frank10

How about throwing a scale under his feet and seeing if he can pull harder?

We take the top 4 cars from each den and run them to find the over all pack champ (1st, 2nd and third).

Rest easy OGE, you have served your hour.

from the Guide to Advancement:" In units with fewer than three registered committee members available to serve, it is permissible to use knowledgeable parents (not those of the candidate) or other adults (registered or not) who understand Boy Scouting's aims." Would like to have had this reflected in the training.

Also, talk to the cleaner before you pass it over to be sure he will not fold over the patches and crease them!

Camping - I'm there Pack meeting - I'm there. Parade - yep, there too. Den meeting? only when invited.

BSA24: you were saying??? http://www.onmyhonor.com/troop/welch.jpg

We can always count on Ship/shore/lighthouse. One end of the room is the shore, the other is the lighthouse and the center line is the ship. you call out any of the three and the scouts run. If you yell out SURF, they drop to their bellies where ever they are. At the scout level the last to do as called is out. at cub level they don't care to win just to play for as long as you let them so no one is out. Always love pointing to shore and yelling lighthouse. Twice as much fun in the water.

I love how they hired a group of child development experts to study if cubs could learn it.... Why didn't they just ask a few cubs and their den leader? Would have been faster, right and free.

It's not the why or the if that bother me, it's the when! If we're going to do it, do it today!

My W II's cost the pack more than any other group in awards/pizza... and We still ave to pay a full year reg and BL on them. The local troops discount bases on the membership fee already being paid on them.

Most camps here (CT) have more fire wood laying on the ground than you can shake a stick at.

Thanks, My den leaders are downloading them to their phones now...

He was a hero to me, but till the day she died my grandmother never forgave him for messing up the weather with his rocket. Every hurricane and blizzard was blamed squarely on him and the rest of the astronauts. Along with anytime her TV wouldn't tune in just right. Maybe now that they are both gone he can explain it to her himself.

smoothmom: Please tel me you are somewhere near Waterbury CT. My daughter's unit is a Snack and a craft unit. One field trip/party each year (candy factory party this year). Other thna that, they have never left the room they meet in. Worst part is they meet at the YMCA right up stairs from the pool... Maybe? maybe? nope. (men need not apply).

Well, that's an hour of my life I'll never get back! and I say hour because we left before it was over. Think of a really bad 70's Woody Allen movie and make it even more so. Kinda like slapstick with out the funny and drama with out the plot. It was the second movie at a drive-in double feature. Kids wanted to see Para Norman which was worth the drive and the $$ but we just couldn't stomach Moonrise Kingdom.

Keep this kinf of thing going and next thing you know the scouts woll be going out and earning badges left and having fun, then where would we be? And what about all the non scouts wanting to join up?? this is just crazy talk! Must resist... Oh I give in... can I have one too?

The power of the Charter Org is absolute over the troop. the troop only exist as extension of the CO and can be dissolved with the stroke of their pen. Or they may elect to keep the troop alive but to dismiss any or all leaders on a moments notice with or with out reason. (did I leave anything out?) Oh yes, while they may dismiss a leader from their troop they have no farther power over that leader and can not stop his continued actives with the BSA.

Basementdweller - As long as your only curious you can join.

Step 1: never again call your unit a small troop, it is a large troop with several openings. I know it sounds silly, but if you believe it it is true. Plan trips a large trip would plan, hold activities a large troop would hold. Deliver the full program even if only 2 scouts sign up. Plan 10 weekend trips and a week at summer camp. Do this and you will be a large troop with a waiting list. If you cancel a weekender due to lack of boys and skip the winter cabin because you can't fill it you will be a small troop. Step 2: start traditions now! Ashes from the first camp fire. A song before leaving for camp. Wednesday night cookies at camp. A log book of highlights of each outing... what ever, but get your first so you can do it again. only take doing something twice to make it a tradition. Gives the boys something to own. Step 3: Ask for help. No, don't stand in the front of the room asking for some one to do something, ask each person face to face to help with one thing. (No one would stand up in a singles bar and ask who will go out with me and expect good results, why do they think asking a room full of parents for help would do any better?) Step 4: keep all list to 3 or fewer items.

My scouts look forward to the Venture program, they heard they will be allowed to use wagons and post hole diggers.

SP: Tell the truth, I can't even get in deep enough to find out what a GSUSA unit is and how it should be run or even what their leaders book is called so I can read up on them. I must be doing the secret handshake wrong. Off the original topic... we may have found a more receptive troop for my daughter. On the original topic... Would opening the program to girls bring this problem to our door? Would we be accused of not wanting to be inclusive if we insisted on camping and outings?

Nike: "If you think your daughter's Girl Scouts troop sucks, then get in there and HELP!" If only it were so easy. I book all the events for the pack, have offered to book the same events on different days for them, "no thanks". We own three amusement park size bounce houses. just show my workers where to set them up, where to plug them in and tell them when to come back to pack them up and haul away... "No thanks" Lend you the boyscout tents and equipment, "No thanks" Lead a song? Show a movie? Dutch oven cooking? "No thanks","No thanks","No thanks". Their not very active, but they sure are polite.

Lets be honest with ourselves, the reason we want to include our daughters in the program is because most GSUSA units suck. But here's the rub, how do we include the girls but keep the suck out of our program? Won't their leaders just come over with them? How do we keep the program aggressive and avoid adopting the snack and a craft attitude that is pervasive in the GS programs? Face it, the reason cubs works is because we want it to work and make it work. No one would come shut your unit down if you held your meetings indoors and never went on a single trip... No one except the boys and their families making a line for the door like some one pulled the fire alarm.

The ugly fat ones just make me look better!