Jump to content

Eagledad

Members
  • Content Count

    8830
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    130

Everything posted by Eagledad

  1. >>That being said, there was a distinctive drop since 2005, probably due to the Jamboree tragedy, but the scale was not in the order of Merl's numbers.
  2. My gosh you are good. You hit the nail on the head. What makes scouting so hard is while the program is for our sons, it is an adult program. That can be good or bad but I find in general that it is bad bcause we set the limitations on the boys in their activities. What makes your post so hard Eamonn is that I've come to obseverve that most all the limitations we put on these boys in our program comes from our fears, not our dreams. I was talking to a new father yesterday and I was telling him that boys are natural dreamers, but our culture today fears new ideas and tends to hold dr
  3. We like chicken in a dutch oven mixed with rice and chicken soup, broth or cream. But I had a friend who cooks chicken like turkey in a can. The turkey uses trash cans, but he uses gallon coffee cans for the chicken. Its easy, no mess and a lot of fun. Place foil on the ground, push a stick through the foil in the ground, set the chicken on the stick then the can over the chicken. Then put hot coals on top and around the can and stand there with a goofy smile watching. He told me it doesnt take to long either. Do a search on turkey in a can on Google and you will find a lot of information on h
  4. >>If we really want to help the Scouts we serve make ethical decisions we need to place them in situations where they have to decide what is the right thing to do.
  5. >>If it is a boy run troop the first line of response should be coming from the PL then the SPL. If the SPL cannot get satisfaction then HE should go the the SM for assistance.
  6. >>Scoutmaster to young Scout trying out new words: That kind of talk is offensive to a lot of people. Are you trying to portray a low-life image or yourself? Using those kinds of words shows others how limited your vocabulary is and how self-centered and offensive you can be. How about using other words to express your thoughts that are not offensive to others, get your message across, and dont diminish your good character?
  7. I really like the sound of your Troop Anarchist. I try and teach taking away a many limitations to the scouting experience as possible. A program based on maturity and experience instead of age and rank does just that. Great program Anarchist, great adults. Barry
  8. >>or use the "Demonstrate Scout Spirit" as a catch-all?
  9. I dont think there is any wording that suggest one way or the other. I do think it is bad form, but that is a different discussion on another day. As for you and this scout, he did signed the contract in good faith and there is the pesky Demonstrate Scout spirit requirement. Good luck with mom he said walking away quickly. Barry
  10. >>I was just thinking of Beaver's tracking suggestion. It's always more fun to have a way to "tag" someone who has been found;
  11. >>WEBELOS LEADERS MUST TAKE OUTDOOR LEADER TRAINING and use it...I get very tired of hearing "well, she or he volunteered to be the Webelos leader but she doesn't camp"...(sound the buzzer) find someone else.
  12. Now that is thinking outside the box. I love this scouting stuff. Barry
  13. Of course we can go back and forth on just how close is not close enough, but I don't think distance is as much a factor as it is adult reactions to boy behavior. My observations are that boys will not lead as men until they are convinced the adults will not step in and take over. That kind of culture takes years to develop in a troop. I like to tell adults to practice watching from the shadows. Get close enough to observe the behavior without interrupting the behavior. The problems with many of adults getting close is some adults dont want to see the bad behavior that needs changing, or they
  14. >>So, my question is how do you start changing attitudes about getting people to training?
  15. >> I'm starting to think that the boys who are or have been Boy Scouts have got used to not keeping commitments they have made because they "Got away" with it in the Troops they were in.
  16. >>Hence... a Scribe should feed to the Advancement/Membership coordinator, but not have direct access to data entry or report output.
  17. >>Now that I'm a tad wiser, I might help make the Troop more boy led by charging the Scribe with responsibility to send updates to me from the PLs...
  18. Oh I understand. I didn't think you were on any kind of Ego trip; my warning is more to watch out for any kind of appearance of it. It is not hard to come off appearing that it is SueM's troop and sues vision. Our troop just had its 20th anniversary. The present SM had all the past Scoutmasters give a brief writ up about their experience in the Troop that was included in the Troop Banquet program. As he read these writ ups coming in from the SMs, he found out that basically everything I was trying to teach the adults while I was Scoutmaster was started by the SM before me. He did not rea
  19. What a wonderful post SueM. I think that is a fantastic idea and I wished I thought of something similar when I was trying to mentor the adults toward our Troop vision. Something else you can do while you are guiding them in this process is refer them to books, articles and documents that support the mission and vision you keep talking about. You add integrity to yourself and the program because they learn the vision is not all your creation, it is a vision generally held by the scouting community as a whole, at least by those who set their program to a higher standard anyway. One
  20. There is usually one adult who is dominating enough that the rest of the group will just blindly follow. There is the obvious risk that the scouts will drop out instead of transferring to Troop B. In fact I found that is the likely result. I must say ma, of all the post I've read from you on this forum, this one describes your personality the best. I wish there were more like you in scouting. Barry
  21. Dang, Eamonn beat me to it again. For me, scouting is the real world scaled down to a boys size. I always look for real-world situations to teach scouts small lessons now before they get in the real world. If we have camp rules, its for a reason, and usually safety. But, I usually went through the SPL and PLC to set the rules, not the almighty power-addictive adults. When our troop started having problems with coke cans, I first explained to the SPL why cleanliness had a lot to do with safety, animals, bugs and so on. Then we started doing surprise camp inspections where it was embarrass
  22. Happy Easter All Well, Eamonn beat me to it again. When our Troop got to a size where we had a big committee, I started meeting with just the CC and a couple other trusted members to hash difficult subject. We discussed the situation until we came up with a good solution to propose to the committee. The problem stated that many members only show up during committee meetings is one I've seen happen, not in scouts, but churches and schools that are doing fairly well. Folks are always looking to get in a good thing. One other thing I started doing when these kinds of things happe
  23. Hi gwd, I haven't offered much because Eamonn expressed my thoughts. But I would suggest your troop consider sending other adults, expecially the CC. This is a very good course in team building, team leadership and understanding the importance of Vision. A CC will come back a much better team leader and likely increase your ability to Scoutmaster. Together you two might become a powerful force for the program and the families of your Troop. Barry
  24. Hi All I dont think women should be the first choice for Scoutmaster. Yes, I seem to be stepping into these kinds of topics lately. But I have expressed these opinions before without getting into rough seas because the groups in the past has been adult and not reading more into it than intended. I once had a discussion, very civil, with a very close friend who was about to be a female scoutmaster. She was all caught up in the political correctness defence mode in our discussion of female scoutmasters. At one point, I told her that I agree that women can better as good if not better
×
×
  • Create New...