eghiglie

I and my son thought it was funny.

My two cents

What would be great in a SE is someone who:

returns phone calls/emails or at least gets the message to the right person

talks to the common scouter on a regular basis, not just the ones that are well off

Sorry if it sounds like I'm being a cynic or negative.

This was another requirement that was open to interpretation. We did it the best we could.

A while ago I laid out a course at a local nature center over a 2 mile course. No map was provided, just a start point and a heading and directions for turns and so forth. The boys would spend the morning learning how to measure off and so forth. The course is the same every year. It includes doubling back and going in circles.

When training was done I would take a book and go to the end point and wait for them. The end point was inside the main office so I could enjoy coffee and climate control.

Two other adults would go with them (mostly so they would learn also). One adult would have a GPS and an another adult with the end point GPS coords in a sealed envelope. There would also be a two way radio for me and the team. The envelope was in case there was an emergency.

To get the requirement signed off they would have to find me with the envelope still sealed.

The time it took varied from 75 minutes to 4 hours. Last year it took them 4 hours. The mistake they made was checking compasses while standing close to each other.

Good luck, this is always been a fun one for us.

Normally we include anything that is the animal world. Insects, frogs or whatever is not a domesticated animal. The information in parentheses are some examples in my opinion.

Sounds, tracks, scat or living places can be shown and count towards the ten. One boy even showed me a dropped fish that had marks on the body, he convinced me that a hawk or eagle dropped it.

Cats, dogs, horses and ferrets don't count.

Sometimes trying to figure out the requirement is hard!

sscout

Good question. I tried the troop locater and it needs to improve its value.

Google searches return those troops that have a web site. My troop which just uses Yahoo Group gets no visibility.

I'm going to figure out how to get some web presence.

Lock blades work the best for folks. Sometimes when whittling the back of the blade hits the wood on the back stroke and may often fold.

It's a lot of work. The big issue I'm having right now is recruiting and retention of both kids and adults. We've been recruiting from the middle schools, get 3 boys and 2 quit within months. The other problem is getting the adults motivated to help.

We started focusing on Webelos right now and hope it works. We just re-charted with 5 but this week one boy told me that his dad got orders for VA.

Even when I ask parents to take on a job I get blank stares.

Apologies that I'm venting.

If he can do it with memorizing great.

We had a poster board with the words on it and they could glance at it. This even occurred at the troop level.

The big shock to the kids, no matter what the age, is that they are expected to live the words.

Glad to hear its not just me with these answers.

I will be LOL for a while!

Thanks,

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/flagday/burnflag.asp

Just found this.

Have the same problem in my unit. Corners touch the ground once or twice a year and the boys (11 to 14 yo) give me the flag to get it burned.

I tried to explain respect and accidents but it didn't take.

My son earned his Eagle and was happy about that. The palms he just doesn't seem interested in. He had 15 badges over the 21 and has earned 6 more MB's since Eagle but has not bothered about Palms.

when I do check I use the 24 hour button. free time has been cut back.

our se makes a very nice salary and the local council struggles. we give some money to FOS every year and also provide time and talent and volunteer at district things

the church that sponsors my troop has been very generous to us over the years with recharter fee's, flags and a trailer. they even funded summer camp for a few boys who weren't even church members. so we tithe to the church as we are members and feel great about it.

when I die a nice gift will go to the church, the rest to my wife. when she dies some more will go to the church and the rest to my only child.

What I've seen in scouting is that the people who have the most impact on the boys and leaders are the volunteers.

your lucky to have the secretary who got a lot of it done.

congrats on the prize you won

Like knothead our troop doesn't supply tents. The boy and parent has to bring their own.

We didn't have the money to buy tents nor the place to dry them out and store properly.

We actually use this to teach personal responsibility.

Our DAC was telling us that over the years the parents or boy get upset over who the honorary president is, some people even request new creds when new president is elected. Guess this is the result of that, and it doesn't matter what party is in power.

I go with what cubs8 said.

Although there are very few of these kids they cause most of the stress on leaders.

Had a boy similar to the boy 2dad has, required the parents to stay at all meetings and outings. The thought BSA meant baby sitter America. He stopped coming. Sad part was he chased away two good kids.

Many years ago I did summer camp there while a scout and living in South Beach

Its a sad state when councils have to sell off properties for what ever reason.

The council folks probably had a bunch of reasons for this action. The local council where I now live has been going through hard times, layoffs of staff have occurred and so forth.

It would be nice to figure out how to get more youth in scouting again.

Good luck to him.

Those hard merit badges only look hard, they are actually easy to earn if they get to it.

Our FYE is really 15 months long.

Never had run into this but I imagine it could happen where a boy gets two ranks at the same BoR.

Quite often though we have a boy getting two ranks at a CoH, our CoH's are May and December. We hand out patches as they are earned though.

My own experience has been a disappointment with younger PL's and SPL's

Founded a new troop in 2007 with 6 boys, a 16 yo Star Scout joined who was very immature. By default he became the SPL, never planned a meeting and just wanted to play. He wound up quitting the Troop after 9 months. Later found out he was tossed out of his old unit for telling fibs and mooning people.

The next SPL was 12 yo and a great kid, planned his meetings but because he was the shortest kid no one listened to him, he is now 14yo and the oldest boy in the troop. He is now Troop Guide/

The 3rd SPL was similar to the first, all he wanted to do was fish. EVERY MEETING. At summer camp he cut most of his classes, he wound up quitting the troop because he didn't earn any badges.

The SPL I have now is 13, a great kid but won't plan a meeting, even if I sit down with him he loses the sheet by next meeting.

I think age and focus has a lot to do with it. I'm trying to get the 14yo to run for SPL again. He grew about 9 inches since 2007 so the others might listen to him.

We have elections every six months, the thing I noticed is that tallest boy wins. Not sure why this is.

Either award is a challenge to earn

I was just nominated for the old award two weeks ago and council called me to let me know that it is no longer available. The CC was sent the new paperwork and she filled it out and sent it in.

Local council also told me they are not sure when the certificates and square knots come in.

Every year we do a goal setting session as part of leader training.

The new boys who think at first they will be Eagle at 13 then realize that its not easy.

I've had mothers come to me and request blue cards for all the Eagle badges and I look at them quizzically and state "send joey to me" and walk away.

The one thing I have noticed these past few years is that the kids don't learn about setting goals and how to get there.

I've seen three of these statements, the first one was about 5 pages and led to more questions than it answered, the SM didn't sign off the conference until the statement made sense. The boy described his plan on how he would complete each year of college. The next version was about one page and it was very nice.

The second two I saw were each two paragraphs and discussed why the boy wanted to be Eagle and what the career goals were.

All three made Eagle.

Keep it short and mention only the high points.

So long as it gets the point across it can be as short as the boy wants it to be.