frankpalazzi

Congrats to you both. Like the man said, it is up to you and your family to decide how and what your ceremony consists of. Proud mom and dad might want to write to the Governors Mansion and White House and County Councilman's office and ask for their "Eagle Congrats" letters. Look real sharp , framed on the wall or at the ceremony.

Ceremony: Many moon ago, mine was a simple CoH (three Eagles at same time) with the Troop and families in attendance. Finger food after in the church social hall.

Scoutson had to be convinced that the family deserved and HE deserved some recognition. Special Troop CoH, many past Scout folks that had known him came. Family friend catered a BBQ for all afterward, we had BBQ frozen for months afterward (Scoutson's work lunches that summer!)..

Do some google time, find Eagle Charges and scripts. Ask folks from your past (teachers, uncles, aunts, friends ) to attend and maybe embarrass you with remembrances. It will all be worth it, trust me. Make it as fancy or simple but elegant as you wish.

 

The most memorable one I ever attended was for two brothers. They had a camp out in the back woods on their grandparents farm. Troop had camped there before, and there were lots of good memories there. Folks had to hike in with chairs and tables and such about 500 yards, set up, the nascent Eagles did the cooking, burgers and hot dogs and salads and such. After the official stuff, the candles were put out, the campfire burned late into the night and morning. Many memories were remembered and remade.

 

 

Good luck to you and your buds. Oh, and do what you can to help your Troop rebuild. Show the kids in the neighborhood the fun and challenge of Scouting.

No two Eagle ceremonies are ever, or should be, the same. You're only limited by your imagination--have fun with it!

Here in the Peoples' Republic Of Massachusetts, there is a helmet law for cyclists. Penalty for violation: none. Go figure!

Funny thing is, we have a similar issue in our troop, but it isn't the SM, it's the BOYS! They don't want any part of OA. The adults do NOT speak ill of the OA either, but the boys won't openly tell us in BORs why they don't want to go to the ordeal when they are elected. A few years ago, at a Pack event, I chatted with some of the Lodge officers who wondered why elected boys from our Troop don't attend the ordeals, or otherwise show any interest in the OA. Eventually the SM told me that the some of the boys, once elected and inducted, would attend chapter and lodge meetings and basically be ignored; would sign up for committees and never be called, etc. It's the BOYS in our troop who don't want the OA, which is what I told the Lodge folks. Naturally, I got "yes sir"ed to death. The boys talk to each other, and there is an overall ill will toward the Order! The OA Lodge has a serious Public Relations problem with our scouts and THEY need to fix it!! They've made no attempt to do so in the past few years. None. So, the SM goes through the charade of letting them hold elections each time (when they bother to show up), no boys attend Ordeals, and the Lodge is apparently happy with that. Fine and dandy. They have their signed papers as another notch in their belts for "Quality Lodge" or whatever. Did I mention that one of our scouts is also the Lodge Chief? The past two OA Representatives appointed by the SPL have done nothing to promote the OA because the boys don't want to hear it. I do feel that the thirty minutes of Troop time could be better spent, though.

P.S. The scout in our troop who is the Lodge Chief? We rarely ever see him. It's been that way for about 2 years.

Troop, yes. Pack, no. Why would a Cub leader need Wood Badge?

BSA announces that shirts are to be tucked in.

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2013/10/09/tuck-everlasting-scout-uniform-shirts-should-always-be-tucked-in-bsa-says/#more-21030

We've "required" this since 1970. So, are we "ahead of the times"? ELL OH ELL!

Things that raised "red flags" with me":

"Dads of" CO: These kinds of COs always seem to have issues, and too many of them.

"No 300', citing safety issues": Potential "helicopterism"---I've run into this before.

"Told committee of 40, 20 have WB, hoard of ASMs": How in HADES do you find jobs in a single scout troop for 40 people???? Their committee meetings must be LOOOONNNG!

"At the back of troop meeting there was a table of 3 Banana Republic Generals taking notes to provide feedback after the meeting to the PLC." : Who are they? Why are they doing this? Is this really a BOY run Troop?

"Recognized at least 3 of the leaders on District Training Staff.": This means nothing to the boys.

"Their uniform "problems" they are working on are correct shoes and socks.": If this really is an issue for them, I'd say they're doing pretty well in the uniform department. Who's being this picky? The PLC? Or dare I say, the adults?

My opinions only, because you asked!

-Frank

I'm still siding with BD on this one, and our unit deserved the banner "Troop XXX: we take bad kids." Yes, we've had a few thugs. Some of them had their own "personal adult attendants." I've been one of those at times. But we're not talking an indoor basketball league here. In our game, every boy can carry a knife or axe and every rock and stick can be an instant bludgeon or missile.

 

We're pretty clear to our boys. If you can't instantly apologize when you've heated things up, or say you need to step away so you don't heat things up, if a unit that needs to be constantly "on edge" because of you, ... well it isn't functioning the way it needs to provide the personal growth every one expects from it.

 

The nicest thing a committee can do for a kid who thinks he's above the law, sometimes, is show him the door. Everyone, even the other bullies in the bunch, NEED TO REST ASSURED THAT EXPULSION IS LIKELY if you are having trouble maintaining personal discipline.

Lol, Frank, that's a lot of posts. He (COR) made the decision alone, and notified the CM (of 3 years) a few days before our bridging ceremony. He did say "that was always the plan", we think he probably assumed the CM was stepping down and therefore looked for a replacement, but there was a massive communication fail and no one (except the replacement and the COR) knew what was coming. I'm not sure why you mentioned an injury etc.? The old CM (the one that was removed) is still in the Pack now as a DL , and is also on the Troop Committee. He hasn't had any problems and is generally well-liked... he and the COR still have a good working relationship although a little marred by the way it happened (suddenly and unexpectedly).

Lol, Frank, that's a lot of posts. He (COR) made the decision alone, and notified the CM (of 3 years) a few days before our bridging ceremony. He did say "that was always the plan", we think he probably assumed the CM was stepping down and therefore looked for a replacement, but there was a massive communication fail and no one (except the replacement and the COR) knew what was coming. I'm not sure why you mentioned an injury etc.? The old CM (the one that was removed) is still in the Pack now as a DL , and is also on the Troop Committee. He hasn't had any problems and is generally well-liked... he and the COR still have a good working relationship although a little marred by the way it happened (suddenly and unexpectedly).

It would have taken longer to break all the links or make all the reservations services "unavailable" for all the things you can get a permit for online-- than it took to just take the site offline and plug in a redirect to the dept of the interior.

If one has a problem with serving on an EBOR because of the issues described, the simple solution to the whole thing is... "No, thank you". One doesn't need to participate in issues they feel uncomfortable about.

 

Stosh

As others have pointed out the Jehovah Witnesses FORBID their members from joining boy scouts period. Allowing him to continue will result in him being asked to leave his faith tradition so you are playing fast and loose with his and his families religious beliefs and status in their tradition. Unless the parents tell you they are leaving the JW's you allowing this to continue is playing with fire and is totally irresponsible.

Raised his eye brow? Please explain ^o^

 

Well thanks :-) I actually was not trying to make it sound hard but the opposite, so that people arent afraid to try it out and apply 8-)

If your first or fifth or tenth application just dont give but try to figure out what you can alter to be succesful.

 

Anything I can help you with - just ask :-)

Well, the original significance of the pledge was to sell copies of "The Youth's Companion" and American flags, and promote international socialism.

 

By the way, the pledge's author's cousin's book "Looking Backward", a vision of the coming Socialist utopia published in 1887 and set in the year 2000, is oddly entertaining, if a bit dry (since it's an author tract).

OK..sorry...back to the topic: I've never heard of a prohibitiion of JWs joining from the BSA side of things. If someone's religion prohibits someone from doing something, we should respect that. In the case of Scout requirements, as long as the boy understands that he is NOT pledging, but reciting and understanding, there shouldn't be a problem. For troop meetings and any other occasions, he is free to remain silent during the Pledge or leave the room if necessary.

Shouldn't we let common sense be our guide here?

What is their argument for having the pack spend the money for dinner and childcare? If I had to guess, I would say that the pack has a lot of money and they feel that they can afford this luxury.

 

Our pack financial philosophy is to spend as much money on the kids as the budget allows and leave around $1500 in the account by the end of the year as a cushion for the following year (we have about 35 scouts). When you have a large bank balance, that's when trouble occurs: people get tempted to steal or someone decides to go after the deep pockets.

They don't want to give their DOBs???? Why? Are they afraid that someone might send them a birthday card? I'd be curious as to what else they might be "hiding". Something doesn't gel here.

It goes into a computer system to which they have no control nor guarantee of reasonable safeguards. We all make decisions with our personal information based on our priorities. Can you assure them nothing bad will happen, nope. Can you tell them it's required to be a leader, yep. Can they decide not to be a leader based on that requirement, yep. As a guy who has been victimized by CC fraud and identity theft I can't say as I blame them.

But Ya don't get those Fancy FOS Patches if ya give money Directly

They don't want to give their DOBs???? Why? Are they afraid that someone might send them a birthday card? I'd be curious as to what else they might be "hiding". Something doesn't gel here.

Shouldn't raising money from OUTSIDE of the organization be the indispensable skill required of a scouting exec?

I have always felt that way about FOS. There's nothing like seeing the faces of the parents during an FOS presentation after they have just shelled out $300 apiece for summer camp. Many have asked "Does any of this money go directly to our troop?" The FOS presenter will dance around the question, with stories of new canoes and rifles for summer camp. If they ask me after the meeting, I just say "nope." More parents will throw ME a $20 bill and say "spend this where it's most needed". I had a friend, a recently returning Iraq War Veteran, ask me how much one of our winter camping trips cost us. Having no idea he'd do this, I told him, and he wrote a check to the troop and said "The next one's on me."

I realize that Councils have expenses, sure, but getting a letter in the mail telling me what my troop's FOS "quota" or "expectation" is really bugs me. The letter promptly goes in the circular file. Do this kind of fundraising OUTSIDE the organization. These days, local units really have to "get their own house in order" first! I don't know about other troops, but the parents of our troop are more willing to write that check to the troop rather than the council.

Why not make FOS pitches to organizations that may know little or nothing about Scouting? Not only would they get donations, but might end up chartering a new unit or two along the way, no?

As has recently occurred in our council, a parent has worked the system through legal technicalities, threats, and troop and district changing until he got what he wanted, his eleven year old passed through. And, of course, even though he passed, the whole thing has simply left an acid pall over the proceedings. The boy has a lot of potential, and hopefully may yet prove himself; but I have a feeling even he realizes he really should not have passed; but he is too young to stand up to the parental intrigue. Bad example for the boy, and even a worse example for those that know him. It started in cubs where he somehow "earned" every loop and pin available, even though none of the other boys even knew the opportunity was being offered for many of them, and they were last minute by the, you guessed it, parental "leader". Moved into a troop at the absolute minimum age, then transferred soon afterwards when the leadership said he had not satisfactorily met certain requirements and that the "parent was not authorized to sign off stuff like in cubs". Buffaloed the new unit for a few months, then it again hit the fan, eventually resulting in parental legal threats and moving to another unit in a neighboring district. Again worked the system and got a board. Current unit had developed huge concerns, but nobody was willing to stand up to the realities of what went on and force a final challenge at National. Do not make waves is the norm once these things reach a certain stage.

 

The really sad thing is that the boy himself likely would have made it on his own and actually felt good about it; but you can tell he is embarrassed when confronted by those that tried to challenge him early on to "earn" rather than just get blanks signed and then forget, and to prove himself with his peers. Now he has little or no respect even from them. Still, he could grow into it, assuming he stays around long enough with his current peer level issues and the bad feelings generated on the adult level, he will have learned a really good life lesson. Of course, he will have to be able to confront the poor parental example to succeed. One can hope.

My wise old Scoutmaster said before he retired: "Always go by the book, and you'll never be 'called out'".

MA here too (NE). What part of Mass.?

Those who do not wish to profess Patriotism are free to not do so. Skip the first three words. There is nothing "inefficient" about being an American and proud of it. DS, are you also a proponent of removing the recital of the Pledge Of Allegiance from our public schools, too? It's terribly inefficient and redundant to do it every day!

Brewmeister: You are correct, and you haven't done anything but tell the truth.

Now all councils are different....

 

But you are refering to what is called Fund our Salaries. This is when the Paid council folks snooker our families out of their hard earned money.

 

I too donated a few years, Thinking the money was going to be used to maintain our camps, or buy uniforms, books and programs for those less fortunate. Well not so much.

 

Council books are closed so you will never truly know where all the money goes. You will never know how much they take in or spend.....

 

 

I have a beef because of the closed books and.............. So explain to me a trap shooting event they bragged raised $!5,000 on a district level......So explain to me why the camporee is $15 a head just to participate So where did all that money that was raised in the name of the boys go????? The folks manning the stations donate the supplies, no patches.......Parents and leaders are asking why $15 and then they have the audacity to complain at roundtable to complain that none of the troops participated.

 

I am frustrated by FOS.....I have no problem donating my money, but for a SE who is making $200k a year.......

 

We told the District NO one year and they came to our Blue and Gold uninvited and struck before the Pack leadership could respond......We were serving food and he came in walked right up on stage and started the presentation.

 

 

Look at those free rank advancement patches.....Not belt loops, event patches nothing else......So Free rank is like $2 per boy.......Our council includes going to a council owned camp..... Your better off just buying them.