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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/06/18 in all areas

  1. Boy did I ever derail this thread. Back on topic, my daughter earned her Bobcat last night.
    4 points
  2. This 16 year-old Scout has the maturity. He could perform well as Troop Guide if he is willing to apply himself. Last night he accepted the TG POR with specific tasks and milestones. He is good at telling people what they want to hear. We’ll see how he actually performs.
    2 points
  3. We use the JASM, typically this is a former SPL, so they may not be there much. We have had success at Summer camp (we take 50 - 60) with some older scouts attending as they need to get some requirements complete. Works really well. Leader in camp works with the JASM who then backstops the SPL / ASPL's. Gives them responsibility and a good taste of leadership. Had a staff member who had an issue with a scout one time, came to see us, we referred him to the JASM and they worked it out.
    2 points
  4. To this date (in my pack) those precut cars underperform at our derbies.
    2 points
  5. OK - So what are linked troops? That is a new phrase to the party
    1 point
  6. What's the over under on percentage of "Linked" (wink wink) troops with this configuration?
    1 point
  7. Scoutmistress? Just kidding, just kidding.
    1 point
  8. Except for the fact I know it will happen, I would bet a beer that there will be at least one pair of troops in the nation who will have the same scoutmaster and ASMs, and the PLCs meet as one.
    1 point
  9. One chartered partner, one committee, in theory two scoutmasters and two sets of assistant scoutmaster's Two youth structures-- PLC, patrols, etc. Again, in theory
    1 point
  10. This attitude really bothers me and I worked hard in our district to change it. I'm guessing, but I think National created the perception by adding Venture Patrols to the program in 1990. They suggested troops put all their older scouts I Venture patrols at age 14. Between the First Class in the First Year concept and the Venture Patrols, what are adults new to scouting supposed to think? As you pointed out, there isn't really that much adventure that younger scouts can't do if it is planned wisely. Barry
    1 point
  11. No. But the further in that we hike the fewer we get! Is that disruptive of the patrol method? Yes. Does it help adult association? Yes. It certainly gives some people for the SM to talk to when the boys are on autopilot. Note that we have not had the trouble other troops have had with helicopter moms. Most moms don't join us. The ones who do have been great. We have had some helicopter dads, the physical distance helps us manage them by setting the tone.
    1 point
  12. It's great to see your passion, but you need to find a balance. Either you let your son move on and stick around in an official position with the pack, or you move on with your son and plan for a period where the pack will be in a slump. We have involved adults who do both, and it either works as long as everyone is welcoming and flexible. But, let's say you move on to the troop, and nobody takes up the slack. Time for a plan B. Use your experience with your "found Webelo" to ask for help looking for middle-school boys who aren't on anybody's radar because they are no longer or never
    1 point
  13. 1 point
  14. oh, I wanted to comment on the stepping on toes thing,... Clarke Green once advised me, then everyone in a podcast... not being in a key position (cub master, CC, or COR) then there's nothing you can really do. I thought his analogy was good.... he said it's their house. It's kinda like you showing up at your neighbor's door with a gallon of paint and saying ok, I'm here to paint your living room, it is the wrong color. I think it was in his podcast on "Cooperative Volunteering". I was the one that emailed the question to him.....basically his advice was to cooperate and earn trus
    1 point
  15. The professional paid scouters will tell you that the most frustrating part of the scouting program is the volunteers. 95 percent of them either don't take their responsibilities seriously, or they are just terrible at doing it. That being said, thank goodness for the FIVE percent because they carry the weight of the program. swilliams, you are the five percent. You are the parent I look for when I go recruiting for dominating unit leaders. You not only have the passion, you have the will. You don't see it yet, but you are the unit leader in the purist meaning of the word. So, how do
    1 point
  16. I think that perhaps this is a situation where you can effectively use praise whenever you catch this boy doing something right. Perhaps the boy would be encouraged by a kind word here or there and a show of appreciation for his participation and later, contributions to the Troop. Sometimes I feel like praise and thanks are under-employed tools that could be very effective if used more often.
    1 point
  17. We had an initial discussion about girls in Cubs at our committee meeting last night. The initial reaction was positive. Our CO chair said that they likely have no objections to a girls' program. Then two of the moms complained about some of the things they dislike about the existing girl scout program, and one of the moms immediately said she prefers the Cubs program for her daughters if it's available to them. It sounds like we will have an open door for girls and their parents to get involved in Cub Scouting starting in the next school year. It will be interesting to see how many come
    1 point
  18. Toxic is too strong a word. Casual or uncommitted is a better adjective.
    1 point
  19. I have to applaud his openness and honesty. On the other hand, I'm not at all sure that TG of a NSP is the best POR for him. My concern is that he will continue to be open and honest (with the new scouts) about his motivation for taking the position. If I were the parent of a new scout, I don't think I would be thrilled about having him mentoring my son.
    1 point
  20. There is a PWD formula somewhere on the internet the builds a program schedule so that each car gets to race a minimum of something like seven times. The objective of the derby is for the scouts to see their car run the track. They get to see their car race some many times that most scouts get bored. The formula tells the operators which car goes on which track. It doesn't eliminate cars, it adds up points. After the minimum number of races have been run, points are added up to find the winner. The final race is a race off with the winners of each age group. We had a large pack of 10
    1 point
  21. Maybe. I acknowledge that scouters today seem to be working with a different kind of parent generation than the parents I was working with just 15 years ago. One of the BIG differences between volunteering in a Cub Pack and a Troop use to be that scouters had to work with parents more closely in the pack because they were more hands on with their sons. I don't think that difference is as broad today as it was just 15 years ago. Troop leaders have to be better today because they have to work one on one more with the parents than past generations of scouts. I have a psychologist frie
    1 point
  22. With all due respect, I know of families where the father is non-existent or uninvolved. While I personally do not like the precuts, I can understand why some families will go that route. It was happening so much, that my pack decided to have one meeting dedicated to having folks work on PWD cars. Folks bring any and all their tools and help the Scouts out. That has seen a drastic reduction in the precuts. Forgot to add, I was one of those Cubs with an uninvolved dad. I had no access to any tools except a pocket knife my uncle gave me. I whittled that PWD. it took me forever to whittle,
    1 point
  23. What do you call the Law School graduate with the lowest GPA? Your Honor.
    1 point
  24. I can understand the frustration some feel when they witness a boy completing the requirements "at the bare minimum" or "with minimal effort". I think for most it comes from the desire to want the best for the boy. Some see the a boy who completes the reqs with minimal effort as cheating himself out of what he could achieve. We are scouters because we believe in the boys and their potential, so I can understand the frustration. The boy's pride in their own achievements is typically proportional to their efforts. That said, I think all we can do is model, encourage, and mentor. The cub scouts
    1 point
  25. I do believe quality is important, but it is also a slippery slope. How is it defined? Who defines it? Is it different for each Scout? I think it better to define the requirements in measurable terms. For example, "active in the troop" means X% meetings, y% of campouts, z% of service projects. To be credited with completing PoR X, the Scout is expected to do the following; A, B, C. In your example, I have no problem defining a proper painting job to include those elements IF they are needed. In fact, the Paining MB does a good job of making those part of the requirements and l
    1 point
  26. The only reason I returned to Woodbadge after the first session was because it was required in order to be SM for the Jamboree contingent.
    1 point
  27. Are you guys trying to tell me that you have never taken a college course, attended a professional seminar, or done boy scout leadership training/YPT just to fulfill a requirement? I've done lots of that stuff. I have wasted thousands of hours of my time and spent many thousands of dollars of my money on things that meant nothing to me. As a matter of fact, I have another one coming up this summer. Paper chasing is a normal part of college and professional life. It is an absolute requirement for being a scouter. We all do it. I would be a hypocrite if I criticized a boy for paper c
    1 point
  28. If your unit has been keeping him on the rolls for 3 years, then I would say yes. A scout unit doesn't have to keep registering an inactive scout any more that a sports team has to keep an inactive player on the team roster. If a scout isn't active, the unit can drop him. There is no rule against a unit dropping an inactive scout. But if a unit chooses to keep an inactive scout registered with the unit, I think they need to treat him like an active scout. It would be unfair to treat a currently registered scout any other way.
    1 point
  29. This scenario used to bother me a lot. After a decade as SM I've come to see it differently. I've now seen several years worth of scouts I've known since they were Cubs move their way through the program;. Some of them stay enthusiastic the whole way, for some of them the enthusiasm waxes and wanes. I've had kids lose interest and then come back in exactly the scenario you describe, parental push plus some belief (frankly mistaken) that it will have some effect on their college app. Some others come back because they decided that being an Eagle Scout was something they wanted to accomplis
    1 point
  30. Creating new requirements has never been part of my thought process - obviously, that is out of line. And, yes - meeting the minimum requirements necessitates a "pass". These points are self-evident. I'm actually not seeking a way to "fail" this Scout - that is not why I started this thread. I'd much rather inspire him to go beyond minimal efforts so that the result has more than minimal significance. Perhaps I'll phrase it to him using those words.
    1 point
  31. Freds right, if the scout has done what is required of him, anything else is adding requirements. Now I'm not preaching about the goods and evils of adding requirements, I personally think there are times and places for everything when it comes to growth. But, I have observed and experienced similar situations like this one and if push comes to shove all the way up the ladder to National, the scout wins every time. Actually this situation is very common with new scoutmasters because they tend to get emotionally tied up in old business trying to set their new standards on the troop progr
    1 point
  32. We have about one of these per year. They were active 5th - 8th, attained Life rank, were active for those 6 months, then High School comes along. They come back in during 11th grade and try to wrap it up. It may be the minimum, but that is all that is required. I really like the Eagles and older scouts that are active for the full time available, but then I like many things I cannot always have
    1 point
  33. If he did the work, yes. The requirements for Eagle are really not that huge. A gung-ho kid can knock them out if desired fairly quick. The key is we mentor youth through our interactions and guidance. But as for rank, that is a standard defined by BSA that is fairly clear. If the scout has done the project as approved in the proposal, it gets signed. If he has the other rank items complete, then can has earned a right to complete his Eagle rank. It might be worth a good discussion on what happened. Beyond that, it's his advancement, not ours.
    1 point
  34. Yes. As much as anyone else. You might not like his path, but yes he is and he has every right to use the rank name.
    1 point
  35. This is quite good. I believe God's reflections of anger in the whole First Testament are examples of using anger specifically for teaching. However, I also found that disappointment was my best tool for showing a scout how I felt about his performance. Maybe because body language is honest and sincere, but I rarely had to add words for impact. It worked well in our troop because we discouraged yelling (raised voices) as a form of motivating action. I'm not sure if this style of reflecting to scouts requires practice and maturity, but I had to grow into it. Again well said. We e
    1 point
  36. Yes - consistency is on my mind. I remind myself that I can't/shouldn't set a special hurdle for him that I do not impose on everyone else in the troop. I know this boy has had some past struggles in his personal life. His dad views Eagle as a way to lift the kid's self-esteem and instill a sense of accomplishment. However, if the boy is not doing quality work, his court of honor will be more of a shrug than a high-five.
    1 point
  37. Yep - I’m trying, but it’s a struggle in this situation. He deserves a positive - not pessimistic - response from his Scoutmaster.
    1 point
  38. The Scout (and his father) have requested a meeting to discuss his POR requirement. We could definitely use a Troop Guide for our New Scout Patrol. I’d be satisfied if he showed up to help at their weekly meetings once a month. And teach them specific skills (not just be a warm body in the room). We’ll see how he responds to that idea.
    1 point
  39. This is a google maps screencapture of my old scout hut. It was there many years before I was there, and it's still there. No idea when it was built but I'm guessing the 50's. It looks boarded up now but in the 70's and 80's I had such a great time there. I wonder if my picture is still hanging on the wall in there.
    1 point
  40. My daughter will be attending her first Cub Scout meeting in a few weeks. She is currently a Girl Scout and plans to remain active in both. She is so geeked to be a Cub Scout that she has been using her tablet (we don't have any of the books yet) to research Bobcat requirements and she has asked her older Boy Scout brother to help her study so that she can earn her Bobcat at her first meeting. On an unrelated tangent, my son built his improvised natural shelter over the weekend for his Wilderness Survival Merit Badge. He plans to sleep in it next weekend. <-Proud papa.
    1 point
  41. I've been lurking for a little while, trying to learn a little about the differences between BSA and GSUSA culture, but I guess I'll jump in and speak up now. I have a 6th grade daughter, who after hearing the BSA plans to admit girls in 2019, and after reading an old Boy Scout handbook, tells me she wants to become a Boy Scout as soon as the program is available to girls her age. So we are thinking about crossing the Tiber. A couple of comments on the differences: BSA has camping and outdoor skills built into the rank advancement. GSUSA does not: outdoor stuff is compl
    1 point
  42. My troop had such a place back in the '40's and '50's. A log cabin in a wooded area on a family farm. From the old handwritten records the troop scribe kept, it sounded like a lot of happy Saturday's were spent there. Alas, the interstate highway 270 got put right thru the farm. Progress
    0 points
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