AvidSM

A agree with Bob White - you are way too involved. You make no mention of the District Advancement Committee or the benefiting organization's involvement with this scout's project. The project should not have started without the approval of both these parties. I would assume since you approved the project that you had reviewed it and it met all the guidelines, including the need for the scout to demonstrate leadership. The fact that the scout conducted the project without using any volunteers from your troop does not mean that it failed, as you have stated. If the scout had all

How is Wood Badge not a National course? The Scoutmaster of a Wood Badge course has to sign a statement saying he/she will follow the syllabus EXACTLY and not make any "local" changes. I would assume the Scoutmaster for NYLT is also required to follow the course syllabus. I am sure that there is some leeway in the outline, like playing a team builing game of your own choosing or have each patrol conduct a one-hour conservation project. I think there is no harm in keeping the old traditional name, as long as you add the "-NYLT" as per the syllabus and you don't customize it to the p

To me, taking ownership of anything means you care about it. It's like the difference between owning a car and rening one. If you own a car, you take good care of it: you maintain it well and don't abuse it. A rental car is something you don't care as much about or even maintain. So it goes with any scouting position. You have to care about what you do - make sure the program happens the way it should - get the right training so you know what your job is and how to do it right. And, you don't abuse or overstep your authority.

I don't know if it's dictated by National, but a plain or scout related T-shirt policy for Class B's has been in my troop as long as I can remember. It makes sense because some T-shirts can be quite offensive or erotic. If you are ever in New Jersey, just visit the boardwalk in Wildwood and you will see. Even with this policy in place, I have seen some of my boys push the limit with some of their T-shirts they wear. I have seen the beer shirts, like Rolling Rock and Heineken. I have also seen the "tour shirts" for bands like Grateful Dead and Ozzy Ozborne. The words and images

Because I can either sit in front of the TV and watch all the bad that is happening in this world, or I can get out and do something about it.

I can see National's point of view about Tiger Cub leaders in that if you force them to lead themselves, you are creating a new batch of adult leaders, who if they stick with it, will eventually replace the current leaders with the experience. Retaining Tiger Cubs and their leaders should have the highest priority in the district. If they can't get to the training, the training should come to them. Also, what about a "Pack Guide" position - someone with experience who can coach and advise these new Tiger Cub leaders? This position would be like the Troop Guide, who's job is to help the

I have hiked the Billy Yank twice. The second time I took a GPS unit and I can say for sure that it is more that the nine miles as it states in the old trail guide. It's more like twelve. Plan on it taking all day. Both times we had lunch at the crest of Little Roundtop near the 140th NY Regiment Monument. This made sense because it is about the halfway point for the hike. There is a parking lot nearby, so we had a vehicle meet us there with cold water and our lunches.

I've heard a statistic used about Cub Scouting retention - that 75% that started as Tigers are lost by the time they get to Webelos. I don't know what can be done about this. Another statistic, which is my own observation from ten years in a troop is that 40% to 50% of the crossed over Webelos are lost after one year in the program. Some join without knowing what Boy Scouting is all about and find out they don't like the program for a host of reasons - one of which could be they don't like to camp. In some cases the parents are too overprotective and don't trust the leaders to keep th

I agree with all of you so far: #1 - Scouting has an image/branding problem. Most boys do not like the unform, and the new one coming out is not much different. Some of the scouts in my troop have told me outright that their friend do not know that they are scouts - because they do not want them to know. #2 - Scouting is a volunteer organization - mostly parents who are doing their best with the training that they can get. #3 - Scouting does not effectively market itself to its target audience. #1 and #3 are issues for national to solve. Nothing can be done to improv

I agree with evmori in that a SM conference is a chat with a scout. To answer your specific questions: 1. There is really no set standard of what needs to be covered - it's not a "Scoutmaster's Reveiw". Use the conference to touch base with the scout. Find out what he thinks about scouting and the troop. Get to know the boy better - get him to talk about his family, school, church and other activities. Review the needed requirement(s) for his next rank and get him to set goals on what he needs to get there. 2. Ask the questions that will facilitate what needs to be covered

I would guess for the same reason they are changing it again - it probably looked outdated. Boys are more likely to wear the uniform if it is more in line with their current concept of fashion. For example, they don't like shorts if they are cut above the knees. One boy actually told me if they are too short, it is considered "gay".

Scoutingagain stated, "Conditions this spring turned out to be more dangerous than they had encountered in the past and I suspect they were not aware of how bad the conditions were until they got on the river." I would suspect the same thing, and ask if any of us had a canoe trip planned for this weekend, how would we check the condition of the river? Who would we call or what web site would we go on? And where specifically in our training or the Guide to Safe Scouting does it tell us to do this? At what point do we change our plans or call off the trip? The only general guidanc

I see what you mean - the past few years of Cub Scout decreases affected the Boy Scout numbers downstream. The opposite affect will happen if the Cub Scout numbers increase in this and the next few years. Let's hope that happens.

By the time I was awarded my beads, I did not care for them as much as an object, as I cared about the things I accomplished in order to earn them. They became a symbol for what I did and inspired me to continue to do more. That's what is meant by an annual ticket.

Stosh, I see your point in that its hard to teach servant leadership to scouts who don't care. But that is not a good reason to throw your hands up and not teach it at all. I have seen one or two scouts in my own troop who I know don't care about the people they lead. This I know by their actions. They are told to call their patrol members to make sure they know about the next campout - only to find out that they didn't and now your are rushing to get the word out. This is the type of poor leader who does not get reelected. So I would think that a true boy-lead troop can self-corr

As I said, TLT is very dependent on the Scoutmaster. This could be a good or a bad thing. TLT in the hands of a new or untrained Scoutmaster could be taught poorly, like a three-hour-long classroom lecture. If done right, it engages the scouts and allows them to become part of it. For example, in module I - Introduction to Troop Leadership, I start it off with a question posed to the boys, "What parts of the troop organization make it boy-lead?". This gets them thinking and talking right off the bat. I only moderate the discussions that follow and do not lecture or dictate the correc

If the SPL and ASPL are parroting gobbledy gook from TLT training, then it came from the person leading the training and not the course. TLT only has a very thin outline of what you should teach - the majority of the course material is made up by the instructor. I have taught TLT several times, and it works for our troop. I focus the boys on what their job is and how they should be working togehter as a team. They really like the Start, Stop, Continue exercise as it gives them a chance to speak up and be heard - even the quietest boys start talking. They also like the discussion ab

I do the same as Trevorum. I even go so far as to give the new parents a handout which gives them guidelines for parents camping with the troop. I list both good and bad reasons why a parent would want to go. Here is what it says: " Some parents are curious as to what camping with a scout troop is all about and would like observe it for themselves. Others are thinking of becoming an adult leader in the troop and would like to start learning about the program first hand. Some just love to camp and will take any opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and the fellowship of other adults. Th

Yes, most of my outdoor play time was undirected and usupervised. But, if I did anything wrong, my mother knew about it before I got home. Somebody was always watching us... My son aged out before I took over as Scoutmaster three years ago. As to BrotherhoodWWW's comment about those without boys in the program - it's a two edged sword. I can't be accused of playing favorites and care about every boy equally, but I miss not having my son in the troop. I missed him the most at summer camp.

$25 per person for a weekend Council cub scout event may be reasonable, depending on what you are getting. Food costs have gone up and the fee for renting portajohns has also gone up in one year. If you don't think you are getting your money's worth, you don't have to go to events like these. The only problem is that you can't shoot BB guns unless you have someone trained certified to run a range. Popcorn sales are a source of funding for Council - that's why they push it so much. The money that Council gets from these sales does not pay for events like Cub-World, which is self fund

Beans, beans, there good for your heart ...

Being a Roman Catholic myself, I sometimes do things which make me feel guilty about doing them, like not attending mass on Sundays. But, I know that it's something that is not that big of a sin and can be forgiven. If you read the G2SS, and then go do something stupid while scouting, you should at least be thinking to yourself, "gee that was really stupid, I could have hurt someone, I better not do that again!" The dangerous people in scouting are the one's who have no clue if what they are doing is safe or not. If there was a web site where Adult Leaders could post stupid ways

As a scoutmaster, I have seen various degrees of over-involved Dad's in my troop. Some don't interfere with the program, some do. One Dad interfered so much that we had to pull him aside and give him a talking to. By we, I mean me the CC and one of my SA's. I talked to him several times before this to get him to back off, with no effect. After we all talked to him, he backed off, but was in a sore mood. After a while he slowly lightened up and started helping out at the committee level. I have another Dad that goes on every campout his son goes on. This Dad does not interfe

Yes - our Council is going from 6 districts to 4. Two district are to be merged this year. Three will be reorganized into two next year. The reason given is there is not enough money to pay for 6 separate DE's. And, it is hard for the DE's that are covering two districts to attend two roundtables, committee meetings, etc. The fact these reorganized districts will not be getting better service does not matter. The only thing that matters is the money. So, when a scout's parent asks you why they should give to FOS, there's a good reason why.

We sell food also, soda, donuts and coffee on a table with a tin can to collect donations. We also made up a patch and sell that as well. Our roundtable really does not need a lot of funding to operate. Most of what we earn goes towards our sunshine fund. All of our district evnets, Klondike, camporees, merit badge fairs, are self funded.