scottteng

I''m not talking about doing the whole course but they are broken down into about 20 minute bites which are all assigned to different people. The syllabus are very thorough and some parts lunch prep don''t even require one to talk. We have presenters and backups for each little part. Some parts only require being able to run the TV/vcr. Some people may never take particular classes for example IOLS because it is not required for their position. That does not mean that they do not understand the proper dish washing method and how to present it to a class. I would guess that all of these would be advanced trainings.

The comic was a blast. Bad training experiences were what motivated me to volunteer for the training staff. New Leader Essentials is a half day training required of all new leaders be they cub scout or boy scout. The after lunch sessions (we always do lunch trainers get hungry too) are Tiger leader, wolf/bear leader, Webelos leader, Cubmaster and Committee chair. I hate to be the one to break it to you but if you are in a troop (boy scouts) as a SM or ASM SM specific is a separate 6 hour training which can be done in long day or three session course. Then to be fully trained you will attend IOLS which is an entire weekend spent practicing camping with other adult leaders. I have some good news if you volunteer to help teach you get credit for teaching and taking. It is amazing how tense some people get in front of even a friendly audience.

The federalism concern is why the states need to choose them. Most of the states budgetary problems stem from the unfunded or partially funded mandates the present federal system imposes. That is why the states had their own body in Washington the senate to protect them from such things. Right now the states have no voice in the federal system as the congresspersons and senators do not affiliate themselves by state instead doing so by political party. Most states are prevented from deficit spending so must enact a balanced budget. The federal government also should follow the 10th amendment and stay out of matters that should be handled at a state or local level.

That sounds like a good start. You need more than one baloo trained person if that person gets sick/called out of town on business there goes your outing. Baloo trainings are readily available every district in this area offers 2 per year. It is not an onerous training to complete about 6 hours. The more that other people can do the outings the better the CM can handle the program for the boys side. Parents like to have some input as they are required to attend and may have sibling issues to deal with. A Tot lot keeps not only the little ones occupied but also some of the older girls as well. Don''t forget to draft some boys from the troop to help not only your den chief''s but some extras as well they can usually keep the cubs very busy playing games and doing scout skill stuff. What you don''t want to here is a cub saying "I''m bored can I go home and watch TV."

A senator of any state is worthy of trust about as far as you can pick him/her up and throw em. They are all politicians and thusly never met a camera they would not hog, a contribution they would not love, and a tax they would not vote for to steal money from you to buy a vote from someone else. Maybe we should go back to the constitutional way of having the states select senators.

Youth protection every two years no big deal you can do it online in about 20 minutes or the DVD discuss with the whole troop in an hour. We make parents watch the DVD youth protection on the theory that one does not know if a rule is violated if one does not know the rules. If you are working in a particularly visible position such as Day camp you will be asked for a new Youth Protection card every year. The idea is to turn all of this into a positive for the parents look how careful we are being but the leaders need to protect themselves too. Do not let yourself be put in a position where something could be said.

the easiest one to do is the rain gutter regatta. They build their puff powered sailboat and race down a rain gutter you could have a kiddie pool for practice sailing.

Can we ever get past the "my way or the highway" thinking. I would have no problem with a local school setting up a course in comparative religion and then contacting every religious organization within the school''s boundaries and inviting an authorized person from each to come in for one class session to explain their religion. My God is a logical and personal God and able to persuade on his own. He does not require indoctrination or any prerequisites. All are welcome and all points of view are welcome. I have no problem with any and all prayers whether they be to Thor or to the rock in my back yard or to the higher power. I actually have no problem with BSA adopting religious guidelines akin to the AA higher power concept. I personally do not have a problem with someone who says God prove yourself to me like a true agnostic. One of the best scout Sunday services I ever attended was at a local Jewish synagogue with a rabbi that had considerable scouting experience fielding questions from cub scouts. I''ll leave the questions to your imagination most stemmed from the cub''s Sunday school instruction.

As long as there are tests there will be prayer in schools!

In general yes the work done for school can be applied to a merit badge and if the school permits be more tightly focused on the MB requirements. Some are specifically tied to school activities view the requirements for Scholarship. Books are required to be read for Reading but are not disallowed because you were assigned it by your Language Arts teacher. Have you ever seen the essays turned in for summer camp MB''s. Dread full hand written on questionable paper having got wet a few times and food spilled on it during lunch at the dining hall.

"Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." We must not forget the second clause "prohibiting the free exercise thereof" is as important as all the other pieces.

I wrote to the council where I was a cub scout many moons ago and they quite promptly sent me back the years I was registered as a youth. This had to be from paper records as computers were not yet popular or inexpensive.

Right here and my other forums and groups. I have not watched TV for years putting in my TV time on the computer. I feel I am better informed not just soaking up the predigested pablum on the box. I get to choose what I read, view and who I interact with and feel I am the better for it. I have a special antipathy to sports on TV watching overpaid egotists playing kids games. I still enjoy a minor league baseball game, middle school football game or college soccer game in person anywhere where it is still played mostly for the thrill of the game not the big bucks to be had.

Competition is a very good and very American thing. Competition tends to keep all parties on their toes. The big guys learn how to survive in the open marketplace (see AT&T) and the little guys can do well if they have a workable idea. The USA is one of the only countries in the world that has one dominant Boy Scout and one dominant Girl Scout organization. Most other places have several scout associations based on perceived divisions. A lot of them are COED. The more the merrier and the ones who are in favor of the BSA changing certain policies are free to start their own organization if it takes off then I am sure the PTB at BSA will take more note of that then of some annoying sour grapes lawsuit.

we r logged in again. Yea!!!

I am a couple of years younger and it kills me to sleep on the ground but I make it with my air mattress. In a year or two he will only want to sleep with another boy. It would depend on the campground you were going too if the camper would even be allowed. Most places that packs or troops go are tent camping only. I can also see the camper rocking the boat of some leaders in the pack. Cub scouts only do very limited camping as a rule maybe 4-6 nights per year.

When we were in cub scouts all the cubs had them with all the family camps and events they were fun for the boys. I know many scouters who have a patch blanket on which they put all their patches the boys do not seem to care much about showing off any but the latest one they put on their pocket. I store my son''s up when he is older he will be ready for trips down memory lane.

$10 is a little low but doable. Our budget is $15 per whether scout or leader. I have been the leader cook several times and not gone over. Now we don''t get butcher shop 1" thick porterhouse steaks either or get too fancy with the menu. We could eat pretty good off all the leftover over bought stuff in the trailer if we had too.

We have troop owned tents and they are not suitable for backpacking. They must be checked regularly and we always find missing stakes, rain fly''s, poles, and bags. I guess that is somewhat better than missing all together. If I had my way which I don''t I would have the boys purchase their own specified size tent. Two and no more scouts per tent is the way to go the chatter goes up exponentially as you add more boys to the mix.

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000ZEK "I did a full search among the distributors of canned hams and bacon. None of them are bringing bacon into the lower 48. It is still being sold in Alaska. A friend came down from Fairbanks for the winter and she brought us two cases. Will do the same this year. The brand going into Alaska is CELEBRITY of Celebrity Foods, Elizabeth, NJ 07206. They have no email that I could find, information doesn''t list a telephone and they don''t answer letters. They do bring into the lower 48 small canned hams and a Spam like product which is far superior to Spam. I have gotten it at Eckard Drugs on occasion. The ham is the best too, I believe. If anyone lives in the area of Elizabeth, NJ maybe you could run this company down for the rest of us and find out where we can order. The meat products are from Hungary." This is a quote from another web forum Eckard drugs is DOA.

If they are that stoked whatever they have to refuel with should be fine. I have seen some strange things become patrol favorites. Mostly of the gloppy variety. Have seen stuffed glop win a troop cooking contest. Picture the ingredients for stuffed shells put in a pot and cooked and stirred to a babys--t consistancy. It was a big hit the boys loved it probably moreso because the adults would not touch it with a 10'' pole.

We try and introduce a little competitive spirit. For the wilderness survival campout each boy brings his own food with minimum calorie and hot meal requirements. Then they vote on who''s food they would rather had winner and second place get a prize. On Sunday AM they do the egg biscuit and orange thing that OA has made famous.

Home schooler here but all I do is provide a venue. I home school both of my kids all computer based along with reading assignments. I have a purchased program that my younger child follows, it loads on her laptop she can do school anywhere she is 10. My son does the Florida virtual school online he has teachers all over the state. The state provides the curriculum at no cost to Florida residents. He is the reason I started home schooling. He was in second grade and his teachers kept writing me notes trying to make me get him to do his seat work in school. In other words the busy work they gave him to do while helping the slow kids. So I said to the teacher well he is failing your class then she said oh no he gets A''s on his exams he just refuses to do his seat work. I said well give him harder work to do. She replied no that would be rewarding him for not doing his work. I was being held responsible for his in school laziness I had a hard enough time making him do the homework she sent home. I had a flashback to my tenth grade Geometry teacher who came to me and said "I am tired of you sleeping in my class your snoring is disturbing the other students if you show up for tests and maintain your A average go somewhere else to sleep" You are right my son tends to talk down to adults but only the ones who seem to be pissing and moaning all the time. He is quick to let them know that they and they alone are responsible for their life. The person who said there are two sides of the home school equation is also right some people want to protect their kids out of everything. I disagree on the socialization benefits of schools unless we really need more teenage gangbangers. We are highly involved in both boy scouts and girl scouts but were involved before I went into home schooling. Scouts is their socialization activity along with sports, trips, and camps. I would love to see vouchers even if only for extra''s. The museum''s, concerts, music lessons, sports, plays, and camps tend to take a bite out of the budget. I am really a believer that computer based education will be the wave of the future. Maybe with neighborhood minding centers where the kids could go if the babysitting aspect is needed. This would provide useful work and pay to older responsible teens. The best teachers would teach every level and subject online with TA''s to do the grading. Look how many colleges already work this way.

Great job of having money in your account. One surefire way of giving it back to the troop is subsidizing the camping trips rather than covering costs you could reduce the price to the scouts. The other thing is to set up accounts for the boys and credit those accounts with a certain amount when they work a fund raiser and let them spend account money on uniform parts, camping equipment, as well as expensive trips.

I second Eamonn''s comments about being nice to the office people they put up with all of us and their bosses too. I cautioned on another thread of the drawbacks of burying anyone in paperwork. That is one of the ways unions strike is the work to rule things eventually everything grinds to a standstill. Hey maybe that would work with congress we will follow every inane rule they enact to the letter. Our rule of thumb is no transport, no overnite, within council no permit. If you are getting parents to bring their own kids, not camping and local. For example we had a fundraiser with a minor league baseball team the boys sold tickets to their family and friends and presented the colors before the game. We did not meet at our C.O. and carpool everyone down their we met there at the game did our thing enjoyed the game and the nice fireworks show afterwards then everyone went home. Tour permits are to encourage you to be prudent and for the council to have a idea of what troop was where. That way when J.Q. Public comes to them and says I was at XYZ campground last weekend and a group of boy scouts TP''d my RV they may or may not be able to figure out who it is and who to call on the carpet. Or the converse I was at XYZ campground last week and a group of boy scouts helped my ailing wife back to our RV here is a contribution for $1000 we know who the kudo''s belong too.