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nrp1488 is absolutely correct. I have no problem with a parent pulling their Scout from any event we have if they are concerned for the Scouts well being. I have never tried to convince a parent to let a Scout go when they don't want them to. Using the parent card is perfectly okay with me. I will talk with parent so I can understand their concern, mostly to make sure I am not missing something but that is as far as it goes.

I have had a parent ask me this question and my answer is that we are prepared and we train the Scouts to camp in coldest weather we experience in our area. The parent's response was that but there must be a temperature that is too cold to bring boys camping. I explained that there is no temperature defined by National or Council that I know of. I have read most of the documentation that is available and double checked the Guide to Safe Scouting. Being that there may be documentation out there that I am not aware of does anyone know of a documented temperature cut off? T

As troops do occasionally we have a need to something with our patrols. We currently have 4 patrols. With 3, 7, 6 and 6 patrol members. The pack in town has no Webelos IIs this year and I have been trying to recruit 5th graders without any luck so far. This leaves us with 4 Scouts aging out well before the next group of Webelos Cross over. Giving us a total of 19 by next September. When I pointed this out to the PLC and asked what we should do this is what they came up with. First they wanted only two patrols because they have been on too many campouts with only two or three Scouts per pa

I have read a lot of the old Patrol Leader and Scoutmaster Handbooks as well as the current ones. When I discussed with our PLC what the requirements for the SPL positions should be they decided on the following: 1) Run the election like the current OA election process. First week each member of the troop votes for everybody they think will make a good SPL. The second week those selected give a short speech about their vision for the troop and what makes them qualified. 2) No prerequisites. The PLC felt using the method above it would weed out the under qualified. 3) SPL elect

In our troop the basic rule is that the SM, ASM or any Scout who has earned the rank of First Class can sign off on the foundation rank requirements. Only SM and ASMs can sign off Star, Life requirements. Only the SM can sign of on Eagle requirements. Of course the BOR is always signed off by an attending committee member. That is what we do. Sometimes I wonder if things should be different. For instance shouldn't the Advancement chair sign off on the merit badge requirements. The SM and ASMs have to check with the advancement chair anyway. Perhaps any Scout that has learned a skill

I personal believe that Troop generated bylaws or policies are not necessary in Scouting. Conversations with boy leaders or Scouts will cover most situations. Conversations with parents and their children will cover the rest. The BSA provides plenty of documentation about how, what and where. Knowing where to find the information is the trick. Having hard copies the Boy Scout Handbook, Scoutmasters Handbook, Advancement Guide and GTSS at he ready covers most of it. Of course you will need to read these books and probably several times get a good understanding of where the information is

I think this may help. www.sharonscouts.org/winterCampingHints.html Let me know if you discover anything along the way that I can add.

Why nag when nag when you can encourage? Why control when you could enable? The first thing to do is ask the question "Do you want to be an Eagle Scout?" If your son is already tired of you getting on his back about it have someone the Scout respects ask that question. Typically the answer is "Yes". From there ask them what they need to earn the rank. If they say "I don't know." Ask them how they can find out (hint he should talk to the troop advancement chair). Once he knows, help him make a plan. Then ask him what you can do to help like drive him places. In the long run

" I think it is absurd of anyone to expect you to alter your activities to fit *just* them." In the fall we have many Scouts involved in Football and Band. It used to be we would not camp on Friday's "because no one would come." This year we did camp on Friday night with the understanding that those who could not make it on Friday could show up early on Saturday morning. About half the campers came out on Friday night in Sept and Oct. In our case the committee organized the transportation. In the one or two situation there is no reason that the Scouts parents can not transport them

Like others we start our meetings on time and we leave when we say we are going to leave. If a Scout is running late to meet us for a campout and he calls to let us know we will leave one car behind. We do not wait for Scouts who are not courteous enough to let us know he is running late. We do have Scouts that come late to meetings and even campouts. Scout are active and and busy outside of Scouting. We appreciate that but we do not sacrifice the good of the many for the few or the one. When I was a Webelos leader I started giving pony beads to Scouts that were on time and I had a p

The following are really rough numbers but I found them interesting. What I did to get them was take the number of Scouts that are currently involved in the program in the given year. Then calculating the number of available boys based on births for a particular year and infant and standard mortality rates found the number of available boys ages 11-17. Like I said really rough but I think it gives a picture of the decline: Year Percent of boys in Scouting out of available boys 1998 9.63% 1999 8.21% 2000 7.86% 2001 7.75% 2002 7.63% 2003 7.54% 2004 7.44% 2005

"Yeah and how often does the kid wear the shoes and hoodie? How about the Scout uniform? " A1) As often as possible for 4 to 12 weeks depends on how long he thinks it is cool. A2) In our Troop the Scouts wear there uniforms every Tuesday night, one weekend a month and at least one week during the summer at dinner. The Boy Scout uniform does not go out of style and its life is measured in years not weeks.

Does anyone know where I can find the number of Boy Scouts (no Cubs, Venture, Learning for Life...) in particular for each year since 1910. I have been combing the web for them but have not had any luck.

I received several emails asking where I got the data. I found it while going through the Scout's L archive from September. The poster there said the data came from national. I am not signed up on Scouts L list server so I can not post a question there to find out how the original poster got the data. Here is the link to the original Scout's L posting. http://listserv.tcu.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0809&L=SCOUTS-L&D=1&F=P&P=154928 If someone else is a member of Scout's L and can find out, please do and let us know.

The uniform is expensive? Generally when I hear this I look at the Scout. He is typically wearing shoes and hooded sweat shirt cost more than the items the parent is complaining about. My only recourse used to explain that the uniform is part of the game of Scouting just like a the uniforms used for Football and Baseball. I had a hard time with this when the uniform, especially the pants, was not really functional for what we do. That is spend time in the outdoors. Now with new zip off pants with real pockets and wicking material shirts that can be worn in all camping situati

Hey thanks for all the great information. Most of my Scouting as a youth was done during this so called "disaster". I was lucky enough to have adult leadership that seem to stick it out applying a lot of the old stuff. Even though we were following the current requirements as written for rank advancement I spent a lot of time out on outings. My adult leaders never felt that the right answer for what to do if you get lost is to "ask someone for directions" if you know what I mean. Lincoln Eagle Class of 1980

I came across the Eagles per year data below and plotted the data on a graph. There is a huge jump in Eagle Scouts in 1973 then drops like a rock to levels from almost 15 years before. Does anyone here have any idea why that would be? The first column is the year, then eagles in that year with the last column eagles to date. 1912 23 23 1913 54 77 1914 165 242 1915 96 338 1916 103 441 1917 219 660 1918 222 882 1919 468 1,350 1920 629 1

Before I start I want to make clear that I am talking about BSA camps with fire rings. In our area for a while camps discouraged using ground wood for fires. It is best to leave it to nature they said. Now the camps are saying that the ground wood is more of a problem if there should be a forest fire because it helps fuel the fire. So we are now encourage to use the ground wood and not bring our own. Moving firewood in Ohio right now is a big no-no anyway because of the Emerald Ash bore anyway. So from my point of view the use of woods tools in our Troop is on the rise not the decline.

A bit off topic but the last post stirred up some memories. Not sure if this was a troop rule when I was a Scout, 30 years ago, or not. In our troop the councilor for Home Repairs merit badge was the Scout's Dad. This was one of my favorites because my Dad was not into Scouting at all. From his perspective driving us to and from any camp on the planet was good enough which I appreciated. This merit badge gave me the opportunity to spend the better part of a Saturday with my Dad doing Scouts.

I love cycling merit badge. It is so easy to verify requirements 8 and 9. -------- 8. Avoiding main highways, take two rides of 10 miles each, two rides of 15 miles each, and two rides of 25 miles each. You must make a report of the rides taken. List dates, routes traveled, and interesting things seen. ---------- So if the Scout can tell you the date, the route and interesting things then he has done the requirement. I had one Scout that did not like to write. Unlike hiking merit badge all the Scout has to do is report so he talked to me after each ride he did. In the case

We are very fortunate here in NE Ohio. The previous poster spoke well of Seven Ranges which I have only heard good things. We have camped there on weekends. Really nice camp. Our council Camp is Camp Manatoc just a little North of Akron, OH in Peninsula. We have a great attendance numbers by all ages. For that matter we have older Scouts that are typically inactive, few meetings and maybe one campout a year, that come to summer camp. Like Seven Ranges there is also a 5 year program for the Scouts to participate in. Additionally we have Scouts that will go to Manatoc as provisional Scouts

It is my understanding that it is up to the MBC if they want to accept work done previous to getting the merit badge application, blue card. The classic example is the 20 nights camping for camping merit badge. Typically a Scout does not ask for a blue card until after he has the 20 nights completed, at least in our troop. That being said it seems to me that the sign offs for the requirements on the card should be when the MBC acknowledges the requirement is complete not necessarily when the work was done. Hence the Scoutmaster's initial signature should be the oldest on the blue card. Wh

Thanks ScoutNut. Great site, just what I was looking for. Now I can see if I can get the PLC to get back on that troop logo thing so we have something to put the segments around. What are your other sources? I just like knowing my options.

ScoutNut, where do you get the segments? Are they custom made? I really want to do this for our Troop and have not been able to find a source. Thanks.

Not to hijack this thread either but Webelos Activity pin requirements are supposed to be signed off by the Webelos Leader only. Parents can sign off on Cub and Bear requirements. I agree with Buffalo Skipper about Webelos II not meeting with Boy Scouts regularly. We do have the Webelos II do open and closing ceremonies with us. The rest of the meeting they are in another room except in rare cases which we coordinate before hand. Back to our regularly scheduled program. Buffalo Skipper describes the standard meeting plan. Use it as described in the Webelos Den Leader book. You can w