EagleInKY

I'll second the mention of two great products. ad-aware from lavesoft will find all the spyware loaded on your PC. You'll be shocked and amazed at the number of things it finds the first time you run it. Second, the google toolbar does a nice job of stopping annoying popups while using IE. A note of warning, however, many websites use popups legitimately, and you need to watch to see if a popup was stopped. Regarding spam, there's a neat free tool called mailwasher (www.mailwasher.net) that allows you to preview, blacklist and reject e-mail. It sends a note back as if your e-mail address was invalid. Unfortunately, I've been using it for about a year and haven't seen a decline. It just provides a simple way for me to purge them before receiving them in my e-mail package. Good luck.

What's next, Scouts should not be required to wear rank badges because it points out that they haven't advanced as far as the next guy. And, those Eagle Court of Honors, they make the boys who don't make Eagle feel inadequate. Heaven forbid! (Oops, did I say "Heaven", I think I just made an atheist feel violated).

We had our district Klondike Derby last weekend. Temperature in the 20's & 30's. Rained the whole time, mixed with freezing rain and snow. We ended up calling it off early (Saturday evening) instead of Sunday morning because the weather was supposed to take a turn for the worse. Most of the troops bailed after dinner Saturday. I took 7 First Year scouts and 4 Webelos. Most of them had a great time. They were muddy and cold, but didn't seem to mind. There were two kids that were pretty miserable. But, they did not come prepared. One of them ended up wearing borrowed clothes, since he only brought cotton clothes with him. I had two boys not come. They had school-related activities (but it seemed like they were looking for any excuse). Actually, one of them did come out and help us pack up - he was planning on spending Saturday night only. To prepare, I covered winter camping twice in November and took them on an overnighter, with the temperature just dropping to around 40. We then covered winter camping a few more times leading up to the Klondike. The only thing I may have done differently would have been to have a shakedown at a troop meeting before the event. Also, I had promised the parents that if the temperature forecast dropped into the teens, we would not spend the night, but only go out for the day. The rain was not forecasted - I may have not camped if I had known how nasty that was going to be. All in all, it was a success. The boys learned, no one got hurt, and they actually won one event. (They were the smallest & youngest group of boys out there.) They're proud of that blue ribbon!

See, Bob, there I go agreeing with you again. ;-) "We know we did it wrong but everything went fine" is not the attitude to have. I know that I've made some mistakes in following policy (and will probably make more). I usually discovered the mistake well after the fact. I always make sure to tell the committee or other leaders so we know not to make the same mistake again. I could not, in good conscience, go on a trip knowing I was breaking the rules. As for the disagreement part, I think we're dealing with semantics. If the word was "chaperone" instead of "leader", we'd probably all be in agreement. IMHO, any adult that is on a campout is a "leader" (small "l"), in that they are helping lead the unit.

I wasn't trying to parse words or find loopholes, just simply reading what it says. NeiLup put in a very practical way that I (now) wish I had: "Now, let's say that at the last minute, the registered female Venturing leader cancels but an unregistered female also plans to come along as a "leader." Do you cancel the trip? Judgement is permitted here in my opinion." Sorry Bob, I often agree with you, but not this time. For example, we often have moms or dads accompany our troop's campouts. Most of these are registered committee members or ASMs, but not all of them. Additionally, I encourage that any of them that come on campouts (including those not registered) take the Youth Protection Training. If they haven't, I always review the basics with them.

As the guy in the horn repair shop says: "Beep Repaired".

We got an electronic finish line that takes human judgement completely out of the picture. I wrote a little web application to manage the races. There are several reasonably priced ones on the web, some that even tie into the timers. I just did it for the fun of it, but I would recommend buying one if you can afford it. Sandy, I now live outside of Louisville. However, I'm originally from Murray. I was a Cub Scout in Pack 53 at Carter Elementary School (which I believe is now gone) We moved away when I was 9. I still have family there, but don't get down there too often. We did come down last summer. Depending upon how long you've been around, you would possibly know some of my family. It's a great town and a great area. I'm hoping to bring my troop down to LBL some day.

While a little confusing on the surface, I believe it makes sense. Let's examine the legalese, first. The G2SS, probably one of the most legally scrutinized documents the BSA publishes, establishes the fact that a "leader" need not be a "registered leader". Therefore, adults over 21 can be "leaders" on your campouts. This is common practice in all of scouting. Many parents will come and serve as "adult leadership". The Venturing Leader Manual, along with the Scoutmaster's Manual, Cub Leader's Manual, and even the Boy Scout Handbook, all serve a specific purpose. They provide guidelines and advice to leaders on how to do their job. But, they do not supercede specific policies, such as the G2SS, which is designed to protect the Scouts, the Leaders and the BSA. The wording in these manuals will always be slightly vague, to allow for changes in the specific policy. The wording in this case "require male and female adult leaders" intentionally allows for the G2SS to expand or limit controls as the BSA deems necessary. Obviously, they felt that there was a minimum that would always be met - at least one male and one female. The G2SS could change in its next revision to specify that both have to be registered. If they did this, the Venturing Leader's Manual would still be accurate and not require revision. As for the OP, I agree that the girl's dad does not meet the requirement. That's my 2 cents.

FOG - We've tried the bank approach, but didn't get very far. Ever since all the local banks were purchased by the national ones, we've lost any ability to control/influence them. I believe we get the response "that decision is made out of Pittsburg". They only hold the out-of-state checks and the larger ones (I think over $100). And, they hold them 3 business days (our final deposit was on Wednesday (31st), so they were held Friday (2nd) and Monday (5th). The funds were available on the Tuesday. The council check, however, attempted to clear in one day. Update from Council - I spoke to the DE this morning who was in charge of popcorn this year. I did not get anywhere with him. He said it was an auditors decision and there was nothing he or I could do. He said the decision was made higher up. I asked if it would do any good to send a letter to the person "higher up" and he said it wouldn't. (I pointed out that we were one of the top 2 selling units in the council for the past 2 years). I told him that other councils did it this way and I got the response back that other councils were not run correctly. He even named names, but we won't go there. I got very frustrated with him. I really like this guy, but he cannot see the bigger picture. This is a way for the council to save money, time and energy on them and the units. I guess it's just Council politics. It frustrates me all the time. Bottom line, I told him that we were just going to put it on them from now on. We're going to bring in some 250 checks for them to deal with (counting, depositing and following up on bounces). He said that was fine.

I would be okay with grandparents, uncle, sibling (over 21) in a tent with a Cub, assuming I have the parent's signed consent. I would not be confortable with a guardian (i.e. not "Legal Guardian") sleeping in the tent with them. If the parents wanted this, I would seek guidance from the Council office beforehand. As I stated earlier, for Webelos and up, we encourage scouts sleeping in tents with scouts. Prevents the issue from arising.

From the G2SS - "When staying in tents, no youth will stay in the tent of an adult other than his or her parent or guardian. " Sounds like guardian is okay. But, I would hesitate to do so in this case. When Webelos camp with the troop, we encourage the boys to pair up. It helps get them out of the "parent trap" (overly involved moms & dads doing everything for them) and to start thinking about the patrol method.

I agree with Cubs wholeheartedly. We do everything on his list except #2. But even that sounds like a good idea. Here are a few more: 1) Don't use double-elimination. We use a round-robin approach. Every boy races the same number of times in the initial heat. We then take the top cars and run a round-robin with them. Detractors of this will say it takes too long. They are incorrect. We went to round-robin 4 years ago and race day goes much smoother and quicker. My problem with double elimination is that the poor kid comes in with a slow car. He races once and he's moved into the "loser's bracket". Then he loses again and he's done. 2) We have three special races: - Leaders race. Follows all the same restrictions. Find out which leader can build the best car. - Open Race (legal) - Open the competition to siblings, parents, friends, Boy Scouts or anyone who wants to race a legal car. Some of the Cubs even re-enter their car in this race for the fun of it. - Open Class (unrestricted) - Our only rules is that it cannot use any form of propulsion (other than gravity) and that it cannot damage the track or any other cars. There are no weight limits on the cars. The only restriction on size is that it has to stay within its lane and must fit under the finish line. The heaviest cars usually wins, so it's interesting to see the creative way people pack more weight on them. 3) Don't allow parents or cubs in the pit area. We use our Boy Scout troop to support the derby. Parent's of boys that are racing are prohibited from the race area, even if they are the Cubmaster! When I was CM and my boy raced, I had to go in the stands like every other parent. It eliminates any potential questions. Allow judgement calls to be made by non-partisan participants (our case, the Boy Scouts) and clearly announce what you decided. 4) Make it fun, keep it moving.

FS - As I said in the OP, we get as many in early as possible. But, when the deadline for payment is usually January 2nd or 3rd, it is a significant time crunch. There's this little holiday called "Christmas" and another one called "New Years Day" that gets in the way. We made deposits on Monday (Dec. 29th), Tuesday (30th) and Wednesday (31st). The check was given to the Council on Saturday (Jan 3rd). The council deposited the check on Monday, in a different bank than ours, but it tried to clear our account on Monday evening (something I didn't think was possible). The check was for a little over $10k. We had $12k in the bank, but just over $2k of it was being held until Tuesday. Waiting a week means a significant cut in our commission. I assume council keeps that part. You must be a professional ;-) Advanceon - That's my point as well. Think of the extra cost. Labor to enter the checks into their software and to print them. Paper and ink for the checks. Postage to mail the check to 100's of units. It seems like a waste of my FOS donation.

Thank you Ed. Can you tell me which council you are in? I'd love to give them examples.

We have an annual problem with our council and how they handle the popcorn financial transaction. We have to pay for our entire unit's purchase right around the first of the year. (This year it was Saturday, January 3rd). The council then cuts a check to us for the commission, which arrives a day or two later (this year, we received it in the mail on Tuesday, January 6th). The problem is that our bank always holds some of the individual payments due to them being out of state checks or having amounts totalling over $100. Thus, the money is in the account but "not available" when our check to the council check tries to clear, it bounces. The bank charges the council $20 and us $35. Fortunately, we usually get this reversed by the bank (every year but one, as I recall), but it's an all-around hassle. We've tried to solve it several ways. We now take partial payments from boys all the way up to the due date (which is an additional administrative headache). We've moved the due date up a couple of days, to encourage early payment. We just haven't had any luck. With the payment coming due so soon after Christmas, we usually don't get the bulk of the deposits in until 12/27 or 28. The bank will hold them for a few days, bumping right into the council's payment time. I've made a proposal to the council several times. That is to have the units only pay the net difference. For example, this year we had over $10,000 in sales and our commision was just short of $4000. We could have written a check for approximately $6,000 and all would have been well. The bank was only holding about $1000 in checks, and that would have been fine. Have any of you had these problems? Do all councils follow the same procedure? I'm a big fan of popcorn sales, but this taints it every year.

In the past, some of our cubs have bought the plastic stock car molding that goes on the wooden car. I'm assuming that is essentially what you are talking about. If so, the rules are all the same. The car still needs to have weight added up to the limit, length, width and clearance rules remain the same. Good luck!

Thanks SR540 - I heard at RT the other night that they are thinking about doing something similar here next year. I'm not sure how well it will work. It will probably take a while to get people used to the concept of Pow Wow being for a broader audience. The other problem is location. We usually do it at a school, and it's usually close to capacity. It will take a larger venue if it really catches on.

We do a similar thing. We often include leaders from the past 1-2 years who have moved on to the troop as part of the pack committee. While not overly active, they do help provide the connection from the pack to the troop. Sometimes, they have younger sons coming up, so it helps with continuity on that as well.

Sounds like the old Scoutmaster course that combined Scoutmaster Basic w/ Outdoor Leader skills. Now they are two seperate courses. I think the Outdoor Leader course is very good, and I encourage every adult that is going to participate in our troop outings to attend. It gives them a taste of the patrol system as well as some basic camping instruction. The Scoutmaster basic training is pretty boring, classroom based, and not very interactive. I did it to keep up with what was being offered, but don't consider it very productive. I wish the BSA would develop Webelos-to-Scout transition training. Weoffer some of it at Pow Wow and it's pretty well attended. Unfortunately, few Webelos leaders will go to Pow Wow, since their Cub days are about over. I find the boy-leadership model very difficult to convey to parents coming up from Cub Scouts. They start to pick it up as they watch the boys on campouts, but it's difficult to get them to take a hands-off approach to leadership.

If there's anything that you would think would be consistent across all of BSA, it's rechartering. But, I'm finding that not to be the case this year. Our procedures this year have changed. If a leader is changing positions, then he/she has to fill out a new adult leader application for the new position. Supposedly, this is so background checks are done on those that have been around for a while. Therefore, Tiger cub leaders that are now den leaders => new form. Den Leaders that are now Webelos Den Leaders => new form. Committee member becomes Assistant Cubmaster => new form..... It has defintely complicated/slowed down the recharter process. And, to make us look even more unorganized, consider our predicament. Our IH/COR was the pastor, who left during the year. An elder in the church was also a committee member and now serves in those roles, for both the pack and the troop. I have to ask him to fill out (1) an adult leader app for the pack IH role, (2) an adult leader app for the pack COR role, (3) an adult leader app for the troop IH role, and (4) an adult leader app for the troop COR role. Who came up with this rule??? The BSA must have hired someone away from the IRS. This may not be the case in all councils, but it's what they're making us do here.

We have a large metropolitan paper and a local county (weekly) paper. We successfully get scout news in our local paper with no problem. They'll only carry 1 or 2 of these "feel good" scout stories a week, so sometimes you get bumped a week or two until they have availability. I submit the stories via e-mail. I have to post the jpg out on the web instead of attaching it. For some reason, their e-mail strips off attachments, it's probably due to spam or virus controls.

So, this weekend we're on a campout. We're putting up the canopy and I gave some sort of instruction incorrectly. I was corrected by one of the boys. The boys all teased me for making a mistake - all which is perfectly fine. Then, one of the Webelos who were camping with us said "Yeah, John". You should have heard the boys jump on him: "That's Mr...., to us, show some respect!!!". In reality, it wasn't the using the first name, but it was the sarcasm I think that brought out the chorus of corrections. But it was funny to see how the other boys reacted.

From my experiences, this works (assuming there are candidates): First, identify some promising candidates. They should, ideally, have at least two years remaining in Cub Scouts. Look for parents of kids that have already have one come through the pack and are starting with child #2 (or 3,4,...). These folks understand the program, obviously see it's value (since they came back), and you hopefully have a relationship with them. It's likely that they may be den leaders, so you have to think about backfilling that position. Second, give them a responsibility. Possibilities include Pack Treasurer, Popcorn Chair, Scouting for Food coordinator or ACM. See how they handle responsibility and whether they have what it takes. One of the guys I had targeted to replace me proved to be unreliable. Also, get them in front of the pack. When I got this same person in front of the boys, he said some things that I didn't think were appropriate. (Nothing terrible, but I know some parent's didn't like it). Third, hopefully you have a top candidate. Set up a time to meet with them. Invite them over for coffee and cake. Whatever. Make it serious. Don't just catch them after a pack meeting and say "hey, do you want to be Cubmaster?". When you have this meeting, tell them that you've been watching them and think they are "THE BEST" candidate to take your place. Flattery gets you everywhere. And if they are truly the best candidate, you'll have a good chance at landing them. Of course, through all this, make sure your COR, CC & current CM are in-sync. Good luck.

Our biggest problem.... the scout that "has issues" with peer leadership and his parents that want us to accommodate that.

Cubs - Send me a PM, I can send you a ppt presentation and some supporting text. I don't have any plans taking me to Milwaukee anytime soon. Sounds way too cold. ;-)