speeglevillemom

I had a situation where one of my new scouts had been attacked this summer and had to go to court and the whole lot. At a pack meeting we presented him with the crime stopper "award" for his bravery in telling an adult about what had happened and being brave. All the boys love looking at it and giving him a big high five for doing the right thing. Havent run into anyone whining about not being able to earn it themselves. I think at this age most boys understand when someone else gets something special because of a special circumstance. Atleast all of my boys have.

Thank you for all of the advice. I better understand my "official" role a bit better. For what it is worth, I would have expected more information to come down from Council by now, but alas I have had to beg and plead just for the theme. For whatever reason our council is mismanaged and has caused our district to become the ugly stepchild noone wants at the adults table. I am okay with the thought that I will need to "remind" them on a daily basis that we are putting on a day camp, just like we have every year in June and that I will be here to run it. My intentions are to be the pd this year then when camp is over head up to the Council office, in a land far far away from our district, and demand things be taken care of much sooner. I firmly believe that you CAN NOT complain to anyone about what is happening until you spend time in the muck. This is me wading in the muck. For all I know the Council has no idea things are so bad here and that there is a problem. Maybe they just need a gentle reminder (the kind only a wife can give) that this is not okay and things need to change if they expect the programs to help the kids. Mr White: When it comes to my children I would gladly walk through hell. After the debacle that was last years day camp I immediatly volunteered to help with this year. DE approched me recently and asked if I would run it. I jumped at the idea because I knew it was something I was not only compasionate about ie something my son is involved in, but also something I would greatly enjoy. And I have very much enjoyed planning this years day camp. For whatever reason our council, like so many others, has hit a brick wall where they are not running as efficiantly as they could. Maybe I have been put in this position by the powers that be to create the program it was intended to be. Whats the worst that could happen?! I understand you may have had bad experiences in the past or are lucky enough to have a council that runs like clock work, but for those of us that do not have that opportunity please keep the argumentative comments from cyber space. They are not helpful and only come accross as mean spirited. Which I am told is not the scouting way.

My plan is to get dressed in costume and hit every pack meeting in Jan and Feb. I want the kids to be so excited that they beg their leaders and parents to get them signed up. Plus I figure it will get the adults interested in checking out the changes to camp. My thought is the more excited I seem the more buzz and excitement it will generate. Plus it would be fun to dress like a princess for a few months. As for late registration... to me there is no acceptable reason to turn away kids months in advance considering they only gave them two weeks to get it in in the first place. Last year there was a lot wrong with camp and I am not the only one with a bad taste in my mouth. All it would have taken is a simple phone call to see if a pack was going to attend and there was a problem with paperwork or not to get a general number of attendies. The pd last year didn't feel it necissary to advertise the camp so noone was prepared. There was a lot of miscommunication between cd and pd last year that I think will not happen in the future. Atleast I am going to try to keep everyone on the same page. Question about food.... how many day camps provide the food? I have heard of camps doing it either way. I would like to have different places provide lunch for our kiddos, but not sure if other groups found it difficult or easier than them brining their own lunch.

Thanks for all of the advice. After talking to some people who have been up at the district office for awhile I better understand what has gone wrong with our camp. Last year it seems the program director refused late registration so a bunch of scouts didn't get to go. My jaw hit the floor. How could anyone tell a little boy no he couldn't go to camp? The CD is awsome and really into camp she just got over shadowed last year by the pd which I thought was interesting. I think we will work well together and make this program outstanding. I am so excited and ready to hit the ground running.

Fundraiser... thought was to do one to help the kids raise the hundred dollar registration fee. Since everyone is concerned about the economy I thought doing a bowl a thon and a bike a thon would be scout friendly activities and would also help get more kids to camp who would otherwise not beable to go. I have heard of other districts doing fundraisers to help with registration. My thought was that since our Pack used the popcorn funds to pay for the boys uniforms, they worked their tails off to do it and are so proud to show off their entire uniform, the same would be true for camp. We have a bunch of underprivilaged scouts that I know would benefit from day camp. Just need to get with CD to work it out.

Rundown.... the facilities are fine the program isn't. Everything is planned last minute so it is just thrown together and everyone runs around like chickens with their heads cut off. (I'm not trying to be mean that is just what it was like last year) Noone knew what was going on. The staff was no were prepared. Attendance has been way down. After camp lastyear the comment was that it was the best camp so far. My jaw hit the floor. (it was our first year) How could it be the best yet, they still were unprepared. I imediately volunteered for this year. The DE approched me in Nov and asked if I would run it so I assumed she meant as CD. Had to turn it down because I thought we were moving for a job transfer, but we were able to stay so I went to district office and she still needed someone. Council picks the themes. Ours is knights of the round table. Very excited personally. I had to make the calls to find out. Thought I was the CD until DE set me straight yesturday. Not a big deal, just need to better understand my role so that I can help expand the program better. Would love to get in contact with CD just need to get her contact info and reach out. Sent DE an email that I would like to do two fundraisers to help witht he cost of day camp and to hopefully raise attendance and to get a list of packs so I could go in costume and get the kiddos and parents excited and ready she just said that they had a CD and I was just the PD. Guess I need to better understand my role here. Do I just implament the CD's camp ideas or what exactly. Attending School in begin of Feb. Very Very excited. Have a million ideas filling my brain. Hopefully the CD is just as excited. I am a plan ahead kind of person so I have been working on ideas all weekend. Have a notebook filling with brainstorms and web printouts. Thanks for the advice.

So if I understand the way this will work... I am under the Camp Director so she is the one I should run my ideas through. My concern is she has been Camp Director for many years and the camp is very run down and unatteneded. I am not sure if it is because she is a no type personality or if they havent had a program director who looked into what we can make happen. I am all rearing to go, but feel like they don't mind things being so last minute throw together. Thanks for the advice guess I will just have to wait and see what she is like once I meet her.

For those who know I would like to see what the job description of Program Director for Day Camp is. I have been asked to take on this position, but have no idea what all it entails. Thanks for any info you have.

I am near KILLEEN Texas which houses Ft. Hood Army Base. I am sure our scouts in that area would love a pen pal. If you still need a K letter let me know and I can put the word out for you. Just hollar. kathryn

I have a problem with one of the parents in our Tiger den I would like to run by ya'll. In my infanite wisdom I was asked and accepted the duties of starting a new pack out where I live, just outside the city. One was badly needed and we have a fantastic response from parents out here. We had eleven boys sign up within the first week. Then there is the one...the constant complainer. He spends a lot of his time at the tiger den meeting complaining about everything from why they have to wear uniforms (which most of the boys used their hard earned popcorn money to buy and wear with emense pride, but he opted to buy his sons uniform himself while berading me, the cc, as to why they need all of this; his son raised enough money during popcorn that he could have let us get the uniform but decided to buy it himself) to how when he was in boy scouts things ran this way or that way. His newest complaint is the fact that I mentioned to all of the parents during our pack meeting (kids where not around) that the boys needed to be in tennis shoes only. That crocks (which his son wears all the time), sandles, flip flops nothing other than close toed shoes ie.. tennis shoes or boots were allowed for safety reasons. He was mad thinking I was directing it at him. Ummm no I said it to the entire audience and never once singled any boy out. We are a new pack (three months old) so we are still learning the ends and outs and trying to get everything worked out best. I need to know what as the cc I should do about this dad. His son does not seem all that interested in scouting which makes me wonder if it is a situation where dad signed him up because he was a scout. He hasn't brought any of the complaints to me partly because apparently I am a problem. My thought was to go meet with out cor and him and let him know we will gladly transfer his memebership to a different pack that better suits his idea of scouting. Not sure if that is the right way to go. Please any advice ya'll have would be much appreciated.

I had a hair brain idea that I could use some guidence on. Since we are a new pack that didn't get started until October I thought about taking all eleven of our boys and having a twenty four hour scout-a-thon type event. Since their winter break from school is comming up soon we could plan to start the friday they let out early, aound one, and have a lock in at the church where we are chartered and spend twenty four hours doing nothing but cub scout achievements and belt loops and scouting type things. Since we live in Texas I know it will be cold but not snowing so the weather should be pretty nice to play outside. What do you think? What should we definatly do and what should we not even try to attempt? We have just over thirty days to put this together so any help I could get would be appreciated.