gcnphkr

Out here in LDS country the LDS units generally bug out Saturday night after the campfire. The traditional units generally have a Scout's Own service of some kind that each unit is welcome to join. Some units have their own services. Some just bug out. I'm not sure how you can require a scout to stay at a camporee instead of leaving to go to his church's service. I guess by location, a unit can make it very inconvient for a scout to leave. Our troop always camps through Sunday. If a scout wants to leave early to go to church his parents are free to come and get him.

I do no such thing. He is recognized the night of his BOR. He receives his rank patch an the meeting following his BOR. I bring this with me to every meeting until he is there to get it. I've carried them for months. He is recognized again at the COH even if he is not there. He can get his merit badges or temporary patches any time he wants by calling the advancement chair and making arrangements.

How am I punishing him?

Every scout and situation is different. Every unit is different as well. Things that may work in a unit with twelve scouts may not work in a unit with fifty or a hundred. The dynamics in a LDS unit are different from a traditional unit. Making blanket statements that any particular method is "foolish" or "childish" makes a number of assumptions that possibly were not well thought out. Certainly claims that things are "doomed to failure" when they are being done in what appears to be a thriving unit are ill advised. Unless what the person is doing is unsafe or against policy, it might be more h

"YM know that you are there for them and that you support them in all their activities" And exactly, how is it that this requires that the advancement chair has to haul the scout's awards to each meeting? Why is it important to support the scout but not to support the adult volunteer? Perhaps we should drive to the scout's house and hand deliver it to him. That would be supportive wouldn't it? Or perhaps the best support I can give is to help him deal with the decisions that he needs to make. Life is a series of choices. Most of the time the choices are not between good or bad, or go

I'd love to hear of a good MB presentation. All we ever do is call the scout up, read off the merit badges, hand them the badges and give them a hand. It seems very dull, especially if it follows a good ceremony in recognizing the ranks. On that line. At COHs, do you recognize the ranks before the merit badges.

"Belive it or not YM have a life other than scouts so we need to give the some slack if we want them to stay involved." I disagree. When shown by your actions that Scouting is not important and that you will make it as accommodating as possible then you make it less desirable to them. When you set the value of Scouting high by your expectations then you make it more desirable.

Eagle92, Yes. They are courses for credit here as well. But the scout still makes a choice to take that class knowing that he would be missing troop meetings, including COHs. That is fine. I've no problem with them doing that. I might even go to a game and watch them, recognize them when the get First Chair, Team Captain, etc. Scouts will ask me, "Is it okay if I miss the meeting because of [activity]?" I tell them, "It isn't a matter of being 'okay', it is a matter of what is important to you and only you can make that call." If a boy asked the coach if he could miss a practice

"Unless there was a very good reason to have missed (neither band nor football practice count as good reasons), they can wait until the next COH." --Why aren't those good reasons? Sorry, I don't follow your logic at all. Why would they be good reasons? They are simply choices that the scout must make. They only have the importance that the scout and the leader places on them. Would the band director or the coach give the scout an excused absence if they missed practice for the COH? Why should I think less of the COH? I do not believe that scouting is any more or any less important

We give the rank badges at the meeting after their BOR. We present the merit badges, advancement cards and temporary patches at the COH. If they don't come to the COH the scout is still recognized but everything gets packed away until the next one. We also expect the scout to be in their field uniform. I'm not sure why we wait on the merit badges. I don't see doing it every week, but I could see doing it once a month with the rank badges. Temporary patches, especially with rockers, are a pain. No matter when we give them they get left. At least at the COH mom has a chance to snag the

We use some district counselors, mostly scouts finishing things up from merit badge round up. Quality is variable. In general, the district counselors are untrained. Given a choice I'll send a scout to a counselor I know before I'll send one that I don't know. I've had issues with some district counselors giving out bad information, mostly very incorrect information. For example, one, an assistant district commissioner, that was a counselor for one of the citizenship MBs that the scout could go on a bike trip with his family and it would qualify for the 9b Camping MB requirement. Unl

Thank you. I thought that might be it but hadn't been able to locate it to be sure. I'm surprised it was not a restricted item. I'll have to find the thread.

My COR bought this for me down at council. They thought it was for one of the awards of merit but were not sure which one. Does anyone know? The patch has a gold mylar border and a large gold mylar star between "Scoutmaster" and the Tenderfoot emblem. The product code on the back is 01/10 40159458(This message has been edited by jet526)

"No where is it stated the completed form is to be held until all the other requirements are met" It is not stated that it should be turned in ASAP regardless of the boy's eligability. If the boy was not yet 10 years old would you still turn in the application? What if they were not willing to live by the Oath and Law? Which of these requirements are optional? They are joining REQUIREMENTS, not "things it would be nice for you to do after you join, when you get around to it". Just because troops treat it that way doesn't make it right. Of the one difficult requirement the pamphlet st

"As soon as the registration form is turned in, the boy is no longer a WEBELOS, he is a Boy Scout." If you mean "As soon as the registration form is turned into council" then you would be correct. The unit leader should not sign or submit the application until all the requirements have been competed. Making an exception of completing the pamphlet or agreeing to live by the Scout Oath and Law is no different then making an exception for a 9 year old. Knowingly or not, the unit leader is saying that the scout has met all the joining requirements.

"Once upon a time, if memory serves, a CS who received AOL automatically got Scout AND had the 2 months as a scout requirement waived for Tenderfoot." My Webelos Award card (Which was what the AOL was called back then) is dated the day before the date on my Tenderfoot card.

"The Scout Badge requirements are to be done as a Boy Scout, not a Cub Scout." They are JOINING requirements that are done BEFORE he becomes a Boy Scout. The Scout Badge shows that he is a Boy Scout and he is not a Boy Scout until they are complete. The boy will be a Webelos until they are compete or his registration expires. While the AOL does not meet all the joining requirements, the remaining ones are trivial. If I could get the parents to all read the pamphet with their boy and turn in the application before crossover I would be happy to give them their Scout Badge at crossover.

I fail to see how requiring untrained-adults-that-don't-want-anything-to-do-with-scouting-but-are-submitting-to-their-bishop's-whim would have prevented the Beaver River Scout Camp fire. Indeed, it is a great example of what happens when you have a bunch of boys that have been nurse maided by untrained-adults-that-don't-want-anything-to-do-with-scouting-but-are-submitting-to-their-bishop's-whim.

My son (Chapter Chief) were talking about this yesterday. He says that if someone has to wear one that it should be on a jacket. This then led to a discussion on why it is that Advisors are the WORST about having unauthorized items on their sashes.

Check with your council. There will be someone who checks each application before sending it to National. They will know exactly how to count dates. Our council's instructions for the Eagle packet states: "It is BSA practice to assume all months have 30 days for calculationg(sic) rank advancement and leadership requirements".

Scout is not a rank. So there are six Boy Scout ranks and only ten from Tiger to Eagle.

jhankin: "To do your monthly visits to 3 units, attend a commissioners meeting once a month, and be available to the unit for phone calls, emails and maybe attend 1 outing for each unit a quarter..." Of course the real world seems to be visit each unit every 6 months to a year. Occasionally go to a roundtable and never, ever attend an outing, unit or district.

@ Lisabob This is jet526's son. I went to NAYLE in 2008 and it was, and is the defining point in my leadership education within the BSA. During my week of NAYLE, I was responsible for traveling by plane, on my own(a feat any 14 yr old can be proud of), making friends with a group of boys from all over(one youth was from the Far East Council!), and many other things. The program was extremely beneficial to my character, and to my understanding of team dynamics. My patrol was a group of guys in many walks of life, but by the end of our "storming" period, we were quite the team. I still main

My son really enjoyed it and recommends it to others. It is hard to say how much he grew because of it, as he also worked as a CIT at camp and was a Troop Guide for NYLT that summer.

"One thing that it deosn't do well though is Scout accounts." What? To my knowledge we've not had any issues with it handling Scout accounts.