asm 411

I was just reviewing the agenda from our last meeting and campout agenda. From what I can tell the Scoutmaster got one minute to talk to the troop as whole at the end of the meeting and was not even mentioned on the campout agenda unless you put him in by default under the drive to camp part. Why does the PLC schedule time for these long winded adults? I would advise the SPL to put a stop to it.

I don't know what is geekier these two chunks of psuedocode or the fact that I read them through the first time and understood them without any effort.

Adult association ... enough with my boy without being a MBC for him ... I treat all the Scouts the same. I believe in varied adult association so I will council one merit badge with each Scout. My son chose cycling. We were already signed up to do the local MS-150. The training rides worked into the merit badge perfectly. Cycling is the only thing that I do that I have as much passion for as I do for Scouting. Many of the training rides were done with friends of mine so he got a good dose of cycling experience from other adults who put in 2000 to 3000 miles a year. Personally

I have seen several Scouts in our troop put of the 30 days of fitness for Tenderfoot until last. Not that they were not encouraged but for what every reason that one ended up being last. So they get three Scoutmaster Conferences and three BOR almost simultaneously. So there is really no order to them. One other requirement might be tough for your son in particular. That would be the one where he has to be the patrol cook. In another thread you mentioned that he may not be camping much because of allergies. Well it would be in his best interest to volunteer to be the patrol cook as soon a

Beavah, LOL - yep I am from the BSA Grey Council. I stand between the candle and the light. That is great. I am headed off the Stadri to get a custom council strip made up ... still LOL

You meant Hillcourt Training as in Green Bar Bill Hillcourt. http://inquiry.net/patrol/green_bar/index.htm That makes sense. Thanks for the information.

Stosh: What is "Harcourt training"?

"Understanding is a three edged sword. Your side, their side, and the truth." - Ambassador Kosh from Babylon 5

In the troop I was in as a boy the practice of removing totin' chip corners was used. In our current troop removing a corner is more of joke. We will hear a lot more comments about it during meal preparation times than when whittling or carving or cutting rope... If a Scout steps out of line with a knife he gets a free trip around the campsite with the Scoutmaster. They have a short discussion about knife safety. Why wait for four mistakes before aggressively addressing a safety issue? Most of our Scouts don't carry their Totin' Chip cards once they reach First Class. No hard f

Any Scouter who stands in the background and wears the smile of contentment about what the Scouts are doing. The Scouter who is about ready to explode because he wants so badly to voice his opinion or idea to the troop but waits until he can have the SPL or PL's ear. The Scouter who sees something falling apart on all sides but restrains himself from stepping in and continues to let the SPL or PL handle things. The insignia I respect most on a Scouter is understanding and patience. FWIW - I like Scouters who wear their beads and knots because typically it is a good indi

Our Scouters wear the troop neckerchief which currently is just the red BSA neckerchief with black piping. I have an ongoing task to guide the Scouts to something more specialized. I have not got there yet. When I first joined the troop I had just one red neckerchief and it needed washed after each monthly campout. Since my Scout neckerchief being clean is not on anybody's priority list I developed a personal tradition. I wear one of the neckerchiefs I got as a Scout to the first meeting after a campout. I have several West Point Camporee neckerchiefs I wear which always raise questions.

I have just realized that we have a strange custom in our troop. When a boy completes his SMC the SM signs his book and then the Scout asks the AC for a BOR. When he makes the request he hands the AC his handbook. Sometimes the BOR is done moments after the request. Sometimes the BOR is done the next week. The Scout is returned his book after the information been entered/verified in Troopmaster. The verified part is just to be sure POR, community service and merit badges are all in order. We did have one case where the committee did a BOR for a Scout that was one merit badge short. The Sc

My son is a Life Scout. He has earned First Aid, Swimming, Life Saving, Emergency Prep, Cycling, Camping, Environmental Science, mammals, archery, wilderness survival, rifle and metal working. Note: I believe the only reason he completed Environmental Science is that the councilor at summer camp was very charismatic and my son really enjoyed doing the merit badge with him. He has a partial in Personal Fitness. Can you guess which requirement he has not done? He has not started on Family Life, Personal Management, Communications or any of the Citizenship merit badges. For

My son is 13 and completed his Life BOR about 3 weeks ago. He got the Council Eagle Packet a couple days later. It seems a bit daunting to me. As we looked over the contents one page at a time they all seem to make sense but is all this really necessary? Why is it that all the other rank requirements follow the simple process of signing off the completion in the handbook but the Eagle Scout requirements require so much more? I know this is very high honor being an Eagle myself but really. The Eagle Project Workbook makes sense except page 2 and the last page. Page 2 is an about

Regardless of the how we feel about the quality or contents of the current incarnations of the handbooks they are the books that the programs is currently based on. Once a new leader understands where we are suppose to be headed currently then supplementing the program with additional knowledge from what the BSA used to do is great. If we start in the past then the new leaders will be wonder why the Scouts either aren't doing something or why they are doing other things. "Hey why are you guys not trenching your tents?" or "Why do you care about cyberbullies?" I know these are e

This is a great discussion of what management and leadership is. I really appreciate everyone's view on that topic but I was hoping to get responses to my question - "How do you keep things as interesting as possible in your troops?"

The current Boy Scout Handbook The current Scoutmasters Handbook Previous issues of each. I personally like the 5th Edition of the Scoutmasters handbook. It has a very detailed description of the Patrol Method. I have recently found out that the 3rd Edition(it is in two volumes) may be better but I have not acquired a copy yet. Typically these can be purchased for under $10 each.

If I use 1/2 diameter rope or 1/8 twine does it matter.

There are eight tools we use in Scouting to grow boys as described above by others - 1. Ideals (Scout Oath and Scout Law) 2. Patrol Method (Boy led, boy run by the PLC driven by SPL with adult guidance) 3.Advancement (Putting forth challenges; the Scouts confidence is built by overcoming them) 4.The Outdoors (the chance to associate with nature and learn self reliance and cooperation) 5. Uniforms (level playing field, unit identification and individuality) 6. Association with Adults (As many positive role models to learn from as possible) 7. Personal Growth (service to others an

hmmm... I read your post and two things have come to mind. First if I were you I would tell the Scoutmaster that you are interested in being Scoutmaster and see when he was thinking of retiring. It is worth a shot. Second you mentioned that there is no committee to speak of. This may be one way to solve your problem of getting the troop back on track. Become the committee chair yourself. You don't have to be an ASM to camp or attend meetings. You can do that as committee chair. Build up a strong committee and use them to get the troop back on track. If that does not work and yo

So are you saying that getting buy in or ownership is what you do to keep the program interesting to the Scouts. It certainly makes a lot of sense to me. Thinking about it, isn't that what the Patrol Method is all about. Having a small group taking ownership of there lives. Being responsible for not only their stuff but their time as well? (This message has been edited by ASM 411)

So in the thread that this was spun from there are currently 61 postings. Mostly it is about Scouters being wrapped around the axle about being active and scout spirit. What if we approach if from the standpoint of solving the problem by making those things easy to accomplish in the program. Not reducing the requirements, not falling back on some lame definition (registered = active) but presenting a program to the Scouts that makes it easy to complete. Similar to making the community service requirement easy by making sure there are so many hours available that the Scouts typically have

So if we look at the one hour a week thing as interactions with Scouts and we are using the Patrol Method then here is how it seems to break down: Pre-PLC meeting with SPL 10 minutes to review his agenda. PLC meeting 1 minute for Scoutmasters minute 11 minutes Pre-weekly meeting with the SPL about 10 minutes to review his agenda. ~20 minutes for two Scoutmaster Conferences 1 for Scoutmasters minute 4x31= 124 minutes Pre-campout 20 minutes at most to review the agenda with SPL At the each Campout 12 minutes in ~2 minutes chunks for guiding the SPL ~6 times

perhaps the BSA likes the second definition - 2. Functioning or capable of functioning. The Scouts are always "capable" of functioning. Just like my son is always "capable" of cleaning his room. On a more serious note I think the real trouble here is that Scouts are active in life. For instance last fall we had two Scouts in football. One showed up each week 20 minutes before the end of the meeting still in his football uniform. The other one not at all. Do we give the one who showed up "out of uniform" credit? He was not in uniform and he was late every week. How about the

The Cleveland Council has a High Adventure Canoe base in Canada. http://www.gccbsa.org/Pages/Tinnerman.html