gwd-scouter

Printman, you posted: I was hesitant in getting involved with scouting in the first place due to the fact that anytime you get a bunch of people together. Theres always going to be butting of heads. I don't mean to throw negativity on your situation, but it seems you had a negative attitude going in. With that in mind, it can certainly make the problems you are encountering seem worse. That said, since you are the Tiger DL, focus all your attention on the Den, the boys, and their parents. Your Pack may have some fighting among the Committee Members, but it shouldn't have such an impact on what you do with your Den. Your Den can and should be planning activities that don't rely on any Pack planning. You don't mention what type of activities you are keeping your boys away from. Campouts? Pack meetings? What exactly is it that the Committee members are butting heads over? I surely hope you don't let a few adults behaving badly tarnish your image of Scouting. Any youth organization you join will likely have such adults. Heck, that is also true for work, school, church, etc. But it has been my experience that the vast majority of Scouters and parents are there to ensure the boys have a good time, learn, and have a positive experience in Scouting. This forum is a great place to vent your frustrations. We can all relate to situations such as yours. Now, having vented, take a deep breath and focus on having fun with your Tigers. Edited to add: Oops, I forgot to say, Welcome to the Forum.(This message has been edited by gwd-scouter)

If the Webs II Den doesn't want to combine for entire meetings, how about suggesting that they join you in a game at the end of the meetings? Their Den vs. yours. One week your den could be responsible for coming up with the game, they plan the next. We used to play a game that worked out well with a small number of boys. Using a ping pong ball, set your boys evenly around a round table. The boys sit resting their chins on the table. Then the object is to blow the ping pong ball around trying to keep it in the middle. If you use a rectangular table, you can set up goals on both ends and the boys, in teams, try to score goals. Getting a Den Chief to help out is a great idea.

Calico - where did you find the information on Obama's house deal? Why have I never heard any of that on the news? The right-leaning news people keep asking why investigations into Obama's relationship with Rezko haven't happened. The left-leaning folks don't say anything at all.

First I must admit that I have already chosen my candidate and I don't think anything could change my mind about that decision. But, because I am a politics junkie, I watched the debate the other night and plan to watch the debates to follow. One thing struck me while watching the first Presidential debate. While Obama at times spoke directly to McCain, McCain never once looked at Obama. I don't remember him even saying Obama's name. Obama on the other hand has received criticism for saying several times that he agreed with McCain or that McCain made a good point. It seems to me that for all McCain's statements about working across the aisle, his condescending demeanor towards Obama sure didn't demonstrate an ability to work with those with whom he disagrees (or in this case with someone he clearly dislikes). Obama, by admitting that McCain was right at times, showed an ability to see that an opponent's viewpoint may have merit.

The other night I helped with a Cub Scout roundup. The Pack involved has struggled for years to keep Scouts. The night of the recruiting, I think they signed up over 30 new Cubs. This Pack is also the only one in its area of town. Talking with one of the adult leaders (LCScouter - you out there?) it seems that every year they sign up new Cubs and parents and then never see them again. I post this in the hopes that you folks could offer some suggestions on how the Pack leaders can work to keep all those new Cubs that just signed up.

Another tidbit of American History - not so long ago. You may have heard on the news that there is a gas shortage in the Southeast. There is indeed. "No Gas" signs posted at stations, others with long gas lines. Reports are that this is because of refinery shut downs after hurricane Ike. So folks line up, fill up, and the station runs out in a couple of hours. Can anyone say rationing? Deja vu.

GoldWinger quotes "People can change their minds. There are ways to do that while retaining your integrity." and then writes: Maybe for you but not for me. I find this statement mystifying. Are you really saying that once you make a decision, nothing could persuade you to change your mind? You find those that change their minds, perhaps because they've received some clarifying information, to have questionable integrity?

scoutstuff.org also has the compass game cards kits for $5.99. Go to the website and type compass in the search and it will take you to the page.

What Calico said.

Re the Sarah Palin Interview: depending on which side of the fence you prefer, this exchange either made you cringe or made you proud: Sarah Palins foreign policy chat with Katie Couric: COURIC: Youve cited Alaskas proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that? PALIN: That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land boundary that we have with Canada. It its funny that a comment like that was kind of made to cari I dont know, you know? Reporters COURIC: Mock? PALIN: Yeah, mocked, I guess thats the word, yeah. COURIC: Explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials. PALIN: Well, it certainly does because our our next door neighbors are foreign countries. Theyre in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia COURIC: Have you ever been involved with any negotiations, for example, with the Russians? PALIN: We have trade missions back and forth. We we do its very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where where do they go? Its Alaska. Its just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to to our state.

Kahits, congrats on getting such a large group of Webelos to join your Troop. I know from reading your posts that you've struggled with recruiting and reinvigorating your Troop. I have certainly been able to relate to your struggles. We are also facing a sudden influx of Webelos after years of only recruiting one or two new boys a year. Here is what our guys have in mind. It may work for you too. Currently we have 8 Scouts, ranging in age from 11-16 and rank from Tenderfoot to Life. We already have five Webelos signed up to join our Troop in the next couple of months. We also have good signs that another 5-7 will be joining us in the Spring. Our guys have actually been operating as two very small patrols, mostly for competitions and such, but even on campouts they like the ease of cooking for only two or three guys rather than for eight. So, their plan is to accept the first group of Webelos into one of the patrols and then the next group into the second patrol. Each patrol already has an experienced Patrol Leader. In addition to the Patrol Leader, another Scout in each Patrol will be selected to be Troop Guide for the new Scouts joining. In your case, you could do essentially the same thing. Take your four active Scouts and assign two to each of two patrols and fill in the ranks with an even amount of the new Scouts you get. Your four current Scouts would be the PL and APL for the patrols. Since your existing Scouts are somewhat inexperienced themselves, you will probably have to have an ASM linked to each patrol to help them learn along the way, but by next year these Scouts will have a very clear idea of what to do and you will be in a great position to accept another crop of new Scouts. Good luck to you.

Depending on which news channel, and in particular which news program, you watched yesterday the blowup was predicated by McCain and his political posturing. Or, the blowup was predicated by McCain charging in to save the day with his outstanding leadership and Country first sensibilities. Meanwhile, again depending on whom you listened to, Obama is clueless and proceeding ahead in his campaign with no regard for the American people. Or, Obama is proceeding ahead in his campaign and the debate tonight because folks in Washington are handling the situation and political posturing shouldn't play a part. Of course there's always the point that the President should be able to handle more than one thing at a time.

Here's a link that will let you generate random cards you can print out. http://www.scoutorama.com/orienteer_game/

So let's see. From what I hear the main reason for this economic crisis is the housing problem we've had brewing, especially in the last year. So we have $700 billion now that we can throw at the problem, but we didn't have $700 billion last year which could have been used to perhaps alleviate the problem? Admittedly I'm not an economist...

More Webelos coming! Have been contacted by the Den Leader of a Webelos Den in another Pack. We have reached out to this Pack too for several years, but their Webelos Dens have not been very strong in the past. This year they have seven boys getting ready to cross over. They are coming to our planning meeting for an upcoming campout and are going to camp with us in a couple of weeks (along with the other Webelos Den I mentioned above). After that, I got a call from a Den Leader from yet a third Webelos Den in another different Pack who wants to bring his boys (about 10) to visit our Troop. Said he heard great things about us and wants to check it out. Our heads are spinning. Kudos to the boys in our Troop that asked the other night just exactly what we would do if we suddenly tripled the size of our troop. Comments from our boys such as: How many patrols will we make? We should probably appoint patrol leaders and troop guides to help out all those new Scouts. We will have to check our equipment and make sure we have what we'll need for such a large troop. One interesting viewpoint was - so many new Scouts will mess up the great thing we have going now. We all get along and work so well together. Kahits mentions in another thread about being a small troop and finally getting some good recruiting going. Many of you folks are used to receiving a large number of cross over Scouts. Having had such a small troop for so long, gaining a large group of Webelos could be both a blessing and a curse for our Troop, but we will make it work.

Og God Og.

You're right NJCubScouter, it is in Scouting Magazine not Boy's Life. My mistake.

Hmmm, no llama ads but there is one for diet pills.

We are having a recruiting night for our Troop at one of our town's middle schools. Pitch was made to them during assembly yesterday. In the past, we've had very poor showing for signup night. Last year only one boy showed up. Hoping for more this year. We have prepared our Troop's flyer with contact information, pictures, and the calendar for the upcoming year. Also prepared a slide show of our guys in action over the past year. Sure hope we can get a few guys tonight.

Back to ASMs original question. While some may feel that Boy's Life is not the place to promote the book or others like it, I see no problem with it. The article was about getting boys to read. I know from my own two boys, one has been a voracious reader all his life - he will reading just about anything. The younger had to be forced to read his assigned books for school. But, he couldn't put down anything with a fantasy type story: Harry Potter, Narnia, Eragon, Lord of the Rings, and now the Compass stories. Older son likes them too. Both sons, I'm happy to say, still have their moral compasses in tact. So what would you have the editors of Boy's Life do? Start printing a list of banned books?

Yes, we've had a Den Chief working there. Will get another this year.

Older son heard what perhaps is just a rumor. National is going to change all the OA Lodge names to something generic along the lines of Council name OA plus a new number. For instance, our Lodge is Atta Kulla Kulla 185. National would change it to Blue Ridge Council OA Lodge 155. Anyone else heard of this happening?

You are right, of course. I've been too optimistic in the past when Webelos parents have said their sons were going to join our troop only to find out they went somewhere else. This den has camped with us twice and will camp with us again next month. Two of the Webelos have completed their requirements for AOL. Their den leader wants them to cross over soon and join our Troop. Then the other three, along with the den leader, will follow in the early Spring. We will continue to reach out out and help the Cub Scout Packs/Dens in our area. Not just because it could help to grow our Troop, but because it's the right thing to do.

Hi all. For those of you that have followed my postings you know the trouble we've had recruiting to our small troop. No pack associated with our CO. Outreach to other Webelos Dens but still they go elsewhere. Still, we keep trying. We are known by many as a great Troop, doing the boy-led thing, but allegiances are hard to break. Last night our guys hosted a Webelos Den and parents for a visit. We have our District's fall camporee coming up, which will involve scout skills competitions, and the PLC made plans to cover basic skills for the next several weeks. Last night's meeting was first aid scenarios. They planned it themselves and carried it out beautifully. Webelos Scouts had a great time and said they can't wait until they cross over. Our adult leaders met with the parents and explained things about our Troop - especially the boy-led part which they were observing. All are eager to become a part of our Troop. Yippee!

We don't. I've actually never heard of doing that. Perhaps something I missed in the SM handbook? Anyway, I do take the opportunity to do SM conferences with the guys at times not necessarily for advancement. If I see a guy having a problem, maybe has been absent a lot, when a scout seems frustrated and needs encouragement, needs some guidance in his POR, or after seeing a scout work hard at something and give him an "atta boy"...stuff like that. What is it that a non-advancement BOR would do that would be better or more helpful than occasional SM conferences?