Eagledad

>>As a seventeen year old, presumably lookin' to apply for the organization's highest award within the year, it's worth askin' the boy to think about whether he can do that honestly.

Wow, there is so much that can be said about Scout Mastering. But humble because it is truly a learning experience and if you are to be really good at the job, you must learn from each experience. No matter what, be consistent. If the scout cant trust how you will react when they struggle and fail, they won't seek your wisdom. They won't try to risk failure. For the Scoutmaster, failure is good. Failure is opportunity. We talk so much about letting scouts fail, yet so many adults seem to get angry when they see it. It is easy to lead a troop of perfect leaders, but that isnt scouting. Whe

>>My take? You're dealing with a lad with low self-esteem, who had another notch at his sense of worth hacked out with the election. I would speak with the boy and let him know you heard what happened, you understand how frustrating it was, that you see this as an expression of that frustration, but that it was an inappropriate way to express that frustration.

>>This may just be semantics, but is there any reason the Troop can't have multiple Quartermasters?

>>I didnt think that this little discussion had any impact but I saw on some of the course evaluations that they thought the presentation of the different views of the Patrol Methods was one of the things that they got the most out of the training.

>>I had just about finished imparting my wise words when a storm came through and knocked out the power. So every thing was lost.

This is a really good question with some really good replies. Cubscoutjo had an excellent reply that I hope to try someday. As a Cub Scout leader, if I held the sign up more then ten seconds, I took that as an indication that I wasnt doing a very good job with the program at that moment, so I changed it. But I can also see using SubscoutJos suggestions for that especially talkative cub. On the troop side, we taught the scouts that the sign was to be respected and not abused. Only use it long enough to get the groups attention, no longer. The sign was important in our troop bec

>>As to date, we have shown only one side of ourselves. It is time to at least try a different approach. What we are doing is simply not working.

Boy, weve done many of these kinds of trips and learned a lot. The more you break up the group, the faster and less stressful it can go. Eight to ten hours is about all most drivers and passengers can stand. After that everyone starts to get a little edgy. We found that it is best to have two adults per car. Not so much to give drivers a break from driving, but so one adult can attend to the scouts and prevent the driver from getting distracted. Also, we once had a driver get very sick in a matter of minutes. Our other adult was able to help the sick driver get comfortable in the b

>>All of these "changes" came out of nowhere, and there has been no discussion or communication on how to get these things together. It is frustrating.

>>One of the reasons for boys droppin' out of troops is not bein' physically and emotionally ready for Boy Scouting as 11-year-olds. Why would yeh choose to take that risk with a 10 year old?

>>With planning done so far in advance, we will have a tough time getting out with a troop on a "real" Boy Scout campout.

These are the struggles that build strength in a troop. While I know it is very frustrating and difficult, what you learn here will help in the future.. Hi All I want say that this is a very typical problem in all units and your frustration is common among adults in new troops. I think your post is very important and has a lot of parts to it. First, I have to agree that your SPL seems to be the most on top of this right now. To be honest, asking him for ideas would go along way toward praising his efforts, boosting his confidence as a leader and showing that even adults dont kn

>>Consider also just doin' a bunch of family campin', and skippin' Cub Scouts altogether. Have your son join Boy Scouts when he's ready, in an active troop.

Hi Randy I wrote this on another forum a few years ago for someone who was jumping strait from CM to SM. But I think much of it applies to everyone in your position. One other thing, relax and watch for at least six months. Relax and watch. This is a little long __________ Moving from Cubmaster to Scoutmaster Our troop has several past and present CMs as adult leaders. I also went from straight from CM to SM, but I was an ASM for three years while a CM, which made a big difference. I can honestly say a CM is a terrible Troop leader until trained. A CM usually lead

Well, Im not a Venture or Ship leader and I dont play one on TV. Ship Leader? Is that right? Anyway I have two friends who are Venture Crew leaders and I have to say that their experience is almost identical to yours Eamonn. The girls kind of run the crews and seem a little offended by any boy who has a scouting experience and attempts to use his skills. My friends are also a little disappointed with the lack of skills that his Boy Scouts should know but dont. They also are unsure of where they personally should push and where to let things just coast. Their meetings are OK, but most of

I'm of a little different mind here. No matter how good or how organized a pack can be, there is always a parent or two around who would do it better. You guys had a vision of what should have happened and I'm not sure that any pack could have lived up to that expectation. I'm not defending the pack program, but just suggesting that you give this pack a chance for a couple months to learn how they really work. You could be just the adults they need, or it could be that they really do know their stuff and just didn't put a lot into this one outting. Watch this pack a little while and then

After being a Webelos leader for two Dens and a SM, my opinion is between three to five overnight outings over the two years as Webelos. Any more than that and I found that they are actually a little bored on their first couple of Troop campouts. I actually had one Webelos Den join our troop that had camped every month as Webelos. They were better at scout skills than most second year Boy Scouts. We lost all those scouts by summer camp because they never felt like they could fit in. No wonder, they had kind of become their own troop as Webelos. I like to tell Webelos leaders that they nee

Not trying to change the subject, but now that you have been doing this older scout thing for a while, what are your opinions of the troop programs? Not just games, but the meetings and their agendas as well. How are the girls doing also? Just curious. Thanks Barry

Im not sure the tree thing is a good example, but I like it. FB is right that fear could be the motivator of some actions. Ive had a couple instances with new scouts who didnt even get to the tree because they were afraid of the dark. Yes, they had to wash the tent. Not out of punishment, but for hygiene. Our SPLs solution was for the new scouts to get the older scout in the next tent to guide them until they were more confident. Or, at least get to the tree. I guess one persons environmentalism is another person's small step toward developing courage. One thing Ive learned about adults i

HI all What a great subject and everyone has great suggestions. I would kike to add that our troop never plans a campout for Webelos. Instead we plan a Troop campout and if the Webelos plan to come, we then have the Troop Guide ASPL and ASM make the agenda work for the Webelos. We've do this for a couple of reasons. One we want the Webelos to experience a typical Troop Campout. The other is we don't want to plan a campout around Webelos and then have none show up. We have had years were Webelos visited on three campouts in a row. We have had a Den leader call only a week a head of t

Great post Eamonn, but I have a couple side questions; >>We have several Eagle Scouts in the Ship who couldn't plan a trip to the bathroom without some help.

Hi Goodkidsmom Our troop has done a few of these, and I will say the scouts seem to like them the most because they are bit more relaxed with the speakers doing shorter presentations, and there are a lot of friends and family attending. Funny enough, our scouts designed our first multiple ECOH and they used a simplistic approach. So start off from what you think a single would be like then modify it. >>So, my questions are, what are the logistics?> Do we go through everything for one boy at a time, then hit the punch and cookies?>What is shared and what is individual

>>Unfortunately, these scouts are now tied up in sports and not actively involved for a few months.

I'm with jr56 on this. To be honest, I can't imagine that a 13 year old could plan a very complex trip, especially if they don't have much experience at it. So Im sure that to them it looks as monumental as a mouse eating an elephant. Does you PLC plan the monthly trips? Here is what I would do if I were you. Spend the next six months training them on planning. Start off small and have them first plan an evening trip to the movies, then an overnight trip at a local park. Then a weekend high adventure trip like backpacking or what ever. Make each trip something unusual and sounds cool. Let