kahits

JinKC, Even though my question to one of my crew committee members, whos' son is the current Chapter Chief, came back as a suggestion for him to wait until he was at least 14 going on 15 to be elected, I am realizing that is probably one of the reasons the chapter is so poorly attended and functioning right now. They need to get better participation from other troops, and I see that. I don't know what the status of the chapter adviser is going to be, but I think our small, old, troop can help, even with a scout or two for now. In a way our troop may be too confining, with most of the olde

Thanks,JinKC.. I asked one of my female leader contacts, who's son is the Chapter chief, about the age of the boys, and she felt they should be closer to 15 to do OA. I guess there is no shortage of opinions either way. I will look closely at the OA standards for all of the boys as a part of this process. When it comes to this decision I will keep it open until the chapter election team arrives.

I was thinking of posting a seperate question, but it appears you are talking about similar things to my question. Currently being the SM for my son's troop, and CA for my daughters venture crew, I'm learning alot in a very short period of time. Most of the boys in the crew are older scouts in the OA chapter, and one of my assoc. advisors is the OA chapter adviser. Our district OA chapter is having very much the same issues as is being described in these posts. The troop that shares the same unit number to the crew is the unit that mostly shows up for any of the OA chapter functions. They

I went to our district awards dinner (actually, it's dessert) last night, and was surprised they did not give out the award for starting a new unit. They introduced it last year, I believe, but now I'm wondering if that was a one time only award or did they just forget. I thought I would ask here, first. There were several people who started new units (mostly troops and crews) but no award.

Architect by education [bArch Univ. of Nebraska/Architectural Association London, Eng.)& March Univ. of Oregon)] and 20 years experience, but with a wife who loves her very demanding work (OB/Gyn), and a 12 year old son who started scouting as a Tiger (currently 2nd Class scout) and a 14 year old daughter who developed a love for scouting watching her little brother, I have taken an indefinite sabbatical to do some things. My daughter is the current President of her Venture crew, and is the primary recruiter of the girls in the crew. I still do design work (we do school design as our speci

I found this note on another scout flag ceremony, that had this specifically to say about the crossing of the colors. I like the idea of posting the colors, seperately, which would eliminate this confusion of which side the US flag is on, when the colors cross. I think the idea of full uniform, with white gloves, with a full flag ceremony will be enough for the district awards (but the crew will need to decide). That note as it was written: Note about the "cross the colors" command: The US Flag is always on it's own RIGHT - so when marching in, it will be the rightmost flag in the line

I have a simple flag ceremony question, that has to do with the conventional flag ceremony that involves the American and unit flags. As you see it from the audience, the two flag bearers walk to the front of the room, with the American flag on the right. When they reach the front, and do the crossing, which flag is closest to the audience? My son's troop always makes sure the American flag is what you see, and the unit flag goes behind it at the crossing. The boys in the crew, who are from another troop, insist, the American flag goes behind, which from the front, would be seen continuous

Thanks, very much for your ideas... the crew meets next Wednesday, and they will have to make a decision. We as advisors have ideas of our own, but will let them decide what it is they would like to do.

This crew is going to attempt to do just about everything that a crew can do, in terms of high adventure. Right now they are planning on doing some cave science for a science academy program on the base, here in town. No idea what they are going to do next summer, but it won't be a high adventure base, not this year. As for the flag ceremony, I think it will have to be more like a traditional flag ceremony, and will not involve any kind of media presentation. They are talking about some sort of honoring of the veterans, but that might be hard to do as an introduction to the District

My daughters crew (she is the current Crew President) is wanting to perform the flag ceremony for the District awards dinner (actually it's dessert). The District commissioner is encouraging but wants to see something more then what the previous troops have done, in just posting the colors and saying the pledge. Does anyone have some ideas of a venturing flag ceremony they might consider for this honor? She wants to do it with the two other girls in the crew, which will be very different, from all the previous troops that have done it up until now. Thanks.

Okay, can you tell me where they wore them back in 1938? Were they ever worn on the collar? I saw a set on Ebay that were sold by a family who said their father, or maybe it was grandfather, wore them on each side of his collar, but I didn't know if that was an official method. I can't imagine selling something like that in the first place, but all I have seen reference to is a coat lapel, which I imagine would not be a problem, since it is not uniform related.

I know they were worn on coat lapels, and since I had two I was wondering if they could be worn on the uniform collar. We are going with a custom, square neckerchief (Chief neckerchiefs will be the maker),so you won't even see the collar, but they would be there, somewhere. Obviously, I love the age of the troop, and want to celebrate that as we begin the task of rebuilding the numbers and inspiring new scouts to come to the troop that began in January of 38. Thanks,

Having just taken the SM position for a troop that was chartered in 1938, I have 2 of the round, green SM pins that were first issued in that same year. I'm wondering where these pins were worn on the uniform, if they ever were, or were they worn on the lapel of a coat. I don't know if any of you go that far back, but I would love to use these in some way, as a means of acknowledging the age of the troop.

Thank, emb... I guess I'm a little out of order on that, but sometimes that is the way it goes, with this crew going into last summer with a bang. I'll have to get with the Assoc. advisors, on this, but it does need to happen, perhaps over the break. We are lined up to do Kodiak next summer, with one of the districts committed to putting it on, so all of this will be happening in the next 9 months. We do not have alot of local Venturing sources, so are having to pretty much do it on our own, but that is not to say it can't be done, it will just take a while. Thanks for the narrative summa

I have been attempting to gather information beyond what is mentioned in the Venuring Leader manual. My only contact for venturing is the designated metro venturing chairman, who represents all three of the districts. He originally told me it was a formal training the council had to do, but now is telling me it is all in the leader manual. The manual says it should be lead by a council or district facilitator, which suggests there is more materials available. The crew completed the VLSC over the summer (we chartered at the end of April, 06), and having just had our 2nd crew election, we ar

Thank you, MD... It is like holding your breath, trying to get to that next group of new scouts, if there are any. Our meeting this week had to delay starting because we only had the ASPL and my son. The other, not yet first class scout eventually showed up, and we had the meeting. They worked on some first aid for the 1st class rank, and we talked about our camping trip to White Sands, next month. The rains were so heavy down south this summer, it is still flooded, and the gypsum, which is what the white material is, acts like a plaster bathtub, and will only go away thru evaporation. M

Thanks, mtm25653... those are some very good ideas. His charter school will eventually be 6-12th, and they began this year with 40, 7th graders and 60, 6th graders. Each year they will add a new 6th grade. I put alot of effort into sending flyers home with the boys in the 6th grade, to invite them to the troop open house. Apparently, alot of boys were talking about going, and then only 2, twin brothers showed up. They were under the impression alot more boys were going to be there, but it didn't happen. I never got around to try and find out who they were, let alone a way to get them to

Wow, I knew there were more stories out there. Thank you, gwd-scouter! That was a great deal of experience and love for scouting you shared, and I feel the very same way about what I am doing with this old troop. And yes, t158sm, all of these units do run in cycles, as I have heard from previous SM's with this troop that I have met these past few months. The troop had gone down to just 3 boys at one point, and somebody obviously stuck with it. There were 16 boys as of the beginning of this year, including my 3, but we are down to 8 at this rechartering. There are many opportunities that

Eamonn, you make some very good points! I agree that a long troop history is something that adults can better grasp, but troop aged boys can certainly be taught to embrace historic concepts, if it has some impact of their experience. I'm trying to make those connections with new neckerchiefs (square rather then triangular), and the unit insignia has a 65 year VB. It's a start at least. The CO is an unfortunate part of the whole situation. We currently meet in the basement of a church, but they have long severed their connection with the troop over contemporary religious issues, th

Thank you both for those great words of wisdom. As I said, I had benefitted for the past 5 years under the assistance of a very young and energized DE. He left for the next level in that proScouter career track, last month, but I do believe that I benefitted greatly under his years of assistance and inspiration. As hard as he worked, knowing he had 4 young kids at home (the oldest, a son, was my son's age), he was the only person I could not say no to. His replacement is pretty much what you described and I know I won't be getting much help from him, let alone the kind I might actually app

Thanks, very much, for the feedback and encouragement. We actually have a Middle school across from the church that we meet at, but have had miserable luck recruiting from that particular population of boys. The adult effort that was required is just not in the troop right now, considering the limited success they had a few months before we crossed over last January. But my son's charter school is a very different situation and I think we will be successful getting boys from that school, because of the way they structured it. Right now I spend a fair amount of time there getting to know th

Having crossed over with my son back in January 06, we brought a total of 3 boys from his Webelos II den. I had agreed to transition into the SM position, and talked one of the mothers of the other 2 boys into being the CC, since both the SM and CC were on the way out. The troop is almost 70 years old (1938), which is one of the reasons I felt this needed to keep going. Since January, I have completed all of the SM training, and took the boys to summer camp. Since the crossover, we have camped out 7 times (18 nights), and have advanced the boys thru their 2nd class requirements. However,

Thanks, Lynda J... as far as I know, nothing happened to the ASM who spent a night with an 18 year old female crew in his tent. I did get the impression that nothing was done about it, other then to vote her out of the crew. The ASM left with his boy to join another troop, and that was fine with me. kahits

Having started the crew in April, and finally finishing the VLSC this weekend on a campout, I would like to get some ideas of how you run your crew meetings. Things have been fairly informal up until now, but it's time to get things moving.

Thanks, TF52.. In the end, neither of these girls ever showed up for any of the crew meetings, and since one of them is off to college in a few weeks, the crew may never have to deal with this particular membership issue. It does help to at least give them a reason to complete their VLSC (next weekend, over 4 days in the Carson National Forest), and follow thru on these organizational issues that have been suggested here. I particularly like the idea of there being a membership committee made up of crew officer(s) and leaders to make this unit membership mean something. We have over 10 re