Wood Badge C6-438-12-2
This weekend is it for me. After several years of trying to get to Wood Badge, the weekend is finally here. I was able to make my schedule work this time around so starting this Friday through Sunday (then another weekend at the end of the month), I’ll be attending Wood Badge.
Some of my best Scouting friends already wear the beads. They talk highly of the course and have recommended it to me for years.
I know most of you that read this blog have already attended. I’m looking forward to the experience. I’m very fortunate that I can attend with five of my good friends and leaders from my Troop. It should be a good time.
Summer Camp Packing List 2013
Well, it’s that time of year again. I’ve just returned from another wonderful week at Camp Friedlander. As a result of another week visit, we had to take a hard look at what not only my own boys packed (I took three boys with me), and what to tell the other 60 boys to bring. Yes, we ended up taking 63 total boys to camp.
Before I explain what we told your boys, let me cover the two items we were adamant they NOT bring to camp? The list was short.
No electronics at all, including cell phones
No matches, lighters, or other flammable materials
So, what did we tell them to bring, and from experience, what do the boys need? This list is based on two good days of rain while in camp, and was a Sunday – Saturday camp (6 days, 6 nights), so adjust accordingly:
1 footlocker (wild animal proof) with combination lock (not a key lock because keys get lost or worse, locked inside).
Completed medical form signed by parent or guardian and physician.
Two Summer Scout uniforms which includes shorts and short sleeve shirt and several Scout T-shirts.
At least ten pairs of socks. (Some Scout socks for use with summer uniform). If it rains, which it did, dry socks are hard to come by at the end of the week.
Towels (2) and washcloth
At least five changes of underwear
Swimming trunks, towel, and goggles
Laundry Bag/Trash bag for dirty and wet clothes
Sleeping bag or sheets and blanket
Poncho or raincoat – A MUST
Extra pair of shoes (For wet weather) – A must (can be Croc type shoes, no open toe shoes in camp)
Soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste and comb and other personal toiletries
Flashlight/Headlight with extra batteries
Scout Handbook, Merit Badge Books
Notepaper, pencil or pen (Self-addressed envelopes with stamps)
Personal First Aid Kit
Mosquito repellent – roll-on, pump or cream only – No aerosol cans
Sunscreen
Canteen, camelback or water bottle
Hat
Small backpack to carry around books, crafts, clothing, swim towel, etc.
Money for merit badge crafts, snacks (depending on merit badges and supplies needed, $40-$50 should be sufficient)
We had the same problem this year as we did in all previous years. We had scouts that didn’t put their names on things, they didn’t claim it, we have a huge lost and found pile since returning from camp. If you want the same stuff the scouts took with them returning home, get a permanent marker and put the scout name on EVERYTHING. I can’t stress how important that part is!
Optional things to consider:
Camera and Film (Disposable camera (Waterproof if desired)) write your name on it with indelible ink.
Compass (if needed for specific merit badge requirements)
Pocket -knife with Tot N Chip card (Sheath knives not allowed.)
Fishing pole and Tackle (Do not bring live bait- camp will have available)
Backpack and backpacking tent (if needed for specific merit badge requirement)
Personal cooking utensils (if needed for specific merit badge requirement)
Long-sleeve shirt and long pants (if needed for specific merit badge requirement – Swimming and Life Saving)
Hiking boots (if needed for specific merit badge requirement)
Please read the pre-requisites for the merit badges signed up for. It will tell you what you need to bring. Most popular items are above.
Busy Scouting Week!
What a weekend, and with the looks of it, it appears I will stay in my Scout uniform most of the week. It started off Saturday morning with the Webelos Geologist Activity Badge.
Most of the Webelos I & Webelos II from the Pack were there, and from the looks of it, with over 80 Webelos there, most of the Webelos in the area attended. They did a great job going over the Geologist Activity Badge requirements and then taking the Scouts out to the spillway to look for fossils. After a couple of days of rain, it made for a muddy morning.
Once the Geologist badge was completed, I rushed home to change uniforms and headed over to JLT with the Troop.
22 Scouts from the Troop where there for an 18-hour leadership and team building lock-in. Based on the responses Sunday morning, I would call it a successful weekend.
I then rushed home, changed uniforms yet again, and headed up to the local YMCA for a Webelos II den meeting. We discussed all of the activity badges and began work of preparing for Arrow of Light just a few short months away.
This evening, the Troop is hosting the Pack meeting with a campfire and skits prepared by the troop. I’ll end the evening with an ASM meeting for the troop to plan the summer campouts. What a crazy week!
I’ll end this week with our Troop meeting and annual Survival Campout.
The Ultimate War Hero…
What’s On Your Throne?
Encouragement for Today – Sept. 7, 2012
An excellent read…
In The Midst of Dirty Dishes…
Study: Most Churchgoers Do Not Read Bible on Daily Basis
A slight deviation from my norm…this headline begged me to go read it. You can guess why. It’s a bit of a shock. I guess you can look at this a few different ways:
- Church goers, because they go to church, don’t feel they need to read the bible. Is that a problem?
- Church goers are going to church for the wrong reasons and either need to stop going, or read the bible more. Why? They shouldn’t park their brain at the door.
If you read the article, and its found here, there are some very interesting tidbits.
36 percent of respondents said that they either engage the Bible "once a week," "once a month," or "a few times a month." Eighteen percent reported rarely or never reading or studying the Bible outside of worship.
Amazing stats to say the least. One third don’t look at a bible more than once a week, if that. One in five rarely or never look at it. One more quick excerpt…
Other findings in the study included 90 percent of respondents agreeing with the statement "I desire to please and honor Jesus in all I do" and 59 percent agreeing with the statement "Throughout the day I find myself thinking about biblical truths."
Really? Three out of every five people agree with “throughout the day I find myself thinking about biblical truths”. Begs the question doesn’t it? If you don’t read it, how do you know what biblical truth is? Wouldn’t you think that if you do think about biblical truth daily, you would be checking it daily for those truths? Yet one in three don’t do that. How can that be?
Interesting to say the least. One could draw another conclusion. Perhaps “church” is not where you’ll find most Christians?
Unplugged, part 2…
If you read the post from yesterday, you know late afternoon yesterday I unplugged…and after a day, I still stand by my original comment, this is exciting times for me. I wasn’t bombarded by tweets, posts, check-ins. I wasn’t left thinking about negativity I usually encounter in my day because folks try to be clever. It was a very relaxing, productive day. When I wanted to catch up, a quick review of a couple of websites, and watching a couple of news channels, caught me up. I didn’t need any of the social media sites. Yes, I do miss seeing updates from some of my friends. Yes, I miss not being able to read and react to those posts. But for me, as has been said in the past, the signal to noise ratio is extremely low.
Whether you realize it or not, social media is being abused, and it’s sad that its come to this. What should be a great way to stay connected to folks, ends up being abused. You can’t stop it. All you can do is block after the fact or again, make it private which really defeats the purpose.
A couple more recent “social news” events:
A man angry about a compromising Facebook photo of his girlfriend took revenge against the ex-boyfriend who posted it, making a hoax call to police that set off a terrorism scare and got the former beau taken off an airliner at gunpoint, authorities say.
Did you catch that? Because of a compromising Facebook photo…
And another:
A North Carolina man was arrested Wednesday and accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama in a series of Twitter messages, including one saying, "The Secret Service is gonna be defenseless once I aim the Assault Rifle at Barack’s Forehead."
Again, did you catch that? “…in a series of Twitter messages…” And this is “social media” how? This is interacting with people how? If it weren’t for “social media”, do you really think we would have heard from these folks? Social media has made it way too easy.
Yes, before you blast, I realize there are hundreds of thousands of posts and these are only a few. But what I find amazing is that between yesterday and today, I’ve found many posts on the abuse of “social media”. My own opinion of course.
Don’t worry…this will be the last of these types of posts. I’ll still chronicle the next few weeks on the lack or withdrawal from social media but for now, I’m glad I unplugged.
Time to “Unplug”
After reading several disturbing comments posted to Facebook, Twitter, and Blog Posts, I’ve reached a social conclusion. Some folks don’t have a life, some folks definitely need to get one (a life that is), and flat out, we’ve become less of a social world despite the growth of social media. How can something called “social” make you less “social”? What do I mean? Let me explain.
How often have you gone somewhere, in person, whether it’s a meeting, sporting event, restaurant, shopping mall, store, amusement park, name a place, only to find people sitting, staring at their phones? Typing on a keyboard rather than talking to the person right next to them? You know what I’m talking about. I see it every day in the stores, restaurants, airports, and other places I visit. People not talking to each other, but making sure they are posting to their Twitter pages and Facebook pages. Why? During a recent meal, my wife actually asked me, what are you doing? What I was doing at the time was reading recent posts while we were waiting for dinner to arrive. Why? Because I can, because it’s so easy.
I met with a good friend of mine who I haven’t seen in years. This friend was so “socially” engaged, posting to their Facebook and Twitter page, “checking in” on Foursquare and Facebook, posting photos with Instagram, real conversation in person was boring, dry, dull. They appeared so “witty” and “with it” socially, on line, they have taught themselves how to reply in 150 characters or less, they don’t know how to engage in person anymore. I asked if they were going to put that thing away and the reply was, sure…in a minute. Now, keep in mind we haven’t seen each other in years. We’ve kept in touch via Twitter and Facebook. I was really looking forward to dinner. I came home in utter disappointment. I wish this was rare, but it isn’t. It happens all the time, and yes, I’m guilty of it too. I went to a highschool football game and most of the people sitting around me were staring at their iPhones rather than watching the game or talking with those next to them.
There were two incidents recently that helped with my decision. I just read an article on Fox News this afternoon that “pushed me over the edge”. The story is found here. What’s the story about? Here’s the headline:
Australia’s ‘Top Model’ judge hospitalized after suicide attempt following Twitter abuse
Do you see where I’m going with this? In a society where we should be more “social”, we’re actually becoming “anti-social”, and less social. Look at any definition of “social”. You’ll see that it means interacting with people, and believe it or not, we’re letting the face to face fall to the wayside as we become more social on line, from our living rooms and bedrooms and offices. Why? We’re developing mean streaks. We’re hiding behind the anonymity of the web, posting things we would probably never say in public, and to someone’s face. Why? Because we can. The internet makes it too easy. Cyber bullying is all the rage now. Seeing how clever, mean clever you can be, is vitally important. Can I get a laugh from those who “follow”?
Second incident? The Nokia announcements for the new Windows Phone 8 devices. Why? Because rather than write about how cool software and hardware is getting with phones, rather than writing about what a great time it is to be involved in mobility because manufacturers like Nokia are doing really creative things, the iPhone and Android biggots crawled out of the woodwork and shot it all down. It even got so bad that they are combing through commercials for the new products looking for problems. Really folks? Is that all you got left?
It’s become just like politics. When you can’t say or do anything positive, when your own work, projects, accomplishments can’t speak for themselves, shoot down your opponent, and as the FoxNews article mentions above, drive some to attempt to end their lives. See how important and “big” that makes you feel? Again, really folks?
So, the ending to this post. I’m unplugging. Why? Because I can. I’ve deactivated all of my online accounts. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, Hootsuite, all of them. I’m out. I unloaded all of the social apps from my mobile phones. I’m done. My goal? Become much more interactive with those around me. Become much more engaging and caring to those that are closest and dearest to me, those SITTING RIGHT NEXT TO ME. I heard an interview once with a popular icon, and they asked him why he didn’t use Twitter. His response? Would you let a complete stranger, someone you’ve never met or spoken to in person, call you and ask you what you’re doing? That’s exactly what’s going on with Twitter, unless you mark it private, and Facebook, unless you’ve privatized your account. Something to think about. I’m not sharing anything I say or do with complete strangers, and locking your profile making people email to see your posts isn’t the answer either. Nothing personal to those I was engaging with online. Do me a favor. Email me, call me if you know my numbers, let’s get together in person, not online. Those who don’t really care? Well, I think I just proved my point.
I’ll chronicle over the next couple of weeks but I’ve already noticed something. What am I going to do with my time now? No posts or tweets to read, no check-ins to look at, no posts to see who’s “linked” to who anymore. I’ll pick up a few hours a day for sure, and believe it or not, I haven’t been this excited. I’ll actually get to keep my blog current (maybe). I have to be careful I don’t substitute one bad habit for another.
What’s in store this week…
As I posted yesterday, we have a tremendous month of September coming up, most of it Scouting related. Swimming and band will take up some of October, and more Scouting…
Before I get to that, what’s a little disappointing is that once again Woodbadge training for me has been postponed. Seems that other responsibilities with the Pack and Troop are taking precedent. Perhaps in the spring next year. I realize it’s important for me, and one of my goals, but our annual Survival campout, and our backpacking trip, are scheduled on the weekends of Woodbadge.
We have a new Tiger cub in the family this year, our youngest son. He has his first den meeting. We’ll also be finalizing the annual planning meeting this year for his pack. We decided to change packs this year for him, and will be participating with Pack 750, part of the same chartered organization as Troop 750, the troop I’m in with two boys, soon to be three. Later this month, we’ll be taking the Tiger on his first Go See It, a historical castle here in the area.
Tuesday night will be JLT (Junior Leadership Training) planning session time. The senior patrol leaders, as well as the other instructors, will be reviewing the JLT agenda ,watching the videos, and prepping for JLT training we have planned this Saturday/Sunday.
It will be similar to last year, and will include an overnight. A weekend filled with leadership and team building activities. We have several boys that signed up to be instructors, some of the best boys in the troop. They signed up without any prodding by the adults. We’re very fortunate that we’ll have great leadership in the troop going forward.
Wednesday evening will be the den planning meeting for our Webelos 2 den in Pack 618. We’ll complete the planning for the next six months, at which time we’ll celebrate the Arrow of Light and Crossover ceremonies for our boys. These same seven boys have been together since their Wolf year, and five of the boys have been together since Tigers. It’s tremendous that they have been together and stuck with it this entire time! We’re looking forward to sending them off! Hopefully most, if not all, will want to continue in Scouting and find a good troop in the area.
Thursday will be our weekly Troop meeting, and six month reflection for the new Scouts and Parents. It’s hard to believe our new Scouts have already been in the troop six months. We’ll discuss what’s worked, what hasn’t worked, what to change, how to get more involved, and begin preparation for the next crossover. It will also be prep for our annual Survival campout. No tents, no real gear to speak off, just their personal gear, some tarps, a few matches, and a weekend of “surviving” outdoors.
Saturday will be our Geologist Activity Badge for our Webelos. We’ll make the trek out to Caesar Creek Lake and visit the Army Corp of Engineers and have them lead us in the activity. We’ll conclude the meeting discussing Arrow of Light requirements, and Arrow prep. It’s really hard to believe that we are at the conclusion of the 5-year program. The boys and parents have done a tremendous job, and we’ve had a terrific program!
We’ll wrap up the week, the remainder of Saturday/Sunday, with JLT for the Troop. My son that crossed over in February will be in attendance, as well as about 20 other first years, and a couple of second year scouts that have not attended JLT. It should be a fun week, and a terrific weekend. Lots going on, and what a way to start the Scouting year!
Exciting September/Couldn’t be more proud…
This is actually a two-part post…first, my wonderful family. I just couldn’t be more proud. As those of you who know me know, we’ve adopted four children from China, tw0 7-year olds, a 5 year old, and a 3 (almost 4) year old. They are all adapting wonderfully. We also have three older boys, our natural children. My oldest just made his Star rank in Boy Scouts, and is only a few requirements away, and a few months away, from becoming a Life scout, one shy of his goal of being an Eagle scout. It’s all he talks about. My second oldest who crossed over in February has made his Tenderfoot, and is two requirements shy of becoming a 2nd class scout. He has the same goal of wanting to be an Eagle scout. My third boy is finishing up his Webelos 2 year looking forward to joining the troop. He is four activity badges shy of completing all 20 activity badges (following his two older brothers). All three are doing wonderfully in Scouting, and have really stepped up as brothers to their adopted siblings.
My adopted children, in particular Jason, our first adopted child and now 7, after watching the Olympics this summer, clearly told us he wanted to be like Michael Phelps. He loves swimming, and after watching him swim, said that’s what he wants to do. He asked to be on the swim team. We took him up to the Countryside YMCA for the Torpedoes try-outs. He made the team! He has worked out consistently since then, including accompanying me to the gym and on my runs. Keep in mind, he’s only 7, and was born with congenital club feet. To watch him swim, walk and run is nothing short of amazing, seeing what he has done with himself since we’ve brought him home. Yes, I have to slow my pace, and yes, I now have to run twice on his running days, but it’s well worth watching him grow.
I could write a novel on my youngest girl and what she’s done since we’ve brought her home, also born with club feet. She’s now in ankle braces, after months in casts, and walking unassisted (almost running). Again, nothing shy of amazing. Our two newest girls, 7 and 5, are doing absolutely wonderful as well. I honestly don’t know how my wife does it, taking care of this many kids with my schedule. A real saint, and a blessing to watch.
Now for our busy September in Scouting. Our youngest, Jason has just started as a Tiger cub. We’re starting all over again, including the Go See Its which we have scheduled this month. He’s looking forward to starting his journey. He also has his first big swim meet this month.
Josh is finishing up Webelos 2 and is working on his Geologist badge this month. We’ll be making a trip up to Caesar Creek Lake for the geologist badge and fossil hunting. He’s also busy working on his Arrow of Light requirements, preparing himself for Boy Scouts. Peterloon 2012 is coming up shortly, and he’s looking forward to camping with his new troop, and his brothers. Jacob and Johnny have their Survival Campout coming up (second for Johnny, first for Jacob) this month, as well as a backpacking trip for Johnny at the end of this month. Jacob also has his first JLT this month.
I don’t believe we have a single free weekend, and very few free nights this month with troop meetings, roundtables, leader meetings, swim practice, band practice, campouts and backpacking trips. As busy as we are, I couldn’t be more proud of my kids, and couldn’t be more excited for what this month will bring.
Happy Labor Day Weekend!
A Day In The Life... 