Basementdweller

my point is they will be in our camps in very short order, I am just wondering how do deal with them in that environment. considering building a hot box kinda set up to back my gear when we get home. gonna build a cabinet with a couple of heaters in them to make sure none of them get in the house. sad state isn't it. the kill temp is 113 on bed bugs.

He wore his 4 across not 3.

Say what you want about my post....... In a big city we compete for youth. We have 6 packs and troops with in 5 miles of us. The new troop trailer and solicitation for the blue and gold hurts our program. I have heard for nearly a year Pack 123 had prime rib, what are we having????? Well I have already purchased the Beef Briskets and I will smoke them and the Bake Beans the week before. Yep another 20 hours of work. or I can go beg at the Kroger or Outback and save the time and having to charge per head for the meal. Stand here thumping the rule book all you want, Right or wrong it is happening. You gotta ask your self......Who exactly are you doing the right thing for??? your boys or Council or National???????

Wow Half a billion, hidden costs. hmmmmmm Why not, we waste money on paper troops and crews I am so sick of the lying and deceit we are seeing on a council and national level. I have drank the kool aide, Yet, I am not blinding following what I am told is the truth and right by national. First and foremost scouting is a business, NEVER FORGET THAT.

Had a woodbadge staffer have 4 or 5 rows of knots. so that means 16 to 20. Gotta a chuckle when he couldn't fire up his Backpacking stove........ He looked pretty ridiculous in my book. I look at it this way, putting all those knots on a uniform proves what or benefits whom????? 20 knots is blowing your own horn. Just like the silver wood chuck. The group that is nominated this year is the biggest group of self promoting horn blowers I have ever seen. I will prove my worth by selling popcorn, camping, pinewood derbying and putting on the best program for the boys ever........ BTW after the last time we discussed this I took off my knots except for the Eagle AOL

Well, a large non-scout camp in our area is invested with Bed bugs. It was only a matter of time, So much so a warning was sent out. So how do you protect yourself and gear from becoming infested?????? Last time we put our gear in 55 gallon trash bags. Then ran our sleeping bags in the dryer on high heat, bed bugs are supposed to die at 120 degrees. Bed bugs are such a huge problem and nearly impossible to get rid of....... Any thoughts????

Training is good I will never complain about good relevant training. wood badge not so much. Ya know what I am completely sick of.....Having to submit my YPT card with every new application I submit. I told the district training chair last night to tear up my merit badge councilor application cause I was thru turning in the same paperwork over and over again. I printed it with the orginal app and it got lose, I emailed it, it was not received. I even logged into myscouting on her laptop and left the file on her desktop and she still doesn't have it. When BSA or more to the point our district gets their act together I may resubmit the application.

knowing the gentlemen I am working with it will be an outstanding program.

The creation of the event was completely accidental. Just trading ideas over lunch. I know that this is gonna really tick off the district good old boys. Not my intention, nor was the creation of a new event. Of course we willl not publicize it either.

The boys laugh at my tent, they call it the coffin. It is a one man alps tent. not sure of the model. of course I am the first one packed before breakfast too.

Don't know about the rays, to be honest I don't care and neither do the boys. Make the Ceremony an event. We had our ceremony in an ampitheater with 150 torches lighting the event. we dressed in our indian gear and spun a story about little akela, awarded them their career arrows and AOL and then they crossed the bridge into the hands of the waiting SPL. They are still talking about it.

Did the bears attend summer camp? When I was the Bear den leader we went to Resident camp and with that we were done by christmas and spent the rest of the time working on Arrow points and having fun. I agree and doubt they have their rank advancement done. Our bear den had a bike rodeo last night in the fellowship hall at the CO is was a hoot to watch. It is getting dark just too darn early

Stosh if it weren't for the boys I would have stopped doing it a long time ago. A weekend camping with them exhausts me but also recharges my spirit.

Nope, I believe I am done trying to make a difference on the district and council level. TOO MUCH ADULT BS. I will no longer waste my effort, I will make sure our CO BSA program is the best it can possibly be. I will continue to staff the IOLS course. If I ever get asked to staff woodbadge it will be NO with confidence. I will earn my bead, just because it consists of things I would be doing any how. Now ask me if I will wear them? If asked I will tell the person to avoid wood badge it was a waste of time. So what if you can't be SM for the Jamboree troop. got a funny story, Couple weeks ago attended the Districts Webelo Woods event and it was a complete train wreck, not enough food, they were recruiting staff to man stations at the Friday night leaders meeting, saturday nights foil dinners were a mess, picture 130 people trying to cook the dinners on three bags of charcoal, by the time we got to cook ours the charcoal was finished, 40 minutes on the fire and the meals were still raw. I spent $80 out of my pocket to buy pizza four our boys I asked to be reimbursed from the event organizer who simply stated food was provided. One station was out standing. The Readyman station was excellent. Well ran into a fellow SM yesterday at lunch and talked about the Webelos event. I told him my thoughts, he laughed. So I mentioned we should do our own event with just a couple of Packs and Troops. he called me last night and said his troop and Pack are in. So I am now organizing a Webelos Advancement Weekend with 2 troops and Packs and 1 crew. I just gotta shake my head some times.

Soooo, It doesn't really matter for short term camping. So what tents do you use??? Our troop has used Eureka timberlines 4 mans..... I recently purchase some Alps Mountaineering tents for personal use and really like them. Maybe scaling down to two man tents would be better???? Your thoughts?

I have two of my ticket items completed, third is half finished, four one is tentatively scheduled, I intend on working on my diversity ticket item between thanksgiving and new years, to be presented on scout sunday 2011. So I am going to finish it, I am maybe 1/4 the way done. All of my ticket items are Pack related and things I am very passionate about. The tough one is the LNT Master educator, big commitment, hopefully I can get it done this year.

I am told that National only updates the membership info in the local council database quarterly at best. I became CM in June, submited new signed app and yp, and I am still listed as ACM on the charter. Our boys that crossed over in March 2010 are still on our Charter and on their new Troops charter. Something Ain't right.

Lack of wood badge was the excuse for telling me no for a lot of things I would have like to have done in the district at the cub level. I was not qualified. I jumped thru their hoop and I am still not qualified. My son crossed over in the mean time so he will not partake in my efforts.

Took it in my own council. In the book. Trying to decide on whether to finish my ticket. I could care less about the beads, the cronies at district already have told me my woodbadge isn't worth the price of admission. So my entire reason for taking it is moot. don't get me wrong, I meet a few outstanding individuals at the course, but they were the exception. Gotta laugh, got an email from the district, it is time to submit for our District Awards dinner. Another two hours of District commissioners awarding each other.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

I have our Roster printed out of Scouttracks, tonight the Den leaders are to verify each boys information is correct. We are going over boys we have not seen in a while and contacting them and seeing if they are interested in Cubs still. I have all of the adult leaders youth protection certificates in hand, I have mine and my ACM's training certificates in hand. I also have all of the den leaders training in hand to be turned in with the charter.. Our leadership is 100% trained for their positions. Now to tackle the boy mess. It doesn't seem that difficult.

Fighting that problem too, our charter is a mess, previous CM really did a poor job last year. It was a month late, didn't recharter a number of boys, many more did not get boys life, Missed a couple of leaders, rechartered boys who had quit the Pack. on and on. I will fix all of this when I start to work on it tonight as well.

here is the link....the Scout shop calls it the centenial uniform http://www.scoutstuff.org/BSASupply/ItemDetail.aspx?cat=01RTL&ctgy=PRODUCTS&c2=UNIFORMS&C3=USHIRTS&C4=&LV=3&item=631LSS&prodid=631LSS^8^01RTL& Not naive in my book.

So Wood badge is all about the beads!!!!!!! I have got my course completion card and my ticket. Explain to me why I would retake a course just to get the beads?????? If I felt that strongly about it I would just buy them on ebay. I trying to decide if I will complete my ticket.

We are a mega council and it is only offered once a year. It is a 3 hour drive on interstates to get a crossed it. I drive 40 minutes to round table one way. So our council is geographically large.

We have used scout tracks for a number of years, the new belt loops and pins are in the program and where added exactly when national said we could start working on them. Well worth the money. Beats the pants off of PackMaster and Yes I have used both.