MattR

I used to take them away. Now I agree with a phone is a tool, don't abuse it. Abuse is using your phone as a bubble. In other words, if a scout is so wrapped up in a game or music or whatever that he's not participating with the scouts around him then there's a problem. Since an entire patrol can't really see one screen, and we never camp where there's cell coverage anyway, this usually means put the phone away. If a scout wants to sit in his tent and listen to music while his buddy sleeps, I don't mind. Pictures are encouraged. If someone is listening to music to the point that someone else c

I'm not surprised at all. I've seen scouts do incredibly dumb things thinking they'd get away with it. Case in point: there's an old thread about a scout smoking marijuana at summer camp (yeah, that was my scout). So, if a scout thinks he can get away with something and is that naive then he's likely to just ask anyone for a recommendation without thinking it through very well. You guys are thinking like adults, not a 16 year old.

#squirrel!

swilliams, I have a slightly different view on this. The most important achievement a young scout needs to make it to Eagle is friendship. Scouts with friends are having fun. Scouts having fun stick around. There's plenty of time for rank advancement if a scout sticks around. An 11 year old is still young enough that it's easy to make friends. Somewhere around 13-14 peer pressure gets intense and not only does it start getting harder to make friends but they're even more critical. That's kids start pulling away from mom and dad. A 14 year old that doesn't have friends in a troop will likel

Sanders, that's really great that you want to do a good job. As others have said, the SPL handbook is a good place to start. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that you are responsible for the calendar. That's a big part of what the PLC meetings are about. You shouldn't just decide what it is but help the PLC decide. I'd suggest you talk to your SM about what servant leadership means. With that in mind, focus on qwazse's question of what do you want to do? What does the rest of the PLC want to do? What would make your troop a better troop? More fun? New skills? More just hanging out w

A cub scout, a boy scout, and a venture scout. You should have lots of questions. Welcome.

Yeah, I see your point. It would add to the BOR if the SM wanted to write it, but if it's required then it might not add anything positive, so pushing it is a mistake.

Hi @CA Scout Mom. You seem to be implying that larger troops have fewer opportunities for leadership. That certainly isn't the case in my troop and probably not most. I currently have about 45 scouts and have been as high as 70. As the troop grows the number of patrols grow and the number of PORs grow. It is more closely related to the number of patrols. There are also PORs outside of the troop, such as Den Chiefs. The 4-6% rate of Eagles is some mythical number as far as I can tell. It might include any boy that has ever been in any scout program. So the tiger cub that decided he was not inte

I don't know about calling it wrong. I can see redundant, not to mention extra work for the SM And yet every time I sign off I think about a scouts pros and cons. I've already thought about the basics of a letter of recommendation. Those insights would always be positive (or else the SM would not have signed the app) so it could help the BOR get to know the scout. But then again, our EBORs are fairly easy going, compared to the extremes I've heard about here.

Mashmaster, I can relate. I'm stepping down as SM and I told my committee I will stick around but the one thing I refuse to do anymore is sign off on anything. If a scout wants to learn a skill then I'll bend over backwards to help him out (or more likely his patrol). When it comes time to getting it signed off, that's for someone else. No eagle projects, no PORs, no rank requirements. Maybe MBs. After having talked to a lot of parents it's clear there's a wide range of views on advancement from "make them earn it" to "my son needs this now." I think part of the solution is to do better tr

I think you can, after a bit of work. I just sat in on an EBOR and the scout asked if he could read the recommendations. The answer was no, but if he really wanted to read them then he just had to ask the people that wrote them to send him a copy. Once he has it, he can do with it as he pleases, including giving it to anyone.

I marked @@SSF's reply as the best, and an honorable mention to @@The Latin Scot. Essentially, they are relatively new here and I'm more interested in what they have to say. For all of you that have 1000's of posts, asking you about this forum is like asking an alcoholic about the benefits of wine - no new information to be gained. I'd certainly like to see more new people here. I really like scouts. I think it's more important to encourage people to join us than hash out every detail. It seems like there are not many people posting the majority of the posts. Furthermore, the bulk of the

I got back from a great campout this weekend. The scouts came up with a mash up of hide and seek with a first aid competition - once you find the hidden scout you had to render first aid. Then we brought out half a dozen axes of various sizes and the scouts had a bunch of fun splitting a lot of wood. With that wood there was a fire building competition and then everyone cooked over the resulting fires. All this just so we could pack up quickly and get back for any Easter activities. At the parking lot when we got back there was a mom of a scout that had joined just a few months ago that a

I'm empathetic to Sentinel. There's no doubt that because I'm now the old codger people are more willing to listen to what I have to say. Every new leader has to go through some of this but I could see it being worse for someone young. Some parent telling Sentinel that since he doesn't have kids he doesn't know what he's talking about is likely. But, as Skip says, the old codger being replaced can do a lot to smooth things out. When I stepped up I had to fight every battle on my own. When I'm replaced I'm going to let everyone know that the new guy only wants to hear 4 words from anyone -

Maybe I'm just naive, but I just don't see getting sued over sexual abuse as the only reason to get sued. You're taking someone's child on a campout. All sorts of things can go wrong. Cooking bacon, climbing on rocks, throwing rocks, campfires, weather, bears, alligators, the list goes on. Not only that but we're encouraging them to do things on their own. Now, how many scouts have died in the past 10 years? How many have been sexually molested? How many scouters have sued, been sent to jail, or for some other reason been caught up in the legal system over these tragedies? Is the probabili

Skip, the comment section at the bottom of any media website is a place for people to vent. I stay away from them like the plague. I assume you have something like 2 deep leadership. It's possible people don't understand it. More likely is that it's an excuse. Sure there's a risk. Life is a risk. I also think the "I don't want to fill out paperwork" excuse is pure nonsense. I have a background check done for the BSA and also my CO. It takes all of 5 minutes to fill out the paperwork. Not having time is certainly an issue here. My guess is that what you're seeing in your unit is more co

If nobody knows then nobody should complain that it's in the wrong place. Honestly, your son received an award so encourage him to enjoy it. If someone can prove he's wearing it incorrectly then fix it. Either way, congratulations.

I think two very different but important problems are being discussed here. @@Eagledad mentions that there are a lot of units that have no problem-solving skills and so they just tear themselves apart. @@Col. Flagg is saying that a better description of the program is needed. Both of these points are very valid. Both of these skills are needed in any challenging environment; how to solve problems and an understanding of the underlying domain. Granted, if you have a troop with a bunch of engineers that solve problems all day professionally then the WB approach is not such a big gain. But th

Hi @@just a scout mom. Welcome to the forum. Since you've already paid for the course, you did the first part and you're not sure you want to go back, and you think the win all you can game was really obnoxious, we share a lot in common. That was my feeling as well after having gone to the first half. BTW, that game was supposed to make you upset. Either you watched in disgust or you got caught red handed acting in a rather unscout like manner. Despite what everyone else has said (and I do agree with quite a bit of it) there were some benefits for me. The syllabus was disappointing but

Very good points by all, regarding the lack of patrol method. But ... go back and read the bottom line of the last bunch of posts (other than Skip's) It's kind of like a dysfunctional patrol. Everyone knows why it won't work but nobody seems to believe it will work. I certainly don't have an answer but you guys are in a rut. What would you do if your PLC sounded this negative? You have an advantage over a new PL in that you have a lot of experience. And maybe that's also a disadvantage. Didn't someone say it's harder to change the older scouts because they're set in their ways? So

Tell us more. It's always a struggle. BTW, @@SSScout, Fortran is still very much used and has been continually updated. It's widely used in scientific computing, especially on big machines (roughly 1M cores, 10's to 100's of Teraflops, Megawatts of power.) Granted, there are no more card decks.

I don't think tolerating lousy training is so great, mainly because we've been doing that and it's not working. At the same time, scoring something that's subjective will just encourage people to game the system. So I understand where you're coming from, I just don't like it. But maybe there's another way to look at this. For any change there needs to be some passion before any rules or guidelines. Passion leads to understanding. Understanding leads to being able to use the guidelines. Look at JTE. We gots rules. What we don't have is an understanding of the underlying ideas that, to be ho

In a nutshell, to save you 10 minutes, what the guy said was ask your scouts and the parents of your scouts to talk to their friends and invite them on a campout. Skip the webelos, skip the pamphlets, skip the special meetings, skip all the meetings for that matter, skip the email. It's all about getting friends to go camping. It doesn't need to be anything special. Skip the paperwork, too. My take is it's more about making it personal and working with smaller numbers than shotgunning everyone. People get enough advertising that they just tune it out. We do something similar. We invite web

Sounds to me like the real issue is that this scout is not enjoying scouts. My guess is that a lack of fun with friends is the issue, not advancement. Phrogger, does he have friends in the troop? Just my opinion but finding something fun to do with other scouts should be the focus. Friendships are important.. Are there other scouts roughly his age in the troop? Does he do anything with them? If the older scouts are doing cooking MB, what is the program for the younger scouts? If there's really no program for the younger scouts then I can see him being bored. Just a thought, but if ther

If the issue is burnout then maybe we should ask that question. In all honesty, adding or subtracting a year of cub scouts will not make much difference in a 5 year cub program plus a 7 year boy scout program. How about each pack make a season they do cub scouts? Limit it to 6 months a year total. I tell scouts to take the 3 months off for a sport, or robotics, or band. They usually come back eager. Another idea mentioned above is meet less often. At the cub level I don't see an issue with taking a season off. At the boy scout level friendships become more important so I can see tr