LeCastor

Eagle, one of my best memories of Scouting was getting to staff a Cataouachee District camporee in 1994 at Camp V-Bar! My goal is to give the Scouts as much ownership of their program as possible. And, Stosh, I already have the Patrol Method dealio on my radar. Thanks for the ideas, all. Keep 'em coming! LeCastor

1. There's no hazing allowed in Scouting. Period. Also, ASMs aren't supposed to sit on any board of review. We've discussed many times that the SM conference(s) should prepare the Scout for the board of review so that unpleasant surprises don't come to pass. 2. Not sure what to tell you here. The SPL at my meetings tends to close at around 5 minutes before the scheduled end of the meeting. Then, when all announcements are done he asks me if I'd like to give a SM minute. What exactly goes on during the 20 minutes of your meetings? 3. Cliques aren't appreciated in Scouting, though it happens more often that we'd like. If there is something to be announced, I let my SPL know so that he can announce it to the entire Troop. If something is last minute, though, I can see where some might not get the announcement in time... As for the motto it's crude, in my opinion. Why not stick with B-P's motto: "Be Prepared"? Maybe shop around for another unit? LeCastor

Hi all, Last fall I was asked to plan/organize a district camporee with about two months notice, which as most of us know isn't very much time at all especially when Troops usually have annual calendars planned out a year in advance in most cases. So out of roughly twenty Troops in the district, we had four commit and show up for the event. Despite the low turnout we had fun and it was quite the intimate atmosphere at the "camporee-wide" campfire on Saturday night. I was able to wrangle a few folks to come in an lead activities for the Scouts, since I didn't have time to poll the youth and get their input. The OA chapter was where I thought I'd get the most help but they weren't able to pull it off on such short notice. So I offered to chair the camporee again for this fall with the knowledge that I'd have a whole year to prepare. The grand design in my head, at the outset, was to base the who thing off of Hillcourt's Field Book from the 1940s and have a staff of youth plan and run the whole thing with guidance from me and one other Scouter. However, the more I thought about it the more I wanted to just assemble a staff of youth, put them in a room, and have them hash out what kinds of things they'd like to do/see at their camporee. It should be what they want to do and not what I want them to do. (Even though a Green-Bar-Bill-themed camporee would be AWESOME!) Does anyone have any advice for me regarding the chairing and/or organizing of an event like this? Any words of wisdom?

I realize this is a thread about the patch but... Just today we buried a long-time Scouter and had no Scout honor guard--probably because it was a Wednesday afternoon during school. At any rate, the memorial service was nice and there were many Scouters in uniform. I was honored to be asked to play Taps at the graveside because it meant a lot to the family. Our Scouter friend had touched the lives of countless thousands of people through our region. A fellow Scoutmaster and I discussed the idea of having a district or council Honor Guard of Scouts who could be called upon to serve at funerals such as this one. With as many young musicians as we must all have in our units, I think it should be relatively easy to find a Scout who could be trained to play a bugle or trumpet. Do any of you have experience with this?

Moving AND a baby!? Best of luck to you, buddy. Come up to Glacier's Edge Council sometime for our All-Scouter Pow Wow which is usually held in January in Deerfield, WI. Here the link for more info: http://www.glaciersedge.org/training/supplemental/all-scouter-pow-wow/ I usually lead one or two presentations but, as I said earlier, the best thing about these supplemental training sessions is the networking and camaraderie (commiseration? ).

Hey, PbW! I considered going to the Lord Baden-Powell University in Camp Lake, WI this coming March. However, I had a prior commitment on that Saturday. The courses look interesting enough and I'm sure you'll learn loads of good stuff to use as a Cubmaster. But, more importantly, I'm sure you'll meet people and learn things from them that aren't necessarily presented in the courses. Likely, the people you meet here will also be moving into Boy Scouting and district level positions along with you--even if in different councils/districts. I guess my one gripe would be that it's all in cabins/lodges. Sure, it's winter in WI but I would much rather see a camping or outdoor aspect to the training. But that's just me!

So, Seattle, how was the training? Did you find it useful and/or worth it?

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/01/26/top-5-merit-badge-books-get-ready-blizzard-next/

We have one of these every January (Pow Wow) and it's fairly well-attended. There are many different classes you can take and they vary in quality depending on the number of participants, presenters, and media (Power Point, etc)--or lack of media, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I've usually taught at least one of the classes over the past four years and it's a lot of fun. My style is very informal and typically includes a good deal of group discussion. I see myself as a guide more than a teacher. So this year I led a discussion about giving Scoutmaster Minutes (or "moments" as my JASM has labelled mine...) and then another one on teaching first year Boy Scout advancement. My main points were: 1) the SM Minute is one of the few times the SM says anything during a meeting, 2) the older boys and PLs guide/teach the younger Scouts during "first year advancement", 3) adults are there as guides, not instructors. In the past I've taught basic Scout knots but I don't find that as valuable a class unless you make a spin on it. I taught that one three times and I always stressed that teaching someone to tie a knot is really teaching someone how to guide someone else in learning a skill. The recruiting classes are typically not that helpful to me. Membership meetings tend to be a bunch of ppl sitting around a table whining about low numbers and complaining about how we are losing boys...We need to take Green Bar Bill's Page 9 from the 9th edition of the handbook and harness that energy! We as Scouters have to have that fire and determination so that we can exude the spirit that Bill had for Scouting. It's fun! It's not negative and whiny. It's hard to get too much out of 40-minute classes but it's still important to have these Council-wide training days. If nothing else its' great for networking....

I have heard rumblings of non-LDS Scouters refusing to participate in events held at LDS locations. Personally, I think that is shallow given that the LDS congregation has been open to allowing the use of their building for anything and everything. And I'm pretty sure it's not about the non-allowance of coffee/Coke. Roundtables, for example, have seen drastic drops in attendance since the venue was moved to an LDS building.

Hi all! Was just wondering what your respective experiences have been vis-à-vis LDS Scouting--whether units, Scouters, or building usage--and their relationship(s) with non-LDS Scouters. Is there much intermingling? Is it segregated? Do non-LDS units or Scouters use LDS facilities for meetings or Roundtables? What's the deal, yo? LeCastor

If you want to go placing "blame" or "finding the root cause" of the problem , you can "blame" me, indirectly, for this thread. It never would have happened if I hadn't started the other thread on deciding if it's appropriate to express yourself or not just because you can. Please allow me to bring it back to my original thought. Sure, I was motivated by the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. However, I'm not asking you if it's appropriate to bad-mouth Muslims or Christians. My Scoutmaster's Minutes typically come from current events (national or local--or global). In fact, here's my SM minute from this week: We have probably all said something or done something that has ended up hurting the feelings of those we care about or even people we didn't even know. In some cases we meant to offend but in others it was purely accidental. Our freedom of expression is a right that we have as Americans, but we must always be prepared to accept the consequences of what we say. We might not always agree with each other, but we must respect the right to an opinion and the right to express that opinion. This applies to anything from telling "your mama" jokes to ridiculing another Scout's religion and anything in between. I didn't really intend to start a religious polémique, although Charb et al would appreciate that I did, while indirectly. LeCastor P.S. If anyone cares, my friend wrote an opinion piece for the local paper and it talks about the issues that France faces vis-à-vis religion and race matters. It's worth a read. http://host.madison.com/news/opinion/column/ritt-deitz-is-france-s-hidden-wound-beginning-to-heal/article_c4c12519-6e61-5490-b315-c5aba8fe3789.html#.VLaZEzuXchh.facebook

It was as rhetorical question. And I see from JoeBob's other thread that the vitriol is "unfolding".

If you couldn't already tell from my username, I am a francophone and a francophile. Having lived and worked in France, the terrorist attacks last week hit very close to home. We are all Charlie in that we all have the right to express our opinions. However, I ask you now: just because we can does that mean we should?

Hey, BadenP! Could you back this up with some quotes? I guess I don't understand how this thread has hurt independent decision making by Scouts.

Torchwood says: "Troop and Patrol Meetings are NOT generally places for working on Merit Badges, and it is the Scout's responsibility to obtain and safeguard the blue cards. The Unit Leader should give the Scout a suggestion or two about a MBC for whatever badge the Scout wishes to work on, sign the card, and happily hand it over." 100% in agreement with Torchwood here. As Scoutmaster, I like to know which badges my Scouts are working on, but apart from signing the front of the card I have little to no other responsibility with with the actual card until the badge is completed. At that point I sign the card as unit leader and hand it back to the Scout who then gives it to the advancement chair of the Troop committee. I have enough stuff to jam in my bag; I don't want a ton of blue cards, too!

When I was a Scout in Atlanta, we went to an inner-city high school for a NESA merit badge day (*gasp* a MB factory) and I earned the Engineering MB. Yes, I earned one badge that day--not 17. There were actually a few counselors there that day and they were all from Georgia Tech. Since my grandpa was an electrical engineer who worked closely with the Air Force and NASA in the 50s and 60s, I was totally into the space program. I went to Space Camp and Space Academy in Huntsville, AL and I knew I wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and become a "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech". I went away from that Engineering MB session with a heightened sense of purpose and shared the news with my grandpa. (He was pretty stoked about it.). It wasn't until later in school that I realized I was crap at math. My interests changed and I eventually studied foreign languages in college and graduate school. But I still remember that day in Atlanta and think back on it fondly.

Hey, Mashmaster. Don't beat yourself up over it. No one is perfect but the fact that you are worried about it shows that you care. Next time you see something like this you'll be prepared to make the call. LeCastor

Jason, I love the Tennessee "ya'll". I got no worries, brother Beaver.

DC, I hear what you are saying. However, I don't buy into the "boys will be boys" idea. And, again, I don't think we need to be blaming boys or girls. What SMMatthew is saying is that we should help our Scouts understand that they should treat women with respect regardless of how the girls are dressed. A certain level of respect should be given to all.

I'd like to reiterate that discussing the Ideals of Scouting is a good way to approach a good reflection-centered activity for Scouts. That was the Scouts are focused on living a Scout-like life rather than worrying about offending each other's religious sensibilities. SMMatthew has an excellent idea which I have taken from the Scoumater's Minute forum: "I am working to put together a Scouts Own service and would like to include a responsive reading of religious texts corresponding with the 12 points of the Scout Law. There is an example of one here: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/...rent/ss04.aspx and there are two examples here: http://www.macscouter.com/scoutsown/Readings.asp However I am looking for a version (or versions) that includes texts from a wider variety of religious sources, not just the Judeo-Christian Bible. I've seen such versions before, but sadly didn't keep the programs from those services and my Googling isn't turning anything up. I'd like to have a version that uses quotes from the Holy Bible (Christian), the Torah (Jewish), the Quran (Islamic), the Book of Mormon (LDS), the Vedas (Hindu), the Tripitaka (Buddhist), Native American prayers, sacred texts, etc. to show the commonalty of the values of the Scout Law throughout the various religions and provide a representation of a wider range of religions. Any help in finding, or creating, a many-faiths Scout Law responsive reading would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!"

Jason, this is where you'll have to tread lightly moving forward. The whole account thing is a touchy subject these days. Stosh and I were advocating a few weeks back for fundraising for the good of the Troop rather than for the individual. Personally, I like the idea of the patrol working together to sell "widgets" for the good of the whole team rather than each member on his own. I was labelled a socialist/communist for saying that though.

I'd like to help guide our PL to be more communicative with his Scouts and perhaps get back outdoors. Also, I'd like to help revive the Pack we are associated with. It'd be nice to grow the membership within our council and district, too. Not really afraid of anything. I see a lot of opportunities rather than negatives. (That's just me, the eternal optimist.)

Thanks, SSScout!

Yes, Hedgehog, we're in the same page. . No offense taken.