Eagle92

Again my $.03 worth. back when I did Brownsea 22, the council made a special necker, and gave out Smokeys to those who completed the course, in addition to the temporary patch and the Brownsea Strip. Don't have the old uniform regs in front of me, But I was told the strip could be worn permanently on the unifrom on the left sleeve. Staff had a nicer necker, and staff added to the patch if memory serves me correctly, don't quote as it's been 21 years. How about a nice nationally recognized necker, staff patch, and hat pin to be worn on smokeys for staff recognition?

Oh Boy this is gonna be fun!!!! ok sarcasm off. So now a few of my friends will now have to velcro unit numbers and PORs to their uniforms in addition to switching their loop's color when they switch roles. Why couldn't national KIS by having one color number for all three programs that use numbers:CS, BS, and Venturing. Maybe national should let us do what Sea Scouts have done; no longer wear unit numbers on our unforms. Ok last comment was sarcasm again.

SctLdr, I'm a tad bit younger than you. i was the last CS group to have 3 years as TC came out the same year I joined Wolves, and the first group to wear the BS uniform with WEB modifications. So I have the yellow and blue neckers. Yep I think it's a money maker for national to make you buy new uniform items every year. Except the slides. I know how easy those suckers are to lose, and recommended that folks buy 2 from the get go. Good thing about BSA policy, once uniform, always uniform Heck if the wife can wear a 1950s den mom uniform, sons can wear vintage 1980s uniform. THANK YOU EBAY! Thinking about it, maybe I should try and squeeze into my 1970's leader's uniform I got. PS Wife didn't realize that TC wear blue uniform now, so she got the 1980's TC t-shirt and hat without consulting me. Now if I can get into the 70s uniform, we can be a true retro family (This message has been edited by eagle92)

Annie, Yep the BSA is getting that way. With all the different BSA training courses out there, I now know why the "OVERTRAINED" joke patch is popular. Heck with nearly 50 courses on my own training record, maybe I need to get one of those Overtrained patches.

Back in the day, we planned for a year, starting in Sept. with the first 6 months set in stone, the last 6 months, other than summer camp, adaptable. usually those last six month was set in stone as the PLC didn't want to take another saturday to plan things. having to deal with 2 public school district calendars for both middle school and high school, and and additional 6 private HS calandars, and I forgot how many private elementary school calendars (private elem. schools went to 8th in New Orleans)it was an all day affair to get a troop calendar together. As for not giving the Webs the info after their campout, the only major campout's I'ld be concerend with is Summercamp. keeping the lines of communication with the WDL and especialy having a Den cheif will keep the info going.

Well I bought a new long sleeve shirt befoer the price hike and a few pacthes. YIKES on the price. Grant you i knew what to expect as a former supply guy and getting the supplex, but it's still shocked me. $53 for a shirt, 4 knots, and a trained strip. Well I am buying bits and pieces of my son's CS uniform now so that when Aug hits, it won't be sticker shock. Ebay is my friend, and I am glad my mom was abel to rescue a few of my CS items from Katrina. My boys WILL be wearing two of my neckers.

Intersting question. here's my $.03 worth (inflation you know) 1) Council records. I would pull a copy of every charter. that info is a goldmine, especially if you can find youth and/or leaders from the past. conduct oral history interviews, or invite them to pack BnG. 2) CO records. Again they can be a goldmine. 3) unit patches and awards. those ribbons and vet awards if you use them on your pack flag, do have a history. try and find out what they mean. 4) Old photos. A photo is truly worth a 1000 words. One of my units found a photo from 1927 when they visited the White House and met the president. they had some info on it, but looking at the photo with a magnifying glass was interesting. 5) old newspapers. I love microfiche/microfilm.

HICO, Welcome to the "Been There, Done That, Got The Patch Club" I know how you feel, trust me I know how you feel, 'cause i'm in the club too. One of the problems with training records is that at one time they were not a priority, so some councils would list it, others didn't. Some of us oldtimers are having headaches right now b/c of that. Some of us,me included, don't have all the certificates of some of our training for whatever ever reasons: moves, being out of the movement for a spell, or in my case Hurricane Katrina. I'm fortunate in that I'm a former pro and there are some folks in the council office who know me and what I've done, so I've been able to get my records updated in Scoutnet, but there are still errors. Heck I couldn't get my Training Award Knot yesterday b/c it was not listed on my training report. A few ideas to get around the paperwork. 1) talk to your training folks and see if they have ways of fixing the problem. I know I created a form that listed all training courses that SCOUTNET listed and gave those out to the leaders to fill out and submit to council. It was on the honor system, but I knew most of the old timers from my time as a DE, so I knew some of their training history. Registrar accepted that and my records are mostly up to date now. Gotta fix that Training Award problem though. 2) Better still, be a trainer! That way you keep current with the info AND you are insuring that leaders get the training and knowledge the scouts deserve. When I did my form, I left a space for notes, usually for staff members who staffed a course, i.e. WBers staffing WB21C and the PTC staff I have in the district. Good luck

I strongly recommend NOT having OA elections until the new guys have a few campouts with the everyone under their belt and know everyone. In all likelyhood, they will either NOT vote, or vote for who they know, and no one else. My old troop made the mistake one time of having OA elections about 2 weeks after the new scouts crossed over, and the PLC said not again. One of the new scouts had a brother who was eligible, and it appeared that every new scouts voted for the brother and no one else eligble. While big brother was a decent scout, others eligible would have been better Arrowmen, and only 1 other got in. The PLC figured out what happened, whether on their own or if the SM told them. I sure as heck didn't as I was the CA at the time, and they told me exactly what happened when they tried to get me to spill the beans.

Since the local council office I go to does not have the new ICG, they will not order the new one until out of the old one, can someone tell me what color numbers CS leaders wear according to the new ICG? i've heard they still wear red and whites liek their charges by some, and I've been told they wear tan and green by others.

Being part of an OA drum, we usually do ceremonies with it, ie AOL, Crossover, ECOH, Call Outs, etc. Now this one time at a camporee, there was a college student who brought out his bagpipes. The drum knew Amazing Grace in Tsalgi and we asked him if he could join the drum in singing the song. MAN I WISH WE HAD RECORDED THAT AS IT WAS AWESOME! Imagine a 6 man powwow drum at full volume with bagpipes added in, spinetingling it was. Oh and come to find out, the piper was also an OA member!

Well I called some some friends in national supply just before lunch, and they confirmed prices are going up. Now the individual did not know if it was everything or not, but thought, again thought, that the shirt and pants would not be going up. 3 Me personally i am leaving work early and stopping at the shop to get a new shirt and fixins while I can afford it.

if you don't want to buy a plaque, then make one. i'm sure you have someone with the skill and equipment to make a nice recognition. I personally like it when it has a plastic cover for a photo. OR make a photo album of your scouts as athank you.

Rock climbing and bouldering, no. trees and other low to the earth obstacles, yes.

HICO, In my council, SMF is a grandfathered trainign course, so you are trained. if you ahev a copy of the District training pamphlet, whatever it is called, there should be a list of training codes and corresponding courses that are put into SCOUTNET. SMF is coded for SCOUTNET. If the current book deosn't have the code, ask the registrar. Trust me some of the old training, including youth training like Brownsea 22 and JLT, are coded for adult training records.

Ok my $.03 worth, yep it cost more 'cause of inflation. While i know how much work and dedication goes into staffing a JLT course (been there, done that, got my second smokey from it), I do not think the beads are an appropriate recognition for several reasons. 1) It degrades the meaning of those beads. Those third and fourth beads should mean training adults in the best leaders possible. Yes courses are similar, but there are some differences. 2) How do you recognize other adult staffers who may A) be working their tickets or B) never been through WB? I know the B catagory is rare, since it's my understanding that most councils want WBers on staff, but I know I was accespted to be SPL for the course I worked becasue 1)I completed the last Brownsea 22 course the council offered 6 years earlier and 2) I was a 20 y.o. SM and could still relate to the youth. If you recognize one group you gotta recognize all. 3) Most importantly how will you recognize the youth staffers? After all this is supposed to be a YOUTH RUN organization. These young men you agree to undego not only the originaly JLT, but EDGE (at one time TDC) the prep weekends, and the Philmont Training. IdeaDoc, after working in supply, I can tell you that they don't always have good editors.

Down in SE Louisiana, we called them cattails. yep they light up nicely, just don't bring 'em inside a tent -

here's a link to those isntructions. it goes by several names, patrol rope, toggle rope, and commando rope. http://www.troop418.net/Forms/toggle.pdf Man, I haven't seen that in years. made and used a toggle rope back in the day.

Short, not really, they could still have the Boy Scouts of America strip just like the CS uniforms.

If he's been 11 since November, he is too old for CS and should be moved to BS. I would have a discussion with both dad and young man and tell them that Boy Scouts is where he should be. Further, i'ld tell them that he needs to start preparing for summer camp NOW by getting active with the troop and saving his money. From the BSA Website http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/faqs/joining.aspx#aa FAQ: Joining Cub Scouting How old (or young) can a boy be to join Cub Scouting? Cub Scouting is for boys in the first through fifth grades, or 7 to 10 years of age. Boys who are older than 10, or who have completed the fifth grade, can no longer join Cub Scouting, but they may be eligible to join the Boy Scouting or Venturing program.

My council came up with a form to keep track of training an indiviual has done that can be coded into the SCOUTNET system. Here is the link http://www.eccbsa.org/forms/ECC%20Adult%20Leader%20Training%20Record.pdf Note that not all training codes are listed on this form that can be put into the computer,i.e BROWNSEA 22 has a code but is not listed on this form. They just put the most common ones on the form. PM me and I can get you all of the coded training courses as of 2007, when I created my own fomr for my district. Also note that some of the older trainign courses, i.e. 1970s and older, may not have codes assigned to them. Also certain training awards, i.e. district committee key, SM Key, etc, have codes to them. Again PM me and I can get you the codes.

the plastic pocket protectors are also good to use. You can get htem in several shapes, and swap pit without any sewing.

YPT, Safe Swim Defense, Safety Afloat, BSA Lifeguard and a few other I can't remember do have expiration dates on them. That way skills and knowledge can be retested, and updated info can be interjected.

First off have you, or anyone in the pack gone through BALOO and Hazardous Weather Training yet? HW is online, but BALOO is a day long course. Also have you looked in the How-To book? there are tons of games and crafts in there. As for conservation projects, sorry I cannot help you as I am not as familiar with CS level projects yet. What about meals, additional activities, and a campfire program?

I don't know why I bother.