mashmaster

Yes it is a real award, not many get it. IMHO; it is one of those awards outside the core program that are basically stuff you already do as a family. If it were my pack, I would tell them that they order it and you'll sign off on it if they need your signature but being outside the core program, they are responsible for the pins/patches.

They said they would be recorded for the future.

It was a BSA campground at Webelos Winter Camp. I don't know the legality of it, but they had cub masters in that group so they should have know the rules. But it was my bad to not say anything, lesson learned there. Thanks for the vote for Fire Warden :-) Happy new year!

Thanks everyone. I do think that I would handle it differently next time. Probably call their cubmaster to the side and tell him what I thought I saw. If it was then, suggest that we walk together to put it in the trunk of his car while reminding him of the BSA guidelines. Hopefully I'll be more prepared for next time.

Thanks Eagle, I think that would have been a good way to go about it.

Just got back from Webelos winter camp and there was an incident that occurred that has my questioning my non-action. What do you think I should have done? We were in a camp that is in a place that has been hit by a major fire before so they have special fire rules because of fire sensitivity. Anyway.... The camp director asked the parents if there was a registered scouter that would be willing to be the fire warden for the fire at the campsite. My son looked at me and asked me to do it. So I volunteered. I went to a fellow scouter that I knew to see if he would help me since it was wet and starting the fire might require two people. He said "another fire?" what about the people that already have a fire going on. Um ok, I mentioned it to the camp staff and they were perplexed and had no idea that was happening so they came with me to check it out. Thankfully they were doing everything proper for the fire "water, shovel, cleared fire ring ..." so everything cool. Camp director was peeved that they did it without asking permission or checking out the campground rules so I was asked to hang around there fire since others would be coming.anyway. No worries, we sat around and talked about scouting and units, bla bla bla. Everything seemed fine. My son wanted to turn in so I said good bye and thank you, as I was walking by their table on the way to our tent, the leader there scurried to cover and move an ice chest which I caught out of the corner of my eye. It looked to be a cooler filled with wine bottles.... My dilemma is that I didn't do anything. I just continued on. Assuming that I must have not seen what I thought I saw. It was late and cold, boys all around. Did I do the right thing? or should I have said something? I feel awful that I didn't do anything. Maybe I was wrong?

Our council is huge so I haven't gone out of council but we do attend events of other districts. We even partner with other districts to hold shared training for things like BALOO or OWL. At my classes that I gave at our U of S, I've have scouters from other councils. I think it is worthwhile to learn and meet other scouters from other areas. I have learned new ways of thinking about things from them in the past.

Merry Christmas, Happy Festivas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hannukah. I wish best wishes to everyone this year no matter what your faith is. I hope it is a happy time with your family. I know my kiddos are in bed excited for tomorrow. Awesome video! Thank you all for your service! -Dave

That may be true in your districts and council that it is comprised on people out of touch with units. Our district committee and round table staff are comprised of current unit leaders from different levels of scouting. I am sorry that your district is this way and that really sucks. I hope that my district is more the norm than yours for all of us scouters that work very hard to make a great experience for the boys, teaching them to become great men. I respect all of you for doing what you are doing, it is a thankless job but we believe in the program otherwise we wouldn't do it. Nothing is black and white. Some districts will have better volunteers that others, we can't fix that other that volunteer more....

Welcome, where in Texas are y'all from?

Welcome to the forums

Welcome

Welcome, I hope you feel welcomed here and contribute to the conversation.

I agree, but how to tell? I don't let my son use the bandsaw but he does everything else.

We solved this by buying a track with multiple other packs since we only need it one day a year. It would be nice if districts had them but that is unrealistic.

I have no idea and I am supposed to course direct OWL training in March. I'm assuming at this point I will have to come up with my own modifications based on what is posted online.

No need to be rude to me. I am entitled to my opinion and respect that you have yours. You talked about how you had him sit and eat a PB&J sandwich during movie event. How do you think you made him feel? You probably made him feel worthless. I have paid more than my share for scouts in my unit that need it. If they are unwilling but able to pay the fees I have a discussion with the parents not the boy. If they are unable to pay and willing to put in the effort, our unit manages to swing the recharter fees but not some of the addition events. It isn't a perfect system, but I do my best to focus that the program is for the boys.

We give each boy a design trophy and then we have speed trophies for the fastest car per rank. For the design trophies, I got nice wood (Walnut) donated from the local lumberyard from their scrap and used gold spray paint on hot wheel cars. Took me and another dad about an hour to knock out 50 trophies. We used a dymo labler to print the "engraving" on the trophy base. You can get the cars free if you ask your neighborhood facebook page for them. People are more that happy to get rid of them. So 50 trophies costs us about $10.

IMHO, I don't consider this a success. The boy dropping scouting may be removing the one thing in his stable in his life. I'm not saying it is wrong, it is just different from what I would have done.

I agree, I ended up spending my night fixing that needed fixing, either just adding weight to get them up to the wieght limit, reducing weight, or helping the boys reset their wheels. I did it with the boys so that they got the experience about what was wrong and how we can fix it. We do a pre-run of each car the night before to ensure it will finish. If they want to change their car, they can work with any of the experts that night to get it up to where they want it. It is the best feeling seeing them light up when their car that didn't make it across the line or is just plain slow, gets fixed by them that night.

Thanks everyone, We let his boys race but we did talk privately to the dad and told him our concerns. He didn't agree with us but we didn't want the boys to pay the penalty. They ended up not winning the races. Next year I think we may try to have a third party control the check in and race. It is always the parents....

Pinewood check in tonight and the cubmaster who is an Eagle scout skirts the rules with his kids. It makes me so mad that people like this exist. What a nice lesson to teach your kid.

Best of luck. I know the LDS packs are run differently, but I would contact the committee chair and cubmaster of the pack and talk with them. It sounds like you are willing to put in the effort, I would request you to be an assistant den leader so that you can be there to help and be knowledgeable of the program.

One thing we do is to actually to create a webcast of our roundtable so people can get the info afterwards. Getting people to attend is an issue for us even in a suburban area. I wish we could get more people to attend but it is spotty.