scottteng

Quick and easy slides can be made by cutting appx 2" lengths of 3/4 " pvc pipe and using a hot glue gun to attach items too them. We followed the theme for the month Pinewood we had little plastic matchbox type cars on our slides, when we did geology we had sticky fabric dino's the possibilities are endless.

A scout can earn any merit badge at any time regardless of his rank and they all count and all count into the MB's for Star, Life, and Eagle. There are other requirements for those ranks which require certain time frames. When you emphasize FCFY as most of us do these days your new First Class scout is in planning stages for his second summer camp. A young man that applies himself in two summer camps will earn at least enough MB's for Star. A merit badge can only be earned once but that does not mean that one should not avail oneself of refresher classes for such as First Aid. They keep changing things most particularly in CPR. We always suggest to our new scouts that First Aid and Swimming are the first MB's they should work on. First aid is a prereq for several others and they won't enjoy appx 1/3 of our troops trips if they are a non swimmer. Sitting in camp while everyone else floats a river or goes snorkeling is no fun.

Howdy neighbor. I'm across the state from you now close to Tampa. I did live in Boca many years ago we used to drive all the way out to 441 to see the cows. Now there are golf course communities out there but back then it was just cows. I always thought the boca raton referred to the boca inlet looking a little like the mouth of a rat with the nice big belly of boca bay down a lengthy esophagus. look at the google map of the inlet you'll see it. How is summer camp at Tanah Keeta I see from the other thread your son went their?

Have the boys take a pack T-shirt and customize it for her with signatures and Asst den leader other comments about how much she has helped. Idea stolen from Girl Scout day camp.

What is important is that a good contingent from their new troop is there to receive them. Blue and Golds are typically too early for AOL and a crossover ceremony is held later in the spring. The pack is not required to be there but it is usually planned as a spectacle that they want to see. some districts have large elaborate district events too. If you really want to go whole hog contact your OA chapter and see if you can get the ceremonial dance team to come. As long as the new scouts have a trip or two under their belts as scouts before summer camp gives you the timing of how late you can push it.

A scout is thrifty for backpacks try: http://users.scronline.com/troop77/EquipmentTrader/backpacks.htm Then you will have more money to spend on good boots. Switchbacks are quick dry zipoff pants don't save em just for BOR. Have the garage sale mavens keep their eyes open there are a few in every troop and make the good stuff available to the other boys in the troop. We have gotten mess kits for a buck, usable tents for four bucks, nice external frame packs $5 and polycarbonate bottles as low as 25cents. Let them know what your looking for, they usually do a good job with the uniform closet too.

tanks=thanks thank God the reservist is currently deployed as he is artillery and probably does not have much use for tanks. THANKS to all of them for their service to our country.

We do a wilderness survival campout every year the boys get a big charge out of building the shelters and sleeping out. As a matter of fact it is in a week. Last year we had them bring their own food to make and took them on a hike with it. We also do Toten Chit and Fireman Chit re up's so they get to build their own fires. We do this at the: "Big Foot Wilderness Camp - One of our council's hidden treasures is Big Foot Wilderness Camp at Green Swamp (east of Dade City). It is located in a 30,000 acre wilderness preserve owned by the State of Florida Southwest Florida Water Management District. The facility has a 1,200 square foot cabin, with lights and indoor plumbing, two wood stoves for heating, an outdoor shower for Scout use, a troop campfire area, and patrol campsites. Theres a 5-mile loop trail starting and ending at the cabin, which is perfect for completion of a second class 5-mile hike requirement. This loop intersects with a portion of the Florida National Scenic Trail extending approximately 25 miles in a northerly direction and 10 miles in a southerly direction. Camp Big Foot offers a great camping and hiking experience in a true wilderness setting. The cost for use of the camp is a flat fee of $20.00 for the weekend." This year we have MRE's real military ones(tanks to a reservist ASM) from when our backpacking trip was evacuated due to tornado warnings at the park it was held at and the boys ended up feasting on pizza. This trip is popular with the adults too as they get to hang in the hunting lodge style cabin 100' from the river with electric lights, indoor plumbing and woodstoves. Remember anything less than 60 is chilly here in Florida.

You think you got troubles until recently our whole council was missing. And there is still only one cub pack listed as attached to it. Computers are sensitive to GIGO problems and all the Scouter people have day jobs and units to serve too. Maybe they need some help to keep things updated.

Please note your cub scouts probably do not know what Star Wars is far easier to interest them in Ninja turtles , the anime characters, or a more general theme. Star Wars could easily be converted to Ninja show which they probably enjoy more. Remember how old star wars is.

Sounds like your latest plan hit the pastor's sweet spot. Somehow he never saw in his mind what scouts was all about, but when your scouts objections to door to door collecting prompted you to request his involvement in something that he perceived as good Christian charity he responded admirably. Maybe this is an opportunity to expand your service to this church something in similar vein food or clothes bank or service to elderly members. Its like any type of persuasion you must find their hot button.

I would suggest that the very mystery of the thing is what may get you to the camporee to find out. Here I'll guess and you tell me if I am right swish, swish , swish will turn out to be a modernized version of horse where one is required to sink shots from various points on a basketball key.

Ask your chartering organization. Most have ways to get flags and buy for their units the fancy unit flags which feature the chartering organizations name and location. Our chartering org which is a church has presented the troop and the pack with such flags and an US flag previously flown over the capitol. Contact your congressman's office to obtain those.

The troops do it all the time and have fun. I would not feel comfortable sending my troop into those conditions we just do not have the right gear for sub zero temps being from Florida and all. We do have weather however and will usually wait to be kicked out of wherever we are camping and it does happen. We got tossed out of a state park because they were expecting bad weather and my son got evacuated to the dining hall for a tropical storm one year at summer camp. Ditto's on the good call if they did not have the proper gear they should not go I bet the proper gear will go on a lot of their gift lists.

Thank you for the reminder to thank the good Lord daily that he gave me the good sense to live in Florida. Our troop is going hiking this weekend the low is expected to be 41 degrees. We do have weather issues though not camping much after summer camp til school resumes due to heat.

Most Blue and Golds have a theme. Something to tie decorations food etc together. We had fiesta one year with each family bringing Spanish/mexican dish and straw sombrero's for decoration and a pinata for the kids. The kids get a kick out of such things. I have heard of Hawaii, Italy,and couple years back 75th aniv themes.

I would recommend focusing one crew on shooting sports. Our most visible crew is the shooting sports team. They work in conjunction with the local 4H club and share the range facilities at the Boy Scout reservation. They travel the state competing and we have several state champions. This is one sport where the girls do better than the boys. Shooting is still an Olympic sport and colleges compete as well. However due to political situations very little opportunity is presented to youth in the school system. Shooting sports is an opportunity for young people to compete in a sport that does not require particular size or strength yet there are still scholarships and potential Olympic glory available. Even state trophies look good on the mantle. The members of the shooting sports team are a resource for the district as well acting as Junior rangemasters for cub scout day camp and as instructors for summer camp programs. Picture the female 15 yr old State shotgun champion announcing to the group of 12 & 13 yr old boy scouts that yes that's right I am your Shotgun shooting instructor. There are even special programs available for equipment.

Most of the demand for IOLS comes from wood badge course directors informing SM and ASM that they are not trained for their position without it and in order to attend wood badge they must take it and from mandates as to training from councils. A solution would be to make the day course the introduction required for training and offer an optional advanced outdoor skills: weekend long plus additional mentoring beyond the course for the more active campers. Just a thought. Many are registered as ASM's that should be more properly registered as committee members and then would not need IOLS to be fully trained.

C.O. provides a meeting place and an occasional opportunity for a fund raiser.

Yes the being able to teach is a big part but the way it's done is also a demonstration. When I have a patrol come in for their wood tools skill session I hold up a whetstone and ask who knows how to use this then hand it to them and ask them to demonstrate how to sharpen a knife. The same with the rest of the session. The idea is to show that it is the members of the troop that need to be doing most of the teaching. The other thing they experience is the bonding that takes place very quickly in a patrol while making their flags and songs. The other thing is they experience is how difficult it is to be a patrol leader because two of em get to be one and the others see their discomfort. It is much easier to be an adult leader of youth than to be the leader of a patrol of ones peers. We combine the boy scouts IOLS with the WEBELOS leaders on the second day. The boy scout leaders have been there for Friday night session and the WEBELOS leaders show up at 9 on Sat and are assigned to already existing patrols. During the day there are some sessions that are break outs with boy scouts one way and cubs another most of the material is the same though.

This is what happens when someone makes up an arbitrary rule and then has to bend other things to fit the arbitrary rule. Our IOLS is done a camping weekend where we demonstrate the skills we are expecting the boys to learn from setting up a tent, site selection, making a campfire, knife and ax, fire safety, cooperative cooking, proper dish washing, sanitation, hiking, doing an orienteering course. There are also lecture sessions on safe scouting topics, BOR, SM conf., sizzle the outdoor program, equipment and discussion group participation sections. The course is not onerous and their is typically a lot of bonding that takes place among the participants. I can hear the leaders complaint though I've been taking the troop camping 11X per year for X years now and you expect me to do another camping trip just to get this training. There's no way my wife won't let me she's been buggin me about backing off this scouting stuff maybe its a good time to start. The professionals end up accommodating the squeaky wheels who are probably the ones in most need of the training. Just because one has lots of experience doing something does not mean that there is not a better way to do it.

The make or break for scout age boys is food to their taste and plenty of it you can forget gourmet especially on sides most of them won't eat the vegies but some of them like salad so a salad bar is good does not have to have lots of items simple prepack lettuce with a few add on's like tomatoes with selection of dressings. meat and potato or other starch serve a veggie but most will go uneaten. Spaghetti is a winner. Ny son raved over the food at one winter camp the cook smoked chicken for the parent meal it was delicious. They will very happily eat cereal for breakfast with fruit, pancakes other high carb breakfast foods. Sandwiches or burgers and dogs for lunch with salad bar. Got to remember these are teens in a growing mode not adults who are on a low carb diet. If you are looking to cut prep staff make dinner the only cooked meal it is summer camp they really don't require three hot meals per day just make sure there is plenty so you don't get boys raiding troop stashes or bugging leaders for a trip to the fast food joint.

Troop Librarian is assigned to maintain MB books, print MB worksheets as needed, maintain troop ppw files and is also assigned as jr asst webmaster. Troop Historian is assigned to take and collect pictures post some on board provided by C.O. come up with pictures when needed for web site and maintain scrapbook. Scribe is assigned to take notes where needed and be in charge of weekly dues collection. Also makes up duty rosters. Chaplains aide is assigned to have graces for meals in charge of camp worship services and coordinates with adult chaplain on scouts that want to pursue religious knots As a group they are the SPL and ASPL leadership team and most are members of the JLC patrol available to pinch hit when leadership holes occur. It does not happen often but what do you do if neither SPL or Aspl is at a meeting. Just like adults hanging too many jobs on a youth leader is counterproductive. Many hands mean light work for all.

Some Scout Sunday services are very educational and inspiring and the scouts seem to learn a lot others just seem to go over like a lead balloon. The best one I have been too was the one conducted by the local reform synagogue. The Rabbi had been a scout in his youth albeit in Canada and a scout leader early in his career. He had also had a secular career apart from being a rabbi and basically did an abbreviated service with a couple of short Hebrew readings and prayers along with showing us an old Torah which had been rescued from the holocaust. A short sermon which was mostly about his life and how much he enjoyed scouting and then opened up the floor to questions. Most of the attendees were cub scouts and they came up with some of the oddest questions which he cheerfully answered. I think most all of the scouts came away with more knowledge and a better appreciation of the Jewish faith. Most of the duddier ones seem to be those where the minister views the service as a opportunity to recruit for his church.

http://usscouts.org/usscouts/pinewood/cspdpro2.asp There is probably more info at the above site than you can digest in a week but good luck and hopefully you have good spotters or electronic finish line. Recommend checking parents for firearms and IED's before race not the boys they all thinks its just great fun but some of the parents take it all too seriously.