ScoutNut

Instead of just a give-away table, can you have enough room to let the kids sit down and actually make, and take, something? You can have paper and directions on how to make a few different types of airplanes. http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/planes.php The helicopter and the blimp are very easy to make, even for little ones, and lots of fun to fly! Have label stickers to put on every boy's shirt with your Pack info.

Check with your council. Often DE's will have access to give-aways that they use for Boy Talks at the schools. At the very least you should be able to get a case of those mini Boy's Life magazines. You can put a label on each one with your Pack info, and when you are holding your registration. Our council also has paper bookmarks with the council info on it. Pencils from Oriental Trading are pretty cheap, and can be used for various recruiting activities. You can get 72 pencils, personalized with 30 characters/spaces, for $15. http://www.orientaltrading.com/ui/browse/processRequest.do?demandPrefix=12&sku=47/362&prodCatId=388898&mode=Browsing&erec=32&No=0&Ne=17&sp=true&Ntk=all&Ntx=mode%2bmatchallpartial&Ns=PRICE_prop|0&N=388898%2018&tabId=3&requestURI=processProductsCatalog&sd=Personalized+Mega+Pencil+Assortment Add a mini Boy's Life, and bookmark, and you should be in great shape for little cost.

What would the interest focus of this new Crew be? Are they planning on specializing in a specific area? Often a CO is picked for a Venturing Crew because of the resources they can bring to a specific activity focus. For instance, a gun club might charter a Crew whose members are interested in shooting, a church might charter a Crew whose interest is in religious service, or a marina might charter a Sea Scout Ship.

Liz - Call your Council offices NOW! Not calling, and just assuming that you will not be able to talk to anyone, or get anywhere with this, is guaranteeing that outcome. I would have been on the phone at 9AM. Stosh - According to the National web site for the 2010 Jambo, you are NOT restricted to ONLY Jambo food. Scouts with severe food allergies CAN bring in their own food.

If your council camps do not have the option for Patrol cooking at the camp site, look at other council camps. Going out of state could be a great adventure. Also, in-council does not necessarily mean actually in your council boundaries. You just might find an out-of-council camp that is in your area, and closer to you than your in-council camps. While pre-cooking meat is fine, you can just cut up raw meat and freeze it. It will take a bit longer on the cooking end, but save time on the prep end. Utilize BOTH Scouts home freezers. BOTH Scouts should be working on finding foods for their meals. Why "throw nutrition to the wind"? Why stay with pre-packaged stuff? Who needs sauces? Instead of rice bowls, pack some boxes of instant brown rice. Freeze bags of chicken, and beef, chunks. Even freeze some boneless chicken breasts in a ziplock bag with olive oil, cider vinegar, and spices. Bags of frozen veggies work well, help keep the cooler cool, and are still good even when they get a bit defrosted. Bring a bag of potatoes, and some cans of tomatoes, and some canned fruit (to add to the chicken and rice). Freeze the bread, and keep it in the cooler. Take out a few slices to thaw a bit while making sandwiches for lunch. As I said, use the more perishable stuff first, and leave the more stable stuff for later in the week. You are also not restricted to backpacking food. You can haul heavier, bulkier, foodstuffs with you. That alone helps open your options. There is even shelf stable soy milk (gross, but it works for my daughter). What you need to bring depends largely on what the camp already has in stock. Remember, you have already paid for meals, so you are entitled to the parts that you CAN eat (I would mention this to the SE when you talk to him about your special needs accommodations). You should be able to have nutritious meals, fairly easily, without breaking the bank, utilizing coolers, camp stoves, dinning hall food, and supplemental food from home. As for your condition, check with your doctor, but the meals should be fine, and if you take your prenatal vitamins, I don't see why you should have a problem.

I have done enough week long camping trips to know that frozen food, and a gallon jug filled with water and frozen, will keep a week if fragile perishables are eaten first, and additional ice is added periodically. You don't need space in their fridge. Since you can not use their kitchen to cook, supplying your own camp stove, is a very reasonable special needs accommodation (much more reasonable than requesting an RV). Since the camp staff is being so unhelpful, your SE/CE is the person to talk to. Remind him that the Special Needs form was sent in more than a month before the camp week, but that THEY misfiled it. Attending a dinning hall camp with, little accommodation for special dietary needs, instead of a patrol cooking camp with more flexibility, seems to have been a wholly ADULT decision. These are not Cub Scouts. The boys should have had a say in the camp, their food, and the accommodations made for them. Since the dinning hall staff can not cook their meals for them, I suggest the two Scouts sit down and decide which merit badges they need to drop in order for them (not you) to have enough time to make their meals. Meals do not take all day to prepare. If the Scouts do a bit of prep time on their food before camp, they should be able to put a meal together in 45 min or less. Still leaving PLENTY of time for summer camp stuff. As for the Scout who does not like being different, he is going to have to learn that he IS different, and trying to act otherwise can get him very sick in the best situation. Next year the Scouts in the Troop might look into camps that do not have dinning hall meals. BTW, I have camped with kids who are vegetarians, have serious nut allergies, and folks who have allergies to both gluten and corn products. Just try to find stuff in the grocery store that does not have corn syrup in it! They taught their kids from a VERY young age to read all labels in the store. Somehow, even with checking product labels, shopping for camp did not take days, just an hour or two. The same as it takes me to do our regular family shopping.

Most large sporting goods stores sell canoes. Some are - Sports Authority, Dick's, REI, and Cabela's. Heck, you can even find canoes at Sears, Walmart, Target, and at Amazon.com. All can be found online.

On the BSA Merit Badge Counselor Application, it states - As a merit badge counselor, I agree to - Renew my registration annually if I plan to continue as a merit badge counselor. I have heard some councils plan to send out a new Merit Badge Counselor Application ( http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34405.pdf ), to every currently registered MBC, along with a letter stating that it needs to be returned by XYZ date, and have the certificate from the online YPT attached, in order to continue to be a registered merit badge counselor.

As of June 1, 2010, Youth Protection training is required for ALL BSA REGISTERED volunteers, regardless of their position. To be a REGISTERED BSA volunteer, you must fill out a BSA ADULT Application. Per the BSA Q&A on Youth Protection training on the BSA National Web site - Q9: I am a Tiger Cub adult partner and ScoutParent. Do I need to take Youth Protection training? A9: The Tiger Cub adult partner and ScoutParent designations are not REGISTERED adult positions; therefore, mandatory Youth Protection training is not required. It is strongly recommended, however, that all adults involved in Scouting take Youth Protection training. WCScouter, perhaps the person who told you this was thinking of a ScoutParent Unit Coordinator. This IS a REGISTERED adult volunteer position, and as such IS required to take Youth Protection training. dg98adams - If you have folks who are counseling Merit Badges, and are NOT registered members of the BSA, then they are NOT qualified Merit Badge Counselors, and should NOT be meeting with any BSA youth. Using unregistered folks to sign off on Merit Badges has the potential to cause a lot of grief for the youth.

Once they have achieved a rank it is to late to un-ring that bell. Make sure the Scouts in the Troop have plenty of practice using their skills. Knots are very easy to lose if you do not use them - often. Have the older Scouts teach the skills they have learned (or should have learned) to younger Scouts. Teaching others is a great way to keep skills fresh.

On one of our first family camping trips, (kids were still quite small) my son was standing a bit past his ankles in a lake. My daughter decided to "skip" a stone. She then picks up a good sized rock and lobs it at the lake. Unfortunately she was standing right behind her brother at the time. Needless to say it did not "skip" very far after bouncing off his head. She then told him that it was his fault for being in her way, and proceeded to try to drown him while washing off the blood. To this day I am surprised he did not suffocate her in her sleeping bag that night. However, they both thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and 16 years later, they both still love camping, hiking, and the outdoors. My daughter still blames her brother for her lack of stone skipping ability!

Please don't blame BSA because your son did not change his socks for an entire week. As has been said, that is basic personal hygiene, which is the responsibility of his family to teach him. Do you have to tell him to change his socks, and underwear at home? Perhaps, after his "brilliantly red case of athlete's foot", he will remember, all by himself, why personal hygiene is important at ALL times. I too vote for staying hydrated. Staying dry is next on the list.

LIBob, not sure what your last article has to do with SA/SSD at all. BSA does not require that all of it's employees follow SA/SSD in their private lives. There is also no reason to believe that these 3 men even had any knowledge of SA/SSD at all, or any need to have that knowledge. Why not pull up articles of any and all boating accidents across the board? They would be just as relevant as this one, and some of your others. How about this one - http://www3.gendisasters.com/illinois/10516/chicago-il-eastland-disasters-jul-1915 I am sure with that many folks dead there must have been a few who were Scouters, and Scouts.

You still have not said what your Charter Organization's take is on this. Do they support the ACM? Will they support you if you have to let him go? You should realize that the odds are that if you fire him as ACM, he will probably leave his den leader position as well, and possibly even the Pack.

Who is your Charter Organization? As COR, you are the link between the CO and the Pack. How does the CO feel about the issues in it's Pack? As COR it is part of your job to provide quality leaders for your Pack. You also have final say on who is, and is not, registered with the Pack. A letter is not really necessary in order to "fire" someone. Although it is a decent gesture. All that is really needed is for you to invite him for a talk. It can be at your meeting place, your home, or anywhere you would both feel comfortable. Then talk to him about his behavior, and how it is affecting the Pack. Before you start firing him, see if things can be worked out. If he refuses to change, or even to try, then you can let him know that his services will no longer be needed by the Pack, and the Charter Organization. However, you had better make sure you have a replacement Bear den leader in the wings when you let this man go. I would also STRONGLY suggest that the CC, and your Pack's Unit Commissioner, both attend this meeting too.

a BALOO trained person is only required on a tour permit if the tour permit is for a Cub Scout Pack Overnighter. It is not required on a tour permit for any other Cub Scout activity. BALOO teaches you how to plan and run a Pack overnighter. It includes rules, regs, safety, equipment, and program. We do not run BALOO training at the District level. We would not get enough registrants to make the class financially feasible. We run 2 Council wide BALOO's per year. One in Fall and one in Spring. Not only do we get plenty of attendees, but we also have a broader range of available training staff, and a better chance of getting enough folks to staff the course.

A Venture Patrol is simply a different patrol within a Boy Scout Troop (ie: New Scout, Dragons, Venture). This patrol is only for older Boy Scouts, and usually focuses on high adventure. Often a Venture Patrol will not have a permanent membership, but will consist of the Scouts who are interested in what ever event/activity is coming up next. A Venturing Crew is a separately chartered unit that has it's own program, focus, uniform, awards, and can be co-ed. They are NOT Boy Scouts. They are Venturers. A Venturing Crew is not, and should not be created to be, part of a Boy Scout Troop (as stated above they are NOT Boy Scouts). Doing that cheats the youth out of the real Venturing program. Start a Venture, or High Adventure, Patrol in your Troop instead.(This message has been edited by Scoutnut)

The regular meeting place for both the Pack and the Troop is the Parish Elementary School. The school shuts down for the summer, with only the Hall being open after masses. As a result neither the Pack, or the Troop hold regular weekly meetings, Pack Meetings, or COH's. However, they do stay busy, just a bit scaled back. The Troop attends one, or two weeks of Summer Camp. The council holds NYLT during the summer and I believe some Scouts are attending. Some Scouts help staff Cub Summer Camp. The Pack holds one or two events each month, along with attending Day Camp and Summer Camp. Sometimes a den will get together for a service project. After a busy, full school year, we like to scale back a bit in Summer. Burnt out leaders do not do anyone any good. By early-mid August Scouting starts gearing up for the new program year, and it's great when everyone is refreshed, and rarin' to go.

I don't, as a rule, wear hats. Only 1 leader (out of about 16) in our Pack wears any type of hat, and that is a generic BSA ball cap. Scouting uniforms cost enough money as it is. Can't see many folks shelling out more $$ for a new hat every year.

Den leaders do NOT an entire Committee make. Have her take BALOO training and make her your "Outings Chair". Make her the "Public Relations Chair" and give her the green light to do that Facebook Page. Here are BSA's descriptions of some of the Pack Committee positions - http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/AboutCubScouts/ThePack/pcomm.aspx

Wood Badge is about leadership, not about doing everything all by yourself. Your son should have contacted his WB Guide if he had any questions on his ticket. He should also have used his leadership skills to get help from both the Pack and the Troop (how about that Quartermaster?) for the cleaning project. At the very least, after finding the mess left by the Quartermaster, I would have gotten him down there to help clean up the mess he had left. BTW, your husband had no business interfering with your son's WB ticket. Also, does he realize, or care, what he has just taught that Quartermaster? He taught him that the Scout Oath and Law mean next to nothing, and that dumping your work off on someone else, and leaving things in a much bigger mess for someone else to clean up after you, is the right thing to do. Shame on him.

You stated that this was a Troop function, and that you had no idea your step-son was doing the canoeing merit badge? Were you at the event? If you attended, how was it that you had no idea of what was going on? If you were not at the event, perhaps the information you received was a bit over simplified, or confused. To assume that the entire BSA National organization does not take water safety seriously because of (possibly incorrect) information about one Troop's single event is extreme overkill in my opinion. Especially because you obviously did not have any idea of what the requirements were for the Canoeing MB. In order to earn the Canoeing MB there MUST be a registered Canoeing MB instructor there, on site. There must also be someone who is trained in Safety Afloat, and someone who is trained in First Aid and CPR. Requirements for ALL merit badges MUST be completed AS WRITTEN. As others have posted, requirement #3 for the Canoeing MB is "Before doing the following requirements, SUCCESSFULLY complete the BSA swimmer test". This means that the Scout must be able to swim in order to complete the Canoeing MB. Requirements #4 is "Discuss the following: 1. The BSA Safety Afloat policy. Tell how it applies to canoeing activities. 2. The most common weather and water-related hazards encountered while canoeing and how to deal safely with each one." As you can tell, BSA does indeed take water safety seriously. Perhaps it is that your son's TROOP LEADERS do not, or more likely, there was a misunderstanding on your part about what the boys were actually doing. If it WAS the Troop, your discussion with your wife might be of better use if it was spent discussing finding a new Troop, one that follows BSA rules, for your step-son to join.

"What would you have done if you sent your son to a week of camp, and came back to pick him up and found out he had broken his leg on the 1st day, and since there was no camp Dr.. they never got the leg treated, just had him sit in his tent all weekend long." Come on now, if you are going to do "what if's", you should at least make them logical. No respectable camp, or organization, that wants to stay in operation, is going to let a youth member who has a broken bone sit, untreated, in a tent for 2 days. That could be life threatening, and is just asking for a lawsuit. The camp most likely took her up on her offer to be Camp First Aider, because they NEEDED one to stay open. If I took my Scouts to a camp, found out they had no medical personal on staff, and no "Plan B" to cover medical issues, I would not stay, and I doubt very much if anyone else would be staying either. That is a MAJOR safety issue. As for being, or not being, the First Aid MBC, if I was a registered MBC for the badge, and they did not want my help, so be it. I would not encourage my Scouts to sign up for the MB if I knew it was not being covered decently. Other than that it would be the camp's call, and not a do or die issue for me. On your trail to Eagle program, I would have raised Holy Hell, and then some, with the Camp Director, the DE, and the SE. Surprise program idiocy aside, not allowing youth to contact parents, or, especially, having staff ignoring medical problems is another GIANT safety issue. Messing around with $1 FOS for years just would NOT have cut it. If a program is just bad, no safety issues involved, then you fill out one of the camp feedback forms at the end of camp and tell them so. If it is a REALLY bad program, you let the council know about it directly, and then you make plans to not attend that program again, and let the council know that.

You seem to be asking as a participant, and not the one in charge of the activity at day camp. Was there a problem you noticed today with how the DC staff was running the monkey bridge? Could you explain exactly what the problem was?

Why not something a bit closer to home? Both WI and MI offer some great opportunities. Rafting the Wolf Canoeing the St Croix, or Flambeau Biking WI, and UP trails Backpacking thru many surrounding State and National park lands Scuba on the Apostles Rock climbing at Devils Lake Isle Royale Don't forget IL. Shawnee National Forest in Southern IL offers quite a bit, including horse camping BTW, high adventure and houseboating? Really?