Eagledad

Yes, I think you did OK. You don't want to control his ambition, but instead guide it toward growth. Never ever get in the way of a boys dreams. I saw in our local paper a new 13 year old Eagle Scout who is much the same way. He was not pushed by his family or troop to advance so quickly, he is just smart, ambitious and likes that kind of stuff. There is nothing wrong with that kind of passion. In fact it should be used to your advantage. I tried to steer such scouts in a direction to prepare them for the immediate skill they needed like you are doing; cooking, camping, swimming and so on. Let

>>I don't think it is the scout as much as the parents that can't let go. I also think that parents are say things to their kids that we as leaders are not aware of. Last year a kid was told by his parents that they would come and get him if he wanted to come home.

Very very cool. Barry

Units take lesson from the district and this kind of activity teaches the units really bad habits. I found this out when we cancelled our Disrict MB Fair one year. We suddenly found that many troops use only summer camp and the MB Fair as their full year advancement program. With the idea that advancement is the units responsibility and the district should only set good examples, ask them how they expect the unit follow the BSA guidelines that a scout is supposed to ask the SM for a list of counselors, then fill out the MB card, get the card signed by the SM, then call the counselor to s

I think the old WB course curriculum is better for teaching scouts leadership skills while the new course is better for the adults side of the program because it teaches unit management skills. I really like the new course for the adults, but I will agree with Lisabob that it doesnt do a good job of teaching adults how to work with scouts. The old course did do a better job there. I disagree with vol_scouter that the old course was a skills teaching course, at least in scouts skills. I can understand why he and many other folks think that way, but the designers of the old course originall

Your heart was in the right place and that is what is most important. I've done enough of these things to understand the haunting quiet of reflecting back on those heat of the moment decisions. There are a lot of could ofs, would ofs, and should ofs in response to the situation, but you will eventually just have to chock it down as a lesson learned for the next time. Its really that simple, we will do better next time. After a couple of years of wishing I could have a mulligans when dealing with scouts, I started to unerstand that I am only human and the best I can do is just try and not repea

Wow, these are some great memories. The temperature of the first day of my first campout was a humid 80 degrees. An Ice storm came that night followed by 6 inches of snow. We were so unprepared for it that we broke camp at day break. I will never forget the SPL getting everyone up and telling us not to eat the yellow snow. The adults in our troop were big on wilderness survival and wanted us to learn how kill, clean and cook game. So I experienced cleaning and cooking a 400 lb hog, turkeys, and chickens. While many here may find killing and cleaning animals hard, we found cooking to

>>No dispensing with buddies to go to the bathroom no way no how. This is not a lost issue it is a youth protection issue you can read that leader protection issue if you want.

>>How do other troops use their ASPLs? Do you use multiple ones? Do they run program and supervise positions/have duties explicitly for them? I think if we put our ASPLs to work, we could better prepare them for being SPL next elections and hone their skills.

Our troop was dropped off about mile from camp to hike the rest of the way. During the hike, the troop hiked apon a simulated single car wreck the older scouts had set up. The spent a couple weeks learning how to make simulated wounds and had a lot of fun setting it all up. Barry

You take the knife away from the scout? Would you take the knife away from one of your ASMs? It just me, but I believe boys are't going to start acting like adults until we treat them like adults. Barry

>>I think it is a silly custom. Teach the boys how to safely use a tool. When they use it improperly I correct them. If they abuse it then I admonish them and remove the weapon. I've never asked for a card.

>>Are you claiming that the true source of morality is the Christian faith? If so then you are denigrating all the other faith traditions.

>>Don't really care what the Bible says, since it's not my religious book. "Because the Bible says so" is not a persuasive argument to me.

This is a great discussion and everyones contribution is thought provoking. I teach leadership more under Johns definition of a leader inspires and influences people to accomplish team (organizational) goals. Im not sure that creators of vision are always great leaders. But I do believe great leaders have to believe in the vision to do their job well. I also agree with Stosh that the best leaders are true servants of the team. I do not believe that the leader must have the same skills of the rest of the group, but instead needs the skills for inspiring and influeincing. I also like the d

Ah the memories. Those are good times looking back. Hey, at least he is open to advise. My daughter is so much smarter than me that she would be telling me how I don't have a clue. However, I've seen her in action, she will make a square peg fit in a round hole if it kills her. Heaven help those 20 guys that worked at the same time because they WOULD get the job done. I pray for her husband (whoever it will be) everyday. Barry

>>What happened with Canadian scouting and CampFire was not about religion but more about a lack of vision and incompetent management internally.

I'm a little surprised by the negative comments. Maybe its because I have been involved with a similar situations while on the district commitee, but I dont see any evil intent here or some nut wanting to stir the pot. The correct answer is simple, contact the CC and work together with the COR. If there is some disingenuousness motivation here, it will likely get filtered during that process. Council doesnt just casually watch these things happen. Barry

>>You got to be kidding, outside of the LDS church no religious group provides large financial support to the BSA.

Personally I like Spring Webelos Woods better because it gives the Webelos I leaders a chance to see the troops they want to visit next fall. I found that most Webelos IIs dens have already set up their agenda by the time the get to a Fall Webelos Woods. Also, we try to do a little bit of training for the Webelos leaders, which include the Bear leaders, so I think at least the Bear leaders should come. One other thing I think is important is I found when I was on district that Webelos leaders struggle to visit troops because they either don't know who to visit or feel to intimidated. So invite

You guys quibble over words that are thousands of years old. They didn't loose there intended meaning then, and they don't now. Our culture may degrade into morale depravity at this time in history, but the bible will remain the same to those who read and follow it to the end of time. Most Christians who really struggle with the text either don't study the bible or are motivated politically. Also the bible supports what it does say about the lifestyle with what it doesn't say. Like; two mommy families or two daddy families. Barry

>>How is that done in your troop or is there no effort on the part of the adults to do so because things are going smoothly with the adults running the show?

I guess I dont understand the question. It appears that we are given the choice of the two extremes when just about all troops work somewhere in the middle. Surely even that adults gets some time to learn from the experience as well. I enjoyed your post Mafaking. There was a time that I sure could sure relate to it. Barry

>>Just to be clear: I don't CARE what the bible says about homosexuality any more than I care what it says about shellfish. It is completely and totally irrelevant and any attempt to argue from it as an authority is vacuous.

Interesting discussion: As I grew with our program, my vision of developing character was always the same, but my methods of Scoutmastering changed. While I trusted at the beginning with the concept that scouting is a game with a purpose, my experience confirmed that scouting REALLY IS a game with a purpose. The game is the easy part because boys by nature will strive for adventure where ever they are. The purpose is the hard part. Maybe Im more anal about developing character than most, but my nature is also measuring performance and making changes to improve. I will say I failed a lot,