JerseyScout

Scoutmaster is no little thing, and is far more than what you think you are signing up for. For me, the best Scoutmasters have big hearts, a well-developed sense of fun, a nose for adventure, the ability to give and get respect, an almost unquestioning dedication to both the program and the Scouts, and a sense of how to hang back and let the boys lead without interference from him/herself or other adults. They need to play the role of teacher, of taskmaster, of gatekeeper, of mentor, of public relations man, of referee, of car driver, and of parent, and a million others on top of that.

Guh, 2 1/2 hours to either of the closest stops. I live just outside the 6th biggest city in the country, why is there not a closer stop?

That's awesome. I can't think of any offhand, but one I've been wanting to do for a while is set up a street hockey tournament and invite all the local troops to it. I found a first place trophy for our troop from a district-wide street hockey tournament from 1979, and thought that that was an awesome thing to do, even if its kinda bizarre for Scouts.

I constantly tell my Scouts that its not my troop, I aged out ten years ago. However, they are my kids. Whenever anyone asks me if I have children, I tell them about fifty and counting.

I'm just starting out with this issue (been a Scoutmaster for only a month, although I've been de facto running the troop for 2 1/2 years). My approach is to make very clear what a Position of Responsibility is and what "active" is, to the point of saying "As a Quartermaster, your responsibilities are this, this, and this" and outlining exactly how often these duties need to be done. That way the expectations are clear, as well as how to fufill them. If they are not fufilled, then no signature. The same situation applies to "being active". I'm not sure what it would take to refuse to

>>>What's a Dan Beard program? Is that like 'trailblazers" where they work on T21 skills at camp instead of MBs? If so we avoid those programs. Well... the adults at camp go volunteer and help the staff teach but we steer the scouts in our troop away from that program. It may be good at some summer camps, but not where we go. We like the older scouts to teach the younger guys T21 on a troop campout or at a meeting. Better teaching ratio and don't have to rush thru a skill.

As I've mentioned before, I've rebuilt my troop over the last three years or so. I scaled back the advancement method, which had become the purpose for our troop instead of a part of its program. I replacing the hole the scaleback left with a far more exciting and expansive outdoors program (the Outdoor Method) and by reinstating the Patrol Method in all its glory. While we've had some scary moments and some irate parents, I am now raking in new kids by the boatload - 18 in the last 8 months, 8 of whom were never Cub Scouts - with far more competent and responsible older boys. Kn

When I use the term mill its usually in terms "merit badge mill", I am usually using it in reference to a Summer camp. Some horror stories... - The Scouts who signed up for a merit badge, showed up for the first half hour, decided it was ridiculous and left, but were given signed blue cards at the end of the week. - The Scout who failed Swimming Merit badge with one of our counselors. The counselor would not sign most of the requirements for the badge because the boy flat out could not swim (which is kind of important for the merit badge). Six weeks later he returned from camp wi

There are the two new positions available too - Leave No Trace Trainer and Troop Webmaster - that might be available. Den Chief is also an option, local Cub Scout dens always need Den Chiefs.

The local animal shelter does this around us at several locations as well.

I'm not so sure that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (aka, the Mormons) would be horribly opposed to allowing homosexual (but not sexually active, which none of the boys should be anyway) young men into their Boy Scout programs if there was some broad discussion ahead of time at the National level and if a change was made for the right reasons (opportunities for all boys to be involved in this quality program) and not the wrong ones (caving to pressure to be "politically correct"). Salt Lake OKs gay rights laws with Mormon backing From the Associated Press. http:

All great ideas. The grease fire meeting stands out, I'd definately like to see that myself. One of the popular ones in my group is the Search & Rescue/First Aid scenero. Pick a Scout (or adult) and send them out to lie down somewhere. Each patrol has to organize a search for the person, then acess the situation and take care of it. My favorite time was when we first did this a few years ago and had a piece of rope laying out by the Scout. What they didn't know was that was a "power line". None of the patrols made it 30 seconds without adding three more victims as they rus

""...and I don't see a reason for them to be excluded ..." Yeah, that whole "On my honor,... do my duty to God...and morally straight." thing is just a bunch of words, right? I mean, nobody takes it seriously, right? The most important thing is that those athiest and gay Scouts got the nice pretty award pinned on their uniform, so they can feel good about themselves. But, if the award turns out to mean nothing, and is nothing more than a pretty medal, then I wonder why it would make them feel good about themselves? Kinda reminds me about a certain president and a certain prize, but

I don't think that they'll take a hit. There is a difference between an organization hiding an abuser (a la the church scandels relatively recently) and a member of an organization who is also an abuser. No one is suggesting that Scouts protected a woman who was abusing children, so I don't see much fallout coming from it.

Thank to for the link on where to order the patches. I don't believe in wearing knots on my uniform (it's Boy Scouts, not Adult Scouts), but if I did I would be attaching this one. I'm going to send some money, and I'll find a home for the circular patch somewhere. I came through Scouts with some fine people who happened to be athiests or homosexuals (several of whom achieved the rank of Eagle Scout), and I seriously doubt that my current group of Scouts doesn't harbor any gays or non-theists at the moment, even if I don't know of anyone open about either. Scouting is a fine program fo

Thanks Shriscov

Tell the adults they aren't allowed to build the gateway.

Gah! My troop camped there a number of years when we had people in the 5 Boro Bike Ride, its a very nice camp. It was also nice to be able to camp there for cheap, then take the ferry into NYC for the ride/to visit the Statue of Liberty/etc. How can they get rid of the only Scout camp in the city?

"Nope. We have just discussed everything and solved all the problems. Nothing more to discuss." Whew, I'm glad we got that sorted. Its probably just that December is kind of busy for most people and kind of light on Scouting for a lot of people. Fortunately not so much for my troop this year, my older Scouts are organizing a winter backpacking trip that they approached me about a month ago. I haven't been able to get these folks (and their now aged out cohorts) to go on a HIKE for the last three years without threatening to feed them to the bears, now they want to go backpacking in the

Could anyone find a way to directly donate to Afghan Scouting? The umbrella organization (a very noble organization in itself) has a website, but I could find nothing about Scouts on it. I shared this with my boys tonight, figuring out how to help these Scouts out with either money and/or supplies would be a nice holiday project for the troop.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Overall, the troop is doing excellent and I haven't heard a single complaint from the Scouts themselves about NOT having adults help out/hover (whichever view you take on the action). Eagle732 ~ "When the parents start complaining and threatening to take there sons elsewhere that's when you know you're getting close to being boy led." I haven't had any of that yet, I guess I'd better keep pushing Eagle92 ~ I think I am going to try your "there is training and literature available" route for my CC next time our lively debate starts up again (maybe

Background: I've been defacto running my troop for a year and a half (I will get officially bumped to Scoutmaster at the end of the month), and made some major changes in that time, empasizing patrol method and taking the adult leaders almost entirely out of the affairs of the boys. End Background. My Committee Chair (who is also my roommate, who was also a few years behind me in Scouts) just had it out over "boy-led troop" for the fifth or sixth time. He states that it isn't that the troop isn't working (it is, far better than it has in years), he just feels that it could run better, a

That's something else, Scouting has a lot different meaning to most of those kids than it does to most American kids. That article definately gets printed out and put where my Scouts can see it (especially the "My parents want Eagle for my college resume" ones)

As far as I know, we do not have a COPE course (at least the local camp does not, the council has merged since I attended, so there may be one at the other camp). The local YMCA camp does have a COPE course, as well as a high ropes (as in, 40 feet up in the trees) course. This all came up because, two years ago, we ran the classic "Gully Crossing" event at our district Klondike, stretching a rope across two trees and tying off to a hitch on a pick up truck to make it easy to loosen or tighten the slack. The kids had to safely transport their patrol across this rope which spanned a "ragi

Alright, from this website, it looks like there is no BSA certification for this, they merely list places where you can find instructors. As my alumni were both climbing instructors at a rock climbing gym (a local place, so obviously not one of the places listed on that site), it would seem to me that they would be qualified for what we want to do as long as they took the online Climb on Safely training from the BSA.