SWScouter

There once was a lonely old beaver His wife used to chase him with a cleaver She gave him no time She spent his last dime He had no trouble deciding to leave her.

Trev, I'm curious. Is this a new Merit Badge that is to be introduced between the 2005/2010 jamborees or is it a MB that will be new to the jamboree? Oh heck, what is the MB? Thanks, SWScouter

Sgtron116, welcome to the forum. In the Webelos handbook, you'll see it written that what uniform your son wears is, as the others have said, your family's choice. What I did, when my son was a Webelos, was to give him the green/tan uniform immediately after he was awarded his Webelos badge. SWScouter

I'm going to add a little to what OGE stated about the adult religious emblem award for the Roman Catholic faith. There are two religious emblems, the Bronze Pelican and the St. George. The Bronze Pelican is awarded at the Diocese level and the St. George is awarded at the National Catholic Committee on Scouting (NCCS) level. The square knot is only supposed to be worn by those honored with the St. George emblem. The guidelines are about 4-5 years service for the Bronze Pelican and 10-15 years for the St. George. I liken them to the District Award of Merit and the Silver Beaver respectively. For a RC scouter, it is fairly rare and quite an honor to receive the St. George emblem. OGE, you should wear the Webelos device for the Parvuli Dei, the Cub Scout device is for the Light of Christ. As for me, I have earned three knots, all for Cub Scoutering: Den Leader Award, Webelos Den Leader Award, and the Cub Scouter Award. I have all three knots on all three of my uniform shirts. SWScouter

Alright, this is what we got: There once was a scout at Camp Geronimo. There were many things scouting he wanted to know. He went to his tent. As he was tired and spent. And throughout Geronimo his snore they did know. Let's try again: There once was a great general named BP.

Perhaps this is rhetorical but, of all those people slapping each others backs and shaking each others hands for getting the US out of Vietnam, who took responsibility for the million vietnamese slaughtered after the US pullout?

Lizzygo, Your den is still a Tiger Den so the boys should work on earning tiger tracks now. As others have said, your pack will probably have a crossover ceremony in late May or early June where the Tigers will cross over to Wolfs, Wolfs will cross over to Bears, and Bears will cross over to Webelos. Once this crossover takes place, then the boys can start work on Wolf advancement. ScoutNut may be correct about scoutnet, at least for non LDS packs. The church of Latter Day Saints uses scouting for it's young men's prograrm and changing from one den level to the next occurs on each scouts birthday. The den does not move up together. Don't worry about this though because I know you are not involved in an LDS pack since they don't use the Tiger program. SWScouter

Okay, how about a group effort. Let's try to keep the timing right too. I'll start: There once was a scout at Camp Geronimo

From the Insignia Guide: Eagle rank, cloth, silver, white, and blue on red, No. 00489, Boy Scout, left pocket. Adults wear square knot, No. 05011. Eagle Award, silver medal suspended from scroll, No. 00135: sterling silver, No. 00112; Boy Scout. Adults wear only on formal Eagle occasions. So, the Eagle rank patch should only be worn by Boy Scouts and the Eagle award (medal) may be worn by both youth and adults. SWScouter

I don't know how much of the following I actually wrote, but this is basically the award ceremony that happened at the Catholic Church I attend and that charters the pack my son was in: Recognition of Religious Awards February 13, 2005 Duty to God. From the first grade Tiger Cub through the fifth grade Webelos Scout, from the Tenderfoot Scout to the Eagle Scout, the Boy Scouts of America promotes and encourages a Scouts duty to God. The BSA accomplishes this through advancement requirements, the Scout Oaths, the twelfth point of the Scout Law, a Scout is reverent, and the faith based Religious Emblems program. For Catholic Cub Scouts, there are two Religious Emblems. The first, The Light of Christ, is for 1st and 2nd grade Cub Scouts. The Light of Christ program is to help the Cub Scout develop a personal relationship with Jesus. With the parents active assistance and participation in this program, it is hoped that the Cub Scout will come to see Jesus as a real person and his friend. The second, Parvuli Dei, or Children of God, is for the older Cub Scouts in 3rd through 5th grade. It helps them explore a wide range of activities in order to discover the presence of God in their daily lives as members of their families and parishes, and also to develop a good, positive self-image through the contributions they can make to the group or community. This morning [parish name], the chartering organization for Cub Scout Pack xyz is proud to recognize several Cub Scouts that have worked hard over the past several months to earn their Parvuli Dei religious emblem. I am going to ask each recipient to come forward, when I call his name, and remain up here until all are presented where we can then congratulate them. We would also like to recognize [scout name], a member of Pack xyz that has earned the God and Family religious emblem of his faith. [name], would you please stand. Would you please join me in congratulating these Scouts for the great job they have done representing Pack xyz and our parish community. Thank you. --- I hope this helps, SWScouter(This message has been edited by SWScouter)

Willhi1979 is correct. There is a Quality District patch that can be worn by a leader in a district position. Your son is a scout and would not wear it. There is also a Quality Council patch that can be worn by a leader in a council position. SWScouter

Is that yonder lad a scout? Nay, he's a hooligan and a lout. Where are those lads in tan and green? I look and they are nowhere seen. They're hither, yon, out and about.

"outstanding service to the District", "outstanding service to youth inside and outside of Scouting" Maybe I'm just altruistic, but I don't see any confusion or contradiction here. The "district" is just a geographic boundary or, in other words, just an area that contains people. If a person contributes vitally to the youth in that area, isn't that person providing outstanding service to the district? I believe so. SWScouter

From the DAM nomination form: A nominee must have rendered noteworthy service to youth in Scouting, outside Scouting, or both. Note: The nature and value of noteworthy service to youth may consist of a single plan or decisions that contributed vitally to the lives of large numbers of youth or it may have been given to a small group over an extended period of time. This tells me that a scouter doesn't need to serve at the District level to receive the DAM and that the DAM Committee should consider service at the unit level absolutely valid for the award. What really should be considered is service that "contributed vitally" youth. Whether or not that service is related to scouting or not really shouldn't matter! SWScouter

More Haiku: We will do our best. We will be prepared each day. The Boy Scout refrain. For those who don't know, Haiku is a short three line poem made up of seventeen syllables, five in the 1st and 3rd lines and seven in the second. Born a tiger cub. Fitness, character, service. An Eagle, he soars. SWScouter

There was a Webelos den leader. He dreamed of being a three-beader. He took the cubs on an outing. He made sure they joined boy scouting. Now the den's gone, he's lost, oh me dear.

How about Haiku instead of a limerick: Backpack to the site. Set up camp and do scout craft. Boy Scouts we will be. Or not... SWScouter

Perhaps we shouldn't push our thoughts on how to raise a child, but I do know that here in Arizona, I have a legal obligation to report any suspicion of child abuse to the proper authorities. It is not my responsibility to decide if there really is abuse or not, just to report it. I'm not saying that there is any suspicion of abuse with the scout from NC. Now, if I suspect a scout is being abused, I would let the scout know that I'm a friend and available, I would contact the SE, and I would contact the local authorities. I would not tell anyone else in the troop (what if my suspicions are wrong?) or confront the suspected abuser.

The troop my son and I are members of have run the concessions at our district's PWD the last few years. The troop will be running the concessions at District PWD again this year. It's a great fundraiser for the scouts. The troop also organized/hosted our District's Fall Camporee last year. We had concessions there too. The concessions were not part of either events budget and the district/council had no issues with the troop doing this as a fundraiser. This must be a council thing. Personally, I would skip the concesstions. SWScouter

Oak Tree, If the adult leadership does what you say using reports from Troopmaster, aren't we taking away responsibility from the scouts? My understanding is one of the PL's responsibilities is to know where his patrol members are concerning advancement and report on that to the PLC. Thus the PLC should then be able to plan activities accordingly. Lisa Bob, Online advancement only records rank, merit badges, and awards for each scout. There is no recording of individual rank requirements. That's my main question, what is the purpose of recording when every single requirement is passed off? It seems that only the actual rank needs to be recorded along with the earned merit badges. I'm sort of taking the devil's advocate stance here. I think we can take technology too far and just create busy work with little advantage. As far as I can tell, recording when each scout passes each requirement in Troopmaster is one example of this busy work. What is the benefit? Is being able to give advancement reports to the PLC for scheduling activities an advantage or are we just taking away learning opportunities and responsibilities from the scouts? I think Gonzo1 points out a great tool. The advancement charts are visual. Each scout can see where he is and he can also update the chart when he completes a requirement. Of course, his book needs to be signed off first. SWScouter

In another thread, Gwd_scouter wrote, Our troop was in a terrible habit of entering things in TroopMaster without having it signed off in the book first. So, a boy could be ready for a SM conference for Tenderfoot and not have a thing signed in his book. Very sad scenario and one which we have since corrected. All of our boys know very clearly now that nothing gets recorded in TroopMaster until it is signed in their handbook. This has resulted in the boys at least remembering to bring their books on campouts so they can get signed off when they cook, build fires, etc. Now I've never seen Troopmaster. I hear it does a lot, but why on earth does a troop need to record whether a scout has finished, e.g., requirement 2 for 1st class? Isn't signing off the requirement in the book enough? Why should the troop micromanage all these little beans for all the scouts? I can understand keeping track of when a scout earns rank, but all the in between? I can certainly see that this would be a major pain for the advancement chair (or whomever is in charge of this nightmare). So, what's the benefit? SWScouter

Well, it appears you can just go through the OLC now, however, for YPT there is council specific information. In order to complete the YPT online, you are required to download this council specific information. This includes things like local contact numbers and abuse reporting laws. SWScouter

Fishnbass2, Welcome to the forum. You'll need to check with your own district/council people. YPT is specific to the state/municipality you live in. There is information that is local in nature with the training and so you need to always work through your own council when taking YPT online. For example, if I took YPT online through the Chief Seattle Council's Website that would not count for me because I live in Phoenix, AZ and need to go through the Grand Canyon Council's web site. SWScouter

I always wonder what one who constantly cusses says when they really need to cuss? If expletives are constantly spewing from one's mouth, how do I as a listener know that he/she is trying to accent something or just speaking normally? Along these lines, how do you handle scouts saying, "frick" or "frickin?" Personally I hold it just as bad as that other f word since it seems to have been created as substitute. SWScouter

For some reason I can't fathom, I have very little memory of eating during scout campouts. I remember that we would sometimes have cornish game hens for dinner, no idea what with. I remember bacon and eggs for breakfast. Sausage and ash pancakes. Yes ash pancakes. It seems that the fire would always shift and the skillet would drop and a cloud of ash would cover the pancakes. There are times when soaking your pancakes in syrup is a very good idea. SWScouter