herbie1234

Just to close this out, after an additional friendly meeting over a cup of Coffee, the SM agreed to step down. However, he changed his mind and a Committee Meeting was required. After 2 hours of discussion, he did agree to resign. Thanks to everyone for their feedback.

Here's the latest. The SM sat down with the CC, COR, and another committee member. He went on for quite some time about what happened at camp and throughout the year, and promised to do better. In the process he pretty much bad mouthed every other member of the troop. He had no plan, but the COR sent him on his way. When other folks found out about this, there were many unhappy calls to the COR. The COR doesn't think he has the authority to remove him, so he asked for commitee meeting for a vote. There are some committee members, who probably couldn't pick out a single kid in the troop if they weren't in uniform, that think this is being handled the wrong way. The CC has followed the directives of the COR and District Commissioner and is getting beat up. The vote could go either way and will likely damage the troop anyway. I'm taking the advice of desertrat77 and trying to set up a meeting one on one with him to see if we can resolve this. If he doesn't agree to step down, we'll be looking at starting a new troop or transferring.

Our Commissioner & COR have been apprised of our problem. They both agree that a change is in order. Can the COR make this change without a committee action? It seems to be he can, although he has always worked through our committee in the past. He has been an active part of our troop for years, including a stint as SM many years ago. He definitely has the pulse of the troop. I realize the normal procedure on SM selection is to wotk through the committee, but with the summer break it's going to be very difficualt to get them together and this needs to be resolved quickly.

Folks- thanks for the feedback. Here's response to some of the questions. Yes- we have an experienced & trained ASM ready to step up. The SM has been in the position for a little over a year and has been through training. He previously was on the Committee and did very little with the boys. I am an ASM in the Troop. The CC agrees that there is a problem, as her son and his best friend want out of the troop. Three other Committee Member's boys want out also. There's going to be a meeting with the District Commissioner tonight to get some advise. The COR has not been notified, but will be after this meeting.

This has probably been hashed over on this forum, but I'd like some fresh perspective. We recently returned from summer camp, normally a bonding experience for our troop, and the Scoutmaster is making most of the kids and all of the other leaders miserable. He's taken on a tact that since he's the Scoutmaster, everyone has to do what he says and he's offended when there is disagreement from the other adults (he's retired military). For example, he was really riding the SPL about getting the campsite cleaned for the day, after he had previously stated that he was going to let the boys be responsible and if the site didn't pass the daily visitation from staff, so be it. I quietly asked him to let the boy boy do his job, and he got in my face about how he was in charge when he was in the site & I should stay out of it. Also, he lectured one of the boys for following direction from one of the other adult leaders that he didn't agree with. Lastly, every almost every meal the kids had to sit and listen to a 5 minute lecture on something that was bugging him. The kids are getting pretty tired of it. Since camp, the Committee Chair has received calls from leaders & parents who are ready to pull their kids out. Including the SM, we only really have 4 really active leaders, of which 3 may be leaving. This is a small troop, so this would probably mean it will fold. We have some ideas on how to deal with this, but would be very interested to hear other opinions and experiences.