perdidochas

You and your husband should inform the Pack leadership that you will be dropping the stuff off at the pack meeting place or scout hut on a certain date.

Our pack uses email and we give out fliers to upcoming events at meetings, but our den meetings are all in the same place (basically a church gym). I've thought about using text as well, and may set up a text list for my den next year. Texting is a great way to do last minute messages. Somewhere on this forum, they had the below link in text form. I can't find it, but googled up this link. This link goes to a page that gives email addresses to most mobile phone companies. You can send a text by sending an email with the 10 digit phone number as the address. http://www.hurt911.org/investigation/sms-text-message-address.html For example, 0123456789@txt.att.net would send a text to (012)345-6789 on the att network. The downside is that many of these have a character limit (one company has an 80 character limit), as it's a text, not a true email.

Then the Secret Service should be fired for lack of common sense. They should spend their resources to secure areas that need high security. A Presidential visit at a Scout Jamboree is not one of those places.

The security excuse is silly. Why in the world should the President (or more specifically the Secret Service) be afraid of Boy Scouts and their leaders present at a military base? Why would they need to be searched?

Bando, From your statement "I look at this situation and think that a bunch of adults got in the way of thousands of young men having the opportunity to see a sitting president in the flesh." I guess you agree with me that the President is not coming to the Jamboree for political reasons.

Trevorum, I'm disappointed that the President could not make time for the 100th anniversary of Scouting. It's not like this was something that just came up. His staff knew about it for years. I will be a bit more specific. The left fringe of the Democratic party (which is becoming the base) despises Scouting. We are "homophobic" and pro-religion.

A butterfly knife (like any other knife) can be used as a toy or as a weapon, and can be dangerous. What the boys in the video are doing is unsafe, but that doesn't mean that butterfly knives are inherently unsafe. In the Phillipines, they view butterfly knives as we view lockblades--as tools (and weapons).

This is the 100th anniversary of Scouting, not just a typical Jamboree. If scouting was at all important to the President, he would make a personal appearance. I don't think it is, and that's his prerogative as President. It does nothing to make me like him more, but I'm sure his base is happy about it. They despise Scouting.

I'd be contemplating removing him from the Troop, not just from the position. Threats of physical violence are considered criminal behavior, IMHO. Elected position doesn't mean immunity from consequences.

Check state/local regulations. I don't see the big deal about them, and if my boy requested (and it was legal), I'd tell him to save up for one, and then allow him to buy a single-edged butterfly knife. I'd provide the bandaids :-) Boys like knives.

A scout is Reverent. If my son (for some odd reason) had ended up in a Muslim troop (i.e. one sponsored by a mosque), I would expect that they stopped activities 5 times a day for Muslim prayer. If a Muslim scout was in my boy's troop (which is sponsored by my own church, a Catholic one), I would make accomodations so that he could pray 5 times a day. It is a requirement (i.e. part of their duty to God) for Muslims to pray 5 times a day in a specified fashion. To not allow them to do that is infringing on their duty to God. That said, I agree with Horizon's approach. Scouting is not an activity that is neutral to religion. It is pro-religion (or whatever you want to call it, as I know there are groups of evangelicals that claim they have no "religion.")

I agree with you about bolo vs. necker vs. no necker . The leaders should ideally be uniform. However, the sliders should be leader's choice.

I hope you've been following the cardinal rule for Scoutmasters (at least according to mine): Start looking for your replacement the minute you took the job.....

Don't be afraid to ask parents to help. They aren't required to be there every meeting, but many will be. Enlist them.

We have about 100 on roll, probably 50-60 "regular" customers. We are among the biggest packs in our Council. We have a bigger pack between November and March (in between fall soccer/baseball and spring baseball/soccer).

Horizon describes my boy's troop as well. As a parent, I was very impressed at Family Night at Summer camp, because our boys were in uniform (at least the centennial shirt, with subdued shorts). I think it's a good practice. I was apathetic towards the uniform in my early time as a Cub leader, but after 5 yrs of it, I see the importance of it.

Knots are easy to forget if you don't use them regularly. The clove hitch I find to be one of the hardest knots to remember. Part of the reason is that I rarely use it.

Delivery pizza on a campout? And to think, I was annoyed with my son's New Scout Patrol because they had scout cooked hamburgers and S'mores for dinner.

OGE, In terms of parental involvement, I think the opposite is true. When I was a Cub Scout in the mid 1970s, the only parent involvement was the den leader and the assistant den leader. The rest of the parents just dropped off the scouts after school to the den meeting. Most of my den meetings as a Bear Leader and WDL had at least two or three parents helping out. When I was a Boy Scout in the late 1970s, the only parental involvement (besides the SM and ASMs) was drivers. My oldest son's troop has parents (committee members and ASMs) all over the place. I do agree with the volunteering organization aspect, not in terms of actual volunteerism, but in terms of joining volunteer organizations. We are doers, not joiners. People will show up in droves for a beach cleanup, but not for a meeting to organize a beach cleanup group.

If you hadn't posted the link, I would have been certain that was from the Onion.

The Troop my son just joined doesn't meet on two Mondays--the week of summer camp, and the week between Christmas and New Years. The Pack I'm a WDL in follows the school schedule, although we start later than school does. I wish I had had the energy to turn the pack into a summer pack--this is my last summer with them.

The only modernization of Scouting should be teaching GPS along with map and compass, use of LED lights, use of the latest technology (such as water filters/UV sterilizers), etc.

I think the best solution would be to keep the current packs, and have your major recruitment meetings at the K-2 schools. Have all the packs come to school night for scouting, and give the parents a choice, based on meeting site, etc. I think setting up Packs by age is a horrible idea.

jhankins, Are you serious? Rapelling harnesses and helmets for a 4' off the ground monkey bridge?

Best thing is to get local information.