andysmom

Our council does this, kind of. They have 1 day at one camp to finish merit badges started at camp that for various reasons couldn't be finished. I know that if any scouts from our unit attended it would be if they didn't qualify in shooting sports, catch a fish for the fishing merit badge or waterfront badges that couldn't be completed because of weather. Setting up a completion day specifically for "eagle required" badges is ridiculous and in my opinion, weakening the integrity of the rank.

We have a scout right now who had his Eagle BOR in December 2 mos, 3 weeks and 4 days after his 18th birthday. he apparently does not want a COH and all of our attempts at recognizing his achievement before the troop (regular COH, troop meeting, annual mini golf and ice cream outing) have been fruitless. One of our old timers has stated that he isn't an Eagle Scout until his COH.... nonsense. The Scoutmaster found out he will be in attendance at an Eagle COH for one of his friends tomorrow evening and he will be "presented" with his kit, certificate and a gift from the Scoutmaster in privat

Same here

Tomorrow evening is my last meeting time set up for collecting our forms since I will be getting them pre screened on Tuesday (our boys will report to camp Sunday). I am happy to report that only one scout has not turned in his forms and I got an email saying that he will be having his physical Monday morning....... After 4 years of being in charge of the paperwork, word has apparently gotten around that I know what I am talking about when it comes to knowing what the camp and the state require on the medical forms. Finally.

Many congratulations to you and your son. The Eagle Rank is always something to be proud of and as a Mom to a scout on the spectrum, I can imagine how you feel.

We can pretty much figure out if a scout has completed the requirements just by talking to him about them. "Johnny, you had to fix a meal for your patrol on a campout, what did you make? How was it? Was there anything you should have done differently?" , "who did you teach the square knot to?", "was it easy for them?", "if I asked them to tie it right now, do you think they could?". None of those questions would qualify as a retest, but they do let us know that the scout completed the requirements. The committee has to trust that when a requirement is signed off that the scout has mastere

I know parents who have created Facebook accounts for their under 13 year old kids, so I wouldn't assume the young scout is lying about his age. Many parents want their kids to be "popular" and social media gives them the opportunity to interact with people from the relative safety of their own homes. Do I agree with it? No, my son does not have any social media accounts. As an adult leader I have chosen not to accept friend requests from any of our scouts, however I know outstanding leaders who are friends with the scouts. Nothing I have seen forbids it (unless you are sending private me

$175 a year. $5 per campout One fundraiser, popcorn, proceeds split between troop and earmarked for individual scout Summer camp is not included, badges, rank, camping fees, replacement of troop equipment are.

I feel your pain as I am the "keeper of the medical forms" for our troop as well. I keep the forms all year since form A and B are needed for all activities. The issue with summer camp is the form c that requires the physical. Since I keep the forms from year to year I have the dates of the required tetanus vaccine and the copy of the insurance card that, if it hasn't changed, transfer from one application to the next. I check forms evry couple of months and if a scout is getting close to expiring I will alert the parents via email. If form A and B expire before a canpout the parents can

So very sorry. Sending prayers for comfort and healing for their families, your troop and your community.

The other troop in our town has had the same "Scoutmaster" for 20 years. He "can tell" if a scout is going to "make it in Scouting" within 2 months of crossing over. If he is not going to "make it in scouting" he is urged to quit. He has been a very good "recruiting tool" for us because according to him we "take everyone", and he is right.

My point is that he doesn't know. Most of our scouts do not reach eagle until they are ready to leave for college or they are 18. We have a 17 year old eagle who is at troop meetings unless it is robotics season. This CC is not at meetings so he does not know who is there. He is assuming that Eagles will leave. He has no evidence of that. The other thing I am seeing is that there are some here who do seem to equate wearing the uniform with scout spirit. Of course we encourage our scouts to wear their uniform and as I said, most do. In my opinion, some members of the committee are lo

Exactly my problem. In boards of review, I don't usually ask questions about how they live the oath and law. I see these boys at troop meetings, at school events and even in the grocery stores. I see what they post on facebook and twitter, I know their parents and their teachers. If asked anyone can make themselves look good and will say what they think you want to hear. I am more interested in watching our scouts when no one knows they are being watched, when they are on a school field trip or at the park with their little sister for example. It is one of the benefits of being a Mom o

To clarify a couple things. The majority of our committee members do not attend troop meetings, so they have no idea which scouts are there. We have a 17 year old Eagle Scout who does attend most meetings, he isn't there now because he is on the robotics team and they are preparing for the world championships which they qualified for last week. Our brand new 15 year old Eagle Scout (omg) plans to run for SPL for next year, he will be around. Most of our Eagles have their BOR after their 18th birthday or just before they leave for college, so of course we don't see them anymore. Our boy

Thanks CalicoPen. Our current CC has no training other than youth protection. None. He was SM about 15 years ago and was basically appointed to the position behind the backs of the rest of the committee by the previous cc who wrote a letter to the CO recommending him before anyone knew the previous cc was leaving. Previous Cc held the position for 18 years and did his committee challenge then and nothing since. Our committee is made up primarily of older men who haven't had children in the program in several years (one of them has no children but earned his Eagle rank in the troop in 1968

Thanks all, I agree with everything posted. The thing is most of our boys wear the uniform to meetings. Things that are being discussed are, in my opinion, nit picky. The complaints range from, not wearing the necker, to scouts loosing their slide, to wearing bulky sweatshirts over the uniform and the one that got the ball rolling was a scout who pulls his wrinkled shirt from a plastic bag at every meeting. Our committee chair has the misguided idea that he needs to slow boys down of he feels they are advancing too fast. This conversation came on the heels of my insisting they schedule

At last nights committee meeting there was a side rant about scouts not wearing their uniforms to troop meetings or not having their neckers or wearing sweatshirts over the uniforms. It was mentioned that there should be some sort of announcement that wearing the uniform shows scout spirit and that not wearing it properly shows a lack of scout spirit. (Scoutmaster has pointed out that a scout uniform is the same as a sports uniform, you make sure you have it, even if you have something going on before practice and the same should hold true for scout uniforms). Committee Chair stated "let me

To clarify. My unit does not have an issue with a meeting place. When I come to the boards it is to get insight on BSA policy, and how others interpret some of the "less than straight forward" language that BSA uses. As I quoted above CalicoPenn stated that "The Chartered Agreements do not require CO's to provide a place to meet though a lot of people think it does." That statement does not appear to be true and I was trying to clarify the "official" policy verses someone's "opinion". I agree that OP should speak with his DE , but knowing the official policy can't hurt.

This is the statement I was trying to clarify.

My question was in regards to whether or not a CO is required to provide a meeting place, :-) I do understand that it doesn't have to be in the building that belongs to the CO, but it does have to be someplace.

I have a question about this.... The Chartered Agreements do not require CO's to provide a place to meet though a lot of people think it does. It only requires that the CO ensures that the Unit has appropriate facilities for their regular meetings. You meet in a school - you're meeting in an appropriate facility - maybe someone way back when got that relationship going - maybe the unit found it on its own (and the Charter doesn't even require that the CO find you a place to meet - only to ensure that the place you meet is appropriate) - the point is that the obligation has been met.

Patrols pick the names once a year in the fall. We don't have patches, our scouts pick strange names. Hard to find a "Blurple" patch, for example. This year our older scout patrol chose 3 different patrol names that were political in nature, they were told that the names were not appropriate.

We have SPL elections for the following year in the spring. New SPL appoints 2 ASPL and Quartermaster and by summer camp they have a rough plan for the year put together to go over with the SM. SPL puts scouts into patrols, with input from SM if he asks. This year it was mostly by school grade with a couple people moved around because of personality conflicts, etc. We have 3 patrols this year with about 8 boys each. Patrols elect their PL and APL. When WEBLOS cross in the spring they are put into their own patrol and elect their own PL and APL. SPL appoints a troop guide to work with

Only 3 of our committee members are parents, myself, our COR who has another commitment meeting nights and a brand new mom who has been to 1 meeting. Parents drop and run, half of them we never even see. It shouldn't be hard.