Eagle309

Our Troop is currently small (8 active boys-- 2 patrols) and young (3 12 year olds and 5 11s). SPL is 12 yr old Star (and elections are comming up). Highest rank of others is 2nd class.

For the most part our meetings go well, except two of the boys (and it varies as to which one) can be extreemly disruptive during the time that we are having discussions or doing skill instruction. It causes nothing to be learned/done at the meetings as someone (ususally the SPL but sometimes an adult when the SPL is ignored) has to constantly quiet them down/ stop their mild (non dangerous) horseplay. The last meeting we had, the SPL had the disruptor go sit aside while the meeting then went on (and was quite successful and on time). While I applaud the action of the SPL, neither I (SM) nor the TC knew what had happened at the time except the boy left quite upset. They thought that this action was too harsh and in fact, if I knew what had known at the time, I would have talked (again) with the boy and tried to get him back into the meeting after a shorter 'time out'.

None of this has been effective so far in helping with this behavior. Various adults (as well as the SPL) have met with the boy individually and discussed the problem with him. He just says the meetings are boring and he wants to have fun. We have tried dangling various 'carrots' in front of him-- ' just 10-20 min of skill instrucition and then it is game time to test/practice these', having a game after this if time permits (ie no disruptions in the meeting) , or even the advancement/leadership position/OA elegiblilty carrots, but all to no avail.

I am looking for ideas as to how to deal with these boys. These are the boys who need scouting the most.

I remember my old Scoutmasters house. It was not dirty but was the most cluttered place I had ever seen. You had to walk thru a maze of boxes, etc just to get from the doorway to the den.

I am now a Scoutmaster. My house has become that house.

As was pointed out, the cost of tent repair is minor. The misuse of knives can be addressed with a talk with each boy to make sure they understand the mistake they made. My big concern is with the boy who will not admit his responsibility even when faced with the facts. He knows the consequences the other boy faced (pay for damage and no knife till SMC) were not major. Our prisons are full of people who "didn't do it", or "it wasn't my fault". This boy is young and now is the time to build his character. I am just not sure how to go about this.

We had an incident at summer camp where upon checkout it was discovered that one of the tents had two small knife holes placed in it. Due to some tent changes during the week (because boys left one night for OA ordeal and boys did not want to tent alone), there had been 3 boys who slept in this tent. One boy admitted to playing around and poking a hole in the tent. He paid me the repair fee and surrendered his knife and totin' chip.

No one admitted to the other hole so I had to take both other boys knives and cards. However, after this, two boys came to me privately at different times and told me with the same details how they saw one of the boys in question stab his tent. This boy has a bit of a problem with 'truth' and still admits nothing. Any advise on how to get him to own up. As far as character development goes, this would be one of the best things we can do for this boy.

Due to dates in the Scout's book being different from the one on the the advancement report (which was one day off) , a Scout recieved his SMC and BOR for Star one day too soon to have completed the 4 month POS and active in troop time. Neither looked at the advancement report so this was missed. The troop committee (including those who sat on the board) don't see this as a problem in that one day would not have changed anything.

Our worry is that we always hear that one a boy is up for Eagle, everything may be gone over with a fine toothed comb by the district committee. Assuming that it is well over 6 months before this scout is ready for Life, is there the potential (however small) that this can cause a problem down the line. If it is, how could it be corrected?

I used to be a Buffalo, a good old Buffalo, too.

But now I'm finished Buffaloing I don't know what to do.

I'm growing old and feable, and I can Buffalo no more.

So, I'm going to work my ticket if I can

Back to Gilwell, happy land, I'm going to work my ticket if I can.

C-16-05

I got my beads last night!! I completed my ticket in about 7 months being the 3rd from the Buffalo patrol to do so (5th from the entire course).

I did not notice washing instructions on the neckerchief. Is it OK to machine wash and dry? Ironing OK? What about starch?

All my other neckerchiefs I have washed, dried, starched and ironed so they roll crisply, but the Wood Badge neckerchief definately feels like it is of a different material.

We had Webelos cross over to our Troop at the end of Feb. They were quite tired of the Cub like activities in Webelos and wanting to move on to bigger things. Some had come on Webelos campouts with our Troop (but remember Webelos need a parent/guardian with them on a campout and for some boys this was not possible). They have been on two campouts with us so far, had a blast, and are not looking back.

I used to be a Buffalo and a Good old Buffalo too.

But now I'm finished Buffaloing, and I don't know what to do.

I'm growing old and feeble and I can't Buffalo no more.

So I'm going to work my ticket if I can.

Back to Gilwell Happy Land, I'm going to work my ticket if I can.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of a Vigil knot, but in our lodge the pocket flaps have a different colored border based on wheiter you are Ordeal, Brotherhood, or Vigil. This is a subtle way of showing ones level of membership in the OA.

Thanks vmpost!

No prizes. The top two teams get to go to a council sponsered Klondike as I understand it. They were also told their patches would be 'special' in some way. I had a guess at the winning team before they were even announced. They really had their act together. (Also, they had no SMs accompying them around the course.)

I was speaking with my PL after our Klondike derby about how things went. One topic that came up was how to deal with a Scout who will not listen/follow instructions. (Note he does follow instrctions from an adult.) I suggested giving him a job to do, but my PL said he is great at slacking on tasks given. What would you advise?

This withstanding, I have to say the Troop really impressed me at the derby. It was a day only event (no campout) and we were allowed to have the Webelos who will be crossing over in 2 weeks participate. Our most experienced scout has been a Boy Scout (crossed over Webelos) not quite a year and just made 1st class last week. Many sleds had their Scoutmasters traveling the course with them! I thought this was supposed to be boy led so I helped man a station after making sure my boys got there. (At the station I manned, any Scoutmaster help would result in a loss of points.) While they were by far the youngest group and on of the only boy only groups out there, the did not finish last. In fact they finished about 1/3 of the way up. The excelled at fire starting and knots!

Thanks for the quick replies. The COR is aware of what happened and the CC helped me get her into the hospital and helped our family out in many ways while I had to play "single dad". I was just concerened with the letter and what this would do when she re signs up next year and the background check is done.

Just after Christmas my wife had some minor surgery. She developed vertigo afterwards and was placed on various drugs including Valium. A few days after the Valium started, she became completely out of her head/pshchotic/delierous and had to be invoulentarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital. After taking her off all her meds and giving her an anti-psychotic to straighten out her thought pattern, she recovered quickly and was discharged. In a follow up visit with her psych doctor, he said that while we may never know what caused this, you don't see people with major psychotic disorders (liks scizopherena, bipolar pshcyosis, etc) just loose touch with reality in a very short period of time and then completely recover (someone who hasn't seen her since her surgery would never know this happened). He said it was most likely delirum caused by drug interactions magnified by the stress of surgery. Her DSM-IV diagnosis was "unspecified mental disorder".

Now that my rambling is done, I'll get to the point. Yesterday she got a letter from the State Police stating that based on the Probate Court case (her invoulentary admission) that she now had a record in the Law Enforcement Information Network. (They added that this precluded her from buying a firearm or obtaining a CCW permit but this is trivial in her case.)

My question is does the fact that she has a police record for being committed to a mental health institution preclude her from being a registered Scouter. She currently serves as a Committee Member (awards chair) for our Cub Pack and our Troop. Is she compelled to resign now?

As a side note she was never a danger to others. Her committment papers (from two different psych evals) had checked 'Unable to take care of her own basic needs" NOT 'a danger to others'.

I have a boy in our troop (my son) who has set himself on the fast track towards advancement. He just finished 1st class after a year as a Boy Scout (nothing to remarkable here yet). He has earned some MBs at camp and is 2 Eagle required from Star. His goal is to be Star before summer camp. While I will not hold him back, I am not giving him any special help either. I gave hime the counselors names/numbers for the MBs he asked to work on and the signed blue cards. He has contacted the councelors and is well on his way to getting this work done. He is in the gifted program in our school district and is very self motivated. His goal is Eagle.

While I would do nothing to put impediments in his way I wonder if he is moving a bit too fast and should be encouraged to stop and smell the roses along the way. Any advise on what I should do as a SM/parent? Should I just let him go or should I try to get him involved in aspects other than advancement and if so what and how? He is elegable for OA election (not sure if this is a good idea for a 2nd year camper or not either) and if he is elected, this may give him another outlet but I am not certian of that either.

Has anyone had any experience with their equipment? It sounds like quality stuff and they offer a 45% Scout discount.

Weekend 2 actually seemed less rushed than the first one. Perhaps because we had a better idea of what to expect.

The ticket process was quite frustrating mostly because of the inconsistancys in getting items approved. You could send an item in for approval and it would come back saying 'change X to Y'. You would change X to Y, resubmit and it would come back saying 'change Y to X'!

Also I submitted a personal ticket item-- monthly date nights with my wife and had it changed to twice monthly. Another patrol member submitted a similar ticket but with twice monthly date nights and had his changed to monthly as twice monthly might be over reaching!!!

Nonetheless, I ended up with what I believe is a workable ticket although the next 6 months or so are going to be very very busy.

I used to be a Buffalo and a good ol' Buffalo too!

Well the Buffalo is here, even though the Antelope jumped the gun.

I used to be a BUFFALO and a Good 'ol Buffalo too...

And now I'm finished Buffaloing... I don't I don't know what to do...

I'm growing old and feable and I can Buffalo no more...

So I am going to work my ticket if I can...

Back to Gilwell.. Happy Land.. I'm going to work my ticket if I can.

(I needed that to warm up my voice for tomorrow-- day 4 of my Wood Badge Course.)

I made it back. As you said, we did a lot but there wasn't the multitasking level and pressure level there is at work, so it wasn't bad at all. As some posters said, the leadership theory stuff was mostly review, but the good thing is we put it to use right there and then.

I'm a Buffalo!

Just came back from my first weekend of C-16-05.

I'm a Buffalo!

When the chips are down-- the buffalo are empty!

Our Cub pack has 2 new 5th grade boys who have just joined. They have been placed with the second year Webelos. The Webelos II are planning on completing their AOL and crossing over in Feb. along with their den leader. These boys would have quite a lot of outside work if they were to undertake this task.

If they choose not to/are unable to complete the AOL by the time the rest of the den is ready (or if some other boy is unable to due to illness or something of the sort) what do we do with them? Just tell them that there is no den for them and that they can join the Boy Scout in June? Tell the parent(s) that they must step up and lead the den of 1 or 2 till June? What is the best way to deal with this?

My first weekend of Wood Badge (C-16-05) begins Friday after a couple of quite long days of work. How intense is this experince? Will I be run completely ragged or is more like a weekend campout (or district/council Camporee)? I guess I am just getting pre course jitters but I am picturing something like a fast paced business day for the entire weekend. I just hope I can keep my eyes open at work on Monday.

Our pack has always seems to start out after fall recruiting with a healthy number of Tigers and Wolves. We rarely get any new boys at the Bear or Webelos levels despite extra emphisis on recruiting there. Since we loose a few boys each year (some due to moves, some due to parents being 'too busy'--especially single moms) this leads to some rather small Webelos II dens crossing over. Over the years I have observed this phemomen, we often start out with Tiger and Wolf dens of 8-10 boys but Webelos II dens only have 3-4 boys. Does anyone have any ideas for either retaining a few more of the boys (much of this loss does appear beyond our control, though) or 'selling' the program to the 3rd and 4th graders?

The swimming MB states that before doing the requirements, complete the 2nd class and 1st class rank reqiremnets. If a boy when earning the swimming MB does these to the satifaction of his counselor, should the troop accept these as having completed the 2nd and 1st rank requirements, or should he do them again as this is for the rank and not the MB?

We are forming a new troop. When setting up plans/a timeline I made the comment that once a PLC is elected/trained, they need to create next years calander and present it to the committee for approval. That is how I understood things should be done when I had training. I was told that it is not done that way-- that the committee develops the calander and the boys work out the details of the actual events? Are they way off base or did I misunderstand something in the process?