Basementdweller

Peri......Using my son as an example......his birthday is early October. The crossover and AOL is March he was 10 years 5 months old, the SM did not make it to the council office but turned in his application at roundtable the following month. I am not going to bust his chops over 30 days. There were several others in similar situations...... Never heard of a brand new scout earning merit badges immediately after crossing over...

mom.....depends on the boys. This years group, 10 will crossover in February with a fairly high certainty. Three will not, they did not attend resident camp and have missed a number of events over the summer.

Well my scouts are urban types, more mature and tougher than their suburban counterparts, beyond the shadow of a doubt. Many have raised themselves.... The new webelos den June 2011 has already earned, fitness, citizenship, geologist, naturalist and outdoorsman. That leaves just a this years group will not be able to cross over to June because of birthdays.....but they will camp with the troop from April till summer camp. So our program will be still be less than a year

Sorry that link and document got my blood boiling. I don't like over achieving parents pushing advancement......I really hate that document and schedule of events....... I would be ok with it if they took advancement right out of Boy Scouts....

And the joining requirement for Boy scouts is 10 years old having earned the AOL.

Q......the career arrow is the only extra we do in our Pack. We don't buy our boys uniforms, Books, backpacks, sleeping bags, mess kits, compasses or flash lights like in other Packs do when boys cross over.

As pointed out the AOL is merely a patch and Card purchased from the scout shop. Soooo I would say the advancement chair. If you are the webelos den leader and don't want to do anything special for your scouts then don't, you are under obligation to provide more than the card and patch. Looking for an out.....Pretty simple gather the affected parents in a room with out their boys and say if you want this for your boys then some one needs to step up and make it happen. I am CM and take great pride in the career arrows I make. Each one is custom following the scouts career down to the number of campouts they attend. It takes a number of hours per scout to accomplish the task. I have already begun making this years batch......12 from the way it looks. I hand split and sand the turkey feathers, mount them with sinew and mount the arrow head with sinew. Then use cross stitch thread to create the bands. As pointed out, these are very pack specific.....I have known most of these boys since they have been tigers. I am delighted to be able to give them a token of their scouting career. In past years I have had young men break them in half right after the ceremony. mad parents about perceived mistakes in the awards... We treat this as a Career arrow....every boy aging out of the Pack or receiving their AOL gets one.

Ya know OTN you are correct, they don't have the skill set to be boy scouts. where do you think they get those skills????? It isn't from some whimpy camp twice a year webelos program. It is from the troop, If you are expecting webelos to have the proficiency of a tenderfoot or second class scout then I believe you are mistaken. We cross over 4th graders into the troop, We do it Feb of their 4th grade year. Our retention in two years of doing this is 100%.

The whole first year of resident camp is the reason for crossing over in feb. Our boys have attended day camp and resident camp as webelos, the troop is full of their friends, we camp with the troop twice during their short 9 months.

perd.....I was thinking the same thing my scout in 2 years has nearly 80 days, if you count his cub career probably closer to 120. What a sad sad scouting career for the new eagle! As a scout I would be embarrassed by that low a number. Now stepping back, what a sad state the troop must be in if he is bragging about that amount of camping. 5 nights a year that is pathetic. The new scout patrol most are not 11 years old yet, has 15 nights already under their belt, and this weekend it will be 17.....and they joined in February.

What is a second year webelos????? We cross all of ours 1st year at the Blue and Gold in february or as soon as they are 10 1/2. They are bored with the 2nd year..... I assume you mean 20 activity pins???? Why in the world would you bore the boys with all that nonse???? Traveler???? please Readyman, Outdoorsman, Citizen, Aquanaut, Forester, Geologist, Naturalist, Sportsman, Craftsman, scientist and fitness, why in the world do they call it fitness????? Is all a young man needs. The rest is just fluff, get them those pins and advance them. I completely disagree with webelos being a two year program, completely stupid and a waste of time. They can do it in 9 months.

Well that is 10% of the deficit and a start and better than nothing. Couple that with other tax reforms and spending reduction we can do it.

Guess I need to clarify a point. When I say universal health care, I am not saying in the socialist sense. Everyone should be required to have health insurance or provide financial proof they should not need insurance. Socialist health care generally does not deliver a great product, gets the job done for most people. gone down this road with Mr. allen before and his wealthy suburb. I don't remember the exact amount but the median income for the area was $82k and homes priced at $300k that is a ton of $$$$. not sure what your interest rate is but at 5% and a $200k balance that is roughly $10k a year being deducted from federal taxes per house hold. with roughly 13k households in the city and half of those actual houses with loans that means roughly 700k in missed taxes. that is one small city in GA. what if it was nationwide?????? that would fix the problem..... Just sayin Did I ever mention I support the flat tax....... Lets get rid of the underground economy, all the day labor being paid in cash. Tax that income too.

Tampa.....insurance will force you out, not property taxes. I am more concerned about property taxes at retirement than insurance.

My point is it will put people in houses they can actually afford. No first time home buyer should be buying a $200k house either. I still see it happening, getting sucked into the entire buying up scheme and interest only loans. Far as the housing industry goes....a market correction is in order.

As adults why are you messing with the boys advancement? Shouldn't they advance at their own rate???? The linked document will get them to first class in six months, Wow. As shortridge pointed out.....What does the PLC thing about this???? I cannot believe that something like this would be a woodbadge project??? Let me take that back, with the type A personalities I met there, I am very sure they would not risk a thing as important as advancement to mere boys. Back off let them work the program as laid out in the book

Utah again. Just makes ya wonder what is going on there. of course where I am at 4 miles in most cases will get you to a road.

Eamon You just seem to be a more hands on kinda guy. A District position seems to be a waste of your talents. The youth are the reason we are here, not the political adult structure that scouting has become. Start that troop. Make it the best ever.

guess kudu missed his meds yesterday

So Kudu........what do you think about this fellow airplane and buses and all. http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=322938&p=1

The haves and have nots are all ready here. In my town we have a growing number of gated private security patrolled community's. Rich.....not sure how much.....but I bet a couple hundred thousand a year rich. The poor are getting poorer, the truly poor live in government housing and rely on hand outs and soup kitchens. they rely on government provided cell phones and other social programs. Don't believe me come walk in my shoes.

Why is asking a question in an open forum unfair???????????? Would you have treated a scout who was a friend or member of your troop any different? I treat all of my scouts the same. Well, I will never discuss sex with a youth member of troop pack or crew, probably not with any adults either. so if the SM and I had pulled the scout a side and asked if he was gay and new what it meant.....I don't see how that could have ended any way but badly. mom mad, scout leaving us or us having to remove him. Just looking for what my peers think is all..... I stand corrected....ASM is the only official charter job an 18-20 year old can hold in a troop. It is my belief that this issue is only going to become more and more frequent. The difference now verses 20 years ago is it is now an acceptable choice. I am not going to judge it, but I have to deal with it in others.

skeptic In our area, once you get out of the designated rec areas you can camp anywhere in the national forest. the designated campgrounds with hook ups are full and a mess. I am talking back country, we don't need permits or anything, our problem is vehicle break ins......so we need a drop off and pick up at a designated location.

So what do you do if a scout tells you he is gay? Ignore it? Have a SMC? Kick him out? Turn it over to the Troop committee? I have had it happen, scout was 11....I resisted investigating further whether he knew what exactly he was saying or not. I simply pulled mom aside at pick up and mentioned it to her, I made sure she was aware my telling her is just informational and nothing more. I did not report it to the troop committee or COR or IH or DE,SE. SM and I talked about it and we are pretty sure he was just being 11. With that said, what about a 17 year old life scout???? how about your 18 year old JASM?

Remove the anti wood badge propaganda. We camp a lot in the national forest as a troop and family. ZERO cost and we rarely see another person. The boys love the cool factor and fantastic stargazing. It does take a little more planning, water treatment, human waste disposal and LNT ethics. A resource under utilized in our region