horanmm

We have in the past opened up a slot or two in a high adventure crew to scouts from another unit. It helps if they know a couple of people in the crew.

The BSA does not have an isue with it. When I was a youth all crews were technically ad-hoc crews. Even now the council does run some provisional crews to Philmont.

If your church allows it is another matter; you will have to ask them.

 

it appears to me that scouts with Asperger's flat out don't see social ques at a young age. I worked with one scout for a long time just playfully teasing him. By the time he was 16 he could dish it right back and it was great.....The second had a rough time with other scouts goofing around, he once attacked another scout with a stick -- he just couldn't see that it was not serious. He found a smaller troop and it all worked out.

You do realize that one way a kid with Aspergers gets in trouble is when they go over the line when teasing is going on. You were playing with fire with the first time and got lucky; and then let it happen with the second one.

Regarding plans for girls: The service unit coordinator for your area should be somebody you have contact with on a regular basis. Their job is to connect girls to troops. It is amazing how many people have both boys and girls in their family.

At every public event I have had a person who has said I have a daughter who wants to join girl scouts. I give the parent the contact info for the unit coordinator, and I give their info to the coordinator. I even had one person talk to me when I was in my uniform at a fast food restaurant.

My experience has been that scouts don't register at public events. Ok a few do, but most parents aren't ready to register at a public event.
 
Interesting items to get the scouts and parents attention is important, but the most important thing to do is get a piece of paper in their hand with your units info and contact information and collect from the parents their contact information.

A few days later contact the family and invite them to a unit event. Answer any questions they have. Tell them how many boys from their childs school are already in the unit. Be prepared to call them a few more times.

The follow through is what gets the semi-interested to attend an event. The event si what gets them to register.

Other advice: every adult from the unit at the event is either in uniform or wearing a unit t-shirt. Don't stand behind the table. Get in the middle of the crowd and say hi to every family that walks by. Your uniform is what makes you easy to spot, so don't hide it behind a table.

 

My understanding is they are automatically a committee member but they have never attended a meeting.

 

There are no at large committee positions. You should look at the Troop Committee Guidebook:"Each member of the committee should have specific responsibilities"

Just because somebody fills out a form they are not automatically a leader.

To recruit Tigers we sent up a tent/campsite; we bring some pinewood derby cars; we have a slide show of events on the laptops which include pictures from the derby, regatta, pool party, pack meetings. And we have info for the parents, and we collect contact info from the parents.

For recuiting tigers for next year: Spring recruiting was a big help. The current kindergartners can become Tigers on June 1st. We would have an event at the school in May, and then invite them to the pack picnic in June. Many would join in June, but some would wait until the end of the summer.

This works best if you can have enough summer events for the Tigers. Yes they can do day camp, but many don't unless they have an older brother going to day camp. We did the June picnic, plus a baseball game, 4th of July parade, and a pool party. Plus a tigers only field trip to a museum.

To recruit scouts who can join now, the best way is to have the current cubs invite their friends to an event. Have them wear their uniform to school, and talk to their friends. Sometimes we have gotten cubs that were inactive because their original pack had problems. Seeing kids in the school in uniform helped them get restarted.

Also reachout to girl scout leaders. The have families who are active in girl scouts and have no idea how to contact a pack or troop.

The only joint events we have had with the Girl Scouts are recruiting events. The local elementary school prefers it that way.

We have encouraged non-scouts to help with community cleanup and service projects. They can use the hours for either scouts or school service hours.

 

 

 

My Troop ( I am just the committee chairman) isnt what I want it to be which is why my son (web1) will be going to a different troop..

Just the committee chair! You realize that as Committee Chair you have the power to get the troop moving in the correct direction.

That ASM shouldn't have been a part of the Board of Review. Drop the skill testing from the BOR and only include committee members who have been fully trained. The goal of the Board of Review is to get an idea if the troop leaders are doing their job.

As committee chair I would have asked about EDGE, but only to discuss the experience and did they see how it can work. We would also talk about other scout skills they wanted to learn. If the scout can't remember EDGE, then I would have a talk with the scoutmaster, but I would not hold back the 11 year old.

First class requirement 10:

Tell someone who is eligible to join Boy Scouts, or an inactive Boy Scout, about your troop's activities. Invite him to a troop outing, activity, service project, or meeting. Tell him how to join, or encourage the inactive Boy Scout to become active.

Maybe a boy in the other troop thinks the scout in your troop is inactive? Or maybe they are best friends?

From the BSA Physical form:

The following immunizations are recommended by the BSA. Tetanus immunization is required and must have been received within the last 10 years. If you had the disease, check the disease column and list the date. If immunized, check yes and provide the year received.

While this form does allow us to see who checked the box, we of course have no idea if the information on the form is true. Schools have the ability to ask for proof of vaccination, I would not want to be in the position of evaluating the proof for all scouts, parents, and guardians. Remember the vector could be the parent of a Tiger.

You must look to the local or state health autorities for guidance. In general as long as the schools are still open and other public facilities are open plan as normal.

As the others have said - just call. You will not get into trouble, arrested, or anything scary at all. Simply tell them what you want, and you will be transferred to the correct person to help.

 

Just like with any other outing.

 

I suggest contacting small, local, stations.

 

You can also contact local high schools, and colleges. Many will have their own newspaper/newsletter, radio/tv station. The plus with this is that the boys might end up attending the school, and this might spark an interest that will lead to their own involvement.

 

The other advantage to the college/university/high school tours is that many of the kids running them were/are Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts. They may have earned Eagle just a few years ago, and can relate to being a Tiger.

IOLS isn't needed for them to recharter. Register them as Unit College Scouter Reserve. They only need Youth protection training, which they can take online. That gives you time to negotiate an exemption with district/council so they can get credit for IOLS next year.

We have been doing this for the last few year without any problems. They act as an assistant Scoutmaster, but have relaxed training requirements.

Did the local council know about the alcohol when they approved the fundraiser? Check the forms that were submitted to council. If the forms don't mention alcohol, you should contact the person that approved the application for guidance.

From the BSA website back in 2011:

To help keep these young men in Scouting, a new registration code has been introduced – 92U, Unit College Scouter Reserve. Of course Youth Protection Training is required, but that is the only required course for the position. All of the registration application criteria and fees apply.

The PLC which has a turnover every 6 months or so, should not be the ones picking the high adventure program. Because these trips can require commitments more than a year in advance it should be selected by the scouts who are eligible. Asking a young PL to vote on a trip they will never attend doesn't make a lot of sense. The same goes for a senior SPL who will not be around when the trip takes place.

The troop I was involved in had the committee decide, unfortunately that didn't work because most of the committee had no desire to attend. They even tried 2 trips at the same time, that just resulted in two small groups.

When the troop started having the kids the correct age get excited about high adventure in general, the result was better crew sizes.

In our pack we used couple of terms:

Pack Camping is Family Camping: The pack goes camping, they follow BSA rules in Guide to Safe Scouting, file tour permits and have a BALOO trained leader. It is called family camping because every scout needs an adult. It is also called family camping because the entire family can participate.

Den Camping is not done by cub scouts, except by Webelos Dens. They still have to follow GSS, Baloo, Tour plans...

There is also camping organized by districts or councils. These events can be by Pack, Den, or Family depending on how it is organized.

If your household goes camping make sure it doesn't appear to be associated with the BSA. Don't announce it at the pack meeting, or on the web page.

You are correct. You can go camping outside of scouts, but don't try to skirt the rules

I hope this means you still have the blue and gold in February.

The ranks should be awarded at the next pack meeting after they are earned. Many of the requirements for Wolf and Bear can be done at home, which means that many can be done before the Blue and Gold. Tigers can take a while to get started and require the den activities. Most Webelos requirements are done as part of den activities.

The is no need to make them wait, or to do it as one large group.

The Webelos ready to bridge to boy scouts should do so in March or April, depending on what the local troops prefer.

The rest of the Pack should graduate to the next level at the last event of the school year. They should be given books during the ceremony so they can start working on the requirements for the next level during the summer.

First split into two patrols. It allows you to have patrol competitions. This can include best patrol site, best dessert. Patrol competitions should be a part of every meeting and camp out.

Yes have a PLC of the SPL and the PLs. It will get them used to making decisions. This is to be a boy lead troop.

If the patrols seem small, have them recruit their friends.

The reason for the change is simple. My son just slogged through a 18 month and 15 version process to get it approved. The process took so long his initial draft included activities at his school; a few drafts later the school activities were removed because it would take place in the summer; then the school was added back in the fall. The project took place in the 2nd summer, so the school activities were removed. He had to add church activities during the summer, but then remove them in the winter so it wouldn't conflict with the giving tree.

The most frustrating was that he had to plan every detail of each location, but he was not allowed to ask the site if they wanted to help until the project was approved by the district. If anybody said no he would have had to start all over.

Every draft had to have updated sample flyers with new potential dates. Every draft sent to the eagle advisers meant a delay of weeks before they would respond, sometimes they never did.

None of this involved leadership. In fact the troop made an effort a few years ago to make the boys plan all events, so they would have practice before the eagle project was started. Most camping trips can be planned in 2 or 3 quick turns. The boys learn that not everything can be accounted for and that there is a difference between through planning and through editing.

The same advisors have now held off scheduling the Board of Review for 66 days....and counting