AvidSM

At COH's only. We have one every 3 months. Can't give them out immediately, because we don't have them. We have to submit advancment paperwork in order to get badges at Council. Also, if a MB is needed for advancement, we let the boy advance once the MB is earned (signed blue card in hand), without him recieving the physical badge.

Like Bill, I just came back from our Annual Planning Conference, but it was a weekend campout instead of one day. Both my SPL and ASPL were fresh out of NYLT full of scout spirt and fresh ideas. Can 14 year olds put together a great program - you bet! Boy led means the boys make all the decisions about troop activities, events, meetings, etc. They set all troop rules and policies. They direct the actions of all the scouts in the troop. They are in charge of discipline.

Bob White's list makes sense to me. I would like to add: 21. Holds onto it's older scouts by letting them lead and challeging them with high adventure.

If "do my best" does not mean "try", then what does it mean? When you pick up a rifle and aim it at a target, you are going to "do your best" to hit the bull's eye. You give it a "try". Buy saying the oath, a scout is aiming at a set of values. Failure to do so goes against his honor. You WILL shoot the gun, but you TRY to hit the bull's eye. I position the slide at the second button. I looks neater that way. I also wear a gray or blue colored tee - a clean one

I agree that the national jamboree could be scaled down without losing any benefits to the scouts. But the BSA would lose the benefit of showcasing scouting once every four years. It's free advertising at the national level! I don't think a regional jamboree would reach that level of press. New Jersey had a jamboree in 1998 and I only know about it because I was there along with 10,000 other people. It may have gotten noticed locally, but nothing on the national level. So, the real question is whether the funds, time and material spent on the national jamboree is worth the value of t

When the president takes his oath of office, he is swearing on the good book that he will uphold the constitution of the United States and so on. When a boy says the scout oath he is pledging on his honor to do his best to do his duty. He is not saying I WILL do a thing, he is saying I WILL TRY to do a thing. One is a commitment, the other is an aspiration. When they gave the scout shirt a collar, they should have designed it to the neckerchief can go under it without tucking it in in the back. Also, where do you position the slide? It doesn't look right if you put it up past the se

I think the BSA oath seems more like a set of values to aspire towards than a commitment. It's not an oath of office, like the president takes. "On my honor, I will do my best ...", vice, "I do solemly swear ..." Is a UK scout not a scout until they take the oath? On neckerchiefs - the importance of any object depends soley on the meaning the majority places on that object. It's like the tassles students wear at graduation or the Wood Badge beads. The more the neckerchief means or indicates something, the more likely the scout will wear it. Besides that, I find they don't fit on the

Keep the programs separate. Each is tailored to it's own gender. Combining them would result in balanced program not optimized for either. Or worse, bent towards one of the genders, as some people claim public schools are. A lot of the old ways of telling gender are gone. One of my scouts has hair almost down to his you-know-what. Pink shoes? I've seen some boys wearing sun glasses that I swear were a woman's brand - large with white rims embedded with rhinestones!

Having been on staff as a sribe, I can say that participants don't need laptops. I had one to prepare the Gilwell Gazette, which is the daily paper/newsletter for the course. As a partrol, participants are encouraged to submit articles for the gazette, but they can be hand written. Eagles SOAR!

152! Wow, that's a lot of knots. I can't say how many I know, but I do enjoy learning and tying them. When I'm bored in camp, I'll get a peice of cord and fiddle around with a few. I have a couple of books on knots and the one thing I have noticed is there can be serveral names for the same knot (the good knot books will list the different names). And, there are different ways to tie the same knot - one handed, for example. I enjoy learning about trick/quick knots. Some of my boys came back from Philmont with a few. Not very useful, but very entertaining. I have found t

Dale - Welcome to the forum. Whether your troop is big or small, you can get a lot of useful tips from most of the posts. I would try growing your troop by holding a recruitment drive. I typically hold one in the fall. Think of some incentives for the scouts who bring a friend to a troop meeting and make up a flier announcing the month-long drive. Since recuritment in now a requirement, having a drive also helps boys advance. Having a reliable ASM as your right-hand-man would relieve some of your workload as Scoutmaster. It looks like you are headed in the right direction wit

OGE, some of my district members have unit responsibilities and some don't. I'm one that does. But I don't use anyone in my unit on my camporee staff when I run one - my ASMs cover for me. Just looking at it from a fiscal perspective, I am still curious as to how unit leaders who have never run a district camporee do it. Who makes up the event budget, which must be approved by council, and how do they even know how to formulate one? Who deals with council in getting advance checks issued for materials and services? I would hope the units that are running these camporee aren't spend

I am very suprised to hear from this and another thread how troops are assigned to run a district event like a camporee. Having chaired several of these events myself, I would have to agree with scoutldr in that there is a lot of work to be done. I just can't see how the unit leaders in my district would be able to run the kind of camporees we have and still have time for their own program. t158sm, you mention that the event costs about $7. This sounds very low for the kind of district event we run. Are we talking about the same thing when we say "camporee"? $7 would not even come cl

There seems to be multiple issues occuring in this thread. I would like to address the issue of a unit hosting a district camporee. Unit leaders do not have the experience, training or time to run a district event. It is wrong for a district to place the burdon on one troop like that. How in the world does a unit make up a event budget and request checks from council to pay for campree materials and services? Unit leaders need to focus on their unit's program and not on the district's. Also, scheduling conflicts between the district and council should not be handled by a unit.

A Totem Chit should only be issued by the Scoutmaster an no one else. He/She knows best if the scout is qualified to use a knife while camping and if there are other issues involved, as with the scout in ASM915's story. Some summer camps have programs that teach the proper way to handle a knife. The camp my troop attends issues a Totem Chit to graduates of this program, but they go into the mail box and not directly to the scout. Let the your camp staff know if you want it done this way. Most trading posts I've been to sell knifes and ask to see the Totem Chit before selling one

Having done a few ESMCs, I have these few words of advice: Get to know the scout a little better. Find out where he's headed in life and give him some practical advice. Talk to him about his scouting career and what were his best and worst times. Try to perpare him for the EBOR. Ask some of the questions he'll be asked there. Let him know that the Eagle board is not looking for a right or wrong answer, but that they are looking for the reasoning behind it. Try to build up the boy's confidence so he's not so nervous at the EBOR. Let him know that the main reason behin

How can a SM not know the results of an election. Doesn't he sign the election sheet? Every election my troop has had, I had to sign the sheet with the names up for election and the results. I have some issues with the elections rules in that some boys who are not popular, but good scouts, always get passed up. One very good scout in my troop almost quit because he was not elected. I can relate to a dad whose son was passed up. It took my son till he was 16 - an he was an Eagle scout at the time! The fact that a SM did not tell a scout he got passed up is just wrong. Bad news

Here's another I just remembered from when I was on staff. Someone had printed very small stickers of their totem - about the size of the sticker on a banana. They were stiking them on everyone's backs.

Some of the staff at my course had these very tiny chothes pins. They would pin them on the folds of your clothing when you weren't looking - especially the back of the shirt. It got to the point were we had to check each other for them, like they were ticks.

First off, the SM does not "empower" the SPL. That would imply that the SM is in control and is giving some of that control over to the SPL. Any SM who thinks this way does not fully understand the idea of a boy run troop and will never benifit from having youth leaders and a PLC that really runs the troop and runs it well. Secondly, the SM is not a member of the PLC. If there is a PLC meeting where he is not present, he should not afterwards overturn the decisions made there. The youth leaders of the PLC need to learn the consequences of their decisions, good or bad. It's the SM's j

I agree with sst3rd in that the annual program plan kind of works itself out in terms of the dates. You have to get the boys focused on WHAT they want to do and then figure out the WHERE. For example, if the boys want to try out rock climbing, then the location has to have a suitable climbing terrain. In my experience, I have found that boys do better at planning if you give them options. They don't work well with a blank slate. I see the SM's job as working the options with the boys until they come up with a consensus. Some times the boys and especially the older boys will come up w

Excellent information from Longhaul. I would put it this way: Not being prepared for cold weather camping = NOT FUN and No matter how prepared you are, just not liking the cold = NOT FUN

As many as are needed. And, make sure each one has a job, as mentioned by others. I came up with seven key areas of focus for ASMs: Overall Program, New Scout patrols, High Adventure, Regular scouts patrols, Special activities, Service projects and Camping planning. The bigger the troop, the more it would need separate people to focus on these key areas. A good Scoutmaster should always be able to ask for help when needed.

First, I say no heaters in tents. They dangerous and if you have the right gear, unneccessary. Also, a sleeping bag's insulation works both ways, keeping the heat in the tent from reaching your body. Coldest I've slept in a tent was -10 degrees F. I used a 40 degree mummy bag in a 30 degree mummy bag. Polypro wicking layer only, a knit cap over my eyes and nose and a fleese neck gaiter over my mouth. If I don't have some frabric covering my mouth, I get freezer burn on the back roof of my mouth. Does anyone else experience this? As for what you should lay on top of when co

I've had boys at a scoutmaster's conference recite the oath and law cold and then flub them in the BOR. Afterwards the committee memeber would tell me what happend and I would say, "but he just did it OK for me!" The difference is that boys are more comfortable with me as their scoutmaster and get nervous at the BOR. Committee members should keep this in mind when they are reviewing a boy's progress through the ranks. As others have said, the BOR as a check on how the adult and youth leaders are doing their job in teaching the advancement skills. If enough committee members get the f