MattR

I think it's the start of a great project. However, I don't know the details. When we see a project that seems light on leadership (when someone says routine labor) we start asking for details. We also encourage the scout to go back to the recipient of the project and ask for more. Not just more work but how to make it better. In the case of the lego kits, let's say two kids are playing with their kit right next to each other. The kits will get all mixed up. What's a solution to that problem? Also, he has the instructions, but does he have electronic versions for when they get destroyed? Are t

I'm confused. Why doesn't the SM just put a stop to it and tell these people they're no longer invited?

@Vanhall21, welcome. Do you by any chance mean the cub master and/or committee chair? Or the previous den leader and his wife became cub master and committee chair? The term den leader doesn't make sense in this context. If these people are not the cub master/committee chair then that's who you should talk to about these people being a problem. If these people are the cub master and committee chair then that's a much messier situation. If you could clarify that would help us understand. BTW, your husband is great for taking on being a den leader.

@Momleader, I suspect you can safely ignore this. Here's another DE story just to amuse you. I'm the district camping chair. We made reservations for our winter campout and have, since the 70's, always looked for the coldest, snowiest place we could find. Yesterday our DE said our reservation was cancelled and we had to do it at the council camp, where it has never been. I made a few phone calls today. Turns out the council is broke, has not paid last year's bill, and is just trying to stiff these people, the neighboring council. We're going to ignore the DE and have all troops write checks to

I think the fitness standard should be for one to do their best. And the only way to do that is to do something one enjoys. For some reason I do not like anything with reps. I would much rather go for a bike ride or a hike. For those that like doing reps, I'm jealous.

Thank you, @qwazse. Actually, I've been lurking for some time and just decided to help out.

@TEP, welcome to the forum. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that your son should have or get what's called a blue card (and it's blue!) that has a record of what your son did complete at summer camp. When he gives that to the next counselor that counselor will continue marking requirements as done. He should have received one from summer camp but many camps don't fill these out. In that case he'll need to go to his scoutmaster to get it. And while he's there he can ask about finding the next counselor. The intent of the merit badges is that the scout does the bulk of finding

That always sucks when you can't go out happy. However, it's much better to go out discouraged rather than burning bridges and absolutely angry. Enjoy the break. You'll find other things to help with.

I've used that exact same phrase. I've even told my SPL it was his decision on whether I drove a scout home. Nobody took me up on it but everyone knew who made the decisions after that. But when I was a new SM I wouldn't have done that. It took some time to be comfortable being the disciplinarian. This is a hard situation to deal with and a rude one for a new SM. I understand what you're saying, asking about where this problem came from, but for a new SM I can also see it being read wrong. Unfortunately, I've also noticed that setting the bar to some scouts has the added caveat "when adul

It seems to me you're making some assumptions. It could also be that this is a first incident of this magnitude. The PLC is just 12-13 years old. It could be that the previous SM was the only one that would be the disciplinarian. It certainly was when I was SM. Nobody else wanted to be the bad guy. So when I left guess what happened. "The new guy won't mind."

Welcome to the forum @Bside. Sorry it has to be under such circumstances. I would not have the SPL talk in front of the troop. In fact, I'm not sure I'd start with a list of punishments. The real issue is whether the scouts understand they did something (many things) wrong and not just that they got caught. For any scout that just thinks he got caught I'd fire him. But I would give him a chance to figure that out. I'd start with sitting down with all the scouts that were there except for the one scout that took the brunt of the bad character. I'd start by reviewing exactly what happe

I grew up with an external frame pack. Bought an internal when they first came out. Bought a second one years later. Finally went back to an external pack. I like the external packs better. The internal frame packs are mostly a duffel bag with nice straps. The result, looking down, is a round cross section. An external pack is more rectangular. On the whole the center of mass is closer to my back and much less tiresome to carry all day. They're also easier to pack. There are more pockets so everything has it's place. A bear canister they can take up the entire inside of an internal pack. I ca

I have a shirt with no position patch. If people have to look at my uniform to see what I do then they can just as easily ask me. Usually I'm right there.

I took WB. It was neither great nor a complete waste. More like a disappointment after all the hype. In hindsight I'd say WB is about how to implement a vision. If you know where you want to be then WB provides tools to get there. That's fine but it's not really specific to scouting. Plenty of people have said they've seen this material elsewhere. The two weekend training I'd rather see is the vision of running a pack, troop, or crew, and how to solve the typical problems you run into. If the trainers were seeing how their training was helping units then they'd be much less likely to

Nope. It's my understanding that expiration doesn't mean unhealthy for anything the food bank will accept.

Welcome to the forum, @danw.

Google "Hebrew National hot dog commercial" The punch line is "We answer to a higher authority" than the FDA

I'm a push mower parent. Not nearly as loud or obnoxious as a lawnmower parent and I can also cut the lawn at 7am on a Sunday and not bother the neighbors.

@scotteg83, you have an opportunity to start fresh and not fight old baggage and old/wrong perceptions. This has nothing to do with girls. So first of all, this could be a lot of fun. I think the challenge is coming up with a small, tight, easily understood list of guidelines that everyone, scouts and adults, will respect. That will make the communication and training of all these new scouts and adults much simpler. Ideas these guidelines might cover, in no particular order: The separation of what the adults and scouts are responsible for. What the adults should and should not do. Same fo

You could easily use the forum titled "Girl Scouting"

Rather amusing that the one form of communication that's a huge no-no, is making a phone call (it's one-one). And yet we all managed to deal with those as kids.

@Zebra132, not sure if grumpy is the right word, but I'm certainly old. There are lots of discussions on this forum about what an Eagle scout should be. It's mostly about character. There are also lots of discussions about not adding requirements. Unfortunately, these two ideas create a lot of tension because what we think an eagle scout should be has little to do with the requirements. The requirements are very concrete whereas character is not. Courteous and kind and putting the needs of others is very subjective whereas 20 nights camping only brings up conflict when the idea of sleeping in

Here's another view of @Eagledad's observation of failure. All of the YPT reporting rules are dependent on what the offender did. I think you also have to look at how the target of that offense took it. Back to the girl being picked on by the cub, if the girl was upset but an adult noticed it soon enough to talk to her and validate her concerns that what the boy said was wrong, then this doesn't need to escalate to involving the council. The girl learns some kids should be ignored. Hopefully the boy learns that he's wrong, or at least that's his last warning. Problems should be opportunities t

Hi @shortridge. I was a scoutmaster for 12 years. The real question here, if I may be so bold, is will your wife be okay with all the hours? Scoutmaster conferences, eagle projects, packing for said trips, going to blue and golds, training, just spending time figuring out how to crack some nut. Those are some of the things you've forgotten. I'm sure there are more. Some of this has to do with the size of your troop as well as how many adults will actually help. We estimated 1 hour per month per scout in the troop is what all of the adults put in together. How much of that will people

Absolutely, @RennyTompson! You're still going to have to talk to someone about this and I think you're really worried about this. It's going to be fine. We all make mistakes. Life is not so much about not having problems but how you deal with those problems. You're trying hard to make this right. That's a great way to deal with the problem.