Re: Eagle Wanna be comes home!
Jason A. Cruse (jcruse@NEMONET.COM)
Sun, 30 Nov 1997 07:53:19 -0600
A couple of things come to mind.
First, if there was any other way for someone else to do his SM conferences
and sign off on his papers, I would suggest it. I say this not because you
can't do it, but because it doesn't sound like you can *bring* yourself to
do it. (I bring this up from personal experience. In my previous troop,
there was a young man who came and went as mom made him come and go. He
was terror when he was there, would quit as soon as I called him on it, and
then mom would [I believe} compare him to his older brother, and make him
come back. I of course, was thrilled. :|
Don't take that wrong. It just seems to me, first of all, that you have
some things about the young man to work out. We all do, with at least one
young man, in each of our troops. Most, I would venture to guess, just
don't get this far towards Eagle where it becomes a big deal.
What if you tried this: sit down with the young man in a SM conference
right away. Tell him that his leaving and coming back did NOT show scout
spirit, and he is going to have to do some things to prove his spirit to
you. For example, he will have to be back in the troop for at least year,
attend every campout (or 10 out of 12, or something like that) 75% of his
meetings, and his leadership position will be something like historian, or
den chief (something many boys don't really look forward to).
I suggest these things because the young man definitely has to prove his
interest in scouting for scouting (we know this as scout spirit), not just
as a resume builder. You have some leverage here, as well. Did the boy
quit the troop previously? I mean, quit, instead of just "stop coming."
Really, then, if he did, he would have to do things over anyway, because
he'd have to *reapply* as a transfer scout, since he'd left scouting and is
coming back.
Good luck--I don't envy this one.
Jason
"There are no points for second place."
-Viper
jcruse@nemonet.com
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
