Leaderboard

All scouting is local and it difficult to know whats best in this situation. Allowing the PLC to make every decision can be a little difficult. If the PLC decides elections should be every 3 years, every month etc there mayy be more chaos than usual. In the OPs case I think its good he made changes based on others past experience and now should meet with the PLC to help them understand and to listen to any objections they have to the length of terms. My first week as SM the PLC voted to not wear uniforms (ever), changed the day we met and to only play dodgeball during our weekly meetings

Depends on the scope of the projects. If a project was about the size of an Eagle project, I'd poll my friendly Life scouts and see if any of them were on the hunt for a possible project they could lead for Eagle. Other projects, yeah, discuss with PLC and see if they're on board and willing to do it. In another thread, somebody mentioned having more scouts who wanted PORs than jobs to be filled. If I were in this situation, I might take one or two of those project requests and see if the project lent itself to a scout leading the project as a "Scoutmaster approved leadership proje

One of the hard parts of being a Scoutmaster is saying "No". And this is why,............................ But, offer to sit with the scout to hear what he learned from the course. I have had a several parents take their son our of our troop because I would not bend to the their demands. Barry

Since all our soccer players were scouts, we tried similar ideas like this and the answer is yes, they did take charge because to not do so would be to loose. It was very much like sandlot sports. One of the players on my soccer team came from a traveling team who got to tour and play several teams in Ireland. They were beat every time. I talked to dad about that and he said the players in Ireland didn't have quite the personal skills of American players, but they were much better team players. The coaches in Ireland at that level have less personal time to coach, so the players have mor

Okay, I'll compare scouting vs. sports... Sports teams take their names very seriously: the Tigers, the Marauders, the Yankees... Boy Scouts take their patrol names with good humor: the Muffin Men, the Green Janitors... Baseball fans sing during the seventh inning stretch. Boy Scouts sing when they're happy and they know it. When Houston Texans fans go to a game, they can pay over $20 for a stale hot dog and a sugary drink. Thrifty Boy Scout grubmasters can feed a fellow scout 5 meals for $10 (no extra charge for the dirt and bugs). Football fans love their tailgate

Fair enough regarding the "professional" (white collar?) vs. trades professions. However, plenty of trades (most?) don't require a degree; the apprenticeship path is still the way to go. For those that do, a 2 year certificate/degree from a vocational school is still a fraction of the cost of even the lowest in-state University. I'd disagree on 2 points. The first is that nursing isn't a trade profession. Besides, I think it's all in our best interest that health care providers have a bit of formal schooling and education. Secondly, most vocational trade professions have absolut

That's what the commissioner corps is for. Professionals won't touch unit problems with a 10 foot pole unless A) Youth Protection, and B ) Money is involved.

Maybe, but if you want to advance and move up the ladder, you eventually need a BS/BA, and sometimes a MS/MA. Best example is nursing. You can be a LPN with a years worth of training. But your scope of practice is limited compared to a RN with a 2 year associates degree. But to move up to supervisory positions, a BSN is required. The problem is the way HR departments put in criteria for application selection. If certain things are missing, like a 4 year degree, you may never get your application pass the computer system. Best example I could give is my brother. He was in the sales pro

Where to begin. 1) In my experience, the Scouts know who will do a better job in a POR than the adults do. That is why if the Scouts elect someone, you need to give them the opportunity to lead. AND you got to be fair and unbiased. I'll give you an example. There was a Scout elected SPL who I didn't think was ready for it. He was 11 years old, Second Class, and had only 6 months as a PL prior to being SPL. He beat out 2 older scouts, one of whom was SPL before. I tried to talk my son into stepping down! It was talking to him, trying to convince him to step down, that I realized he "g

If you and your son want to stay in this Troop and make any difference, Option C is the only way to go. Grab that CC seat and boot the troublesome parents to the curb.

How am I not surprised? Hopefully the COR has the unit leaders' backs on this. In general, most CO's I know won't countenance gossips. If not, get an exit strategy.

The article brings up a interesting point, one of the major reasons parents want their kids to play sports is to help them get into or finance college. I am a firm believer that college has been completely oversold in the last 3 decades. Maybe this is starting to turn around, I can only hope. Mike

Ya, we had to step outside our district, again, to find a home. At least this troop (unlike her pack) is a much closer drive (less than 15 minutes). We were working on trying to start a troop in our home town but the leadership, both within the brother troop and the district just didn't seem to have any sense of urgency. It was May and they hadn't even set up an information night (and school is out in May) so we had to find a troop before summer if I wanted her to be at all active during the summer. She got to go to a 1st Class day camp with her troop and gets her Scout patch on Sunday.

If it were me, I would run far far away from that circus! Sounds like there is some fundamental issues with the scouts and more importantly with the parents. These are going to be the parents who do everything for their scout including the Eagle project. You know the everyone gets a trophy mindset. If the Committee Chair is vacant, can the committee actually make a vote for this? Where is the COR? I would at the least have a conversation with that person prior to leaving. Taking over the CC spot will only further fuel the flames that that committee and parent core has. Its

IMO, there should not be a "troop policy". The PLC is the decision making body for troop elections (when, where, how, etc..). By having adult policies which the scouts follow denies them the opportunity to play the game of scouts. The decisions regarding election of SPL and other troopwide positions are an example of "a man's game cut down to boy size." Sure it is more efficient and cuts down on adult drama to have troop policy, but why deny the scouts a such an opportunity to learn and grow.

4 month terms?!?! Now there's a BAD idea! The requirements for Life and for Eagle are to hold a position of responsibility for a 6 month term. Does that mean you don't advance past Star in your troop? Or does it mean scouts need to hold 2 terms to rank up? (In which case, you're effectively changing the requirement to an 8-month term.) 4 months is barely time to get in the groove of a new job, let alone to make a difference...

CC here. A few things off the top of my head. I'll probably come up with more late 1. Make sure you and the SM have the same vision for the troop. If there's already a SM in place be sure to sort this out. 2. You've got to, for the most part, defer program decisions to your SM. You're there to make the program happen, not to deliver it. This is easy if you and the SM have the same vision (see #1). We have a "running joke" in the troop that I'm the boss until the troop meeting/campout starts, then "management hands it over to operations" and I take a back seat for the SM to ru

I was a CC for about 5 years - it was a lot of fun. It's one of the very few roles where you get to be plugged into everything in the life of that troop. Some things I learned along the way: A big part of the CC's job is preparing for the future. It helps to be looking ahead 6-12 months. What's next year's recruiting plan? What's the budget look like? Who will be stepping down and need to be replace? Get along with the Scoutmaster as much as possible As CC, you lead the adult team. You've got to provide some high level vision for the troop adults. Are we Scout le

From a ASM: #1. Educate and manage the adults. Ground the helicopters. #2. A unit committee is thrifty. Please minimize program time lost to fundraisers. From a former CC (albeit Cubs) #3. Meet with SM and ASM's to get more advice. Review program calendar check for school, SAT, etc. conflicts. What is their activity and equipment wish list. Who will handle equipment, a ASM or a Committee member? Ditto with troop trailer (insurance, registration, maintenance)! Who will handle med forms - a ASM or committee member (while an ASM may seem more logical, a medical profe

It's great to reach out to this forum, but what you really need to do is talk to people in your council who have experience with canoeing and know your local waterways. A great way to get hooked into your local expert network is to get your scouts to organize some training outings as Tatung42 said. This sounds like a great goal for your Troop and will be a ton of fun. Just be methodical and do your due diligence as a leader.

Great advice on backups (take a picture or scan). Scout handbooks and blue cards get lost or damaged. I have also seen some Scouts put merit badges worksheets and blue cards in a 3-ring binder. Then they have everything that they are working on all together. My son has ADHD, and this sounds similar to a Kanban board organizational strategy that was recommended to him. There are different ways to do it, but one way is to use a white board, divide it up into thirds. Label one third "To Do", another third "Doing", and the final third "Done". Then use sticky notes to post

With a mixed-age group (and I suspect mixed experience levels too), I would be more conservative than Barry's estimate of 20 miles per day. When I've paddled with younger scouts, it seems that many of them take a while to figure out how to move in a straight line and slow progress is made. Maybe only 1-1/2 mile per hour. On top of that, they will get tired after about 4 - 5 hours (so will your out-of-shape adults). If I were paddling with older scouts whose skill levels and maturity inspired confidence, I'd tackle that 20-mile day without much hesitation. If I were paddling w

I think a lot of Scouters have TRIED to do the same and have found that the parents and Scouts, given a choice between sports and Scouting, will usually choose sports. So the "free market" dictates that it's us who make the accommodation, and not the coaches.