momof2cubs

drmbear: that's harsh. So you are saying that on top of the $40, now I have to spend who knows how much more and get them TAILORED so they fit right? Yeah, I'm gonna go with no. I'll stick to being a non-uniformed committee member.

You know I am kinda uncomfortable with the whole "NOT allowed" thing. I mean, I get it. I won't be at any BoR my kid is in. My son is just starting out his boy scout journey. We had a chat about this being now HIS journey and mom and dad are in the sidelines. Encouraging, yes. Advising, maybe when asked. But the journey is his. And I also really (REALLY!) understand that having mommy at a BoR changes the whole dynamic and probably not in a good way. But on the other hand, this IS a kid, and being forbidden from being an observer seems... I don't know..not right? Maybe we should use the words highly discouraged.(This message has been edited by momof2cubs)

Gosh, speaking of costs. My son outgrew his uniform recently and since he was crossing over, we decided to just retire it and buy a new one. Pants, shirt, scout handbook, a couple of patches (council patch and bsa patch) plus badge magig: $112.00. Yeah...my wallet hurts.

Congratulations. That is a true testament of your hard work. Enjoy!

You mentioned that both you and your husband are scout leaders. Would this be in the same troop as your son? How could you not know he was working towards his Eagle rank? And here's something else: at 17 when you state he went to live his SM and wife, he wasn't an adult was he? Why wasn't it possible for you to call the authorities and have your son brought back to your home? If as you say, there was no CPS investigation, why wouldn't they have returned your son? I really think there a whole lot more here. Not that it matters. I believe your original questions have been answered quite eloquently as best as they could be by forum posters. As a mom, I AM sorry that your relationship with your son is not all it could be. But we are not counselors or psychiatrists or social workers. I think John is right and Nike gave the best advice.

I wish the pants were optional. If you think they are icky for men, you should try them when you are a woman. Every noticed how horrifically unflattering they are to ladies? I try not to be vain and I really do not care that I look like death warmed over after two nights in the wild, but c'mon! On top of that I have to wear pants that make me look like a trussed chicken? Ugh, sorry no. I am officially a committee member as far as BSA knows, and Awards Chair for the pack. I took all my training for that. I also took all the training for den leader (including leader specific), Hazardous Weather and spent a cold rainy Saturday outside getting BALOO trained. But I am not an official den leader (even though I help a lot and do most of the planning) because, I am sorry, but I refuse to wear those pants. Go ahead slam me and call me vain.

Basement, based on your posts in these forums, I gather you serve a lot of youth in less than stellar situations. Have you ever heard of a BSA membership being revoked or not renewed?

Good grief. The one thing I hate about reading advice-asking posts on the internet is that not only you never get the whole story (you hardly ever get that in real life anyways), but you can't see or hear the person and you have no way to judge tone, expressions, character, history, etc. You posted some REALLY vague information. I think what you wanted was for the SM and the BoR to deny your kid his Eagle because he didn't do it on your terms. I'm gonna answer your title question: Does every boy deserve an Eagle? Hardly, and you knew that. What every boy deserves is the opportunity to earn Eagle. Sounds like your kid got that. Your other question was: did he deserve an eagle when he was breaking several points of the scout law while getting it? I'm not sure that he broke Scout law. Scout law is something of an ideal that we should all strive to obey at every turn, but we all know we all fall short at times. Who wants to throw the first stone? Certainly not me. And based on your information, no one here can be sure that he really broke the law. There are other posts written by you regarding your BSA membership being revoked. I never heard of a membership being revoked on flimsy evidence. Not that I would really know. I try to not involve myself with the less than pleasant aspects of BSA (i.e. adults). Whether your kid deserved it or not is a moot point. Your kid got it and it's over and done with. Cannot be revoked. Be happy for him and work on re-establishing the relationship. If you can't do that, then work on being at peace with yourself by whatever means necessary.

First of all, Tampa has a point. Seems. Ridiculous. To put a. Period. Where. It doesn't. Belong. Second of all here is what I read: "blah..blah..blah..send us money..blah..blah..blah..proud organization..blah..blah..blah..send us more money...blah..blah..blah"

One of the things I think really works is to build a relationship with the pack. Our pack had until recently a close relationship with a troop. They lent us the use of their hall for B&G, their scouts always volunteered for den chief duty and for help during big events (i.e. PWD, B&G, bounce back, etc). So for a several years, most boys would just naturally cross over there as a matter of course. Then recently, they started taking the pack for granted...and last year no one crossed over there. Amazing how easily you can damage relationships.

It really does depend on the kid too. My youngest son's den, I shudder sometimes when I think about it. They are Bears now and it gives me chills to think we have only have a year and a half to get them ready for boy scouts. They are a younger bunch, many with ADD, so it is VERY difficult. I highly doubt we will be crossing any of them over any sooner than we have to. We are really going to have to bring our A game to get them ready during the webs years.

Bevah: my son is so beyond bored with web IIs that he begged me to cross him over sooner. He had visited a few troops and fell in love with one of them. So SM agreed to take him in a little early. It was no problem. He will still participate in den activities until cross over, but he will also attend troop meetings and start working on his ranks for Scout and TF.

Around here is sometime in March, after B&G.

It might not be a "sacred rite" or a "arrow thing taken too far", but AoL is the highest rank attainable for Cub Scouts and it for sure is a BIG deal. Why undermine it??? Yes, we do have a thread on this every year at around this time. And here is my answer: give him all the honors that you are giving all the other kids that are earned AoL (noticed that? EARNED, that's right I went there) and afterwards, have the cross over ceremony where each troop calls their new members. No on is gonna notice that his name doesn't get called.

We do different themes throughout the years. The food and entertainment are based on that theme. This year is a Mardi Gras theme: we will have breakfast (fruit, pancakes, bignets, etc), the entertainment will be a magician, and each den needs to decorate their table. We usually do a father/son bake-off contest, but since we are doing breakfast this year, we decided instead to do some a death by chocolate during our march meeting, which is our cross over meeting and most parents don't feel compelled to attend when it is not their special snowflake crossing over. We are hoping this will increase attendance. Last year our theme was Medieval Times. We had the restaurant Medieval Times cater it and provide some knights that did fun demonstrations. The dens each had to make a shield as decorations. The year before was birthday party theme to coincide with the 100th year celebration.

Gosh Ann, it just keeps piling on doesn't it? I wish you could find a pack that appreciates you. Any pack would thank their lucky stars to have someone like you in their midst.

I honestly doubt the council and/or foothills spend money on professional background checks.

My local shop does not require paper work for the belt loops or pins. We keep track on them in PM because the pack pays for all awards in our case. But anyone can buy them.

I am lucky that we have the council shop very close to where we live and our pack meets. So it is not a huge hardship for me to buy. Because they know me, they will sell me just about any kind of restricted item, but they do not sell rank badges to anyone that just comes in. In February, I buy a few more badges than what packmaster says we need because I like to have inventory. I also keep a small supply of LNT badges, outdoor activity awards patches, conservation awards patches and some popular belt loops (i.e. baseball, swimming, soccer, flag football and the archery and BB shooting ones because everyone buys them right after fall and spring family camping) This practice stemmed from the fact that for a while, our local shop just did not keep inventory. Every single month I went in there, they were out of something (belt loops, patches, whatever). I one point, I got irate and asked the manager, "Do you know what the meaning of STOCK is??" Fortunately, they changed their provider or manufacturer or whatever and now they keep stock on everything. If I were the AC for a troop, for sure I would keep a small supply of rank badges and some of the more popular MBs.

shortridge: I gave to FOS in the past under the assumption that at least some of my money was going to camperships. Since I have found ZERO evidence that this is the case, I make my contribution to my district and I earmark it for camperships within our district. I know and trust our DE and I specifically earmark my donation for that purpose. I would give it to my unit, but it is not badly needed for that purpose. And that's where I want my money to go. I am not wasting my time trying to change council and I am not going to make it my mission to try to unearth their financials. The burden should be on THEM and not on me. By donating to my district, I know where my money is going. Maybe if enough people start withholding donations national/council will get the message. Bad enough that I have to send them membership money every year.

One troop I visited recently recognized the boys immediately after they have their paperwork signed off by the appropriate adult. At every troop meeting, at the end, they recognize the boys that advanced. They have I think 4 CoH a year for the formalities. Seems like a decent compromise.

Of all the things I do related to scouting, being the AC for our pack is my very favorite. Yes, it is a lot paperwork and yes sometimes a parent will get bent out of shape, but I love seeing boys advance and hey, shopping is shopping amirite?? Anyone? No? Well, maybe it's just me. I am hoping to turn in the keys at the pack level this year because I want to do it for whatever troop my son goes to this spring. But it probably won't happen. Troops don't have the same turnover packs do.

They are lots of fun. Make sure the boys wear helmets though. We built ours based on the model shown in the bear book.

shortridge said: "So your attitude is that no council can ever manage its camp funds properly?" I don't know about every council. I know mine. And I really wouldn't know, all I know is that I could never find the numbers and the camperships available are extremely rare. Regarding your link to the other post, I still don't see official numbers. But one thing caught my attention: someone mentioned that compared to non-scout sleep away camps, the BSA camps are dirt cheap. That could be, but non-BSA camps are not run by unpaid volunteers.

Officially 94 boys as of recharter last week. I never realized we were a big pack, I thought that was about average. I think a lot of it depends on who is your charter org, how many other packs are in your area, and how much emphasis the sporting life has in your particular neighborhood. For instance, we are chartered through our local school, so it is hard to recruit beyond those walls.I would think that maybe a pack chartered through a church has more of a chance to go to every elementary school in the area and recruit from all of them. But maybe not, if most of those schools have a pack as well.