Oak Tree

Ours is titled to an individual. You can go find past postings on this topic and see a variety of responses - some have the CO do it, some have it in the troop name (despite the insistence of others that you can't do this), some have it in individual names. Our CO didn't want to own any vehicles.

SeattlePioneer, Yes, you are right, our pack did benefit from the recruiting efforts of the DEs - they made flyers to take to the schools, yard signs for recruiting night, organized one recruiting night for the whole district, etc. I think it's more about the way it is presented. If the presented shows a video that says "here's all the ways your pack benefits", but in fact our pack doesn't actually benefit from those things, then the message rings pretty hollow. Very few of our Cub Scouts attend day camp - it just seems that the unit activities are better run, less chaotic. I ag

I've never been a big fan of FOS either. I was especially not a fan as a Cub Scout leader, where we seemed to take advantage of virtually none of the services offered by the council. Subsidize camp? Why on earth would we want to do that? I really didn't see much need for anything beyond a National registration system, and we were already paying dues that should cover that. As a Boy Scout leader we use more things. We go to summer camp. We sign up for more events. We have contact with the Eagle registrar. I see there is a need for some professionals to back up the volunteers. But it d

You need to get to know your COR and especially the IH (Institutional Head, Senior Pastor). I don't think you'll have any trouble convincing the parents/committee to replace this guy, but that's going to have to go through the COR/IH. Can you sit down with either of them and have an honest discussion about why they started the troop? How did he get registered as SM? Who processed all the paperwork for the charter? Quite honestly, I'm not sure why you need or want this church to be your CO. It might be easier for you all to just go find another CO. One of the parents must go to a

For the last two years our district camporee has focused on merit badges. I am not normally a fan of the merit badges as taught at summer camp or at merit badge universities, but these badges at the camporee were pretty well done by all accounts. Prior to this, the district used to run some type of challenge station, where you'd go around from place to place and complete the task at the station. These were not as well done, and I think there are a few reasons for this. There was nothing to lose or gain by doing the station well or poorly, for either the presenter or the participants. The

Doesn't everyone know this? Where's our cultural literacy going to these days? :-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JlVqfC8-UI Try typing "hug him and squeeze him" into google with google instant turned on, and it will suggest completing the phrase with "and call him George." You can note that while this is the common version of the phrase, it does not appear in exactly this order in the actual cartoon.

The combination of wind and rain can drive water in from the sides - that's one reason why I prefer flys that go to the ground. For ordinary wind, most tents do fairly well. I've been through some decent wind with groups of Scouts and families, and we haven't really seen any tents fail under typical wind load. That said, your sturdier tents will have more guy-out points. That will attach the tent to the ground more firmly and it will hold its shape better. It will also reduce flapping of the material in the wind. I'd go with something like the Kelty Palisade. The google reviews liked

Personally, I'd go with a 6-man tent. The one you list is bigger, although maybe that's ok. I also personally will not buy a tent that doesn't have a fly that goes all the way to the ground. I'd also go with a bigger vestibule. That said, in sunny weather, pretty much any tent will do.

I get a very vivid picture of the situation from your writing - you do a nice job with the descriptions. I was a Cubmaster for four years and I have personal experience with a variety of other situations involving some seriously misbehaving children. Here's my opinion: You CANNOT fix this child through Cub Scouts. He will resist any scheme (widgets, whatever) that you put in place. He will not change his behavior to become liked - he is always (at least as far as you're concerned) going to be a holy terror. AS THE CUBMASTER in charge of an event, DO I, at that moment, have the

I sent (what I thought was) a pretty compelling email to everyone in the church who I thought appropriate, as well as to ALL of my parents, and got NOT ONE RESPONSE. I did this a few times before I realized I was never going to get many, if any, responses to these types of notes. From then on I did all of my recruiting one-on-one. I got a lot better at asking people individually if they would do it. They are much more willing to say yes when asked to do a specific thing. Not always, but often.

American Red Cross Leave No Trace

BadenP - Yep, roger that. Rex has no time for the minutiae of BSA policy politics anyway. Still, even with just the title, add that to the donations and the support of Exxon and whatever, and I'm still saying that if he wanted to get something done, he could just shoot his good friend Bob an email and things would happen. I'm still curious to see how some of these companies reconcile their sponsorship with their diversity policies. Some companies will not make matching donations to BSA because of the gay issue. Exxon isn't in that camp, yet, but some other big companies, like IBM, are. At

I don't think Rex Tillerson will be demanding any ridiculous items in response to being a donor. His day job is being the CEO of Exxon. He was at the National Jamboree, spent time talking with regular Scouts and Scouters. He was wearing his own uniform from when his son was in Scouts. I'm sure he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and he's the National President. If he wants to implement something, he can probably make it happen. The only thing I think he might concern himself with would be items of national policy. I've often wondered how the CEOs of these Fortune 500 companies per

I think we'll have to wait for the annual meeting and see what the real announcement looks like. I don't object to having this option available, but I agree that this is not the thing that's going to make a big difference to Boy Scouts. The thing that makes Scouting a distinctive activity is the focus on the outdoors and camping. That's the brand. It's never going to be the case that Boy Scouts and the Robotics Club get mixed up in your mind.

I'd think that most of the causality runs in the other direction. Good troops that have a good program will have good retention, and they will also happen to meet the quality requirements. I don't think most of them get better because of trying to meet the requirements - they got better because they wanted to offer a better program.

I got to watch some Scouts do the EDGE requirement. They mostly just bleep over 'EDGE' and see 'teach someone a square knot.' I think the EDGE stuff is useful as a situational leadership model - saying that when groups are in different stages, then different styles of leadership are appropriate. As a teaching model I don't see the point of using it. But for the Scouts, it's just one more requirement to do in a long line of requirements that may or may not make any sense to them. They don't worry about whether it's stupid to teach them internet safety yet again, they just sit through it a

It at least means that Rex Tillerson is a customer.

We don't have "bylaws" by that name, but we do have some operating procedures, some of which sound a lot like by-laws. I think that it can be useful to detail how you're going to handle a situation ahead of time, especially if that's a situation that comes up again and again from time to time. We've never had to resort to our document in terms of how we would handle unruly Scouts. Maybe we're just lucky. At this point, I feel like we could remove that section, and just deal with it if it ever comes up. But I can see how some people might feel better if it were written down. They migh

I'd say they are all different sizes and styles of customers. I agree with Eamonn that units view the kids/parents/families as the primary customer. And districts are there to support the unit leaders. I agree with Beavah only in the theoretical sense that what councils do is sell charters. They really make their money by selling memberships, and the membership number appears to be the coin of the realm. And not just member numbers, but the number of units. It seems to me like council views one of their primary jobs to be starting new units. I think individual COs barely registe

I would guess the practice comes from places where you had to bring your own water. When you were ready to leave, you dumped what you had left on the fire, which may not have cooled it all the way down to room temperature. So as your last act before you leave, you go ahead and empty one last store of water onto the fire. I'm presuming that removal for encouraging Cub Scouts to do it is more about youth protection and nothing to do with Leave No Trace violations.

moosetracker, I don't think we have a direct contradiction. The pictures were of "enclosed fire pits". You can also have an open raised fire. A lot of those have removable lids. Your solution is a good one for some situations.

I have to believe that the failure rate is 1: People not wearing PFDs. 2. People wearing PFDs incorrectly. 3. Way, way down the list - PFD failure. "U.S. Coast Guard statistics show that approximately 70% of all fatal boating accident deaths are caused by drowning. Of those who drowned, approximately 90% were not wearing their Personal Flotation Device (PFD)" "The safest PFD is the one you are actually wearing" "PFD Maintenance Your PFDs must be in serviceable condition, which means:The buckles or zippers must work correctly.The straps must be securely attached and not torn

I've got three, more or less. One for cold weather. It's a zero-degree bag with about a foot of down on top of the feet. One for cool weather that serves as the main bag for most trips. It was originally a 10-degree bag, but I'm sure it's more like a 20 or 25 degree bag by now. One for warm/hot weather. It's a forty-degree down bag that packs down to a baseball. I thought about doing the 50-degree bag, but for the extra ounce of down, I went with the forty-degree bag.

I'm just sick of going through this crap every spring. Our troop used to rearrange patrols completely each year. My wife dreaded that time of year because we'd been unable to figure out any way to do it without making some parent angry, and she didn't like seeing me absorbed with some unhappy parent. One year we had a situation with the new Scouts that really made some people very frustrated. After their time in Cubs, there were some really strong friendships and some really bad anti-friendships. There was no way to split the boys that made people satisfied - and in retrospect, our

I'm not sure I get why it would be hard to get this by the LDS. Just allow units to have the option. That's the way Venturing is set up, and the LDS uses Venturing with only male crews. I find it hard to believe the LDS is the real sticking point here. We'd have to change the name. Maybe keep it as BSA, but have it be the "Bisexual Scouts of America." Oh, wait, I may have that wrong... "Bodacious Scouts of America" "Button-wearing Scouts of America" Maybe we'd go with "Brave Scouts of America". After all, by declaration, a Scout is brave.