MattR

I just submitted a request to Boys Life to start that up again. I told them I knew some people that could write the columns. We'll see!

Just curious, how old is she?

If it was a diesel it would have run. Jet fuel is pretty close to diesel. But just in case you think it's a good idea, it isn't. I think they are. They can count engine revolutions, number of cold starts, etc. I also have a car with synthetic oil and I change the oil every 10k miles.

Okay, they have a strong brand, with some adults. What about brand recognition with kids? That's the issue.

I found, and bought, a 1941 edition of the Handbook for Patrol Leaders for $5. It's in great shape. What blew me away was that it's almost 600 pages long. I started reading it and it's good. Bill's writing style is infectious. Someone should republish it. I know, it's not I&P, but that's where I am today.

@naranza65, is there a reason why your son is struggling in school? I struggled in middle school. To say the least, it sucked. Is the problem your child is having because he is signed up for five activities and just doesn't have the time or is it because he's dyslexic, or ADD, or has Asperger's, or has other kids teasing him, or any of a bunch of reasons why a kid might hate school. i.e., does he need more time or does he need something else. If all he needs is time then sure, some time off from scouts might be good. If time alone isn't going to help then consider figuring out what the other i

No, warp speed is just a plot device to solve the light-speed speed limit. It's been around so long that it no longer is sci-fi. When I compare real sci-fi about ships that are alive and that have biological type defenses that can remotely start messing with your thoughts and drive you crazy, I see that Star Wars is just a Western in space. Good guys, bad guys, fighting, and cute women wearing cinnamon rolls over their ears.

Everyone's leaning the same way. Finally, we agree! Let's celebrate! Besides, what's the worst that can happen (to the young PL scenario, not us celebrating)? Nobody will get hurt. Some scouts might get upset. That's a useful problem that can help them all learn. Don't take that opportunity away from them. It just means the adults should pay attention. What's the best that can happen? Stupid question, I know. I think the real question is what do the adults need to do to make her successful?

Certainly safety is the big issue. Another closely related situation is when scouts don't follow the scout law. Stosh mentioned this. As DavidCO mentions, there are scouts with very different personalities that most scouts don't have experience working with. A patrol gets frustrated with a scout that's ADD and doesn't want to help wash dishes. They might need some help navigating that. The other issue for me has always been lack of motivation. If a patrol wants to do something, anything, that's within the confines of scout appropriate, I'd have a hard time stepping in (outside o

6 pages of jedi talk? you're all bored, have some chocolate ice cream and boost your dopamine. It's a movie. Disney paid some $4B for the franchise and they're trying to make some new money from an old plot. That's as deep as the plot gets. Based on the last film, I'd say the new one is mostly the same.

I think it's all about trust. Do you trust not only the PL but the rest of the patrol? If all the scouts in the patrol have good teamwork skills and all but the PL have gone on these campouts without adults before (I'm so jealous) then that's a big part of trust. The other part is making sure the whole patrol is prepared. What might go wrong and how will they handle it? Sit down and talk to them about it and trust your judgement. Be honest and tell them what your concern is. Then ask them what they think. If they're humble in their response they'll be humble when dealing with any problems

Seen in a silo:

I wouldn't dump on FB. One thing it has that scouter.com will never have is a way to connect to new people. Start reading posts of some group on FB and suddenly your friends will see it as well. That could get more people involved. I was thinking it might be a better way to get parents of cub scout aged kids to see what it's about. Just get all the parents in a pack to like a FB group for the pack and then the friends of those parents would start seeing posts of cubs having fun. It could be worth a lot more than handing out fliers at the start of the school year.

@WisconsinMomma, the fact that nobody can answer your question satisfactorily - where you can say "aha! That'll work!" - and are just giving you little things to bite off some edges, is likely proof that this whole concept of boy led is going to die. I mean, if nobody can come up with a simple explanation of why boy led should be supported then it just doesn't exist. Wouldn't it be nice to just say "here, read this book" and it would be a compelling description. It could be a story or an explanation or whatever might connect. But such a book doesn't exist. Nor does some training material nor

What do I think of the process? Hmmm, that's an open question. First of all, let's not forget methods vs aims or goals. So I'm fine with scouts that that don't want to complete Eagle. Anyway, the process is long and confusing. There are thousands of lines of requirements and they have little to do with the aims. Eagle is not proof that the aims of scouting have been met. This is not understood and is the source of so much grief. This is not to say that I have no interest in scouts earning Eagle. I'm interested in helping scouts that are developing character in the process of earning Eagle

I don't understand. Why should the troops provide any opportunity? Isn't it up to the scouts to contact the counselors? When I was a scout in the 70's I remember maybe getting one or two MBs at summer camp (that lasted 2 weeks) and no MBUs. I'm okay with the idea of starting a MB, or even just finding out what the MB is about. But it should just be an introduction to the MB. Our district is doing something interesting this year. First of all, they talked to the counselors from last year and any counselor that said they had a bunch of scouts that were there only because they h

If done right I'd think the scouts might be fascinated. To think that someone wanted to put a scout in a death camp is so far from normal. To think that Polish scouts were targeted by the Gestapo because they were involved in the resistance. Bravery. The story of escaping and conning the guards. The fact that Piechowski was close to the age of your scouts will make it more believable. History is full of fascinating stories and schools do a great job of making them boring. Besides, WWII was an important event and this might be the only chance the scouts might hear anything about it. I'd

Nice mix of events.

@He-who-must-not-be-named, I noticed you can also just click on more than one quote and it will add them to the end of your reply window. Like so...

Unless you're an Olympic gymnastics coach, or college football coach, or a swimming coach.

Me thinks Ian was being a bit cheeky (and that would be the British definition, not the French definition).

And a rough back of the envelope calculation of the error bounds on a sample size of 60,000 in a population of 75 million children will give you an accuracy within one percent. i.e., there's a 99% probability that the answer is within 1%. A survey sample size of 60,000 people is really large. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program....

You might not want to do the French "kissy thing" in Sweden. Do the French kissy thing in France, the Belgian kissy thing in Belgium, .... BTW, a handshake between men in France is fine. Oh, and don't use your lips when doing the kissy thing. It's more cheeky than kissy. All in all, how to say hello is different everywhere and there are subtle rules. I took Japanese in college and we spent an entire class talking about how far to bow. It depends on the people in the room and their relationships, and even the Japanese don't always know. All in all, a great source of fun stories to tell your fri

What about those that prefer to kiss or hug?

Just tell them that cute Spanish, Italian, and French speaking girls prefer to kiss. Some kids also think punctuation, writing, and reading is hopelessly out of date as well. But getting back to the OP, I'm wondering if this issue of touching has an element of trust that isn't being brought up. I have no problem hanging a scout upside down, if I know the scout and know he'd likely enjoy the experience. I'd never just walk into some unit's ceremony and grab a kid that I didn't know and turn him upside down. Yes, a few of them would freak out and I'm not interested in that. It takes time t