Basementdweller

We give nothing beyond the Patch and certificate for the AOL. We give a Career arrow to every out going Webelo But this entire endeavor does not need to be expensive. This years arrows are just about completed....... Let me see, do you have a turkey hunter in your parent pool????? or someone at round table???? Feathers for free Walk around and find sticks for the shaft or go to home depot and buy the shafts for less than a buck a piece.... You can get artificial sinew at most craft stores.....for 10 bucks for 10 years worth. Arrow heads, I like the flint arrow head as opposed to obsidian...they are less than a buck a piece from crazy crow. Then just a bit of time assembling them.... Part of our Craftsman badge the boys cut out plaques for their arrows to rest on..... Gee a little planning goes a long way Well I get out of hand and have a couple of hours a piece in mine.....

The best advice here is from Seattle...... I am going to guess your a one man show....You are the Advancement Chair, The FOS chair, The outings Chair, Blue and gold and popcorn kernel. Your never going to find a replacement till you get some help...... Recruit all of the above positions and you will soon have a new cub master.......

You know what....my pants aren't official BSA pants....shhhhh.....don't tell anyone I am ok with that..... You know the boys don't care either.....what they care about is I am there, and we are going camping this weekend. I won't be wearing BSA pants then either.

Trainerlady has Adult scout troop on her hands...... Time for the committee to step up and tell the adults no. Limit the adults to a maximum of 4 per outing or event. With that many Adults around the boys will never be boys.

hmmmm Twocubs, who exactly is we. Our scouts play city league baseball and love going to the game..... I am betting it has never been presented to the PLC for consideration. "Giving them what they want"....

noname.....little league is easy you root for the boys, show up to practice a couple times a week and a game once a week.....AT the end everyone gets a nice shiney trophy. Well boy scouting is much harder than that.....When my son ages out I will have over 12 years as an adult leader....and this is year round not merely 6 or 8 weeks once a year. Plus in scouting you eventually will develop a deeper relationship with the scouts.....You know who they are not just the can't make the throw from third base to first. mom and dad like little league for $200 bucks they get a nice new uniform, hat and bat...They sit in the stand and watch practice and then sit in the stand and watch the game...... In scouting $200 doesn't even get it started. Being a Adult leader in boy scouting is a huge year round commitment......Camping and outings multiple weekends a month, roundtables, training, fundraising, troop meetings, angry parents, angry professionals.......Do you ever wonder why nobody wants to do it??? noname....I gotta ask, are you BS or CS???? if BS then why aren't the boys doing the work????

The entire group missed the point of the discussion Step Dad isn't comfortable with him going canoeing with out passing the swim test Eng.....you hold the ultimate decision......No is always acceptable and often preferable answer.......If your not comfortable with the situation then NO is the only correct answer... Playing the bad guy is ok from time to time

cool I have a cyber stalker..... OGE I read about other lodges doing more than service....... I have no problem with doing service but sell that to a 14 or 15 year.... All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy In our parts the OA is merely slave labor to set up the summer camps.....which we don't attend.

Jeff we don't know your situation or experience level.... Have you ever dealt with meddling parents??????? Had a mom walk on the PL running his Patrol meeting when they were deciding their menu.......the CC escorted her from the room. Which led to a heated conversation in the hall....... I know of a Gentleman who teaches SM fundamentals and IOLS....He preaches boy lead, PLS and such......But the reality is he runs a Webelos 3 Troop. By his very nature he cannot let the boys lead. My point......Training is irrelevant.

Our troop pays for NYLT for 2 scouts viewed worthy by the committee. The troop will reap the rewards..

Ya know outdoors most of us don't live within an hour of the mountains......I looked and Fish does live 5-8 hours worth of driving from the mountians. Let me see, my kids get off school and arrive home at 4:30 in the car and to the CO by 5. That means we would arrive at the trail head from 10pm-3am. then we need to leave no later than noon on sunday to return...... a 4 day weekend would ease the burden, but spending 16+ Hours in the car isn't fun for anyone. While the ball park isn't traditional high adventure it is still camping none the less.

Well the SM's for the Jambo troops are currently making rounds......Invite them to come and do the presentation...... Philmont, Northern Tier and such, there are plenty of adult crew advisors who love to share their experience with another troop......At roundtable stand up and ask the group.. OA.....Our lodge isn't very good, service not much else......Boys go thru the ordeal and generally never go back. There is a lot of economics involved.....are you troop members poor, middle class, wealthy.... do they drive BMW, Acuras, or Lexus or 10 year old minivans........Money makes the things your asking about much easier. Adventure doesn't have to cost a lot......you just need to be creative.....

Scoutfish....my situation is very different from yours......I will lose the title, but they will still see me every week, I will be in the basement with the troop instead of up stairs with the cubs. The reason for my departure is different as well....the current SM has turned in his retirement notice.....With no other Adult in the troop physically able to take the boys camping, remember we are a troop with single parent households and grandparents......I am actively recruiting another ASM to go camping with me..... Far as regarded, I am figure head dad to more than one of the boys....The only man that cared anything about them..... I have 4 boys who bring their grade cards and graded papers in to show me and share their success and the weeks they don't I make sure to ask them if they had a bad week at school. I have taken all a number of families to the dairy queen to celebrate good grades and citizen of the month as the occasion warrants........ The parents and scouts don't know....we are going to do a changing of the guard ceremony at the may pack meeting....when the boys get their new neckers and books.....I will pin the CM patch on the new CM and remove mine......

Scout shows..... Now I have never attended one of these.......If someone is putting on one of these let me know I would like to attend and see what it is about........ PM me the info.....I will send ya money for a few tickets...If you could recommend a nice camping spot that would be great too. Driving distance.....Lets just say east of the Mississippi river......

There should be no debate....here is the requirement....It says absolutely nothing about location.... a. Camp a total of at least 20 days and 20 nights. Sleep each night under the sky or in a tent you have pitched. The 20 days and 20 nights must be at a designated Scouting activity or event. You may use a week of long-term camp toward this requirement. If the camp provides a tent that has already been pitched, you need not pitch your own tent. So realistically he could just cowboy camp, no tent involved. So if the merit badge councilor says that his tent camping at the ball field does not count then he is adding requirements. Camping at these sports games are fun....give the kid a break...... We camp at a soceer game and minor league baseball....it is a lot of fun. I will add that if we are struggling to get 20 days of camping the outdoor program in his home troop is suspect. our first year scouts get 21 days from march thru december.

scoutfish.....moving your analogy from where it started to where it is more accurate....... there are 10 troops in town....7 of the SM's steal money....... Most of the parents who were leaders in CS really struggle with, well, the boys struggling. The next batch of crossovers into the troop will have 4 cub leaders kids in it.....I am interested to see how this works out.....I got a year to think about it and talk to them about it.

that is really sad...... We are promoting Jambo currently....we have an very old scouter going to pay one boys way.......the boys are hesitating for some reason. I think they can't get their head around what it is and what is going to happen. We have three boys saving for philmont when they are old enough which will be in two years.

bear dad internal merit badge councilors are a bad idea.....and from internal merit badge councilors it is a short trip to an advancement only driven program. I have not had the luxury of excess adults at a troop meeting..... The few parents that come to the meeting hang out in the lounge and drink coffee and leave the scouting to the SM and CC. CC sits at the back of the room and signs off advancements as the boys approach him....the SM and other ASM help the boys with the program as asked.....

richard I don't get my tour permit or plan from national...... So why or how are the courses you mention required???

AJR if your taking the LNT course take the Master educator course....It is a week long and much better than the Weekend Trainer course. I have taken both. AJR did you take NYLT while a scout????? if so you will find WB a repeat

I must be in one of the pilot councils, because we were told that it was a national mandate.

Oh CC that last post was absolutely priceless. It says a lot about you. I just gotta ask are you anything other than a busy body parent??????

Q This is the program the SM and I provide for the boys in the Pack and troop. What you describe is us and our situation, minus the school bus. It is hard, but the boys are fantastic.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

mom.....I have seen some guys do some pretty stupid stuff too. The stay at home mom thing was very recent and fresh in my thoughts. The best part was she struck thru the errors in red and made the correction in purple. Earn the right.......Bad choice of words I suppose. My point was there are a lot of new scouters who demand to go on some of these hard to get trips......Cub scouters generally should be the last choice because of experience. If no other better qualified candidate applies I have no problem with them going.. Eagle92 would be an exception to the CS leader of course his scouting resume is significantly different than a typical CS leader resume.

Don't care about the cellphone or whether they had one or not.... The way I see it they did the right thing. They got off the river built a fire and stayed put after dark. I would hope they would have gotten back in the canoes and continued on at first light. Far as the Helicopter rescue and such.....In our legal society the emergency responders are required to figure worse case. What if one of the boys had a medical condition, what if they had capsized and were all wet, what if............ We can play the what if game all day. . I would have liked the scouts to turn down the ride in the helicopter to come paddling out in the morning.....But we don't train our scouts to think independantly, they are to respect and follow authority. I can hear the conversation now "Base, Helicopter, ahhhhhh, the boys are refusing to get in the craft, they said they are ok and will finish their trip. Requesting instructions".