their.

I didn't have a kid in scouting until 2 years ago. But scouting has been very good to me and I decided to give back. Plus most of the time it's a lot of fun BUT if your 'spidey sense" is going off, you may want to take heed.

Gern, Actually L4L was started prior to the Exploring/Venturing split, sometime in the early to mid 1990s if memory serves. It's purpose was to basically convert "in school scouting" units to a program that avoided the "3 G's of Scouting," problems and allow public schools with a character development program.

Correct, once you earn your religious award, you get the knot automatically. The knot represents the award for normal activities, as you usually don't wear the medals except for special ocassions. But I know most Cubs wear everythgin they got all the time.

Yes you can conduct 1 BOR for T-2-1 ranks simoultaneously. I learned about that after my troop conducted 3 BORs in one nite for a scout shortly after the time requirements for the T-2-1- ranks were removed. Either the DAC or CAC, sorry can't remember which one, got a good laff out of my unit b/c this was a very new situation for us, and we didn't want any problems with the scout getting his rank from Council.

In reference to the youth religious knot, once they earn their religion's award, then they are authorized the knot, as well as the device for that level award. I know for Catholics the following devices should be worn on the knot: CS device for Tigers and Wolves earning the Light of Christ, Webelos device for Bears and Webelos earning Parvuli Dei, Boy Scout for Scouts earning the Ad Altari Dei, Varsity for Varsity Scouts earning the Ad Altari Dei, and Venturing or Sea Scout device for Boy Scouts, Sea Scouts or Venturers earning the Pope Pius.