hotdesk

I would say that it totally has to depend on the leadership positions. Scouts can hold a combination of the following; Historian, Scribe, and Librarian. Scouts can usually hold a troop position and be a Den Chief at the same time...and it will be up to him to decide which one comes first in the time of conflict. He just needs to remember to communicate with the Den Leader and Scoutmaster. Scouts should probably not hold another position while serving as Quartermaster. At least in our troop this a time consuming position. Your Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol Leader, and Patrol Leaders should not hold another position. However, it may be possible to hold the position of O/A Troop Represenative (just like it's possible for some scouts to serve as Den Chief). Usually these positions require a great deal of responsiblity and time from the scouts involved.

I would hope that in a pack the Committee Chairman could work on long-range goals and planning while the Cubmaster and Assistant Cubmaster worry about program details. In older pack there are often going to be Pack Trainers and Den Leader Coaches who have been there and done that who are able to provide great resources for pack leadership. Both units should have someone in charge of their Membership Recruitment. In our district there are usually 2 or 3 annual recruitment events for Cub Scouts where the district works with the unit's membership coordinator in recruiting new scouts. The Pack Committee can and should be built to help with program and long-range stuff. The key is going to be getting a lot of adult participation.

The Boy Scout Troop Committee would not oversee the new Cub Scout Pack. These are two seperate units with two seperate leadership teams. If some of the adults wanted to register with both units, and the Chartered Organization allowed this, that would be fine. The only similarity might be the Chartered Organization. Remember that each has its own unique needs which will require dedicated volunteers. If you wanted to start a pack in August then you should be talking to your District Executives for help on starting a new unit. They will help your Chartered Organization understand the requirements for this new unit and perhaps identify leadership for the new unit. The next step would be to recruit both scouts and adults to register in the new unit (remember that Cub Scouts go all the way from First Grade through Fifth Grade). Like I said start with talking to your District Executives who will be more than willing to help you with the process.

I haven't taken Wood Badge... but the one thing that pops into my head when talking about adults wearing patrol patches would be that they took Wood Badge. That they are wearing the patrol patch for the patrol they were in during Wood Badge. I don't know what the adults are told when taking Wood Badge regarding the wearing of these patches but that's just what I'm thinking

I have been in the same troop for 10 years (as a scout and now as an adult leader). Two weekends ago we took the troop to Springfield, IL to visit our state capital and look at all the museums. It was a great trip! The scouts had fun. The adults had fun. Everyone learned something. The only other time we visit a museum is during the US Grant Pilgrimage held in Galena, IL.

In our troop we call it the Life to Eagle Coordinator. This position is held by an Eagle Scout who is a Committee Member. The current perso has also been the District Life to Eagle Coordinator. In the troop he sits down with the scout once he reaches the rank of Life and goes through the remaining steps to get his Eagle. He makes sure they understand the necessary paperwork, signuatures, and gives him ideas for projects. He coordinates the Eagle Board of Review. He sends the paperwork to the council and gets it back from national. He orders the Eagle Award package. In our troop we have a problem with some parents wanting to do the project for their son. The Life to Eagle Coordinator makes sure that this doesn't happen and works with the parents to reach and understanding that the scout must do it himself. To me it is a good position. It does not take away from the Scoutmaster. To me the Scoutmaster should be responsible for having a relationship of guidance, direction, and trust with scouts. HE should help train the troop's jr. leaders. He should delegate responsiblites to other adults to make sure that most of his time can be dedicated toward building relationships with each and every scout.

I would be extremely surprised if you had to call a scout or his parents to determine the reason they dropped out. As an active Assistant Scoutmaster I know the reasons that most of our scouts dropped out. If I don't personally know the reason I know other parents in the troop who will be friends with the scout's family and will know why they left scouting. To me it's something that is very important to know. If a boy dropped out because of sports then at least you know you can follow up. If he dropped out because he was bored you know that something needs to be changed in your program. Every boy that drops out has a reason that we should want to know about. If I was the UC I would also want to know why boys are dropping out of the units I'm assigned and at the rate that boys are dropping out. If a lot of boys are dropping out that should be red flag that the unit has some issues that need to be addressed immeditaly. If a few boys drop out each year I might be able to see a pattern that I can help the Scoutmaster work on.

I have started working with our Boy Scouts on this award. You probably won't find anything in any of the Scout Handbooks because it is a BSA program. The service that I am going to count for our scouts is Scouting for Food. To me collecting food is a service the benefits the community at large. Just one idea though.

The Boy Scout Handbook lists the requirements for the National Honor Patrol Award (which I assume is the same as the BP Patrol Award?) somewhere within the first 50? pages. It's before the section about the rank of Tenderfoot. The page is yellow.

Yes units can get more out of other fundraisers. HOWEVER, no unit is forced to sell popcorn. If you don't want to then don't. Let's leave this fundraiser available and running for those units that want to do it. For those that like the organization (incentive program, incentives for selling over $1200 as a scout, etc), the help provided by the district staff, and much more. Nothing stops you from doing this fundraiser and others. Nothing stops you from not doing this fundraiser, but doing others. If you want to provide popcorn sales then simply thanks for supporting your local council. If you don't then okay, fine. Our unit uses this fundraiser as one of many. I would not want to stop participating in this fundraiser and FOS and be forced to meet a district or council established goal. Currently our FOS Program offers free rank advancement patches for meeting the district established goal. While our unit usually makes this goal (we've only missed it once out of the 10 years I've been with the troop) other units miss the goal constantly. Because they miss this goal constantly many unit level scouters get upset about the goal and the way it is established. I would not want the district to establish a goal for fundraising. I would not want the unit to establish a goal either. The unit knows the fundraising capacity that it has. The unit should be able to keep the money that it has raised. No one should force the unit to make a contribution to the council or district beyond what is required during rechartering.

So stop FOS and popcorn and charge each family $100? NOT ENOUGH! The current amount, per scout, mentioned by FOS is something like $109. That is per scout. If you stop doing FOS then each family needs to contribute at least that amount. Then you take away popcorn. Our troop alone makes roughly a $1,000 contribution to the council for this. If we divide that by the number of registered scouts in our unit that gives them roughly another $33 contribution. So the total that our scouts would have to donate just to the council/national to make up for this is $142. When I compare this to our current amount charged to the scouts for Dues and Registration that is a $130 increase. I don't know how many of our scouts and their parents would be 1. willing to pay this amount and 2. able to pay this amount. FOS is a good campaign. Not only does it "go after" families, but is also goes after bigger coroprations and the community at large. It brings money in from the outside. Popcorn is also a good fundraiser. In our Council no unit is forced to sell popcorn. If you don't want to sell popcorn then you simply don't. If you want to give your scouts a chance to earn funds for their Scout Accounts then you do it. Everyone goes in knowing the amount of work necessary and the cost associated with the products. Membership is already a prime concern of Boy Scouts of America. That's why we get Professionals that try to forge numbers. That's why in our Council Membership Staff and Professionals apply large amounts of pressure to Scoutmasters and Cubmasters to recruit more. I have nothing wrong with the way things are now. Keep FOS. Keep Popcorn. Maybe simply evaluate the Council's ability to be financially sound.

In our troop we credit hours worked at a car wash, meal fundraiser, etc. by the number of hours worked multipled by the "hourly pay rate". We take the precentage that was airmarked for the scouts and divide it by the number of total hours worked by all scouts. This gives you the "hourly pay rate". You multiply that "hourly pay rate" by the number of hours worked by each individual scout. This gives you their amount for that event. When we do ticket sales scouts earn a bonus of $5 per each $50 sold in tickets. This amount is deducted from the revenue of the event that the ticket was sold for. Our goal is to have each scout sell $50 in tickets. The remaining amount from ticket sales is considered part of the event revenue and the amount is split per the planned scout/troop amount.

We haven't had these problems in our troop. All of our equipment is maintained exactly the same. The tents are all of the same age (a year or two apart). As we get new tents they are assigned to a patrol. It doesn't matter who the QM is and what they patrol they are in the tents are all the same. The patrol boxes are all of the same quality also. The Patrol Leader is responsible for making sure that all items are there and that any items that need to be replaced are reported to the Troop Quartermaster. In our troop we unload all the equipment at the same time. The patrol gear (enough tents, patrol boxes, pots and pans, dish washing gear, etc.) first and then personal equipment second. The only thing that stays in the trailer is the patrol coolers. The Patrol Leaders know that they can get these on their own. The Quartermaster supervises the unloading of the troop equipment and personal equipment. He also supervises the reloading of the trailer. So basically the Quartermaster only needs to be at the trailer at the beginning of the campout and at the end of the campout. If the Scribe is not keeping the entire troop's advancement records complete then it falls to the Advancement Coordinator to hold the Scribe accountable. It comes to the Advancement Coordinator to sit down with the Scribe and explain to them what needs to happen and how to make it happen. If the Scribe doesn't complete what the troop expects him to complete then he isn't fulfilling the responsiblities of his position. Maybe another thing is that we need to stop expecting scouts to mess up. The scouts will meet the minimum expectations that we set for them. If we don't expect them to do well they won't. If we hold them accountable and we expect them to do well they usually will.

1) It seems to me that if you have two or three patrols that are going to be drawn together to solve a problem that one of the Patrol Leaders are going to become the "leader" of the Patrol Leaders to help pull them together and lead the discussion. At this point you already have a ad hoc Senior Patrol Leader. In our troop we have monthly Patrol Leader's Council Meetings. Here the boy leadership of the troop will decide on program for the meetings and outings for the month, discuss any discipline problems, do some future planning, and do some leadership training. Whose responsible for establising and emailing the agenda? The Senior Patrol Leader! Whose responsible for leading the discussion and keeping decorum? The Senior Patrol Leader! Whose responsible for following up and making sure that scouts complete any assigned tasks? The Senior Patrol Leader! In our troop we go camping. This weekend we're going to Springfield. The boys should have the responsiblity and priveledge to plan this outing themselves. Whose going to lead the discussion? The Senior Patrol Leader! Whose going to record notes? The Scribe! Whose going to make sure that the equipment is ready to go? The Quartermaster. We also like to have a list of scouts that attended any troop activitiy or service project to keep an accurate list for number of nights camped and service hours completed. We like to know who worked which fundraisers so that accounts can be properly debited. Who creates these lists? The Scribe. Who collects money for the activity fees? The Scribe! At no point is the Scoutmaster, any Assistant Scoutmasters, Advancement Coordinator, Equipment Coordinator, etc going to do any of this for the scouts. This is boy-led. The adults are present to help provide guidance and prevent problems that are going to be against BSA Guidelines. It also seems to me that some are looking to add these positions as "paperwork gets out of hand". Whose doing the paperwork in these troops? If it's the Advancement Coordinator then why are adults doing something that a boy can do. Provide each boy a source for gaining leadership experience. 2)Jblack47 you mention in your first post that you have seen troops where everyone has a leadership position. You mentioned that the problem is that very few of them seem to actually complete their positions. This is the fault of the adult leadership. Very often if scouts are not completing their delegated leadership positions it is because we are doing it for them or we don't actually expect them to do it. The Historian keeps photo albums and perhaps can write an article about each campout for the newsletter, the Scribe helps record advancement information, minutes of the PLC, and attendance, the Quartermaster maintains equipment and checks it in and out, and so on. If these scouts are not doing their position then why? Is it because the Committee Officers assigned to similar positions are not working as advisors, but actually do the job themselves? Is it because no one has explained the leadership position to the scout and trained them in their position? Is it because we don't have any real expectations for these scouts? If the answer to any of these questions is yes then it comes down to the adult leadership to change. 3)Remember that one of our responsiblites is to give boys a chance to lead and learn from their mistakes. 4) The troop level positions mentioned perviously (Scribe, Quartermaster, Librarian, etc.) are going to remain members of their original patrols. The Scoutmaster Handbook only mentions that the Senior Patrol Leader and Assistant Senior Patrol Leader(s) are leaving their original patrols.

We have two experienced patrols, a new scout patrol, and a Older Scout Patrol. The average patrol size is 7 scouts. Each of these patrols as a Patrol Leader. On the troop level we have: 1) Senior Patrol Leader: Chairs the monthly Patrol Leader's Council meeting, chairs each troop meeting (conducts openings, ensures that skills are ready to be taught, works with other troop leaders in completing their job assignments, etc.), serves as emcee for our quarterly Court of Honor, serves as a liasion between the adult leaders and scouts, and takes the lead in planning and coordinating the program for each campout. 2) Assistant Senior Patrol Leader: steps in for the SPL during their absences, helps to coordinate each troop meeting, supervises and supports the Quartermaster, Scribe, and Librarian, and helps to plan the program for each campout 3) Troop Guide: works with the new scouts and runs the First Class in First Year Advancement program 4) Quartermaster: maintains equipment, checks equipment in and out, follows up on returns, organizes the cleaning for the troop trailer, and maintains an inventory count 5) Scribe: records attendance for all troop functions, records and emails minutes for the monthly PLC Meeting, and encourages advancement among scouts 6) Librarian: maintains MB Books, prepares MB Books for Summer Camp and annual MBOD, checks books in and out, follow up on returns, and recommends purchases to the Troop Advancement Coordinator 7) Jr. Assistant Scoutmaster: works on assignments delegated by the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster I'm not sure if by your definition this would be overload or not. In our troop it is not and all these scouts have enough varity in their position that it is not.

Bob I have already mentioned that I do not support realigning patrols unless absolutly necessary. I did this when I said that our troop's Scoutmaster, Senior Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Jr. Assistant Scoutmaster, Patrol Leader's Council, and I discussed ways to prevent doing this. Our solution was decreasing the number of patrols, matching scouts with similar interests, creating an older scout patrol, and to continue filtering new scouts (after they reach First Class or the first year in the troop) into existing patrols. I will agree that each individual task is not a lot of extra work. There is more work to be done with those tasks when more scouts from a patrol attend a campout. HOWEVER, when you have to compile all these tasks together 11 and 12 year olds will not enjoy it, will not want to do it, and will stop having fun. It is a lot of work when they are all done by the same two scouts. I'm sure that 15, 16, and 17 year old scouts won't be stressed out, but that is because they have been on High Adventure Activities where the main work is not from these jobs, but from the actual activity. One of the things I have noticed regarding participation in scouts is that regardless of the program scouts will favor other programs as age increases. In our troop the scouts (through the PLC) select all the outings, service projects, fundraisers, and goals at the Annual Troop Planning Conference. We get a good number of scouts to attend this Conference. The boys in our troop that seem to control the meeting are older, experienced scouts. The younger scouts seem to sit back and take things in and start participating at future conferences. It is also these older, experienced scouts that seem to be involved in multiple activities and when dates conflict select those other activities.

1. At the end of a year or when First Class is reached our new scouts are placed into regular patrols. We look at these scout's interest and match them into one of our existing patrols. We have never had a complaint because of this. 2. Bob White in an ideal world scouts would feel obligated to go to campouts if they knew that it would effect their patrol. HOWEVER, many scouts are involved in multiple school activities, church youth group, Boy Scouts, Venture Crews, driving, working, 4H, etc. A lot of times it is a combination of these things. This prevents a lot of scouts from going on campouts regardless of how obligated they feel or how pressured they are. For that matter expecting a scout to pressure another into going camping is usually not going to happen. Even if they enjoy camping they will simply talk about the fun that they had and the events that happened. They will not use peer pressure on a scout to go camping. The other thing is that 2 11 or 12 year olds cannot be expected to go camping as a patrol of their own. They will not have fun having to do everything (splitting wood, building a fire, cooking, dishes, setting up a campsite, packing gear, garbage lines, etc.). Instead of these scouts pressuring their friends to go camping they usually lose interest in camping. Once a scout loses interest in camping it is hard to get him to even attend meetings. Plus the sports analysis is not really fitting. Of course the Yankees and White Sox would not share players. A lot of this has to do with contracts and the large investment of money that clubs put into players. Not because they don't want to or because the integrity of the teams would be in jeporady. A comparable comparision would be little league baseball and American Youth Soccer Organization. In these sports if one team is short and the other team has extras then the extra team will provide a player or two to the short team. The reason for this is to give each team enough players to make the team operate smoothly and to provide enough players so that players aren't run ragged.

Up until the beginning of this year we made a problem with every campout we had to temporarily realign patrols for each campout we attended. We never had enough scouts from each patrol to have the actual patrols. A lot of times we were stuck with having 2 patrols forged together. At the beginning of this year the Scoutmaster and myself (an Assistant Scoutmaster) looked at the patrols and looked for a solution. We included the Senior Patrol Leader and Jr. Assistant Scoutmaster in our discussions. We knew that we had 20-25 active scouts (with 33 registered). The next thing we looked at was that we had 5 patrols. So this is the part we fixed. Instead of having 5 boys in a patrol we put 8 boys in a patrol. We expanded them to the highest amount that national recommends. This has helped us quite a bit.

Our district does have some guidelines in place that can earn the unit website a certifed status from the district. The link to their site is: http://www.sycamorebsa.com/Guidelines.htm Our unit website, which I first created and turned over a year and a half ago, is www.orgsites.com/il/troop159. Orgsites is a location that allows for tons of help and simpilfication of methods.

Our troop has the Eagle's family plan the Court of Honor. We will help with anything they want us to. We will do anything from sitting down with the family and organizing it to simply being there at the Court of Honor. The reason we do this is not because we don't care about the new Eagle Scout, but that we want the family to have their say in their special day. We want them to invite those that made a difference in their son's life. We want past teachers, extended family members, former Cub Scout Leaders, employers, etc there. We also want the family to feel comfortable planning a ceremony and date that suits them. This has led to many different and exciting Court of Honors simply because one or two troop leaders weren't consistently planning them. The Eagle Court of Honor is a lot more than just celebrating a young men's achievements in scouting, it is about celebrating a new turning point in his life. A turning point that brings new responsiblities and obligations. Letting the family plan this for him allows their to be that unique taste that will mean a lot to that specific scout.

I'm reading this I think it's a great cause. The Council is looking for scouts and scouters to stand up for something that they believe in, the program. They are looking for scouts and scouters to be present to show that this issue impacts normal people. Plus the scouts and scouters will get a free tour of the capital.

At our district's last Roundtable we had our annual Fireside Chat. This is where members of the Council (professionals, Commish, President, etc.) come to discuss important issues with unit volunteers in the district. During the chat the issue of membership popped up. Our Council's Membership Chairman mentioned that the county's population is increasing. This is true. However, most of the increase is due to an increase in the hispanic population. It was noted during the chat that the district is not keeping up with the population growth. So...how do your units recruit from the hispanic population? How do you appeal to them? As a unit we have had a 0% success rate. As a district the success rate cannot be much higher.

Today at 3pm there was a school shooting at Northern IL University. There is very little information, but the student news group has informed media outlets that there were 15 people shot and two killed, including the shooter. The incident was, as the officials are putting it, confined to a single lecture hall, Cole Hall. The motive is still unclear. The school is still under lockdown and all events are canceled for tonight and tommorow. The gunman was not an NIU student. I live about 45 minutes from the school campus. I am a sophomore at our local community college. The only reason that I am at the community college and not at NIU is that my dad died back in August of 2006 (which was the Summer I graduated high school). I know that I am keeping the staff, students, families, friends, and others at NIU in my prayers not only tonight but in the future.

I graduated high school in 2006 so I'm still a full time student. My goal is to become a High School History teacher. Currently I work about 20 hours a week for the local school district as a substitute custodian. I also have a small lawn mowing "hobby" on the side that brings in some money. In the past I have been employed as a Head Cashier at Menards, Office Assistant for an Insurance Agent, and an Day Care Assistant for the local school district.

In my troop I was always one of the top salespeople. At the beginning of my scout experience the brunt of the sales were on me. As I got older I stopped trying to sale as much (I simply didn't care) and my dad started selling more (my dad also became the Scoutmaster toward the end of my scouting experience as a scout). My order form almost always had what I called the person by (ie: Grandma and Grandpa). I have lived in IL and used to sale a bunch of popcorn to my family in Michigan. For these people the only address I only ever put was Michigan.