koolaidman

MattR,

Congratulations on a successful weekend. Could you share your schedule/syllabus if I send you my email address in a PM?

jps, this is going to sound harsh, but I hope you take it in the friendly spirit that is intended.

There's an awful lot of "I's" in your post. As a volunteer, you should remember that your time is for the scouts. Dominoes, Tepees, Food, these ideas should be coming from the scouts, shouldn't they? I'm sensing a lot of adult expectations placed on a youth group.

It seems you are volunteering and doing things beyond your position of the program and beyond your capacity to do them.

You've been sent a letter that your contributions are no longer welcomed. At that time I would have taken a step back and processed what the heck was going on. Give some time for anger and astonishment to subside. After the emotions have calmed down, determine the next step. Which probably would have been to contact the author of the letter and ask "Why?".

You are banging your head against the wall trying to volunteer for a group that doesn't want to volunteer.

This is akin to a unit disagreement. National won't get involved. You are not guaranteed a "right" to volunteer.

I'm afraid your letter isn't going to help and will actually have an adverse impact on you. I advise you to stop and as BadenP said, move on.

Been reading about you "tarp people" for awhile now, and I gotta ask:

Are there any tarp aficionados who camp in the land of mosquitoes and fire ants? How do you cope? Deet doesn't really deter the ants...

Hi scoutmom757,

Welcome to the forums. Is your son looking for his scoutmaster conference or is he looking for requirements to be signed off?

In units where the SM or ASMs are signing off on requirements, what may look like a scoutmaster conference isn't really that.

Make sure you understand what your scout son is trying to do, then read the guide to advancement paying particular attention to pages 24-29: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/33088.pdf

If you are absolutely sure your son is getting a fail on the scoutmaster conference and not individual sign off items, it's time to find a new troop. It ain't worth the hassle.

Good luck!

Welcome to the forums Snave001!

I have heard of this (old goat patrol/geezer patrol/adult patrol). I have not seen it in action so I don't know how they work in real life. I do however have philosophical objections and they are why we don't do this in our troop:

1. We are adults, not scouts. We work together because that's what scouters do, not because we are a patrol.

2. Scouts should be watching their leaders, not the adults.

3. Adults should not be teaching scouts. Scouts should be teaching scouts. They learn by doing, not by watching.

4. The only scout allowed (briefly) in the adult campsite is 1. the SPL or 2. a safety victim (bullying, first aid, etc).

Your gut is correct. Think about how it conflicts with boy-led and let your conscience be your guide.

Other items to think about: What is the WB parent's position in the troop? What's their job? Why are they suggesting program ideas? Why is the committee suggesting program changes? That is the Scoutmaster's realm. What happens when the scouts (who should be 300 ft away) ignore the adults? Are the adults going to call them over and demand they watch?

The objective of the patrol method, is not efficiency, discipline or uniforming. It is for a PL to learn how to organize and lead, how to communicate, and how to work together towards an objective for the rest. All this needs to be done via experience, and not watching adults.

Does that help put words to your thoughts?

Good luck!

Swimmer21: Don't get discouraged. Truth is, we don't know what the norm is in your troop, however you can't go wrong with your son asking these questions and you helping by coaching him along teaching him how to escalate until he gets an answer.

Remember you're dealing with boys and not customer service based in a foreign country and you'll do fine.

All you'll need to know is the order your son needs to go in: Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol Leader, then Assistant Scoutmaster and/or Scoutmaster.

(Shaking my head at KDD. I know he misses BD dearly )

I don't think we need OWLS because we will have someone IOLS trained which is basically the same thing. In our district they do IOLS and OWLS all together the same weekend combined together.

IOLS and OWLS are not the same thing. OWLS is geared towards Webelos aged activities and transitioning to Boy Scouts. IOLS is First Class camping skills. IOLS does not supercede OWLS or BALOO.

Camp to the ability of your boys and other adult leaders. If they can't handle the in tents cold (pun intended), go for the cabins.

Have fun!

Swimmer21, I gently suggest your son ask his SPL. He needs to know how to get answers to questions himself.

His time won't "count" until he is First Class, so there is some time for him to figure this out on his own.

Definitely 3 dens. Also the benefit King Ding Dong mentioned can not be overstated.

Hi scrinmemphis,

Have you checked the Boy Scout Handbook?

I did last night in preparing for our upcoming ILST. You know what it says? It says to go online to find out what the responsibilities of each position are. Ugh! (I'm being snarky at the handbook here, not you)

Given that I have the links handy check it out:

http://www.bsahandbook.org/PDFs/troop.pdf

http://www.bsahandbook.org/PDFs/patrol.pdf

Gotta love BSA having different requirements posted in different places:

KDD's post references First Class and membership of OA for OA Rep, but handbook pdf's don't even mention OA Rep should be a member of the Order.

KDD's post says LNT Trainer must be trained in 15 hour course and 14, hand book pdf's merely says it would be ideal.

JASM is definitely 16.

KDD: Jason's Cub Scout could be a WEB II, as in could of/should of crossed over between December and now.

Being the Devil's Advocate: Readyman is only being offered at times where it is foreseeable that not everyone can go. Why is that?

Some may not have the money or the time for daycamp. Parent's jobs sometimes get in the way of weekend camp outs.

I agree with everyone that it does not hurt to practice first aid more than once, however, it should be planned for a time where you can almost guarantee all/most will be available. At least once.

Campouts are a great time to review first aid, but you have to acknowledge there will always be attendance issues at campouts. You have to acknowledge that as a den leader when you plan these things. Especially the AOL required activity badges.

I'd say, that if you know your going to have attendance issues, go over Outdoorsman or Forester again at the campout and move the Readyman stuff to den meetings. The Outdoorsman and Forester badges still come in handy for Boy Scouts.

The only input I think the CC should have regarding tents is in regarding how much of the troop's money to spend, how many to buy and what kind. The rest of the policy should be re-written to: The Scoutmaster and Senior Patrol Leader will make decisions on a campout to campout basis in regards to tenting arrangements.

I agree with most. CC is overstepping.

You can also view the old Boys Life articles via Google Books.

Sep 1911: http://books.google.com/books?id=twUG1X-LzB8C&pg=PA3&source=gbs_toc&cad=2#v=twopage&q&f=false

Per this link, if you have Firefox and install the FireShot addin, you can print from Google Books: http://www.ehow.com/how_2311479_print-google-books.html

Disclaimer: I haven't tried it....

Dang dfscott, I feel like I'm going through the exact same thing you are, albeit I am an ASM and not SM.

Currently we are investing time in training our CC and we are 85% of the way there recruiting another solid ASM.

My idea for you is once you have an annual plan from your PLC, create a calendar of campouts, present it to the committee, or CC if a meeting is not happening, explain where you need volunteers. If they don't commit, the camp out gets axed. No hard feelings, dems da breaks.

If you aren't able to "fire" your ASM's you sure as heck can tell them what to do. That's their job, to back you up. So maybe their job is to sit in a corner or research a topic for you....or..... have a heart to heart and say, you know, right now, we really need help on the committee.

I am putting together a series of training nights for our committee and parents covering, what is boy led, how do we camp, etc etc. Our vision is to even have periodic parent meetings, maybe even roundtable style, to facilitate communication and help keep the parents off the SM's back. Hopefully this will help to get more parents involved.

I hope this helps. Take a break if you need to.

christineka:

Have you looked at the 2013 Guide to Advancement? (hint start on page 72). Read all of that section with the attitude of complying with advancement procedures and not, "how can we get around this".

There doesn't seem to be a requirement governing the quality of the outline. If he explains it well enough and can put a pencil to paper, let him do it himself. It doesn't matter that it's not legible. If you understand his intentions, I don't think anyone would be skirting anything there.

5 chores: discuss with mom. I think the responsibility is important here and not the difficulty of the chores. Feeding the dog, making sure the porch light is out by a certain time seem reasonable to me as long as there is 1 or 2 "hefty" chores like cleaning room or taking out garbage, whatever his abilities will allow.

Scouter99 is correct that only the council advancement committee can give alternate requirements. District folks do not have the authority.

Absolutely you should understand what the boys abilities/disabilities are. Discuss the entire advancement process with mom so she understands. The scout's doctor's opinion will matter also. Remember that it won't be easier for the scout just because he has disabilities and not every disability gets alternate requirements.

Good luck to you on this. Thank you for your efforts in Scouting.

Our troop has inherited some old canvas tents. I'm having a hard time figuring exactly how they are supposed to be set up. It looks like they are in two halves.

One half consists of a trapezoidal shape with a rectangle attached at the center of the long side of the trapezoid. The attached rectangle is the same width as the short side of the trapezoid.

My best guess is the rectangles overlap over the ridge pole. Is that how they are supposed to work? It doesn't quite seem right because there doesn't seem to be a tie off point for the top rectangle flap.

The "walls" are only about 2 feet high. Do I have it right? Am I missing something?

We have parents drive. We've had problems in the past where some parents GPS will take them on a slightly different route. Working on discipline of everyone taking the same route, so that if there is car trouble, at least someone in the troop may be able to help.

I'm looking into using the Waze app (on android and apple), to help us keep track of one another on the drive. Has anyone used that during campout transportation?

That's milk and cookies right? Took me awhile on that one...

Wouldn't sisal catch and cling to the bride's dress?

first thought: sounds awesome!

second thought: It would be cool if a staffer could make targets "scurry off" if the scouts "scare" the targets.

Sounds really cool and fun!

I think it's a fantastic idea.

I'd also like to take the time to mention that his name is actually "Smokey Bear" with no "the". Although, I'm sure he answers to both.

http://www.smokeybear.com/vault/name_main.asp

After breezing through Cub Program for all of 30 seconds. I don't have a beef yet. Anyone notice the adventure Icons on the right look like beltloops? I think that's where the confounded beads are going. On the belt. A welcome change. Cubs get the shiny stuff instead of dangles. I think it will work.

I don't remember Akela as a kid, and felt foolish trying to refer to Akela to my cubs. Could have gone for some alliteration though like "Cory, Cole, Carl the cub scout"

KDD are you getting details for the new Cub program? Spill your source please.