yarrow

Now I don't have a leg to stand on....our SM pierced his ear and wears a small stud. Go figure.

But it seems that at the end of 3 months and after the boy has earned his Eagle that he would be awarded palms for the numberof badges above Eagle required. Many kid have LOTS of badges and surely if they get their Eagle at say 17+ they would still be able to get all of the palms for all of the badges above Eagle that they have earned in one COH regardless of whether is is 5 or 45 worth. Am I right?

My son fights wearing his uniform, or at least he doesn't want to wear any more of the uniform than anyone else in the troop. I know that boys seem to only want to wear as much as everyone else and don't want to stick out. Troops that wear more of the full uniform seem to have most of the boys doing the same. Our troop seems to only wear shirts. Getting him to wear the tie and slide is a battle. I insist that for boards and courts and as Den Chief at Pack meetings he wear the whole nine yards but it's a battle. He hates the fit of the pants (cut classically/traditionally) and feels that he looks overdone in the full uniform and that at least the Cubs will not want to join "his" troop if they think they have to dress that way. I, of course, think that the younger boys like to see the full uniform and think it's cool. Anyone else fight this battle?

Right you are SctMom. My boy accuses me of the same. No one makes him work as hard or do as much for merit badges as do I. Prereq.s for MB Colleges are thouroughly done, and I know every badge that I have run, that he has done with me, has been quality with the experts brought in and high expectations. He does complain though about the work sometimes. Still when you are doing scouting as your curriculum and are hanging your hat on your kid earning every MB, one wonders. Somehow it doesn't sit well with me.

We had a family locally that made Scouting a large portion of their homeschool curriculum. I take issue with this for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the benefit that a scout can gain from doing badges with other like minded scouts. And then there is the accountability question. Thoughts, anyone.

It is also possible, although I can't recommend it, to have a younger boy with the permission from council join Boy Scouts at 10+ without their AOL. We had one from the local troop do it. I thought is was a bad idea and discouraged the parents from doing it but you know they thought junior was soooo ahead of the curve, straight A's, extracurriculars, etc. They thought he would just be bored in Cubs and would be a drop out risk. Go figure.

I didn't realize the cooking badge went more to backpack cooking. I assumed it was base camp cooking. I have taught a lot of cooking for Girl Scouts, base camp style, but only occassionally used freeze dried items. Love the grocery bag pyramid idea. I will need to look at the MB book and see the direction they are going. I understand there is more food safety and nutrition, but I thought it was more about cooking and not just rehydrating. I have only used a dutch once or twice but would like to do more. We have done mostly one pot, skillet, foil, and solar cooking. Thanks for your ideas. Keep 'em coming.

The new badge includes lots of food prep and handling safety features. Has anyone started this badge? I haven't done much dutch oven cooking but would like to learn and run this badge at summer camp next year. What is the basic equipment I would need? Recipes? On another note......what happened I was a Senior Member and Now I am a Forum Member. Did I get demoted, LOL?

From what I understand unless the boys are 11, have finished 5th grade or have AOL they don't crossover. They remain Cubs until one of these requirements are met. There are still lots of activities they can do as WEBELOS (community service, family camping, bowling, pin work) Still I am sure there will be some resentment of the boys that crossover early with AOL. As Den Leader you still have a responsibility to make sure they are involved even if your kid crossed over early. Good luck.

My father was a Boy Scout in a very small town back in the 40's. He remembers with some fondness the annual Boy Scout Dance. Anyone else ever run one of these or participate in one?

I have noticed, and I don't mean to be discouraging, that if a scout has met the requirements, and note that doesn't mean well met, that you can not prevent any boy from becoming an Eagle. Am I right?

My question stems from my boy's interest in badges. He is 12 and so not really ready for an Eagle any time soon, but by the time he gets there he will have a great deal of badges. He has earned all but 2 Eagle required badges ( they must be done within the troop by policy) and many more within the troop, with small groups, during summer camps. He has attended conservations weekends, worked on outdoor type badges at the two week-long sessions of summer camps (things like swimming, Lifesaving, canoeing, horsemanship and the like, and gone to a number of MB colleges. I know there is another thread on MB Colleges, but the one thing I do know is that he throughly completes all prereq.s and always reads the books. I know he works harder at the badges in smaller groups and the prereq.s that he does for MB Colleges than anything he does in the troop. At any rate my point is that he will have many palm worthy badges done by the time he is mature enough to do Eagle. Just wondered since he will have earned them long before his Eagle if he might be able to be awarded them at the Eagle court. Seems reasonable to me.

Since you can count any badges achieved over the required amount for Eagle towards palms can they be awarded at the Eagle ceremony or just at each 3 month period after Eagle.

We are having a little heartburn right at the moment because we do not have a clear policy in the bylaws concerning the money left in accounts. We were trying to clear up some accounts still on the list from scouts that have been gone a long time. And these we agreed should be reabsorbed by the troop. Some were negative, some were positive balances by it all amounted to not much. There were however 3 accounts of boys that recently left within the past year. One boy is $50-60 in the hole and we feel that he should send a check to the troop. We allow some float which may get us in trouble. Another boy's parents have asked for the money in his account and the SM feels that if it was earned as part of a "troop" fund raiser, even if the individual boy had some of it put in his account that the troop now should get it all back. I happen to agree on this one but I am sure that one could argue that the money left is the boy's deposited by the parents if they ever put any in, and that any other activities came out of "troop" earned individual account money. Hope I'm not losing you. Also one boy moved and has $200 plus money left in his account which may have been accumulated over years. Our records are not what they should be, so take note and see that yours are, and that you have a clear policy on the monies left when a scout leaves like 6 months to reclaim money and with a receipts such as cancelled checks. What a headache.

My two older girls were Brownies and Juniors and then quit for Cadettes and pursued other activities. Girl Scouts is extremely time consuming. Later as Seniors they rejoined as Juliettes. They did activities at the Unit level. Some at the Council level and worked with a local Brownie troop. They did LOTS of leadership and communittee service. Neither of them like doing interest patches and so they only did four each. They ended up working with other girls from other troops at the unit level doing badge workshops and helping run winter camp for Brownies and Juniors. Let's face it.........for Seniors the focus is primarily on Leadership and service anyway. This has worked well for us but typically in our area Senior troops consist of 3-4 girls anyway, so my girls ARE practically a troop. This year we formed a troop. I have the training for Seniors and they are already registered. We put up a poster and membership pad at the High School some 25 miles away (it's the only one close) and an add in the local community paper. No one has called with interest. We formed a "troop" of two at present with the blessings of the council because the nearest troop is 25 miles away and because Juliettes are very limited on fund raising. My girls have missed the high adventure activities that they would like to do and so because of funding. Being a troop allows you to do booth sales on cookies. A major money maker. This year I hope that they will get some money to do some fun activities and get some of the "outing" back in Scouting.

How about some free or cheap activities for Venture patrols. Thanks

Actually we do have two Venture patrols of 12 or more but they tend to be Venture in name only. They don't do anything different except they run discussions at some meetings on cold weather camping and wilderness survival and the like. The activities they do are very much the same ones the rest of the troop does. We have been trying to form a Venture Crew (this year I am in charge of making sure they get registered) but they didn't do anything last year. In fact some of them who thought they were registered never actually got their paperwork to council (one of the boys was in charge of doing that but it didn't happen, hence my involvement this year). My boy is 12 and a young Life but no where near Eagle material yet. We are not yet involved in Venture because of his age, but I don't see any "cool" activities happening for the Venture patrols. I would be happy to be a resource advisor for them someday. There are great activities out there. They/we do not do very much, read hardly any, backpacking.I would really like to see more of that and it's practically free. We live in Colorado, beautiful country. We usually get about 6-8 Webelos crossing over and keep about half of them by the end of first year. We run an Eaglebound group to get them through 1st Class which mainly requires active participation and still we lose about 1/2. About 24 of the 31 boys are 14+ and we do have about one Eagle Court every quarter so I know some will get it done. I am discouraged though as is the SM regarding the lack of program for the Venture Patrols.

I am in the process of registering out troop again for this year and have noticed, while updated the rank of each scout, that we have an unusual number of Life Scouts. We have 61 scouts and 31 are Life. An additional 5 are Eagles. Granted some of the life scouts are young, and we seem to have an active and interesting program, but I am begining to wonder if this might be a sign of a dying troop. The only place most of these boys can go is Eagle and not many generally do that. Are these percentages typical?

The SM talked to the scout in question and he 'fessed to the whole sorry misbehavior. He is very remorseful and deeply regrets messing up his life. I think that is the end of the story.

I got the site set up rather late and everyone was offline, but did the online chat work well? What is the discussion schedule now?

Tuesdays are Boy Scouts and Mondays are Girl Scouts for me........How about Wednesday 8-10 then?

This Yahoo chatroom is almost always completely empty. I think it is under recreation and then scouting. If it is ok with OGE how about Thursday 8:00 to 10:00pm EST.

The definition of "Troop/Patrol Activities". One of the requirement for Second Class reads: "Since joining, have participated in five separate troop/patrol activities (other than troop/patrol meetings), two of which included camping overnight." Some troops insist that organized activities such as summer camp and Camporee's DO NOT satisfy this requirement since our troop is not doing these things independently. Seems that any activity in which the troop or a patrol participates as a unit would qualify. Does anyone have any thoughts on this issue?

You suggested the idea........set a time.

I think my Seniors would be more interested if the Venture Crew had actually had a program going. The young men and one girl in our current group are REALLY unorganized and haven't done much of anything in a year. In Boy Scouts the boys suggested the ideas but the adults made them happen, by in large, and so nothing gets done in the Crew. In fact some of the applications didn't even get to the council last year so that some members who thought they were registered weren't. Do you have a healthy program? Sponsering?