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GKlose

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Posts posted by GKlose

  1. Thanks, Barry and TheGong -- when faced with a troop that was (in my opinion) dying a slow death, I struggled with the question of what I should do. General advice, on this forum, and on AskAndy, was closer to "you can't fix it, best to just walk away", but I decided to do it the hard way.

     

    Most importantly, I didn't do it alone. But I also didn't go straight to the committee and say "we need to fix this now!". I kept quiet for the first year, going to committee meetings. Then I started making suggestions --

     

    Here's a quick aside: our guys weren't cooking for themselves on outings. They were, but at adult direction ("do this, do that" kind of stuff). The SM was shopping at Costo. Why? Because it was easier to do in that way. So my first suggestion was along the lines of "you know what would be cool? Give each patrol a mystery box of ingredients, and see what they make?" It worked. My future plan was to give them a mystery envelope (with cash) and drive them to a grocery -- we haven't gotten to that yet, we haven't needed to.

     

    But the big change happened with Woodbadge. The other adult leaders didn't know what Woodbadge was all about, but I told them I have to do some small projects, and asked for their assistance (my ticket!) -- my ticket was oriented around reorganizing the troop to be youth led. Training them, etc. The other adult leaders didn't get in my way.

     

    About the same time, a WDL transferred to our troop. An Eagle. He could tell what I was trying to do, and supported it. We planned together, and worked on changes together. As of today, he is our SM and I am the CC.

     

    We still have a ways to go...I'd specifically like to institute a couple of Kudu's/Rick's ideas: one is to get away from car camping (completely, I hope, someday) and do that by offering a "backcountry" trip that is maybe a half mile away from parking. Then work from there.

     

    The other is to get our patrols separated physically (300ft!). That worked when I was a Scout, and there's no reason why it shouldn't work now. But we haven't been digging really deep to find outing spots to support that concept yet.

     

    This offer is open to anyone -- if you want to struggle through rebuilding a troop like I did, please feel free to drop me a PM. I'll send you my regular email address.

     

    By the way, much of my activity could have been directly attributed to posts in this forum. Several posters, such as Stosh and Buffalo Skipper were a ton of help. Bill Nelson has a bunch of great patrol method resources on his troop's website. Kudu/Rick, of course.

     

    Guy

  2. So we just got back from a Canadian Scout camp (which is outlined in another post), and it struck me that they didn't have commissioners either, and with the way the camp was set up, it didn't really matter. The Camp Factor (director) was available almost all of the time, for any issues that popped up (but there really weren't any).

     

    She started off the campsite inspections, the first day, with one unit leader. The next day, that unit leader accompanied our unit leader on inspections. Then the next day, our unit leader accompanied the next guy. The last day, the Camp Factor joined the unit leader who was covering that day. Inspections went just fine.

     

    It also set up some good-natured ribbing between units. The leader in the campsite adjacent to us spoke of his fondness for Mars bars. So we bought one and gave it to him as an award for coming in second place the previous day (behind us). And we got back just as much from him.

     

    So, all in all, I would agree. Sometimes I think you can do without commissioners. But the program I was explaining in my first response on this thread -- that camp depends entirely on having a hard-working commissioner staff. The camp couldnt' run without them.

     

    Guy

  3. I personally hate the worksheets. They are treated way too much, even by my own sons, as "fill in the blank" things, with little thought otherwise.

     

    So my protest is this, and it's happened about a dozen times so far -- I ask a Scout to take a look at his worksheet (especially if I ask him a question and then he looks at the sheet first). I glance at it and then turn it upside down on the table. Then I start a conversation with him.

     

    I've seen this done many times...I'm a musician too, and I recognized a long time ago that most student instrumentalists are lost if they don't have a music stand in front of them. I've seen many, many teachers just turn over whatever sheet music they have, and then the crutch is gone.

     

    Guy

  4. About three years ago, when our outing attendance dropped down to about 6 to 8 Scouts (out of 24 or so) per outing, I made a suggestion at a committee meeting. Since we were discussing reorganizing patrols, I said that it would make sense to form a patrol out of those 6 to 8 Scouts that went on every outing.

     

    Another committee member, a dad, whose son was not one of the active ones, actually shouted at me. "NO! You can't put all the good kids in one patrol!".

     

    I let that hang for a second and said, "listen, I'm not talking about good or bad or anything else -- I'm talking about rewarding those that are on every outing with a real patrol of their own."

     

    Since then, there's been a lot of changes in the troop. One thing, though, is that those who are pretty much inactive (some older Scouts, for example) are all in the same patrol.

     

    My younger son has been lamenting the patrol he's been in lately (his PL just moved up to ASPL). I told him "gather the guys you want to be in a patrol together and then go tell the SM that's your new patrol". I also cautioned him to be careful about picking and choosing, that you dont' want anyone to feel left out. He is sensitive to that kind of thing.

     

    Guy

  5. Right now, we're kind of finishing the second year of such a transition. It hasn't been easy, and we didn't have many adults trying to undermine the process. The hardest part, for us, has been the older Scouts in the troop. If they weren't expected to actually lead in the past, it is like pulling teeth to get them to change.

     

    I haven't really thought this through in terms of an overall plan, but here are some random thoughts:

     

    - just make the changes all at once...our prior SM labored, for years, saying "we're working on that" (in terms of re-instituting patrol method), and that was part of the problem. If you're stuck halfway, you're not really there. So just do it.

     

    - the PLC has to have autonomy -- it can't be a case of "once you choose your calendar, the adult troop committee will look it over and approve it"...they must know that what they want to do is really going to happen

     

    - patrol leaders must be trained...the big change for us was training older Scouts, and then holding elections. We kept the "eligible list" for elections limited to those who had gone through training. That pissed off a few older Scouts, who needed PoRs for advancement, but I could see it coming a mile away that they would have been stuck in the old mode of expecting credit for their do-nothing PoRs.

     

    - the training had some themes to it, along the lines of challenges: we challenged them to form a PLC and take back control of the troop calendar; we challenged them to take back control of meeting and outing planning; to run their patrols according to National Honor Patrol criteria. It didn't all take at once, but we're a lot better off now than we were two years ago.

     

    - one adult can't do this on their own; it took us at least two, with a common vision (of having an actual youth-led program); a few committee members got pissed off along the way, when their sons took a hit, so to speak. That wasn't pretty.

     

    - we found a patrol-oriented summer camp (in New Hampshire -- about 20 minutes further away than the camp we'd been attending) and that has done great things in terms of reinforcing patrol method in the troop; our guys now love the place.

     

    - resist all urges to have "ad-hoc patrols" on outings. I know you've got 101 reasons why it has to be that way, but it damages patrol identity, and functionality.

     

    I'm sure there's lots more, but details are escaping me at the moment.

     

    Guy

  6. This won't help either, but some 5 councils in the northeast do "MassJam" every four years -- at least the last couple have been held at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds on Cape Cod. Coming up again October 2013 (Columbus Day weekend).

     

    Guy

  7. Funny you should ask this -- we're considering the same thing.

     

    About a year ago, a family transferred up from Puerto Rico to our area and found our troop. I am really glad they didn't decide to join another troop :-). Wonderful people, wonderful stories, good Scout and Scouters.

     

    At summer camp last month, they suggested setting up an "interchange program" so that they could bring up selected Scouts from Puerto Rico to some of our troop outings. I immediately said, "let's figure out how to make this happen." Two days later, we had commitments from two Scouts to fly up for our August outing. We'll see how that goes.

     

    Meanwhile, the family attended our camp, and did much to compare and contrast the two camps (Guajataca, and I may be spelling that wrong, has a cafeteria and bunkhouses -- to them, our idea of canvas tents and cots is very much old-fashioned!).

     

    My mind has been racing on how to expand the program -- their old Puerto Rican troop is good at fundraising, so it is not out of the question that they may be able to get a patrol up here to attend the patrol-oriented camp we go to. Meanwhile, I'm thinking ahead to a few of our Scouts heading down there to Guajataca. The price seems good, at about $185/week. The only other issue is airfare, and maybe setting up some host families for the night before, or night after.

     

    Guy

  8. We shifted to the web version about a year ago -- the primary data entry is still done through the PC version (on the SM's laptop), but I access and make changes via the web. The SM is able to look up, via a web app on his phone, details at troop meetings.

     

    One thing we've noted -- he still does backups, and then generates the "transfer" data file for our SOAR-based website. Troopmaster has a few of the features that our SOAR site has (calendar, email) but we don't use it for that.

     

    No complaints so far, except for one annoying one that SOAR is working on fixing. We have two names with apostrophes, and both are treated differently by SOAR (names changed: D'Angelo comes across as "DeAngelo" and O'Hagan comes across as "OHagan"...neither actually use the apostrophe).

     

    Guy

  9. When I was on camp staff in the late 70s (Camp Hugh Taylor Birch, Tecumseh Council, near Springfield, OH) I spent one year on the commissioner staff. I enjoyed it because the head commissioner was a fun guy (he was early 30s, one other commissioner was in his early 20s, and then there were two or three of us that were 17 or so). It wasn't a big camp, so we did "rounds" in the morning, and then in the afternoon, we were the "scoutcraft" program staff. We set up a "model campsite" and taught there.

     

    I was a special case though. My Scoutmaster, a photographer, was the Program Director. He set up a darkroom in a tiny cabin, and I ran darkroom sessions for photography merit badge out of it.

     

    It was a fun summer, but I preferred working in the camp kitchen, which is what I did the year prior and the year after.

     

    Guy

  10. Arrived home late Saturday from a trip to Tamaracouta Scout Reserve, in Quebec, less than an hour north of Montreal. Had a fantastic week.

     

    There are so many things to report, I don't think I can do them justice in a short note -- overall, pricing wasn't bad. If we'd gone for "full catering" (dining hall) it would have been close to $400 (CDN) per Scout. Lots of troops, though, do either partial- or self-catering, which brings down the cost. We bought 3 meals in their dining hall (arrival day dinner, evening before departure dinner and departure day breakfast), and the rest was covered with bringing staples and food for the first day, and then shopping trips in a local market. With some management, I think we could have been lower than our projected $300 per Scout cost (I'll have final figures once I see how grocery expenses convert to US$).

     

    By the way, there is a Scouter local to me that was great assistance in our trip. He's written an "American's Guide to TSR" which was invaluable.

     

    Co-ed camp, and multiple ages (I think they stabilize revenue with day camp programs and with non-Scout groups). Out of the six major groups in camp last week, only 3 of us were officially Scout groups.

     

    Program was similar to one of our local camps -- morning "learning periods" some of which related to "challenge badge" (their merit badge) work, and afternoon troop programs. There were many evenings filled with campwide activity.

     

    One part I really liked: Saturday arrival (setup camp, do the swim test), Sunday morning "Scout's Own" followed by camp opening. Sunday afternoon, troop program time. Monday morning started the real program. Thursday night talent show/campfire, Friday night closing ceremony, Saturday morning departure. Just in time for new groups coming in after 1pm on Saturday.

     

    By the way, the swim test isn't all that similar to ours. It was just "swim 100 meters, any way you can."

     

    Friendly, laid-back staff. Co-ed. No tents, platforms or cots. We brought our own troop equipment. We forgot some, and they assisted with scrounging. One outbuilding had a ton of refrigerators and freezers, for our food storage. If camp had been packed, I'm sure we'd have run into difficulties there.

     

    I originally found this place online -- I thought "hey, there's an entire country north of us that must have a Scouting program" and it didn't take too long to figure out it would be really simple to take a group up to one of their camps. It was about a 7-hour drive for us, which includes the border stop.

     

    Biggest pain -- our largest group in camp in years. 16 Scouts, 7 adults. Multiple forms, passports, etc. Some families dragged out the paperwork as long as possible, some evening waiting until the morning of departure to provide some critical information (despite multiple pleas from me).

     

    Guy

  11. We go to a patrol-oriented camp (Camp Bell, Griswold Scout Reservation, Daniel Webster Council, NH) and it relies heavily on commissioner service. They run the camp with 3, I think, and they are among the hardest-working camp staff I have ever seen.

     

    They assist with equipment setup and lending (things like fixing broken stoves, refilling propane, providing dutch ovens or consumables, such as soap, TP, sanitizer tablets, condiments, etc); they do the regular morning and afternoon "rounds", sometimes specifically for talking to patrol leaders directly (instead of just the adult leaders), but they bring coffee on morning rounds; they take care of distributing coolers (packed by the commissary) for our patrol cooking, and cooler and trash pickup; they also assist with program in many, many ways. Sometimes as "floaters" to a program area that might be overloaded that day (you'd have to understand the camp -- patrols sign up for a day of activity in a program area -- for example, a day of sailing at the waterfront); or, they might be offsite on an "outpost" with a group overnight. The list goes on and on.

     

    Guy

  12. The epiphany for me...

     

    I remember that, as a Scout, we sang really well, and our skits were always funny. Even the old, tired skits that we saw millions of times, there was always some twist that kept it fresh.

     

    Fast forward to a couple of years ago, when I returned to the program as a Scouter. We're at a camporee, with bunches of troops -- couldn't stand the shout-singing and the old, tired skits that I've seen millions of times before were annoying more than anything else.

     

    Then I looked over and noticed a Scoutmaster who I'd met a few months before (when we were troop-shopping, so to speak). He'd been an SM for over 15 years, and here he was, standing at the rear of the crowd, watching all of the dopey skits, laughing at the dopey jokes. I know that for every skit I'd seen a million times, he's probably seen it two millions times. Shout-singing? He was right there, too.

     

    It was at that moment that I realized the problem was me. It was my attitude that needed fixing.

     

    Guy

  13. I ran a weekend session a couple of years ago...it was a rainy weekend, so we spent a little more time indoors than I'd hoped.

     

    One thing we did that I think was notable was that we had the SPL run a model patrol meeting on Friday night, based on prepping for an outing (all PLs were complete novices). They planned the weekend menu, for example, and they didn't know it at the time, but that became their menu for the training weekend. Their last task was to select from a pile of DVDs I brought.

     

    They selected Band of Brothers, and we finished that evening by watching the first episode. Except they enjoyed it so much, they asked to watch the second one too. We broke about 10pm. It was raining, so we'd have otherwise just done a campfire.

     

    Second night, training pretty much ended with dinner, so we had another rainy evening open. They decided they wanted to watch two more episodes.

     

    So even if Band of Brothers is based around the military, I think it shows quite a bit in terms of team-building and overcoming adversity.

     

    Guy

  14. This is our second year of two camps -- but let me back up 3+ years ago --

     

    The troop had lapsed into a mode where a kid would attend summer camp with the troop for two summers, then they'd go to "Eagle Week" at the local camp, for one or two years. After that, they'd have all the merit badges they needed, so they didn't go to camp any more.

     

    You know those complaints where every Scout only has the merit badges earned in a summer camp? Well, that's kind of like what we had.

     

    Along the way, our guys forgot how to have fun at camp. They only went to summer camp to earn merit badges.

     

    In those years, attendance went from 16 to 12 to 8 Scouts (out of a troop of about 26 to 28).

     

    So drastic steps were needed :-). I pushed for a change of venue. We found a true patrol-oriented camp in an adjacent council. First year, we had 6 go. I didn't feel bad about it, because other than my two sons, the future-SM's son, we only had 3 others go, and to them it didn't matter where, really. We still had older Scouts go to "Eagle Week" on their own.

     

    Then last year was step 2 of the master plan -- we returned to the patrol-oriented camp, with 8 Scouts. I then pushed for a second week at a camp on the same reservation, a regular program-oriented camp. I billed it as a replacement for "Eagle Week" because the camp offered most of those same Eagle-required merit badges. Scouts were still free to go to the other "Eagle Week" on their own, but most didn't. They just went with us to this second camp. Eight more Scouts, but in reality, we had twelve Scouts go to at least one of the camps, and I think six went to both.

     

    Turns out they hated the program-oriented camp.

     

    So two weeks ago, we returned to the same patrol-oriented camp (this time with 15 Scouts), and next month we're heading to a camp in Quebec, with 16 Scouts. I think we have 12 that are attending both, but 22 that are attending at least one week of camp. Not bad, considering that we were down to 6 or 8 attending each summer. Broke the cycle out of "Eagle Week" too.

     

    I dislike everything about "Eagle Week". I don't like the idea that they offer *all* of the E/R merit badges, and I am certain many of them are watered down. I don't like the idea that summer camp becomes synonymous with advancement. I think there should be a nice blend of everything. Summer camp shouldn't be about the classroom, unless you consider the great outdoors to be a natural classroom.

     

    Guy

  15. Heard a story, a long time ago (no idea if it is true or not) -- one of my closest friends was a guide at Matagamon, circa 1978-79. He said one of the other guides, on the Allagash, had a group go over a "grand pitch"...the guide couldn't stop them in time, so he just decided to go too. Story is they ended up with just one broken leg in the group, and a whole lot of damaged equipment.

     

    I've been there -- it is some scary looking whitewater. We did a "rump bump" on Webster Brook, which wasn't too bad. But I did hit a rock with my knee, and it took months before it felt better.

     

    Guy

  16. This is yet another "me too" post -- not me, though. I get my forms in promptly, because I am all too familiar with the receiving end.

     

    Summer camp (last week) wasn't so bad this year, but I started in January trying to collect all forms. 16 Scouts, and only 1 had to bring the form with him (the deadline for the camp was June 1 -- my troop-imposed deadline was mid-May, so I could make the June 1 deadline). I had a bigger problem, this year, with two Scouts bringing medication in unmarked packaging. The camp nurse, on check-in, took their ziplocks and handed it directly to me and said "I can't accept these, please lock them in your car." Now I'm left wondering if this medication is critical or not.

     

    But that's all a side issue...collecting forms. Honestly, I view it somewhat differently than most. I see it as Parts A, B and C, and the copy of the medical insurance card, and possibly a doctor-generated physical exam report. Either 4 or 5 separate items, per Scout and Adult. This year, 16 Scouts and 4 adults in camp, so 80 to 100 separate pieces of information to collect, total. I'm sure all of you would empathize with the idea that I might get 2 out of the 4 or 5, and have to continually hound to get the rest of them in, on-time.

     

    I know this is self-inflicted (as in the troop is voluntarily doing this), but we are heading to a Canadian camp in a few weeks. The camp wanted forms June 1 also, but I just found this out two weeks ago. So I'm going to try and collect all forms in the next two weeks. This time, it is 8 to 10 individual forms per person, with a total of 23 people. So anywhere from 160 to 230 individual items. I am due for a headache, because it is hard enough when it is just 4 or 5 forms, per person. Tonight's task is to make a spreadsheet for tracking this stuff, and logging in the small handful of stuff already handed in.

     

    Guy

  17. I've been custom ordering for a couple years...for one thing, with the separate numerals, the font of the digit "2" does not match the other digits. So our troop number, "82", looks ridiculous when it is separate numerals. Really -- you can see it on Scoutstuff.org! They don't match! And they haven't matched since the new numerals were introduced with the Centennial uniform, some 3 years ago.

     

    The other thing is that the price of a custom-made two-digit patch is about the same as buying the single digits from the local Scout Shop.

     

    Guy

  18. I only know of two cases, related to our troop. One night, a new Scout showed up with his mom, to check things out. While the Scout was off with the rest of the troop, I had a chat with mom. Turns out he was kind of unhappy in his other troop, and wanted to see if this might be a better fit. I didn't really put on the full sales job, so to speak. I just told her about the third troop in town, and that they may want to check out that one too.

     

    The next weekend, I saw the other troop's SM at a training function. He didn't really know me, so I introduced myself, and told him about the visit, and that I wasn't really trying to recruit out of his troop. He said, "I know, turns out there was some kind of misunderstanding, and we've cleared things up." I think being direct and honest with him was the start of a long and cordial friendship.

     

    The other case -- we had a Scout show up that hadn't been around in a couple of years (since his Life BoR), and it appeared he was working on his Eagle application, wanting signatures. Our new SM suggested that he needed to really be an active part of the troop, and hold a real PoR, if he wanted a signature. Scout took umbrage ("but the [former] SPL signed it off in my book!", even though neither of them had been seen in two years), and went to check out this other troop. He told them the situation, and they checked with us, and ultimately decided to tell the Scout that he probably should work things out with us. Turns out they have an actual attendance standard for advancement and didn't like the idea of a Scout joining them just to finish Eagle. I think we've patched things up with this Scout, although we've still only seen him at a couple of meetings, and on no outings (for the last year).

     

    Guy

  19. I've filled out two plans, in the last couple of weeks. No issues.

     

    Well, minor issues. Maybe. Or not.

     

    The second one isn't complete. I don't have a vehicle listed for one adult, so that was flagged. He's stonewalling me. I've asked him year, make and model twice, and I don't have an answer yet.

     

    The other is that we have two adults, out of 7, where there is no YPT. It's flagged as a deficiency. That's okay, but I thought that according to the G2SS you don't need to have every adult with YPT. I know it's a good idea, and maybe this is a mandate coming down the pike, but at the moment, it is flagged as a deficiency.

     

    Here's some oddities that I've noticed: our pre-populated leader list is okay, but is missing one adult. When I notified the council about this, I ran into a quagmire. He actually hadn't been registered (because of non-payment -- when, in fact, I had paid for him twice before! They were working on extracting $16.25 from me, for the third time this charter period. We're still working on resolving that).

     

    Another oddity: our CC is wrong (it's now me). Our council knows it is me. I guess Scoutnet doesn't.

     

    The system seems to make some assumptions -- like the person filing the tour plan is not the CC or COR, and is probably the SM. I'm CC, and I'm filing the plan for summer camp. I do get a copy of the plan, as does the COR, as does the emergency contact adult. So does the CC who is no longer the CC. The SM isn't getting it, because he's not the one filling it out.

     

    In a complete context switch -- but related -- I took my sons to the district's "Life to Eagle" seminar last week, where they were informed that, for an Eagle project, "you must fill out a tour permit...it's for insurance reasons." At an appropriate time, I was annoying and mentioned there are no longer any tour permits, or approvals, and that it was all done online now, and that I wasn't sure if Scouts were able to log into myscouting.scouting.org to fill out a tour plan. I wasn't trying to do a gotcha on him -- he said he'd look into it. I just didn't want a bunch of Life Scouts to walk around thinking there were permits that had to be approved before they could file their workbook.

     

    Guy

  20. >> the advancement chair (the arbiter of "new rules") tells Scouts,

    >> at a Board of Review, "okay,... from here on out you're going

    >> to be expected to actually participate

    >

    >But that is not the role of the Advancement Chair, and they are not entitled to say such a thing. >The Advancement Chair doesn't decide if a requirement is met. The SM does that. The SM makes that >decision.

     

    That was my original statement -- perhaps a poor choice of words. I meant "arbiter" in the sense that the AC was given responsibility of working the new policy into effect.

     

    But let me spin this around into a general, "what would you do?" type of question.

     

    What if it is an adult-led troop method, advancement-oriented troop? Some of the adult leaders aren't as interested in fostering a real patrol method type of environment as they were creating an advancement culture where things were signed off quickly (two years at summer camp, then two years at Eagle Week for Eagle-required merit badges), and making sure their own sons advanced. Patrol leaders exist, but functioning patrols do not. An SPL exists, but he doesn't really lead, because adults are tending to bark out orders. Other PoRs are considered "plum" because, for example, a librarian, scribe, bugler or quartermaster isn't really held accountable for their position. What would you do?

     

    I'll tell you, it wasn't easy, I didn't do it alone (the real credit should go to the AC, now SM), and it took lots of time. In fact, it is an ongoing process. We're finding that our efforts are best spent at working with those coming into the troop, as older Scouts are aging out.

     

    All in all, I'm pretty confident that I know the rules and policies -- I know what an SM is supposed to do, what an AC and a CC are supposed to do, and what youth leaders should be taking care of. The real question is if you'd take steps to work around some of those roles too, if you knew serious corrections needed to be made?

     

    Guy

  21. A real life situation: adult-led, troop method advancement-oriented troop (is this the Perfect Storm, or what?)...new(er) leadership decides to push for a shift in advancement, namely giving credit to Scouts for positions of responsibility only when they've actually been present and doing something. Believe me, that transition from "old rules" to "new rules" can cause lots of problems.

     

    In particular, the advancement chair (the arbiter of "new rules") tells Scouts, at a Board of Review, "okay, so you've pretty much had a free pass up to now, but from here on out you're going to be expected to actually participate and show some responsibility." So that's all well and good, until you come up to the first "test case."

     

    The advancement chair announces, at a committee meeting, that we're running into our first case (of a Scout coming up to a Board of Review, as a Patrol Leader, but who had pretty much only attended a small handful of meetings and just a couple of outings in the past year -- remember, he'd been warned at the previous BoR).

     

    It didn't take long, but the parent of the Scout in question became quite agitated, and started yelling, and couldn't possibly understand why his son would be singled out. It wasn't pretty at all. This is the only, before or since, where we had a parent lose it like that at a meeting.

     

    When everything was settled, we figured out what the real problem was. Boards of Review were only being done the last meeting of the month, and rank badges were only handed out at Courts of Honor. This parent thought that his son, who would be running into time issues, if he wasn't awarded Life by the upcoming Court of Honor. Honestly, just a simple misunderstanding on his part (although I'd admit, he didn't need to fly off the handle to that extent).

     

    A couple of simple corrective actions were taken: now we hold Boards whenever we're asked, provided there are enough adults around. The second is that a rank badge is handed over immediately. And in this particular case, a quick Scoutmaster conference with the Scout in question cleared up the issues with his leadership responsibility -- and he's attended quite a few meetings and outings since then. Just got his Eagle project approved last week. Turning 18 this fall, as I recall.

  22. I proposed an idea to the Scoutmasters of the other two troops in my town: what do you think about a "Super PLC" meeting? (my term -- another one just referred to it as a local roundtable). Why not, we're all on friendly terms, all three troops are different, and we all want to see each other succeed.

     

    My idea came about because I keep thinking about joint events, strengths and weaknesses. We've done some trips lately that the others might like hearing about...we go to a different summer camp than the other two, and I love our camp so much that I want them to know about it. It is a real patrol-oriented camp.

     

    We've just had initial contact about it, and haven't scheduled the first meeting yet. I thought it would be good if youth leaders and adults could meet, and just see what we can brainstorm, and then see if there's interest in continuing it a couple times a year.

     

    So why not the regular monthly roundtable? Well, one issue with us is that it falls on a troop meeting night for two of the troops. The other is that our district was absorbed by another, two years ago, and things are pretty much run by the other district. It's not the same any more. Because they are remote from us, we've sort of lost our local identity.

     

    Guy

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