lynncc

Here in East Texas they broke the news to us at the council committee meeting (CCC) in Feburary. we have been discussing the regs in our council day camp meetings. We are ALL having to redo our YPT with the new on-line YPT course. They have redone the on-line course. It has the required 25 questions and you can print out your successful completion card at the end. We are looking at borrowing one of those cellular wireless cards for out laptop so that any last minute volunteers can do the YPT. lynn in texas

OOPs my mistake. Good thing I tell my son if any snake is in the wild just leave it alone. Now was that red on black. geen on red what was that again. does it have vertical slits in their eyes (I think that means they are poisonous in the US) do they have little pits on their heads. Is the head triangle shaped....just leave it alone. If you are that close to a snake to figure all that out then you are to close. I used to think the only good snake was a dead one. I have changed my mind about that. They eat rodents and other things eat them. Everyone needs to eat. I still do not want to see them in the wild. They scare me. I don't know why I am so afraid of being bitten. But oh well. I'll stick with my boa who is safely tucked away in his cage, lounging around wait for sunday when I wiggle that thawed out mouse in front of him. Thanks for pointing out my mistake. I will be more careful next time I post. Thanks again. lynncc

Oh we are so lucky here in NE texas. We have every poisonous snake native to North America. We have your copperhead - in great abundance. The watermoccasin/cotton mouth - again in great abundance around all our creeks/ponds/lakes etc...your rarely seen but still present coral snake as well as the often killed non poisonous king snake (red on yellow - friendly fellow) most people just chop the heads off before they decide if it is red on yellow or red on black. And of course the ever popular rattle snake. Not as common as other parts of the state but still can be found. YIPPEEEE. Wanta go for a hike... lynncc

My husband and I are part of the "new" we are by no means "young" but we are new to scouting. Our son joined in January of his tiger year and is now a Bear. Each year we have done more and more. We are now in a great pack. I am co-den leader and DH is the Pack advancement person. My husband has been banned from ever going to another district banquet. Last year he ended up being Cubmaster for our little dying pack. New people are running it now. Younger and with more contacts then us. Anyway...THIS year he got to talking to the DE and the Camp director whose wife is activities chair and day camp program director.(They are wanting to retire from these positions. Well the next thing I know I am now the activities chair and day camp program director. DH said he would help me. Team work you know. Well he is going to be the camp director next year. Found that out by looking at the rooster and they had listed him as "camp director in training" Still not sure how all that happened. DH gets to talking and the next thing you know..... This weekend I am off to daycamp school. This one hour a week thing is taking more hours then my paying job. Most of the old guys are adaptable to change. We do hear the occasional...well now...that is certainly "thinking outside the box".... My friend got the campfire changed from Saturday to friday night. An Opening campfire instead of a closing campfire. A large percentage of people always left before the campfire. Of course this is a fireless campfire as we are under a burn ban. lynncc

okay anytime your family says enough is enough no more stories or pictures. You can e-mail me. I love dog/animal stories. Amy the dietician/nutrition lady at work is always showing me pictures of her animals. So cute. You write very well. Very descriptive I can just picture everything going on. so again if you need to share don't hesitate. Tonight I am taking one of our many animals to one of the other cub scout packs in town. Will be interesting to see how many remember me. I cleared the room of most of the adults last year. Had several knocked over chairs. The boys loved it. This year my little friend is bigger. A little over 3 feet and as big around as a sivel dollar....The cubmaster missed it last year and is looking forward to it this year. My friend is getting harder to hide. Last year he was under my neckerchief. Yes, Yes I own a snake. A boa constrictor. The joke at my house is that everything is in someones food chain. fish, Birds, cat, dogs and snake. The frozen mice in the freezer don't count.lol. lynncc jacksonville, TX

oh my $100. Our families grouse about anything over 40. We usually run anywhere from $35-$45 Depending on the crafts. Everything else we do is free or almost free. BB targets are pretty cheap as well as the bb's. We recycle the archery targets. We get ice for the ice chests donated. We do give t-shirts and patches to all the boys and volunteers. The forest service sends people out to do something with nature. I don't guess we have to stick with the theme but the council holds design contests for the patch and t-shirts. Thus by ordering in large quantities we get better prices. So think we always will. This year may be more expensive cause they include my day camp school in the cost of running the day camp. We also do BB's and Archery everyday. mon-fri. Friday is family day so we always have a fireless campfire program. We may never get to have a real campfire even on campouts. Major burn bans all over the area. I like the idea of woodcrafts doing dif projects for each level or doing a rotation schedule will have to get with others to see what they like. I think in the future I may try to seperate out the weebelos but not this year. Want to get my feet wet before jumping off in the deep end. great ideas all. Thanks. Keep them coming lynncc Pack 403 Jacksonville, TX

as far as breaking the youth protection rules. If you interpret youth protection as only protecting against child molesters then no he has not violated this. He has violated G2SS and put YOUTH IN DANGER. Thus by putting them in danger by not following posted no swimming dangerous current then that is definately not protecting your youth and I would not want the safety of my child in his hands. Just because he is not molesting my child does mean he is not harming him. As a stupid child once myself 10grader I was on a trip to Hawaii with my grandparents. It was Christmas day and I just had to go swimming. I went to the beach alone saw the no swimming dangerous undertow signs but thought I would just wade not swim....When they say strong currents they mean that. Very scary. I did not intend on swimming but the current knocked the feet out from under me and i went for an exhausting swim back to shore. Only a few yards but could definately feel the pull. Same thing could happen to those kids. Some may be good swimmers but just how strong is a 6 to 10 year old against the current. Others may be marginal or poor swimmers and that would put them at a greater risk. Talk with others in your area and see how to handle this. Your DE/SE needs to be aware and maybe they can have a talk with them. They are the perceived or real authority where as you are just one of the many volunteers. All tho you sound like a highly trained and want to follow the rules kinda person the CM still has that "senority" thing and nothing has happened so far, we do it all the time you are just blowing it out of porpotion kinda outlook (or so it appears on this end of the computer screen), Just my 2 cents. grateful to in a group that takes suggestions and criticism gladly. They are always striving to improve. lynncc Pack 403 Jacksonville, TX

I'm not a big camping expert but I seem to attend classes that make me camp in the cold. WLOT it was cold. Wood Badge it was cold. Winter camp it was warm during the day but nippy at night to down right cold the last night. Anyway. Your tent is a big factor. It needs to have a full coverage fly thing. this will help trap air inbetween and act as an insulator. The tarp over the top is just one more layer and is more wind resistant air flow resistant adding more insulating ability. At winter camp the veterans used those big canvas wall tents provided by the camp and put their own tent with full coverage fly thing in side it. just a thought. I want to say in BSA you are not supposed to use tent warmers but don't have my book handy so don't quote me. Might want to look that one up yourself. lynncc Pack 403 Jacksonville, TX

Or you could be sneaky. The weebelos get to camp on there own with out the rest of the pack. Plan a really cool trip for them and when they get back and talk about what fun it was at the "new" campground the other kids will be wanting to go...heheheheeee.lol just a thought. lynncc Pack 403 Jacksonville, TX

if you want to do a C.O.P.E course with the older ones with first year campers and the usually merit badge stuff they you might try East Texas Area Council. Camp Pirtle is in North East Texas between Longview and Tyler. They also offer small boat sailing on lake Murvall and they have a climbing tower to teach rock climbing and rapelling. Its east texas we have no real mountains...lol. Nice pretty wooded camp. lynncc

Okay my main job in scouting is as a cub leader. But I am having so much fun with it that this year I volunteered for boy scout winter camp. Of course this year we called it last chance for summer camp. Unseasonably warm for this time of year. Except the last night (most of the boys had left after friday nights campfire) it froze. I wondered all night why my hind end was cold all night...found out the next day... Our summer camp has a great C.O.P.E. course and climbing tower. We have the nice airconditioned dining hall. it has huge windows that open when the weather permits otherwise its the AC. East Texas can get quite warm. The hot is okay but combined witht he humidity it is nice to excape into AC for a little reprieve. Our council uses our camp for all sorts of stuff. Woodbadge, the OA lodge is there, cubscout mom-n-me, dad-n-lad, you can reserve a spot to camp there anytime it is not in use. We do camp school there, train the trainers classes and all sorts of other things there. They always have some kind of unit cook off contest. Winter camp has the full meal cook-off and summer camp has the cobbler cook-off. You are always free to cook any and all your own meals. Of course like others have said parents want results. It is hard for Parents to judge scout spirit and the fact that they came together as a group and helped other scout groups or individual scouts but they can see those little round merit badge patches. They often like has been stated equate that with success. The more money you have the more badges you have the more successful you are. What a shame. but that is our society. We can only hope as leaders to teach our younger ones that this is not success, being a good citizen/scout is. Accomplishments/money is not the be all end all. How you conduct yourself in all situations is. most of our troops do view summer camp as an opportunity to work on merit badges. They also plan a different camping experience that is pure fun. Week long hiking in Colorado, week long canoe trip or some other 7-10 day camping thing.

oh oh hey I'm a fox I used to be a fox and a good 'ole fox too. But now I'm finished Foxing, I don't know what to do. I'm growing old and feeble and I can Fox no more So I am going to work my ticket if I can Back to Gilwell, happy land; I'm going to work my ticket if I can. I am almost thru with my ticket. I have 2 open tickets to go. Both in the works. SHould be finished by the end of March. YEah. My husband is going this year. I wonder if he will be in my food chain...lol lynncc Laid back foxes...Laid back.......WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY Back trust me it was a great den yell. You had to be there. sr 677

My husband has volunteered us(read ME) to be the new district activities chair. I am responsible for the program at cub day camp. My son enjoyed the first year. The next year he said it was boring the same old stuff so I want it to be different this year. Have no idea what other day camps do. We seem to do every year BB's Archery some kind of water activity. the pool has been broken the last 2 years Nature crafts games- which was hotter then....out on the basketball court in full sun doing basketball, four square, marbles etc...One day we did do space shuttle races and on friday we did a pinewood derby race. and another class cant remember what it was the first year but last year it was health, safety and disability awareness. Now I found it interesting. One man who is an eagle scout came and showed us his robotic leg. Pretty cool. He has diff legs for dif activities. One cub scouts mom came with her seeing eye dog. We had talks on what to do in an emergency etc...did meet some requirements but not what I am looking for at camp. I'm thinking fun active things. We are moving to a new location this year. STill waiting to hear if they will be opening their pool for us. There pool was closed last year for repairs. I am looking for what others do at day camp and any suggestions would be appreciated. I am scheduled to go to camp school in Febuary so am sure I will get good ideas there. However I need to turn in ideas at the next council cub camp meeting this month. The council is using a jungle theme. lynncc multi tasking 3 rivers district of ETAC

how do other packs plan their annual budgets. Any examples out there beyond the basic, rechartering, boyslife, insurance etc...thanks

get a copy of the program helps. Lots of great ideas with monthly themes to go by.