Honu

Slightly random question- when my son was a wee little Tiger, he coveted it an Eagle clock they had in our scout shop. Whenever we went in, he admired it and asked if I'd get it when he made Eagle. "WHEN" he made Eagle, the kid was 6! I should have paid attention to him then because I'm happy to say he made Eagle last month. He half joked about getting the clock now. Of course, it's not currently sold in the scout shop. I vaguely remember it was a clear (plastic) crystal thing with a metal insert for the clock/Eagle logo. (I remember at the time thinking it looked like something a bank wo

First campout goal not necessarily to get any requirements signed off (though some might). REALLY basic goals- like establishing "No, the adults are not going to set up your tent, cook your meals, or wash your dishes... welcome to the big league!"

Thanks all, this really does help. Alot of this we do already do. The May campout will be the new guys' first. It is divided up so new guys knock out alot of their basic intro stuff and the older guys go canoeing. (Then they all meet together in the evening/campout.) We've also been pushing summer camp with all the new guys. (The troop traditionally has a high percentage go.) We're fortunate, I guess, that our local camp does have an advancement-based new scout program in addition to merit badge stuff for the older guys. Sounds like we're heading in a right direction. Here's to hopin

Thank you both. We questioned doing NSP vs mixed age ones. The biggest issue we had was by the time we had a couple guides (x 3 patrols) plus SPL and a couple patrol leaders for the middle school scouts and an SPL, we'd have pretty much exhausted our supply of older scouts. Seemed better to spread the older ones through the patrols and go from there. Not sure if that's the best route or not, but the numbers really weren't working out the other way. We definately need to have an adjustment on the direction the troop takes. We have been very up front with parents this is an unusually high n

I'm a committee member in a troop of (until recently) 26 active scouts. We strive to have the troop be boy-led, use the patrol method and make it their own, of course with some guidance from adults. We're in a bit of a quandry now and not sure how to help the PLC focus the troop. We've just had 21 new guys join the troop (19 5th graders crossing from other packs, two brand new 6th graders). While it's a blessing in some ways, we're worried about keeping it interesting for all the ages- while getting the new guys all in and settled. In the past- we have had only 6-8 new scouts this ti