maddoro

I am already forgetting about the money. That one persopn who my son asked for the letter sent the letter already 4 times. First to the old SM's old adress. Then to the new adress. Then to the new SM's old adress and then to his new address. People switched and moved without upating the troop directory. My son could ask her again and say what? I need the letter for the fifth time?

My point really is that this whole scout behavior does not reflect scouting to me. These people should not be running a troop and if I give in they will think they are a great troop and get away with this unhonorable behavior.

To come back to my original thread:

I contacted the advancement chair from the old troop and he advised me to contact councilabout the eagle letters. I sent the SM an email explaining the situation again and told him I would have to involve council. After a few days we received 3 from the two letters with a message the other ones were lost. I also received a very nasty email from the SM about I was threatening him with council, I should rethink my bad reaction, he even threatend to talk bad about my son to council. That reaction really scared me. The next day I received an email from the commitee chair with an appology that the letters were lost and he would write a letter of appology for my son to resend for new letters of recommendation. We never received that promised letter.

I am so disappointed in scouts. I have not even told my son about this situation becauser I want him to keep the scout spirit since this should not be typical scout behavior. Also we have never received our last finacial statements from the troop for over paid dues etc. I just hopethat this is not typical for a troop or SM reacton. I am very disappointed.

Thanks so much for input, kwc57. That is how I think also.

firstpusk,

My son received all the other things back, advancemnts, blue cards, from the advancement chair person. ll that is takencare of. I know the SM still has those letters beause he told me. e is not trained. He is a former Eagle scout.

Yarworski,

My son is not a football captain or in drama club. It is just that he has to be there at every practice to even play a game. He also has to be a confirmation to be confirmed. I know he has to be there at scouts to earn his Eagle. There was just no way to be at 3 places at the same time. So we found a troop which is more understanding about time committment nd counts church activities as part of scouts. I believe my son should have the right and opportunity to switch troops even if he is so close to his eagle or especially because he is so close to his eagle. As you see the SM is not a very fit person and the Eagle mentor was never at the meeting. My son could be done with his project if the troop would have been more helpful. There was just no support fo Life scouts. I have a younger son in the troop who did not have that kind of problem and advancment worked very smooth.

The SM should just send the paperwork where it belongs and send me the satement of my son's account. I don't understand why he wants to hold on to it. Just to be difficult.

I have contacted every importan person in the troop to help out and the committee chair person nor advancement chair contacted me back. So, I don't know what is going on. I will have my son call council to see if all his other paperork is there and then have him find out about those letters and go from there.

Thanks, k9gold.

I really would like the letters to be sent to the appropriate place and I also want my financial statement. I have worked hard in that troop and hwat is being done there now just not fit what I belive scouting is. Those letter are about my son, his character and may be very personel. I do not want this information being kept by someone who does not follow the scout law. This all seems to a lie to me if it does not go the way it should go. We are moving on but I want to have a clear pass behind me and my son.

Firstpusk,

Thanks for the input. We had 3 SM in 2 years. When I asked the last SM for the referenc letters, he told me : "I am done with this, I have other boys to care about." He never asked what my son was doing other than scouts and when couldn't come to a meeting because he was helping at the church the SM was upset. My son had to be at the meetings or would not get his scout spirit. I told the SM finally that I believe church activities are a part of scouting, which he did not agree with. I am just sad that a simple thing was handle so dramatically and now seems to get personally. What does that teach my son?

We will contact the commissioner (who is that ad where do I find him/her) and go from there.

Thanks again.

PS.: We don't want to go back to that troop. The new troop is much better, more supportive to our needs, more scoutslike.

I contacted the committee chair person many, many times nd he never replied. This is going on 2 months now. My son wants to finish his Eagle and the new troop is very, very understanding about other time committments, which the first troop was not. We just want those letter back to hand them in where they belong. The SM has them since May and never turned them in to the council. I will try to contact someone on a different level. Thanks.

The only thing my son has to do is the Eagle project and Board of Review. The letters were never sent on to the council. The SM still has them. He told me that he lost 2 of them. There were five. We could have stayed with the Troop, but scheduling with sports and church events made it very difficult. That troop required the boys to be at 75% of the troop meetings and 50% of the outings.With our schdule we could not fulfill the requirements.

The finacial statement is the statements about quarterly dues, monthly camp outs that you pay for, money from fundraising that goes into the boy's account. Statements are given out every quarter and when boys switch or leave. I want to have the statement because the troop owes me a refund for 2 months due I had already paid, but then had cancelled the membership in an orderly manner before the next quarter, which I had paid for in advance.

We switched troops about 2 months ago because of scheduling conflicts. My oldest son has not received his Eagle letters of recommendation back from his SM and was also told that the SM only had 3 instead of the 5 my son had turned in/were sent. We also have not received our financial statement. Like I said, this is now over 2 months ago. I called, emailed, called again and the only thing I received back was a nasty email from the SM, he does not have time for THIS, he has OTHER boys to take care of.

What should I do to get the paper work? I am getting very frustrated.

Thanks for the input about venture. Who approves the Eagle project in a Venture Crew? Is it the same procedure as in scouts? Is there a committee? Do they have a mentor to help with the Eagle process? How about scout sprit? Our troop was always so big on that, 75% of meeting and 50% of outings HAD to be attended to get the scout spirit.

Thanks.

I am confused.

So, does a boy in a Venture group need to be registered also in a boy scout troop to get his Eagle scout?

My son has Life rank and has all the requiremnets done except the eagle project. How does it work with the board of review?

Thanks eisely.

That was the answer I was hoping for. The old troop had told me that they have to make a decision and will then send me the paperwork. Why should I have the new scout master call the old SM? This is what I was told by the old troop:"For your information, council policy is that transfers are tracked and

examined carefully as it indicates a potential problem with a scout or a

troop. All new troop leadership is required to contact former troop

leadership and exchange information about the scout/s." To me it sounds very negatively. The only reason why we are leaving is that we have conflicts on the night the troop meets for the next 3 years.Both of my sons are good citizens, were always involved in scouts. So, I don't know.

Scoutperson,

I think there is a huge difference if a scout is calling his girl friend or if a boy calls his parents. It also depends if that scout is going on his first camping outing or not. My older son called during his first camp also, but not during the second one. Every boy is different, so I believe to forbot to call at all is not the right thing to do. My son would have been miserable not calling at all for a whole week. He was fine after we talked, he wanted to tell me about all the stuff he did, the merit badges and so on. If our SM would have told my son NO CALLS before camp, I would have not let him go. Children need to have that window open to talk to the parents if there is noone else available. My son went with super troop, noone of his troop went.

Congrats to your wife for speaking up.

Is is common that eagle advisors or mentors say to boy scouts " I am going to be your devil's advocate"? My son is Life and trying to get his eagle and during two different situations he was told the sentence above by two different people. He had just come back from a church camp for confirmation and was shocked. I don't like it much either. Is it some kind of a scout thing?

My boys have to transfer to a different troop within the metro area for various reasons. How is a transfer usually handled? I was told by our troop to write a letter (not email) to the SM and commity chair person, explaining the reason for leaving. Then it has to be approved by those two people and then we can switch, if approved.

Is this usually handled like this? I don't think I have to give them a reason at all especially not in writing. As long as the know the troop number we are transferring to, that should be enough or not?

My 11 year old son just joined Boy scouts and went to camp for his first time this summer. It was not only his first camp, it was also his first time away from home. We gave him a calling card and told him he could call when ever needed. He was very homesick ( and dehydrated)on the first day there, but the camp staff was supportive. He called a lot of times during his stay, after the calling card was empty he called collect.

Some boys need the verbal contact with their family when they are away. I don't think that it would have made a difference for the boy in your troop if he would not have called home, it might have even been worst without calling. Some boys can handle it better than others being away from home. Everyone is different. I believe, if they want to call they should call because sometimes a call helps getting over being homesick, it does not always make it worst.