5yearscouter

I would suggest he call, making sure that he explains that he may isn't wanting to join their troop but that he wants more camping nights and was hoping they would let him join them for a few campouts once. And after he talks for a while, suggest that he ask if the SM would like to speak with you to be sure everyone is on the same page.

If it's within your unit you contact your unit key 3 [or training chair if a key 2 person has designated them as such in the myscouting system they can add in the current code with the date of training to update your records. Of course, understandably if it's a class that has been redesigned and may be really different now, it might be a good idea to take the current class. So if they took a troop committee challenge in 1995 in a classroom setting maybe just ask them to take the current edition of the course online in 20 or so minutes.

When you can't send home flyers it sucks. You know what is worse? When you can send home flyer and council prints them for you, but they print them so small (2 on a page but set up wrong so it was huge margins and nobody can read them! Yeah that was the stupidity from our DE last fall in a cost saving measure to cut printing costs. Too small of flyers get lost in the backpacks. I told him we would have PAID good money to council if they printed regular sized flyers, or he could have printed 1/2 to 1/4 of the number of flyers full size and we would have just targeted fewer grade levels at the elementary school, or he could have told me what he was going to do we would have had time to just print our own flyers. And He was so nice, he delivered the stupd too small to be readable flyers to the schools who then refused to send home those flyers and replacement better flyers by the time we found out what the DE did wasn't time to get them to the parents in time for the event. So our great idea of a cub scout open house, with free ice cream and a derby race didn't really have much chance of working. That was the recruitment night where nobody showed up and the pack folded right afterwards due to just not.enough. Our best recruitment night was probably the cowboy roundup night--gave everyone a cheap red bandana, turned twinkies into green cactuses with green frosting and pieces of pretzels stuck in, roping, milking and riding a fake horse games with candy prizes, singing home on the range and giving everyone a strip of paper with a stupid cowboy joke one it. We signed up 18 cubs that night.

I didn't see this when you posted it, but yes, My pack did not recharter for 2015 and it's gone now. The last year we had 5 cubs, and they were all different ranks. That was a HARD year, one room schoolhouse type cub scouting, and none of the parents wanted to do a darned thing. I came back from boy scouts to try to make a difference but it was too little too late when at recruiting one new potential scout showed up, and three existing members didn't show. So that was the end of that.

We just suggest everyone take it every year before summer camp along with safe swim etc. It's a good habit, cause we are human and forget stuff and need reminders.

Our best years in the Pack were after we started the rule that every youth application had to include an adult application. Then we would do a bulk adult ypt training, and this is scouting. and we had a rule that every normal sized den had to have a den leader, asst den leader, cubmaster or asst and a committee member or two in it. The other parent had to step up into some kind of event or activity chair, or into a large job of some other kind. We passed around a list of all the jobs in the pack (secy, treasurer, den leaders, asst den leaders, cubmasters and asst, committee members, event chairs etc) explained they had already done the application and most of the training which was the hard part, now they just needed to show up and do some stuff with their kids. That's the years that in the fall we had a cubmaster and 4 assistants, with the transition already in place that webelos 2 cubmaster was senior, but heading out in the early spring at blue and gold and that left the other 4 to choose a cubmaster from their ranks by recharter with the rest as assistants. This gave enough coverage that one guy did the pack meeting game, one led skits or songs, one did advancement theme/presentations, and the other guy just mc'd the meeting. nobody had to work too hard, it was fun for everyone.. and we had a full active committee, with all jobs being done by someone that wasn't me. this is big cause I helped start the pack with 3 other parents and at one time did every job often simultaneously or it sure felt like it. This worked well until the year my youngest was a webelo 2 and I got ready to cross over into boy scouts, so the new guys in charge decided that the paperwork burden of registering all those adults and getting them trained was too much so at roundup they didn't register any new parents. They thought they'd have it made in the shade with like 70 cub scouts, they were bound to get enough help. Bit them in the butt very fast and the parental help dropped off exponentially. It was no longer required, so the parents didn't help anymore. FYI the pack went from over 70 scouts, to 35 that year, then down by half every year after til last year with not enough scouts to recharter.

Directing adult questions at the spl makes no sense. He's involved in program. Parents usually want the answers to the questions on the committee side of things. cost, fundraising, equipment, committee needs, etc. That's a bad joke. But there is some truth in it. Most SPLS are better at scouting skills and rbusy unning their meetings training up good scouts [program] than they are at coddling webelos parents who have a million questions. the SPL covers some stuff in a talk to the visiting webelos and their parents and then he wants the webelos to go try out what scouting in his troop is like. The parents want to hover and watch and interfere. So then it's appropriate to hand the parents off to someone else, Scoutmaster or an adult membership/recruiting chair who gets the adults out of the boy's meeting. Part of the point of my list is to think of some things the troops should be prepared to answer(whether spl or adults) or cover automatically without being asked. The parents have soooo many questions about this transition process to boy scouting, and when first starting to look for a troop with my oldest it seemed so overwhelming to head into that and try to understand what boy scouts was all about.. So SPL talks mostly to the visiting scouts with parents hanging out. The SM does a sm conference with visiting webelos and may do a quick talk to the parents too.. As membership chair I or another parent mentor will then touch base and try to get the parents to step back away from their sons to let them enjoy the meeting. We touch base to find out which questions they still have. Lots of webelos leaders will only take their den to visit the one troop they've already decided that their son is joining. So I may ask what troops they've visited and encourage them to visit the 4 others troops within easy driving distance. We don't want anyone to join our troop because it was the default or they never got around to visiting another troop. If they have already decided to join another troop I ask them if there is a particular reason. You learn a lot about your troop when you find out why scouts AREN'T joining your troop.

this is the list my webelos parents used when we went visiting. To make it easier on the 4 troops we visited, we emailed the SM the list and let him answer in his own words. Usually that would get us a copy of any written documents, the troop calendar, info on cost, etc. Doesn't mean all their answers were correct, especially the boy led one, but it was a start. Parents sat and discussed the answers after our visit so they could go over the things they liked and didn't like. and the boys had their own discussion separate from the adults. When does the troop meet? Where? What time? How large is the troop? How many of the registered boys are active? Is the troop mostly older boys or younger boys? How many boys advance to upper ranks or eagle scout? Do they use new scout patrols, put boys in existing patrols or just one patrol? Are there patrol meetings only within the troop meeting? or do patrols meet separately or have patrol outings? How much does the troop cost for yearly registration? Are there monthly dues on top of that? What do monthly outings cost? does that include food? What fundraisers does the troop do? What time of year? Does the troop fundraisers contribute to payment of scout camp for the boys or other boy expenses or only to the troop account? Does the troop have any programs to help offset costs for boy's who cannot afford the costs of scouting? esp summer camp fees? Does the troop go to district or council events? (Camporees, scouting for food, scoutfair, 10 commandment hike, etc) Does the troop go to council summer camps? Why or why not? Does the troop go to Philmont or do high adventure or out of state camps? What service projects or conservation projects does the troop regularlydo? How frequent are hikes, campouts and other outdoor events? Are outings on the same weekend each month? 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th weekend?or random? WHERE do you go camping and hiking? How long are the campouts, 1 night, 2 nights, some 3 night campouts on long weekends? when do weeklong campouts occur? What are parent expectations on campouts and outings? What does the troop do with the local pack? why or why not? Are there any troop campouts or outings that the webelos could participate in before the end of their webelos year? When do you like webelos to transition to the troop? What does the troop do to ensure webelos stay in boy scouting when they transfer to the troop? What does the troop do for recruiting of new scouts that weren't cub scouts? What does the troop do if a boy misses meetings, or there are conflicts with sports or other events? What is a normal troop meeting like? Is the troop boy run or adult led? What do they say and what do you see actually happen in a meeting? Who stands at the front of the meeting and runs the meeting and makes announcements? Does the troop have any unusual rules or expectations? (I'm not sure how to describe it, but I've heard of some really weird things) Are there written rules that parents can read? How many registered leaders does the troop have? How many active adults are there in the troop? How many leaders will the troop lose when older boys age out in this coming year or 2? (may be key if say sm and asms and committee all have older scouts aging out about the time you join) Are there any adult positions unfilled? How many years of experience does the scoutmaster have? Do new scouts go to summer camp with your troop? What does the troop do over the summer? Should a new webelo go to summer camp with the troop, why or why not? Can we get a copy of your yearly calendar? How do you communicate with families? How do you utilize the advancement and merit badge program? Do boys work on any merit badges or advancements as a troop or patrol or only on their own? Does troop go to merit badge roundups/universities? What does this troop want to see Parents do? What equipment is provided by the troop? What equipment is expected of the scout? Does the troop provide troop t-shirts, hats, neckerchief for free or what cost? Does the troop provide at crossover (some troops give neckerchiefs if you register with them, some books or other stuff once registration fee is paid)

Yeah I can understand having a bit of kerfuffle over a den of 10+ webelos show up to the troop meeting unannounced, but if the troop can't handle them visiting without x amt of notice that doesn't seem welcoming nor being prepared. We should be prepared to have visitors and boys wanting to join at any meeting. At least have a one page info about the troop passed out to the parents and the boys willing to bring webelos into their patrols for the evening to observe and participate in as much as possible. Sure you may not want to have the webelos chopping wood and making fires in totn chit and firemn chit classes, but there is no reason they can't sit thru some of the instruction and do the parts they can do. You don't have to make a whole separate meeting with fun and games to grab webelos scouts attention. Remember in a few months they will be a part of the troop and you really don't want them to learn that they will be entertained and catered to at every meeting. We hope the parents or den leader gives us a heads up, so we can explain that x meeting will be troop elections where each scout looking for a leadership position stands up and says why they are qualified. That can be a boring meeting. There are a few other meetings of the year that can be boring for new webelos to sit in on, but most of them involve instruction, patrol time and games, which webelos should see how it really is, not how its fancied up just for them.

Oh and just to clarify, while the area the Scout lodge is at is very friendly to scouts The scouts themselves come from a diverse area. WE used to just pull scouts from the kind of well off area of where the scout lodge is located, but now we have families from all over and lots of lower income families. We used to only have one income, mom was sahm kind of families, now it's both parents work and some parents have two jobs.

Well I did get them to help underwrite scholarships to camp for a few boys (boy has to pay at least 50% and be active with fundraisers/activities etc). That was about $1500, which came out of extra donations we received with our flag fundraiser payments. People in surrounding area pay $50 a year to have a large flag put up in front of their homes by scouts at 7 holidays a year. And they did about $1500 in repair on the trailer (new tires, new spare, new jack, new fender). It was getting dangerous to drag it around and blow out a tire every trip, but they won't give up the trailer, so they had to do some upkeep. Trailer now lives at my house so I had a chance to go thru it well and bring it all to their attention. Again this came out of this year's extra donations received. I know with 62 scouts, $25k isn't that much per boy. But we don't get to spend that. At least not much of it, and if the balance goes down we get a stern talking to in the committee meeting and spending tends to stop for a while afterwards. I have worked for 10 years to get them to spend $5k. WE used to have $30k in excess a year.... The discussion was had that we need new tents, but if we buy new tents we have to do a fundraiser to raise enough money to buy new tents. [an aside I should start a thread for tent ideas..] Like the $25k is just sitting there and we can't really touch it. I suggested writing a check from troop account to the CO account for $25k so they could keep it for us if we aren't allowed to spend it. If the CO thinks it's should be saved for a big thing like replacing the roof of the scout lodge, then that would be reasonable. Then we could see exactly where we stand on how much money we have and can spend each year. I think a rainy day fund to replace tents, trailer, stoves and chuck boxes would be way way less than $25k. Someone suggested $10k but I bet it's less than that. And the town we live in is very giving to scouts, if our trailer were to get stolen they'd step up to help us out in replacing it. And if it gets killed in a car accident, the trailer is insured pretty well. Last time the scout lodge needed a lot of work [roof, windows, doors, carpeting] a local business donated everything.

It always feels as if BSA is using volunteers to do their IT work, and they get what they pay for.

You'd think it would be parents not knowing the balance. It's more the parents not realizing that we don't need that high of a balance. We get new parents coming to committee mtg usually about the time we are collecting and paying out large amounts for summer camp. So if they see 40 scouts going to summer camp at $500 a pop they think well we gotta have a LOT of money on hand to pay that bill. Of course we had already collected most all of the payments. WE have 62 scouts but usually less than half can afford summer camp. We have a flag fundraiser that brings in about $9k a year, which is about what we spend, give or take donations we receive on top of that, which can be $3-4k more. Scout fundraisers like popcorn sales the scouts can use that for registration and camp fees. [illegal scout accounts] It's one of those committee run units that everyone moves and seconds and nothing gets done. We spent more on summer camp underwriting this summer than ever before, which makes me really happy. Unfortunately I've been fighting this battle for years, my oldest is 19, so all his years of boy scouts, and my youngest has a couple years left I'm not sure I can fight that much longer. Waiting for the 'old bulls' to retire.... I've explained many times that it would be better for the troop to run out of money paying the way for boys to camp like crazy than it is to lose the boys for charging (or overcharging) for everything and we have $25k extra money but no scouts.

I agree. It''s very very obnoxious. Unfortunately the CO thinks we need to keep a high balance, so when we spend $2000 more than we bring in during a year we hear about it as they talk about how hard they worked to bring in that much money. CO= old SM's and friends who formed a non-profit to protect the scout lodge and charters the unit.

$25k left over carried forward every year.... and complain when that amount wasn't getting LARGER. Our annual fundraiser pays for everything they've decided fits into troop budget (awards, some repair/replace equipment some underwriting of events in that they buy the propane or if the event pays out $ for gas for the poor soul stuck pulling the trailer.) They want to do a fundraiser to buy new tents and complain if we buy something that isn't "budgeted" or the balance decreases each year. My pack used to have a plan to have an extra $3-500 to make it from one fundraiser to the next, adjusted to ensure we had enough to pay for the cost of awards for the pack meetings for the next 6 mos or so.

Yeah I've looked into this a bit. Ziplock bags are safe to heat food in the microwave[according to manufacturer] which seems to mean they don't leach deadly chemicals if heated to extreme temps [in a microwave]. If so, then logically I will assume they are also not going to leach deadly chemicals heated to extreme temps in a pot of boiling water. The highest risk seems to be the danger of the bag melting and pouring hot food on your foot. Doing at test at home when cub scouts were contemplating ziplock omlet cooking, I did discover that the key is to use the larger gallon size freezer bags and securing the bags in the center of a large enough pot that they can't touch the bottom or sides lowers failure rate considerably. I came to the conclusion that for most normal scouters or scouts the number of ziplock omlets or other boil in bag food items eaten in their lifetime is not a huge enough amount to significantly raise health risk. AND adding the cheese to the bags with the eggs meant cub scouts had trouble telling if their eggs were done since they always added soooooo much cheese. easier to add the cheese after they were sure the eggs were cooked or mostly cooked.

ok so there is pretty good agreement here that this http://www.big5sportinggoods.com/store/details/Camp%20Chef+Explorer-Two-Burner-Propane-Stove/0730122136000/_/A-2436707?#.VbSFmGxRE5t is NOT a lightweight stove?? Right? Cause I got a lot a grief [as a cooking mb counselor] when I brought that up to the troop. I had some Scouts wondering what stoves they should cook on that would be lightweight and when I told them my opinion they then were wondering if the troop could provide one or two of those stoves, you know since there is tons of room in the giant troop trailer (don't get me started on that part). I recommended one of the two other coleman type stoves as options to be available for the scouts. There is a one burner coleman in the trailer now, and I think a two burner will be added soon. Personally I like a two burner coleman stove, and it is the most likely stove that someone will grow up and use on family camping trips, so it's sort of like a life skill to know how to use one of those type popular camp stoves

Unit leader MIGHT be able to get something out of the Scout exec. Committee chair MIGHT be able to get something. COR MIGHT be able to get something. Institution head or Executive officer of the Chartering organization SHOULD be able to get something out of it. Person involved should contact local council Scout executive and ask the catch 22 question themselves and get any answer in writing. If as a parent they are NOT allowed to be around your unit and your scouts, including their son on their son's scouting activities, then the unit can't or at least shouldn't take on the youth as a member unless some other adult (other parent, grandparent etc) can step in as their guardian on scout activities.

Oh I have a question, For cooking mb 6c says they need to cook 2 meals on a lightweight stove or low impact fire. How do you define lightweight stove? This is complicated because our troop uses two burner propane stoves like this http://www.big5sportinggoods.com/store/details/Camp%20Chef+Explorer-Two-Burner-Propane-Stove/0730122136000/_/A-2436707?#.VbMYuWxREfQ for plop camping which tends to be a lot of their camping. They use backpacking stoves for backpack trips--mostly like these http://www.big5sportinggoods.com/store/details/Stansport+Backpack-Stove-with-Fuel/0760107990184/_/A-5356423#.VbMaLmxRE5s or those that take liquid fuel. which they think could be ok for the "trail stove" example in the merit badge book, but if also used as the "lightweight stove" requirement seems to be shortcutting that BSA wants scouts to use more than one type of stove for this merit badge. Some say that lightweight stove is more like this http://www.big5sportinggoods.com/store/details/Coleman+2-Burner-Propane-Stove/0730101784060/_/A-4737276#.VbMZRGxRE5s and some say this would also do http://www.big5sportinggoods.com/store/details/Stansport+Single-Burner-Propane-Stove/0730107990201/_/A-3774759#.VbMZWWxRE5s But that the primary stove used (first link) is definitely NOT lightweight, cause it takes two scouts to carry it plus the propane canister.

our summer camp cooking merit badge has taken it up a notch. Aside from the classroom time, the boys doing the badge meet at lunch time and do most of their cooking then. Basically the adult mb counselor goes to the kitchen and get a selection of food that the chef orders ahead of time or has extra of on hand, so some chicken and beef and hamburger, rice, pastas, milk, cheese, butter, spices, various vegetables, flour, sugar, potatoes, etc. and there is a set amount, x number of kids are doing the merit badge so he gets x lbs of food items. Staples are stored longer term of course. They have a fridge at the program area and the stuff all goes in the fridge/kitchen. When it becomes time to plan the meals, the boys do their planning while getting a chance to peruse some camping recipe books, and looking in the fridge/kitchen for what is available. They make their menu and then go "shopping" in that area, having to choose from and use what is available to them there, like when you go to the store and they only have certain vegetables that look good so you have to make adjustments to your menu to account for that. It works fairly well, they get about an hour a day of cooking if they cook all week, and they get an hour a day ish of instructional time, but not everyone goes home with it completed. For trail meals it tends to be hike down the trail a mile and use the trail stoves to make oatmeal (not instant at least) or other similar SIMPLE meal.

if they are only regular old parents, just keep a list of names and dates after showing them the video. I have made a dummy account before on myscouting.org that used the pack email address, and then just shown the video over and over to the parents who needed the training. We require anyone who camps overnight with the youth or goes on outings to take ypt for their own protection/reminder of rules/etc. If they ever want to register, they'll need some kind of certificate or proof, so if you use a dummy account, you put in their name on the profile and then it will print a certificate with their name. don't put in a member id number or you'll mess it all up though. that would be if you are showing the video to individuals one at a time. my DE will also give me cards that he's signed to hand out to those who watch the video in a group setting, which they can attach a copy to their application if they ever do register. Then once they are registered if they don't show as trained for some reason, a key 3 or training chair if authorized in your unit can log into the my.scouting and add their training and date into scout net.

Last time my son went to philmont a couple years ago it was lick your bowl and spork clean as you can, scaping with he spork. add hot water, swish and stir to finish getting it clean then drink the "soup" with all the food particles. Then dip in boiling water to sanitize and let dry in mesh hanging bag. I think that would probably be a good idea to use on most campouts. the sanitizing rinse water tends to get so yucky by the end that it's not sanitizing much of anything.

I took a look at the user forums and wish reports and report of errors yesterday. From what I see the biggest hang up is that you can't enter anyone in your roster unless they have a unique email address. we have whole families that use one email address, and no I do not want to make dummy email addresses for the other 4 people in the family in order to have the whole family on the roster of 3 scouts and 2 adult leaders. So many people are moving away from email except as stuff to get and read and then delete. if they even read it. And it appears that parents have to do most of everything to enter and track their scouts, and we have difficulty getting parents to actually log into anything, but they really like to receive an email or txt notification of events. We made the parents all log into troop web host to verify their email, phone number for themselves and their scouts for recharter last fall and it was like pulling teeth. I like the idea of submitting to scoutnet and receiving reports out of scout net, two way communication would be great. I figure it won't get to be that great for another year or two though when they get kinks worked out. and if it's like myscouting, or my.scouting the kinks will be worked out in about a dozen years.

We usually do some kind of merit badge orientation at our roundtable and they usually put it down as being D76 when they submit the list of attendees to council. Try http://www.scouting.org/filestore/training/advancement/Merit_Badge_Counselor/The_Essentials_Presenters_Notes.pdf and http://www.scouting.org/filestore/training/advancement/Merit_Badge_Counselor/The_Essentials.ppt

They could all be feasibly registered as Unit Scouter Reserve which only requires YPT to be considered fully trained. And Unit scouter reserve is basically parents on reserve, ready to help out when and where needed Our troop by the way has an old goats patrol which is basically unit committee members and asms plus sm on any campout that are required for transportation of scouts. They cook, camp and function as a patrol but they are a very unofficial ad hoc patrol that forms as needed and disappears just as readily. We do require that EVERY adult regardless of their registration status that goes camping or transports youth has YPT as listed on the Tour plan.