EagleInKY

I've done both Philmont & Seabase Coral Reef Sailing. Next year I plan to do Double H. The experiences are totally different. I agree with everything said.

I agree that the sailing program is essentially a vacation. It's not a real "Scouty" activity. But, what's wrong with that? Our guys love Sea Base, and want to go every other year (with other high adventures in the off years). If it builds teamwork, positive memories of scouting, and keeps them engaged in the program, isn't that a good thing? As long as it doesn't take away from the message and purpose of scouting, I'm okay with it.

it's been a while since I posted, but this topic is top of mind for us right now.

Skeptic is right: "Date of rank is date of completed BOR.

No awards may be issued or worn until the "official" National certificate and related paperwork is received.

HOW MUCH CLEARER DO WE NEED TO BE?"

I like what our district does. Our District Advancement Chair designed a certificate several years ago. It confirms the scout has successfully passed the Eagle BOR and is an "Eagle Candidate" pending approval from the National Council. The certificate is signed by the BOR members and is presented at the end of the evening. We take pictures, shake hands and he feels that he's accomplished the task. But he's also aware that another step in the process that he'll have to wait on.

I use SM conferences to also help prepare the scouts for the BOR. For example, we'll talk about how he lives by the scout oath & law in various ways. I may give him some examples of things I've seen, or ask him about examples.

I've also used this time - on occasions - to work on a scout with discipline problems. In one case, I used our SM conference (of which we had many, not just for rank advancements) to discuss his issues. I "held him back" from the BOR until he could demonstrate some measurable improvement in some areas. All of this is based on the "demonstrate you live by the scout oath and law in your every day life" requirement. Some have criticized me for being too hard on a young scout (this was several years ago when he was working on 2C, 1C & Star. He's now a Life Scout and is planning his Eagle Project. While he still has some "issues", it's amazing how far he's come. When I think about all those "talks" (i.e. SM Conferences) we had four years ago, I never would have thought he would be where he is today.

My point is, the SM conference is a great time for a Scoutmaster. It's an opportunity to talk, uninterrupted with your scouts, 1-on-1. Those don't come very often, and I encourage you to make the most out of them.

I'm one of those tech weenies... Our site does have a layer of security, but it's pretty simple. Each family is given a login and they can see their advancement reports (from troopmaster). Other secure information is a troop roster, points of contact, and details for upcoming activities.

On the public side is our calendar, links to sites the scouts may find useful, pictures from some activities (no names), and forms. The calendar may say "Backpacking at Red River Gorge", but that doesn't tell you a whole lot.

Attended 21st Century - 8 for curriculum, 9 for the people.

I can't say a lot about the McKee of today, since I haven't been there since I was on staff back in the 80s. But when CCC was built in the late 80s. It definitely sought to be a step-up from McKee, since their council was losing troops to McKee and other surrounding council camps.

As I understand it, McKee has made some physical improvements to make it competitive with CCC. So the physical facilities aren't that much different. McKee has some better trails, while CCC has several "specialty" camps.

McKee used to have a reputation of having a strong staff who really interacted well with the boys. The last I heard, this was still the case, and definitely an area where they are stronger than CCC.

We pay our own way (even the CO fee at recharter). Once I was with a pack where the CO (a church) had a Men's organization that paid the adult leaders registration fees. That was nice.

Yeah, I just had one of those. Dad's a rgg (really good guy) to hang out with. He just doesn't want to spend time with his kids. I don't know why, and I'm not going to try and guess. He felt obligated to go camping (self-imposed, we didn't force the issue on him), but really didn't want to take the time out of his life to do it. Just before Christmas, his son came to a troop meeting in tears telling us that he had to quit. Very frustrating! And very, very sad.

Scoutmaster Ron, you don't "remember the Titans"?

Welcome to our virtual roundtable. I hope you find some good info here.

I've spoken to my troop members the week prior to the OA coming and encouraged them to think about the upcoming election. I always remind them that they can vote for each and every candidate, and it's certainly not an issue if everyone gets elected. (That's only happened once in our troop).

For the SN scout, can you give him some special assignment a few weeks before the election? Maybe teach a special camping skill, something that he's really in to??? These kids have short memories, and often elections are based on their latest interactions with the young man.

This is consistent with what I've heard and read on their website. More desert-like. There are water supply points, but you have to organize your trek to hit them. It's more "free range", meaning you can set your own itinerary, as long as you hit the key spots on schedule. You do get resupplied with food at the half-way point.

I'm glad to hear that the guys that went have enjoyed it. Were they experienced backpackers? In some ways I've heard this is more strenuous than Philmont, but then I've heard just the opposite from others. It is shorter and less mountainous, but sounds like more hostile conditions.

Has anyone out there done both?

Our troop was not selected in the Philmont lottery for 2009, but we were offered dates at Double H. Has anyone out there participated in this program yet? Looking for any advice. I've attended Philmont, so I'd like to hear how it compares (or contrasts, as it may).

Thanks

Congrats to you and your lad. I, too, hope to be there soon (wrapping up project in the next week or two, and one MB to finish).

My DE told me it had to do with timing of when you rechartered. If you rechartered for 2007 prior to the establishment of the Centennial Award, then you wear the QU 2007 patch for this year. They apparently produced significantly fewer number of these, since only a small percentage of units fell into that category.

As for the question that re-opened this thread, you don't necessarily have to do work for an "agency". Community service could include picking up litter around your community, doing some voluntary service for shut-ins, cleaning up around your CO, etc. We've also had scouts go over to the local hospital and spend time with the elderly patients in transitional care. They love to have visitors.

As for the double-dipping question, we don't count any hours that are already being counted for something else. The rationale we use to explain this to scouts and/or parents is that service hours are typically seen as something you do without any form of compensation. If you did six hours of service to fulfill a rank advancement requirement, you have performed the service and have been given credit for that. You've now received a form of "compensation", per se. Therefore, you're not really doing it for "service", if you're just counting something you've already been "compensated" for. Besides, as Ed said, you can't do too much community service.

Here's some info we put together:

http://www.troop153bsa.org/Downloads/Winter%20Camping.pdf

I don't know about the whole "senior" thing, but since I have a son working on his eagle project, I assume I fall into that category. Welcome aboard!

Lots of good points here, and I'm not going to restate them. I agree with Barry and OGE's approach. It's an area where our troop has been slipping lately and I'm trying to fix it.

One of the big challenges is knowing when to step in and correct the problem "in real time" and when to deal with it after the fact. If no bad things are being taught, and it's just a matter of a bad use of time, I'll let them go. If, however, something is being taught in error, I'll step in. Depending on the severity, I may just ask probing questions to try and steer them to the right answer. If, however, I see something serious being taught in error (as I did once this past year to a toten chip class), I'll make sure they understand that I'm stepping in to correct a mistake.

Welcome to the campfire.

Ditto most of these same thoughts.

MB College - only if it was a troop or patrol planned/sponsored event.

MB Work - no

Work on someone's Eagle Project - No

Court of Honor - Yes

Troop or Patrol organized Service Project - Yes

Troop YLT - Yes

Day activities (hike, climbing, etc.) - Yes

Our policy is the same as beaver1onit''s, and for the very same reasons that Beavah so clearly articulated.

Warning rumor zone

I had heard that there was a push to get new uniforms before the jamboree last year, but they ran into some challenges. (Probably internal politics). My sources are just some professionals that have heard things through their peers, nothing special. They do not know for sure. The rumor that has stuck around for a while is that the new uniform will be the switchback pants and the tan activity shirt (short or long sleeve). The rumor mill said that the debate is over the adornments (patches, pins, etc.).(This message has been edited by EagleInKY)

On a COH where I had only the early rank requirements, we did a ceremony that described the original requirements for rank advancement, It was humorous and eye-opening. I also believed it helped connect them with their "roots", in that we''re closing in on our 100th anniversary.

Another COH I used a scout of the current rank to read the requirements and information about the rank (so, a current Tenderfoot would read it for the new Tenderfoots), etc.

We too own tents as a troop and have run into some of the same problems. When we did invidiual tents, we did have the problems of scouts not wanting to share their tents, or wanting a scout from a different patrol in their tent (It''s MY Tent!). I agree it''s not scoutlike, but it''s often what we are dealing with.

We''ve had the problems of lost tents, lost parts, etc. We now put the tents in the hands of the PATROL quartermaster. If that patrol doesn''t show up to a campout with their tents, then they have to make due with what they have. This has drastically cut down on the number of problems, although we still have a few.