Eagledad

Are we talking about youth or adult? Barry

One of my mentors ran into Bill Hillcourt on a Philmont trail. His crew invited Bill to stay with their crew for dinner and he told stories all night by the campfire. That experience motivated my mentor to become a SM at age 21 and he just retired in his 60s just a couple years ago. Pretty cool story. Barry

Our camps are Cub and Troop friendly, so this is new to me. Thanks. Barry

Hmm, well that seems like a ding against the idea of units running independently without the Council. Of course I come from a time of units required to use Tour Permits. The council has to approve all camp activities the units apply for. I liked liked Tour Permits because it provided a check list for units to verify they were prepared to travel and camp camp. I'm not sure what I think about a unit waiting for the approval of something they could do themselves. I'll have to think about that. Our pack and dens camped at many State Packs that met the criteria. Barry

So, your saying, the camp may have all the requirements for cub camping, it's just hasn't been officially approved for Cub camping by the council. Is that right? Barry

Your number one used camp doesn't have showers? Is that not your Boy Scout summer camp? Barry

Seem pretty basic. What is not provided in your council? Barry

I agree with every word of Jameson76's post. When our troop reached 100 scouts, 45 of the scouts were 14 and older. And the average age our scouts were awarded Eagle 16.5 years old. Barry

My dad was a 15 year old SM during WWII because there weren't enough men around. His dad (my grandpa) didn't want the job, but said he would sign everything required by the adult if my dad was SM. And they made that work for 2 years. My dad enjoyed being a SM, but regretted doing it because he wanted to get his Eagle and didn't have the time. Jameson said what I was going to say. I want to add, that stating something in writing usually takes out flexibility. How many discussions have we had on this forum of why Unit level restrictions and requirements for discipline or attendance tend to

We have noticed an increase of hawks around here as well. A lot of them. Barry

Not a bad idea, but adult personalities have to be just right. We have done something like this in troops that are growing to big and found that the coordination on the adult side can get complicated. The adults have to be willing to step back and learn. My observation is that one unit typically has weak adult leadership and they last about five years before merging back to the stronger unit. That goes for packs as well.. We have discussed this idea from the district perspective and the complexity is finding a good troop to take the patrol with the idea the patrol and adults will eve

Ah! Thanks

Just for a little clarity, what is the difference between survivor and victim? Barry

InquisitiveScouter just showed a picture of my back yard. We very much enjoy watching the families of Cardinals and Woodpeckers repeatedly swarm our feeders each morning as we eat breakfast. However, we haven't seen as many of these families this year, as well as the songs from the Mockingbirds. Rumor is the lack of these birds in our area is the result of the hard freeze that dominated the US last February. Mother nature is usually pretty good at bringing balance. I have high hopes the families will overwhelm our feeders again soon. Barry

Interesting reading of all the comments. I think we all agree that the cub scouts is complicated and requires a lot of effort. Some of that effort can be reduced and some of it can't. We can discuss some of those ideas if you want. But, the part of the discussion where scouting is not as high a priority is something that might be identifying your program. Families set their priorities by the desire to attend the activities. I learned over the years that the more fun the family is having together as a whole, the higher those activities become on their priority list. I have seen this play

This is an idea we discussed locally many times over the years as a way of starting new troops. I think it would work well with two scouts and I would be willing to push it. Taking a scout on loan might be the one way I might even consider being a SM again. But, I will reflect on the experience of one of the most popular troops in our district. The troop had, and still has, a long tradition of great leadership and a fun program. However, their was a time they two outstanding scouts who took turns for several years being the SPL and ASPL. They were natural scouts with charismatic personal

When I was a trainer, I gave new Troop leaders the SPL Handbook and PL Handbook, and suggested they use those very simple handbooks to guide their program along side their scouts using the same handbooks.. I don't know if the BSA is still publishing those handbooks. In the pack, I highly suggested that the committee recruit an adult for every task and responsibility. Burnout is the number one problem with packs, so making sure everyone only has one responsibility helps reduce burnout. Our pack would even recruit parents for Blue and Gold, and Pinewood Derby at the beginning of the year so

Ironically, our council developed a youth leadership course that was designed more like a business professional leadership course. The scout participants slept in cabins and meals were provided to them like summer camp. The scouts were arranged in groups of PLCs and had to develop the course schedule from the first moment they walked into their first class. The main objectives we wanted the participants to take home to their troop was a distinctive understanding of how a PLC planned and implemented patrol activities. Many folks didn’t understand why we didn’t put the participants in patr

I don’t agree it’s project management training, it’s team management training. The objective is to teach understanding of goals and vision, then build and manage the team of adults to work toward those goals. Personally I believe the tickets is the most important part of the course for two reasons: first tickets force the participant to focus exactly what their role is on the team. Second, the tickets are supposed to be practicing the expectations specific to their role on the team. Typically more than 50% of the course participants don’t know what they will be doing in the unit or team t

Agreed. The statements are way to over the top to be believable, especially for adults with several years scouting experience. Barry

I don't know. We've had several discussions of improvements on this forum and nothing serious seems to ever materialize. And honestly, saying something can be improved without any experience or knowledge of it isn't firm ground to stand on. A better pragmatic discussion would be to learn how scouts got into situation where they were abused and then find solutions. Does registering every parent fix the problem? Fix any problem? Barry

So, what do you think motivated the BSA to create their youth protection policies they have now. What part of it doesn't appear serious?. Barry

Umm, there was a lot said there, but its confusing. No registered adults overnight got it. I don't understand the litigation. I'm pretty sure the BSA has been involved with many litigation cases. What youth protection controls in competitive swimming do you suggest for the BSA. Barry

I'm curious, what controls do you think would make youth safer? Do you have experience with the program as an adult? I was involved with several youth program as a youth and adult raising kids, and none of those other program came close to the youth protection policies of the BSA. Since you mention stricter controls would make youth safer, I'm curious of the controls. Barry

My apologies, I can see my post was more direct and emotional than it had to be. Woodbadge is an honor of itself. I am a graduate and staffed two courses. And it's just a lot of fun. I don't want to take away from that at all. Scouts, however, don't have the experience to understand the passion that can come from the experience, so elaborate ceremonies intrude on their program. Scouts should respect efforts by other scouts and adults that improve their program. The recognitions should be planned within the context of the general audience. I love this scouting stuff. Barry