T2Eagle

Wow, I would find that completely unacceptable. The boys get to decide a lot of things, but blowing off commitments, wasting adult volunteer time, embarrassing a committee member, and being ungrateful about of the use of someone elses property are not among them. More points at a camporee are not a sufficient trade off for any of those things. You cant make scouts go somewhere they dont want to go, but if the adults couldnt persuade them of the error of their ways they certainly should not allow them to do something else instead. The PLC made the decision to do this campout, the opportunity to change their minds had passed once you, as a troop representative, received the permission from your club. What if the SPL HAD written the letter and received the permission from your club. It still wouldn't have been acceptable to change their minds at this point. To the outside world the troop is the troop and who has buy-in on a program is not anyone outside the troop's problem.

Welcome to the campfire. Could you tell us a little about Scouting in Austria. Especially any differences or contrasts from your understanding of U.S. Scouting. Thanks

I'm curious, what if a troop doesn't want to sell cookies, or doesn't want to sell a lot of them? Can they have another fundraiser where the money does stay in the troop? Are there quotas or requirements about how many cookies a troop has to sell? And if that percentage is going to the council what does the council do with it? Are camps free or deeply discounted?

I cant comment on whats typical. Our CO is our Catholic Church, we have a Pack, a Troop, and are starting a Venture Crew. We get good support in terms of meeting space and support for our fundraising efforts. The pastor is our CR, and other than Scout Sunday and maybe our semi-annual COH were left on our own; he doesnt play any role at all in our units or in the District or Council. We dont really look for or ask any more of him, and to be fair were a big parish with just one priest and were one of a couple dozen ministries including a parish school. Given the paucity of Catholic priests these days I would guess that unless a pastor has an affinity for scouting hell be stretched too thin to be more involved.

As I mentioned above I'm going to talk to our PLC about the chicken or rabbit idea. And yes Blancmange the pun was intended, after I realized what I wrote. We did a pig roast at our annual Boy Scout/Cub Scout weekend this year and everybody loved it. I was especially happy that the cubs were so fascinated by the whole process. "Is that really a pig? Wow!" And they even ate it. The older scouts did name it before we cooked it. When I picked it up at the processor they said they could take off the head and legs and it would be easier to cook, I said no leave them on that's the whole point. The trickiest part came about 5:30 that day, all the stations the Boy Scouts had run were finished and went off without a hitch, everybody was just hanging out/running around doing free time. The cooking of the pig had fallen to the scoutmaster and me, the cubmaster and it was the first time either of us had ever cooked a pig. I turned to him and said "The only thing that can go wrong now with this weekend is what you and I are responsible for -- this pig." I have to say one quick word in defense of "moms" here. So often in these forums they are referred to with less than the respect they deserve. Although I have to admit that after an unfortunate week at Acadia National Park my own DW now insists that camping is the difference between the Holiday Inn and the Marriott. We have several moms who regularly camp and hike with us. The other night we had some Webelos II visit the troop and one of the leaders was talking about the nice spring campouts moms go to, and I had to remind him that Nan's idea of camping was two weeks in a tent in Yellowstone. So please, when we are talking about squeamishness, please don't assume it's "moms" that are the problem.

I read Cubmom2's question differently. I think she meant "scouting time" as in during a scouting activity. You have to complete the requirements while you're registered as a scout, but they don't have to be done as part of a scouting activity (with the exception of BB Guns and Archery). So if they were scouts while on the team they can use that to fulfiil the requirements. As to the new requirements, if you're talking about Disabilities Awareness, Family Travel, Good Manners, Nutrition, Pet Care, Photography Reading and Writing, and Video Games that were added in November 2009. They're available here http://www.usscouts.org/advance/cubscout/a-sindex.asp. And I can't think why anyone on this forum would buy the book since everything is available online.

I wasn't sure where or how to put this post and figured this is the almost anything goes section. If this isn't appropriate please let me know. I'm going and I have a couple of extra hockey tickets I need to get rid of. I'm not trying to make any profit, but I figured if I can have a fellow scouter sitting next to me and my family that's a better bet than whoever I might end up with from e-bay. PM me if anyone wants more information.

It may be a minority position Lisabob, but youre not alone, count me in. Some day Id like to see some good data about just where the minority/majority line is among all the people who participate, support, or, belong to scouting. I had started a reply, my computer hiccupped, I lost what I was typing, and saw that Lisabob has stated most of what I had to say and more eloquently than I was going to say it. I love scouting, I live and breathe it, I have been involved in scouting on and off for a few decades as a scout, as an uncle helping my nephew while his dad was serving at sea, and now as a leader for my sons. But I dont want the government sponsoring units. The VFD described doesnt sound like a government entity so sponsor away. But the school is a different matter. The government is of the people, by the people, and for the people, and is the expression of the peoples will, but it is limited in the things its allowed to do. Its limited so that we as individuals are protected from a tyranny by the majority. If the school/government can own an organization that prohibits atheists from membership than its establishing a religion. If it can exclude atheists today it can exclude catholics like me tomorrow (a not uncommon occurrence in our countrys past). And if it can exclude Catholics and atheists it can exclude everyone that isnt something like Muslim. And if it excludes us from scouts it can exclude us from the basketball team or the honors program.

Going from live, or recently live, animal to dinner would be a good lesson in how the world really works and an interesting skill to try. I'm going to tell our PLC about it and see if anyone bites. But in terms of actual survival skills and training we need to also emphasize that trying to catch and cook game is not a good survival strategy. The human body can go weeks without food and still fully recover. As mentioned in one of the posts above, the calories you'd get back probably wouldn't justify the calories burned. And improving almost anything else about your situation, including just not using energy, is probably a better use of your calories. As to why not to eat wild game or plants: they're more likely to make you sick and worse off than they are to improve your situation. It's really easy, even under good conditions, to contaminate meat when you're cleaning and dressing it. Plus lots of wild critters have parasites on or in them that you don't want to mess with. The WS MB probably doesn't specifically mention fish as something to stay away from because it's probably the safest thing to catch and eat in the wild, but again the calories gained for calories spent makes it a less than ideal strategy.

In our troop we've also heard "my cell phone is my flashlight". I have to admit that oft times these days my iphone is my handbook.

Interestingly the member date reflects the first time I tried to join.

What an awesome resource, thanks. The one way to flesh it out that I would suggest is to include some of the possibilities in Ontario Canada. We're in northwest OH and have camped and hiked at both provincial parks and scout camps there. The lack of population density on the northern shore of Erie and the eastern shore of Huron leaves a lot of room for outdoor adventures.

Finally, After reading these forums for a couple months I'm able to join. Where to start: uniforms at EBOR, new definition of active, the Mdsummer saga? So many pent up opinions, so little typing ability.