GKlose

Our patrol heard that other patrols were going to be giving their TGs a gift at the completion of the course. We talked about it briefly, and decided to throw in $10 each towards a gift. We didn't have any great ideas, but I saw a Leatherman on sale at the local REI and asked the rest of the patrol if they thought that would be a good idea. They agreed, so that's what we bought for him. At course completion, everyone was doing a quick presentation, so we gave it to him. No problem. But then others started giving out their gifts, and they were more "thematic" so to speak. Like the Fox Patr

We're a SOAR/myTroop user too. Universally, everyone in the troop loves the EBlast. The reality is that I go in at least once a week, just prior to the EBlast, and change up the announcements on the front page of the site so they are re-sent with the weekly EBlast. I might add an announcement or two of something that is upcoming. In other words, the EBlast content is constantly being freshened. So I typically do three things w.r.t. a new or changed event...I'll send out email to "announce@..." for immediate email, I'll enter the announcement on the site, and then I'll make the calendar en

Just a side note, B-Skip -- congratulations on the troop revitalization. I've been witnessing the same thing with our troop. Three years ago, I thought we were well on our way toward folding (19 Scouts and dropping, with 9 that were aging out this last year). We just picked up two last night, for a total of 30, most of whom are active. Outings have gone from 6 to 8, to about 15 to 20. Simple stuff, really -- if you build it (program), he (they) will come. Guy

Personally, I would be very afraid of swimming with manatees. There's too much of a chance that one of them might find me rather attractive (in a manatee-like sense) and decide to court me. :-) Guy

Our number came in at 1800 also -- some quick observations. We had two outings that didn't fall into either the long-term or short-term column: a 5-day canoe trip, and a ski trip where the guys stayed in a bunkhouse at a ski resort. Besides those we had 10 outings that met the short-term qualifications and two weeks at summer camp. Not bad for a troop that just a couple of years ago wasn't even getting in six outings a year. I will claim partial credit for helping rejuvenate the troop culture and activity level. Most of the credit goes to an SPL that far exceeded expectations, and did a g

I suppose like everyone else, our guys go through cycles. We're complicated because while we have vegetarians, we also have a peanut allergy Scout, and a Scout with a severe milk and egg allergy (he really only eats bacon and plain bagels at home). One thing they stumbled upon awhile back was tacos -- with refried beans as a filling for the vegetarians. One campout I formed a small cooking groups for two vegetarians, and their dads -- since we were looking for something quick to prepare, we had heat and eat Indian entrees that were actually very good (bought on sale at an Indian grocery,

I think some Scouts just naturally try to slide by as best they can, working every angle they can think of. Case in point: Cooking MB, and a Scout from the troop comes to me as the counselor. I'd previously counseled him in Music MB, so I knew he was just a "slide by" minimal effort kind of kid. First meeting, I warned him and his buddy that Cooking was not a simple merit badge, that there were a lot of tiny details to work through. So the wise-guy of a Scout turns in a "camping menu" (versus "home menu" or "backpacking menu") that has mango listed as a fruit for every meal and Mount

Since I live in New England, in addition to the things that others have mentioned, I always carry/wear a hat and a fleece layer :-). Guy

A side note, but our district committee had a similar circumstance last year. A guy shows up, young and an Eagle, but I'm not sure if he was a college student or not. Most district committee work would have been fairly boring for him, so they added him to the Boy Scout activities subcommittee. Help out with planning a few camporees, that sort of thing. Nothing too difficult. OA would be another good place to assist. Maybe campmaster at the local camp. All sorts of things. No need to turn him away. Guy

If I were in that same situation, I would be tempted to do two things: - I would seek out most, if not all of Stosh's postings about his experiences. He seemed to have a way with boy-led that sounded very interesting. I'm thinking of an incident in particular, perhaps it was something like him leading a jamboree contingent troop. He said "I don't do adult-led well, so let's try this..." and then he stepped them through a bunch of boy-led exercises. It was pretty clever, I think. - I'd take a page out of Kudu's book -- I'd get the 3rd edition SM handbook and do a sort of training sess

Since the splinter from our troop, we haven't really had many problems (in that regard). I would admit that when my son joined, I saw a load of problems too. I've tried to work within the system, and help change the troop culture. It's taken a lot of hard work, and some cooperation by like-minded adults. I've documented many of these trials and tribulations on this forum through a series of questions and comments (sometimes with a preface that said we are/have been an "adult-led, advancement-oriented troop method troop"). The guys that left could have done the same thing, and helped devel

So the troop that my oldest decided to join, some 4 years ago, had a similar issue. When we were visiting troops, I didn't know what was up, but then I pieced it together later on. An entire Webelos den from a pack joins a troop. They are formed as a new scout patrol, going into summer camp, and then when fall rolls around, the troop reorganizes, and the den/patrol is split up into other patrols. The now split-up patrol members (and/or the dads) aren't too happy about it, and aren't happy they don't have any input into the annual calendar (that had been previously set up). They go off on

Stosh -- what really strikes me about both of your stories, and knowing that you had anything but an "Eagle mill" going, is that those are two very solid incidents of mature Scouts who demonstrated they were Eagles, despite the a priori expectations of the board. Well done :-), to the Scouts and to you. Guy

KC9DDI -- I like that response! Blancmange -- I don't know how that is reconciled. What I suspect, however, is that the policy had been developed after one too many incidences of hovering parents (we all have at least a few of those stories, right?). If I can quickly find the "dispatches" from our DE, I'll post them here. We'll see how this all pans out, with the changes. My oldest should be attending the "Life to Eagle" seminar within a couple of months, and I'll be keeping my ears open. For some fun, I might even drop a small bomb or two. Guy

In case you didn't read the prior thread, I'm the Scouter that was observing the EBoR where the board chair said these words: "since Eagle projects are required to have 'lasting value', tell us...". It hadn't been the first time I heard those words. About a year earlier, I was at a "Life To Eagle" Seminar for a different district, and I heard two things that made me stop and think -- the first was "even though there is no minimum number of hours required for an Eagle project, we like to see about a hundred hours" and the second was "we like to see projects have 'lasting value'". I don't h

TwoCub -- I haven't discussed it with the Scout yet because I haven't seen him since the board was held. If this thread is still active, I'll talk to him this next week and then report back. I will offer this: I was with the Scout and SM/dad moments after we exited the boardroom. The Scout plopped in a chair, relieved, and said to his dad "man, they really grilled me!". At the time, I thought that was a pretty fair reaction. Guy

I'm just kind of tossing this out for thought-provoking discussion -- I don't really have an agenda here (and I admitted up front that some of these are hot button issues). At the time, my reaction was that it is certainly fair for them to ask about 103 MBs -- in fact, another piece of the story is that "Neighbor-Scout" had his EBoR a month earlier, but I'm not sure how many of the same Scouters were on his EBoR too. I did hear that board questioned his 103 MBs as well. The question about where the merit badges came from doesn't bug me so much. If a Scout, for example, is racking up

I would guess we're not talking about last minute board members either. The way the process works in this district -- the advancement committee meets on the 3rd Thursday of the month, and requests for either project review or EBoRs have to go in two weeks prior (1st Thursday deadline). If a Scout misses the 1st Thursday, they wait until the next month to be considered. The advancement board meets prior to 7:15pm, for regular business. At 7:15pm, they start their first Eagle Board. Second one at 7:45pm. If there are 4 candidates on a Thursday night, they split into 2 boards, and handle 2 c

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'm just giving you one facet of a 3-sided story, I'm sure the board and the candidate would have their own takes on what happened as well. When the news was delivered to the Scout-candidate, he and his SM/dad were before the board, and I wasn't. From what I understand, the board told him the favorable news and then suggested that he continue with his leadership development by participating in our council's Brownsea 22 program (which is still the old circa 1976 syllabus) -- the Scout had already been planning on doing that. He's got a pile of merit badges,

Another thought -- re: mentoring younger Scouts. This Scout's PoRs include being a Den Chief, an Instructor and (now) a PL. I don't think he was quite ready to be a PL last year, but when a bunch of Scouts were transitioning in this last June, we thought he was the best candidate for taking on a new Scout patrol, some of whom were in a den where he was a den chief. He's on virtually every outing, and this year was at both of our summer camp weeks. In other words, I think he's doing just fine in that regard. Since this is all self-regulated, I don't see him burning out any time soon :-).

"lasting value" -- first time I heard something strange was at a "Life to Eagle Seminar" in a different district, not this one. The presenter said, "we like to see projects that have lasting value". Same district made no bones about getting around the "no required amount of time on an Eagle project" by saying "there is no required number of minimum hours, but we like to see about 100 hours". Anyway, fast forward to today. I'd read the section of the new G2A, and had made a mental note of the "projects are not required to have lasting value" part. I'm pretty sure this advancement committee

Stosh -- I think you're dead on. Along the way, the board did mention that the vast majority of candidates they see are about to turn 18, or have already (two other Scouts from our troop also had their boards that same night, and both had already turned 18). The chair did ask him about his plans after earning Eagle -- I do know his plans, but he didn't do really well articulating them. He's off to Philmont next summer, he's just been inducted into the OA, and he is set on earning the national outdoors awards and the Hornaday award. That should take him a good three years or so :-). M

Just in case you missed my earlier message :-), I sat in on an EBoR as an observer (in lieu of the SM, who is the candidate's father). At our district EBoRs, SM's are invited to sit and observe, and to answer any questions that might come up. So, I didn't want these issues to cloud the earlier message, and I know these topics are somewhat "hot button" issues, but I just thought I would toss them out as observations. The board was being run by 3 adults, not in uniform :-), and I know one to be the district eagle board chair, who reviews all projects. - chair poses a question like this: "

By the way -- there are a couple of other northeast high adventure programs I've seen: Adirondack Trek by Patriots' Path Council (http://www.camps.ppbsa.org/camps/sac/Trek.htm) and the Valley Voyageur program by Daniel Webster Council. I'd agree that the VV program isn't nearly as remote as MHA, but I would think that the Patriots' Path version would come close. Guy

Couple of related thoughts -- Le V, our troop went on our own high adventure trip this summer, in the same general area in which MHA operates. The major issues -- MHA's prices and their 14 year old age limitation. We didn't go on the Allagash, where I'd agree that even 14 is rather young, but MHA still has the limitation on easier trips. And then -- we did a 5-day trip for about $160 each. MHA charges much more than that. B-Dweller, I think you're right about FoS drying up. Same thing happened in our Council, with the sale of a camp. The situation was this -- council consolidations i