moosetracker

So what is Minecraft. I got two totally different versions of Minefield, but no Minecraft.. Tried looking it up, it shows a video game, which if your just talking you and your son not at a scout event, may be what it is.. Otherwise I doubt it's that unless you are going for your videogame beltloop. Do the cotton balls fling well?.. I was debating doing popcorn rather then marshmallows, but still will be messy when stepped on, and probably still would be picked off the shoe and eaten.

Agree Twocubdad.. Sounds like scout did a lot of busy work (or his parents did), but has he stopped long enough to learn & understand what scouting is all about. I am wondering how many of those meritbadges were done the right way, and how many were in watered down summer camp programs, meritbadge workshops, and mom or dad as the MBC.. He also makes it sound like if he didn't do this then he would NEVER earn eagle rank, I don't those slowing him down wanted to see was all meritbadges what they wanted was him to slow down and enjoy the process .. He totally proved he just doesn't get it. Though I don't think it is right for someone to hold someone back with false rules when they decide to earn Eagle at 13 or whatever.. It is simply give him his patch, and I personally at this stage of the game, would not be impressed.. Now, if afterwards he stayed in and settled into enjoying scouting, he would then earn my respect, and if he high tailed it out with his badge, he is simply a paper eagle.. Nothing for people to make up rules from keeping him from doing it.. So give him his patch with all his meritbadges and see if he stays in and slows down.. I believe if he tries to turn those Merit Badges into palms, what he has left will force a slow down.. if Mr. speedy speeds off to other things.. Well, maybe those things can teach him what scouting failed to. PS.. Seriously how many scouts AIM for earning all 134 meritbadges? In my lifetime, I have met a total of zero.

Well that's what I mean. The boys want catapults, and at the rank of Webelos if they want catapults the DL role is to support their wishes.. At the rank of wolf, the parents just plan organize and do for the scouts (with maybe the scout getting to do some of the work, maybe).. Which means due to age and rank the two DL's currently are looking at their roles as DL from two different perspectives. No given the choice the boys would go for the catapults.. But when your in 2nd grade at 6 or 7 years old, whatever mom & dad say they are going to do, you do.. And really you will have fun in most cases.. Unless truly gifted a 6/7 yo is not of an age to look around and think up something on their own to do and tell mom & dad "Sorry this ornament idea stinks, lets do ABC instead."

Well tonight if the SM is at roundtable I will have a sit down with him. If he is just planning to get his son through then really cares nothing about keeping the pack healthy, I can't help him.. If he thinks he has tried unsuccessfully to recruit without a feeder pack and really does want to get the troop running, well maybe I can help. At least I go with him to see the two successful Boy run troops from our area that I know of. These Troops do recruit boy scout age boys and not all from a feeder pack. From talking to him, he thinks he is offering boy run, he is not.. Not a guarantee it would work a) he has to be able to see the big difference, which some people have blinders when looking at their own troop and can't see the weeds that is choking out the garden.. b) He has to have the ability to make the change to offer a better program.. Some people are just micro-managers and even if they see their flaws can't stop themselves.. I realize a healthy troop should pull boys in regardless of age if well run.. I also know this troop isn't healthy.. If the SM doesn't want healthy though I can not force it upon him. If the SM does but just can't figure it out without guidance, and can't even figure out where to ask for help, well there's a slim hope of fixing that.

Yeah, normally meeting with another group is good, but due to different age and rank requirements you need to do your separate things.. This just sounds like different interests for different age groups. For wolves the catapults might be too big a project for them due to age, and the parents are still in high protection mode rather then letting them try their wings. So catapults might sound too dangerous.. Meanwhile the Webelos are done with the artsy craftsy stuff and wants something more challenging and more rugged activities.. Also wolves is still where parents choose the activity, Webelos is where in order to get prepared for Boy Scouts the boys start having more and more of a say in their activities.. As AKdenldr says, seeing if you can organize a different activity to show this decision is nothing personal against her or her den.. But, also a heart to heart discussion of the fact that due to the age and the rank of your boys, you are both right now looking at things from different perspectives. The Webs den is run more by the boys interest not yours, and this is what they wanted, your role as den leader is to support them in their wishes.. Think of it not only as making peace, but an opportunity of educating a den leader who two years from now needs to run a Webelos den.. Just curious as to what type of catapult.. Large one that need real lashings and poles for perhaps launching something like water balloons, or I saw one that is popsicles and a small launch pad for launching marshmallows.. I was looking at the popsicle one, but was wondering if you are going whole hog..

Nope two Webs one is at level one, one is at level two.. We had a Bear in this group but just lost him.. They were all solo if you broke them into grade/age groups.. Now, we have an email from a boy who just moved into the area.. A new Bear.. Still no comment from the Troop SM. I will either see him at Round Table tomorrow or I will visit on Tuesday when they should have a troop meeting going.. We have potential to trickle feed this troop until our wolves move up which wont be for another 3 years.. But the troop has to want it, to meet us half way, or we might as well point them over to the Pack/Troop in the next town. We currently have nine in our wolves den, and I think 4 in our tiger den.

I would just tweak that statement a little to say this.. Even if the Pack picks up the registration costs, then they should register the needed positions, but extend it to all direct leader postions for the background checks.. With the cost of registration now, welcome the other volunteers to volunteer without registration. Really do you need your Popcorn coordinator or Summer camp organizer registered to do that position. Here's a question, can the Institution Head be registered as the COR?? I thought we had done that last year, my son says we registered the old COR although he wasn't in that position anymore when we recharetered. But that is what our group now has, IH is our COR and he is an very involved COR, stops by for about 15 - 20 minutes at each Pack meeting, has come to a few committee meetings, was there for the entire rechartering night. But can we register him in the duel postion.. The Charter organization has selected the IH as the COR..

Our trop went feast or famine. When we had extra help we defiantly used it. You have your normal CC jobs CC, Treasurer, Advancement chair, secretary, Outdoor coordinator, Quartermaster(for us he was involved twice a year in the passing of the gear from one boy to the next to make sure the leaving scout did not leave with have the troop equipment having been broken or taken home to clean or dry and never returned.. and that the new QM gets good training on taking care of the equipment. After that, the boys job).. Extra people meant an Adult Training coordinator, Summer Camp coordinator, Fund Raiser coordinator, (who may or may not also double duty getting med forms updated if no Med coordinator) , Med coordinator (Med forms, and the person on the campout who took care of scouts medicine). I know one troop who has 50 or 60 scouts and has more then 25 on committee (Plus a bunch of ASM).. For them each fundraiser got it's own coordinator for it, a high adventure coordinator I am sure a few others, and then the real important jobs had Assistants that way someone was trained to takeover when someone in those positions left. And "YES" it is boy run.. Their boys stay until they age out because they stay interested and challenged, the boys do separate patrol oriented camping (it is what keeps all the ASM's busy because otherwise the SM would not have a weekend to himself.).. I have not seen another troops committee assembled, but I would guess we have another local troop the same way.. Both SM are best of friends and have a friendly competition to have their troops outdo each other in excellence.. The troop my son was in was heading into making our troop able to keep up with these two troops, But, then we lost our most excellent scoutmasters (had 2 in a row) and got a bad SM that killed the troop. The troop has a new SM and it is doing better, but still has a ways to go to rebuild itself to it's former glory.

Right now it would be visit other packs, as they really aren't of age/grade for the Troop, and if the other packs have a decent Webs pack, then they wouldn't need to have them become guests to the troop until they get of grade/age to crossover. Packs in a days walk is not many, we are out in the country, so no multiple troops in the same town, and some towns are large & spread out land wise.. I do want to do right by these scouts and not put them in a dying troop. But, my position is not to only focus on the pack, but the troop also. So I don't know if this is my only question that matters. The answer might be to send these scouts to a better place, but right now I am going on something the DE has told me, that I have not sensed myself.. Oh I have sensed that the troop could use work, the adults have yet to figure out what boy lead is, though they think they are doing boy lead, yet would not welcome my helpful advice.. But, I had never sensed that they did not want new blood.. Just this summer at the annual meeting between the IH , Pack leadership & Troop leadership they really wanted to do more with all the pack. We told them they were welcomed to work more with our Webs, and could ask the Pack leadership if they were interested in other joint events together for them to decide. We were putting our foot down about them sending out eblast to all our scouts parents inviting them to all their activities.. We would be getting them prepared to go to one outing, they would send out eblast for their event, the parents became conflicted and didn't know what to do, so they did nothing.. From wanting the Pack on all outing, to not wanting to work with two Webs, and crossing them over. Just seems like a big change in a few months.. Of course, talking with the SM the last few months I also get the all is fine speech. But, I don't doubt I would get that from him whether things were good or bad. Wish the troop had their troop meeting when I was hoping to catch them after the Pack meeting ended. I would have a little first hand knowledge of if they are having more issues now then they had this summer. Both the health of the Pack and Troop are something I should be concerned with. Right now I have easy access to kickstarting the pack.. Currently I don't feel the same welcome to help with the troop. But, that mean, I should just shrug my shoulders and let them die? Perhaps, I should have a discussion with the IH of the church.. If he is fine with letting the troop die for a few years till our pack can pick it up, then I guess I will feel better. But, then I guess if he wants the troop to change, I could get some support from him in getting the Adult Leadership to take suggestions from me (or listen and observe well running troops) so that they can start thinking about ways to improve their program..

OK I am UC for a CO their pack and troop, right now I am spending most of my time with the Pack because it had collapsed but being a little less then a year away most our scouts are wolf & Tiger. I was working hard not to loose two Webelos who both like the program, but would like more of a group. I know the troop did not get crossovers last year, and until we work our wolves up to Webelos crossovers it will be hard for this pack to feed the Troop and keep it healthy.. Well now I find, that although this troop has only had one year with no crossovers, it pretty much is not doing so good either.. They won't tell me this though, they bypass me and the IH and direct their woes and complaints to the DE, so I don't know the whole story as the DE did not have time to enlighten me, but reason I am not getting a response from the Troop leadership to work out how the troop could help give these Webs a group setting without turning into a Webs program, and thus gain two new scouts.. Is because they are not interested in expanding the troop anymore.. They are kindof in the mode of working through who they have, and letting the troop die. So great.. Does this mean I should just encouraged these two Webs to go to the other Pack/Troop.. Seems if I don't change the dynamics of the troop, I am doing them no favors trying to keep them at all costs.. They may end up just watching the older boys finish up their eagle and the troop will fold if it whittles down to just the two of them anyway. And with one of the boys possibly getting adopted and moving away, it might just end up being one lone scout.. If so, better to get them into a better troop.. Not sure how to fix the troop right now anyway.. Which is the reason, I just observe, ask how things are going and let them tell me "Just fine.. And sell me a story of how they are improving the program".. I know it is in need of improvement, but as UC I can't force improvement, and the adult leadership has some back issues that they don't want my help anyway. Not issues with me, but there was a thing where they lead my son to believe they were open to the idea of his taking the SM position and then when he came in to finalize it with the committee found the committee chair had gone about looking for someone else, and sprung the new guy on the committee and pushed him through even though most others on the committee wanted my son.. So then there was a big blow out and some of the parents took their scouts out of the troop and went elsewhere.. Well for some reason though my son I think was a victim of this, as he had unwittingly walked into a committee meeting expecting and approval of him to SM and slapped in the face with a curve ball, then became stuck in the middle of two angry sides of the issue.. It seems it is all my son's fault this happened, and I as his mother am part of the blame too.. Though I wasn't UC or had anything to do with the pack or troop at the time.. Well, anyway.. That is the short of why they give me the story of "All right with the world" and go and talk to the DE about issues and problems.. I really will hate having the troop fold, and doing nothing to help.. I don't know how I feel about considering letting it go, and then needing to resurrect it with our now Webs (who are at a count of 9 and we seem to be growing).. They won't move into a troop with bad habits and a "We have always done it this way mentality".. I could start training the Den Leaders to a different mindset when they get to Webs.. But.. Uggh, restarts are very hard, I am winning the resurrecting of the Pack, but it is not easy at all, and I am still at the stage where I can look at the pack from one angle and think success, but look at the pack from a different angle and think real close to failing.. If I do have to restart, I hope the troop will at least set us up with some decent equipment and some money in the account.. I also hope by then, I have poked and prodded more parents from the pack into stepping up and taking on leadership roles in the Pack, that I can then keep them active with when they move to the troop.. Then I feel I should do something to fight harder to keep the troop going and not just let the adult leaders purposely run it into the ground.. I feel I am giving up while the body is not just still warm, but still alive and kicking.. How can I do anything now I know their is issues, but when I talk to them I will get the smiles and the answer of "All is good, we are just fine".. UC means I can not grab them shake them and force them to stop being dunderheads.. I know the only way the troop can grow is to get it to be truly boy led, to the point that the youth are not going through the motions but were really feeling ownership and excited about what they were doing and planning to do.. Their enthusiasm would bring their friends in.. But, I can't force the adults to make the change.. I know of two great troops in the area that run a great program. I would love to have the boys and the adults see their operation and get ideas from them that might kickstart them with renewed excitement.. The DE said the SM might be at roundtable.. I guess my first attempt would be to see if I couldn't get this SM to meet with the two SM's of the other troop and see if they (not I) could maybe get the SM of my troop to at least think about other alternative rather then quickly getting the boys in the troop to Eagle then turning out the lights. Perhaps if I sit him at a table where the ideas are not coming from me, he may listen.

Can you show me where BSA says it is required for Trainers.. here is what I got from Scouting.org.. The Trainer's EDGE "While the Trainer's EDGE is a required train-the-trainer course for Wood Badge and NYLT staffs, it is also for other trainers wishing to enhance their training and presentation skills." Which goes along with what I have been told. It is required for wood badge and highly recommended for trainers but not required... But perhaps you have wind of upcoming changes to who is required to have this training.. Otherwise, I think you are being told that by a council who may have made it a council requirement, or a Training head who wants their staff trained, but rather then stating it is their requirement, they are trying to push the blame on someone/something higher up.

I would be surprised if the LDS church would be fine with the boy going to a non-LDS troop.. I would encourage her to look at all her options, but if her options are only within the LDS troops, then the best of that group is what they should look for.. There are some gems out there which have a Scoutmaster who has taken an interest in Scouting despite it being assigned to him..

After the game, did they do anything fun that was scout like? Or was the boring stuff trying to teach them something like in a classroom setting? A small amount of time in a game is not bad, but some troops (and I fear I have heard many LDS troops are guilty of this) use the time to play games, because they really don't care for the scouting stuff. I guess others said LDS can't camp in the 11 yo group.. But can they go out, I would be curious what outings they have had None? to a basketball game? or is there at least some hiking, biking, swimming etc type activities.. Also troops have made teaching scoutcraft boring, because they know the classroom setting, and don't spend the time or creativity to figure out most training can be done hands on, or with relay races or other challenges.. So the boring is the lack of knowing how to run a scouting troop..

Our troop tried something one year that was a flop, and didn't do it again. Normally the cubs crossing over don't earn the neckerchiefs until they earned the Scout patch. (We wanted to make sure they showed up to a few meetings before handing it out.) But, one year they decided that the older boy would mentor one incoming and in doing so at the crossover hand them their personal neckerchief and when they had successfully worked with them to earn the Scout patch the boy would get his own neckerchief and the older Scout would get his back.. Well, some crossovers took off with the neckerchief never to join, or lost the neckerchief, or stained it in some way or whatever.. Before the first neckerchief the troop gave you, then you bought any replacements you needed.. Well the new scouts didn't understand they didn't get a free neckerchief if the one they lost or damaged was someone else's, the troop hadn't given them THEIR neckerchief yet.. Then you couldn't punish the older scout and force him to buy a new one based on the actions of the younger scout, when they were just following this cockamamie idea.. It wasn't their fault the new scout did not feel responsibility to take care of an item that they were borrowing..

not sure what a money grubbing ghost unit creating professional who doesn't like some DE has to do with the train of thought.. Are you accusing my units of having a ghost unit that a DE created.. Truly we do not, we are just not very healthy at the minute, show promise of things changing, but just trying to hold things together until that wave comes. Ok, let me through one more thought into the mix.. I am looking at the two.. And seeing that the book requirement is the requirement in order to earn the AOL. The other requirement is the Boy scout joining requirement.. So can I get a boy his AOL before he is 10.5 yo or is 6 months into his 5th grade schooling, unless he started school very very young, or skipped a grade? I can't get him in at 10 unless he earns the AOL, He can't earn the AOL until he is 10.5 or 6 mths into 5th grade.. It almost makes it seem like the Benefit of earning AOL listed on the Boy Scout application is almost an impossible accomplishment.

So did the rule change, recently.. Too many of you have it in your heads that it's 10 1/2. updated : AKDenleader is having problems sleeping too I guess. I posted something similar on my other thread related to this joining issue.. They answered that the book has it stated differently. " Hmmm... so is the scouting.org website wrong, or is this so new a change that the books haven't caught up to the change on the website? Sounds like a clarification by my DE is in order. Nike - normally I would agree with you, but these two scouts have impressed me.. To be honest, I was never a patient person with the very young. I just can't deal with the lack of attention span. These two boys though don't give me that feeling.. They both go at things with total interest, and can stay focused on a single activity for the entire meeting.. One I feel is natural born SPL material, the other one has great potential also but he will happily follow the stronger personality, yet he has lead when he had the greater skill in something and then the one who is the more dominant personality is happy to follow when he senses the other boy has a few things he could learn. There is very little adult supervision needed with them already.

Did the requirement for AOL and 10 yo recently change from being AOL and 10.5?? Or is there something in this rule I am not seeing.. My other thread the AOL & 10.5 yo was sited. From this one I got from ADCinNC the AOL and 10 yo in what looked like a quote of the rule book.. I went to Scouting.org and got the official statement.. Matches what ADCinNC quoted. So did the rule change, recently.. Too many of you have it in your heads that it's 10 1/2. updated : AKDenleader is having problems sleeping too I guess. I posted something similar on my other thread related to this joining issue.. They answered that the book has it stated differently. " Hmmm... so is the scouting.org website wrong, or is this so new a change that the books haven't caught up to the change on the website? Sounds like a clarification by my DE is in order.

So here I was told it had to be AOL and 10 1/2 to move over to the troop.. But a different thread said AOL and 10 to move to the troop.. So I looked it up. Reading it I think it is AOL and 10, in which case my youngest Web could move over in September rather then wait for Feb.. The quote below coms from scouting.org, Am I reading this wrong?

Well, my Webelos I kid will only turn 10.5 in Feb of 2015, so best we will do is cross him over one month before we would have crossed him over at the Blue & Gold.. I was hoping to meet up with the SM last night, but the troop didn't show up at the church for their normally scheduled Troop meeting. So I just sent him email stating "We have to talk".

Feb or March is the typical time to hold a Blue & Gold and award Rank advancement to all the scouts.. When my son went through it that was a good goal, I swear the requirements were more to it.. We met every week and were watching and strategizing to complete it at that time. Last year since our Pack reformed in Jan. the March deadline was too soon for our scouts, but they only met twice a month.. While working with the Webs I looked at the 2 Required activity pins and 1 elected one, and though "That's it?" of course, we had to earn our Webs their Bobcat so a little bit more time.. But yeah, now I am wondering if we will have any rank advancement at the B&G, or if everyone will rank advance before then.

Somewhat agree dedkad.. I noted that too, but decided to zero in on the lone scout comment.. The tricky point here is the sound that this lone scout is also a fairly new Boy Scout himself, if his friend is a Web just about to cross over.. So if given 6 or more Webs, he just may not yet have the skills to keep all of them in line.. Don't know about leaving him alone with 6 or more scouts while all adults go outside, even with adults it's nice to have at least one other adult helping you to herd cats.. I don't know what to suggest though to bridge the gap of showing boy lead (all adults back off) yet protecting your very young scout from being eaten alive by piranhas. Which may not win the parents over if they observe the boy who is leading totally chewed to bits.

Hmmm.. interesting.. Especially the thank-you business.. I know the youth in our pack are thrilled when an older youth is leading, and give their thanks (maybe not always the official manners way, more like the up front.. OH boy, your in charge? That's great" type of comments. Boys normally don't need to be told by the adults to be excited about boy led.. Question.. You stated your Instructor was a lone scout. Was that just because he was the only one asked to be part of the evening activity, or are you currently a lone scout program hoping for some crossovers so you can become a troop again?.

So sorry packsaddle. But that is what it is!.. Never sat through federal government presentations, but it did sort of remind me of my speech class in college when I took it.. But my college class wasn't all that bad, I do remember on guys presentation on changing a tire, and it was the first time I ever heard "Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosie" and that was never forgotten.. So it had it's merits. In BSA you need to present something that is scout oriented.. One guy through us when we learned origami.. We're all doing origami and thinking, this guy didn't pay attention to the rules.. Then come to find out he was cubscouts and some cub scout rank advancement could be accomplished with origami skills..

Jblake - that is a thought. We need to have the Webs II earn the AOL anyway, it would be much simpler if we didn't break the two up and teach the Web I the AOL only.. Never thought of having the Web I earn the AOL early on.. Perhaps because at the time, I was still planning with a Bear in the den and he couldn't earn the AOL.. Anyway a brilliant idea. Also now I am curious when the Webs I will turn 10 1/2.. He's small & scrappy, but that doesn't always equate to age. Also I have been toying with troop participation. I was thinking of the end game being organized by a BS.. Could even make it into some sort of Den cheif position if a boy is interested. Seriously the troop is so small though the boys have no problem getting a troop position. I was also debating recommending that the Webs keep their 6:30 - 7:30 time slot. The rest of the Pack meets 6-7, the Troop meets 7-8.. If the Webs meet 6:30 - 7:30 then they will spend 1/2 hour with Pack and 1/2 hour with troop.. Akdenldr - I agree I am rambling, but that is where my mind is at right now trying to absorb all the stuff. It just seems every time I tried to understand a concept, rather then getting more detailed info on the subject matter, I get diverted down a new and different rabbit hole.. So now I am mentally sitting in a totally confusing maze of "Which way do I go? Which way do I go?" qwaze - I was happy to find the tree/shrub ID event.. I was looking for an event I saw a year of so earlier which ran in Jan. which was animal tracking in the snow. I didn't find it offered this year unfortunately, but I did find this one.

A few hours are on teaching the EDGE method, but they have each participant bring something physical that they can do a demonstration on. You are not suppose to have your whole demonstration prepared and practiced though. Then after the instruction, they give you time to prep your presentation, you break down into small groups of about 6 people and you listen to each of your teams presentations and critique them afterwards.