MattR

​Doh! Thanks for the obvious smack up side the head. I'm not sure what this has to do with playing nice but it does remind me of something. Last week I talked to a scout about a kid he has trouble with in school and we talked about how to deal with him. He mentioned ignoring the stupid stuff and I asked him if he ever spent time trying to create good times with this kid. i.e., don't just wait until something bad happens before interacting with someone but when things aren't bad try and make them better, so when the bad stuff happens it isn't so bad. ​Maybe playing nice

I'm completely missing the reference. I suspect it's not good, so please explain.

KDD, regarding how Jewish prayer is different than Christian, I'm not positive on Christian services but in Jewish services there are a fixed set of prayers to choose from. That way everyone can join together in saying them. Nearly all of them have a melody that goes with them and are often sung. I like it because it becomes a meditative thing for me. Very calming. I googled Jewish Boy Scout Invocation and found a usscouts.org page that contains a prayer called the Hiker's Prayer. It starts with "Master of the Universe, Grant me the ability to be alone; May it be my custom to go outdoors

This is an experiment to see if we can have a civil discussion about things pertaining to religion. The experiment will consist of a normal question that we've probably seen on this forum but there will be standards for what is an acceptable posting that are much more stringent than what is usually tolerated. The moderators will enforce this (and I'm not a moderator). It is my hypothesis that A) The purpose of the 12th point of the Scout Law is to encourage selfless behavior in our youth at a much deeper level than just following the first 11 points, B) that religion and politics don't

OK pack, you sound just like me when a parent complains: "Great, how you gonna help with that!". The only problem is I'm getting up at 4:30am tomorrow and driving till my butt breaks. I will get to this eventually. Any specific problem you'd like people to talk about? dcsimmons, thanks for your ideas. Having different invocations rather than a generic one would be nice in many ways. As far as the boy feeling sorry, it lasted less than a second before I said "don't be sorry, I'm glad you took this on." We then talked for a few minutes. You'll have to trust me on this, but by the time we we

Pack, with Moderator status it could be controlled. To remove the fighting there needs to be some common ground and some ground rules. The real problem is that mixing Reverent with politics or law is a sure recipe for disaster. With the current format, there will always be a fight. While politics and religion do have an ugly intersection there is something quite beautiful that can be found where the politics is removed. Some people get there by praying daily and some get there by quietly sitting on a rock in the woods. My job as SM is to encourage each boy to find his own path. What

I just came back from our COH and the scouts decided to do an opening prayer on their own rather than have a minister from the church. The scout asked everyone to bow their heads and he gave a muddled prayer that he didn't think about and then ended with something about Jesus. After the meeting I came up to him and congratulated him on the rest of the COH and then I talked to him about the prayer and how not everyone bows or follows Christianity. He was extremely sorry and I told him no, this was a learning opportunity and I told him how I do things differently. I also told him about practicin

TAHAWK, within Judaism belief in God is kind of a fuzzy idea. Doing good is much more concrete than a definition of God with which to believe in. So while God is central to the universe and human spirit, God is not really defined anywhere. "To struggle with God" is a very Jewish thing (and the meaning of the word Israel). There might be some debate about atheistic Jews, but certainly not agnostic.

Without a doubt, single parent kids and no parent kids have more problems in my troop. My wife was the softy and I was the hard one (but I bought the dog!). Kids need both. Not sure if divorce is cause or effect. Some of the things I hear the parents/guardians say is amazing. I can work with the boy but sometimes I just feel like slapping the parents up side the head. My parents have been married 64 years, I've been married 27. One brother has been married 35. Another got a divorce but didn't have kids. The common theme in the successful marriages is: plenty of being mad at each other, re

Black pots have nothing to do with black food. I have a few scouts that figure it's easier to burn the food and say they enjoy it rather than cook it right, so I figure you might rather say you like black pots than clean ones. I know, bad joke. As far as dark pots absorbing heat better, I'd think as the soaped pot gets black, it too will absorb heat better. I do remember that our pots never got that clean.

Somebody could, and probably should, write a book on what boy led is and how to get there. Nobody will say their troop is adult led as a complement, so I guess boy led means whatever anybody wants. Here's another definition. Boy led is really a crock. Yes, the adults set boundaries, and we just had a thread on this subject, but doesn't a good SM treat his SPL the way the SPL should treat the PLs, the way the PL should treat the scouts? Doesn't a good leader let those led call the shots in their domain? Let them suffer the consequences and enjoy the rewards? Doesn't the leader look out for

Nope! And I won't put one in my pack either You guys sound like the scouts that are proud to eat burnt food I like clean pots, what can I say. But I suspect a lot of the need was from using the fire before we had coals. That and we used pine. That stuff has a lot of soot.

Good point, DuctTape. When I was younger we cooked over fires and soaped pots. We got very good at making coals and setting up rocks to be just the right height off the heat. And there were no hot spots. We didn't have patrol boxes or stoves or any of those headaches (you bring the pot, you bring the spoon, you bring the soap, we're good).We did cook as a patrol except for making starch-on-a-stick types of things. Right now I'm battling to get patrols to just bring what they need. Few adults see the point. I brought up the idea of cooking over a fire and the boys are interested. One problem we

I used to ride my bike there as a kid. The first troop I joined as a boy, Devon 50, is just a few miles from Valley Forge. They might have a better idea so ask them. Google Devon 50. To this day I don't know why they are called Devon 50 and not just 50, but they were formed in 1927 so that might have something to do with it.

I figured out the importance of respect about a year ago. Since then I've been trying to develop it. At tonight's ASM meeting I was training the adults on respect and part of it was defining the line between adult and scout responsibilities. Most of the ASMs like it but one of them is a problem. The boys flags aren't good enough so let's make them re do the flags. Their patrol names are no good. Their cheers aren't the right length so let's get the SPL to make them change it. I reminded him that the patrol he is most upset with just won all the team based competitions at the camporee last week

I wouldn't say he's delusional. It probably depends on the maturity of the boys. We just went to camporee and had 40 boys with 4 or 5 trained adults and enough other parents to drive. The trained adults ate very well, didn't do much other than keep a watch on the new parents, and had a good time. There were a couple of small issues but nothing a couple of adults couldn't handle. We are by no means close to GBB status and I want to get there, but we are at the point where I trust the PLC to keep things safe. The problem with only having two adults with 50 boys is that if one boy gets sick

Eagledad, when I went to pick up my son from NYLT many years ago I asked one of the course directors what I needed to do to further what my son learned and he didn't know what to say. So I asked him what the number one thing I should work on with the scouts that took the course and he finally said to get everyone in the troop wearing their uniform correctly. That's leadership? Your idea of ticket items and working with the SM is great, but why can't the people that designed this course figure that out?

It sounds like your line, Stosh, is the Scout Oath and Law. I like the part about encouraging scouts to solve leadership problems, especially if they aren't the leader. SM bob, is it that the boys are not allowed to have individuality or they are not allowed to solve problems or even have problems? Society tries to cram in so much that everything has to fit just right to do as much as we do. Consequently there's no room for errors, problems or failure, or more importantly, solving errors, problems or failure. Another aspect of this seems to be that the boys need to know there is a so

Stosh, it sounds like you'd do the same thing I would. My only point was that when push comes to shove, and a scout is not acting in a way you want, whether it be too lazy or un scout like or whatever, you will, as a last resort, remove the scout from his position of responsibility. If the PL is lazy then the SPL has to work with him, but if the SPL doesn't, then you'll work with the SPL, and if the SPL doesn't care then you'll remove the SPL. That means he has to do as you say and he does report to you. Now, there's a big difference between removing a leader because he's lazy and removin

Sounds good. So you're talking to the SPL and the SPL handles this as he sees fit. The assumption is that the SPL "gets it" "If the SPL needs some guidance." What if he needs more than guidance? What if just flat out doesn't care? If he's the one that started the idea of going to the mall and is adamant about it. Maybe he just wants to push your buttons. Further, the rest of the troop goes along with it just to see what happens. Then will you replace the SPL? (and I assume this is after trying repeatedly to get him understand what's going on.) If you would, and the boy knows it, t

Stosh and Barry, I'm not sure I understand the differences between the two of you on this. Let's say a PL tells everyone at the PLC that he's going to take his patrol on a hike. But he gets lazy, blows it off, and at the last moment scraps the hike and plays video games instead. How would each of you handle this? If the PLC decides that the outdoors is just a bore and they'd rather take the troop to the mall to hang out and check out the girls, even though the 11 year olds aren't interested, how do you handle this? If a boy in a patrol is just not advancing, you talk to the PL

To me, there seems to be a big gap between the BSA's potential and where it is now. Some units are doing great and a lot are blundering along. For those that are doing great they probably sell themselves irrespective of whatever national does. Giving the others what they need would help a lot. Win locally and everyone can ignore what the global wing nuts think or say. I've always thought scouting is this strange mix of things that just works. It's character and adventure and leadership and fun. And it's not just sports or STEM or band. It's well rounded where a lot of other things are foc

What you're trying to do is the right thing. A lot of the training assumes you already have a boy led/patrol method troop. But it's a lot harder to transform a troop. A couple of years ago the light bulb went off with me and it's been a very slow trial and error approach for me. It would be really nice if national put together info on how to do this. Some lessons I've learned: Get the best scouts as patrol leaders. Too often it's, nah, I don't want to do it, it's your turn. We have a nomination process, like OA, to even be eligible to be PL. Also, one ASPL is more than enough. More tha

Big. Huge. Red. Flags. But at the same time I'd like to buy you a beer because you obviously care about the boys. Some questions I'd ask first are what do the families think of this? A problem that needs solving? They don't care? They like the CC and husband? Next, other than the boys, what's keeping you there? Where do you meet? What is it about this CO that you like? If the CO doesn't matter and the boys are all that matter, and everyone agrees with this then here is one option, I'm sure there are more. Find someone that would be a new CC. Between the two of you, find a new CO. Create a

Maybe we should just change Reverent to Humble. Here's a nice quote I like: Humility -- true humility -- is one of the most expansive and life-enhancing of all virtues. It does not mean undervaluing yourself. It means valuing other people. It signals a certain openness to life's grandeur and the willingness to be surprised, uplifted, by goodness wherever one finds it.... Humility, then, is more than just a virtue: it is a form of perception, a language in which the "I" is silent so that I can hear the "Thou", the unspoken call beneath human speech, the Divine whisper within all that moves, the