eghiglie

No, council gives us a paper form and we fill it out.

Very nice article but its confusing.

Maybe someone from the local areas will comment.

The UC at my unit is GREAT. Visits us once a month and has been very helpful.

Although our Troop respects National a great deal the pants issue has become a deal breaker in a few cases because of the cost, the durability of the fabrics and the way kids outgrow them. We do require though that for the Life and Eagle SMC and BoR's that the pants and socks are required.

For almost everything we stress the official shirt with the patches in place and the troop t-shirt.

My soapbox:

I would much prefer a boy to be living the Oath and Law and dressed in pants that he can afford, than a kid dressed to the nines, that gives other kids and a adults a hard time, destroys equipment, leaves a mess and cheats at the activities. The last two major discipline problems I had to deal with were perfectly dressed. Maybe that was a coincidence?

Why I went (and it wasn't to get the jacket or the beads).

I heard a lot about it and how it could change a person.

I've spent 12 years in college and I am an expert Engineer and System Architect, but in those years the Management courses didn't teach Leadership. So I went to Woodbadge. HAD A BLAST, LEARNED A LOT, GOT TWO T-SHIRTS. For what its worth I was elected Permanent Patrol Leader of the Bobwhites!

Learned a lot abut leadership that has helped me lead small teams. In 2007 I founded a Troop based on what I learned at Woodbadge, and became the SM.

Did I find WB perfect, not at all. You will need family support to 'graduate'. But the returns are priceless.

Wasn't sure if I should of found this thread humorous or not

Reading the G2SS I often wonder why they have the things in there they do.

John KC makes a good point, I think at the cub level most people buy the low priced gear and the ratings may not be accurate.

A boy in my troop asked that his CoH next month be part of the Dec CoH.

He knows that the other kids helped him and he doesn't want to overshadow the ranks they earned.

On his invites he said to bring canned goods for the local food pantry. It will be indoors, the important thing the that the kid knows is that the Eagle stays with him for life. He'll save the party for High School Grad.

It is highly likely that if the guy is forced to stand he may convince his son that Scouts is not a good program.

To many people the PoA has controversy. Last night the five boys in the troop got it into their heads that the "liberty and justice for all" part is a lie. Not sure where this came from.

Yet they said the Scout Oath and Law, sometimes its over my head.

Its not hard for a boy to find a PoR to meet the requirements. The requirement is the requirement and we at the local level shall not add or subtract.

Many times I've heard someone say "That boy will be a great Eagle".

I think the requirements provide a way of selection. Boys that take it lightly or get the mom's to do the merit badge work seem to have the hardest road to Eagle. Although I've never seen a boy fail a board of review, I have seen many boys have start over to get the project approved by Council.

There are many people who don't recognize the pledge as a responsibility. They don't show disrespect they just don't acknowledge it. Whatever his reason for sitting its a choice he made.

Our troop has about 80 of the custom troop numerals left, economics says we use them up before ordering new ones. They cost abut 1.25 each when we bought them.

When I went to RT, with a new shirt and old numbers someone got in my face about it, that I need to toss out the old numbers, meaning $100. I kindly asked him for his uniform police badge. He turned and walked away.

Our next order is going to be a custom set with the city and state on them. Many of the local troops are wearing those now.

This is sad

In those cities that have unions the union and city typically have contracts that spell things out in very clear language. Many of these agreements have been in place for many years and have been reviewed by many lobbyists, lawyers and legislators.

The most positive way that us Scouters can alleviate these issues in our towns and cities is to become active in the local government. When these types of contracts become due for renewal we need to tell the writers and approvers how we feel.

America has had trouble with immigrants since shortly after the Constitution was signed and most likely even in 1775. Some of the administrations tried to fix it, others didn't even acknowledge it.

Many of you have posted some great ideas and they should be sent to Congress, but wait we already have a ton of laws on the books that can't or won't be enforced.

There is no easy and quick answer to this.

It is confusing what goes on with a 14 year old counselor for a badge.

What is really supposed to happen is that the Camp Counselor (whatever his age) teaches the boy something. Then the registered Merit Badge Counselor (Area Director) should be reviewing the boy to find out what he knows related to the badge.

What really occurs though is the Camp Counselor, takes attendance, teaches something and then the Area Director rubber stamps it.

This mechanism is a great way for boys to earn advancement and show value to the parents.

This mechanism is a bad way to build a troop so that the older kids can have knowledge to teach the younger boys.

The SM of my troop when I was a kid taught us how to sew. He learned to sew when he was a kid and used the skill when he was in the Korean War and had to fix his uniforms and other gear.

I'm going to see if my troop would like a sewing lesson, they might learn something!

I am not a big fan of the new uniform but I was not thrilled with the Oscar uniform either. Go back to the green as it hides the dirt!

That said though the Chinese are not to blame for the quality and workmanship. Its what the workers at the factory were told to do .

I am not of Chinese heritage but the firm I work for does have goods made in China. We spend time with the production firm to meet the quality goals. So far this year the reject rate was less than 1/10th of 1 percent (0.10%). This quality does cost us more and so does the time investment to work with the firm.

About ten years ago our merchandise was made in the Midwest US. The firm went under because the unions representing the workers proposed a contract that would result in a big pay increase (18%) to the workers. The family that owned the firm did not have the desire to sell the customer base on the increase, so they closed the doors.

Not being much of a stamp collector I have no clue of the rules.

When the local Council sent out an email with this it was a let down. I do Civil War re-enacting at it looked more like that the BSA.

In the rush to the 100th anniversary the BSA is entitled to a mistake or two.

The thing I have noticed is that Summer Camp means Merit Badge Factory, where if you pay for 5 badges you will earn 5 so that the parents don't complain to Council. Then we have kids who can't cook or tie a knot.

In 2006 three of my boys took the camping badge, they were new to Scouting and had only camped a total of 3 days before summer camp. At the end of the week the report said that they had earned the badge. When I asked the director he said it was "Standard Policy" because they showed up every day.

The local camp I'm with does this and last year we went out of Council and it was even worse. This other camp signed off everyone for Personal Fitness who took it, even a Scout who just joined the Troop.

The lack of these skills being taught correctly manifests it self when the boy has to plan his Eagle project and can't.

Interesting thread.

If you sign the form than you agree to him advancing.

It sound like there are two issues here:

1) Something about the boy related to his being an Eagle - As other posts have stated if the boy meets the minimum requirements than he should make Eagle. In my council if a boy disputes an advancement issue to Council, the boy shall win each and every time.

2) The boy has not completed six months, anything less than six months raises a a flag and will cause paperwork to get kicked back. Req 1 for Eagle states "Be active in Troop for six months after achieving Life" and Req 4 talks about the 6 month PoR. It doesn't seem possible for the boy to get a SM Conf before six months.

Anything less means the boy should not get a sign off, National will kick these back even if they are a day off. I've seen it happen.

Good luck and I hope someone realizes that waiting the extra few weeks is best.

I don't know.

Society has always been evolving, this last evolution though is interesting.

What has happened to please and thank you? Many people don't utter these words.

What has happened to sticking to a commitment? People will cancel at the last minute because something better has come along, then expect a refund.

Scouting is still relevant these days. Maybe if it was tied less to being an Eagle for Life and more to what you learn that will stay with you for Life it will be better.

I have no idea what happened, I tell the boys to live by the Oath and Law and a few listen.

It could take a day or it could take 4 months or more.

When I went to Den Leader school (what seems like a LONG time ago) the woman teaching the class said never be afraid to admit you got something wrong. You can plan it to be perfect but sometimes things will go wrong or take a lot more time than planned.

The one mistake I made for a few months was I practiced on my son, then in front of the den it was clear my kid saw it first and the other kids didn't like that. Then I started practicing on my wife.

Don't be afraid to give the kids a task to do at home either related to the monthly theme.

Because the kids in my den all were in the same class with the same teacher many times the monthly themes covered stuff they did in school, so this made it easier and I accepted the work. I was amazed how the Bear program for that year followed school stuff about 2 months behind.

Plan for motor skills, both the fine and gross skills, to be different among the boys. It took me a few months to see the differences and figure out how to plan it.

The one thing I never got used to was collecting the den dues every month. Finally I just asked for it in advance so I didn't have to chase people down. The stuff costs money and although free stuff can be found it takes time to get it. All the parents had jobs and very little spare time to look for free stuff.

Good luck. My son remembers the Bear and Webelos year as the best time we had together.

Having used a jetboil personal model for a while along with the jetboil group model I've found that the personal model is quite difficult to actually cook food in. The device is tall and narrow, and would require constant stirring. Basically we use it to boil water and add it to the food.

We have used the group model for both the adult patrol and for family camping and love it. Because of its wider mouth and shorter height its been used for a variety of meals for two or three people. Even small steaks and fish cooked one at a time.

On most campouts the two or three adults have used both at the same, one to get water boiling and the other for meal.

Often at the end of a long day we want the food to be done quickly and with little fuss and easy cleanup. We like the jetboil products because of the lightweight and small size it takes up.

The recipes here are great, but usually my choice is quick cooking rice with precooked shrimp from the bag. Mornings are usually the Sunshine Spuds that Buffalo mentioned or a Mountain House meal for two. Mountain House has a great Scout discount by the way.

We are not lazy, just being practical. We like meals to take 55 minutes or less, from when we start to having the gear packed away. We do linger over morning coffee though.

I do not work for jetboil or mountain house and do not own stock in them. The products do cost more but the convenience is what we like.

This thread so far covered a lot of different topics from recruitment to advancement differences.

Without seeing the way the troops recruit the boys its hard to comment on what goes on.

Recruitment is hard as you have to provide a nice atmosphere for both the boy and the parents.

In the local council I'm with about 60% of the 3rd grade cubs continue to the the Webelos program. Only 35% of the cubs cross over to a troop. But for some reason half of these boys then drop out after summer camp. Its not that summer camp is mean or awful, it just causes boys to quit. Even with new scouts from Middle School recruitment the biggest loss is right after summer camp.

Over the years I've heard many excuses, explanations and stories from boys and parents.

"Example 1) During IOLS, we were taught that BSA policy does not allow a scout to swing a full axe. Yet the scout handbook gives directions how to do so."

During IOLS I was told the same thing, that a 3/4 axe was to be used instead. The reasons had to do with the length of the handle and the height of the boy and where the strike would occur on the wood and control of the weight. Taller boys use the longer axe.

I thought it strange but took the really old guy's advice and it worked.

The sad part though is we only use the axe for the Totin Chip, the rest of the time we buy pre split firewood. The rules at many campgrounds don't allow wood gathering.

One campground requires us to by the wood from them. The concern they have is the bugs that come in with the outside firewood. But I give them credit, the price they charge for firewood is much lower than the local stores.

This was a great post! Going to use this for an upcoming meeting.