Basementdweller

I pay to volunteer for scouting. $15 a year I get hit up for the district and councils campership fund, I sell popcorn, get hit up for FOS. on and on and on. Now National is going to use the Alumni associate to raise funds. Yes I got the email. I deleted it. With Jay saying he is saving up to join I gotta ask how much does it cost?????

Basementdweller has been there and done that, one person cannot or will not change the Good old boys club or status quo. Not only did I try once, but I was stupid enough to try again about 6 or 8 months ago. Naw that's alright they can have it, district will be just fine without the old dweller. Personal goal, grow the Pack resulting in Troop growth. Method, world class cub program, lots of activities excited and motivated den leaders. We are making progress. Not world class but the best on my side of town.

Nope spoke with my troop guide regarding my ticket councilor and he said he would ask to be mine and give me a call back over the weekend. No call back and no return calls despite leaving messages on his cell phone. See post on 12/9 about it. I had forgot about it, got an email from a Patrol mate inviting me to his beading. I am going to go. (This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

Made the phone call....5 days no response. Its over. A fitting end to a horrible course. Can't wait till the next is it worth it thread.

Joebob hit the nail on the head. I have also seen the trend, GOBC that caused me the grief when I was trying to work on the district level, none had earned an Eagle. The idiot that caused us all the grief with the webelos event was a star scout as a youth. So is it that the Adult eagles work at the unit level and aspire to do nothing more? Or do they understand that the UNIT be it Troop, Pack or Crew is the most important level in scouting???? Our troop has 9 eagle adults registered. NONE are active at the district level. With the politics and nonsense that goes on above unit level....I have no desire to be involved or encourage my parents or leaders to be involved.

Missed Brents post....... Sure your base program cost the same.....and that fantastic and truly a bargain for those you serve. But I am guessing that your program takes a significantly lower percentage of income than ours does. with the median income for your community at 80k, $500 is nothing .6% of their annual income. but with a median income of $20k $500 is much more significant 2.5% of their income. Far as FOS goes.....$10k is a significant number and one to be proud of for sure. We have never raised more than $1k in the combined troop and pack. The boys don't care about fancy busses or airplanes. They don't care about fancy backpacks or fancy summer camps. Our best outings have involved woods and just the troop. what they care about is being made fun of or treated poorly by other scouts and scouters. Happens more than it should, but probably less than in daily lives.

Labels Everything and everyone gets a label. As a young man with my parents, we went to the driving in movie occasionally. one night we sat in our car and watched a guy clean out his car into the drive in movie lot. I am going to say the pile was a foot deep at every door. Of course that was 45 years ago. People are people. I think a small percentage are completely self centered. In a city of a million people say 1% are irresponsible and self centered, dumping polluting, shooting. that is like 10,000 people being nasty. Well you have the same element in the county. Once your property becomes one of the dumping, atv, hunting and general abuse areas, it is near impossible to stop. Other than living their for about 6 months. Had a friend put a trail camera on the drive way into his and it collected all of the coming and going. he printed the pics got with the sheriff and the problems slowed way down.

I married a tom boy too. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. Nothing like a gal with backpacker legs, but that is just me.

Lets face it. If you have an outdoor program and the gals participate. They chose to backpack for a week and do 50 miles or they canoe for a week and do 100 miles. That makes them more outdoorsy and adventurous than 95% of the boys they will meet. The girls I have met want the good looking boy Quarterback type or the tattooed bad boy to ask them to the dance friday night. You don't get asked by being an outdoor tom girl and that is what most of them end up being classified. Currently my daughter at 9 loves the outdoors, camping, backpacking and camping. That might change as she continues to grow and mature. When the time comes she can chose to join venturing or not. As far as I am concerned it is dead at our CO. We will find an existing crew shares her interest and she can join that.....notice I said she.

I am guessing here. These sisters of current troop members >14 years in age probably thought that their girl scout friends would join. Again guessing, they sat in their typical boring meeting everyone complaining how boring it was and talked about how cool it would be to go rock climbing, rappelling and backpacking would be. Then it became available to them and the bravado stopped, the reality is RARE is the girl who likes to muck it up in the woods. Most young ladies I know and have met do not aspire to be more than something Pretty on a mans arm. sad.

Well, here is where I am at......... I will call the TG one more time and then I am done.

Again eisley you are incorrect. All of my volunteers are in the system without BSA id's and have received credit on our charter for their training.

Yes they are different people. From what I saw, staff on course who knew participants became their ticket councilors. Well I didn't know any staff so I was assigned a random person on a list who may or may not have been asked if he wanted to be my councilor.

WOW I choked on my coffee reading this........ your seriously going to complain that the centennial pants are cold in 20 degree weather while riding your motorcycle. At 55 mph and air temp of 20 your windchill effect is -3 to -20 depending on which chart you follow. I know with out my brush busters on the bike in the winter my fingers freeze in a few minutes even with the electric gloves.

your gonna laugh at this. I called and spoke with my troop guide about it last night. He doesn't even know if any of my fellow patrol members have finished their ticket or not. Far as the ceremony goes, he said he would like to attend and shamed me for not wanting one. He is contacting the CD and asking to be my ticket councilor to help me finish it. No clue how that is going to work, but I never met my ticket councilor so who cares.

What is "Wrong" Scouting is many different things to different people. To some it is only about the eagle chase. To others it is a growing and learning experience for the youth. Others it is only about camping and outdoors. Others it is a social club. None are right or wrong and while we might not like what others are doing if the troop is not losing members then it is providing what it's customers want. The next question is "Who are their Customers?" Boys or Parents.

Fair enough Q. I am just along for the ride on this one. I would like to guide the group, but don't want to influence what they want to do.

go to myscouting.org sign in and it is under training(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

John.....why in the world would any high school related group want to do venturing???? They already have organized activities.

Sample size.....hmmmmm Could be. Based on what I am reading, over the years I have been involved in scouting I should have encountered at least 1, Right??????? We did have a picky eater and that ended by Friday at summer camp. He was scarfing down what was in front of him no problem. Eamon I am not saying they had quality home cooked meals, they eat what ever is on sale that week or is handed out at the food bank.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

ROFL Nope No clue how it works. with the info that was given by 92 and others I assumed it was a plan it yourself kinda thing. If the CD or staff are involved there will be no ceremony

7 pages of debate and attack. We forgot one thing. Most of the boys want ATVs and PWC. 90% of the boys in my troop want it by a show of hands. It is up to the adults to deliver it. Like it or not it is what it is.

Picky eaters are a rich peoples problem. Moms and dads drive thru the fast food joint and placate their kids with what they WANT to eat. Mom will cook separate dinners. One of the benefits of boys from the hood is they will eat anything you put in front of them and left overs are rarely an issue. Oddly enough none of the boys have any food allergies....ZERO. I wonder why that is?

In three years our popcorn went from sub $1k to $10k. I was one of the people asked to put on a how did you do it class. I asked the Popcorn Kernel if he was asking me to cut my own throat. The reality is we are competing against all of the neighboring units, some less than two miles away and the mega pack 5 miles away. So upon the designated day I stood up and told them my secret. A lot of hard work and personal sacrifice. Taking the dens out with the den leader to do neighborhood blitzes and week nights after work and weekends. Standing in front of store fronts for hours and hours. Carting the popcorn in and out of the house for storage. Yep lots of fun.

So let me get this straight. You plan your own ceremony??????? I think that is pretty tacky. My scouts and the neighboring Packs and Troops have benefited from my ordeal. Lets just leave it at that, don't want to be accused of tooting my own horn.