Lynda J

Tour permits also gives your Council the ability to make sure that there are trained leaders going on camping trips and outings. Recently in our Council a troop went camping. Didn't sign in at the rangers post. The ranger went down to check the campsite. Found three adults and 22 boys. Not a single adult had been trained. No tour permit, no medical forms,and no permission slips. The ranger called the Council office, reported them., Their troop on now on probation.

One thing everyone needs to remember is that any money raised by a unit belongs to the CO. They own your charter. They own your equipment. I would go and talk to your COR.

We have to give the boys a program that is interesting and teaches them skills. Some of the skills we are not having to teach that we didn't have to deal with 30+ years ago are how to deal with drugs, gangs, and things like that. I have been involved in Scouting either as a Girl Scout, as a GS leader and Boy Scouts for about 50 years. 40 of that as an adult. I have seen a lot of changes. But one thing I haven't seen change in Boy Scouts is skills teaching. For a boy learning to build a fire on his own isn't really about building that fire. It is about learning a skill and the achivemen

I ran this subject by our DE last night. Guess what. It is adding a requirement. As far as CO making the decission. They can not change BSA policy. National has made a decission. THey have in written policy that you can not add a requirement. It is very clear. Requirements can not be added or taken away. A Scout must do no more or no less than the requirement as written. I would be looking for a troop that wants to teach their boys that going by the rules is the right thing to do. I would also be talking to the Council Advancement Chair.

I always love it when a boy teaches an adultsomething and the adult admits it. When my boys were Webs, they did the Flag Ceremony for a PTO meeting. They carried the flags in with the American Flag on the right side of the room and crossed over and posted it on the left side of the stage. When they returned to the back of the room there was a man standing there that very rudely informed them that they had posted the American Flag on the wrong side. Just as I was going to say something one of the boys said "I am sorry sir but you are wrong. The American flag is always posted on the lef

This happened with my Kevin. The SM realized it after the BOR. He simply corrected the advancement report and had the Board resign the corrected.

Our troop always allows our Star and Live Scouts to use the hours they help with Eagle for their service hours. When I am helping teach Leaders Specific this is one of the things I stress. Use the projects you are doing as much as possible. Our last Eagle project two Star and one Life Scouts got their 6 hours.

Thanks Ed. One thing here is, If your Committee doesn't think that your boys are getting good leadership skills before they start their Eagle Projects then there is something really wrong within the troop and it isn't the boys. It is the adults. Are your boys taking Junior Leadership Training? Are they taking Den Chief Training? All of these teach leadership skills. We teach our boys to be leaders. We also should be teaching them to be fair and go by the rules. If you add a requirement to a Rank Advancement you are telling them that it is OK to change a rule you don't

I agree we should push our boys to an extent. But the rules should all be the same. It isn't up to each Pack, Troop, Crew or Post to make their own advancement requirements. A boy needs to know that if he moves across the country that his Advancement requirements will be the same. If we allow Units to set their own advancement requirements then we stop being a part of the entire BSA group. We become individual units with no uniform advancement policy.

I have a question for those that don't see a problem with adding the word "Lead" to the Life requirement. It has been said that all the parents and committee have agreed that this is what they want. Ok. So the speed limit in front of my house is 35mph. My neighbors get together and decide that we want that speed limit changed to 50mph. Since everyone in the neighborhood agrees we change the speed limit. It is our right since we all agree. BSA has requirements set for a reason. They also have a policy that leaders and committees can not change a requirement. So it is ok to

As a Girl Scout two of my greated camp experiences was when I went to a camp in Alabama and one in Washington St. where I was the only one from my troop going. Met lots of great people. One girl and I still write and that has been over 40 years ago.

Our troop has added Leading a Service Project to the Life requirements. This was done in an effort to prepare Scouts for their Eagle Project. THe requirement for Life states "While a Star Scout take part in a service project totaling at least 6 hours." It does not require that a Scout must LEAD that project. By adding the work LEAD this troop has added a requirement. If their boys are not getting to Eagle with enough leadership skills then it is a leadership problem within the troop. And the SM and Committee needs to address that and not add requirements.

Have you talked to your District Exective about this. Sorry this is abuse of the Troop and the boys. They are not there to be at the beck and call of the Lion's Club Members. Our troop is chartered by the LO. Never a problem. Only once have they ask us to help with one of their fund raisers. And they didn't want the boys in uniform for that one. I would be looking for another CO. Check with a group that has maybe lost a troop and would love to have another one. There are three churches in our area that have in the past chartered troops and would like to have troops again. One

There is a juvenile judge somewhere in South Texas that makes boys that are just starting to get in trouble join Boy Scouts. There was a big stink about if a couple of years ago in the paper. But then they started looking at what was happening to the boys he was dealing with. Seems that once they got into Scouting there was about 80% that stayed in after they finished their probation. And almost all of those never got in trouble again. I don't remember his name or even exactly where he was from. But seems if we give kids good things to do we can head them off of the bad ones. Like

Tour permits, permission slips and medical forms are all there of your SELF PROTECTION. Just like two deep leadership and YPT. Called C Y A. If we are taking our boys off the property we meet we get permission slips. We keep medical forms in a file that stays with us. For not only the boys but for each adult that goes camping with us. If you are on an outing with the boys and one gets injured and needs medical care. Parent didn't come and can't be reached that permission slip gives you consent to authorize care. It also lets you know for sure that the parent knows the kid came

Forcing a Scout to plan and run a service project as part of his Rank advancement is totally against BSA policy except for Eagle. If you add this requirement your are violating BSA policy. Now do I dislike the idea of doing a project. NO Do I think Scouts should do more service projects yes. But you can not add this requirement to advancement. If I was a parent and your required my son to do this as part of his rank advancement I would be as Council in a heart beat. You can not add or remove Rank requirements. PERIOD.

I love the Web program. It is best if your nephew is in a group that he already has friends in. It simply makes it a little easier. Since your son is already in the Pack it would make since for your nephew to be in the same Pack. The main thing is that he is excited about starting his Scouting life.

Having set on many Eagle Board I would expect to see a copy of the letter granting the extension well before his Eagle BOR. A copy of this should have gone to the District Advancement Chair. In our Council any request for extension has to have the SM and DAC signatures on it.

When it is necessary for me to call a boy other than the boys in my troop I always ask to speak to a parent. I tell the parent who I am and the reason for my call. I then ask to speak to their son. Now with the boys in my troop. I try not to talk to the parents unless the boy isn't home. I really like trying to build a line of communications with the boys.

One thing that will effect how a boy does his first summer camp in how his parents deal with him being gone. If they spend the week before camp talking about how much they are going to miss him his chances are 80% greater to get homesick. If instead they talk about how many great experiences he will have to tell them about when he gets back and how many new friends he will make he is much less likely to get homesick. Another thing is that first letter he gets from home. Same thing. Tell his parents not to talk about how the dog misses him. But again about the great fun he is havi

I fill out a permission slip on Kevin even if I am going on an outing. This way if something happens and he wants to ride with someone else all the paper work if there. We file tour permits for anything that has our troop leaving our meeting place. A couple of reasons. Council knows what we are doing and that we are active. Also in some Councils unless you have filed a tour permit BSA insurance does not cover you. It isn't that hard to do.

I counsel this badge. I have the boys come to my shop to do some of the experiments. I own an automotive repair shop so I have a lot of the things needed to so some of them. This way I see them do the experiments and we talk about the results of what they have done. Only have one time had a parent tell me that their son shouldn't have to explain. I simply said well then I don't have to sign off the requirement. Never had another problem. My latest problem was a Scout that called me on this badge wanting to go over the environment in a bottle. I had never heard from this boy,

As Sm or ASM we do not run the troop, the boys do. The troop leadership should be hands off as much as possible. Monday night we crossed 4 Webs over into the troop. After our boys did the removal of their Cub scarves and epiltes and put the Boy Scout ones on. The SPL took them into our Scout Hut, set down with them talked about what was going to be going on this summer. Gave them their troop calendars, their troop phone list. When we get new boys they are always turned over to the SPL. It has worked very well for us. The ones that crossed over Monday night. I had calls from two o

Sorry guys but a Den Chief needs to be very mature and show responsibility. Qualifications: Be an older, experienced Boy Scout, Varsity Scout, or Venturer who has been a Boy Scout. Selected by the senior patrol leader and Scoutmaster, Varsity Scout Coach, or Venturing Advisor at the request of the Cubmaster or Webelos den leader. Preferably a former Cub Scout; ideally at least First Class rank. Approved by the Cubmaster and pack committee for recommendation to the Webelos den leader. Registered as a youth member of a troop, team, or crew. Responsibilities: The Webelos den chief's

Several Units in our District are talking about not selling popcorn this year. Sales were off by over 40% this year. The popcorn has gotten so expensive. Had two people return the microwave. The oils had leaked out of the packages when they opened the boxes. I don't know on our Troop. But Kevin only sold about half what he sold last year and he hit the same people. Money is simply tighter that it was.