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I was just having a conversation with another scouter, who asked me why we were not traveling to camp in a convoy.  I told him that even though our Troop normally does it that way, it actually specifically says in the GTSS that caravaning is not allowed, so on outtings where I am supervising, we won't do it.  He said back to me back "ya right, show me where".  To my shock, when I tried to looked it up, I couldn't find anything, even though I swear that it was there in older editions.  Am I just imagining things or was it removed?  Old posts like this one, even quote exact parts of the GTSS that I was looking for: And if it was removed, why?  I think that 99% of the time when a driver gets lost, it is because they were not too sure where they were going, and they were just planning to follow the car in front of them.  I always provide directions to drivers and stress to each driver that they need to know where they are going, without the aid of their GPS assisted navigation (which might not work when their signal is weak).

Yup, I considered(and offered up) different options for plc meetings. They just weren’t happening before bc SM and SPL didn’t even call them. One good change that is bringing better attendance, is having them after the meeting rather than before. Still had no patrol leaders 😕 , but had some enthusiastic younger scouts.  That was really my first step- just trying to get them to have plcs, and actually get something decided at them.       Occasionally they do stuff in patrols, but that is rare. There are rarely breakout groups to discuss what rank requirements people need help with.  I truly understand that it is a convoluted system that is hard for one scout to stay on top of for themselves, much less one scout helping others.   I did see an idea on YouTube. It was someone’s woodbadge ticket(or one of them), where they basically made a syllabus that would come full circle every 2 years with all the requirements to first class.  I thought that was neat, but I couldn’t figure out how to find him. 

A leader parent is an involved parent. Every Eagle Scout I’ve known has had a parent/guardian at their side supporting, encouraging, motivating them along the path to Eagle. Doesn’t have to be a registered parent as a leader, but a parent that cares enough to see that they succeed. Involved parents are not just leaders, but the parents that check on their kids status, talk to leaders, ask questions, and make sure requirements are being met.    The parents that just dump their kids off often have no clue what their Scout is doing or how well they’re doing. Some probably couldn’t tell you what rank their kid is. When parents don’t care, the Scout won’t care. Often times they are only there for socialization with friends. 

All good points. I’m just not feeling enough parental presence to even gather them to have a discussion.  Mine are hoping to do NYLT in the winter, so I’ll need to get them ILST. I just feel like I’ve been sticking it out forever.  I’m definitely not a quitter, but I’m just getting a vibe. Our cubscout pack is completely opposite in terms of our adult leaders putting time in and working together. (Answering texts even!)

Not really. The parents just sit in the other room. Scouting is the main topic of discussion but I either get the sense that they don’t think there’s a problem, or if they see it, they don’t want to help. CC(on his way out) and SM can say they welcome change as much as they want, but if they don’t support/back me up, the others just think I’m trying to take over.