Lynda J

Any rule a SM need to follow is listed either in the Boy Scout Book or in the Scout Masters Handbook. Don't need to add a bunch of other rules. Either from Troop Committee's or from SM's.

This was a decission I had to make this year. One of my Web's that moved up into the troop. He was always a hand full and hard to control. He had real anger issues. So for 3 years I tried everything I have used in my 40+ years of working with kids. NOthing worked. At the point that he was actually endangering the other boys I had to make a decission. I talked with several other adult scouters. One gentleman who has been in scouting for over 60 years looked me straight in the eyes and ask this "How much better program would you be able to give the other boys in the troop if you didn't have to spend so much time dealing with the problems brought on by this boy?"

I had to admit a lot. It was one of the hardest decissions I have ever made in scouting. But we ask him to leave. I talked to his mother and told her that of all the troubled kids I have worked with in my adult life I worry about him more than any other and begged her to get him counseling.

He ended up in getting suspended from school and one of the requirements for returning was counseling. He has been in angermanagement counseling now for about 4 months and I talked to one of his teachers last week and she told me he is a totally different child. When we ask him to leave he was told that if he could get his anger under control he would always be welcome to return.

But you have to make a choice of how you spend your scouting time. Can you give more by helping more boys or by losing them and trying to help one.

I felt like a failure when he left. We are supposed to SAVE the all. But in reality we can't. Sending hugs because you are going to have to make one of the hardest choices a leader ever has to make.

I would only slow up advancement if you don't get a service project done in the 4 months you have to be a Star or the 6 months you have to be a Life.

I personally do think this is a good policy. We had two boys earn their service hours helping with another scouts Eagle project. They spent well over 8 hours working on it for him. It helped him it helped them and it gave the younger boys an image of the troop working together for the betterment of one scout and the group we were helping.

Here again is an adult rule.

It's been about 5 years since I did BALOO but I don't remember a video. I would also recommend that you take the outdoor skills that goes with New Leader Training. OUr district calls it 4 Winds some others call it other things. It is a great training. I am retaking it this weekend. Even though I also help teach part of it. I like retaking some trainings about every 3-4 years.

Just fun.

I spoke to my minister Sunday and related this problem to him and ask him what he thought.

His response was that a true agnostic parent would neither encourage or discourage their child in the belief of God. They would give them the freedom to make their own choice.

From my experience troops that set their own bylaws are doing so so that the adults have control. Sorry guys. But nowhere in the paper work does it say anything about ADULT SCOUTS OF AMERICA. It is BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA with the focus on the BOY. As far as I am concerned a scout can work on as many merit badges as he wants to. I have one boy that has 15 going right now. He will probably have all of them finished before he makes Eagle. My Kevin has 6 going right now. Two of them take 90 days to complete. The only real BSA policy rule is that to be earned they must be complete by the boys 18th birthday.

On uniforms. From my understanding BSA does not require a uniform. THey recommend that boys have them. But it is not a requirement to be a scout.

I have two boys in our troop that simply can not afford the expense. We have found them good used shirts. THey have the scarves. Do we get all the scores at events on uniform inspection? NO. Do I really care? NO. Do my boys have fun? YES. Do they advance in rank and earn badges? Yes. The focus in scouting should be of the boys learning and growing. Not in what they wear. Know a troop that had one boy that had green hair. Hears a SM say he would never allow a boy like that in him troop. Well guess what. The boy with green hair made Eagle at 16 and was a wonderful scout. He simply like green hair.

Our PLC handles any rules that they feel the troop needs. They plan the program, run the meetings and set the activities. Is it always what we as adults want? NO Would it be easier for the adults to do that? Yes Would it be better for the adults to do that? NO. Even when boys fail they grow. Part of growth is failing. Without failure you don't appreciate success.

Well here in Texas we won't have to worry about this if a bill in the House passes this year. It sets a standard that anyone born after 1990 can not get a DL until they are 18, unless there are very special exceptions. I don't know what those are. But it is all the talk with our boys right now.

Our boys who have reached 1st Class work on badges part of our troop meeting. The other boys are working on rank advancement. I work with the rank group and will borrow one of the other boys to come and help me at times.

Boy if my dad had ever seen us put soap in a dutch oven he would have used the lid on our heads. His dutch ovens were in almost mint condition after being stored 10 years. And as far as I know are still being used by NoArk Girl Scout Council. They are about 50 years old. The metal is porous and will take on the taste of the soup. Believe me I have seen it happen. If you have one that is really crusty on the inside soak it in water over the fire. Then scrub it with wadded up foil. But I would never never put soap in one of mine.

I don't ever buy those news papers that are at the check out stand at the grocery store. But the 84 years lady that I take to the store every week does. This week she called me that she wanted me to come down and get one of them that there was an article I needed to see. Ok I ran down there and she had marked this artical. In the National Enquirers April 18 pulication is an article about a Boy Scout that received the National Heroism Award and he and 3 other Boy Scouts addressed Congress and met with the President.

Great artical. I am taking it to my meeting tonight.

YOu have to have the parent or guardian's permission to publish a scouts picture. As long as you have that there are no real rules. My Kevin's picture was on the council website for three years from when he was a Cub and did Score-O.

I signed a release allowing them to use his picture.

I think it would be a great to have scouting activities on the bulletin board at school. Great recruiting tool.

4 years ago the troop I am with was about to fold. They were down to 4 boys that attended but had 16 on the roster. New SM took over. Not we have 19 on the roster and at this weeks meeting at had 17 of those there. Your program will make a big difference in attendance. If boys start getting the feeling that all the focus is on one or two boys the others will stop coming. This is what happened to us. The boys got to feeling that all the focus was on the SM's son and stepson. That they were the only ones that got to do anything or hold offices. That they were the only ones that had a chance of making Eagle.

So make sure you have a good and interesting and challenging program.

I found a great backback stove that you can make out of 2 soda cans.

it can be found at journeytoforever.org/edu_bkpstove.html

Don't assume that simply because the address lable has Mr. Z's name on it that he subscribed to the magazine. I have been getting FHM at my business for the past 6 months. It comes with a lable addressed to me at the shop. I have never subscribed to FHM and don't want it in my shop. I have called the publisher three times and have written every month. The last one that came I sent a certified letter telling them that I was filing a formal complaint with the Attorney Generals office. So far I haven't gotten another one.

I have a boy in my group that started of as a Bear. I say his mother twice. When she signed him up and when I went by to talk to her. She is obviously a drug addict. Dad is in prison. This kid is a great kid. I pick him up for every activity we have. We have arranged for a sponsor for him so expenses are covered. He earned Super Achiever as a Web. We worked on Arrow of Light as a den. Because that is how we did it. Parents are much less involved with Webs than with Wolves and Bears. Because they are heading for Boy Scouts. We have been in the troop for almost two years now and he misses few activities. Do his parents ever help. NO. But of every boy in out troop he needs scouting more than the others. It is the only positive influence in his life.

When we need permission slips he takes it in when I drop him off after scouts. He gets his mother or aunt to sign it and brings it back out to the car to me.

The boy you have needs scouting. Don't worry about the parents. Give him all you can. When I was growing up there was a girl in my GS troop that my parents just took care of. She ended up being one of the 8 girls that got to go to National Round up in 64. She worked so hard. But I don't ever remember her parents ever coming to even an awards banquet. She is now a Dr. specializing in kids with learning disabilities. She is also still involved with scouting. Her own kids are like mine. Grown and gone from home. But guess what both her son and daughter work with scouting. Help this boy build a good scouting background.

One of the first activities we always try to have when our new boys come in is a camping trip. We try to do that within no more than a month after they cross over. We also invite any of the new parents that want to go. They are also told that they won't be going on other camping trips unless we need the help.

You are right. One of the hardest things for parents of new BS is letting go. The second hardest is understanding that the troop is a boy run group. We had one father comment that he felt the adults weren't involved enough. I explained to him that that was the way is was supposed to be. That the boys make all the plans and run things under the SM, ASMs watchful eye. He went on the camping trip. The SM explained to him that the most important thing he could bring was a camp chair. We got to camp the SPL and ASPL got the boys to unload the trailer, Then had them set up the troop camp fly and chuck boxes. After them the patrols set up their own camp sites.

Before we leave camp at the end of the trip we do a thing we call Thorns and Roses. Each person that is there tells one good thing and one bad thing about the trip. It is understood that they can say anything but that once said he can not leave camp. When it was this guys turn his rose was the boys ability to get things set up without help from the adults. He laughed and said his thorn was not feeling he was needed to help set up.

Someone said before me that how we should do scouting is.

Train then, review what they have learned, then let them lead. That is right.

Will every boy run activity go perfectly NO. But sometimes the ones that the adults thing were the worst are the ones that the boys had the most fun at.

Like the name on the uniform says. BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA. Not ADULTS SCOUTS OF AMERICA.

He could do a play for a nursing home.

Kevin is working on Star but is already thinking about his Eagle project. Two months ago our campus police officer had a heart attach and died at school. It seems no one knew CPR. It is going to try and get the school board to ok having a CPR course twice a year. I don't know it the SB will let him but it is up to him to find out. The other he wants to do it record books onto take for a local nursing home. My brother is in a nursing home and one of the complaints we hear from people it they can't read any longer. They simply can't see the small printing. There again. It is up to him to figure out what he is going to do, then get it done.

Let your boys design a logo for the troop. But be sure to have your troop number, city and charter org on the trailer.

I don't know about other councils but in this council you MUST HAVE BALOO to take your Cubs Camping. As Cubs you can only camp on BSA owned property and they will not allow any pack a camping permit unless at least one adult is Baloo Trained.

If you are already in Webs I would take OWL. Let the CM take Baloo. But you also need to have more than one adult Baloo trained. When I first moved into the pack our first camping trip the CC was the only one trained. She waited until Friday morning the day we were leaving to call the Council office and inform them she wasn't going. They would not let up go. I went as soon as possible and got Baloo training and we had 5 other adults take the course.

Question. Is the parent complaining one of the parents that "doesn't have time to go"?

I have worked with scouting for close to 40 years and have found that most of the time the parent doing the most complaining is the parent that wants to do the least.

My Kevin likes to trade patcher. He has Longhorn Council patches he trades. They have a longhorn steer on them.

There are ways of getting alternative requirements. Read at the bottom of the Eagle Rank requirements on page 447 in the book.

We have a scout in our troop with the same disability. He is currently 1st Class but it has been a real struggle to get him there. Our CC is in the process of getting all the paper work together to register his disability so that as he

works on Star, Life and Eagle we can use alternative requirements when absolutly necessary.

He is a great kid. If you ask him a question he can give you the answer but have him write that same question he simply can not. But he works so hard we want to help him any where we can. In school he has a tutor that will ask him test questions and write down his answers.

Know what you mean. When my late husband and I took Kevin 8 years at 4. My own kids are grown. I dug out my son's legos and gave them to Kev. He now has 3 of those 30 gal plastic storage bens full of them. He still will spend hours building.

He stores them in an old quilt box in the containers. He has smaller containers for some of the special ones. I love legos. It makes kid use their brains and imagiation. Best toy you can give kids.

Each night when I get home I light candles and ask God to protect our troops and their families.

I also ask him to place his hand on all my friends and all scouts and give them strength for the next day. Tim and his family is now in that group.

Our SM had a steel rod made that goes through the wheels of the trailer. He has locks on both ends and is about 2" across. We also have a steel pole in the ground that the tongue locks into which is about 12" across and is sunk into the groung about 4'. If they really want to get the trailer will all of this keep them from getting it NO. But it sure will slow them down and hopefully one of the neighbors that lives right next to where we meet will see them. We do have our logo on it.

Had a local troop that lost their trailer and everything in it several months ago. Never saw it again.