MattR

Comparing a German Gymnasium program (a college track program) to a US high school is comparing apples and oranges. The Gymnasium picks the students that are allowed whereas a US high school takes everyone, irrespective of ability or disability. Consequently you get back what you put into the US schools. For kids that want a good education and are motivated, they can take IB and AP classes and their education is excellent (and will easily get you into European universities). Kids in the US can also mix and match subjects as kids move from teacher to teacher whereas everywhere else teachers mov

Kudu, I have a question for you. How do service projects fit in with the outdoor program? Since you'd like the focus of scouting to be outdoor skills (as would I), is there a need for service projects? My view is that the outdoors develops confidence and doing service develops compassion, two very useful characteristics.

My plc has a meeting after every campout, so roughly once a month. A couple of years ago it dawned on me that while the committee was meeting for an hour or two once a month, the plc was getting everything done in 20 minutes a month. So I decided the scouts weren't doing much leading. They certainly weren't making many decisions.

We print out something like 2000 flyers with pre-addressed envelopes stapled to them. The first weekend we distribute them. The second weekend we pick up any trees we find. The money shows up over the next two months as people remember to mail them in. Some people call when we miss their tree and we have to pick a few up the next day.

We just ask for a donation. Some are cheap and some are very generous. The donation makes it a lot easier as we just make two sweeps through. First to hand out a flier and the second to pick up any tree we find.

Forget popcorn, half of that is going to the folks that don't want to help you. We never reach our goal with popcorn. Cubbies are much cuter. Not sure where you live BD, but if the leaves fall off about this time of year, buy some rakes and some tarps and have kids offer to rake leaves. $10-$15/hour/scout is reasonable. People hate raking leaves. Could be a great team building activity for patrols. Big kids rake, little kids stuff bags. We do the Christmas tree pickup and ask for donations. One week we pass out a lot of addressed envelopes with a paper explaining what we're doing and

Pros: The calendar sounds like fun. Very active. Must be a lot better than what you had. Having a lot of adults volunteering can be a good thing. Having older scouts teach the skills is good. The comment about the SM restricting the adults. Cons: SM picking patrols (I used to do that, now the scouts handle it). Not allowing 300' because of safety concerns (i.e., do the adults trust the scouts? Train, trust, lead?) Suspecting the generals surround the monthly plc and coach (are the scouts deciding anything at the PLC?) The meeting of bringing in 3 patrol boxes for 40 scouts sounds boring (

We seem to be talking about two different issues; what the kids want, and what the parents want. As for the kids, they haven't changed over the years. They still want fun, challenge, and respect from adults. They still like telling stories of dealing with tough situations. For the boys we need to improve the program. Boy-led, 300' and the outdoors is all part of it. What the parents want is different. Maybe they are afraid of the outdoors, or more likely, just don't understand it. At the same time, I'm not sure parents views have changed that much on what they want for their kids. Responsi

Paul, looks like a council summer camp thing. I like it, though. EagleDad, I don't doubt you one bit that there are a lot of adults that are clueless and just want to do right by their kids. That was me, although I had a lot of camping experience. But why is it top shelf with 50% versus bottom shelf with 100%? Why not 50% on the top shelf and 50% on the bottom? The problem is there are not enough adults with good training. The problem is not that there are adults that don't want to be successful. I agree there are a lot of adults that have limited time, but when there's somebody that really

I agree with the idea that character and adventure go hand in hand. Adventure in the outdoors leads to problems which leads to learning how to deal with those problems. Match that with good character and you have a man. Either one by itself leads to either a church youth group or an REI minor league. The character part of scouting is strong. The part that's lacking is where the scout makes decisions and takes responsibility for himself and others. It's getting harder to do that with helicopter parents, rules from above that limit a lot of fun, and kids that honestly expect to be told exac

It doesn't have to be 100%. I require, for a scout to be in a patrol, he go to roughly half the events. It works well and the scouts have plenty of time for other activities. I no longer need to mix patrols unless it's extreme and only one scout from a patrol shows up (it happened once this past year) and the scouts no longer even mention combining patrols. We have 6-8 in each patrol.

One patrol this past weekend only had 2 scouts show up out of 6 and they had a blast. They recruited a few other scouts from other patrols to run the relay and they got first place at the camporee. Sure they picked all the fast kids but they had a problem and they solved it. I tried making larger patrols once before and it didn't really help, especially if everyone showed up at a campout. It's hard to cook for 10 - 13 people on one of those little stoves.

I'd still let the scouts camp, and one of them just might be a new patrol leader.

I don't have aged based patrols. I require either the PL or APL at every patrol activity (camping is one of them). For non leadership positions I require scouts to go on half the campouts and half the service projects if they want to be in a patrol. Exceptions are only made for acts of God. Homework is not an act of God. Band practice is not. Divorced parents are. Scouts have time to be in sports and other activities, they just need to think ahead a bit. We've had these expectations for about a year now and attendance is up and attrition is no different. More kids are having fun. Teamwork is m

Careful what you ask for JoeBob You'd also get three mother-in-laws, or nine.

The Scout Law hasn't changed since 1911. The Scout Oath and Law could be considered the constitution of the BSA. Of the world's countries that have constitutions only Australia (1900), Denmark (1849), Luxembourg (1868), Norway (1814), and the United States (1787) have constitutions that are older (the U.K. and Canada don't have constitutions). I'd say leave the Scout Law alone, it's passed the test of time.

I would tend to believe NJCubScouter. The new code seems to be using AJAX, is asynchronous, and my guess is there are timing issues. My guess is these would show up more often with multiple people writing comments at the same time, so something about TL, which is interesting to us, would have a greater chance of having problems. That said, I wish TL luck. Although they don't like my tribe, they'll help some kids and that's a good thing. They will also hopefully pull some of the heat off the BSA and that will help everyone. I don't get the LDS thing at all. Then again, it ain't my tribe. I g

OK, guys, it's time to stop beating the poor kid. Paracord, you obviously have a lot of enthusiasm. That's a great asset to any troop. That said, your idea of awards for being able to do things that are already covered by ranks sounds a bit redundant, and I think that's what people are complaining about. However, your trying to improve enthusiasm to do a good job is admirable. Is there another way to reward that? How about having a knot tying competition and giving out something for the top three? I had a knot tying competition and to even the field I had the older scouts do some of the k

Sounds like the problem is with the CC. Punishing a scout to send a message to the parents is rather draconian.

Scout Spirit is an attitude and the SMART (acronym, not shouting) requirements for Eagle won't create it. What does create it is the scoutmaster, and it's very subjective. That said, this is the crux of scouting, this is what parents want for their kids. Better training for scoutmasters is the only thing I can think of that would help.

If you like knots, para chord can be used for real cheap woggles. You need something less than 4'. http://www.troop54.com/knots/TurksHeadKnot/TurksHeadKnot.htm. The only challenge is figuring out the right diameter to start with so it ends up right. Sometimes you have to try a few times. If you like knots it's not a problem, if you don't, well, stick with pvc. Something else that is very nice is, while making the turks head, between coming out and going back into the knot, is drop down a loop and tie an overhand knot in the loop. It looks just like the Good Turn Daily knot hanging off the

Okay M&M, it's time for one of you to take the high road and step back from the keyboard. This conversation is not changing anyone's mind and brings nothing new to the table. Both of you have a strong desire to convince the other of something very important to you and, to be honest, neither of you will. What's left is the appearance that neither of you is willing to not have the last word. How do you teach your scouts to deal with another kid that won't stop arguing? Some times it's better to just walk away and know in your heart that you are right. Anyway, please stop, before I start

Strictly professional I've been asking around for the volunteer type and this seems to have struck a chord.

Colorado. Of course I need help, at least that's what my wife always tells me. Since private messages don't work yet, send email to jsi6hgcw3oj6ceg@jetable.org. Then we can use regular email. That address is only good until 9:40PM Tuesday.

I currently have an exchange student from Germany staying with us. Yes, we do have guardianship. I'd ask the boy if he's interested in advancement. Most likely he has no idea what it's about and really is just interested in how Americans have fun and what camping is. He's here to learn our culture, not get Eagle. After one campout he may be done with it or he may really enjoy it. Give him a handbook, sign stuff off so he can be part of a patrol, and don't worry about it. He'll be gone before summer camp and will never get close to Eagle. Explain to him what the PoA means to us and ask him what