MattR

4 hours ago, Calion said:

I see. So none of the experienced adults here have any idea how this can be done successfully, but we expect a 14-year-old to figure out how to do it on his own.

Well, yes. The thing is this whole issue about patrol cheer is one of enthusiasm. One doesn’t teach enthusiasm by explaining it. One does enthusiasm. If your SPL is introverted, unsure of his or herself, and never seen enthusiasm in scouts before then nothing you talk about will change anything.

My suggestion is ask the SPL to watch you while you walk up to the troop and ask them what time it is ... which eventually leads to a really loud song. Once the SPL is comfortable doing that then ask him how each patrol can do their cheer instead of a song. I have no idea, do each patrol in turn or all at once. It's supposed to be loud and silly.

My impression is that patrol yells were the original way for a PL to get his patrol to form up. A patrol cheer is completely different and used when the patrol is already together.

3 hours ago, cmd said:

I haven't tried it yet, but the TWH User Guide says you can: 

 

E-Mail Relay Addresses

You don't have to be logged on to your TroopWebHost site to send a message to members of your troop.

E-mail Relay Addresses can be used from any e-mail client to send messages to all active members of the troop, or to the members of any dynamic subgroup.

This feature can only be used by members of your troop, and only from e-mail accounts that are currently listed on their membership record. Moreover, the sender's e-mail account must pass DKIM authentication to allow the message to be relayed. These restrictions are essential to preventing these addresses from being used by spammers.

Also, please note that any email sent via email relay must contain a subject line. Messages sent with a blank subject line will fail.

There are two types of e-mail relays:

You can send a message to all active members of your troop by sending to an address that looks like this: Troop999YourCity@twh.email, in which Troop999YourCity is replaced by your site name. This capability is configured on the E-Mail Settings page.

You can send a message to the members of a dynamic subgroup using an address that looks like this: AAA.Troop999YourCity@twh.email, in which "AAA" is an Email Relay Address Prefix you've assigned to a dynamic subgroup. This capability is turned off by default, but can be configured on the Dynamic Subgroups page.

Do not distribute these e-mail relay addresses to people who are not members of your troop, as they will not work for anyone whose e-mail address is not associated with a troop member. So, for example, do not give these addresses to your BSA district office or to your charter organization, as they will not work for them.

Messages send via E-Mail Relay Addresses are not logged by TroopWebHost and will not be displayed in your In Box or in your My Sent E-Mail page.

Well, that's half of what I'd prefer. I want to use our domain name and not twh.email.

But, thanks for the pointer.

We went to Troopwebhost and I wanted to set up email aliases. It seems like we can only send out email through the website. So we can't send email to, say, plc@ourdomain.org. That's annoying. Or am I missing something?

Hmm. So that's why our email doesn't work. We're in the same boat. SOAR is likely no more.

We use our website for a few things:

1. Calendar with registration
2. Pictures and invites to visit us
3. email aliases (all, parents, plc, etc)
4. Announcements (both push and pull)

I think we could do 1 and 2 fairly easily with a somewhat static website. 3 and 4 need some better tools. Honestly, I don't want to mess with it even though I could.

Just remember that the cub master reports to the committee chair

This sounds like a bad working relationship. My guess is the CM has no idea you're burned out. The only reason you're sticking around is for the scouts. That's really good of you, up until it explodes.

My suggestion, for the continued good of the scouts and your sanity, is prepare yourself to educate the CM on what he's doing to you and any future CC that you can't find. Be honest, firm, and kind. Leave your anger at the door. Remember the scouts. Remember that he's likely burned out as well. Talk about ways to get more adults to help out.

And then after all of that, follow @InquisitiveScouter's exit plan.

Good luck.

Big tents are like big boats. The two best days are the day you bought it and the day you sold it.

You might want to consider when you'll be needing the larger tent. In the summer a dining fly and a smaller tent makes a lot more sense. When the weather is not so good you'll only be camping for a weekend, so I'd suggest practicing good stuff management and getting cozy in a smaller tent. And a 6 man tent is not that small.

Thank you for joining the forum, @Jadalexm.

Welcome to the forum, @Brannigan. I hope you have a lot of fun with your kids in scouts.

On 3/17/2023 at 8:45 AM, InquisitiveScouter said:

For "regular" events, our planning horizon is 90 days.  Prior to the 90-day clock starting, the PLC has to designate a Youth Planner for the event. 

On 3/17/2023 at 11:19 AM, InquisitiveScouter said:

I give it about eight months after I depart to fail... unless a like-minded dedicated Scouter comes along to shepherd the process and hold feet to the fire.

Sounds very familiar. I came back to help the plc plan, as events were waiting to the very last minute to have a plan. Sometimes that resulted in events getting dropped. Wait too long and campsites can't be had. Wait too long and there's no enthusiasm and nobody signs up.

So, the importance of having a calendar with enough detail far enough out can't be stressed enough. We just had a committee meeting and all sorts of problems stem from not having a plan with enough detail that people will look forward to doing it.

Bringing this back to the original post, our cutoff used to be the meeting before the campout because we never canceled events when we had a good calendar. Recently, the plan has been too vague and we did cancel a campout because only one scout had signed up prior to the meeting. This alone really hurt me but anyway a couple of parents complained and there was a big discussion about when the deadline should be. My view is to work on the calendar process and get it back to what it was.

On 3/16/2023 at 3:36 PM, JoeBob said:

Don't stop moving.

I see kids on powered toys and I think have fun, but some day you'll pay. Better to find a fun way to exercise.  But I keep my mouth shut.

Welcome to the forum, @skop.

"politics in scouting" is a really loaded term. I can imagine everything from drama to actual politics.

My suggestion for mending relationships is to first remove the "politics" from the vocabulary. Also ask them what you did that offended them. Listen and apologize. Even if it's nothing you did. How they clear their conscience is their business so don't expect an apology from them.

Any bets on how long before @SSScout asks for a sub forum? 😀

Enough. This was a discussion about recognizing adults.

4 hours ago, scoutldr said:

The use of Mentor Pins is a personal decision by the Eagle candidate.  One pin is included in the presentation kit, for him/her to do what they want, so it needs to be a special and personal choice.  Indeed, the entire ECOH ceremony is at the discretion of the Eagle and their family.

The scouts can hand out more than one. It's just a nice way to thank adults. I find the mentor pins more meaningful than the knots.

On 3/7/2023 at 3:44 PM, Eagledad said:

The word "fun" is being over used in this discussion implying that it is the main reason for scouts staying with the program, even to Eagle.

You seem to not like that word. How about enjoy instead? I enjoy learning new skills as well as working with the scouts. And when it comes to scouts, of any age, if there's joy then there's also fun. If the scouts are not having some related fun then I suspect there is no joy and it's become a grind, very much like what happens to adults.

This all gets really contorted as to what the difference is between fun and joy. I've read things that suggest a difference but then I looked at the definitions and they refer to each other. I suspect fun is what children, and adults acting childish, do while joy is what adults strive for. That explains why fun can't be the center of a program that's trying to raise young adults. I mean, ethical decision making is what adults do- that can't be fun.

And yet, think about ethical decision making that doesn't include joy. That's where I see burned out volunteers and fed up, angry volunteers. This is not a scouter thing. It's our society. The number of volunteers has plummeted in recent years. Maybe it's because, when people were young, they never learned to have fun, or enjoy, helping others. Maybe they saw it as a slog that they had to do rather then something they could enjoy. Happiness today comes from an app.

So, yes, I think fun is important as a way to finding joy. That doesn't at all mean all meetings can be ice-cream and Gaga ball. It means that all the skills scouts learn should be done in a fun environment, so they learn how to enjoy doing all the things scouts should do. That's why I think fun should be a method.

Also, Barry, I know you find joy in scouting when you sign many of your posts with:

On 3/7/2023 at 12:14 PM, Eagledad said:

I love this scouting stuff

This might help you learn the melody.

https://www.whosampled.com/cover/170658/Cornelis-Vreeswijk-Brev-Från-Kolonien-Allan-Sherman-Hello-Muddah,-Hello-Fadduh-(A-Letter-From-Camp)/

Whenever I list out the scout methods I add two: fun and service. Fun is an odd idea. Everyone knows it when they see it but it sure is hard to define. It's also dependent on each person. An eight year old's idea of fun is a lot different from a 12 or 16 year old. Fun is also something that changes. Gaga ball is fun, for awhile. Just like zip lines. One thing missing from the BSA is that playing is one of the best ways to learn something. The first thing I want to do when I get a new tool is to play with it. Another challenge the BSA has is understanding the how hard it is to keep a program fun. Advancement all on its own is not fun. It takes imagination. It also takes discipline to let the scouts find their own fun where it arises, like in a snow bank or at a stream. Again, when you see fun, it's obvious, but often we walk right by.

To me, this is fundamental to what scouting offers. Learn how to find and have fun, within the confines of the oath and law, and you'll do well.

Sounds like a MB win to me.

Another idea, at least one I could use, is a fireplace rake for separating coals from ash in a wood stove. It's a pole attached to a double sided rake. One side is a flat blade to push everything to the back of the stove and the other is like a regular rake to pull the coals forward out of the ash. So, a plate for one side and pieces of rebar welded to the plate to make the rake side, along with a pole sticking out perpendicular to that.

No need for them in Texas but maybe Etsy.

Do a search on welding scrap metal art. Gotta be artistic but there are some great things.

Welcome to the forum @QBearHugs.

Fun outdoors

Welcome to the forum, @TwoColdCamper.