flmomscoutw3

FB, I just read your post and the replys. I hope things have had a chance to turn around since Feb. If the CA is saying out loud that he is thinking of quitting I hope he did. That is the time for new adults to come in and advise. I will be eligible for brotherhood at the fall fellowship, so I am quite new to OA. What I have observed from the most successful chapters is POSITIVE adults. This last weekend at summer fellowship we had 60 youth in attendance with our current chapter which included 9 ordeals, 4 brotherhoods, 6 elegamats. My boys and I will be moving to a new chapter this fa

Great WB Ticket Kraut-60 I guess the one thing I would stress is that WHITE scoks are not part of the uniform. It always amazes me when I see scouts in otherwise complete uniforms to see those white socks sticking out. I will be looking for info similar to what you are doing here. We just moved to a new troop (for lots of reasons, but distance was the biggest) and was told by the SM they were a complete uniform trop. I was surprised to find out that is not currently the case. My boys and myself show up uniformed (yes even the socks) and I am currently working with the parents on ret

I do like Anarchist's wack upside the head...but... If it is a boy run troop the first line of response should be coming from the PL then the SPL. If the SPL cannot get satisfaction then HE should go the the SM for assistance. Until that point, unless these is a dangerous situation being created, shouldn't it be only advise to the SPL from the SM? If it is not coming directly from the boy leaders then why? I have this problem all the time with the SM and ASM's jumping right in and taking care of things, "because the PL/SPL did not get it under control immediatly". Well how will they eve

Campcrafter I have wanted to take a look at "Troop Wise" since you posted your question. I had not seen it before, but took some time this AM and looked it over. I have to agree that some of the terms used are a bit on the formal side, but there is some good info there. What I liked best about it was that it tells the adults they are not the Chain of Command" , that the adults are directed to the SM instead of to the scout can be useful. We have a few untrained adults who insist upon metting out displine, so I can see where this could help us. I also liked the idea of the letters to th

Well you might want to say it next time (but maybe in a softer voice without the steam coming from your ears). It is really hard for some adults to step back and they DO NOT UNDERSTAND HINTS. If you don't say what you actually mean she may not get it. CA_Scouter may have a good idea by switching her to be the advisor of another patrol. I would say that it has to be a patrol that will not allow her to take over. I am the advisor of one of my boys patrols, but he tells me to sit down. I have to sit on my hands (I can't talk without them they tell me). It really makes me proud to see what

Welcome, you certainly have a lot of time in scouting. I sure there is a lot of wisdom there for you to share. Thanks for joining. YiS

This is funny!! It's nice to chuckle every so often, this forum is kinda on the serious side at times. In my home the boys were not allowed to have a digital watch until they could tell time. I tell my kids its quarter to four and half past seven, I'll have to try that at our next campout when a scout asks me the time, after of course I ask him where his watch is. (Be prepared!) I still remember as a teenager (well before digital clocks) a friend of mine not knowing that 45 past 7 and quarter till 8 were the same time. She and I still get a kick out of that. The most prominet clock in

WE have had this issue on more then one occasion. I think that when you are dealing with young men who are gtoing in many directions and they have not yet learned to prioritize this will come up. I do like the suggestions of John-in-KC "As a COR, I insist my Scoutmasters visit with any POR candidate before taking the job, AS WELL AS WITH THEIR PARENTS. A POR isn't just a commitment from the Scout; it's at least in part a commitment from his family. Not all understand, but they need 20/20 vision on this going in." I would have been thrilled if the SM had spoken to Dad and me before first son to

Wanted to update those of you who helped me thru some patrol issues. The PLC was last week and it went great. Actually I think our CC was reading over my sholder. He is really seeing that we have gotten away from the book and wants to get back on track. The SPL is still pushed a bit too much by one of the ASM's but hopefully that will be handled. The patrol that I am advisor for is just taking off. I spoke with the PL, gave him hints on running the meeting, went over the PL Hnadbook with him. He has brought some great ideas to his patrol. They are going to start working on a merit bad

Our troop typically has the scout request a BOR from the Adv Chair. he then will schedule it for the following week with the CM. There have been times where 3 CM's cannot be at the Monday nite meeting, but will try to schudule on a differnt nite if the parent and scout are willing to do that. (I can only recall once when that wasn't ok and it was because parents were out of town and scout could not be sure he could make it.) On occasion the committee has discussed doing BOR's monthly, but that never seems to work. Advancement is a big deal, that is what they are working for. When my young

Just like all of you, my sons do chores. The chores have increased in difficulty as they got older and were able to handle more. They may not be up to my standards all the time, but I do not redo them (at least not while they are around). WE all have chores to do. As a family it is how the home runs. They know that I write a check each month to our troop for camping, and they know that if they do not do the work at home then they must find work else where. Cleaning the bathroom, washing the dishes, doing laundry, vaccuming and the like may not be glorious, but they do know what the optio

Welcome from a displaced Maniac! I'm currently scouting toward the other end of Rt. 1 down in Florida. We've visited the end of Rt 1 in Key West, maybe some day I can get the troop to go to the other end of Rt 1 (in summer, you know July!) YiS

fgoodwin, I am not sure what your intention was in sharing this with us. I do not see how the ALA's decision will affect us as scouts and scouters who go to the library. What did the ALA do for the BSA before the Boy Scouts time was up? I will still support my local library, as I have for many years. I will still encourage my own son's to use the library as I will any youth or adult who is looking to read a book. The title of this thread had me concerned. "Time's up for the Boy Scouts!" What time? YiS

Eamonn asked how the price of gas is impacting our programs. I know that as a family when we were looking at ideas for the coming year I advised my sons to look at what was close by. I drive on a lot of the campouts carrying my sons and a few others, plus whatever gear can fit in the back. Our troop does not really have any plan at this time about personal vechicles and gas $$. They do have access to a van that our CO has, but have not requested it lately. I think that may change as the person who usually pulls our trailer has said he cannot do it any more. Too much wear and tear and n

Bill, Your last question "Is this normal???" would probably be easy to answer if there was a 'normal". I hope that the older boys don't just boss the younger scouts because that would be setting an example for these new boy scounts on how to act when they are no longer the youngest. If they are not teaching skills then maybe it is time for the SPL and his ASPL to consider some changes. It may be that they have always done it this way and they don't realize it can be different. I would advise you ask the SM if that is normal for your troop. Then maybe you get some information from

To watch my one of my sons plan how "his" patrol is going to be the "best the troop has ever seen" and then watch as he makes a plan and shares it with 7 other young men between the ages of 11-17 (he is 13) is magic. He has got them excited about patrol meetings. They are making plans together on how to help the 3 boys who are under first class reach that goal. They are giving him ideas to take to the PLC on ideas for next the next years activities. Yes it is truly magic. My oldest is very close to Eagle, just completing some dangling bits. When we are watching him receive that award

T158sm That is a great idea. I will be making that suggestions. It will be in a couple of weeks before our next PLC, I'll let you know how/if it works out. The adults should already be able to step back as they have been at the table for several already! YiS

Thanks Anarchist-Great info. I had so little go on from the example of our adults. Most of them want to just take over when the boys get off track or just don't know how to do something. Lots of disipline coming from the adults if the "plan" doesn't work, and lots of you should have's after the fact. I'm sure that when this patrol gets the hang of it, the others will follow. Summer's coming-have fun!

ScoutingAgain you really got my day going. Loved your last point! its Hunts for this family. I just sent my sons on a campout without Ketchup. (I know because one of my boys did the shopping). Does mustard have any anti oxidants? I guess I'll just have to them eat some when they get home on Sunday night-I hope they don't mind having burgers and fries for supper!

I saw this post and a couple others dealing with the patrol method and thought I had hit gold. Boy it is amazing the different ways things are done and the same few words are interpreted. (I can't qoute the different ways, it'd take to much sapce) Our Troop has been struggling to get the patrols acting as patrols. We had lots of turnover of scouts the last couple of years and need to get back on track. I think that our SM or the LC advisor (an SA) are talking to much during the PLCs. How much in the way of "guidence" should they be giving. One of the problems in our troop is that t

How do you tell a parent they cannot be on the committee if they want to be involved in the Troop that their son is in? John had a great list, maybe someone who really wants to help can assist a CM with their task. Of course the committe should not be running the troop and that really seems to be the biggest issue here. What makes good CMs would be people who are willing to be there for the BOYS. The SM should be reporting to the committee what the boys have decided to do. Your curve: what to do with SM trained leaders-If they have the training and are attending meetings and camping

Well I'm an Antelope (and a good old Antelope too) Looks like I'm still wainting on those Buffalo, at least its not dinner time:)

All Babybear asked about was Troop Handbooks. There was no question about how to "write his ticket" and I did not see any offered. As far as where did he get that info, it can be had from many differnt web sites that deal with Wood Badge. Or maybe Babybear has a scouter in his troop who recently went thru Wood Bagdge and come back and talked about doing " fill in the blank " as part of his ticket. I have been around several other scouters who have come back and done much for our Troop as part of their ticket before I had the chance to go to WB. If your an active scouter it's hard not to he

I am always keeping my eyes open when I go to the thrift stores for scout stuff. In additon to uniforms I like to look at the tee shirts for scout camp/scout event shirts. Our scouts are encouraged to where scout related shirts at campouts and when they cross over most boys have just Cub stuff. They would rather wear Boy Scout stuff, so I have extras to give to new scouts who don't have older brothers to get the stuff from. My boys realy like to find the "0ld" stuff at the thrift stores. My yougest loves to wear a tee from summer camp for the year he was a wolf or bear. Good Hunting, Fl Mo

Silly Camp rules. What one may see as silly others see as a necessity. We have similar rules with our troop with the excepton of the chair/stool. Everyone is encouraged to bring their own chair, some places we go have limited seating, and bringing a chair around the campfire is a great way to have our reflections. As far as an adult having a caffine burst in the early AM hours-if our troop stopped the Coke dirinkers we would cut down our adults willing to go to only the coffee dirinkers. That would be about 1/2 of the registered and frequent campers. Our SM has just asked they not