Nike

Brent, Was he driving a souped up,late model Mustang with a Shelby paint job? If so he was in our neighborhood on the other side of metro Atlanta last spring.

John in KC: That sounds more like potential crowd control.

I suppose the first thing I'd do would be to meet with the parents and the Scout and get the Blue Card situation straightened out. If they have old BC's from one of your predecessors.... I would try to discern whether they are really honestly trying to catch up or cynically working the system. And, just another thought, if Scout Bobby is being homeschooled, Mom may be thinking, "Why not?" for most of those academic badges. I would secondly strongly suggest that maybe it might be time to have Scout Bobby transfer his MB work to another MBC. (Line that up ahead of time.) I would be suspicious if I saw all of an Eagle candidate's required MB's were signed off by his mom unless I personally knew the situation in the troop or with the Scout. Emphasize repeatedly to Mom, Dad, and Scout that you want to set him up to sail through the Eagle paperwork process at council as well as get him back into the swing of the troop, as much as any remaining medical issues allow. Getting back with the other adults is part of that process. Lastly, beef up your MBC lists and get to know them as well as let the parents and committee know that from now on, parents will be strongly discouraged ( ie: you won't sign the card) from working with their own boys one on one unless it's a special case, like Dad's the only Metalworking MBC for three districts. Treat this as a learning oppurtunity, not a stumbling block.

Well, we had this exact same discussion on a GS forum and it got unbelievably nasty. As a troop leader, I would want to welcome this girl, might have trouble doing it, and I would also tell her that once born, her baby can't come on any outings due to insurance problems. (GS has the worst insurance and nitpikiest policies known to man.) I would also give the other parents a heads up and have a parent only meeting before the girl formally joins. If the parents aren't welcoming of the new girl's mother, I can only imagine what they will say about the girl herself. It might be one of those situations where you have to play it by ear. Definitely have the SUM and Field Exec, or whatever your first line Council employee is, on hand at the meeting and on speed dial for the next year.

No Scout should be denied the oppurtunity to be an Arrowman simply becuase a group of adults can't wrap their collective heads around the logistics.

My Life Scout likes the new zip offs. The shirt is OK. I hate the new pants because they just look bad on ladies who don't have a very slender build. I don't like the old ones either, which is why I wear the skirt. As for the shirt, I was too cheap to buy one while they had the BOGO sale going on.

I find your use of the word "gay" in such a derogatory fashion to be highly offensive.

Now I really have to wonder if I'm overdoing it by smacking on a PTC patch as my temp or cutting off the loop from this year's conference patch and sewing it on instead all the while wearing the belt I made at handicrafts, which says "PHILMONT 09" with my girly Philmont beltbuckle. I used to just have to worry about runs in my panty hose. Perhaps we should all just wear the bling we want to correctly and not focus on the personal motivations of those who wear more or less.

50%, or thereabouts, of our population lives within an hour of the coast. More live near rivers, lakes, and borrow pits/quarries. Drowning is very frequently preventable. Every one should know how to swim and perform basic land rescues.

I know the three on one side and the scout on the other is pretty standard around here. Same with you? Would you be willing to change the physical layout and all of you sit at a table to make it feel more intimate and informal? Maybe he'd do better having a board outside, if you have a space like that. How are BORs presented to the boys? Do they know it's a feedback session? This could just be old fashioned performance anxiety.

I've heard about the "reregister your MBs every year" thing, but to summarily dump an entire council's worth. Who wants that much paper flooding into their office at one time? Sounds like someone hit the delete button by accident.

This has been a rule since the 70's when I was going to camp. In our case, it was ants, bees, and raccoons that didn't need to be in our three feet off the ground platform tents. And there was no trading post with candy bars, either. However, we had really, really good food and lots of it!!!

No. No more uniform revisions until my son outgrows the one he has.

Noel and I would get along just fine!! Anyway, do the SM/ASMS have a monthly meeting where they can get together and discuss what's working and what's not? If so, you might be able to bring up that you saw some things that could have been handled to the betterment of the troop.

Contact your pack popcorn rep before taking orders. In teh deep south , we can't get our chocolate popcorn until November. Also, some packs do a standard order per cub and that's what you're selling.

My favorite Cub event!! Definitely glue the sail on the top and bottom holes with a good sticky glue. I think altering the boat in the package, aside from a light sanding, is actually against the rules. Don't forget to fill the gutters with giant ice cream sundaes afterward and dig in!

The OP's list is what I got at PTC last week. I don't like the earn an amount and save it requirement myself. The only time my kids earn money is for lawn work in the summer and they don't get allowances.

Our council is going with mandatory newest of new. I bet the National staff would prefer it, but I don't think they can mandate that everyone who enters the property have the newest of new uniform.

Ouyr camp orders blank differently col,ored 3x5 flags and volunteers decorate them according to the theme. Then each den carries it around, and woe to them that forget their den flag! Each district here also handles theri own registration, with Council only receiving the whole batch after the deadline in teh district. This way our volunteer manager can work teh volunteer ratios immediately. And be firm with that. We had to send kids home when their packs didn't have adequate coverage one afternoon. Also, get your daily special visitors, BB and archery people lined up now. Archery: easy to learn, hard to master. Reserve equpment now unless your district owns their own. Get your range masters to training this fall. Start talking up day camp at round tables now. New day, new program.

We use our council theme more for decorations and station names. Other than that, we recruit leaders for the stations we want to have: shooting sports, sports, fishing, Arts and Crafts, first aide, orienteering, ecology (Dept of Forestry sends us a guy), knots, etc, and the dens rotate through the stations at least once during the week. The station leaders figure out what they are going to cover with each level and set their own program. BTW, our planning committee gets going in August with monthly meetings. In January we send out the call for pack reps and station leader volunteers to come to monthly meetings Feb through May to get info out to the packs. Our day camp is very large: 300 cubs, 50 scouts, and 140 adults. So ruthless organization is the only way to go.

Something else to ask yourself and the SCout is whether he wants to earn Eagle or not. Laying out in black and white how much time he has to get it done, will certainly have his parents attention and no onne can ever say they didn't know. I would encourage the boy to come back regularly and just participate, but not make it all about Eagle unless that's what he wants. He should feel welcome if he chooses Life for Life.

I suppose going to 8 am service is not an option for some congregations. Perhaps one solution would be to invite pastors/priests/IHs from different congregations around the council to "come to camp" and spend a quiet Saturday night in meditation then have a non-denom service Sunday mornings, offer communion to those wishing it, and then hang around to see just how camp works.

My son made a cookie tin banjo for an 8th grade science project, not Webelos, but all he needed was a hand saw, dremel, drill, and screwdriver. Supplies were a large metal cookie tin with lid, 36" piece of 1x3 sanded smooth, four screws, four eye screws, and 30 lb fishing line. Use balsa coffee stirrers for frets if you want. It turned out really well and was almost tunable. Google "cookie tin banjo." Oh, safety glasses, because when you cut into a cookie tin with a dremel tool, it sparks impressively.

Maybe it's the military folks I've hung around with, but the vast majority of them are very good at patiently teaching skills to young Scouts and providing a role model for calm, composed, but firm leadership to the older boys. Military folks who are screaming about "It's my site and I'm in charge no matter what" probably aren't the best leaders of men, let alone boys.

Let the hoarding begin.