hopalong

Basementdweller, there is always more to a story in terms of interpersonal dynamics, systems, and processes, but the one thing we DON'T have is a parent dictating a menu in any fashion. These menus are always boy planned, boy shopped, and boy prepared. Submitted to the SPL for approval. We do have one momma who would like to see the boys mix it up food wise, choose other fruits than grapes and apples, but at this point she is saying that it is because her son suggests that change for every menu plan and is always shot down. I also sit on rank BOR's and hear one of our gluten free kids

Twocubdad, just meant to say that the special diet kids have no better idea of how best to resolve this than the regular diet kids. Take any one of them and ask them to accommodate the different diet needs of the patrol and the "deer in the headlight" look shows up. Just saying they are all on equal footing with their skill set to resolve this. I think they can do it, just need to know they need to and that there is guidance/support available for how to work it out. Very easy to resort to a majority rule approach rather than cooperative, and that results in potato chip sandwiches. As you

Engineer61, I believe the SM's words were "I need a new Klondike sled and I need it soon because practice starts in 3 weeks". He went on to elaborate that there would be two teams and now there was one sled because the boys burned the old one six weeks ago and nothing was done about it and said there's going to be a patrol without a sled. Bottom line, IMO, was that the owner of the problem is the group that burned the sled, but it was brought to committee as "our" problem because of the way the SM views the Adult QM's responsibilities. Funny part was that this adult wasn't able to attend th

Basementdweller,to answer your wondering out loud, 9 out of 40 boys have special diets. Makes us special. We have four patrols (age grouped), so each of them has two special diet kids at least and not necessarily the same special diet. There is probably one scout that is a parent issue - claims boy has various sensitivities, but boy wants regular food and eats it if parents aren't supervising. One scout is new to the troop, but his milk protein allergy is Dr. verified. The other 8 have been in the troop for several years. None of the regular diet boys really want to have to deal wi

Tampa Turtle, great idea for the individual bringing his food to have/present a meal plan. Agree with the potential for increased junk food. Also have seen that the scout bringing his own food doesn't eat as "well" as the others because cooking gear/time may be limited. He's preparing his own and may opt for the quick and easy way - have seen some of our vegetarian scouts do this. Live on trail mix for the weekend. Gluten free kids also have brought quick thing. That doesn't give the other scouts good examples of eating well as a vegetarian and so no learning occurs as has happened in yo

Basementdweller, um, well, no good answer here. I personally think this belongs on the SM side, but am also not one to believe everything has to be divided into strict sides. SM is annoyed at the problem (problem = scouts and parents complaining), says the SM side is very overworked, and can't deal with it. SM's attitude is that he doesn't think regular diet kids should have to eat special diet foods at all unless they want to. I'm heading up the sub-committee, asked for ASM's, and none have responded. So, bigger issues that may throttle any attempt at improvements. Operationally, the

IM_Kathy, more great suggestions. Really mixing it up to challenge each patrol to cook a different type of meal. Challenging for sure to get the kids to operate outside of their comfort zones. Especially if part of scout camping to them involves a particular meal that they may feel they have to give up to accommodate someone else. Bottom line is getting the majority to change up their way of doing things to accommodate the minority. The minority will be very happy indeed, but the majority also needs the opportunity to be equally as happy and have their needs/preference met. Just

Lisabob, Your points are well taken and you have great suggestions. You are correct that there is the quick and easy way where the adults take care of it and the harder way where the scouts sort it out. The harder way does require adult monitoring, modeling, and leadership. A troop cookbook is a great idea. If I'm not mistaken, even our gluten free kids could eat the recipe you posted on the no meat thread.

Lisabob, I agree with your concerns. What we're doing now is that each patrol works it out. We have vegetarian kids eating potato chip sandwiches because the rest of the kids in their patrols won't agree to things like cheese for sandwiches and the veggie kids who are vocal get voted down. Yes, they could bring their own cheese. The non-veggie kids want to be able to not have to cook two different items - one with and one without meat. They're tired of mac & cheese. Then there are the gluten free kids who can eat the meat, but no gluten so only rice or rice noodles and thickened sauc

Twocubdad, it is a challenge and for at least one of the gluten free kids it is a family choice. We're seeing more and more families in our area choose gluten free because they "feel better". One of our steps is going to be to stress to parents that any medically necessary diets need to be listed on the med form. Our boys are in age similar patrols. It works out very well, except for the meal issue. I'm wondering what it would be like to do as you say for meals only. The gluten free kids plan their meals together, but tent w/ their regular patrol. Same for the vegetarians. They woul

Thanks, all, for the replies and insights into how you're handling QM. Twocubdad, there are definitely other issues, including the fact that the SM allowed the boys to burn the old sled in Nov because it was too heavy for them and they wanted a new one. His style is more of ordering/demanding rather than requesting and that causes its fair share of issues. Routinely says that if we want to replace him, to "go ahead". Sigh. Your responses have given me some ideas for approaching the Committee Chair. Will ask a bunch of questions about how we got here to make sure I understand issues a

Glad to see this thread. I've been tasked by our Committee to have a group of parents come up with a "policy" for how to deal with the range of allergy/intolerance/preference issues for food. Would like to have a policy that allows it to be dealt with at the patrol level, but the impetus for the policy seems to be that the patrols are not handling it well. So, fix it with a policy, right? :-) My hope is that in the process of trying to come up with a policy, we will see that it should be handled at the patrol level. In our troop of 40 boys, we have at least three vegetarians, at

I have been a committee member for about 3 years - transferred to a new troop about a year ago where I am a committee member. We have a SM and six ASMs and 40 scouts. In this new troop there is a Committee member (not me!) who is assigned to the position of adult QM. This seems very odd to me. The Troop has minimal equipment, which is stored off site from where we meet. It is the responsibility of the Adult QM to make sure that the equipment is inventoried and in good repair, to purchase whatever the SM wants purchased, and to pull from the storage locker whatever the Troop needs for an o

Sorry for the confusion. My role is CC. I have been in the Pack a total of six years, with 2.5 as secretary and since May 08 as CC. We do have a mess. I am considering having the Commissioner staff come in to help us sort this out, but not sure if it will be beneficial. Our Pack has a history of doing things its own way, as opposed to the BSA way. For ex., training wasn't considered necessary. I served as Secretary for 2.5 years without ever registering as a Committee member because I was told it wasn't necessary to register. Den Leaders were told they could go ahead and serve for

Try as I might, I can't seem to condense this post. I am looking for advice on how other Packs discriminate between what is program and what is not program, particularly in the case of activities that are not Den or Pack meetings. Our current situation is that the Committee has planned and been responsible for everything that is not Den meeting, by default. This discrimination would relieve the Committee of many responsibilities that seem to be program. I've taken on the PC role this year (have six years in the Pack and 2.5 on the Committee as secretary) and wish to bring our Committee