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 was flabergasted. She said that her boy could only go camping with a parent, and that since her husband works each weekend, and she is working on her master's degree, there was no time for a parent to go camping. I tried to tell her that we take the greatest safety precautions, have experience scouters ready to serve, and usually don't take that many parents along. No good. She would not hear of it.

I surmise that she is so used to the "Mom and Me" or "Dad and Lad" type of campout for the cubs, that she does not know that "Camping-R-Us" in a scout troop.

I can see that I will have a big adjustment to my comments to Webelos parents when they visit. The way I see it, if you dont camp, then why bother. Camping is the first tenderfoot requirement, after all.

I hope the Webelos den leaders will tell everyone that a good troop camps every month.

"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 need to guide in seeing to his patrol. As I said, I am a new SM and am pulling the program back together. In the past we handed out titles and held elections without giving the "leaders" much of a job or much authority. The leaders will have to learn to lead by me giving them specific tasks like "have a patrol meeting and produce a campout menu". Then I need to examine the results to see if they are of sufficient quality.

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 with rope at each campout.

Cooking is in a similar straight. The old regime did not emphasize it. I want them to do one campfire meal or dutch oven meal per campout. The results are sometimes comical, enfuriating, or sad.

I am coming to the place where I will teach a scout skill lesson in a troop meeting, with the SLP or PL watching, then turn the demonstration of the skill over to the SPL or PL and watch what they do with it. The boy leader should then gather the scouts under his care together and do the activity. Cook french toast? I will do it during a meeting, then have the boy leader lead the boys in it in the out of doors.

When will they learn? On the campout. By trying to do the thing. Under my watchful eye. They will fail or succeed, but the demonstration will help them.

I had a boy who was appointed by his patrol to do the Grubmaster thing for the patrol. They planned a complicated breakfast casserole, and appointed this boy because he had not been passed on the first class requirement. I did not see this happen in the meeting. This boy is working on tenderfoot and had never been part of a cook crew at all, an probably never cooked scrambled eggs before. The disaster was complete. My fault for not watching out. Now, I am going to bring a skillet and some eggs and demonstrate breadfast prep for this and other young scouts. I will have the PL put this guy on a cook crew. I will watch this guy cook over an open fire on a future campout. I will watch him creep, then step, then run, as we all develop.

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 same rank patch to two boys in two courts of honor. bad bad b a d.

I would ask advice from both the troop committee and the district advancement chair or district executive on the past awards. This could go either way, and to have the opinion of the others will help a lot.

AND, be in constant communication with the boys over issue. You don't want them to become adverserial. Ask them if they mind reviewing the records and the requirements for the awards. They may not mind, especially if you state that your purpose it to see that there is no question about the earning of the awards.

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, however you choose to view this behavior; it is so bad that in my mind it would invalidate these people as leaders. They should not be holding forth the scout law values as a basis to live by if they can not even stop themselves from doing it on a camping trip. They may be forgiven, but not again trusted with the most sacred of tasks, the raising of our young men in the scout program. At least not for a long while.

All it will take to destroy the program is for us to invest as leaders the very people who esteem the values so little. I have seen this happen in churches for the last 20 years, and it should not happen here.

Sorry to be so extreme. But I treasure the values more than these two "mistake ridden" people. Let them bow out quietly, or let them ask forgiveness, but let them go.

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. Be active in your troop, team, crew, or ship for a period of at least six months after you have achieved the rank of Life Scout.

2. Demonstrate that you live by the principles of the Scout Oath and Law in your daily life. List the names of individuals who know you personally and would be willing to provide a recommendation on your behalf, including parents/guardians, religious, educational, and employer references.

3. Earn a total of 21 merit badges (10 more than you already have), including the following:

First Aid

Citizenship in the Community

Citizenship in the Nation

Citizenship in the World

Communications

Personal Fitness

Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving

Environmental Science

Personal Management

Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling

Camping

Family Life

You must choose only one merit badge listed in items g and j. If you have earned more than one of the badges listed in items g and j, choose one and list the remaining badges to make your total of 21.

4. While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of six months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility:

Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, troop guide, Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian, historian, quartermaster, junior assistant Scoutmaster, chaplain aide, or instructor.

Varsity Scout team. Captain, cocaptain, program manager, squad leader, team secretary, Order of the Arrow team representative, librarian, quartermaster, chaplain aide, instructor, or den chief.

Venturing crew/ship. President, vice president, secretary, treasurer, boatswain, boatswain's mate, yeoman, purser, or storekeeper.

5. While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. (The project should benefit an organization other than Boy Scouting.) The project plan must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your Scoutmaster and troop committee, and the council or district before you start. You must use the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, BSA publication No. 18-927, in meeting this requirement.

6. Take part in a Scoutmaster conference.

7. Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.

I got these from the BSA web site. I see nothing here about being mature, or understanding the importance, or having the full experience. The only age requirement is to do it by age 18. If a boy can do it, and has the interest, he should get the eagle rank for his achievement.

We have no test to tell if a scout is a good leader. It is subjective. I know boys in my troop who did not get elected to anything (SPL, PL, etc.) but served in appointed positions in the troop. Can you be an Eagle scout and serve as a scribe, den chief, librarian, or chaplsins aid. Not according so some, I guess.

We should not add to the requirements. They are tough enough. The reason, I think that few scouts reach Eagle, is that it takes 3 years at least, and it is hard for boys to stay with anything that long.

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 about how little we implemented the patrol method. He was used to a troop of 10 to 12 boys, but by the time he left we had 55. He had to leave town for a job.

The next two guys had training, but if they had any plan, I could not percieve it. A program of merit badge classes in the troop meetings has continued, but I was bugged about how little the PLC had to do, since the adults did it all. The first of these lasted four years, and the second two. The last of these guys got too busy with his business (as can happen), and resigned.

Now I have the job. I am determined to have the boys do more to lead the "boy led troop", by doing the annual campout planning and having them resolve real issues in PLC. I have gone thru one election cylce so far, and am embarking on my second. It takes a while to get the boys to own the leadership role.

I don't think that a set time period is a great idea. But some other mechanism might make sense. I made a commitment for two years, and that looks like very little time to me.

AND, I would hate to have to be the guy who follows the really great scoutmaster, and then have the really great scoutmaster remain in the troop. The previous guy would have a hard time giving it up, and the new guy would need the lack of rivalry to earn the respect and support of the troop.

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 no reason to the boys.

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 boy came back ( I kept him registered) and got his eagle rank in the latter half of year 17. By that time I had given up trying to get him to finish, and resigned myself to his departure. He found his own eagle project (He had two previous failed projects) and did all of it. I mainly acted as his driver to planning meetings. He finished his Personal Management and Personal Fitness MBs with his original counciler (I did have to ask the guy to look at it again), and he turned his paperwork in on the day before his 18th birthday. (Big sigh of relief).

I see the BSA program being of the most interest to scouts 11 to 14. Probably 13 is the optimal age. As soon as they turn 16 something happens in guys and a corner is turned for them. There is a reason they are lost to the Car, the Girl and the Job. They are at the verge of entering the adult world, and the skills of scouting are juvenille to them. That is the reason the BSA launched first the explorer program and then the Venture program. To offer something more age appropriate.

If the boy wants to return and finish his eagle, and he can do it, I do not bother with why. He may want the key to future opertunity it provides. How adult is that. He may want to feel his time in scouting was not wasted. He may want to please his parents. Who knows. We should let them finish if they can, but not give it to anyone without proper merit.

I have seen guys return and fail because the time is too short. They did not get it. Some squeeked thru. I am glad that they see the value in the award and covit it for any reason.

I think I would revisit the scout spirit thing by having them do some service to the troop. Plan and carry out a specialty campout or high adventure activity, mabey. Do the COH. Inventory the adult supplies. That kind of thing.

That is my two cents worth, and Im sticking to it.

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 century course. It may have been his communication style, but I came away feeling like a second class citizen for not having taken the new course. How could I have been so dumb for asking something like that.

I came away from the old course having tasted the patrol method, and wanting more. That was the strength of the old course. The games we played, the chores we did together, the planning we did, all helped to cement us together as a patrol. We even came in on one of the off weekends and cleared the rockes out of the "Campsite" they put us in to make the place more livable. When I say that I will be a Bear forever, there was a lot that went into that identity. We did not get to the weather rock in time, one of the other patrols (made up of professional engineers) moved the rock with a really fancy device of their own invention, took it back into town, and left it on the WB scoutmasters lawn (where I think it still is).

Now, I hear that a lot of the patrol method stuff is gone, and they do not even do the weather rock any more. (sigh).

And since I took over as scoutmaster, finding time for it all is deminished.

What has been added is something of a mystery.

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 gets a prize.

We tried it with mixed results. I think you need to spend some time promoting it, and taking some meeting time covering it and counting the points in front of the scouts. We should have had a big poster showing the results from each week. And we needed to get the PLC more involved. It was hard to gage the feelings of the boys towards this. They did not seem very excited.

Still, we did see more progress with uniforms. At the end of two months we had a pizza party for the winners. I would like to try this again.

You could call it the "Excellence in Scouting" award, and make a badge for the winners that reads "Member: EOS patrol".

It is all about constant and immediate recognition.

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 the District guy to approve the project or not. What does "informally passed" mean. Did he sign the eagle project application or not? If he did, shame on the district for coming back later after the project is under way and saying to this scout, "Sorry, we changed our mind."

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 think we got into a situation where no one wanted to take responsibility of keeping this kid out of scouting. The district guy did not, but left it up to the troops. I dont know what rules he operates under, it is probably dictated by threats of legal action.

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.

We had to hammer out a dicision. We took the younger two scouts, but on condition that they be closely watched. The older scout was encouraged to join a venture crew we are associated with, since it would be more age specific. I don''t think he did, but the unvoiced message from us was, sorry, no go.

It is amazing how quickly the parents knew about this. I had a lesson in troop politics, and will not again lightly brush aside their concerns. I also know that the district is not that forthcoming with information that is actually helpful in this kind of situation.

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 scheduled, make some way that the younger ones can do a much shorter distance and go back to camp proud of their accomplishment. The twenty miler is for the older boys who have the previous hikes under their belts.

And, I hope you are teaching them proper care of their feet. If not, you have a disaster on your hands. Proper boots, proper socks, first aid for blisters, save hiking, plenty of Water. Do not skimp on this.

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 leaders every 6 months. So we are coming up to then end of our PLC''s terms.

In the past I dont think we did Boy Led very well. We had the officers, but did not put much decision making in their hands. I held the first campout planning session in which the boys selected the activities and camping locations themselves. (I made a list of twenty locations and twenty activities, and let them mix and match, or let them add to the list of alternatives) We came up with our camping schedule for the year. I will allow the PLC to alter if a better opertunity comes along (Camporee, Boundary Waters trip, etc.) I think that is a good first step.

Now, it is time to start over with new leaders. We will pick them and let them take office at the end of the month. I fear we will lose the experience of the current group at a critical time. So, my question is: How long should the term of office for SPL, ASPL, and PL be?

BTW, I do not feel I can abandon them to thier own desires at the expense of the program. I will not have them doing beanie wienie meals on campouts just because it is easy. I insisted that one campout on the schedule be a recruiting campout reaching out to Weblos and others. So they picked our anual district Webelos Woods event. I have yet to start bringing up matters of troop practice, although some of those decisions would probably be good for them to tackle.

Let me know what you think. I think the whole of us is smarter than any one of us.

Thanks.

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 Mexico for a day, we ate at restaurants, and extras were built into the price. We did save on hotels by staying at air force bases along the way. It all depends on the way the trip is put together.

My son, then 15, has told me that just the backpacking was not that exciting, but the way Philmont has stuff for the boys to do at each staffed camp, and the maintained (somewhat) campsites and red roof inns, and the authentic period re-enactments of poineer life at different camps, was a big "fun" factor for him.

I had a blast. At 48, though, the first time I looked up the trail going up UROCA Mesa, I was convinced that I was going to die. By the end of it, I was sad to leave the back contry. I highly recommend it.

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 liked to do that stuff.

Our summer camp in eastern Oklahome is Hale Scout Reservation. They get college students as camp councelers so they are average 20 years old. It is a mixed bag as far as how well they do the MB''s. The first year I went my sons Indian Lore badge was "taught" by a guy who was more interested in the girl teaching leatherwork nearby than in the course material. In a place like Oklahoma that is a crime. Now they have a college student who is Indian (Creek or Chactaw, I think) do this badge. But my kid learned how to handle every sort of boating activity they offered there, and he learned well.

Summer Camp is ready made for some of the badges that take an extended stay in the outdoors. Environmental Science is a problem to do in the troop, since it takes several days of observation in the same place. Doing it over several campouts was a logistical nightmare.

I do like the idea of taking a summer every once in a while and doing a week long high adventure trek as a troop. Our boys are starting to grumble about going to the same place every summer. I am looking into an alternative to our council summer camp. It is a step away from what I know (I recently took the SM job. Boy, what was I thinking) and am exploring the alternatives.

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 rain cover on right and it filled with water. sigh.

The only thing for backpacking I have not figured out yet is a very light weight pair of camp shoes, for when I simply cannot stand to be in my boots for another minute.

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 registered leaders, but I cannot say they do. I am a new scoutmaster, and I have not seen any mail from our council. I think they keep sending stuff to the last scoutmaster.

That is a good question for roundtable.

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 summer camp. The instructor I had said that if I helped teach basic swimming for him on his aquatics instruction night he would sign a card for me certifying me for one year. Unfortunately this is our troop meeting night, and I cannot dedicate 8 to 10 weeks to the aquatics program right now.

Does the BSA consider me to be a qualified BSA Lifeguard even if my card has expired? I can still do the requirements (mayby I will need some time in a pool to train for the distance swimming now.) But there does not seem to be a mechinism for retesting and recertifying BSA Lifeguards.

Any wisdom out there?

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 in taking the Scoutmaster job. I have been a scouter for seven years, an ASM in our troop, not real content with the way the previous two SM's handled the program, wanting to do stuff we did in wood badge. In three years our troop has shrunk from fifty scouts to twenty, and now we have about 13 come to troop meetings and 8 on campouts. I took the job knowing that recruiting would be a big emphasis, and I really want to see the patrol method implemented.

I have challenges before me as SM. No doubt about it. But I remember when I first came to the troop with my son. The boys met at the front of the room with the registered adults, and the parents stood at the back talking amoung themselves. I wanted to do the stuff at the front of the room. I told the SM I would like to help, and of course he loaded me down with projects, gave me an ASM patch, and the rest is history. I like the way Baden-Powell said it "He has simply to be a boy-man." I feel that way.

I would councel anyone to do a self examination to see why they like scouting. There are so many levels you can plug yourself in to. And with you son finishing his scouting "career", you can try various positions out to see what suits you.

Of course you always have to remember that it is just one hour per week.

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 attended by parents, or held in a troop meeting setting.

When I was a scout, I had to find my own MB coundelers, and that was the biggest impedement to getting Eagle Scout that I had. Now, my scouts cannot visit an expert in any field by themselves.

In our meetings, we allow half an hour for the MB classes, and that for rarely more than 3 nights. After that, the scouts are to remain in contact with the counceler and turn in any work they do outside of the meeting classes to him.