allangr1024

I am a scoutmaster of a troop. I went through cubs with my sons many moons ago. We did not do Webolos, but sat the time out for sports. Then joined a troop. Now they have aged out. I got three boys cross over from Webolos this year. They have yet to go camping with us. I keep asking the boys, and they keep saying that their parents won't let them go camping with us. YIKES. I finally cornered one of the moms as she dropped off her kid. I asked if her son could go camping with us at a council camp for a "Webolos Woods" event where we show off our troop to next years scouts. I w

"Did none of the other scouts see it coming? You cant watch everything, so teach the Patrol Leaders to watch out for their scouts and all the scouts to watch out for each other. Its just my style, but I would have a scoutmaster conference with the whole patrol. " Barry. This is one of those crazy situations where the patrol leader has been absent a lot, and the rest of the patrol was new and young. We just had elections and I think I have a good leadership team in place in the PLC. One PL is has our "Pinetree" leadership traning under his belt, and the other is a natural leader that

I am a new scoutmaster but a scouter and scout parent of 5 years. I have been upset in the past about the level of knowledge retained by scouts of scouting skills. Most of our star and life scouts could not tie a square lashing, much less a taught line hitch, if their life depended on it. But to be fair, in the age of shock corded tent poles, they do not get to do much of it. In my scouting days (I tell the boys i remember when dirt was invented) our pup tents would not stay up without a rope tied to a tent stake. I am now requireing that the patrols put together some sort of camp gaget

I agree with the "set the procedures right going forward" line of the other contributers here. I would suggest writting a policy or proceedure statement and handing it out to everyone, saying "This is how we do things for now on." In our troop we have a computer program to keep records. In the past that was all we used. Now, we are urgeing the scouts to get their books signed and keep records for themselves. Blue merit badge cards? We now use them. We found so many instances where the computer records were not updated in a timely manner, or were just wrong, that we gave out the sa

In my troop, when a boy has done something wrong, we reprove him by pointing out the point in the scout law he has violated. In this case, I can see "Trustworthy", "Loyal", "Obedient", "Reverent" being trashed right off the bat. And this is by the adults who are to instill these values in the boys. The adults must be held to a higher standard than the boys, since we are trying to form a sense of the rightness of our values to live by. If the boys do find out, then they will feel that they can do anything they want, because the adults do. Mistake, error, violation or sin, h

A few posts back I read this: "1. I don't know how a 14 year old becomes a real Eagle Scout. That means that they reach the summit at or before Freshman year in highschool. Most of these kids would not be mature enough to understand the importance of the rank, much less the importance of the things they learned through experience and Merit Badges. " I have heard advancement people in our council say that they would never let a young boy pass a board of review because they are not "mature" enough. I read these requirements for the rank of Eagle: Eagle Rank Requirements 1.

I just took over the SM job for our troop. I have found that the determining factor in leadership is not necessarily the freshness of the leader, but the vision. Our strongest SM was a guy in his twenties who had the troop for 10 years. He was an eagle scout from an "Eagle Mill" troop across town who grew up and came with his father to start a new troop. He had fun with the scouts, and they loved him. I brought my boys the last two years of his tenure. He had been to every training event offered, had been thru woodbadge, lifeguard, OA, etc. I went thru woodbadge and then bugged him

I have been told that eventually they want to match the adult MBC to each merit badge on the Eagle application. In our council they are not there yet. But it is a goal. Personally I do not see this being possible unless they take the draconian action of denying an Eagle application because they can not find the MBC. There would be such a howl in our council that the DE would be history. It does make sense to have each MBC registered as a Scouter. I just don''t want to put too much burden on a guy who volunteers his time for a service like this.

OldGreyOwl, Can you give more specifics of the case. I would be very slow and deliberate about this. If a boy has a POR and he is not doing the job, then you have a teaching moment for him. If he is abusing his position at someones expense, there again is a teaching moment. If he is hurting someone, mayby you have something. If this is an elected position, then you should be REEAALLLLLy slow to remove someone except for the most extreme of abuses. Let us know. If he has to be removed I would persuade him to resign and then anounce that he has resigned and give n

My three boys, aged 20, 18, and 15 all went through scouting, and now are out of it. I saw the same pattern in each one. At 11 and 12, they were all up for camping and troop activities. At 13 they reached the upper ranks and became the "older boys". At 15 and 16 they tended to drift from the program (although my middle boy did love our Philmont trip at age 15). After that Scouts was for children and they were on to bigger and better things. My current 15 year old is now heavily involved in church youth group, and I do not mind his finding something that he really likes. My middle

I was in the last WB course taught under the old syllabus. We did it in three weekends spaced two weekends apart from one another. I had thought about trying to join the staff of a current course just to see the changes. Our CC took the first course under the WB for the 21st Century syllabus. We tried to compare the two, but all I could hear was that the fun stuff that we did was deleted. And I was told by the guy who has been running our WB for several years that I would have to take the new course since there is no way I could be a good staffer if I did not experience the 21st cent

I am a new scoutmaster myself, and served for a few years as ASM. At that time I got a copy of the 1960''s version of the scoutmasters handbook and found a description of a patrol competition towards the back of the book (I kind of liked it when you could carry a handbook in your pocket.) It described using a point system to count things like: -Number of scouts in full uniform. -Number of scouts on the campout. -Number of advancements or merit badges recieved. -Number of visitors brought to a troop meeting. The patrol that recieved the most points at the end of two months

Some time ago one of our scouts did an eagle project in which a hiking trail off a state park, but still on public land, was enhanced by clearing brush, adding signs giving trail directions and nature lessons, and clearing an outside ampatheater that was in disrepair. They did not ask us if the troop would benefit from an improved hiking trail, although we did use it later. I think the restriction is to prevent every eagle candidate to get out and find that non BSA recipient of the service. We should not be re-landscaping the BSA service center all the time. It is the decision of t

In our case the older boy in question was investigated by the district, but there was no evidence that he did the deed. He was with another boy who was removed from the BSA altogether. They could not tell if he participated or not. Still, the fact there was an investigation caused our parents to demand that we not accept the older boy. I was swayed when I learned from his mother that he is behind emotionally and socially that what his age would suggest, and that this would be detrimental to our troop if he were accepted as older (16) when he operates on a 13 year old level. I

Something like this happened to us. We got a transfer of three boys from another troop. One of the boys had been hurt on a campout, and one of the other boys had been accused of causing the hurting. There was a district investigation even. The accused scout was much older than the other two, although he had not achieved any rank. Our parents were up in arms that we would consider the transfer. Our committee was divided. I was willing to give the boy a chance. Our District Executive told me first not to take any of them, then told me it was up to the troop and the charter org.

From my reading of the hiking merit badge requirements and my training in BSA lifesaving, I would say that the purpose of doing the 5 ten mile hikes is to build up the strenth and endurance of the boys over time. The twenty mile hike is the capstone of all the previous buildup. If you do not do the previous ten milers, you will do a GREAT DIS-SERVICE to the boys. In fact, I would start with a 5 mile preliminary hike, because I dont think too many 13 year olds are ready for the ten milers right off the bat. So I say, DONT take 11 year old scouts on a twenty mile hike. If one is sch

Eagledad, you are right, it is gorgeous in Oklahoma right now. You describe what our town looks like; you might be my neighbor. I have a question. What is the optimal period of service for the PLC. I am a new Scoutmaster. I came in in March to a troop that has decreased from 50 boys to 15. The last SM got promoted and could not continue his role. We now have two patrols, newly reorganized. We held elections in April and got a very good SPL, ASLP, a PL for one pratrol that showed up to everything, and one who was there half the time. Our troop tradition is to have elections and new

We would have to know the breakdown of the costs. I live 10 hours from Philmont. When we went in 2005 we spent 575.00 for Philmont itself, 100.00 apiece for gas for our three vehicles that carried the 12 crew members, 100.00 for meals to and fro. We did not do anything else, though. Some crews make the trip a cross country journey in chartered bus, or have to use the airlines, and also visit places like Six Flags over whereever on the way. When I went as a kid, I went with a council crew. We chartered a bus and took three days to get there from Louisiana. But we went to Lorado M

When did it change? We did merit badges when I was a kid in the seventies. Back then it was mostly the outdoors badges. I got swimming, lifesaving, canoeing, rowing, conservation, cooking, ect. Back then it was much more difficult to get a merit badge during the rest of the year because they did not do them in the troop setting. You had to find your counceler yourself. How do you find a conservation guy in a town of 60,000. Most of my badges I got from summer camp. I think we did hiking in the troop, only because we got an ASM who was a Vietnam war vet recently returned home and he lik

Worst peice of equiptment: My Coleman 7x7 dome tent with poles that broke on a camping trip. Bad Bad Bad. For Philmont I took a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight tent. It was very light and kept out the rain very well. Highly recommended. Now adays, I use a hammock. At first I just used a mesh hammock with a light pad in it and a tarp strung over it. I was high and dry during a monsoon that drenched our mountain backpacking trip in Arkansas. Now I use a Hennessey Hammock. It is well thought out and comfy, although the first time I set it up in the rain I did not get the ra

Although I cannot find it in my BSA literature, I am sure we were told at Basic Scout Leader Training and at Woodbadge that you must file a tour permit to be covered by BSA insurance. We were further told that if you stray from anything written in the Guide to Safe Scouting, you would not be covered if anything bad happens. This was especially true of water activities. And the Guide says to file a tour permit. I cannot say what checking they do. We are allowed to have a list of our drivers on file, so we do not fill this out every month. I would hope they check the names of our regis

I have a further question in this regard. I got my BSA lifeguard certification in 2003. It expired in 2006. I have inquired about getting it redone, and get different answers from people in our council. Do I have to take the entire course over again? We do not seem to have any refresher courses or anything like that. I cannot find anyone to tell me what the actions to ger recertified are. One guy at the council office said I must take the entire thing over again. I took a 12 week course doing 3 hours per night at the high school pool. Or I could do the entire course offered at s

I am in a similar situation. My middle son turned 18 this July. In March he decided to come back and get his Eagle. He needed Personal Management MB, Personal Fitness MB, and the project. He did these and got his Eagle packet turned in the day before his birthday. For two years I was on him to get the stuff done. Then I backed off and he made the decision himself. He came right down to the wire, but he got it done. He figured it would help him in college with scholorships and stuff. For my self, This past March the committee chairman came to me and asked if I would be interested

We do some merit badges in our troop meetings and some on our campouts. In the age of youth protection guildlines, there is to be no one on one contact between youth and adult scouters. The Guild to safe scouting says: No one-on-one contact. One-on-one contact between adults and youth members is not permitted. In situations that require personal conferences, such as a Scoutmaster's conference, the meeting is to be conducted in view of other adults and youths. This requirement, which our council says applies to merit badge councelers, almost requires merit badge sessions be