Basementdweller

Just Musing here.....read on if your interested. The troop has a facebook page and all the parents and some of the scouts are friended in..... It is an interesting glimpse into their lives outside of scouting.....I have had occasion to discuss with a few den leaders who liked some adult entertainers or posted pictures of themselves in scout oath and law violating situations. Be that as it may......... So there is a couple who vacation 5 or 6 times a year. Post pictures to their facebook pages, New York city, chicago, carolina coast, florida coast......Not sure how they afford it or where the vacation time comes from. When asking dad to help with scouting no time or money....hmmmmmm...really???? Interestedly their house is about to be foreclosed on... So what do you do???? Get on facebook and beg for money.......You use a donation site to collect it from around the world..... Well in a week they collected enough to avoid the foreclosure and are currently eating a Joe's Crab Shack.......did I miss something??????? Just makes a fellow shake his head...... I am confused on a number of levels.... How can I help a couple out who can't manage there money and live a much more flamboyant lifestyle than I do???? I can't see why anyone would give them money and the Joes crabshack thing is a slap in the face for anyone who donated to them.... Of course I don't donate money to the homeless guys on corners holding up signs.....I have given them sandwiches on occasion but never money.... I just don't get it...

My scouts fees are all paid.....The first troop meeting is in two weeks....

Ya know in the 1880's most of these kids would have already been married and havin kids by 15-16..... Just sayin

Sounds like the District level good old boys clubs are a more wide spread problem than I ever imagined..... TCD your guys at least put on a program....Our guys didn't and anyone who tried was crushed by the system.....

This is a tad different than the school clinic handing out condoms or pills.... YOU need to decide for yourself when life actually starts..... so is the morning after pill that much different than a contraceptive pill??? Not all that much from the way I understand they work...... They have been handing out condoms for years....... In my neighborhood.....teen pregnacy is a fact of life....Bored, under eductated kids with no future, unsupervised lots of free time....

Eagle....we have the same complaints..... Read the operators manual...Heck they can't struggle thru 4 pages of a vcr or dvd player manual.... they are not going to read a couple of hundred pages of a scout book..... Think cliff notes...

It is going to be cold this weekend.....lows in the low 40's....Leaves are starting to come off the trees..the smell of autumn....The boys....the banter around the campfire....the haggling for that last cookie...... Ya I am paid......Much better than money......I am a lucky man.

We have a binder that each family gets.... Our scout account policy Behavior policy....prior to my time and the CC won't scrap it. Physcial form Map to the scout shop Leader roster contact info and bio Calendar Map to all of the camp sites we attend We have a guide that the CC wrote about how rank advancement works...discusses the SMC and BOR One discussing Meritbdges...... There is nothing your going to do to get the new scout parent, especially cub parents to relax....

Hey guess what..... we are backpacking the shelowee trace this weekend.....With donated backpacks, plastic tarps for tents.... No big corporate donors, no shiney new scout offices, no run down scout camps, My boys, my new ASM and I in the woods for three days.... Intels disappearing donation isn't my problem....It is the scout pros who need to pay their salary..... So how many hundreds of millions has Bechtel cost???? Is that money well spent????? high adventure is cool.....I wonder about the return on the donated dollars invested????? Fund our Salaries.....

Let him quit..... Everyone whines that the adults are making it too easy for the boys..... Honestly who cares?????? It is the boys and Parents choice to quit.... Had this discussion with a boy last weekend..... Well Billy if you change your mind you know where to find us........ His face went white, he was shook up and surprised that I wasn't going to jump thru his hoops to keep him in the troop...... Ya know what he was at the meeting last night.....Happy and engaged.... Done chasing boys who don't want to be a scout. My opinion we end up with inferior scouts or scouts who give scouting a bad name.... Shake his hand and send him on his way

Yawn Finishing your ticket is fine... Pretty silly if you ask me....stuff I would have done anyhow.....Yes I finished mine..... Still no beads....All though my training record shows it as completed. Far as the comment you get out of it what ya put into it...maybe my expectations were to high...maybe my staff failed. From the stuffed animals to the screwing around at gilwell.... To the very poor make up of the patrols.... I may be a jerk, but I am involved in scouting for the right reasons..... I will never be a Man Scout.......

What is a district event?????? DE=Hopefully a benevolent dictator The old one fired all of the district folks before he left..... We are on our own...... The new district folks have an uphill battle.....none of the troops are used to the district doing anything.....I presented the fall camporee to the PLC...they responded "Sounds pretty boring".....So we are not going.....I am disappointed....I really want to support the new district staff.....I may go out with my son and man a station to help out..... So as of right now we are still going it alone.

Not exactly sure how intels giving impacts my scouts program..... hmmmm, just a second it will come to me.....almost there....... It doesn't......... We sell candy bars, popcorn and christmas wreaths to pay for our program..... I don't thing the intel donation covers the cost of scouting Chief Executives salary..... Back to the grass roots, my friend back to the roots....

I took a couple of my son's friends, who happen to be his patrol, to shoot my bushmaster 308. The BSA needs to realize that single shot 22's just aren't cutting the mustard anymore. The rotc guys at the local high school are shooting 223's...... Our boys are growing up playing black ops on their game systems shooting hand cannons and high power rifles......Not like you or I running the woods shooting 22 and 410's. To them single shot 22's are pretty boring especially shooting paper all day. Son and I shoot in a 22 pistol bowling pin league during the winter, daughter will shoot this year too she is finally old enough... With that said.....a day on the range is a lot safer than a day on mountain bikes.

Nothing your scouts picture would still show up on the councils webpage.... SC....should I wear a hat to cover my horns and long pants to tuck in my tail?????

Life is too short to deal with folks like this... Remind her that the Pack is run by volunteers.....Volunteers means no pay and a performance that is well volunteer level. I would offer her three suggestions...... She is free to enjoy her and her son's scouting else where. She is free to drop him off at the door. Hand her an adult application and suggest she becomes the Packs advancement chair and run the pack meetings.

looking at it......It just appears to be a guy hocking tshirts and patches......

Got a call a bit ago from dear old mom....She volunteers at the hospital and ran into my boyhood SM. chit chatting she mentioned my adult scout career....He laughed and patted her arm and said "well that is number 12". My boyhood SM has mentored 12 scoutmasters as boys......WOW. I am impressed to say the least. I would call that a successful scouting career and something to be proud of..... I think we will run home and look him up and introduce my son to him......

Direct mailing is expensive........and not very productive. I suggest a booth at a town fair or event.....bring your pinewood track.....have some cars to race....or seattles stomp rockets...... the point is...it isn't the end of the world.

That is the initial hook,the outdoors, My boys in the Patrols are great friends outside of scouting too....The one patrol went to a skateboard park and the other went and played laser tag together..... So do I want my scouts to only be friends with each other in the context of scouts and the outdoors......Or lifelong friends in and out of scouting......

The illusion is that the excitement only happens in the outdoors...... The excitement resides where our boys say it does...... Our Christmas party is a lock in with a feast fit for a teenager...The boys play video games all night.....eat pizza and chicken wings......There is a nerf gun fight........It is one they look forward too year after year. Our guys love to go to the movies together.....How about an urban hike........ Adventure making breakfast at the community shelter....Boy do it and have some great stories.... I think the fault of the adult volunteer is narrow vision of program....

Then old dad would have been in arrested for assault and been out what ever the medical expenses cost to make my teeth right again, don't forget the civil penalties, and you, as scout, would have been thrown out..... You need to remember, he didn't do anything wrong technically......You said they crossed a 2 mile wide lake in winter in a canoe. We don't know anything than that......For all we know the boys were pulling on rope a crossed a frozen lake in minnesota or they could have been in southern florida where it was 80 degrees...... So the dwellers of the forum cannot judge what makes you feel you have the right to break all the teeth in your Scoutmasters mouth...... I had a den leader assaulted by a parent.....I will never ever put up with threats to anyone in our BSA organization.....We have a procedure in place, One your done. If a parent strikes a Troop, Pack or Crew leader law enforcement is called as is the SE......The youth is immediately band from the Troop, Pack or Crew. Irregardless of the whys..... If you don't trust the SM's judgement I am calling you a fool for sending your scout with him for anything.......

This appears to be a park and recs department that has gotten into the merit badge business. http://afcity.org/Portals/0/Parks/Recreation/Docs/Flyer%202012.pdf Found it odd....

we use plastic tubs.....the wooden patrol boxes we have are too heavy for our young troop and patrols. We use inexpensive coleman 2 burner propane stoves with a folding lid.....They fold to maybe 4 inches thick.....the are stood on edge in side the tub.....The pots and pans and lantern are put in next and hold the stove verticle.... we stuff pot holders between them to limit wear.....The utensils go in an old tent bag and we have custom cardboard sheaths for our knives.... The other tote is dry and can goods....and a standard cooler.... the biggest down side to no patrol box is no work surface....but I picked up a couple folding tables from Home depot.....Plastic light weight...plenty of room....

Well folks I got news for ya...... the BSA is run by people and People are not perfect...... I don't take the rose colored view of the BSA but a realistic one..... I have been lied to by Pro's and volunteers.... I have witnessed the Ghost Units used to inflate Member numbers. The SE's with Multi hundreds of thousands of dollars in salaries... Many of you like Jeff are insulated from it......Good for you..... I believe in the BSA on the unit level......Beyond that I have no need of it.