MattR

Hmmm, no. It's not an eagle project in my opinion. The principal provided the drawings and you're providing the labor. Painting a cart is not an eagle project. It may be a nice service project. What I'd do if I were the scoutmaster: The principal asks for a vague idea. In this case a cart. Since the principal has already given an exact plan it's not too much to ask the scout to design a drawer. The scout figures out the details and asks a lot of questions to make something useful. All the details including figuring out how to make drawings. If he doesn't want to learn a sw tool that's oka

The thing I've always liked about venturing is that advancement is not such a big deal. I honestly think it's truer to scouting then boy scouts. Adventure and fun. The problem I've seen is that the parents don't really know about it and so there's little motivation for it. Also, the scouts that I've seen aren't really prepared to lead when they get there. The girls have little experience in the outdoors. The result is a very anemic program. I'm sure there are some good units but for the most part it's a bunch of kids without much motivation. I'd be more interested in working with crews bu

You're asking what has the same thrill and impact as a flaming arrow without the flame or the arrow (sounds like a Five Easy Pieces quote: "A chicken salad sandwich. no butter, no mayo, no lettuce, hold the chicken"). How about replace the point on the arrow with a dull point? Or make the entire lake a shooting range and get the RSO or whatever is needed for archery (and place a target at the other end of the lake). Nothing will beat the flame but even a glow stick would be fun to watch. As for arrows falling into the lake get a canoe and go find them. The scouts could have fun with that.

That's a big brush. In my own small way, in my own small corner of the BSA universe I'm trying to make a difference. I'm the new district camping chair. I put the kabosh on a change the last guy did as nobody ever asked the SMs what they wanted. I'm pushing hard to get scout input for what the camporees should include. At klondike last weekend I had said the scouts want more patrol vs patrol competition and I was told that was a bad idea as it's hard to match patrols for equal sizes, ages, abilities. So rather than fight it I said let's have an experiment. In the morning we'll do the old model

No offense taken. In fact I limit my knots to one row on one shirt that I only wear indoors. Enough to start a conversation if someone is interested.

I have a James E West knot and I have no idea who donated the money for it. I put it on my uniform as a way to say thank you to the donor. So please don't assume it's someone that wants to buy recognition.

I think this whole thread illustrates why National is interested in membership numbers. The number of scouts is going down and the overhead is not. The result is economic stress and thus everything mentioned in this thread. The long term solution is getting more kids having fun camping with their friends. This is one of those "It's the economy, stupid" messages that should be part of National's letter head. "It's kids having fun, stupid." I don't think the solution is going to come from focusing on what is preventing kids from having fun. It's going to come from focusing on ensuring

Time for a new topic. I had to pick something up from an old scouter today. I was lamenting the drop in participation and said I was reading some old books from Hillcourt that were just dripping with enthusiasm and adventure. So he said he took Woodbadge with Hillcourt being the SM. That started a discussion. I asked him about a syllabus and he told me it was pretty simple. After months of preparation by the staff he showed up the first night and told everyone there would be no flip charts and all the teaching would be outdoors (chuck all the planning). Each patrol had to teach anything t

... and the French hate the Germans ... We were in Prague and saw a fun show. It was for kids. It was mostly a mime but in the beginning they wanted to tell everyone to turn off their cell phones. Rather than just say it they acted it out. The English version was a take off on a California surfer dude. The French version was a take off on someone that was full of himself. The German version was someone that was very stiff and formal, stay within the lines. There were a bunch of German kids there and they loved it all.

I see this as well. That's why I started working on teamwork and leadership with just the younger scouts. They are more willing to try something new. It has started to bubble up to a few of the older scouts, so that's good news. I know, it's completely backwards. Getting feedback is my problem. I asked scouts for input on what they'd like. I told them everything was on the table. I asked adults what they thought the scouts would like. I got no feedback. So I wrote up some new events and sent them out and asked for feedback. The adults were no help so I took it to the OA meeting and ask

Yes, scouting is supposed to be a challenge, and an adventure. That's how it was sold in the old days. That's how it was 10 years ago. It was the key to motivating the scouts. Make it a challenge, make it fun, train them for the challenge, let them be. Unfortunately things seem to be changing. There seems to be fewer scouts interested in a challenge, at least in my neck of the woods. We used to have 2 high adventure trips a year plus summer camp and all of them were always full. Now it's a struggle to fill one trip a year and summer camp is down. I'm the new district camping chair and this wee

Any organization that does research is going to be curious if you have a PhD. They're going to be so curious that putting it as a title will get them to read past your name. Any organization that teaches is going to be curious as to your education. Anyone that deals with regulatory or any required licensing will also want to know. So, scientists, teachers, doctors, lawyers, civil engineers, .... My son had a problem with selling himself. He also thought it was lame. Fortunately for him he had an experience where he saw first hand what that did to his prospects. He had two interviews. The

I think there's still an opportunity to start a much better discussion than whether or not you'll become an eagle scout. If you were an SPL then talk about some skills you developed in that roll. Teamwork, leadership, making things happen, solving problems. That's why someone might hire you, so talk about that. If someone isn't really sure about what eagle means then it might be better to talk about what you've done in words they understand.

And the moral of the story: Have a buddy. It was a good video.

I read a few of those posts and I was confused. How can anyone really get upset about the fact that the BSA is not letting girls into scouts a year earlier than planned? You do podcasts and change.org things for that? I would not want her dad in my troop. I've seen this before. It's never enough until you just roll over and have no standards at all. My child is perfect and who are you to stand in their way? We had a parent/child version of this and it was a nightmare. Now it's a nightmare for the council. They finally made the kid a lone scout so he and dad would quit ruining troops. This has

Sounds odd to me. What exactly is an Eagle Scout Candidate? Is it like being a Parent Candidate? (i.e., pregnant). But back on point, I've never heard the phrase before, so the guy looking at the resume likely hasn't either. Then it's just drawing their attention away from what's important. If you want to add something then add that you're a Boy Scout. Talk about leadership you've done and responsibility you've held. That would be more concrete than the mythical candidate.

Related story: My council is changing FOS to some other acronym. Not only that but next year each unit will be sent a bill for $200/scout. They can donate the money or sell popcorn or any of the other council fundraising. So last night at our district council meeting we were talking about girls and I asked what the GS council charges each youth. They looked at me funny so I explained to them that there are all these great plans for adding girls but do they know about this charge? If money is an issue and they have to raise $200 per scout to stay in the BSA but could sign up for probably much l

There are several board games you can turn into a human form. Battleship, Foosball, and Risk are what we've done. So, for Battlehip hang a tarp to split the "sea", scouts sit in chairs on their side of the sea, put a bunch of balls in there as bombs, and the scouts toss them over the tarp where, if they hit a scout or his chair, he's out. The scouts must stay in their chairs. There's a lot of guessing where the scouts are on the other side of the tarp. The general idea is to make it so everyone moves as often as they can and at the same time. It's no fun to wait. We've also made fun orien

That is a really great idea

They must teach something about movies in the UK. When my scouts made movies they were mostly, well, plotless, pointless, and not even slapstick (which I would have really liked). Anyway, if they start writing REDRUM on the mirror, camp far away.

How often do we get into discussions that boil down to what is going on inside someone's head when they do something? Cross sticks could be hazing or a way to have some innocent fun. Dancing for lost items can be taken as fun or really embarrassing. Is that what's going on here? How about a different view of this. Suppose a NA tribe decides to use a likeness of Jesus at an event. This could easily go two ways, depending on intent. If it were respectful I'm not sure many Christians would mind. If it were to illustrate peace and love and respect of all people then my guess is most people wo

But a lot of leadership is interpersonal skills. Either way, I strongly agree with what you say. This is also a difficult idea to get across to parents. Many see the only problems the scouts need to deal with are learning skills and dealing with things other than people, whereas the real rub, and fun, is dealing with people.

How about mark Latin Scot's thread the winner and close this thread. A lot of upset people for no reason. Another thread might be dumb ways councils raise money but it should be kept to real situations and not unverified news.

I'll take below zero in a tent over snoring in a cabin any night of the year. One way or the other I live in an area where we get cold and so we get the gear to stay warm. We went through a phase where scouts slept in cabins a lot and we just said enough, cabins are for special trips. Sleeping in a cabin is dessert and too much dessert is bad for you. The other side of this is camping in weather where there's little chance of below freezing is also special. Reliably, that's about 3 months a year. So this has little to do with advancement. We don't give credit for the tent camping req