highcountry

We have tried to stress at PLC's the job duties of the positions, coach them along the way, hand out job descriptions etc. Next PLC is going to be 85% on leadership, responsibility, knowing and doing one's job. Most all the kids in my troop have the idea of getting back home to their xbox on their minds though. The parents don't take much of a stand so when I (the SM) tries to, I am seen as demanding and unfair vs the parents that roll over and let the kids do what they want without consequence. I have several who will be getting advance warning that tehy will not pass a SM review if they

This is the point I have reached at this time as well. I have notified the troop that I am taking the summer off and have sent an email to the adult volunteers what loose ends ae open, the schedule, roster and all kinds of other attachments. I have gotten calls and I am responding with "I am too busy right now"....it works for so many of them, now it's my turn. I want the troop to survive and succeed but others have to start to do their jobs and not wait for me to pick up the slack. As someone notes, teh longer the SM keeps puting his fingers in all the holes in the dike, the longer he is

Our troop has been frustrated over the fundraising issue and have about given up. Most of the adult leaders believe a scout should learn to make it on his own steam as a part of the learning process in scouting, the problem is we have a predominant lazy attitude amongst our scouts and few parents support the concept of thier son getting out and learning to earn their own way. Most of the parents are fine to just write a check. We have gone to the boys on a few occasions on what ideas they had for fundraisers, only 2 significant ideas came forth. The first one was to try and make "easy Mone

This sounds a little similar to teh CC from helll situation I had to get fixed about a year ago but with some differences. The CC I ahd to get removed was possibly more abbrasive and to be honest, down right evil base don the description you gave. I however had 100% support from every scout, every parent, every committe memeber and every ASM to get her removed. It was not an easy job and I had to put up with her abrasive ways until she got booted but since everyone was on board I knew we could win the fight before collateral damage occurred in the troop. Your situation though sounds li

I see the phrase "common Sense" being tossed about lately here, thet is what we tend to go by (saftey first of course). Common Sense tells me that the youth is earning his Eagle Award by doing the project so it is part of scouting. It's a requirement for rank, anyone know any Eagle Scouts who made the rank but did not do an Eagle project ? The book could just as easily say that troop meetings are outside the sphere of scouting. Just because some rule book says so, doesn't mean it really is so, at least with someone having common sense. Common sense also tells me that no one is goi

I can't provide a list of rules but there have been many ridiculous rules already noted on this thread I was not aware of, rules that provide little to no safety benefit that help get some percieved laibility off someone's shoulders but make doing or organizing an activity difficult. Do I try to put on a safe program...you bet, I also try to put on a program that teaches my scouts the fundementals we are trying to achive, hard enough in these days where parents and kids want out the easy way all the time. I sometimes read here and elsewhere of scouters who seem to derive some sort of pride o

I don't think it's just as simple as scouts is less interesting than band etc. Example 1....I have a scout (Almost 17) who suggested a Mountain Bike outing, several other older scouts supported the idea and it made the calendar. I was fine with adding it even though experience has showed that only ONE Bike related trip over the past 4 years in our troop was NOT cancelled. Now the scout who proposed it is heavily involved in Baseball with a rigorous game and practice schedule, he will likely not go to the event and there are only a handful MAYBE who will go. The problem is not alweays simpl

Typically our Eagle projects are a type of work that gungy cloths are the norm so Class A's are not even and issue. We did have one Eagle project late last Spring which was in the publuc eye, re-landscaping at tht local public library. Several scouts did some hours of work in at least their class A. The people in the community could see the local troop was active and contributing to the community which shed a good light on our troop and BSA in general. That to me creates a much large psoitive than the negative of breakin one of BSA's launrdy list of ridiculous, counter productive rules.

It becomes confusing and I agree with Beavah about trademark law getting out of hand and purchasing the shirt. While I would not agree someone wearing the BSA shirt while trying to raise funds involving a raffle for a house of ill repute, one needs to draw the line at what is reasonable and the intent of BSA. And if I buy the shirt, where do I need to apply for permission to wear it ? At troop meetings and activites ? What if I stop in the local grocery store on a way to a meeting with it on and am seen donating into a kettle for the salvation army ? If I stop to get gasoline on the way to

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as: Knowing when to come in out of the rain; Why the early bird gets the worm; Life isn't always fair; and Maybe it was my fault. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to de

I hope you guys all realize that it is only 99% of lawyers that give the rest a bad name

I picked up one of the BSA units a year or so ago, mostly out of memories of when I was a scout and the men who ran the troop, they all had the red wool BSA jackets. Since I became scoutmaster it was a neat way of identifying with my past as a scout and trying to carry the spirit forward to today and my troop. The ones BSA sells are terribly overpriced if you ask me....$150 for what amounts to a plain, glorified shirt. I got mine off of Ebay for a third the price including shipping (USed but in good shape). I had no idea there were guideliens on the jackets too and frankly, it is a

I agree with being obedient, however BSA has so many picky, far reaching, useless, counter productive micromanaging and intrusive rules it gets difficult to run a program and be compliant with all of it. We try to run a good program, keeping boys motivated to stay in scouts and feel a part of the team is a big part of the effort, the benefit gained from some troop tshirts and neckers yields a lot of positive benefits while holding costs down. BSA has it so you can't even stand still without tripping over another rule or guideline, if we can help increase retention, energy and troop and pa

I am a big one for reliability, responsibility, not accepting laziness and I fight the prevelant entitlement attitude in society and that has worked it's way into our troop. I also realize I can't fight every battle and since nearly all teh parents in the troop think there is nothing unussual about havng to cancel, or "ooops I forgot" etc, I have chosen to forgo this battle for a while. It is common to have nearly 50% of those in our troop drop out and maybe half that many sign up days before the event. I could try to fight this too, the irresponsibility really grates on me, but the idea t

I have long been sick and tired of the expansive trademark issues. When some outfit wants to trademark words or phrases, things are getting out of hand to me. A company logo or marketing line I can see, but the list of trademarked terms on the BSA list is over the top. We have troop neckers and t-shirts done occasionally, small private shops, done on a cash basis, amongst friends (Small towns have their benefits). We don't, nor will we ever mess with waivers or permits for a simple BSA logo that is being used in a tasteful manner for items teh scouts themselves will wear. We are quite a w

Myself,2 of my ASM's and the cubmaster in town are all firefighters on the same Volly dept. 3 of us recieved the medal of valour AND the medal of bravery from the state last year due to some serious calls we were on. Afterwards one or two people mentioned we might be eligible for a knot or two related to heroism or the like. I think there was a 6 month time frame to apply and that had expired but to me awards are for the boys to earn when appropriate, I am not in the program for personal achivement, if I am delivering a good program, the boys are growing and having fun and things function

We have a strong program, we meet twice a month and camp every month. One week of summer camp and we are offering a seperate high adventure camp for older scouts. Also offering one week camp for youth leadership (bighorn at Tahosa) Our older scouts ussually make one meeting a month due to time costraints from school sports, tia kwon do, homework, speech team, church related ativities....you name it.

Our Adult leadership and committee in our troop has been seriously talking about the idea of a large dues increase for next year and then backing off on the fund raisers. I am of mind that teh scouts need to earn their money and make it on their own steam, it is a major part of whrt they need to learn from the program. Reality is the fundraising is causing lots of damage and is taking away my time and others and the participation is dwindling. I absolutely hate the entitlement attitude and laziness amongst the scouts for the lack of particiaption and parents willingness to smooth those bum

We found the names of the food distributers by a couple methods. One was looking them up as theri ditribution trucks are plainly viisible so we knew who to look for (Shamrock, Sysco, Alliance) we also live in a small town and checked the locla restaruants and they got us the names and contacts.

We did our first one a year ago and will do our second one next April. We approached food distributors (Sysco and the like) and that is where we obtained major donations. I think we had all the spagehetti and sauce donated plus big cans of mushrooms, oil, suger coffee and creamer all provided by the distributors.

99% of lawyers give the rest a bad name

All our council is offering to fill up the form is a patch. Not much incentive and we have the same scenario that many others see, Cubs love to sell popcorn and scouts don't, also popcorn is an easy sell for the cubs generally and harder for the scouts to do. We had no one fill it up but we did do much better thasn last years sale. We are in a rural area so door to door sales are a more considerable task than the suburbs. Of the 13 boys in our troop that bothered with popcorn this year, my 2 sons were the ONLY ones that had sales other than parents, relatives and people at the parents work

Here is some more. We Had Program planning and greenbar meeting Saturday (5 hrs but extremely productive) and adult leadership meeting Sunday (4 hrs and again extremely productive). The past 2 days I have been doing and updating paperwork and communications as a result of the meetings. I am not big on watersports, I will do them, one ASM and activity coordinator are whitewater certified. With the effort to re-equip the troop and the numbers of 14 and youngert scouts we did not put whitewater on the schedule this year but likely will in 2008-2009. Camping and hiking are mostly what I am

Too much paperwork, there is more than enough already. This is mostly a boy issue, they know who is pulling their weight and who is not. I had a patrol leader, an APL and a scribe who did less than nothing the past six months, The Scribe was told at his BOR for Life in the spring that they would barely pass hiim for that badge as he had been inactive and not doing much to fill his duties. Since then it has only gotten worse. We are small enough so the AC as is almost everyone else, who shows and who is absent, from troop mmetings, activities and such. If a parent wants to complain I tell t

OK....some more answers..... Summer camp....youths always choose it, youths do presentations adn vote on it. This coming year we asked the boys stay in our home state. 2 yrs ago they elected to go to Alaska and the fundraising nearly killed the troop. last year is was a 10 hr drive each way to camp and we struggled to cover rides for all the scouts. Camp last year was Hunt in Utah as the boys were after some unussual water based merit badges. District commisioner is propsing a boundary waters trip in 2008 for a half dozen of the older scouts to keep them interested. Activty planni