Eagledad

This is normal for this age. There are a lot of changes going on in his life. He is getting away from the age of hanging with groups to feel good about himself. Now he starting to look beyound acceptance in the group to acceptance in the the world. His emotions are starting to get mixed up and now he doesn't want to do things just because someone says so. He is growing into a man and the urges that come with that are independent thinking. He wants purpose to his actions and scouting is getting in the way of that. This is when I ask parents to push just enough. Enough to keep him active wi

Good reply anarchist The ASM responsible for Quarter masters called me Saturday night and confessed he felt it was part his fault. He had planned to build the anchor lock for both trailers but just hadn't got to it yet. The reason the thieves didn't get our other trailer was because it had the socket lock you talked about. Unfortunatly the other trailer had an unusual tongue where the socket lock would not work. The cut right through the other lock. Good advise and I will send your post to him. Barry

Hi All The tale starts a month ago on a Monday when a committee member happen to see their troop trailer with their Troop number painted on the side being pulled by a car that didn't belong to anyone in the troop. She called the police and the Troop got their trailer back that day while the thieves get free food and lodging for their efforts. Now lets zip up to yesterday. I got a call from the CC asking if our trailer was insured. Yep, it was stolen sometime last week along with our sponsor's church trailer. It is insured by our sponsor, so no problem there, but the one major differ

Hi All There are some really good replies. Your scouts must make amends if they are get anything out of scouting. We had a situation like on an AF Base. I knew what had to happen and I had two concerns. One that the youth leaders set the plans to make amends. The other was that all the scouts see the moral wrong of the situation. I agree with others that you can't leave the park the way it is. The scouts must understand that. But it's the scouts who need to make contact, find out the damage and figure out how to pay for it. It's unfair that these owners view all scouts as bad from t

>>WHY are so many people so scared of having an atheist around their christian kids? Afterall, there are "no benifits" to being an atheist.

>>To my knowledge there has NEVER been any radio or TV commerical trying to convert people to the idea that there is NO God.

>>Discrimination Against Me

>>Barry, as your probably know, psychologists really don't care much about what is "normal."

>>I agree one zillion billion per cent. Now, if we could only get BSA to agree.... :-)

>>implying that this biology is somehow chosen. (sigh) This may be a popular opinion, but it has no scientific basis.

>> I would much rather have untrained homosexual leaders running a troop then to have bigots who discriminate and promote intolerance against minorities, other religions and homosexuals.

>>How come the only elements of scouting anybody ever talks about when the want to be like other countries is having homosexual leaders and different uniforms uniform.

>>Off hand, this is what I would recommend. The adult leaders should set up a HQ camp. This can be at the starting point of the hike, somewhere in the middle, or wherever you choose.

This is easy because the situation is still distant. Maybe another poll should be started because I don't want to hijack this from Semper, but what if the Scoutmaster announced he is gay. Do you want him to be your sons role model? Would it be OK if he brought his life partner? Barry

>>See, I'm much less concerned about "injustice" or "fairness" on this issue... for me it is not about whether gay men should be Scoutmasters.

>>The ADVANCEMENT method doesn't have to strictly mean TF-Eagle. It means helping a young man structure his growth and development.

Yes, but to be fair Snake, we need to evauate the programs. 1. Are they boy run, adult run, MB driven? 2. Number of scouts in the troops. 3. Aged based patrols or mixed age. 4. Quality of first year program. 5. Over all quality of program from 1 to 10, 10 being the best. There are some good reasons for a 12 month NSP, aged based patrols being a good one. Barry

>>Assimilating into the other patrols is usually not a good idea.

>>We're just embarking on our first year of using it "by the book" and I hope it works as planned!

I agree with everything Semper is saying, but I think most of our replies are based off the assumption of a well-planned and wel-run meeting. If the meeting is just repeating what everyone already knows, or is run so poorly that nothing gets done, then you have a different problem. The meeting first has to have a purpose where the scouts see a value. What do your meeting agendas include? Barry

Hi All I agree with Dug that the job has to one that scouts want. In our Troop, the quartermaster is the second of three steps toward SPL. While none of the steps are required, scouts are expected to have experience as a PL, Quartermaster, ASPL and then SPL. There is a purpose to the madness; The Patrol Leader is the first step in learning to control the group, delegating and planning at the small group level. Quartermaster is viewed as learning how to teach and delegate at a large group level as the Troop Quartermaster is expected to teach Patrol Quartermasters how to do their jobs at th

>>My time to really get to know these Lads (In a troop of 90 Scouts at times I never really got to know a Lad well until he became a PL) It was my time to make these Lads feel special.A round of soda pop or candy bars at the business meeting went a very long way.It was my time to listen to them and find out how things were really going.

Pass along important imformation that they will regret not getting. Can be anything like a reward for everyone wearing full uniform at the next meeting to bring a swimsuit to the next meeting because you are going swimming. I'm sure others can give ideas as well. This could also be a sign that they aren't getting anything important from the meetings and your agenda might needs some changes. Barry

Hi All >>Might be a bit involved, but what this then does is we can have trained leaders the weekend after they are elected. We do this every six months, and we see it really helps our guys.

HI Vrooman I don't have experience with a single patrol, but I think would try to approach it in a way that would least upset the program when another patrol needs to be added. I would work the Patrol side of the program, not the troop side because the basic job of the SPL is coordinating and teaching the Patrol Leaders. You will find the PL responsibilities are pretty much the same as the SPL, just on a smaller scale. Once you get the next patrol, you can suggest adding someone to help coordinate multiple Patrol leaders (SPL). Hey acco, I'm not much for adult patrols being a role mo