JMHawkins

I think ScoutNut has the right idea. Work through the youth leaders in the troop. If there's an SPL or a PL in a different patrol who's a good leader, let them know the new PL might need some coaching (or let the SM know and let him let the other youth leader's know). I would NOT suggest a TG for the NSP since they already have a PL. Adding a TG would kinda pull the rug out from under the new PL who needs a chance to learn along with everyone else. Another PL or an SPL who helps out is a different matter. Barry also mentioned laughter. I thinks that important too (though make sure

Maybe a harry potter reference or Pokemon......I was amazed at day camp that they are still playing pokemon. I think we'd have to use Creepers.

That said, the proposed fitness test would have to be on some kind of standard equipment that you could do at your city of residence... Nah, just make it x feet of elevation gain in y distance, done in z minutes. Make the actual test at Philmont a little less than the published requirements (to account for elevation and to give a margin of error). Or have several requirements, passing any ONE of which is good: Have a BMI under 30* -OR- be able to make 500 feet elevation gain in 1 mile in under 30 minutes -OR- etc. Or, Philmont could say "A Scouter is trustworty" a

They really ought to just drop the stupid BMI business and have a day 1 conditioning test hike. Make it to the top of such and such hill in so many minutes and you pass. It's laudable that BSA is doing something about conditioning, but why did they pick an unscientific, discredited horsepucky method to use?

A phone tree works perfectly well in this situation, assuming anything needs to happen at all. Unless the Scout is in a life-threatening situation, Mommy needing to talk to her little guy is, while understandable, over-reacting. As other's have said, if you don't trust the Troop leadership to look out for medical issues, then you're in the wrong troop.

The scout AND the parent have been briefed on this policy and asked to please lay the tent out to dry that same day and return at the next troop meeting... I know it sounds a little foolish, but have you actually "taught" the Scout how to dry a tent? briefing them on a policy isn't really the same as teaching them how to care for equipment. Sure, how hard can it be to "dry a tent" but we shouldn't assume the Scouts or their parents know what we know, right? I can see a couple of scenarios where a kid and his parents don't know what to do and get flustered. Maybe they don't have much r

We had 38 people at camp, so that means the SM would have spent at least 38 minutes on the phone... Anyone besides Sasha heard of a phone tree? Maybe IOLS should add a sesson on them. I'm not saying whether or not the phone tree should have been deployed in this situation, but there certainly are situations where it's needed (even simple ones like "traffic is bad, we'll be an hour late getting to the pick up spot"). It's not going to work if the SM has to call everyone personally. (This message has been edited by JMHawkins)

You can debate the merits of soda, candy, cell phones all you want. Each unit has their own restrictions and reasons for them. Find a unit you either agree with, try to change the rules, or find a new unit. But, if you are a member of the unit, then you agree to follow the rules of the unit - period. To do otherwise is unscoutlike in my book. That's fine advice for the parents, but the OP is wondering about what the unit can do. And regardless of expectations, the more rules there are, at least past a reasonable minimum, the more conflict there will be. Every rule the troop impos

Good on you, Scoutfish. I always thought the singing for lost stuff thing was unscoutlike too. There's a line we all have to walk in the helping department. A Scout(er) is helpful, but if we're so helpful that we do everything for the scouts, they never learn. Being adults with more experience and skills, it's easy for us to "help" too much. I think the advice to "never do something for a scout that he can do for himself" is good. But returning lost stuff? That's not doing something for the scout he can't do for himself, that's just being a friend, a good neighbor. Singing to

Our last overnighter was a 3 1/2 hour drive there, 4 1/2 hours back (took a little detour to an observatory). One of the scouts riding in my truck had his cell phone. He was supposed to use it to call his dad to pick him up when we got to the return rendezvous, but he played games all the way down and killed the battery. I didn't have the right adapter in my truck to charge it again on the way back... I really expected kids to have a better understanding of battery life by now...

Ah, interesting BSA24. I googled around for the forums you mentiond and I think I know where our disconnect is. From the foums I found, I think you're talking about dumbed down martial arts programs that let 10 year olds "earn" a black belt. I was talking about more traditional ones that don't focus on awards but on skill and training, which were the only ones I was familar with. Frankly, I wasn't aware there were so many of the "advancement oriented" MA programs until your replay caused me to research it. So thank you, I stand corrected. Children in MA programs that focus on awards rat

BadenP, Can you give us a summary of your district's Venturing program? Maybe spin a thread off in the Venturing forum. I'd be interested to know more.

Scoutfish says: I just want to make sure I do it in a tactfull enough way to not cause a parent to freak out and want to remove their son from the troop because the think prison wardens took over. and SeattlePioneers says: Personally, I never made those rules as Scoutmaster for five years. Twocubdad says: You may want to consider one reason you have so many folks ignoring your rules is that the troop seems to have a lot or rules and/or expectations. Not every hill is worth dying for. I think thats part of the answer to how you put your foot down without freaking out

When you have a boy scout get Eagle and then they leave the program, that is an indictment of your program, that it's weak. Excellent point. More specifically, the weakness is that your program isn't fun. If it's fun, then he'll stick around to keep having more fun, and the rank was just something he collected along the way. But if a lot of scouts "Eagle out", then it probably means they just see it as another task they have to finish. Not many teenage baseball players quit after making the All Star team. Not many guys doing martial arts quit when the get a black belt. Usually

Huh? No it isn't. Did yeh ever take training? Da model of team development doesn't have a lick to do with First Class First Year. It's about helpin' youth leaders servin' on the PLC or as leaders of their patrol, or adults who are workin' with those groups Yeah, but if a troop is running New Scout Patrols, I can imagine how they might conflate FCFY and team formation dynamics. Since you're creating a "new team" every year with the new crop of Webelos instead of augmenting established (already normed) patrols, the adults might think the stormin', normin', underperformin' foofaloo applies

Then you look at the plan itself, and you see that deadlines have already been changed a number of times. Yeah, that was one of the big problems I had with it from a management and organizational perspective. One item was Status Green (on track) even though it was scheduled to be done in 2011 and the May 2012 status said that the pilot project wouldn't even start for several more months. Another goal (Green, on track) was to have finished three years of marketing by the middle of 2014. Well, if you want to have been doing something for 3 years in the middle of 2014, some pretty basic

I see your points and don't really disagree. Like I said, if it was entirely up to me, a scout's "Eagle project" would be leading a venture patrol on a 50-miler, no-resupply trek of some sort. I'd be thrilled if National showed interest in going that direction, but I'm doubtful at the moment they would. So, trying to work within the bounds Irving might be interested in listening to, I'd still like to "fix" advanceent so that the first real leadership challenge required of a scout isn't this big, elaborate, to-do of an Eagle project. Sure, programs where the adults get it will make sure the

Desertrat Though I'm sure the suggestions are made with good intentions, What would make you think that? And no, I certainly wouldn't want to add more pure bookwork. But then I don't think the Eagle project should have a ton of bookwork either. A schedule, bill of materials, duty roster, and some sort of status tracking for the schedule, not sure that much more than that is really needed. In my view, the paperwork, such as there is, should exist only to support and guide the actual work. It should be pretty minimal, because every hour put into paperwork is an hour not put

I'm not a huge fan of high-cost McAdventure trips either (and SP is right, we do have it pretty good here in the PNW for roll-your-own outdoor adventures. 50-miler through hikes of Olympic National Park at varying levels of difficulty, sea kayaking the San Juan islands, climb Mt. Saint Helens and look into the crater...). But, I do think the X-games notion is a good step in the "Scouting is cool" department. Mountain Boarding, zip lines, white-water rafting, SCUBA, I think those help the image. So that's definitely something BSA is doing right. Also something BSA is doing "better" t

We have a new CSE and a new National President. Yes, I have hopes for Wayne Perry as well. But National Presidents only serve two year terms (and frankly, Wayne Brock the new CSE isn't going to serve a very long term either, due to mandatory retirement), so they'll have to act fast. Interestingly, the outdoor program objective OBJECTIVE II: The BSA is known as the premier outdoor program provider and educator has a status of We are reevaluating these goals with the recent BSA staff member change. Due date extensions were approved at the February 2012 meeting.

I read the progress report. And debated whether I should post my detailed response or not. Ultimately I deleted it. It was not cheerful by any stretch of the imagination. I found myself picking the report apart - on a corporate management level - pretty much piece by piece. Almost every single page has serious flaws indicative of a dysfunctional organization. I'm not talking about program issues, that's a separate concern. I mean just the day-to-day functioning of a workplace, the leadership and management of the outfit. The cheerful part is that we have a new incoming CSE. I'm ho

A question occurred to me while replying to the thread about how many hours are in a typical Eagle project. As I understand it, the goals of the Eagle project are for the Scout to demonstrate leadership, organization, and service. Other's have mentioned that an Eagle project was not always a requirement, and here I have to say I think this is a place where BSA has improved the advancement process by adding one. I think running a project of some scope is an excellent experience for a Scout. But I'm also reminded of Beavah's discussion about cooking skills in T-2-1. He observed that c

...For example researching historical info, contacting personal involved and placing markers at the sites involves few work hours but demonstrates excellence in leadership by the Life Scout... Hmmmm, not sure I agree. It demonstrates organizational ability, which is good, but leadership involves actually leading people. Writing a plan isn't leadership. Executing the plan as the guy in charge of the group of people doing the work is. The research and contact jdsmerud mentions is properly called "staff work" rather than leadership. Staff work is valuable. Having a plan going in is gre

I really do wish I had more confidence in National, but that clip sure didn't help. I've seen a lot of presentations in my career, many from stumbletounged engineers who were very inexperienced at speaking in front of a group. But that presentation ranks near the bottom of what I've seen, for content and delivery. In content it was, as jpstodwftexas said, empty. Seems pointless to have even given it. And for delivery, Mr. Hunsaker conveyed zero interested or excitement about the project. An 11 minute presentation, with two video breaks, and he had to read it off a prompter? Those stumb

Let me ask a slightly different question. What is BSA doing better today than it was doing in 1962?