andysmom

Our SM bends over backwards to do whatever a scout needs. He is at the church an hour before troop meetings to accommodate merit badge sessions, working on advancement and SMC. He is meeting with a different Scout tonight for an Eagle SMC who has other commitments this month on meeting nights. We don't always have ASM or MC at troop meeting. 2 weeks ago it was just the 2 of us (SM and myself) at the meeting. The boys go off and do their own thing in separate rooms at the church, but we wander around just making sure everything is going ok. We can't do on demand BOR because we usually don

Honestly, our committee is a disaster as far as advancement is concerned. Old CC held the position for 18 years and let everyone know it. No training beyond the committee challenge 18 years ago and youth protection. He was a smart man and could read up on the advancement changes, but interpreted them how he wished. When he "deferred" a scout's advancement for what turned out a month because he wanted to see"some leadership qualities" and commented that he "isn't ready to be a star scout" it caused a very un scout like conversation when I stood up to him at the BOR. He wanted to produce "t

We have SMC anytime a scout asks for them, depending on the rank it could be scheduled for the next week, but the SM is available an hour before every troop meeting for extra things like SMC, advancement needs, questions from parents, etc. Committee does not hold a BOR the same evening as a SMC, the following week at the earliest depending on if there are enough committee members present at the meeting. A general email goes out to the committee when a SMC is held for anyone under Life. Life Boards of Review require 2 weeks notice so anyone who wants to attend can since, in the words fro

In our district Eagle Boards of Reviews are held by the units with the district advancement committee member who signed off the scouts project proposal present. Our Committee Chair schedules Eagle and Life Boards of Review. Our troop's policy is that we give atleast 2 weeks advance notice of Eagle and Life Boards of Review. Our current committee chair only schedules Eagle Boards of Review on nights that we have troop meetings. SM, CC and AC get an email 2/2 that an Eagle Package is ready to be picked up after being checked by council. Should it reasonably be expected that the BOR be he

Troop does the Eagle kit, necker and slide or bolo and name on the Eagle Plaque. The last couple SM have given a personal gift, last one gave a framed Rockwell print, current one gives an Eagle Scout pocket knife.

Interesting, I've always thought a new application was required to change positions as well. We will be doing our recharter in a couple of weeks, will have to keep this in mind.

Wow! We have nothing like that. Our "camp offices" do have indoor plumbing with a room designated as the "Scouter's Lounge" that is air conditioned but it is reserved for Scouters and Sr Patrol Leaders. The health lodge has indoor plumbing as well, the campmaster uses this cabin during the off season at one of the camps. The "Training Center" we have at one camp is literally a trailer with a fireplace, if another camp is used for training it is done in a regular cabin that troops can use for camping. They are very basic, bunks, disgusting stove and refrigerators, no running water, outdoo

OK, I am seeing this from the perspective of our council. The office is in a modest building that also houses the scout shop. I believe there are 4 paid employees (in the office), the executive, a book keeper, the person who processes all the advancement paperwork and a recently added part time receptionist. There are volunteers that help out. We have 2 scout camps that run summer camp programs and a cub scout camp that, until this year, ran cub day camp and webelos arrow of light overnight camp.

The council gets no money from National, yes, they exist for the units but how are they supposed to pay for the services they provide? The fees charged by summer camp is enough to offset that cost. They pay councelors, for food, for program. Not sure they could charge enough to offset taxes, year round property management and camp imporvements and have anyone afford to go to camps. Our council is doing better and managing their money, they paid off our debt and have come in at or just under budget for the last 3 years, but again they have done no maintenance or upgrades on any of the camps

Our district had roundtable last night with the council key 3, the VP of Programs and the camping and properties chair. One of these 5 is a paid professional, the other 4 are volunteers. Much of their visit was to speak about plans for possibly selling one of our camps and money. This year our council did away with FOS. They have implimented a manditory $24 "activity fee" on every registration instead. Councils need money for staff (bookkeeper, paperwork processor, etc), to run training and to maintain camps (taxes, maintenance, improvements, etc.) Without councils we couldn't func

My son is on the spectrum and has been involved in scouting since he was a tiger. He is currently a star scout. Being in scouts has done amazing things for him and it would be a shame for someone to turn a scout away just because they have special needs. I do think choosing the right troop is key. As a leader you should have a frank and honest conversation with the parents so everyone knows what, if any, limitations the scout has. I would strongly encourage his parents to get involved, so they understand the program and offer support to leaders and their son. We have several boys with

Wow, 2eaglesons, my heart is breaking for your son. I agree with gumbymaster, this SM has issues and they should be addressed by the COR and the DE. That is NOT how scouting works.

In our troop the Eagle Scout and his family write the script for the ceremony and ask whoever they want to play the various rolls. Thye only imput the troop has is providing links for ideas and proffreading the script. They generally have someone read a poem or the ranks to Eagle, the Scoutmaster usually presents the rank, (honor guard escorts the parents to the front and presents and puts the new necker or bolo on the scout, Mom pins rank on, Dad presents certificate, parents pins presented, hugs and pictures all around and parents are escorted back to seats), One of oyur scouts had his Ea

I was a floral designer before my son was born with medical issues and I became (and currently am) a stay at home Mom. My husband is the manager of regulatory affairs in the northeast for a large power generating company.

Our local camp want scouts out no later than 11:00. They have volunteer campmasters.

Before any of our scouts get too far into their life rank I print a copy of their advancement progress from internet advancement, as that is the information that council and natiol sees. If there are any mistakes I can correct th right then. When a scout is ready to fill out his Eagle Application I again print out the advancement progress reportgive it to the scout. I tell him to be sure that he uses thes in internet advancement on his application. Those are the dates that council will be looking at when the approve the application, not the date on the blue cards. We have had no issues wi

I am a councelor for Family Life. Most of the boys, but not all that I council are in troop. The training I took was at our Pow Wow/University of Scouting event.

How does fundraising work in your troop? Who organizes and runs the fundraisers? Do you do the same things every year? Our troop has not done any fundraising in several years other than popcorn. The troop earns whatever percentage of the sales and the scout earns a percentage of that for their scout "account". Our biggest popcorn seller Eagled and aged out. He sold half of our total sales, most boys don't even participate, it is easier for Mom and Dad to write the big check to cover dues. This year we raised dues and still expect to be about $500 short of our projected expenses. A

At crossover we give new scouts a handbook, necker and slide, and epilauts. Class B shirts and caps are required but must be purchased after crossover. Our dues are high (according to some) but include patches, all camping and most food fees ($5 per scout for food on campouts, troop supliments up to an additional $8 per scout). For Eagles we provide the kit, necker and slide or bolo and a cake. We have had parents say they would rather pay higher dues and have no fundraising. We do popcorn but honestly not many boys participate. We need to supliment the dues this year with a fudraiser, a

As with everything there are good districts and there are bad districts, in districts there are good committees and bad committees. Many of our district volunteers have moved on from troops after their boys have aged out or have been recruited to help because they have a particular talent or interest. We currently do not have a DC, but if the old one wasn't a personal friend I don't know if I would have known him. Our UC has been around a couple times, but our unit functions pretty well so we don't really need him. I do know that UC and our DC have saved some packs and troops who were stru

We provide new handbooks to our crossovers. It has been suggested that we purchase new books for the entire troop since there are new requirements that aren't covered in the current handbook (cyberchip, more knots, etc). How can older boys teach young boys things that they don't have in their current handbook. Thoughts?

In our council the troop committee secures the reference and summarizes them on a form provided by council. The summary form is signed by the committee chair and goes to council with the application, proposal, life statement, etc. I am the one who handles it in our troop, I have a form letter that I email out. I make 3 attempts to acquire a reference by email or phone call. I provide the letters and summary to the members of the board of review and they are destroyed by myself after the board.

Interesting, our troop "budget meeting" is tonight. All parents have been invited. When I first joined the committee we carried a balance of $9000 or so. We didn't think that we should be just sitting on that large of a balance because it was money the boy's raised. We started charging only $5 per campout per person for food and the troop would reimburse up to $7 extra per person. Site rental has always come out of the troop's operating budget. We have only done the popcorn fundraiser for years. Now, after very lax record keeping from a former treasurer our bank balance is suffering. W

We use Troopmaster. We have a google website (which I hate, I would love to update to something with more features) Facebook Twitter Looking into instagram and remind we email, alot

There is another thing to consider, you have to get people to take the training. Even if they know it is available, even if you make it inexpensive, heck, even if you offer to give it to them in their own home, there are people who won't do it. I would trust nearly everyone on this board to take my son on a trek because you recognize the need to be trained and you want to be trained. What do we do about those "one hour a week"ers who don't care enough to get trained? I know I said I was bowing out, but this is a problem in our area.