funscout

Thanks for all the responses! I called our Council office, and they don't have an "expert" on scouts with disabilities, but will send me some information. I had heard of cases where disabled scouts were able to earn Eagle after age 18, but I haven't been able to find anything from BSA that states that. Tom will be disappointed if his project gets delayed past his 18th birthday, but I'm glad that he can get more time, if needed. I have been an unofficial advocate for Tom ever since I first learned that he would be joining our troop. His parents have asked me to be his interpreter/advoca

I am looking for advice on how to help my troop's scout leaders understand that a scout with Down Syndrome can earn Eagle. Tom (not his real name) is a 17 year old Life Scout, is nearly finished with the required merit badges, and has written up his proposal for an Eagle project. Some of the leaders don't think he can be an Eagle scout because he hasn't shown good enough leadership skills. Tom can read and write, but due to his somewhat unintelligible speech, he isn't able to "lead" the other boys as easily as those whose speech is understandable. I am a former speech-language patholog

Even though pistol shooting may never become a merit badge program, it has already generated renewed BSA interest in some former scouts. During my 5th-6th grade Sunday School class, a scout was telling others about the pistol program and you should have seen the eyes light up in those nonscout boys! I let the boys know that they could always join/rejoin Boy Scouts and that they, and the girls, could join Venturing when they were older. Boy Scouts are looking cooler, now, then some of those kids had realized.

Basementdweller: The only gun I have ever fired is a BB gun, so I wouldn't be much help to our scouts! My husband hunts, so our sons have lots of opportunities, and one of our ASMs worked at camp as an NRA pistol instructor, so I guess our scouts do have opportunities if someone who knows guns will take them. I realized how gung-ho our scouts were about guns when I read some of their camp evaluations before turning them in. One wanted the camp to offer fully automatic pistols!, another wanted to see Air-soft gun battles, etc. They were just being funny, though, as they know these will

Thanks for the clarifications, and sorry for posting outdated information! Fred8033's link didn't go through when I tried it, but I'm sure I can find that info. The scout I know who was denied Eagle is much older than my boys and was in a different troop, so I only found out about it years after the fact. Our troop apparently tried to help him out, but as a busy 17 year old who was working at camp, he must have felt he didn't have the time to pursue a challenge with Council. This young man has continued to be an awesome staff member at camp, so it truly is a shame that a rigid SM denie

While I understand your husband's frustration with boys who are scouts on paper only, BSA says that troops can not set a certain % of activities to be met. I found this info. on BSA FAQ (http://www.scouting.org/BoyScouts/GuideforMeritBadgeCounselors/RankAdvanceFAQ.aspx) It says: "The unit leaders are responsible for maintaining contact with the scout on a regular basis. The Scout is not required to attend any certain percentage of activities or outings. However, unit leaders must ensure that he is fulfilling the obligations of his assigned leadership position. If he is not, then they

NJCubscouter: The initial post was about the topic of "rejected" merit badges being passed around on Twitter. Since I don't use Twitter, I have no idea if my ice cream merit badge idea has already been talked about. I'd go for the knot, too! As a matter of fact, I think I'll go work on some ice cream right now!

shortridge: Yes, you are right, the 6 boys per time slot was due to the number of instructors, not due to lack of interest. I wasn't offended by anything you said, but I didn't appreciate my boys' interest being called "silly" by someone else. That has nothing to do with whether or not pilot programs become merit badge programs. As I tried to say in an earlier post, if Pistol shooting doesn't become a merit badge, it's okay, because any interested boy still has the chance to try pistols if he joins Venturing some day. I know it's been a while since I've posted on this forum, but who

I reread one of my posts, and I'm wondering if some of you took offense to my encouraging scouts to join venturing. I did NOT mean INSTEAD of boy scouts, and I only meant those kids who were unable to do pistols at camp and have no other opportunity to do so. I hope this clears things up.

I suspect pistol shooting was such a big deal for our guys simply because they knew ours was the only summer camp able to offer it to boy scouts. The boys thought that was pretty cool. Basementdweller: not all our boys have parents/uncles, etc. who can or will take them to a pistol range. Your kids are fortunate to have that option. Twocubdad: Belt loops are for cub scouts, but I know what you mean. No, not everything has to end in a merit badge. Our camp didn't offer the brand new Kayaking merit badge this summer, but we still had kids sign up for kayaking BSA. We also had s

Our boys take at least 2 showers at summer camp. On Wednesday for Family Night and on Troop Swim night. If a scout chooses not to swim, he is still expected to come to the pool with us and at least take a shower. Our council camp's equipment list does not list deodorant! I made sure to add that to our troop list of summer camp equipment, and I ask the parents to stress deodorant use with their boys. I also recommend that boys bring dryer sheets for refreshing scout shirts, helping foot lockers/duffel bags smell better, and for stuffing in their shoes when not being worn. Just

I don't use Twitter, but several of our scouts would definitely earn the Ice Cream merit badge if it were offered at summer camp!

Our troop goes to our local council camp each year, and we normally get most of our boys to go. The leaders have shown them several options to try instead of the local one, but each year, the boys choose the local one. We do have kids who leave camp to attend baseball or band functions, so they like the local choice. Also, our older scouts really bond with the staff members who come back each year, so they don't want to miss out on seeing their older friends. Another troop in our town is on a 3 year rotation of local council camp, followed by 2 farther away camps. I posed the optio

Since it's looking like pistol shooting will not become a merit badge in the near future, I guess I will encourage my young scouts to join Venturing when they are old enough. shortridge: If Councils talk to their local NRA groups, they might be surprised to find enough people willing to become (or already are) pistol instructors, especially those of retirement age who do not need to take time off work in order to come out to work at summer camp.

I think our camp used semiautomatic Rugers, but I didn't ever make it to the new pistol range, which was quite a hike from the rest of the activities. The boys had to be 13 or older, but I would have been more comfortable with 14 and up. Camp Loud Thunder,(near Andalusia, IL) did have to add several more staff members, just for pistol shooting. Many of the NRA trained instructors were retired gentleman who had the time and were more than happy to come out to work with the boy scouts. One of the staff members said that the program took extra long because they had to teach the boys all t