From: Maryellen (marye@PACIFIC.NET)
Date: Mon May 08 2000 - 10:27:48 CDT
On 3 May 00, when we were talking about Advancement as the Goal,
Chris & Paula Sheridan told me:
> When the PLC plans activities that are "merely fun" and don't do enough to
> further advancement-to-First-Class-goals, this group of parents becomes
> very disgruntled and the e-mails start flying! Any advice on how to deal
> with this situation?
Well, I will quote from the welcome newsletter that we give to every
Parent. This may help you.. or give you an idea.
But first let me say, that as advancement chair, sometimes I have to be
mean and tell the parents that approach me or e-mail me that they need
to have their son talk to me. I have refused to talk to the parents about
their son's advancement before. This is up to the boys to do the
approaching, not mom and dad and I can be quite firm about this.
Troop 75 is made up
of Boys!
That statement shouldn’t surprise you. You have a son and some of us
have more than one. They are those things we see standing in front of the
fridge full of food saying there is nothing to eat!
The basic philosophy of Troop 75 is that we are a boy run organization.
Come to a troop meeting 30 minutes before pickup time sometime to see
an example of this in action. Be prepared to see what to many of us
adults looks like total chaos! But, the success of our unit and the rather
impressive list of Eagle Scouts that have came out of our Troop speaks
for itself.
For a young man to advance in the Scouting program with Troop 75, he
must develop self initiative. Our boys must present their books to the
Scoutmaster or one of the Assistant Scoutmasters, after reviewing the
requirements needed, and tell the adult what they need signed off. All of
our Assistant Scoutmasters and our Scoutmaster make themselves
available at every meeting for the boys to do this. But they do not chase
the boy or the boy’s book down to get things signed off. It has to be from
the boy’s own desire to advance that advancement comes.
Senior Scouts are also available at every meeting to go over some of the
requirements with the boys and help them along the trail. Again, the Scout
must be the one to ask for this help.
Merit Badges are taught by Merit Badge Counselors. There is a full list
of them hanging on the board at every meeting. Scouts must first decide
what Merit Badge they want or need to take, let the Scoutmaster know and then
look at the list and determine what counselor to contact. Then they must
take the initiative to contact the counselor and arrange a
time to meet with them after they have taken the steps needed in the
Merit Badge book. We have a large library of Merit Badge books for the
boys to check out and all of the requirements for the Merit Badges
required for Eagle Rank are in every Boy Scout Handbook.
To sum it all up, it is up to the individual Scout to advance. Talk to
your son about where he is and where he wants to be in Scouting and
explain to him how he can get there.
For more information about Advancement, contact our Troop
Advancement Chair, Mary Chadwick.
Hope this helps you. I think it is admirable if the boys want to reach
that goal.. but I refuse to be pushed along into it by parents. And our
Troop refuses too. This is not the cub scout program anymore.. and
that needs to be made clear to the Parents asap.
YIS,
Mary Chadwick
Redwood Empire, Yokayo District BSA
District Secretary, District Training Chair
Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner
Yokayo District Webmaster
Redwood Empire Council Webmaster
Scouting for our Country's Future!
Yokayo District web page and Calendar can be found at:
http://www.pacific.net/~ben/scouts.html
