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Beavah - maybe you should Google up Carol Lamb's research on superheroes. You might find that her work fits into what we strive for in Scouting:

"In a symposium entitled Boyhood Making and Resisting Masculinity, speakers made the argument that current superheroes are sarcastic and hyper-aggressive without extolling the virtues of doing good for humanity. Dr. Carol Lamb, PhD, said the comic book superheroes of yesteryear were those readers could admire, while the current crop is simply caustic. Her research lead her to conclude that the media and marketers have funneled boyhood into two categories: Player and Slacker."

Gee - how horrible of a researcher to argue that anti-heroes are not good role models.

jet526:

I would say you are punishing him by withholding advancement recognition. If you are not letting a Scout wear his rank or merit badge patch for 3 months because he missed a meeting then in my opinion you are punishing him. In some cases the Scout might not ever wear that particular rank patch depending on timing (he earns First Class immediately after the last COH, misses the next COH, earns Star and then is presented that rank patch.)

My Advancement Chair keeps a box of awards in envelops with the Scout's name on it if they miss a COH. They get the envelope at the next meeting that they attend. They miss the nice presentation, but holding back rank advancement is just asking for a Scout to quit Scouting.

Do I hold a special COH for the Scout who misses? Nope. Do I punish the Scout for missing? Nope.

If a Scout is busy in other activities, then they are busy in other activities. I will take however much time a Scout is willing to provide. The ONLY time I worry about commitment by the Scout is if they are in a POR and their attendance record is impacting their ability to appropriately fulfill the duties of the POR.

Otherwise, we see Scouts when we see them. They might be at Soccer, Football, Band, Junior State, Model UN, Sea Scouting, Venturing, Exploring, sick, grandma's house, etc. The last thing I want to do is start evaluating what a proper excuse is. Waste of my time.

I don't see that it is a big deal for my Advancement Chair to have an envelope of awards to hand to a Scout at the next meeting they both attend.

Asking for a CD/DVD or USB drive submission is sooooo 5 years ago!

IMHO the Council should own one high quality sheet fed scanner that sits in the front. A Scout brings his completed application, and makes a digital copy at the Council office and it is put into an electronic file. This copy would then have all signatures, scans of the photos, etc. The Scout can have an electronic copy if he brings a USB with him, and the Council gets the original "wet" signatures plus the electronic copy.

Our way:

Merit Badges: A Scout is presented his patch ASAP (typically 1-2 weeks after he submits his blue card to the Advancement Chair).

Rank: Recognition upon passing his BOR (we have BORs at almost every Troop meeting). Patch presented ASAP after BOR (typically 1-2 weeks as well).

Court of Honor, non-Eagle:

SPL calls up the Patrol Leader.

Patrol Leader calls up his Patrol.

Patrol Yell is delivered to the Troop.

Patrol Leader recongizes earning of MBs by members of the Patrol, gives them the baseball cards. Patrol sits down.

Patrol Leader invites parents of Scouts who have earned Rank to come forward along with the Scout.

Patrol Leader recognizes rank advancement. Gives out Rank baseball cards, plus parent's pin.

This continues for each Patrol. The SPL recognizes his ASPLs and the Patrol Leaders.

As Scoutmaster, I recognize Eagles and Eagle Palm recipients.

Drudge Report has picked it up, and linked to the YouTube Video.

I am dismayed, even worse I am not surprised.

My son just got back, haven't heard complaints yet. Then again, he attended as a 15 year old Eagle and was just an Asst. Patrol Leader and an NYLT grad. His Patrol Leader was also Eagle, and an NYLT grad. They also had some younguns with them too.

His Troop had REQUIRED shakedown campout, REQUIRED shakedown activities, and monthly REQUIRED meetings. They put enough heat on everyone that I think that they did just fine.

With Council level contingent Troops, I think it is critical to have those contingent events to make it all work.

1. Ideals: Are boys learning and embracing the morals of Scouting? Is there a good Scoutmaster's minute? If you ask a boy about doing the right thing, does he get it?

2. Patrols: Real or provisional? Is there patrol pride and patrol flags? I consider the Patrol to be the heart, which is why I do NOT like new scout patrols. The patrols in my Troop are mixed age, with lots of interaction between the boys. There is also Patrol based competition going on regularly. If you ask a boy about his Patrol, does he shrug or does he brag?

3. Outdoors: Everyone gets this - do you get out? Nothing wrong if the Troop is all car camping, or all backpacking, or some mixture of the two plus fishing and skiing trips. Does the Troop get out of town is what matters.

4. Advancement: Do you see a mix of ranks on the chests? Not ALL boys should be First Class in First Year, but at least one should be a hard charging First Class in a few months. The Troop is providing enough opportunities to have 14 year-old Eagles, while also having 17.99 year-old Eagles as well. There should also be a couple Life for Life guys hanging around just having fun. No limits, but also no admonishment and no mills.

5. Personal growth: Tough to quantify. I think this just happens in a good troop.

6. Adult association: Is it just two guys signing everything off, or is there a good mix of adults WITHIN the Troop that the boys work with. While I appreciate Council merit badge counselor lists, I also think that a lot of adult association can happen within a Troop.

7. Leadership development: Are boys learning to lead? Who opens the meeting? Are there activities that are obviously purely boy run? Are Patrol Leaders even present at the meeting? Is the SPL talking without constantly checking with the SM? During opening, is the SM next to the SPL, or does the SPL call him up when it is time for the SM to talk? Is there any other training offered, or mentoring going on?

8. Uniform: Are they wearing it? Does it look like they WANT to? I disagree with those who think this is an on/off switch, rather than a spectrum like every other method.

A key thing here is also determining what the SCOUT wants, and what fits into the Parent's life. Yes, it is the Scout's choice - but if the parent's can not support it, it is not going to work.

Example: My son could not join a 100% high adventure troop, as his sports schedule would keep him from 1/3 or more of the outings. During the season, he catches up with the Troop on Saturday after his matches for example. Our Jamboree Troop was VERY strict on uniforming, to the extent of turning off my son at one point. He talked to me about not going, after being yelled at in front of the entire Troop for not being in compliance with the Troop's uniform policy that week. He had to re-stitch his Troop number because it was considered to be too far from the CSP. My son said that he would never run his Troop like that as SPL, and that he would argue against it at every PLC from now on at our regular Troop.

It worked great, my only problem was that the photo feed is blocked where I work, so I could see the pages but could not watch the photos until I got home.

One thought for the future - put in some webcams across the site. I would love to be able to log onto a webcamp at my son's subcamp just for fun to watch the activity. Not sure what infrastructure that would require, but I would start putting it in for the new location.

Nice Gern!

Can you imagine Obama at Oshkosh? "Welcome to the air show. There is a no fly zone jfor 100 miles around the airshow so that the President can make a speech. The no fly zone will continue all day until Air Force one leaves the area."

My son attends a very conservative Catholic high school. In their student handbook they address pregnancy. This very conservative Catholic school allows both the mother and the father to continue attending, fully engaged in the school - because they value education. They do not throw them out, they keep them in school.

I see this in a similar way - if a Girl Scout is pregnant, perhaps one of the things she needs most is the influence of a good Girl Scout Troop. There are moral teachings that she can pick up, skills she might need sooner than her sisters in the Troop, and lessons that she also can pass on to others.

It all depends on how you see Scouting. If you see it as just a fun extra curricular activity - then I can see telling the now-mom that she does not belong with this group (though I know lots of of moms involved in fun extra curricular activities). If you see Scouting as being MORE than just fun in the woods (the game with a PURPOSE), then you would hopefully want the mom to continue to be involved, receiving the lessons that Scouting hides in its program.

Why is there not a single real article on CNN.com or MSNBC.com about the Jamboree? It seems like our marketing team in Irving has not done a good job of getting the word out to the National Press.

Yes, I see the press links on the Jambo website - but I am still waiting for some good press coverage. I work in Marketing. If I do a new product release and it is not hitting the major news sources for my industry, I get to find a new job.

Perhaps the President would have been more involved if there would have been more information out in the public about this event.

Sounds like a great speech. I will have to look for it online to see if I can stream it from home tonight.

When I talked to me son, his main comment was the heat at the arena!

Enjoy the Jambo.

The only think I remember from the arena show is the Oak Ridge Boys singing "Elvira." Other than that, it was a bunch of random people talking on a stage in front of tens of thousands of us.

I would warrant a guess that the boys who won't vote for Obama in 2 years ALREADY were not going to vote for him, and the ones who will vote for Obama ALREADY are going to vote for him.

After hearing about the debacle when Bush came due to security reasons, I am glad that my son does not have to deal with security at Jamboree.

Final note - I think there is a 1 in 100 chance that Obama IS coming, and will be a surprise guest. THAT would be the smartest thing to do security wise.

Reagan didn't show up for me in 1981, I won't worry about Obama not showing up for my son in 2010.

I will text my son to stop by. He is with a Dirt Scout Troop, but has some of his Sea Scout patches to trade from his trip to the UK last year for the centennary of Sea Scouting.

I was asked to lead the service at summer camp one year. I treated it more like a one-hour Scoutmaster's minute, and I did not treat it as worship.

I opened with a reading from the Good Book..pause... The Boy Scout Handbook (good for a laugh). I then read what the Handbook had to say about Reverent.

From there I talked about the conflict I had with Reverent and my own faith - my desire to bring everyone to Christ, while also showing respect for the faith of others. I read off the listing of Religious awards recognized by the BSA.

I then went into the history of religious wars, and wars justified due to religion - and how that was against the concept of being reverent.

I discussed the writings of Seton, who examined the faith of the Native Americans and who compared the core tenets of their faith with that of the Jewish and Christian faith.

I talked about how most religions have a concept of introspection and challenge in the wilderness, and that the Scouts should use a moment at summer camp to try the same.

I gave a moment for silent prayer for all in accordance with their own faith, and then closed the event.

It worked. I had fervent, evangelical Christians come speak with me. I was cornered later at the camp by a Jewish leader who thanked me for providing a moment in the woods where he did not feel ostracized for his faith.

Would I do this every week? No. But once per summer, a joint faith moment in the woods can help with Reverence IMHO.

We encourage First Aid upon joining, and Swimming soon after that. With those two, the Trail to First Class is much smoother, and the boys can concentrate on the outdoors part. If I had the time, I would add Cooking to the initial three, since it also syncs well with the Trail to First Class.

As SM, I will sign any blue card if the Scout comes to me. If the Scout is very young, I will counsel them on the badge and its importance - but still let them take it.

We DO have one counselor for Personal Fitness who PREFERS not to teach that to boys before the 7th grade. He likes to run the class in sync with the local Middle School PE programs and Health classes that start in 7th grade in our school district. That limitation is his choice as MB counselor, however.

I counsel Personal Management, and I prefer boys who are in Middle School as well - but if a 6th grader came to me and asked, I would happily start with them.

I will admit I don't use the shirt pockets after having it hammered into me in the military that uniform pockets are not to be used for ANYTHING other than 1 (one) Mk1 ballpoint pent, black and your current orders if traveling.

So my shirt pockets stay empty except for a pen. Plus, a full shirt pocket does not work well once again with a backpack.

I have long carried a "go-bag" when camping, and we encourage that for the Troop. When a Scout joins, they are told to take an old school knapsack and use it for their handbook, MB books, to always have their outdoor essentials, plus 10 feet of rope. This means that they are always ready for a short hike, to help someone with a first aid kit, or to practice their knots. We have these "essentials" bags at all activities by default (with about a 70% participation rate). We laminate the Scout ID cards as luggage tags, with the backside having their list of essentials as well as a reference point.

Here is another question - what use are the shirt pockets themselves, aside from a pen? I don't carry anything in my pockets, nor do my Scouts. Other than a way to help place patches (esp OA lodge flaps), do the pockets serve a purpose?

I wear custom dress shirts to work, and I no longer have pockets put on my dress shirts.

I am another one who likes the switchbacks, but I don't miss zippered cuffs. Too hard to get them tailored for length. I now wear them exclusively as my camping and full uniform pants in all activities.

The uniform shirt is OK. I would LOVE to see a competition among clothiers to design the next generation, with voting online by Scouts. We tell them it needs a place for rank, OA, etc. - but maybe we give them some flexibility. We tell them the MSRP must be below $30 - I think they could even be cheaper based on what I see online. Then we put out the bid to REI, Lands End, Cabellas, etc. and we see who comes up with the next generation outdoor adventure uniform shirt.

We might kill the epaulets, since they don't work well with backpacks. The electronics pouch might get bigger, to hold something real. Maybe it will incorporate a velcro circle, to make it easier to change out POR patches over time (something we have done for our son's uniform). Maybe someone will propose a wicking t-shirt and a photographer's vest system instead.

Make it wide open, and let each Council have a vote.

It could be argued that I push, pull, cajole, and talk about goals with all of my Scouts. Downtime is oft filled with, "Let me see your Handbook - how are you doing?" This triggers a short SMC with the Scout on ideas for meeting the next round of requirements. When my Life Scouts are around, I ask them about their project and they talk about it with me, "I am thinking about two benefactors" or "I need to schedule some work days." Sometimes they have a barrier and we discuss how to manage getting past it. Sometimes they admit that they have done nothing in awhile.

Our Troop Eagle Advisor keeps a spreadsheet of all Scouts Life and above, their birthdate, and the current status of their Eagle Project (Benefactor selected, project approved, project finished, project write up, COH scheduled). He presents this write up at Committee meetings.

I have sat down with some Scouts and asked them when do they hope to earn Eagle, and then used that as a teaching moment to talk about working backwards from that point. This fits in with how I teach the calendaring aspects of Personal Management MB - the need to look forward to goals, and to then determine how to achieve them.

For my son, he certainly has been pushed a bit by me I admit. My pushing has been things like, "You get the password to World of Warcraft back AFTER you finish writing up your Eagle Project." How long he chooses to spend is under his control, and he worked through the project with his project advisor and his Eagle advisor. But I did regulary ask him as a weekend approached, "Have you talked to Mr. Advisor? Have you checked your email? What still needs to be done?"

I won't do things for the boys (mine included), but I WILL ask them what needs to be done.

Celebrity Spokesmen could be very helpful for Scouting. The NRA has used Charlton Heston and now Tom Selleck to help sell their brand, and we could benefit from the same.

The second issue to pursue is get Scouts into the public eye. We had the local paper at our Memorial day activities, and it made for a nice photo story. My next thought is to get one of the reporters signed up as an adult volunteer with our Venture Crew and start taking them on our backpacking trips in the local area.

For a really good marketing program, the Sea Scouts did a "What did you do this weekend" video competition of some sort. These were GREAT, and used a lot of footage from the Ancient Mariner Regatta among other things. The videos were put up on YouTube. I could see a similar video contest for the Boy Scouts working well with the You Tube generation.

Full Field (aka Class A to the old Army guys) to all Troop Meetings. Most of my Scouts only own one shirt. 75% have the pants - they are rewarded for that. Those that don't have the pants are not humiliated in any way. We simply recognize those that go all the way on this particular method.

Activity (Troop T Shirt or Polo Shirt) for quartermaster days or other activities involving grease, etc. We do a cookout for the CO, and splattering grease is not the best thing for a formal shirt.

Full Field for going to and from campouts. Activity shirt on campouts.

We don't have a summer vs. winter switch.

Am I the only who noticed that the Cradle of Liberty Council tried to go against National policies regarding hiring policies, and only backed off when National said that they would take away their charter?

One could look at this a couple of ways. Either their belief in the 3Gs can be bought for $200k per year, or they want to walk regardless (or more likely somewhere in-between).