gcan

ok, so here's what we've come up with.. tell me if any of thise sounds like a bad idea to you guys... -curtain rod with fancy finnials to hold on to. -we found a Blue cotton Twill for the banner, with fishing wieghts/ drapery weights sewn into the bottom. -yellow lettering (painted on? silk-screened? iron-ons? or possibly embroidered??) -yellow 'trim' hot glued/ sewn on -event patches on the back, so they don't overwhelm the front how about suggestions on size? I'd like everyone to be able to hold it, and our Tigers aren't the tallest 6yo's in the world. What sizes are yours?

I think the trail idea would certainly let you off the hook with anyone that gets upset with you 'double dipping'. Honestly, that is a long, involved project, and will require way more work than two 'pick up trash' outings. (not to knock that project, we do several a year, but building a trail is certainly a much larger undertaking!) I don't think it would be too hard at all- even the Tigers could help with raking, or placing markers. I'm sure you've already figured that most of the work will be done by parents, but if your parents are Ok with that then I say go ahead! Although I would make it a pack thing- sounds like you will need lots of extra hands for something of that scope. And as an addeed bonus, you can 'adopt' your own trail and have the pack maintain it! Not only do you garner more service hours, but kids really seem to get into the idea of having "thier" trail. Experience has shown me that when kids feel some ownership in something like that, they will protect it, nurture it, and take you out there way more often then you really wanted to go just to make sure it's being used properly!

ok, so boys actually do wear clean clothes at camp? I was under the impression that no matter how much I sent, he's gonna come home with maaaybe two outfits actually used. Would I have better luck teaching the whole troup to do laundry, or just packing 7 days worth of stuff and hoping for the best?

ok... curtain rod with fancy finnials for the boys to hold. Add a pocket for a dowel in the bottom to keep it from flapping. We have sewers that can 'make' the banner. And I really like the idea of adding patches from different events we attend- do you add them on the back so they don't clutter up the front? So what are all of yours made out of? Plastic- we can hose down, but can we sew it, or what would we need to keep it together/ keep the pack lettering on, glue gun, cauk, any ideas? canvas- we can wash it, we can stencil the lettering on. Felt/ fabric- we can sew on it, but how durable would it be?

thank you for all the ideas! I had no idea it was something we could actually make, lol. hm... that certainly sounds like a cheaper option, although I will also take the suggestion to check out local sign shops. you guys are great, lol!

We want to give the pack a pack banner as our bridging out present when we cross over next spring. You know- the ones a lot of packs, and marching bands, and fire depts., ect have leading thier group at a parade, just in front of the American flag. But I have NO idea where to start looking, how much they would even cost, ect. Can anyone point me in the right direction, with maybe a website, or even ballpark prices?

Prayers for all involved. My heart goes out to all of them. We camped with thier Webelo Den last weekend and spoke to them about it... apparently it amounts to a couple of kids, one who was 18, playing with fire. The 'real' adults were asleep. It was a dumb, senseless accident from invincible teenagers taking stupid risks. I just thank God accidents like this don't happen more often, and if anything scouts and leaders alike will have learned something from this poor kids' death.

I think it's important to realize that not everyone out there is that 'into' scouts. Some kids really love baseball, some really love drama camp. It's not our place to tell them that they need to chose between Scouting and the thing they REALLY love, even if scouts is a close second. I'm not sure I agree with Basementdwellers' "send a message, don't accomedate" theory- we will loose the 'on the fence' kids if we force them to chose. for some families, scouting is a fun way to spend some time, but other things are more important. So be it! Accommedate when possible, encourage them to be more active, but accept the fact that some kids will chose a soccer tourney over a campout. Some kids will chose a den trip over a baseball game. They will spend thier time doing what they enjoy. If it doesn't happen to be scouting, well then at least we helped to 'round em out' a little.

thanks for the FYI! I will make doubly sure we don't talk about "earning this" and "you need to get that". Most of the time the boys have no idea, we just use compasses and a camp map while we hike, sportsmanship while they are lining up for a game, art projects and drama during 'den time', ect. My own kid can't learn when you sit him down and lecture him, so I certainly can't do that with other people's children! I think we figured it out, though. Our main concerns were Aquanaut and the Outdoor badges (which our boys only need to complete one or two things). We spoke to both the head lifeguard and the boy scout in charge of the Nature/hiking/woodsy section, and I feel pretty confident that they will be able to work on what we 'need'. It just seems like such a shame to let perfectly good teaching opportunities go to waste because noone thought to cover one or two things! While the kids are splashing around in the pool, those that WANT to work on aquanaut will have the opportunity to do so- and apparently jumping in with a PFD, learning rescue techniques, and rowing the rowboat are a big deal to these boys- our kids all clamored for thier turn, and the lifeguards elected to do it with every Webelos den because the kids had such a blast doing it. Earning badges doesn't have to be work! The kids have a blast when we have a program, and usually don't even notice they learned something until we revisit it later that day.

well, you can't please 'em all! I'd personally give her a loooong list of some of the jobs that will need doing next year, and see how quick she is to reiterate! I agree- if the kids are dirty and tired and grinning ear to ear, then it was a good day!

wow, basementdweller, our kids aren't allowed on the range without being able to explain the rules on thier own. fyi, the requirement states "Explain the rules for Safe BB gun shooting" not 'recite from memory'. Remember, kids aren't good at memorizing (unless it's pokemon, lol), but they can certainly retain information when they are required to give it some thought. Maybe you could research a new range master? sounds like he isn't real concerned with safety if he's letting kids shoot before they know the rules. Nissan, thank you for the suggestions! I'm always open to other leaders' requests and suggestions, but I was beginning to feel like flexibility isn't a real common trait. I honestly don't care what we work on all week, as long as the boys want to do it! Our 'lesson plans' could go right out the window if the kids aren't interested in doing the stuff, or if they mostly already have that bL/pin. Hm... I wonder if we could ask the parents of kids not in our regular den to let us take the kids' books home???

We do floats 2x a year- for the town fair day and for Christmas. Our rules- if you stand up, we stop and you get off. If you stick any appendages out thru the side rails, same deal. kneeling is ok, waving is good, singing is even better. (imo, keep 'em singing, it's harder for them to misbehave!) we've done lots of different themes- "fishing for scouts" was a favorite, but for Christmas the running 'theme' seems to be the more lights and tinsil and flashy-ness the better. Little boys love shiny, obnoxiosly colored things, lol. We put the generator in the p/u truck that tows us- they get way to hot and noisy to leave anywhere near the kids. Duct tape and a staple gun will hang anything you need. and have fun!

We started doing this lst year with Webelos 1's... I must say that going from a very disorganized boys-running-wild den to our den with one boy "in charge" (lmaooo, don't yell at me, I just couldn't think of another way to say it!) was a huge difference. Our Denner (we only have 8 boys, so no assistant denner) is responsible for: -checking attendance and if dues are owed -leading the flag salute/promise/motto -handing out whatever needs to be handed out -and most importantly we expect HIM to be the one to bring the other boys back on task when they loose focus. In practice, we 'remind' him that the kids seem to be getting off track, and have him make the first "ok, guys, lets get this done/ concentrate/ stop doing x,y,z", then we do a more specific redirection if needed.

now, the form says the picture doesn't have to be of them CATCHING, just of the kid fishing. But then it has a spot for "fish caught". Will the kid who doesn't catch anything be aligible for the patch?

It's any juice pouch, just some are worth more than others. I figured it's stuff that gets chucked anyway- teaches the boys that you never know what you can recycle! fyi... I saw the tote bags they make out of juice pouches both in Target for like $10 and in a tourist shop in San Francisco for $25!!

I dunno, I agree with Scoutnut. why pay for something that, with minimal work on your part, you can get for free? I honestly did up my own spreadsheets, and can easily print out the requirements for each Bl/pin/badge whenever we plan to work on them. Seems easy enough to me, I wouldn't pay for something that might save me an extra 10 mintues. But, if it works for you, then congrats on devising a program that is good enough to market! I hope you do find buyers, and that your boys get thier new Pinewood Derby track.

Our pack recently got into this... http://www.terracycle.net/ You can send in recyclables to this company, and they make things out of them AND send your pack a check! You can send them Capri-sun type pouches- something that never gets recycled. They sent me postage paid bags to send the stuff back in, so the only thing it 'costs' is storage space.

wow, your DS sure came a long way! I'm glad he is doing so well after that scariness in the beginning. FYI, though... we volunteer at the RMH outside of scouts. the reason we haven't gotten the cub scouts involved is because our RMH tries to limit the number of kids that come with the adults! for anyone looking for ideas, we also do 'work' at the library, are washing fire trucks, and basically helping people that help everyone else! The kids seem to like that best, and often come up with some ideas I never thought of (like spending a whole meeting writing TY cards to the police department, the fire department, the librarian, and anyone thier little hearts could think of). Not 'good turn hours', but IMO they got the point we were trying to teach!

ccjj, you rock! thank you!

Basement dweller, why do you think they can't earn both bb and archery? I don't know how your camps are run, but our kids do both every day for 5 days (as well as fishing, swimming, boating every day). I personally don't care how much bling these kids have, but the boys do. When 6 out of 8 kids have stuff that the other two don't believe me the 2 notice. especially if it's something they WANT to do, or can, but weren't offered. Nothing sours a kid on scouting faster than feeling 'left out', and believe me they ahve thier own very narrow versions of "what's fair". We will get the exact same sheet the week before, so hopefully most of the stuff will be on there; we'll know what isn't, at least. And hopefully it'll be easy stuff that we can work on outside of camp... but we can't do bb's, or archery, or boating on our own. And if we don't specifically ASK to work on aquanaut, the teenager lifeguards won't bother... and we don't have access to a deep enough pool to do it otherwize. Typically the den is run the way the leader in charge wants to run it, which means depending on your leader you could do absolutly nothing or knock out half the belt loops. We try to 'tweak' the list for the kids in the den (the camp den, not our 'real' den)... if they all have soccer BL's, we do flag football instead. If they all have the fishing BL, we work on the pin. Anyways, thanks for the suggestions! We go this coming week, I will try to find out who the leader will be for the week in question. (we aren't sending anyone, although one of the dads will be able to go 2x) But you all answered my main question- how to approach this tactfully and avoid pissing anyone off, lol!

thanks for the feedback! I just wasn't sure if that coounted towards those house, you know? Honestly, the boys do all this stuff anyway, just as part of being a scout and 'giving back'. There is no reward-per-project for each and everything they do (although they all insist on doing elderly residents' yard work way more than we need to because they get rewarded with cookies and brownies, lol). We don't tell them "ok, guys, you just earned X hours", but they do get the rocker bar at the end of the year for "all the good things you've done this year", and they got a kick out of being honored at council with a certificate with 'real gold on it and everything', lol. They are proud of the fact that they did all those hours, and like to tell people about all the service projects they do. Why not give them something else to be proud of- "we did X hours all last year and helped x different people". I don't want to take that away from them- anything that inspires them to be helpful is a positive in my book!

We would really like them to work on the things that we need them to work on (they joined late and have some catch-up to do, as well as need x pin to finish of y badge). But they weren't able to go to camp the same week as the rest of the kids and 2 leaders. Would it be ok if we came on the first day of thier camp and asked the leader to try to cover some of this stuff? I can easily give them a page of things we want worked on, but I can totally see how that would be a very obnoxious move, lol. Each den gets a spreadsheet of things to work on during the week, but does have plenty of leeway to skip and/or add to that list. We plan to use our down-time to work on maps for Traveller, ID-ing rocks and trees and plants, ect. for Naturalist and Geologist, but this isn't stuff 'n the list'. It's not hard stuff to do, you just have to remember to do it while you are hiking from archery to the waterfront. I'd like to ask the leader to maybe try to make sure the kids get to some of this (like actually earning aquanaut, not just splashing around during water sessions), but I really don't want to offend a volunteer, much less add to thier work. Is there ANY way I could approach this? We plan on talking to the lifeguards and the BB range super., but with 100 boys per session I can definatly understand if they aren't able to remember to do it.

One of our boys did not recieve his patch from last year. Oddly enough, the target proof was sent out in an envelope with two others and the other 2 boys got thiers. I sent an email to the contact addy on the website, but heard nothing back (that was several weeks ago). Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do now? It's not really a huge deal to this kid, but it would be nice to line it up with the rest of his patches without skipping a year. our boys are pretty gung-ho about comparing patches, discussing all the haaaaard work we made them do, ect, and he inevitably asks about it when the other kids question him about whether he "really earned it" or not.

I'm trying to figure out if some of our activities can be included. The obvious ones (litter clean up, needy collections, tending an elderly womans' yard, ect) have been recorded. But what about our Council Conservation Project? We 'beautified' a section of scout camp property that had become a dumping ground for passing cars. BUT it went toward our council conservation award- however, nowhere on teh Good Turn website does it mention that projects must be solely for the purpose of Good Turn hours (which, IMO, defeats the purpose of convincing people to do a good turn as part of thier daily life anyway). And it wasn't on public property, so techincally wasn't for the good of everyone, just scouts. but it wasn't scout trash, lol. and what about hosting a Christmas party at the retirement community? We entertain the residents, but don't really do a 'service'- do we? We counted our clean up of the Veterans memorial, but what about participating in the Memorial Day services? The boys did 4 services, honoring the fallen at each one. They raised the flag, led the salute, ect, but didn't techincally 'help' anyone. But it does include "Place American flags on grave sites for Memorial Day", which I assume to mean seperatly from the actual service. any ideas?

excellent point, Neil. We actually earn about 1/2 our badges while working with the boy scouts. A local troup holds a "Webelos Pin College" every year, and the boys earn up to 4 pins apiece each weekend they go. We also work on badges at campouts and troup visits. We have several merit badge counselors that help us out with the tougher ones as well (Geologist, Scientist, ect). Every pack meeting and outing ties in to something (we went to a coast guard base, we worked on Traveller, slept at a science musuem, and gave the staff a list of stuff we wanted to work on). I think I was misunderstood, sorry if I wasn't clear- but we don't churn out 20-ers. We have a small den (6 Webelos2, 2 webelos 1), two leaders, and a few parents that help out. We are able to earn so many badges because we can take 2-3 boys aside and work with them when they need it. We offer (and the more dedicated boys earn) more than the requirements for each badge- 7 electives instead of 5, ect. In fact, this year at camp some of the boys will re-earn several badges- just because you can never go over readyman, fitness, citizen, ect enough. All but one of our boys is gung-ho about scouting and looks forward both to meetings and becoming a boy scout. I personally feel we have done an above average job of making it fun and exciting. Boy #8 only joined because his parents insisted- he won't get all the badges, he won't get the summertime pack award, ect. I guess my original point was that yes, it is totally possible to earn all 20 badges, as well as more than the required belt loops and pins. But you need dedicated leaders, helpful parents, and enthusiastic boys. Dragging them along and throwing badges at them every month isn't going to hold thier interest at all! Making earning badges fun AND educational will.