kahits

Thanks, LB. To answer your question, my son and I came to this troop to keep it from folding. We have seen a large group of boys age out, some with their Eagle rank, and some without it, in the past 27 months. We have recruited boys with limited success and are currently rebuilding everything. 2, W2's have already joined the troop from that pack, in the past few months, which is making this crossover much easier for the W1's, or so I am being told. Our group of older boys is small, including my son. The new members will be going to Brownsea this summer, and my son will attend NYLT. The

Thanks, very much.... all of them will be 10, by the time we have their ceremony. I had always heard 10 1/2 years old, but that seems to have been changed. I did talk with my DE and he said they can over ride the registration software, if they feel it is justified, and he was willing to do that to support the troop recruitment, but I don't think that will be necessary, now. Thanks, again.

Having been toiling for the past 28 months, to recruit the future of my son's troop, and finally have a good group of W2's committed to crossing over this fall, I have a question. They all have their AOL's or will by the end of their W1 year (don't ask me how). The quesion is how closely to follow the AOL and 10 1/2 age requirement, since some of these boys will qualify but others will have to wait until next spring? I will be losing most of my parents and older scouts, this year, and I strongly urged them to consider a Fall 08 crossover, if there was going to be any chance of a smooth tran

Starting my third year with my son's troop, I have seen a trend with our district that is becoming too familiar. The DE I had for all 5 years with my son's pack, involved a very capable volunteer who ran our district FOS program, which resulted in his award of the Silver beaver and subsequent departure from the district and scouting, as I was coming into the troop. Since that time, the next, new DE (a 9 year professional) was given the task of running the FOS campaign, which he was quite good at. Unfortunately, there were other circumstances that resulted in him taking a promotion out of

Does anyone know where I can find an OA flag? I would like a 3x5 version, but can not find a source.

I have heard this tale told so many times, and thought I would just ask here. The felt Philmont bull patch that you seen on many a red scout shirt/jacket, and whether the tail is over the shoulder or not. Is there a PSR police force out there with the official regulation?

Thanks Oak, I can't believe how much camping I did that first year, with me having to step up quickly to take my son's group camping in a troop that was in the process of aging out. Why the older boys no longer went camping was a mystery to me, but once I saw the rank requirements past First class, I could see where they may have not been encouraged to continue to camp. That is the legacy I inherited, and it's been pretty inert since then, but this year the troop is moving in the right direction.. finally. Now I have a fresh group of new scouts to take camping, and try to keep my son camp

Actually, I checked. I had 13 nights in with the troop and 4 with the Venture crew, I started for my daughter. I don't think crew camping would count, since my daughter will never be eligible. Bottom line, I decided to wait and go in with my son, the next year, and it's been great.

Apparently, he was referring to a district nomination, which can waive the camping requirement, but he spoke in the context of my being nominated thru my troop committee, which I would have been ineligible for, having been in the troop only 6 months. I'm going to NLATS, this weekend, and will no doubt learn more about a great many things. Thank you, SN.

Just a quick question. I was told by me DE, back in 06, that the camping requirement had been removed for adult OA membership. Now it seems that requirement never was removed? Was he mistaken, when he told me that?

Thank you, Mike.. that is some great, experienced advice. My nephew has still not responded back to my offer, which may mean he isn't going to take it, but I am still hopeful. As to your questions, he is 14, but is almost 6 foot tall. The other boys who are going are 2-3 more 14 year olds and the rest are 15 to 16, and one who is 17. As for their physical abiliies, I would say they are all in about the same boat. Nobody over weight, but other then playing sports (my nephew plays soccer and basketball), they will need to train to properly prepare for the trek. They are just now sta

Thanks, Greg... This is probably why his mother spent so much time accompanying him on campouts, because there were alot of dad's doing the same thing. I know a few troops that have large groups of adults accompany the boys on campouts, and guess this may be a byproduct of that unit dynamic. I could never bring myself to ask her why she did that, but I'm sure she had good reasons. Even when the wear and tear of ground camping took it's toll on her, she kept doing what she could. She is the only female ASM in the troop, and just does what she can to support and encourage him (she also runs

I guess my reaction to how this was done, concerned which boys were really on the bubble. Apparently, it was not the scouts who had fathers signed up, so it came down to the other scouts. Of course my nephew no longer has a father, so he was on that bubble no matter what. They could have done a lottery for the trek, but that would have taken some manner of control out of the equation, and that was not an option they went with. Ultimately, the boys who dropped out will very likely never have this opportunity again, and that decision should have been fair to everyone who committed to going,

The total sign up for this troops Philmont trek was 4 adults and 10 youth. They kept the dads and asked 2 of the boys to voluntarily drop out. Eventually, 2 boys, who did not have fathers on the list, did drop out.

It is in a rural area of Eastern Nebraska, and it is a good old boy group of dads, who all go camping with their boys, which I guess is just as much reason for my SIL to go with her son. She sends me photos from time to time and they do have alot of dad's on their campouts. I'll do what I can to offer the only alternative my nephew is going to get to make it to Philmont, because if it doesn't happen, he may likely decide to do other things after getting eagle, this year, without ever making it there. I have still not heard back from my emails, but I hope they are thinking about it. He has

Good point, Vicki... anything is certainly possible. Part of it is that she rarely lets him go camping with the troop, without her going along. Why she does that is for reasons that have to do with his place in this troop. Sure, I think this could have been one of those calls where it was just easier to step up and drop out, but leading up to that decision, I know he was very excited about going. He told me so. The flip side is this will probably be his only chance to make it to Philmont, because the troop only goes something like every 4 to 5 years, which would put him in college by the

The Scoutmaster made the announcement that there were 2 boys too many, signed up, to make their 08 Philmont trek, and it was necessary for 2 boys to step up and offer to take their name off the list. There was no discussion with the dads, to do the same, which is what should have happened. What is really unfortunate, is this was my brothers, son. He was a Desert Storm veteran who died of cancer when his son was not yet 3 years old. Obviously, these 4 dad's and their boys (one dad is going with 2 of his sons) were given preference, and my nephew was of lesser priority. My son is on a

newcrewtoo, PM sent!

I just spoke with my wife's sister, who's son is a year ahead of my son in scouting. They have, both, been in it since Tigers. My nephew's troop is set for a Philmont trek this summer, and I just found out the troop brow beat two boys out of the trek, including him, while there are 4 dad's who were allowed to remain. I know he is not that happy with the troop, but this really is unfortunate. He will probably complete his Eagle requirements, later this year, and will probably leave the troop, so there is little chance he will go back on another trek to Philmont. I know this is preaching to

Prayers to the family...

Thank you all for your honest assessments. The scout involved is my son (he was awarded his Star in January, and will be 14 in July). We had several 15 year old boys that we accepted into the troop, but they were all friends, and when one was pulled out, because his stepfather got upset with one of his son's friends in the troop, there was a cascade that took all of them out of the troop, or they soon will be. I'm trying to get them to join a crew that I started, 2 years ago, to keep them in scouting, but we had to bite the bullet and just let them go. There was too much baggage that was o

Thank you, Emb... In order for this to be worthwhile, it will require some discussion with the NYLT SM, but there is no Kodiak available, at least not in the council. There is talk about putting one on, but there are no indications it is close to being in the works. I have been told that NYLT is very much like the new WB, which is a more general training and not as troop specific as the old WB or JLT was. If this is true, it is more a general leadership (I have heard it more described as management) training then the older versions it replaced. I would be curious to see if it mi

Thanks, John. Yes, it would be easy to say that our Council is not able to provide the kinds of support for the crews in our area, probably because of the small number of crews that exist in our 3 districts in the metro area. Having done the VLSC when I was Crew Advisor, I did what I could to bring as much traiing to the unit, but now that I am no longer the lead advisor, I can see that is not going to be enough. I brought up the idea of them attending NYLT, more as an after thought, with me sending boys from my son's troop, but now that I have done some google searches, I can see sever

I was just told by the SM for this summers NYLT that girls from crews could attend. Have any of you ever heard of that. I told him to confirm that, but the crew that I started could certainly benefit from an experience such as this, even if it's more of a troop type of training structure.

Having a small, younger troop, I am planning on sending a few of the older boys to camp for leader training. I'm curious what kinds of training they offer in that week at camp, and whether a 13 year old/Star scout would benefit from the training, or is it for older boys. Can you give me an idea of the kinds of methods they use to bring leadership to these boys. I was told it was similar to Wood Badge, as in more management types of training, over leadership that was in the old WB. I have no idea.