moosetracker

Thanks guys, This kindof solidifies the research I did on it. It was just that comments were made on the forum that there was a way to hook up. I did not want to email the person who ask, saying "No" you can't sync.. Just push data for Advancement & Recharter." To have egg on my face when someone a week from now shows him how it can be done. I also planed to tell him about the process in the online area of myScouting website. That is the one our Council prefers, and we will be offering training for it at the Nov. Roundtable.

I have seen comments that you can link troopmaster to the council database. But not much except some people don't like it, others like it.. and the council gets lots of your information.. It sounded like you were constantly linked and connected. Our unit doesn't want it, but being district Training Chair some unit is asking about it, Sounds like they are expecting this link to kind of "sync" the two systems for training & advancement.. council tells them what they have, they tell council what they have. I only found this link, http://www.troopmaster.com/scoutnet.html which more seems like a push to council for your advancement & Rechartering. Never did that, about the rechartering.. I thought the advancement peice was more entering the data in myscouting, and pushing it in this way. So is there something to do a constant link to the council DB? what data is sent to council? does it also update your Troopmaster, or just push data? And why did people not recommend that you use it? Thanks..

sometimes they get "altered" by our district board before approval. One came in last month where the project was great, the only problem was it was going to be a 1 or 2 man show of welding.. It was some sort of BBQ thingy built into a wagon for a large church BBQ.. The committee stated to the Life scout that it wasn't about doing a project so much as it was showing his leadership ability during the project. they had him add on doing a BBQ for the church in the christening of it. In that lots of people could get involved with the organization. I hear all the time of some tweak or other to have the project meet the requirements. this one was more major then most.

Their are options the troop can enforce, and they can get down to having the scout leave if it is a detriment to the moral of the entire troop.. (And if you are having a difficult time with it, I am sure some (if not all) of the boys in the troop are too.) But, there may be other ideas to employ leaving that to last.. But those ideas are easier to come by if like packsaddle said we can get a feel for if involving his parents would help or hurt the situation. Or if there are hints as to why he is acting out.

OH so you caught my Act!! Just kidding.. Missed it, but looks like I did not miss much.

Kudu.. I kept reading and looking for the punch line! The day they ask me to use my district training staff to teach soccer, and computers(for more then TroopMaster & rechartering) is the day I will pull up stakes on my tent, and move to the whatever the rebel side shoot kicks off to form in order to keep scouting alive.

I've been talking to the Council Training Chair, but she has been at it a long time, and is burnt out. She wanted out last year, and was talked into staying one more year. But, you can tell her heart isn't in it. Rarely does she answer me, and when she does it is simply to say she is busy prepping for woodbadge, and it will need to wait until after that. Or we will discuss it at the Council planning meeting. My course is on the last weekend of woodbadge, after that is too late. the Planning meeting is 2 days before my course runs.. A little too late also. I only went to two planning meetings since in the job. The one that had everyone in an auditorium to see the pep talk on the new cub scout program, there was not small group to sit and meet everyone and the last one before summer break (which was practically deserted). I know there should be more as they talked about who was missing. Those there will be in the woodbadge course, and I don't really know them. I think I am the only district with training info (that is current at least).. And the only district with contact info to me and my cub scout chair (haven't found my Boy Scout chair.) So contact for them is nil without a Council planning meeting or the Council Chair hooking me up. I will take a look around at some of the names you listed, but I also put in a call to our camp director.. Luckily we are holding the event close to the camp, so if he knows any locals, we wont be asking them to travel far..

After the signatures are in place doesn't he have to present it to the Eagle board? Or is that different in each council? I know he has to present it to the board at completion. I know our council requires it be approved at the board before beginning the project. But, I am unsure if this pre-approval is a council decision, or a National one. If you need pre-approval he should call to set up an appointment as they only run once a month. Yours could be this weekend or 4 weeks from now. If time is running out our board may make exceptions an hold a special session.. but this is for very rare circumstances. Your son would need to go to the website for your district and find the number of the district advancement chair, or the person on the Advancement committee in charge of the Eagle board for contact info.. That is if this is a requirment of your council.

Ok Eagle92, you made me feel better, because there is someone worse off then me.. What happen to your (or whoever is the District Training chair) staff? I am a little worried over a one day Venturing Specific training with one person. I think I found trainer #2.. (But, we have no one signed up for it, so the whole thing may be a wash anyway.) 1) Participants need the variety of speakers and ideas to keep their intrest up. One person talking all day long will put you to sleep no matter how good. 2) Too much pressure on the one Trainer.. I could not see asking someone to do a 2 to 3 day course all by their lonesome.

Thanks, I know the camp director for the boy scout camp, just didn't think of him as a resource, but it is a good idea. Audubon is our local nature society, and I do have a call in to them, by having a friend of theirs call, so it isn't "me" a stranger asking for help. Yeah, I plan to visit units after I get done my two October trainings, one on the things on the list was to look for people in each unit with the knowledge & training to be on the training staff. I did dash him off a letter, that was (what I thought) very nice.. Explaining that I am currently just following the schedule left by my predessor, and that it has already been discussed to take it off the camporee. I also explained that many of the trainees are first year webelos whose dens are not attending the camporee, and that we have alot of people from out of district because we seem to be the only district in our council doing a Fall IOLS training this year. Don't know if it will get him over his pride to walk back in after the grand exit he made (which was not just emailed to me, but the whole training staff.).. At least he did finally reply, his lack of responding to my email and phone calls left me wondering if he was going to do the training. I now have my answer, and can plan around it.

As stated in previous posts, I am a new District Training Chair. My first Training date is Oct 1st - 2nd - 3rd. A Intro to Outdoors. I should have had my trainers organized months ago, but I feel like I am trying to hang onto grains of shifting sand. I have never gotten anyone to step up for Plant & Animal Identification. I couldn't find anyone for Interfaith worship or backpacking for a long time. But about 12 days ago I found my person for backpacking, (it is just, I have emailed him since, with no response so he is making me nervous). Two days ago I found someone willing to do Interfaith worship, while calling them to see if they may know of someone in the area to do the Plant & animal ID (her son is going to college for a similar subject, he is too far away, but though he may be hanging out with people in the field). Monday (where I asked those there about the the Plant/animal & interfaith) one of my trainers waited until round table ended to tell me she could do the First aide part.. (someone else pulled out of the Flag ceremoney piece, but I found someone for that quickly), First aide wasn't too bad to replace either.. Then last night I get an email from the trainer who was doing the cooking part. (He had also done the Plant / Animal part in the past).. I had been emailing him and calling him to see if he would do the P & A and what he wanted me to purchase for the cooking demo.. He finally wrote back with a very curt message. "It is my understanding that this IOLS training is being held during the camporee. I refuse to train people who should be at the camporee". So I just lost the cooking demo guy, and I guess no help from him on the A & P part. My friend who will do the Inter faith knew one person to ask from the Audobon, they knew someone and were going to ask them. someone at roundtable new someone in Fish & game they were going to ask. I had 4 trainers who normally do this, One is busy that weekend, two just never called back, and then the guy who responded last night. I am looking at getting some sort of kits from Fish & Game, I was thinking of doing this piece, but my son (who is young, but an Eagle scout) said he would do it for me. I don't think he is any better then me in knowledge, but unless someone from my team steps up for the cooking demo, that may be mine also. I feel confident I will do a good job with cooking. It is just that I am NOT suppose to be a trainer. Running it at the camporee was the way my predessor did things, I was not part of the yearly calendar setup, I am just fullfilling what was set up. But it will not be during the camporee again. The Adult leaders love it as they are close to their units and can spend some time with them, and they are not taking two weekends away from their family 1 for training and one for the troop event. Others take our spring one that is not during the camporee because their units don't have enought adult coverage. Not only are my trainers hard to organize because they have commitements with working the camporee.. But this is also a woodbadge weekend and some of my trainers are there.. Any suggestions on interesting tidbits to add to Plants & animals, so we are not just looking at a book and reading the labels under the sample of tree bark, leaves, or animal footprints or whatever.. any advice on what i should remember to cover with the cooking demo.. Can anyone tell me this is just my initiation Training, and all my other trainings will go better. Even if you have to lie, it will make me feel better.

GKlose - love those type of spreads.. But it is dangerous for me to put that one. I will buy enough chicken to feed everyone (because what if that is the most popular), then I will buy enough beef to feed everyone (because what if that is the most popular), on and on until I end up not feeding 20 participants, but 200 participants.. Then I will have to go the Council with my tail tucked between my legs to explain why I spent $2000 on a course that only brought in $200 total in the first place.. Very dangerous am I if left to run amuck!!!

Didn't have any stuffed animals, or a staff at ours.. We did have Patrol flags, we started with ones they hand each patrol, between weekends you can make your own... or not. I will recognize my staff at the beginning & end of a district training course. I will also recognize the participants.. (Not for a hour & 1/2) 1) Introductions at beginning. 2) You as a director/ organizer want the staff to feel appreciated, so they will help you out next time you ask. Same with participants, you want them to know they did something great, so they will continue to take training (or be on your staff in the future.) No one Solicited donations at our Woodbadge Weekends. The only reason I was at all familure with the materials was that my husband took it the year before and talked about it, I also went to the Woodbadge dinner in march, and watched the slide show of his weekend.. But, I know others say that other management courses have used similar training excercises.

They all sound great. I like the idea of haveing each person bring a bag of their favorite add for the Trail-mix, for a surprise combo.. I use to love cooking with the chix tenders, I use to buy 5 lb bags of the stuff from our warehouse store then divide & freeze them, simple & inexpensive. Our warehouse stores no longer carry it.. It is now small little packets that are high price like they are the filet mignon of the chicken world.. So maybe I will just pre-cut the chicken breasts if I use chicken. I might hold off on the meat patty mixing, I know I get greasy hands, and we are outhouses and jug water for this trip. But it sounds good. Might try some other time. I was thinking about the banana boats. It is one of my favorites. We do have them doing a campfire program at night, so that will be good.

Oh also if you have any type of trail mix that has something like cereal or popcorn since if it is all nuts & raisins it can be expensive for a small quanity.. I figure to offer some healthy snacks, but also would like to put out some sort of trail mix.

Ok I am organizing my very first Outdoor leader skill weekend. So I thought my very experienced trainers could guide a little better then they are. I got from them that they want a tin foil dinner for participants to make. So what have they done in the past.. "Ummm Ahhh.. a little of this, a little of that.. all sorts of stuff.. silence..." So can any of you suggest tin foil dinners.. that are 1) easy prep (they don't have much time between classes) 2) low to mid-range budget.. 3) Easy for me to figure out quanity depending on participants.. (like 1 chicken breast, 1 potato etc per meal packet) I tend to buy to feed an army, if I am unsure of quanity... 4) That is pretty tasty for a tired hungry group.. (Of course if you are tired and hungry anything tastes good)

With 17 boys, I can certainly see why you would put speaking in front of them as well as their parents under the category of "public speaking".. You have more nerve then you give your self credit for, for even considering taking that on! I echo ScoutNut's advice, it really should be broken into two groups.. You mentioned two den chiefs, you are required to have one Assistant den Leader, so I am going to assume you have that, although not mentioned (unless that is your husband). But if you even try to consider it I couldn't foresee you doing it without more, so that even if it is one group, you could break the groups apart to work on different activities. Then, also you would need to have room for two groups to work on seperate activities in the same space. Not to mention you would need to plan and organize these seprate activities each week.. The Webelos2 will need to work on their Arrow of Light. The Webelos1 should not work on that this year. So if you don't break them up you would almost have to work it like a troop would with two patrols. But your scouts would need more guidence then boys in the troop would due to their age. Ick... Hate to build up you confidence, to probable now, be scaring you. But truely 17 Boys is alot. 17 Boys of that are different grades, thereby have different programs, is ALOT... If your Pack Master was Pack Master, and trying to pull this off, no wonder they had a nervous breakdown.

I would like that grad school project.. Most I heard of are dry and boring. I grew up in Buffalo, Utica NY.. And it was Pop.. I think I changed in College in Il to Soda, but when in MA & NH it was definately Soda. Back to LDS.. In some ways I can see why LDS would segregate.. If you felt this hostility from those not like you, you would tend to stay where the water is friendly (so to speak.), So if they do segregate, is it truely them or us that caused it? I think we may have been in a negative cycle for years, and who knows where it started. I commend anyone in the LDS group that are trying to wade those icy waters to break the cycle, and anyone from the non-LDS chuch willing to notice their effort and welcome them.

I know what your are saying, I took on District Training Chair, because our district wanted someone who did the organization and did not do the Training.. That was me, I like organization and no public speaking.. I didn't think it through.. I had to take EDGE program, which I took about a month ago, which is about public speaking and you have to do a demonstration and everyone evaluates it. There was also an impromptu thing that they just hand you something and you have only time to make flip charts for, but no time to practice. I practiced and practiced the demonstration I knew about because I was so nervous.. I did ok with that. I really flubbed up the impromptu one. When they asked how we felt after that one, I told them I hated it, because I had no time to prep and I knew I made a real fool of myself and was awful.. It was to teach us the value of prep work.. I already knew that.. Tonight, I have to now get up in front of the district round table to promote upcomming trainings, and other things.. I also am holding a meeting with the trainers for the first training since I took over.. I feel the same way you do. I am totally nervous.. But I try to give myself back some control by over compensating with organization (which is what I do.).. I have my notes, I have practiced it in my mind & out loud. I have all other sorts of lists & paperwork to work with anyone who comes up and asks me a question on anything. For the meeting with the trainers I got list on the schedule, the materials I think we need and a list of of questions for the trainers since I am organizing but they are the ones that have done the training millions of times already. Yours is with kids, when I work with kids I again overcompensate by organizing all the activities, and making sure I have enough to keep them busy and occupied.. Most times we don't get to all I have set up for activities. I remember one time when a child came up to me exhausted and said Mrs. _______ can we have a break now? I am exhausted.. My husband and just broke out laughing.. It was my overcompensating.. Just look over the materials. Make sure you have enough organized to keep them busy.. create Itemized list of what to go over about things they did in advancement at home, and what your want to talk about to let them know about what their assignments are before the next meeting, and what will be done and needed for them to bring to the next meeting. That way you have notes, and don't feel like you will forget it all when you get up there. Also you should have an assistant. If you get one that is more relaxed being the public speaker, you could let them do that part, while you do more of the prep work, organizing what will be done at the meeting.. As the year goes on and you feel more secure with what your doing, and get to know your den, you will relax and do more of the speaking..

Fox, I know exactly where your coming from. Happened in my troop about 5 years back. Our outdoor coordinator had a teenage girl, and wanted to start a crew. It was to be all girls and be seprate from the troop, so there was no pre-communication between the units when she brought it up. When she found she was not getting enough youth members or Adult help, she decide to open the doors to boys, but not any boys, she came into the troop and talked with the boys of age to get them to drop the boy scouts & join the Venturing progam. Girls, only two meetings a month, no young kids, no uniforms, you can still earn eagle there. No promise of a better program, just offering them all the plus's Venturing have that a troop could not change if they wanted to in order to compete with. She was hoping if she got these boys their Adult parents would also move from the Troop to the Crew to support their children. The troop fought back both unfairly and fairly.. We were blindly attacked so to get any hope of winning the battle, There was alot of yelling, absolutely no adult leader would volunteer with the crew.. If there son wanted to go to those meetings they had to find their own ride, as they were not driving them. Then the scoutmaster researched the Venture Patrol, created one for the older boys, and gave them a better program and some seperation from the younger boys, and trips of their own. On top of that being the outdoor coordinator of the troop, she felt planning two events too hard, so she kept trying to force her all girl ventureing patrol uninvited into the Troop events. She was told she and her crew were unwanted. In the end, the Venture Patrol stayed small until the crew went off to college, then they folded. In a last ditch effort the lady who caused all the problems pleaded to save her crew by combining it with the troop. For some reason the SM told her if she could get the boys to agree, she could do so. She tried and the boys argued with some wanting it but the majority vote was no. I think the biggest thing with the boys were they were the "under-aged" scouts at the time she tried stealing all the older boys they idolized and enjoyed working with. They felt all the tension, and anger at that time, but were the group too young to be of intrest to her at the time, and felt "unwanted" by the older boys trying to leave their troop so they didn't have to deal with them anymore. My son was one of the younger boys, to this day he has no liking for Venturing Crews.

Greetings From one Moose to another.. Hope to see you around the boards.

It's been a while & policy does change, but when we did a tour permit anywhere even in town, or CO required it. Our Council kept advising us we did not need to do one for an event in town. We had to tell them over & over, maybe they didn't but our CO did.. After a while they stopped trying to correct us. So unless policy has changed, the tour permit is not required in town. But the tour permit for 500 miles or over is not the local tour permit. You do have to do a local tour permit for anything out side of your town, and if 500 miles or over then the tour permit you are looking at. That permit has a few stricter policies on it, such as all adults going need their YPT no further out then 1 year rather then the 2 year normal policy. Like everyone says though a tour permit for everything is the safest bet. Our CO wants to make sure insurance is covered.. Period..

UCEagle72 - That's something new.. Do you just seal inside, or inside & outside? How much do you use in beeswax? How do you remove the beeswax?

The canola is fine, the veggie is fine.. The animal fat doesn't has a low burn point if you season in a high temp oven, you could have alot of smoke.. It also will break down faster, so if you store your DO over the winter, you may find a rancid DO in the spring.

Should clearify "...Once a year you can ask for the Council to print ".. You does not mean "YOU".. It means you as in "your unit".. Have an adult leader in your unit.. Scoutmaster, Committee Chair, or Advancement Chair, request the Advancement Audit.