Re: age or grade requirements-AOL
Bob Medley (BOBME@LAGUNA.EPCC.EDU)
Tue, 17 Jan 1995 08:42:17 -0600
On Mon, 16 Jan 1995, Nancy Smith S wrote:
> Hi All!
>
> I need some input from all the wise Scouters out there. I am the
> committee chair for our cub pack. We have one committee member who is
I can give you my input from the perspective of a boy scout troop
committee member and a unit commissioner.
> basically a pain in the ** at all our meetings. The *only* time she
> speaks up is to complain or try to shoot down one of our ideas. Our
First of all, this woman must be dealt with firmly but politely. When
she is nagging and shooting down all proposed ideas, asked for her ideas
and how she would implement them. Accept one of her ideas and ask her
to ram-rod the event -- I'll bet she will back down at the thought of
running the event since she is probably a complainer and not a doer.
> CM is a very mild-mannered man, and even he finds her totally
> obnoxious and doesn't even like to have her on the committee. Anyway,
The "mild-mannered CM" must gather up the courage (backbone) and tell this
woman to put up or shut up (diplomatically of course). A leader should
be able to tell someone to go to H*ll in such a way, that they actually
look forward to the trip.
> troops. Now here's our problem...this committee member has a boy who
> is in the first year of Webelos--he's in fourth grade. She pointed
> out that he is actually a year older than most 4th graders--he's
> already ten and will be 11 this summer. She wants him to earn his AOL
> soon after school starts in the fall and have us arrange a special
> AOL ceremony for him so he can move into boy scouts during his fifth
> grade year.
>
> When we pointed out that this is a *pack* effort and he should wait
> until we have our regular AOL for all the 4th grade boys she became
> upset and said if her boy earned it he should receive it, no matter
Tell the woman firmly and politely, that her son will be awarded the AOL
at the next regularly scheduled AOL ceremony. NO EXCEPTIONS! Tell her
there are many pack activities that must be planned and executed. Tell
her that if the pack ever started catering to the individual whims of
parents, not much else would ever be accomplished. (The worse thing that
could happen is the woman would resign her membership and move her son to
another "more accomodating" pack. Which would probably be in the best
interest of the pack -- the obnoxious woman would no longer be around to
interfere and you would probably get more work done at the committe
meetings) Its a shame to run off adults, but its not quantity that
matters, it QUALITY. Ankle biters are more trouble than they are worth;
trying to appease them with an occaisional "bone" only makes them demand
bigger and better "bones". Its best to either muzzle them (kick them out)
or put them on a short rope (give them an job that keeps them away from
commitee meetings).
> To be honest, this boy is a nice kid (despite his mom) but really
> doesn't have the maturity to move up. Unfortunately, there is no
In our troop we had one boy that had "completed" all the requirement for
the second class rank in boy scouts. At the board of review, it became
immediately clear that he was not prepared. He had difficulty in
reciting the scout law, and scout oath. He also could not explain much
about about the required items. So the adults on the board decided that
he should not be awarded the second class rank. The mother was at the
meeting (she was also the obnoxious type). After notifing the boy of his
failure, and what he can do to pass the next board of review; we called
in the mother and explained the situation to her. Of course, the meeting
soon deteriorated. The mother hurled profanity at the board, but the
board members remained true to the scout law (A scout is clean -- in mind
body and speech) and after her out burst of profanity we told her to
leave, and she and her foul mouth were not welcome at any troop
function.
>
> Can she force us to award him the AOL in August or September as
> opposed to giving it to him along with the rest of the boys who will
> advance in February? Help!?
>
Consider, the following options:
1) You can give the boy his AOL only if each and every individual
requirement has been SUCCESSFULLY completed. And you get rid of the
obnoxious mother. (But don't stop the pack to cater to the whims of
the mother by planning full-blown AOL ceremony. The needs of the pack
comes before individual whims)
2) Make the woman wait. After all its actually in the boy's best
interests to complete the Webelos program. But, you'll have the ankle
biter to contend with for another year.
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
