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What did you take for a sleeping bag? For space/weight reason I am thinking of sending the boy with two poly fleece blankets instead of a sleeping bag. you thoughts please.

Foil cooking is great!!! For burgers use onions or cheap zucchini squash inside the foil, it provides moisture. The kids don't have to eat it, but it keeps the burger from burning and gives one a safety factor on cook time. Try ice cream in two plastic ZIPLOCK bags. A sandwich bag contains 1/2 &1/2 , sugar, and a bit of vanilla. You can find the recipe on line. the second bag is a one gallon bag and contains crushed ice and table salt. Hold the bag in your gloved hands(the boys did bring some cotton gloves? gathering wood, holding the bottom of a mess kit containing hot food, handling hot foil meals.) Cheap cotton gloves are worth the weight. Shake ,squeeze ,shake some more (of course you'll try it at home first) until you have droopy, sloppy ice cream. The GS have been doing this for years with two cans with lids. It is fun. Cook popcorn in a D.O. most kids have only had microwave popcorn. Once they try real oil popped corn they think it is special. When my son was a DC his cubs thought he was the greatest. Try a banana cooked in foil. Add mini marshmallows and mini chocolate drops top with whipped cream. Cook for 10 minutes (no food poisoning if under cooked) Now FLOTUS would like to send me to a "re-education camp" for suggesting such fattening fair but what the heck. so enough about food..... I don't think 1 1/2 hours is long enough for fishing if you have cooperative bluegills. It could be way too long if there are no fish. The first time you fish with a young boy he better catch something. I know kids need to learn that it is called "fishing" and not "catching". I'm talking first experience here. Explain catch and release, insure the boys respect the fish. If you wish to keep some kill them right away. I cannot stand to see fish help out of water for one moment longer than necessary to properly release them. your schedule looks great otherwise and I think you are a heck of a leader to bring the boys on this type of trip. Way too many people are mailing it in these days. Remember McKnight's Maxim-"I 'm having fun, the boys are having fun, what the heck is your problem?" My problem was I was wigging out about schedule, perfection and a multitude of other things. Think about safety, comfort of the boys and making sure it is fun for them. Two more things. Bring plenty of trash bags and paper towels. Bring a five gallon pail----fill it--- and explain to the boys that is the first step to building a fire---be able to get water a few feet away to put it out. 3/4 of the Earth surface is covered with water ---it sometimes falls on our heads------- what is your rainy day plan???????? That is 3 things. But you need a rainy day plan. Do all your boys have a whittling chip? Again best of luck and thank you for helping the boys.

One of the best Scouts I ever met gave a posthumous mentor award, I told him to. His thoughts were how can I do this the man is dead? Well the military gives awards like that all the time. The Eagle did improvements to a NY State Park. The Park Manager had a negligent discharge with a handgun after hunting on Thanksgiving day. He died immediately. We contacted the Park staff told them what the boy Eagle wanted. The Park Staff contacted the wife. The Eagle had his ceremony and when the time came he asked Mrs. Parkmanager to come up. He read something to her and pinned the mentor pin to her jacket. My son was one of the boys in the Troop and greatly admired the Eagle(he was my son's Den Chief) and remarked, "I was crying, she was crying and Chuck was crying. I could'nt hear what he said to her before he gave her the pin but I'm sure it was important to her." It will make to NOK remember what his/her loved one did for you. Congrats on your coming advancement.

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Nobody said what the boy did. I would want to know: IS this boy a DANGER to the boys who play by the rules? What "leadership challenges" is he going to give me(a volunteer part time person who is not a child shrink)? What "leadersip challenges" is he going to give one of my 15 year old young PL and my SPL's if he tries his crap again? What kids am I liable to lose? This kid and his parents have to realize that your reputation follows you where ever you go. Reading some of the answers here is is easy to see how Catholic Priests are shuffled from town to town and given a new crop of lives to ruin. I only hope your daughters don't date the local Vandersloot wannabee's and you sit around a hospital waiting room asking "how did this happen", wake up! evil exists and it thrives in a society where people are unwilling to see things as they are.

Wouldn't it be great if that was on the news instead of Lindsay Lohan!

Wing, Mr S. lives on in every boy you mentor. The boys are in a way his "Scouting Grandsons". His legacy is far greater than men who's names will go down in history, the men he makes through you will never know his name yet Mr. S. made boys better than they would have been. The Christmas movie with Jimmy Stewart comes to mind...imagine if 20 years from now Mr S. had never been alive...would a boy know CPR, would a boy save a drowning victim by swimming out to a victim and extend a tree limb and towing some child to safety.... more simply would a boy who is a grown man offer to carry an old woman's bag in a busy airport terminal to help her catch a flight? I'd say Mr S. is going to be contibuting for a long time.

Personal Experience as Den Leader and father of DC: Once a camping trip mixed between Troop and Pack to go to FT Ticonderoga. Youngest boy scouts in troop attending. Pack is doing family camping to go to FT next day. Boy Scouts are acting nuts for the most part, one comes up to me and says,"Excuse me Mr UZ... Can you show me how to orient this map with the compass?" Holy cow who is this kid, watched him the rest of the weekend...I WANT THIS KID AS THE DC. 1. Kid was only second class. 2. Kid had never been a Cub Scout. As jblake says this may have ended it right there. This isn't physics where you can't bend the law of the universe. DC was great, stayed with it for two years. We then got 3 cubs from that den (when they became second class) to be DC because of the job my DC did. You MUST insure the DC has every opportunity to earn the red white and blue rope.(don't cheat the requirements) You MUST be flexible on both sides. let the Scout miss some den functions and some troop functions equally if there is conflict. You MUST see that his parents are on board, extra driving, and all else this entails. You MUST have the DC talk about what the Troop and his Patrol are doing every Den Meeting. Encourage the DC to go to Cub Camp with the Den. You MUST communicate with the DC parents giving them ample prep and hashing out conflicts in the schedule. You MUST give the DC a task or two every neeting. Let him teach something ALONE. You as the DL go on the other side of the room and staighten up your paperwork or look busy doing something else. LET THE DC LEAD! You MUST have a planning meeting with the DC where you look a couple or 3 months in advance and plan activities that the DC can lead. You MUST get the DC his own copy of the book the Cubs are using for their appropriate age. I once gave a Scout a Scoutmaster conference, he had been a DC for 6 months and could not tell me what year the cubs were that he was serving. How involved was this boy scout? (Not to worry his daddy made sure he made Eagle at 14 years old.) Finally, NEVER have the Den Leader be the parent, the DC be one son and have another son be a cub in the Den. IT NEVER WORKS. No doubt we will hear from some special folks out there who made it work but by and large there is too much family there. I think the DC is a very important part of Scouting and I wish evey den had the same experience my son, my DC and I did. The benefits to the cubs, the DC, the Troop and the pack are long term and many. Pick the right kid and run with it. The first one is the toughest.

Thank you Eagle. I'm going bow out of the rest of the comments here. PISC 1981 To the men of the 3rd BN 8th Marine Reg't I'll lift a glass to you and others Wednesday. Semper Fi!

Welcome What other positions have you heldin Scouting?

I was in an infantry BN at Camp Swampy (Camp Lejeune). I did not have a child/was not married then. I would agree with getting a mix of adults on your committee I cannot imagine being a Dad/ Adult leader/ Marine Gunny or Major and serving the demands of being in the weeds learning and doing work ups to deploy. You can expect those Marines in infantry regiments to be in the field 3 weeks out of the month. Some other Marines can work a 9 to 5 type job,I never saw it but it can happen. Liberty is a privilege not a right. A Marine will give you all he's got but he serves another master. Ask what his job is, have him communicate with you on what his level of commitment can be. Help them, help their sons.

I think we also teach boys to use the rescources they have available. That said there is not a HS english teacher in America that would not help a student make the Eagle paperwork the best it can be. Advise him to get with Mrs SOANDSO to help him complete the app , it is important. You let this go by and the kid thinks filling in the college app is the same way. WE all need the Cub motto when it comes to the Eagle process

no app required here either. My son was a DC for years and no app. I had a DC for 2 never heard of such a thing Compiled a book of activities for DC and this is the first mention of this I have heard in 9 years of being an adult in scouting. Call a neighboring council and ask a DE for the application.

Some low brow, bi racial, near sighted,hair thinning, overweight, Christian, hetero,Father, conservative,gun owning, Marine vet(Kuwait and Beirut),Committee Member wonders why they lawsuits just don't stop. So we are off AP Hill and a little village near me can't be our CO. Does that make America better? Do they feel like big winners? Then not a dime of the $15 would be spent on frivolous, whiney lawsuits. Could probably get more boys with the saved money. Cut Mazzuca's pay, pay him what the POTUS makes along with a house near Irving not a dime more. Sounds pretty easy to me but given all the labels that apply to me, you can see how I think that way. A court in California just ruled it was ok to lie about being a MOH recipient under the heading of "freedom of speech". We have not all lost our minds like the 9th Circuit.

Our town only has a Memorial Day parade. Both Cubs and the Troop participate. Very few Boys Scouts participate because they are required to play in the HS band and march with them for their band grade.