scottteng

My main uniform shirt has a couple of spoof patches om the old goat patrol being one and a curmudgeon trained strip being the other. I wear that with my switchbacks, official socks, and a scouting t-shirt underneath to trainings, most troop meetings and official functions. I have a large collection of scouting T-shirts at this point which I wear for "working" such as at the range.

pinewood derby tracks are hard to keep consistent lane to lane when homebuilt. The aluminum ones are more so. The electronic timers are worth having as they eliminate the human factor at the finish. If I was in a new pack I would approach a more established pack about borrowing or renting theirs for the event. The cost is substantial for a once a year event. You may even be able to get an older track from a pack that is upgrading to a new one. When I was in cub scouts the pack purchased a new aluminum track it was paid for by business sponsors who got "nascar style" banners displayed at the event and recognition in the program. If you have a skilled fundraising type available this is a good way to go.

Find out when the next district roundtable is and show up. Hopefully you will find some interested troop leaders and maybe even a commissioner or two there.

In this council the range master requirement is 20 hours OJT for each of the ranges rifle, shotgun, archery and 10 hours for Rendezvous sports. Once you have one of the other cards you can add cub scouts in a all day training. Cub scouts covers bb-gun cub archery and wrist rockets. These are all two year cards and require half time recert's every two years. This is not a problem if you are very active.

We have a talent release as part of our general paperwork that all boys parents sign that way their picture can be put on web site, given to CO, and even be put in the local free paper. Its not like we are making money out of the photo's either if they requested a royalty cut we'd give it to them. Whatever percentage of zip they need would be ok. The plus side is the avid shutterbugs make all the parents copies of the photos for the outings they were not on but their kids were.Most twelve year olds want to photograph things. We parents and the rest of the kin want to see photo's of people especially our own people.

I would recommend informing all youth that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and that if they are having thoughts of harming themselves that this is not normal but a symptom of a mental illness and to seek help and counseling. There are hot-lines available and referral's available. Depression is an illness and responds well to treatment. Also all family and close friends there is help available for all mental illness. http://www.nami.org/

The other ASM's and I do a lot of scoutmaster conferences that is what we are there for they may be official ones for rank advancement or they may just be counseling sessions. Yes we do the official rank advancement conferences too! The most interesting that comes to mind is one last year with our current SPL who is a great kid and a good leader for the troop. He has unfortunately not been as conscientious when it came to merit badges. It was a SM conference for Star and in reviewing his completed MB's I determined that he was one Eagle required short of the requirement. He has since completed several partials and gone thru another summer camp completing the requirements. Someone had scheduled him a BOR also the committee also discovered his deficiency and came back to ask why he had had a conference. Yes he had a conference and was told he had to complete another Eagle required MB to be eligible for the rank. The long and short of it is a scout or the SM team which includes all ASM's can conduct a SM conference at any time. We try and maintain 3-4 ASM's and an official SM at all times. This is beneficial to our troop as we have had a one man show SM crash and burn spectacularly in the past.

To answer your question yes that is a very big den. My range staff would have winced to see them coming as we only had 8 positions at each venue. The boys would have to share range time. How many adults were with the den and how many boy scout helpers? The tigers are required to have their adult partners with them at all times that is why do not have tigers at day camp and they are recruited only in the fall most packs take the summer off having only one activity per month.

http://www.camplanoche.com/camp_information.htm Above should be a link to camp la no che which is the Boy scout camp striking distance to Disney World and the rest of the Orlando attractions. If you are bound and determined to attend a summer camp they offer them but remember summer camp is offered to our boys so they can work on merit badges that are part of their rank advancement process I don't know how well that will translate to your system. Also a point to remember in the U.S. troops are not coed no girls! looking at the Denmark system some of the groups are coed and some are not.

most troops do this regularly like once a month! Best not to try it with cubs the cubs would be OK but the parents would have cows. Save it for after they cross over. The only item on the lists scouts do take is a flashlight and most of them have the low light led types enough to find your way to the latrine in the middle of the night.

Some scouts especially younger ones have no desire to be PL or SPL. I think it comes from observing the torment they and their mates put these guys through. My son did a six month stint as patrol leader and that is why he says "never again they did not listen to me." I try to tell him he needs to lose the dictatorial attitude but that is how 12 year olds "lead." Give em a few years they grow into it SPL's are much better at 15-16 than earlier.

Responsibility 1. The state, quality, or fact of being responsible. 2. Something for which one is responsible; a duty, obligation, or burden. Leadership 1. The position or office of a leader: ascended to the leadership of the party. 2. Capacity or ability to lead: showed strong leadership during her first term in office. 3. A group of leaders: met with the leadership of the nation's top unions. 4. Guidance; direction: The business prospered under the leadership of the new president. I submit again that there is a difference between leadership and responsibility. To use John's Quartermaster example the quartermaster who takes all the tents home and dries them himself is fulfilling his responsibility to the troop the Qm who enlist the troop members to take home a tent dry it and bring it back at the next meeting while keeping track of who has what is demonstrating leadership. Some of the POR's require very little leadership. "Patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, troop guide, Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian, historian, quartermaster, bugler, junior assistant Scoutmaster, chaplain aide, instructor." I think we get confused because the alternate to the POR is a leadership project and some of the POR's require leadership but the purpose is for the scout to fulfill their duties to the troop no matter how limited those duties may be. Come on now how much leadership do you get out of a bugler whose job is to bring his horn and an alarm clock on campouts?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=472655&in_page_id=1770 Youngsters celebrating the 100th birthday of the scouting movement have been banned from eating burgers and bangers - because they might offend youngsters of other religions. And the scouts have been banned from having campfires and instead have to sit round a potplant - because of safety fears. The traditional camping food made way way for vegetarian dishes - a hundred years after Scout founder Lord Baden-Powell took his first group of 20 boys to the great outdoors. The 1907 boys caught rabbits and cooked them on an open fire on Brownsea Island, in Poole Harbour, Dorset. But in 2007, as 300 Scouts travelled back to the site where their movement was born, meat was whipped off the menu in favour of vegetarian cuisine because it might offend the different faiths of youngsters from 162 countries if it wasn't Halal or Kosher. And wood and flint were dropped for safer gas stoves because of the fire risk to plant and wildlife. Instead Scouts sat around a pot plant. Clare Haines, spokesman for The Scout Association, said: "It was really to do with religion that we were not able to provide sausages and burgers and all that kind of food. "We have been very careful though to make sure food is provided to everybody's tastes and beliefs, so no one feels left out. They enjoyed their vegetarian meals, especially vegetable chilli, fresh salads and jacket potatoes." She said camp fires were banned on the island, owned by the National Trust, because of a devastating woodland blaze 30 years ago. One adult at the Brownsea Island site revealed: "The boys couldn't sit round a traditional camp fire with sausages on sticks. It seems crazy, but what can you do? "Instead groups sat around a 3ft bay tree in a plant pot and exchanged stories." More than 40,000 youngsters from 162 countries at the same time gathered at Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex, for a two-week World Jamboree, which draws to a close next week. Scouts at this jamboree, however, were allowed to tuck into meat as Halal and Kosher meat was on offer. They watched 300 fellow Scouts on Brownsea Island renew their vows to build a tolerant and peaceful society at the poignant Sunrise Ceremony, on Brownsea Island, via a live satellite link on Wednesday. The ceremony was broadcast around the globe to 28 million youngsters. One Scout who took part in the ceremony said: "I was really disappointed we couldn't have what we liked to eat. "I thought we should have been given the choice. And not being able to light fires was silly. I go camping with my mum and dad and we always have a small fire. It's not hard to be safe if you're sensible." No meat ! No Fire ! Not quite my type of scouting.

They made the by the book correct decision and will continue to do so like they should. That is why some of us have been hammering away at this very issue. He was left in the POR as long as he had rechartered they won't hold him back even if he has not attended a meeting or outing in the six months. If you want to hold em accountable you need to be on it like ugly on an ape from the beginning not after the term is over. Once its done its done.

Fingerprinting, basketry, leatherworking, reading, if you play a sport sports is good, Fishing, computers there are lots of fairly easy MB's your main hangup may be finding counselors.

Eamonn changing the light bulb in your torch (flashlight for those of you from Rio Linda) is always acceptable as it demonstrates how prepared you are, unless of course it is one of those annoying ones with the two wires soldering required. Make sure to have spare batteries if you have a spare bulb. How about changing the wick in a kerosene lantern since we are all adults and able to handle liquid fuels.

Depends on several factors how hot is it going to be where the gun show is? How much of a discount will the dealer give you on that sweet new firearm if he knows you are a scout? My personal opinion I would wear my NRA or 2nd Amendment coalition T-shirt under my uniform shirt for the scout function while having my son wear his troop t-shirt or summer camp shirt under uniform. Leaving the scout event we would remove uniform shirts so as to not get mustard or catsup from the dogs or burgers for lunch on them. if the gun show was outside we would also zip the legs off the switchbacks. If I was to wear a uniform shirt I would wear the one I tricked out for summer camp with just shooting sports temp patch and NRA medal and my bright orange rangemaster hat.

So why are we using light bulbs instead of a Coleman lantern?

I was a brand new WDL and took the den plus some parents and my then 8 year old daughter on a hike. I can put one foot in front of the other pretty good. If you know to much to go to training call your district training chairman and volunteer to be a trainer. You can attend training as a trainer and as a participant. Most of the trainings are divided into distinct sections with specific things to be covered its all modular and the best way to do it is to have enough people to each teach one module. Especially if you have real world experience which relates to one module you teach that module and participate during the rest and you get credit for taking the training and teaching it. I have never heard of a training chair that does not need more help maybe there is one somewhere.

I give my son incentives to finish the remaining requirements on his partials. Some of the requirements need extra motivation like sitting through a county commission meeting! We also go through his MB's B4 camp and pull out the prerequisites for him to do and I give him a bonus amount that I will give him if he comes home with all his MB's completed. The bonus includes a ride to the EB Games store where he will promptly spend every penny. I also give him trading post money for camp which he saves to spend on games as well. He only has one outstanding camp partial left that is Personal Fitness he has not completed his exercise program yet. He does have an open cycling card but a group of boys in the troop are working on that and they lack the longer rides which they will probably complete in the fall. The system seems to work well for him he has 23 MB's on his sash so far. He does tend to lose interest very quickly when not challenged or if something is "boring". I also home school him for this reason. I do not do this for other members of the troop I look at it as a parent responsibility. Not finishing is a very bad habit I am a bad procrastinator myself that is why I am trying to teach him different habits.

http://www.doubleknot.com/registration/calendardetail.asp?ActivityKey=177755 This is a link to our "shooting sports day" it is a council event at the scout reservation and is open to all scouts and scouters. On of our most popular "crews" is also known as the shooting sports team and they compete in shooting sports statewide. There is a contact person on the page he is one of the shooting sports directors. The first contact you should make should be your council's shooting sports committee they may be a standing committee or a sub-committee of the camping committee. Some councils may not have enough trained personnel to put on this type of event. It takes a camp school trained shooting sports director, plus a trained rangemaster for each open xenue, plus logistical & setup staff. To say nothing of having the range facility available where the event is to be held.

Maybe the council not having plenty of what the boys want to do is the council not properly supporting the troops. After this last summer camp with the 2/3 cut in open shoot time, the skimpy meal portions, and the lack of staff enthusiasm for their assigned subjects. That is the way I have heard it was supposed to work we pay those people down there to support us not the other way around. IMHO we would be better off without the whole lot of them except for the camp rangers and the secretaries lets fire all SE's DE's etc think how much money that will free up that we can put to good program use.

When I was a den leader the weekly den dues were the den leader slush fund if copies of things or supplies were needed that's where they came from. I would get consent from your pack committee b4 starting. The other option would be for them to give you a petty cash fund say $50 or so which you spend then turn in receipts when you need more.

Ask the ranger he will more likely be able to assign you something that will be of long term good to the camp. Our troop replaced wax rings and re-grouted toilets.

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=154654#id_154754 Recent thread on this same subject. What is going on with equipment? In this area we have had several troops that have had their troop trailer stolen with all their gear they gut it up and go on. If you want the by the book answer no the scoutmaster should not be responsible for equipment the committee is supposed to appoint a member to be the equipment supervisor to aid the youth quartermaster. Most scoutmasters do keep half an eye on gear to make sure it does not get left behind at a campsite. Our troops gear is all hard used by many 10 - 16 year old boys it has a pretty high breakage rate. They are even harder on their stuff they bring from home.