scottteng

Continue the El nacho grande theme: Taco, enchilada, tostada, burrito, tamale, etc with modifiers if needed grande, piqueno, gordita etc. If you run out start with peppers habenero, jalipino.

Sometimes the more hands off a SM is the better. We have all run into the control freaks that want to gravitate to that position. If everything is running smooth let it be. Sounds like a good delegater to me. Have a coffee chat maybe something else is going on that he does not want the boys troubled with that is causing the no camping for him. Added work pressure a new commitment to something else.

The usual procedure is to line up all the leaders in a line and ask all who would like to be scoutmaster to please step forward. Whereupon everyone in the group takes one step backward except for one, and lo and behold you have your new scoutmaster./s

They have been doing this for a while so year to year there isn't any change in the number of crews. I do not see how the numbers would be affected. We also have youth that are in a troop and are members of a crew they are only counted once. We also have adults who wear more than one official hat they are not counted multiple times. Every position one holds they want an app. for. You have your primary which goes to your unit and is submitted with money, and if you are a MBC you fill out another app for the district advancement person,if you are a range master another app.,helping a pack another app.. In my opinion they probably do this to be able to enforce the paperwork needed. Remember all those summer camp forms permission to treat, picture release, health information. Most summer camp staffers are not adults what if one of them has an accident? Just like the troops they would need paperwork from the staffers. Then think of this, what if it was your employer asking for all that info? Most of us would scream bloody murder that health info etc is none of their business. So making the staff into a crew with all the attendant paperwork makes some sense. You can get them treated if need be, not pay royalties when their picture shows up on some troops website, and generally enforce scout like behavior.

The whining is already going on we are in the process of rewriting bylaws. Some wanted to add even more attendance requirements. In order to stop them from enacting something which can not be enforced I was adamant that these should not be included. We need to focus on these areas: non participating scout to be dropped at recharter regardless of whether someone stands ready to pay for him, prompt removal from POR for non-performance or non attendance, and improving the quality of the troops program to where the boys buy in 100 percent and you have to in the hospital to not want to go on the outing. Do all troops have their deadwood? Yes by all means but those are not usually the boys looking to advance either and hopefully are not languishing in POR's which they will be given credit for regardless of attendance.

What about loyalty to your local council's summer camp where a young scout may aspire to become a staff member someday? Maybe a couple of times in a scout's career should he seek to attend elsewhere Philmont or Sea base come immediately to mind. Should a scouting experience be built upon an increasingly difficult camping experience or upon an increasingly difficult leadership role in that experience?

SM and ASM never sit on any BOR not for tenderfoot,second class. first class, star, life or Eagle. This is the committee's shot in your troop for all but eagle. District and council for eagle. You have had your say at all else through SM conference. Now you let your work and others be evaluated. Hold the flames I am an ASM too!

We are also losing our DE here in twin rivers district of WCFC maybe it is because our whole council has been left off the Florida roster here at Scouter.com. Actually it is because he has posted the best numbers in the southern region he having "milked us for all we are worth" is moving to be closer to his aging parents in another Florida council. We will stumble along without him and hopefully open a door for one of my friends who though he is short in some of his qualifications has a big spot in his heart for scouting.

I have no problem with a nice or even a resort hotel and a reasonable per diem allowance for food. I received much the same when on the payroll of a major corporation. Bar tabs cross the line however when a volunteer leader is not permitted so much as a single beer in his weekend camping supplies at e boy scout camp. If the professionals are going to practice what they are preaching they can afford their own bar tads at 140k per annum.

I'll kick in my two cents having just finished my second year as shooting sports director at cub scout day camp my son is also a volunteer and I supervise six venture age scouts who are the rangemasters on the ranges. We do provide water and only water in an attempt to keep the cubs hydrated in temps that approached the 90's all week. I had one of the rangemasters that I was almost ready to send to the hospital. They are told to drink water everywhere. The camp did not provide any food for any one. I along with my range staff as well as every other volunteer brought our own lunch and snacks for the entire week. The campers are told to bring their lunch if they require a snack maybe the parent should put the snack in their pocket. No breakfasts were provided I had my coffee and made my son eat before we left our home at between one half and one hour before the campers were to leave. We set up our three venues and took them down every night in addition to making morning ice runs someone else was responsible for the evenings. I am almost $50 out of pocket for supplies to make day camp run smoothly. Our day camp has two training sessions prior to camp one is a half day affair the other is a few minutes at setup the day before. Is this enough? Judging by the low attendance it must be too much. I personally don't take any guff from cubs,parents, or den leaders you just can't as a shooting sports director. I was nice and accommodated a cubmaster last year until finally I had to tell him he had to respect the commands of the rangemaster at which he stormed off the range and then turned around and sued the council. Then had the balls to turn around and ask to be trained to run the range this year. This to me is the topper I have a teenage rangemaster who has volunteered all week for no pay even camping at the park to provide security at night who goes out with his own hard earned funds and purchases a large bag of mixed candy to give the cubs for being good students all week and ends up being excoriated by a den leader for giving a particular kid gum when he was not allowed to have it. The kid picked it out of the bag if he knew it was forbidden why not trade with one of his den mates rather than jump on the older kid that gave it to him. Look I have put in an appx 50 hour workweek with plenty of stress and am -$50.00 for the experience. Would I do it again? not next week but maybe next year if I am asked and I get to pick the young men and ladies that work with me or even some new 14 year olds that are thrilled with finally being given some responsibility and being treated almost as an adult. Yes most certainly. Do all leaders have a good time ? No most emphatically ! Is it worth it? Yes! Ask the cubs it is for them! If you ask the boy scout volunteers they will one and all tell you that it was a lot of hard work that they never expected. Is not that the very lesson that they need to learn? How do their troop campouts happen? How does the camporee happen? How much do they each "owe" the OA for summer camp setup.

I have lots of input on the rather rhetorical question as I do not intend to change my non-use of the weapon word, especially when my latest "students" were 130 some odd cub scouts all of whom have mothers who would hang anyone who teaches her hyper 8 year old to use weapons, but on the other hand understand full well the value of teaching the same 8 year old that a gun is not some toy to be played with like is so often portrayed on TV. Please note I did try to quiet some of the controversy by stipulating that I did understand the dangerous man concept i.e. a dangerous man is quite capable of killing with the tools at hand rather than requiring a specific tool to do so and a lethal tool in the hands of someone other than a dangerous man is just a bluff. Thanks to one and all for your input and hopefully we all learned something.

Gunny2862 yup you just keep your hand on your portable gps in your pocket and say well boys I'm just going to go over to that tree over there and take a nap do wake me up when you figure it out maybe pages 114-118 in your scout book will help you. Boy I sure am sleepy. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ Helps the rep to take lots of naps you know they know for sure you are too old and feeble anyway.

Yes it all does look very chaotic especially if you are the type of micro-manager that makes a great den leader. As adults we are in charge of creating a safe environment for boys to fail, fail again, and maybe at long last succeed. Parental instinct makes us want them not to fail but that really is for cub scouts where they learn to "do their best". These are young men who are not well acquainted with Mr. Murphy and his laws. They cannot learn from your experience they must find out for themselves. So what if the burgers fell in the dirt and were all gritty it's all you have to eat and hunger is a delicious sauce. I even ate the spaghetti from the patrol I was assigned to eat with that was seasoned with nice fresh sand. Fresh caught fish for dinner sounds like a great plan when you are 12. Adults want to have a fall back plan other than more pop tarts or ramen noodles. As I told one young man on his troop visit if he did not like the way the SPL was doing things to come on over and run for his job. He has now crossed over and is part of the chaos but maybe with a couple of years under his belt and some learning experiences like grub master,cook, patrol leader etc he will be ready to make good his words.

The committee's job is to provide administration for the troop so the scoutmaster can focus on program. The committee is in charge of fund raising as well. Why are you complaining? If the committee wants to fund some high adventure activities or get some extra gear or give scholarships to scouts who can't pay their own way kudos to that committee. The way it is supposed to work is the troops junior leaders(PLC) meet and come up with a plan of what they would like to do presumably the patrol leaders have talked to their patrol bout their preferences. This plan is given to the Scoutmaster who reviews it and then takes it to the committee for resourcing. Sometimes they won't be able to fund everything then scouts will have to pay, but the committee has still done a lot of work setting up the logistics of the event. Transportation, reservations, tour permits, verifying properly trained leadership, and all the other things that go on behind the scenes.

Sorry Dan for my laziness it is too hard to type West Central Florida Council. Especially since we do not officially exist according to the Florida roster on this site. That camp school director mentioned before must have taught our shooting sports directors which in turn have passed that on to all us range staff.

Here in WCFC we do not use the term weapon to describe a firearm. Most service personnel are used to referring to a firearm as a weapon and will do so until told we don't use the W word. They usually revert to parent mode rather quickly and grasp the concept. If they don't we suggest they carry only a 22 bolt action rifle to their next drill class instead of the more suitable true "weapon" they are enabled by their training to carry. I am familiar with the concept that there are no dangerous tools only dangerous people that employ them. I hope that our military have been trained so that they are all dangerous people to mess with. I will set up a hypothetical example: we will have two identical day camp courses one to be billed as a weapons instruction course the other to be billed as a basic firearms safety course. Which of these courses will attain higher enrollment? As a parent which course would you sign your child up for? And why?

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/sunbird/ I like sunbird by mozilla. It is user friendly and you can set up easily monthly weekly repeats like scout meetings, roundtable, classes violin lessons etc. and also the one off appts. it prints nicely and I suspect it can be sent I have not been able to get it to transfer file off my desktop to laptop but that is probably just my poor software skills I had better ask my 12 year old scout how to do it. The price is right as it is a free download.

My Webelos liked the historical hike through downtown of a local city with the houses and who they had belonged to and some of the rather rich history of the town was shared. hikes of all types tire the boys out we have a local park with lots of trails nature wise and even a bike trail tying in with the Florida trail system. Day camp is great to tire em out even my boy scout son who ends up spending most of his time escorting kids to the bathroom is tired at the end of the day. They do love shooting sports we throw all three at em in day camp bb-gun, archery, and wrist rockets. They only get one at the council family camps during the year

Hopefully he won't be coming to day camp starting tomorrow. 120 other kids will be though.

But maybe this summer camp will light that boy's fire? He will see something in the program he never saw before! If they are willing to pay the freight let em come. The council would take em as provo's anyhow. Even find a troop to register them in if that is what it took(yeah right tell me your DE wouldn't). Do we want an exclusive club of only the most motivated boys or do we want as many as possible to get all they want out of scouting? I have very fond memories of going to a camporee and I never ever was a boy scout went as a webelos. It's all there on my tenure three years as a cub scout never a boy scout except as a leader.

That is why most councils are smart enough to own their land and headquarters usually by donation then when things get tight and land prices have skyrocketed they sell for all the market will bear. Think of the appreciation since 1928!

OK I'll be the pot stirrer again. When was the last time anyone filed a "unit money-earning application" http://www.scouting.org/forms/34427.pdf

http://www.freewebs.com/activescout/activescout.htm I have chimed in on this topic before quoting the letter from our district advancement chair which was meant to clarify this in all our minds. Rather than argue about what the letter meant I have scanned copied it and posted it to the above web site. Any attendance requirements are forbidden for active or scout spirit. The previous posters are exactly correct your only opportunity to get rid of deadwood is at recharter time. If they are inactive in your opinion do not recharter them if they want to pay their dues and you are not comfortable with considering them active send them elsewhere. As a matter of fact keeping them engaged is specifically defined as your responsibility as a leader whether or not they attend any activities.

Congrats the staff has bailed you out. Take along a thank you card and have all your troop sign it and enclose some pics of your summer camp experience like the ones going in the troop scrapbook and send it to them. Never pass up the opportunity to show the office personnel the "why" they do the stuff they do. I still have a bone to pick with the camp director that did not let you know in no uncertain terms that he wanted a copy of said permit in his hands along with his final payment.

Guess I needed a /s Sarcasm tag !