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.

The column that is for venturers also says for "older scouts". So when you are old enough to be a venturer then you are old enough to go on horse treks. lynn

You have received some great advice. In one of your last posts you said he would be cut from the trek if he did not attend the PT. That is only fair. If you do not meet the preestablished criteria you do not go. period. Don't jump on me I am a cubscouter and do not know all of the boy scouts law. Will be working on it but not there yet...anyway in my humble opinion one of our jobs is to teach these youngster to be responsible adults to make the right choices etc....If you make exceptions for some people (kids or parents) then what are you teaching the kids. If you contribute lots of time and money to the troop then we will overlook certain things. As you said if he were anyone else he would have already been cut. Someone else said look at the longrange effects on the troop. I say look at the long range effects on the kids. Again if you let people because of "who they are" do things they should not be doing you are not doing a service to them or the others. Or then again if you are going for the life is unfair learn it now....because as I sit here and type I am thinking of my real life job where they drill into us treat everyone the same.....until its a friend of the CEO or some "VIP" from a big corporation and then by all means treat them better.....gag me now...anyway...I don't think that should apply to scouts. Especially when it involves the safety of a trip (and bad attitudes are infectious and can ultimately effect the safety of the trip). Don't let who they are effect your judgement. Or that it would be a great experience you don't want him to miss. He won't miss it if it turns out bad...... On a side note. If he started out being a good scout no discipline problems and now he is having problems that is a red flag in itself and his parents should be trying to find out why. Does he not want to do scouting like someone else said. Is school going bad for any number of reasons. Has he gotten in the wrong crowd...is he "on" something.....Are his parents getting along. Something just doesn't sound right. Long post. sorry. Good luck

thank you dancinfox and ljnrsu for answering my question. Another nifty thing I have learned and am going to do is the State of Texas grants SALES tax exemption directly to packs, troops etc...So am going to do this. Wish I had known this all along could have been saving a little bit of money. thanks again for the answers lynncc Pack 5

okay here goes.. Bob...I love your posts. You are so passionate about things. I like that. I did not represent ourself as a not for profit organization and am not going to apply for a 501 © as of coursee the BSA on the national and council levels are but the packs, troops, etc are not, and cannot be. Semper I used the link in the other thread on how to get a tax ID number to open and account....fgoodwin..had a link to the Sam Houston Area Councils website that has topics on finance...very helpful. ONe of the pages was dedicated to opening a checking account...#1 recommendation was to use your CO's number but if they are unwilling for whatever reason then the second way is to apply for your own EIN. They then give you step by step instructions as to what exactly to put on every line. line #1 we put the CO's name-our pack and # 7a- you leave blank 8a-you mark what you CO is 9-reason for applying is to open checking account 14-check other and write Youth Program Character Development 15-write not applicable or repeat the youth program thing So thats what I did. I followed the councils directions and filled out the form. Now what. Our Charter organization for whatever reason...do not want us using THEIR number but is okay to use their association with them to open an account...go figure...but anyway there you have it. so again to anyone who has a pack account with your own EIN number how do you handle this. thanks lynn

Thanks for the great links. The Sam Houston Area Council Site was most helpful. I used the link and applied for an EIN number. Our charter organization is hesitant and dragging their feet on making a decision to let us use theirs. So....Now that I have this number all of the sudden I got to thinking????dangerous after the fact....How do you handle filling taxes on this. I remember as a child having to file taxes cause of an inheritance but did not have to pay due to small amount of yearly income but still had to file. Thanks lynn

I really enjoy reading your posts. They make me smile. If I could only get my husband to refer to me as "Her Who Must be Obeyed"......Rory sounds like lots of fun. We acquired a golden retriever after he dug up our friends flower bed and chewed thru the landscape lighting. He is quite large. We need to go to "basic Training" but have not found a class time that we are able to attend. I wish the town we lived in offered classes. Oh well. Have a great spring and enjoy all those new smells and those yucky slobbery dead small animal things. lol...heheheh lynncc

Any ideas would be appreciated. Do you have a booklet, info packet (NOT A LIST OF RULES) just info that new parents would want to know. thanks in advance lynn p.s for those that remember our struggling/dying pack. we have picked up 2 new cubs and 2 who are thinking about it still from the spring recruitment. 4 joined another pack so all in all it was a good nite for the first spring recruiting effort. One of those boys wanted to join our pack but I discouraged him and his mom as we don't have any weebelos II he would be better off with the other group. But did make me feel good that they liked us...lol love this scouting stuff.

It is so hard to get your point across when you have such a onesided way of conversing. You type something and there is no immediate feed back to clarify your point. In my original message about singing. There was a big rivalry between the 2 of the patrols. The patrol that found the truely lost item (It came untied from the shovel thing) returned it a lunch with the approval of the woodbadge staff....but then without there approval they asked the other patrol to sing....lots of sad, shocked faces were seen on the staff. They had a talk about scout like behavior...etcc..... But then when it happened again and the QM found the missing object, he announced to the group that he had found it and returned it. Have great pictures of him singing. Which he volunteered to do after he found out the patrol had permission to leave the object there. Anyway. Things you do as adults are not always appropriate to do with kids. This was a positive learning experience in that it showed that singing is not a good thing to the ones that have to sing. Boy lead troops learn by making mistakes..... and so do adult troops..... On a side note not all scouters are scout like. Did you play the win all you can thing...very heated people.... I mean really, its just a game.... But then again I'm a Laid Back, Waaay Back fox and not many things really get to me. have a great weekend Lynncc I used to be a fox (and dream of being a staffer)

welcome aboard. lynn

What a shame. If I was him I would go see the council anyway and discuss the situation. At our woodbadge sr688. One patrol lost something off the shovel and another group found it. Made them sing to get it back. That did not go over well and was discussed. No big deal. But now the presedence was set so anytime anyone lost or left unattended or properly secured.....etc That patrol had to sing a song. The most popular of course was I'm a little teapot... Well now...During our work project Bear patrol was authorized to leave the shovel at the "lodge" well the quartermaster did not know this so he made the bear patrol sing the song....lol to funny. Then when he found out they did indeed seek proper "protection" for the shovel He had to sing I'm a little teapot to make amends. Have pictures...the SM also took responsibility for not sharing info and joined in. Thought that was great. I would want to go explain to the council what was going on. It is supposed to be a fun weekend. Like was said before much heated/hurt feelings come about witht the win all you can game. To funny. Gotta love Type A must win people. Our patrol was so opposite from this...thus our yell Laid Back....Waaaaay Back I used to be a fox, a laid back fox lynn cc