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You, and Mr Spock, said a mouthful! (That was one of my favorite episodes. I haven't seen it in years!)

Fscouter Glad I'm not the only one!

Boy, I wish our cubmaster would read these forums. Heck, I wish I had found them 2 years or so ago!

Signs up! Our unit commisioner does that. I wait too! There is no better way to get them to stop talking than when they figure out they are the only one, the signs up, and everyone is looking at them. About the abmonishing thing though, If an ASM was to do something he shouldn't (such as, admonish a boy in public), you bet I will pull him aside and talk to him about it in private, I am not sure if that is admonishing him or not, just explaining things aren';t done that way. He apparently needs to know and someone should be telling him. I guess as SM that would be me, but I wouldn

yaworski I guess I wasn't so clear. The parent made it clear that he wanted the kid gone for the week, he didn't care to do what and he obviously wasn't concerned about who with. But, If you can't trust the boy scouts... He just plain acted as if he did not care about his son. Anyway, I think people get concern and guiding confused with "overly involved" and "pushing" thier kids. I personally want my kids to become independant at everything. I want to be able to not worry that they know what is expected as far as behavior and proper manners and are capable of doi

sctmom Give one of those communities a call and ask them, maybe they would grant you a couple night a month in return for a service project or something. You might be surprised.

I don't disagree that some points of ettiquette fall under the realm of other areas in scouting lilke the scout law. How many of us have meetings where we explain all this stuff about being courteous or about any other point of the scout law? I don't find anywhere like in the program resources where is suggests that you do? I have never thought of it before. But there are so many things that are not covered elsewhere. And which fork to use is not a cooking issue that only cooks should know, it is an eating issue and we all eat! So I guess a merit badge like this should be

Dave J. Aggreed. A week at camp is fine if he is nearly there. Some longer term thing is needed in most other cases. As I thnk I have posted. I have a deal with the YMCA close to here. They provide me with a lifeguard to work with rank requirements for all of my scouts. They do this the first and third Monday of each month for $2 per scout. I have one scout who is learning pretty quick (he really wants it). I wish I could get all the scouts and thier parents to see the value and start coming.

Mike, I understand where you are coming form. Families apparently don't interact much anymore. Parents today seem to be looking for the babysitter (TV, Video, etc) and not taking the time to teach them proper behavior. I see this in my small troop. I fight the BSA(Babysitters of America) thing constantly. I asked a parent about what merit badges his son was going to work on and his response was that he didn't know and didn't care, he was getting a weeks vacation out of it. What a great parent. Anyway, I am glad to see that most of the posters here agree the need for teach

Thanks Rooster7! sm101 - I am not talking about boys being boys nor am I talking about the boys who have been meticulously taught at home wanting to let things slide when away form mom or dad. I guess I am really talking about the fact that there seems to be a complete lack of teaching or learning of ettiquette in todays society. In all my examples, I only once talked about a kid and that was in the context of his parent(s) not teaching the proper way because they themselves did not know the proper way. It is the adults who don't know or don't care about good manners that I sup

Ed Mori, Absolutely right in my opinion. Better to preserve the dignity than to enforce the rule. rlculver415 The post is no doubt the same, I copied it here to get my point started. While I agree with you, the "praise in public, criticize in private" phrase comes to mind. I believe in scouting that private means taking one to the side in "public". That is his responsibility, if taking him aside to speak to him is embarassing, I guess you are right, but I think this guy is telling them in front of the group so everyone can hear, that is wrong. scomman I think t

"Leading by example" might work when they see you opening a door for someone but what about table manners. Do you think that by sharing a few meals at the monthly campout with someone that has excellent table manners is going to be example enough to teach them to chew with their mouths closed, to cut their food into bite sized pieces and how to properly use eating utinsels? With so many troop that have the adults cook and eat seperate from the scouts, I seriously doubt that bad table manners are even noticed on campouts. Do you even sit at the same table as the boys do? And, Mike,

Seems that the word "ettiquette" has been used alot lately. Especially between me and acco40. And all of it has been in remarks about scout leaders! A parent who was present at a family dinner the scout had noted the manners the boys dispayed (or should I say the lack of manners). He asked if there was a merit badge that would teach his boy manners and I said no but it sounded like a great idea to me! What do you think of the idea?

I am not up on the bible like I should so I won't go there. If there were, in the troop, people of faiths other than christian, I would think that even in what is considered a large troop, someone would know who the others were (We use the Class 3 Medical form and there is a place for religious preference. I always ask if it is not filled in.). But there again, I am only talking about the troop here, I have never been asked to lead a prayer at a scouting function on a larger scale. As I understand it a non-denominational service would be lacking major elements pertaining to one part

acco40, I agree with everything you have said here. I had been wanting to ask this for a while but never remembered when I was online and when you posted it, It sparked the memory. So off I went. I was taking a pole, so to speak, but was also loooking for solid policy too. I have had the same problem with a few adults, but found a way to aleviate it without having to say much. When I ask for people to stand and recite the pledge, I refuse to begin until everyone is standing. They usually get the picture when everyone starts looking around to see why we haven't started. those pa

Acco40 posted this in another thread: "When in our field uniforms the boys perform an opening and closing flag ceremony as I'm sure most of you do too. There is always one particular scoutmaster who admonishes a boy or two to remove their hat during the ceremony. His belief is that we are indoors and that one removes their hat as a sign of respect for the flag. My view is that if the hat is part of the uniform, stay in uniform. Also, if he wants to show respect for the flag in that manner, good for him but don't impose his beliefs on others. Lead by example I say." In respect to the

Good Point rlculver415, I don't think I was in the program long enough to get comfortable. I did two years as WDL and CM and most everything else that needed done. Doing more than one job right from the start was detrimental to this development. I left to start a Boy Scout Troop after that. But you are right, at some point, the program needs to be customized, but cbmstr922 has been doing that completely, so it shouldn't be a problem for his leaders to incorporate the helps.

Diversity is good, learning of other faiths is good. When our PLC plans a religious service, they chose prayers from different religions, muslum, jewish, buddist, american indian, they say it is because they sound cool, or because it says the same thing they learned in a different way. Good point NJscouter, I think prayers of most religions translated into english would probably sound to a christian like a generic prayer. Seems most religions have the same ideas for living and getting along with others, but say it in their own way, or the interpretations into english leaves them

I (as does the Boy Scout Handbook) interpret the 12th point of the scout law as follows: A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others. (Excerpted from page 47-54, Boy Scout Handbook, 11th Edition,(#33105), copyright 1998 by BSA) To me, This reads like it was written by a christian (it references God), but the last line takes all religions (or a lack therof)into consideration (Maybe a better interpretation would be to say "A scout is reverent toward his god.") I, for one, do care about Quixote's religion, as I do

Three years ago when I started a new CS Pack in my hometown, we had all new leaders. Our UC was the SM from the next town, he helped when he could, but at the time, he wasn't too dependable (busy schedule, I guess). We could not have done it without the helps. We had to develop a program fast and did not yet have training or relationships to fall back on. The helps made it easier to plan (most of it was done, just pick and choose which features you wanted). The leaders didn't feel overwelmed with den meeting planning, they could just follow the plan in the book (and most did). I

So the boy DID learn from his experience if he learned that he cannot harrass the younger scouts and get away with it and that the troop won't tolerate the unacceptable behavior.

Great story of a great accomplishment!

yaworski, i think you said it all! He was having fun and that was what was important.

Sorry, Quixote, I didn't understand that you weren't there. If you were there, he still would have had the warning, but also the reminder of the cleanup. If the written warnings work, I'm all for it. What did the father have to say about it?(This message has been edited by scoutmaster424)

No apparent problem fishing from shore, boats, docks, or piers (loves to fish). No apparent problem being in a boat for pleasure (rowboat, motorboat, etc). He was A CIT at CS Day Camp last month and I picked him and others up at a friends house afterwards on evening and he was wet up to his armpits. He said hwe had been in the creek! Blue jeans, army boots and all! Maybe it is just deep water? I have tried to talk to him about what it might be, to his parents and grandparents. But like I said, they obviously condone the bahavior by not bringing him to the swimming activities. We go