jtswestark

I would still go to the camp or program director, but ask the director to not make a big deal out of it to cause any backlash and make things worse for the CIT. Hopefully a side talk between the director and staff members will handle it. You don't want to get in the middle of it nor give the impression you're going to be a helicopter leader over one of your boys.

That said, CIT needs to start developing a skin. Things will happen between boys on staff (or anywhere) that we adults can't control.

Your Web seems pretty determined to find exactly what he is looking for. Unfortunately, I too wonder if one exists that will satisfy him. Or when he thinks he does find it, what happens when after he joins he finds they arent what he thought they are. Im afraid this is setting up to go terribly bad somewhere down the road and you may find your Troop shopping is going to continue with each disappointment. Be very cautious in letting him focus so much on his perception of the perfect troop. If they are boy lead, they are going to be far from perfect. If he pelts a SM with 101 questions, the SM may decide this kid is too high of maintenance and respond by pointing him towards a neighboring troop (which may be inadvertently what his WDL is doing).

We all want our boys to make the choice of a Troop, but I feel this is the time when we need to be the adult and make the final call. We will see things differently than the boys will and hopefully have the ability to make the best call based upon a whole set of different parameters. Ive seen this let the boy pick scenario play out numerous times, sometimes as an attention getter (not in your case), and found that six months later the kid is miserable or already on his way out of Scouts.

Dont also forget to consider your time and drive to this Troop before you let him expand the net too wide; there will be the forgotten handbook or extra trips needed for different events and duties, MB appointments, or traffic issues. Cross town trips to a CO can be a problem in the long run.

Maybe you let him narrow the choices down and guide him to the best choice with your input. I think that is actually what hes asking you for with his might be easier comment. Dont let perfect get in the way of good enough. Dont make a mountain out of this; study the options and make a call. Taking him out of his comfort zone is necessary for growth and will happen many many times during his Scouting career. But we A-types hate that!

Now that June is here, summer constellations are in full visibility. I am always looking for new and better ways to get Scouts fired up about astronomy, including talking about the space station, satellites, planets, galaxies, etc...

I was curious what kind of programs your troop uses to teach constellations?

What percentage of your Scouts earn Astronomy MB?

Does showing them pictures of the characters help them envision the constellations?

Do telescopes or other aides help fuel their fire?

Allangr: you gotta keep slugging at it it wont happen over night. I dont know if any real helpful guide exists, but search the forum here and Im sure youll find plenty of wonderful reading materials to give you good insight.

Bottom line, you dont have to be a good salesman. You just have to believe in what your unit offers to young men. That passion is all the recruiting skill you need. The challenge is getting that passion in front of the right people at the right time, and thats where the hard work is at. The best, best, best, best recruiting tool is a strong outdoor program. If you arent camping once a month, if you arent going to scout camp each summer, if you arent working high or nearly high adventure trips in, its been my experience you will fail. You dont need to be a high roller to do these things, either. Then take these pictures and make posters of your events. Go to school open houses, area churches, community festivals/fairs, your charter org, every cub pack in the area, get your activities in the district/council newsletters/web pages; in other words anywhere you can get in front of youth, you have to be there. It can take *years* to build a relationship with an area pack, but you have to keep working it. Volunteer to assist at their pinewood derby, their B&G, their Arrow of Light/Crossover, treat them to lunch at the Klondike derby, invite them to visit one afternoon to a campout and introduce them to cobbler and a real campfire, invite them for Scoutcraft related pin nights given by your Scouts even if you arent getting any of their boys - keep at it and eventually youll get some parents that like what youre doing, who you are and will give you a shot. Get to know area leaders at Roundtables. If the mega troop meets on Mondays, consider meeting on Tuesdays in other words be an alternative to that mega unit sell your intimacy as an advantage! Dont isolate yourself from area troops, work with them so you all can gain. Relationships matter in the survival of units, and most of us are always willing to help each other out (believe it or not!).

>>SUGGESTION - Replace the UC corps with a sharing concept. Require each committee chair and each unit leader (CM, SM, ...) to separately visit another unit's pack/troop meeting and another unit's committee meeting ... every year.

Moose - that sounds like a female SM that summer camped with us once. Personal adult shower houses with flushing toilets weren't good enough.

Something to consider my past lodge would have a clan or two at the ordeal weekends repairing bunks and platforms. We also have a good turn camp requirement for our camp honors which many repairs are done as well. Significant repairs are typically done by volunteer Scouters or even camp staff as a last resort. Assembling and setting up the platforms, tents, and bunks in the spring and taking them all down in the fall is all done at two ordeal weekends plus camp staff & adult volunteers to wrap up any loose ends. I believe most materials are donated by friendly companies or Scouters. All the council is really out is the tents.

I guess if our camp decided the cost of purchasing tents is too high, then theyd have to find some other things for us all to do.

So just how bad do your volunteers want your camp to retain the wall tents?

(This message has been edited by jtswestark)

It means a new patch! Woohoo!

Not meaning to stir the cell phone pot either, but if you are clear on the rules up front having a clear agreement that cell phones are not allowed why should this adult be surprised? The swearing and refusal of direction in a safety issue from another adult leader is acceptable in what way?

Im not encouraging any conflict between a child and an adult parents are going to go off the deep end over it, as this one did regardless of how egregious the event(s) was. This is a tough call and hind sight is always 20/20, but maybe a better approach would be to either summon the mother or go find her and explain the situation and that she needs to come back and address. Less confrontational, less public, and hopefully the mother will see you are trying to show her some discretion about the situation but also let her know what her daughter is doing without her around.

Please remember that as well as you may think you know the daughter and mother - you may not know the rest of the story. There may be many things going on at home / school / elsewhere that the mother is struggling with and the confrontation undermined her in the eyes of her daughter; maybe the cell was a compromise she made just to get her to go along could be a million reasons for the reaction of Mom as odd as it may appear on the surface to the rest of us.

Not a good situation at all, but as a fellow leader, I think maybe she shouldve been given the benefit of the doubt and notified earlier. As was suggested, go invite the mother for a coffee one day and talk it through.

Just a different perspective.

JTS

Hopefully all of you will move onto Boy Scouts where unfortunately you will see the parent participation problem doesnt go away.

AKdenledr makes a fantastic point that by not bringing in more adults, they are not given the opportunity to try something new and find that they really *like* this Scouting thing. Its almost as cool seeing an adult come out of their shell as it is seeing a boy do the same. Its funny watching the look on the face of a new leader the first time they get swept in the moment of a goofy dining hall/campfire song that a few months prior wouldve been far below their dignity. People think I was joking when I'd tell them I won't hog all the fun.

Additionally different boys click with different adults, having more involved allows an expanded opportunity to have more positive influences in a boys life. We all have our shortcomings and hopefully those areas can be leveled out with leader depth.

As easy as it is to just do it yourself, dont do it any longer than you absolutely have too. You may be able to get away with it for a while until it catches up by effecting your real job, your marriage/relationships, and other children. While I am very proud of my years of involvement with some of the most fantastic young men Ive ever known, my relationship with my daughter took years to recover and in some ways never will. Keep yourself on a short time plan, improve what you can and leave some for the next person. And most of all, enjoy the ride or it will turn into a burden.

I tried to get as many repeatable events in place and establish structure all could understand. Then its easier to hand off to someone else here you go feel free to take it and run. A primary function of the CC is to recruit additional leaders, dont let them off the hook.

JTS

In my years as SM, when I had a decent CC that would take on the majority of those parent issues it was a significant load off me and I could focus on what I was really there for. A SM's best friend is an active CC!

JTS(This message has been edited by jtswestark)

I blame it on Scouting. I wasnt a High D personality when I was a happy-go-lucky 10 year old.

And, btw, you're all wusses.

JTS

Bill

That is a fantastic parent presentation on the patrol method. I really like the way you give a side by side comparison of the Pack vs. Troop. Very clear and succinct.

It finally dawned on me after a few years of parent presentations that by frequently reminding and reinforcing them about the Aims and Methods we headed off a lot of misunderstandings about why we do things the way we do. Great advice for any new leader (probably was in the Fundamentals session I was goofing off in).

However one concern (sorry). You give a great list of the ways you can identify an adult lead troop, then follow with the outcome on the next slide. Great stuff. But what you dont want to do is inadvertently be giving a message that a boy lead troop doesnt care about or focus on advancement, or outings, or planning with announcements. A parent in your audience may ask themselves: why are these bad things?? and off they go to the Dark Side. A boy lead troop can do these things with proper guidance and training, and can be done very well. So be careful of how you word those last three bullets on slide 13. I would expect a parent will ask you what can I look for in a boy lead troop? And here you go: SM and adults are seen in the background and not heard; Adults are separated from the Troop activities; The SPL is the MC of the meeting; The SPL runs the PLC Patrols have meetings and outings on their own for some examples that maybe you can add to an additional slide (I know less slides the better).

Maybe Im a little rusty on my roles and Im certain I will get corrected if so a very minor point but to us diehards on page 17, last bullet isnt it the role of the CC to take on parent issues?

Great job and thanks for being open to constructive points.

JTS

Overall, nice presentation, but needs some touchups.

Couple things to consider -

- You have a group of Scouters/Parents that you are talking to for two hours - you need some kind of activity or many will either start wandering around for coffee, restrooms, or fall asleep (been there... trust me!).

- You are ranging on topic from very rudimentary (new parents) to somewhat advanced (novice/lightly experienced leaders?). Maybe too large of a range to cover effectively in a two hour class.

- At 56 slides that gives you less than 2 minutes per slide. Many of which are redundant - cut out half of them for starters. Consolidate your references/bibliography onto handouts or just one slide. Much of what you have listed should be in the speaker notes, not the slides - they will be reading instead of listening to you. And you may end up reading yourself as all your thoughts may be on the slide (which drives people nuts). You do need time for discussion and questions and always allow for that one guy thats going to share every war story he's ever encountered. Thin down the show some to allow time for that.

- Simplify your master slide as they are way to busy and your bullets points will be overlooked. I hope you will have handouts of the presentation? At 6 slides per page, thats 10 pages that may not print so well as they are very congested. The beautiful pictures won't print out very well, plus will be very expensive if you want to go in color...

- Dont use complete sentences, think bullet points. You fill in the remainder of the words.

A couple specific points that are just suggestions based upon reading the slides. We obviously don't know the actual words you are going to use in presenting. But your audience will remember the hard words they see (and read later on handouts) and these are two areas I would caution you to soften:

- Watch the "The SPL reports to the Scoutmaster". That's not really the relationship we want to promote. A better statement would be "The SPL is guided by the SM", right? The wording seems to conflict with the distinction you are presenting in Boy vs. Adult Lead.

- "6 month terms" reference when discussing elections. Not necessarily - it's a unit decision and varies quite often. Maybe a better way of posing it is to qualify it with 'many units use a 6 month election cycle, others may go longer depending on their preferences'.

Do you have any idea how big this class is? Do you have some time to fine tune it? Maybe you can focus on the new leader/parent or the struggling novice leader with great advice and suggestions. The board of experts Q&A approach for the second hour is a great way to round up and pique some wiley veterans, fires up audience participation, and you can moderate.

Good for you for taking this on, not an easy task!

JTS

Gern when is your recharter? I ask because what we submit for ours in January will be very different from what my unit reflects just a few short months later: we transfer in Crossovers in Feb/Mar. In our area boys can criss-cross five Packs and five troops in our immediate community, multiple times that if including neighboring communities (and even districts). And in recent years they have been scattering across them all. I believe our DE tracks the transfer paperwork as she has called me on occasion to confirm this or that, so I believe she handles it on her own.

However, the concept of following up with the Webs that fell out of Scouts at this point is a great idea. Much constructive information can be received, and who knows, a few more boys may come back into the Scouting fold.

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

>>Parents of new scouts were told that this would be strictly adhered to.

About five years ago I told the patrol leaders they each needed a skit and song for the campout campfire. Instant whining, complaining, nashing of teeth. Told SPL to get an MC to use it for credit towards Communications MB, more groaning. But the night went great.

Couple months later, we did it again, then the following campout, then the next. Now, they do it all on their own - every single campout, even if we don't have a fire to gather around. Yes, the skits get redundant (but seeing JC Penny in 10 deg weather is hilarious!), and sometimes really wierd, but the MC keeps it going and we have a blast. No need to force it at all anymore and it's become a real important part of the campout routine. Even the guys that had a rough day or night before end up smiling and chipping in. Wonderful for defeating homesickness. I was amazed at how important this aspect has become to a campout.

Don't let them leave it out!

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

Were with Hal: 2nd period at Seven Ranges, reliable as the sun coming up.

1. Weve gone to the same council camps since chartered in 1967 always going the same week. They closed the first two, now were on our third. But we have changed campsites due to growth in the troop and a better location opened up.

2. Not obligated, no pressure needed. We love our camp plus we have a Camp Honors program called Pipestone that is unique and a part of our troop traditions. It is a five year program and the guys dont want to miss a year, for anything else. 14% of the Scouts that start attend all five years, about 25% of those come back for a sixth year, believe it or not. I myself went to the current camps predecessor for 7 years as a kid, my son will be on his 7th this year (two were on staff).

3. & 4. We dont ask the Scouts as we dont consider going elsewhere. If anyone does want to then they can go a second week provisional wherever they want, which only a few have done. Yes, there are a few things Id like to see our camp add that others offer, but I just cant imagine summer camp away from our 7R. I had an irritating transplant ASM a few years back that just couldnt get over it that we returned to the same camp for all of his two years he was with us. No matter how he tried he couldnt rally anyone on the committee to support him. Was glad when he took his next transfer.

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

(This message has been edited by jtswestark)

Maybe it will be a good opportunity for them to learn who these guys are... just because they haven't been in front of them to date, doesn't mean they won't appreciate later the experience of meeting and learning from them. My current SPL is going and he wants to be guess what a professional cook Ill be sure to pass this onto him.

I had no clue who Green Bar Bill was when I shook his hand at the 1981 Jamboree. But I sure did afterwards. So dont write off the benefits of the experience before it happens

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

Sometimes you just need to liven it up a little. Maybe go back and look at some of the things you all did a few years back that worked well. Ie we cycle through Gettysburg every three to four years, particular Camporees every two or three years, and so forth. Try something different, keep an open mind, talk to your area troops about their best activities. Try and tie different things into the weekends, something historical, some totally unrelated fun, or something they need for advancement (ie bike ride or climbing wall for camping MB). Do a little research on the web, look into something completely different than you ever did before. Obscure merit badges like Aviation: set up at the nearby air national guard base with a tour of the base & control tower, lunch at the NCO club, maybe a flight (still working on this one!). Sometimes the most gratifying weekends can take the most work to set up and coordinating can be a real bear, but those seem to be the weekends the boys remember most.

At times with our schedule it gets tough as once you take out Jan Klondike, Feb ski weekend, April spring & Oct fall Camporees, May summer camp good turn campout, Jun Summer camp, Aug higher adventure, July Hiatus, and Dec Christmas campout, we only have about 4 months where we can really go do something different from year to year. So we really try and liven those events up and go do some real cool things.

Always make it a point at the closing of the meeting after a campout to talk about how much fun we had and all the great things we did, believe me - that practice really burns the guys that didn't go. Even if it was just a rotten campout, by that time you can bust on some of the guys (or ourselves) that had a rough time and laugh about it some. They love busting on us adults about stuff like that. All in fun! The standing joke is how I always get our guys lost on hikes or we end up going further than we planned. That happened once, maybe twice, and before just about all of the guys were even in the troop, but now it's legend...

Honestly, Im as big of a boy lead as there is, but we adults do this part. We just cant rely on the youth to successfully set these kinds of things up. To get their buy-in they fill in the details and make choices when available, but we need to set the structure of the events for the calendar. Challenges occur when you have Scouts that 'just don't like to camp.' Well, you can't function in a leadership role when you aren't there in the field to apply all that we work on in the meetings. I tell each of the leadership candidates at the beginning of their terms - don't take the position if you can't make the campouts. That seems to help some. If younger guys don't see the older guys there, then they are leading by the wrong kind of example and applying negative peer pressure.

Give your families and Scouts plenty of notice! Usually, the activity first on the calendar wins! We work on our calendar in the spring to announce dates for fall and over the summer finalize dates/events and roll it out in detail in September for the complete year. Changing dates and events at the last minute will kill your events. We also lose about a quarter of our guys to band during football season, but we encourage Saturday morning arrivals in those cases. Some will, some won't. You just aren't going to get 100% attendance. We typically get about 2/3 of the troop at any given campout, and I'm pretty content with that.

Have some fun planning this stuff is a real blast!

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

Yes, welcome Rick!

If I may add on to a couple points of Eric (BTW, he is our District/Chapter advisor and done the best job since yours truly held the position a bunch of years ago [vbg!]).

Arrowmen are to serve their home Troop first, whether as a youth or adult. That is our first priority.

For the youth, we promote to the Troops to vote youth into the lodge that show exceptional Scouting abilities. As the lodge, we can take those youth and provide more opportunities to practice and learn more about application and lessons of applying the Oath, Law, and Obligation into their daily lives. We also work in there the constant message/practice/thoughts of servant leadership that they will hopefully take with them for the rest of their lives.

But the next aspect can be very difficult for non-OA adult members to understand: the adult selection criteria are very different. Of course we want adults to exemplify the Oath and Law and that are already good role models; should go without saying. But beyond that, we are looking for adults that are willing to be involved and assist in guiding the youth of the lodge to support the program of the lodge. Think of the patrol method being applied on a larger scale with bigger events and more intensely focusing on the Oath & Law. We need people that can be active advisors to support the youth and assist in making things happen.

Sometimes this understanding never sinks in. IMHO, I'm convinced that this is why there aren't many type A personalities in the OA: the Scoutmaster that doesn't get 'boy-lead', is too impatient, or has a my way or the highway approach, because those types typically cant tolerate the inefficiencies of youth leaders running things. That type can manhandle his way through a Troop with 11 to 14 year olds (ie Eagle mills that have no active older Scouts), but that won't bode well with 16-20 years olds that are a little more opinionated

Ive counseled over the years complaints about why adult nominees werent selected by the lodge. The leaders keep focusing on their nominees Scouting resume and could not believe he wasnt qualified or 'deserved' to be selected. But then they couldnt tell me if that Scouter would ever attend another Ordeal after his own. Or go to a single chapter meeting. Or assist in OTHER units elections. Or commit to making sure Arrowmen would get rides to events. Or what skill he would be willing to assist in advising a youth in that WASNT his son. Think about those questions when considering adult nominations.

As we like to say, being in the Order is about stepping up to what we are expected to do, not what we have already done. Hope this helps some.

Jack Smith

OA adult advisor and gadfly of Sipp-O Lodge #377

(This message has been edited by jtswestark)

Well I'm shocked the traditionalists haven't pounced all over this one! So I get to be the first - The 2nd class requirements are very basic and simple. There's no reason a patrol leader or older Scout can't teach and sign off on these any differently than they would for any other advancement.

In our councils camp, they only administer the swimmers test at check in, and that is only one of the swimming requirements for rank. So if he passes the test, or at least meets the distance requirement for 2nd class at camp, then his patrol leader signs his book no adults needed.

We go to open swim on election nights as we need to get out of the church while voting is going on. Great opportunity to make sure we get to a pool a few times a year to do this stuff. There the older Scouts get to teach and review the reaches and throws, and they have a blast! They even get to try and save their drowning SM as he bobs up and down in a hapless manner (try doing that for a half an hour!). We even recruited a kid to join our troop one night as he was there during open swim and saw all the fun they were having.

Keep the adults away and let the boys do it.

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

Sipp-O Lodge #377 proudly invites you to join us August 21 & 22, 2009 at scenic Seven Ranges Scout Reservation, Kensington Ohio Held in conjunction with Sipp-O Lodges Ox Roast:

Secure display and patch trading area

Discounted Friday supper & Saturday breakfast

Complimentary bunk with mattress

Discounted Saturday lunch or dinner meal ticket

Complimentary twilight hay ride around camp on Friday night

Trading post access for refreshments, snacks, patches, t-shirts, and other Scouting items & collectibles

Close parking to display area

Discount for registrations before August 1st!

Over 500 attendees in 2008!

Portion of proceeds raised go towards facility maintenance and improvement of Buckeye Council Camps. Additional registration forms, up to the minute show information, and current event details available at: www.buckeyecouncil.org/OA/Sippo/ox_roast.htm

Frank If I may suggest, I am in the Buckeye Council, based in Canton, Ohio. Our summer camp is 7 Ranges and is located just south of Lisbon, Ohio. We have numerous troops from your council come to our camp each year, and its only a couple hour drive from you. We offer a very traditional Scouting program, with our nationally recognized Pipestone Camp Honors Program. The typical Scout goes to our camp for five years to complete each of the programs year. By that time they minimally need to have earned their Life Rank. Many of them return for a sixth year, just to enjoy the benefits of being an older Scout. How many camps can say they have their guys going to camp for five years!? To be clear - if they are in the troop they go to camp and get their next years Pipestone. In my nearly 7 years as an adult leader, Ive not had a boy go to camp that was active in the troop. If he doesnt go to camp, we lose them. Im convinced its all because of Pipestone. http://www.buckeyecouncil.org/Seven%20Ranges.htm(This message has been edited by jtswestark)

You are in Scouts because you believe in the program. So much that you put your own flesh and blood offspring into it. If the OA is good enough for them, why isnt it good enough for us as adults? Hopefully you will get nominated again to join the OA, I shutter when I hear a nomination was turned down. They may overlook you a second time so as not to waste it again. If most lodges are anything like ours, we need as many adults as we can get, merely for supporting the youth led program specifically TO DRIVE! It turns my stomach on the occasion we dont have enough seats to get guys to Conclave or other events.

To me, and for me, its one more way to reinforce the Scouting message in my daily life. Its made me a better man, father, husband, professional, Scouter. and wholly smokes is it fun! Dont pass up the OA, embrace it for its potential.

BTW shortridge thats not all that uncommon but we too can apply some nudges as the advisors for that. I joke to him that I was a 14 year old Eagle with a palm by his age. But his Scouting resume blows me away beyond that. I was 41 when I held my Vigil, he was 16. Kinda got me there.

Just tonight he received confirmation that he was selected to work in OA events at the 2010 Jambo. Hes really pumped a 17 year old pumped about Scouts. Man I love it.

YiB,

Jack

All great advice from experienced Scouters, I concur and support what they are telling you. The meetings are the worst part of the OA, especially for new members so dont let that turn him off get him to as many events as you can. Involvement at meetings will come over time.

Allow me to brag a minute for what its done for my son: He was tapped out his first year of eligibility and I returned as an advisor (same lodge I was in as a kid, many of my childhood lodge brothers are now advisors). Just like anything else, if he sees its important to you, it will be important to him. But influence from a distance. We arrive together, but as soon as we walk in the door we go our own ways, me with my buddies and he with his. But before it turned that way, I did have to give him a few nudges to get involved and even subtly volunteered him a few times. Got him to every event possible. Once he started feeling comfortable, he got into it, got on ceremony teams and found his place. It became a second home for him. He loves it. Never been any kind of a performer other than on a baseball diamond or swimming pool but when he wanted to be an Indian in the worst way (our lodge still proudly does face painting). Went to Arrow Corps, was Indian Activities Chair, now VC of Activities, was on the Conclave winning ceremony team, created an OA Arrow of Light program for the Council they perform, created an OA First Class in First Year ceremony for our District, brought back an old school tap out to our district camporee (so I helped a little there!), enhanced our Webelo resident camp honor program, tap outs at summer camp, worked on camp staff now two years & looking forward to a third, will be returning as Allowat at Wednesday tap outs & at Ordeals, held his Vigil a year ago (with me), NOAC coming up and is planning on running for Chief next year. We just went to NLS a couple weeks back and the section level guys invited him to staff at conclave and section events this year. Looks forward to OA service at SeaBase, Philmont, and NT. He loves the OA. Three of his best friends are lodge brothers, fellow officers from neighboring schools. It has been the catalyst that kept him in Scouting when he had plenty of distractions from baseball and swim coaches. It has given him more than I ever could have at the troop level (Im his SM) and hes made adult and youth friendships that will last him a lifetime. Since he started driving he runs all over the place doing things and meeting with his brothers to prepare for upcoming events. Our summer camp is his second home and he now loves it like no other place. Drawback is that as a new 17 year old, he needs to finish his project for his Eagle. The OA has been a bit of a distraction from that standpoint, hes a little embarrassed he isnt Eagle yet! But that will finally be done this winter.

The OA is a very small world and wont take long for your son to get to know Scouts in the OA from other troops, neighboring lodges, and upwards depending upon how far he goes and how much he enjoys it. Your son will meet the most incredible youths that this country has. Cant ask for better role models than you will see at that level. Ive said it before, whenever anyone has doubts about the next generation of this countrys leaders take them to a Council of Chiefs meeting and tell me we arent doing the right thing in raising these young men. Its an honor to be around these guys and I stand back in amazement at their abilities. Id hire any of these guys in a heartbeat at my company. They live the Oath, Law, and Obligation. Im not being nave, Ive seen it. They are the result of what we are here for. Man does it make you feel good to see it in action!

Enjoy and encourage his involvement... youre in for a great ride!

Serving Cheerfully,

Jack