MattR

A lot of people don't realize this but if you read the original Hebrew, when Moses received the tablets that God had written the commandments on, there were 11. After Moses broke and then rewrote the commandments he dropped one. First of all, this illustrates that man wrote the 10 commandments and not God. Also, the one that was dropped was "Thou shalt not argue about religion, it just pisseth me off when you get so angry about what should be about love."

I agree with with the quote @Thunderbird found. Anything can scale up to the point of requiring leadership. Planting 6 flowers is easy. Planting 600 requires leadership. I suppose it's difficult to measure leadership. At least one way is to ask what would happen if the leader wasn't there. In this case a Webelos scout could have decided the flag pole needed flowers, asked mom to buy a pack of 6, and planted them. So what did the scout in your example provide? All he did was make a task list that was completely unnecessary. Another way of looking at a project is asking how much pre

It was fun! We ended up using two 8' 2x3's along with two 4' round fence poles (about 2" diameter) we found at camp. Turns out lashing rectangular lumber together is really hard so we suggested making a pointy ladder instead. 2 scouts pull and one rides. All of the 2x3's had nice rounded ends by the end of the day. A lot of scouts also learned the difference between tight lashings and not. Some learned that a diagonal lashing without fraps is close to worthless. Only one scout that was riding got run over by his own pullers (the lashes fell apart). We ran 4 patrols at a time and there wer

Welcome @dciesla. Sounds interesting and different from what we do. Thank you very much for the glossary.

We have someone new so I hope it changes but previously half of each is announcements and half is something that the council thinks is important but doesn't really help the units put on a better program. Examples are how to do ypt online, lots of versions of our new replacement for FOS, how to do internet advancement using the latest and greatest. All good things for the committees but nothing for the cub and scout masters. I should add that people have tried before to have discussions on skills but nobody comes in and shows us something new, it's just the regulars signing to the choir.

Not in my district, so no. My guess is most round tables are not so good. I've seen some good people struggle with it. Just having a book, like the field book but covering a lot more than just outdoor skills, might really help. Figure out how to make this more consistent would really help a lot.

What you really want is drinkable alcohol. Denatured alcohol is just natural alcohol, or ethyl alcohol, with poison added. So, Everclear at 190 proof. The last 5% is just water. If you spill it in your pack just open it up and let it dry. The big problem is buying it. First, it's expensive. Second, I'm not sure it's scout appropriate. I did use it on a backpacking trip once. I did not tell the scouts what it was.

I certainly don't know how to tie a sheep bend. Is it like a hog bend (related to a hog tie). Maybe you're thinking of sheet bend? Anyway, I really like the idea of "give them enough to get started" but a critical part is to include information on where to find more. Get them through their first meeting and if they're excited then show them where to easily find a bit more. I'm sorry, but the current handbooks that I've seen don't really help. While Hillcourt has some really great ideas (fun with a purpose really could be the basis of that first idea), expecting a new parent to dig throug

Well, the forum has changed, scouting has changed, but the boys are still interested in knives, fire, food, gross stuff.... All is good.

We do mostly outdoor meetings in the summer. It's light enough we can do most anything. Those meetings are the most fun. So, from my viewpoint not counting that time is really odd.

Unfortunately, the Polaris system has not been applied to that yet.

I'm not sure I like the words "redundant or dumb" but there are just a lot of words in these policies. No slight to the lawyers among us but when things start getting into that much detail it sounds like there's just no trust between the SM and the scouts. Much of it is already in the GTA so maybe that's what DuctTape means by redundant. Also, so much of it just begs for more complex answers. It says there will be a uniform inspection at least once a month. What if there isn't? So what if there is? If a scout shows up in blue jeans then what? Is this really a policy or is it what the troop usu

Well, a 2x4 is really 1.5 x 3.5 and split is more like 1.5 x 1.7. Anyway, 2x3's are $2.50 apiece. I'll try those. Run a planer down each corner to get rid of the splinters. But you know what this means? I need to make one and jump up and down on it. That's a video I won't take because, well, it could go viral.

Welcome, @Pack07. Plain white is just fine. We found someone that made us decals. They're still on their after 15 years.

Sounds like a good scoutmaster minute. Thanks. Oh, and it's one more thing we can blame on the British

This is only one segment of the race. But I'm still glad I'm going old school

Welcome to the forum, @TazDevil22. I'm really sorry this happened to you, but we'll try to help. There's a missing word here that could change the meaning a lot. Who did the SPL ask to calm down? I just think there has to be more going on than this. If I saw an ASM shouting at someone and this were the first time it happened I wouldn't ask someone to step down. Are there other reasons why people might want you as an ASM anymore? If you don't know, go ask the SM. There are lots of ways to appeal what happens to a scout but in all honesty what happens to an ASM is re

We're going to have a travois segment of a Coulter's run at a camporee. Has anyone done anything like this before? Hints? Here are my plans. If I have time I will go find some small lodge pole pines for poles. If not, I'm going to rip some 2x4s. There will be two long poles, a cross piece for the load at the bottom and a cross piece at the top for pushing against. The patrol lashes this together with provided rope. A scout hops onto the load pole and holds onto the long poles while the rest of the patrol picks up the push pole and pushes the scout the requisite 10 or 20 yards. I

Sounds to me the men are making somewhat better decisions. Or just maybe they are drawn to degrees that lead to better pay.

I've told the parents the same thing I've told the scouts. I've asked questions as to why they think they didn't get elected. I try and keep personality issues out of it. Are they participating? Are they cheerful, friendly, and helpful? Are there other leadership options they can take on to get more experience? Yes, I am avoiding the obvious question they have of why don't I just make a decree. If they push for that they get the boiler plate we're modeling our community. Then comes the talk about failure is just a bad attitude. I'm just happy when they can make a decision. But for so

You need to go back to school, fred. There are 3 bullet points. To everyone else, all I can say is college was good for me, and I'm not even a girl. I think it's fair to say that college is like a lot of things, you get out of it what you put into it. (Eagle, anyone?) A lot of students have always looked at school as something to put up with. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised to see that they don't get much out of it. Then there are the people that find something they really enjoy learning about and get a lot out of college. Doesn't it always get back to one's attitude? That said, so

Welcome to the forum, @BillG. If you have the backstory you may as well tell all of us, as there is some doubt about whether this will work.

Welcome to the forum, @2dGenSM. It sounds like a difficult situation. Sounds like you put your heart into it and there's not much support. To be honest, if you were the longest running SM in some time at 2 1/2 years then I have a hunch something else is missing. I mean, why do SMs get burned out so quickly? Is this why you're moving on to another troop?

Just as soon as trout taste bad.

I tried something similar a very long time ago and the results were not good. At best, there was one or two scouts that could lead before and the rest were struggling. Now the rest don't need to struggle anymore. In other words, it doesn't encourage scouts to lead. I see the problem as the scouts do not have the correct leadership skills, because they've never really led, and therefore making it fun for them will not teach them to lead. The specific leadership skill that I'm thinking of is being prepared, i.e., making a plan. That just takes time, grit, and focus. I don't even care if the