MattR

I suppose a scout should be treated the same way about his uniform as about his actions. I want scouts to act and look like scouts. I also realize they'll slip and make mistakes. My scouts are all a work in progress so for that reason I don't worry about uniforms being perfect. On the other hand, a scout that refuses to wear a uniform likely does not act much like a scout (unless he can't afford it, but that's a problem I'll solve). For this reason I will not just let them do as they want regarding their uniform just as I won't let them act in an unscout like manner. The challenge is the right

I don't think removing I&P will help, it will just overflow elsewhere. Isn't that the reason why I&P was formed? Trying to remove dissent or arguments will gut this forum. There's a good way to argue and a bad way to argue. The good way is when everyone is trying to come to an agreement, even if it is to disagree. Lurking scouts should see that. I'm all for it. Bad arguments are when it becomes a zero sum game. If there were a way for the moderators to help with that I'd say absolutely. I'm just not sure what that might be. What seems to work really well is when someone realize

I agree. We re did patrols about a year ago. I told the scouts to figure it out and do right by the younger scouts. They all ran around and picked friends and somehow the globs grew into patrol sized globs. They grouped more by personality than friends. You'd think that would be good, but in fact, no. The short version is summer camp was rough. there was a bit of moving around. But by now patrols do not want to change anything. I did spend a lot of time talking to patrols to get them to work through their people issues. The one thing that helped me is nobody could blame me for how the patrols

My wife and both kids were exchange students. We've hosted several. Exchange students can be highly motivated, wonderful additions to your troop. Not all are but these kids are already in a completely different environment where trying something new and getting over making a fool of yourself is a day to day occurance. We had a camporee where one scout, the PL, was just outstanding in getting his patrol motivated. Between that and his accent I asked him where he was from and what program he was in. He was Brazilian. If you think scouts is all about learning on your own from your mistakes withou

Because it's eagle required? I'd rather see more requirements involved with doing than discussing. To encourage a scout to make a career out of cooking I think it would be better to teach him how to fry an egg without burning it than talk about a career in cooking. Success is a better motivator. But it's more than that. I really like to cook but it would never interest me as a career. I cook every day and all I get paid is good memories with friends and family. How about learning something because it's fun? So I don't see anything wrong with a scout saying no, that's not for me.

Click on his avatar and read the last half dozen posts he made. It's not too hard to guess why.

I'm not sure it matters. The adults that are eagle scouts are no more likely to help out than the other parents. It's just that those that do help come up to speed much faster. It gets down to getting to know the parents, and preferably before asking them to do something. I talked to a rabbi that turned a synagogue around and I asked her what her secret was to getting more people involved. She said it's easy; get to know the people. Invite them over. Treat them like guests. Their age has nothing to do with it. In a world that's becoming more impersonal people like the human touch. Granted,

Interesting how multiple threads simultaneously come around to the same subject. Trust isn't a given, it has to be earned, and we really want the scouts to earn it. Swords, rifles, hiking on their own up a rock, doesn't really matter. What also seems to be a constant is that older generations don't trust younger ones. Maybe hindsight is a bit through rose colored glasses. I was one kid that got his rear chewed out for being disrespectful, lazy, and all the other things I dislike about dealing with kids-these-days. But I have to admit, when they do get it, it's a great high. Just a guess bu

This is not the first time I've heard of differences between Philmont training and national training. My guess is there's something going on between Philmont and those that do training at national. As in, Philmont likes making training (and quite possibly the money that comes with it) and national could care less so they both go their own ways. I talked to someone a long time ago about better understanding how to get the patrol method going and how hard it was to find any useful training and they said Philmont has this great course. I said if it's so great, why is it limited to Philmont and wh

But a boy scout can go backpacking, so what's wrong with outpost camping? Well, let's look it up in the g2ss. Oops, this is the g2ss. Hmm, well, the word outpost isn't on that webpage except in that graph. The graph also suggests, in the right most column, that wilderness back country is limited to 14 and older. Backpacking is also only mentioned in the context of high adventure, 14+. So I guess backpacking is no longer allowed in boy scouts? Or maybe this whole page should just be ignored.

That would certainly be a better model, and easier to focus on the right things. But it would be tough to make work in today's busy world. Nearly every scout that has Eagled in my troop has described a lazy phase they went through on their trail to Eagle. Without that shiny medal at the end a lot of them would have just left for all the other activities they have going on. When they're 15 they know the check boxes are just a bunch of hoops. At the same time they aren't mature enough to see the bigger picture. Once they're 17.99 and just done their SMC, if you heard them talk you'd realize

I don't know about most of those 54k, but I just received a very nice thank you note from one of them. The program does work. There are lots of bits and pieces to the program but a few are critical. First is high adventure. Make memories and they will return. Second is the desire to earn Eagle. Third is a culture of helping out. I use the second as leverage to get a scout to do the third. And then I get a really nice thank you note. The numbers don't bother me one way or another. Most of the program changes don't either (except for MBs at summer camp). The graph shows a big spike start

Why burn bridges over this one comment? It's fairly clear the sword is okay to use. The problem is grandpa (Someone). Maybe he was just having a bad day. He is not a bully and doesn't need a dressing down over this. Yes, he picked a fight. Does that mean anyone has to respond to it? If courtesy and friendship are really important then how about trying to find common ground first? Sure, this guy might be a real thorn, but maybe he's not and all the experience he has might be useful. This is why I suggested finding a way for him to save face.

I think a sword is a great idea. Me thinks this issue has less to do with safety and more about some guy just looking for a reason to puff up his feathers. If it was a fun ceremony and the scouts really enjoyed it then I'd suggest talking to the CM. Don't put him in the middle between you and Someone. Ask for clarity. The CM will regurgitate what Someone told him. Look it up. When you can't find it bring it back and show the CM. Talk about how much fun the scouts had .... You just need a way for Someone to save face when you tell him you're bringing back the sword. Then you can get back to

@@Hedgehog, I'm trying to make a list of challenges as well. While I would like to do this on a campout I just don't have the time to put that together. (Once I put together something that included climbing, shotgun, and canoes and it was fantastic, but the overhead to put it together was too much.) So, this time it will have to be in town. I also want to create scenarios with people problems; overbearing adults, troublesome scouts from other patrols, immature scouts in the patrol. So, some simple challenges with hidden problems. I'm all ears with any ideas you have. I only have two weeks

If the Webelos never spent time with your troop then that's one issue. If they have spent time and still went elsewhere then it might be another issue. I've had lots of parents tell me how they have been ignored when visiting other troops. We make a big deal when a webelo visits. Bring him up front. Introduce him. Put him in a patrol. Make him feel welcome. Same with the parents. When my son joined, the SPL came over and grabbed him before the meeting started and I didn't see him much. I remind the scouts every year what it was like when they joined. The big kids are huge. It's scary. They are

Part of the intense activity load for Japanese kids is due to how hard and how important it is to get into the right college. Once a kid gets accepted to college life is much easier. School is easy and if you get into the right school, so is getting a good job. On the other hand, getting into a reasonably good college in the US is easy. Getting out with a useful degree is much harder. So, high school in Japan is very important, in the US it's college. At least this is what it was like circa 1990, when I was there.

What I did was an exercise. Everyone took turns at being the leader. Everyone spent most of their time listening and if they had an idea they suggested it knowing it might get rejected. Everyone was also forced to take a turn at deciding everything for everyone. Believe it or not, this was the hardest part for most scouts. One scout out of the two patrols that participated refused to listen and just decide for everyone else. It was a teaching moment when his approach failed. This approach worked very well. Despite everyone's fear that it would turn into a dictatorship, the scouts were working

I just did something for a group of new scouts as well as a patrol that is struggling that I'd like to work into patrol leader training, and it worked really well. It was about teamwork, leadership, and how the two interact. I took a bunch of the low cope style activities, one for each person in the patrol, and had the scouts do them with one exception. There is a patrol leader (everyone has a turn at this). The patrol leader has the ultimate say in what happens and everyone else must obey what he says. Also, we stress that the PL needs to be aware of this responsibility. His ideas of how to s

While competition is good it's not the goal that counts. I.e., Cam Newton is also a very competitive person.

Steampunk is a mix of the wild west and scifi. The original steampunk was the Wild Wild West. Cowboys and Aliens and the remake of the Wild Wild West are more recent versions. I loved all those shows. What could be better to a 12 year old than a turbo charged steam engine shooting lasers at the bad guys?

MattR - sure one can make that assumption about new units, but that's not necessarily a valid assumption for everyone. Sorry, just bad wording. I meant someone starting new with any troop and trying to make it more boy led. If anything I'd think it would be easier to start with a new troop. I would seriously like to know what it is you're finding that needs more? As I said before, take care of your people means different things to different people. To mom it might mean plow the field so their son has no problems to deal with. ... "On my honor I will .... help other people

Wow, it really must have been part of the fabric of scouting. I guess there's been a lot of lost knowledge. That's exactly the type of thing I was looking for when I took WB.

What both of you are saying is that once it's in place it's easy to keep going. That's fine. But what if you start with a troop that doesn't have it in place? I honestly do not see many troops with at least patrols cooking on their own, so I suspect there is very little scout leadership. Isn't this one of the best ways for scouts to learn the main aim of scouting? And yet, there's no help. The BSA courses do not cover this. We've beaten that dead horse. I agree that a power point presentation would be a waste. Stosh's "take care of your scouts" is a start but I'm finding that needs more. Eagl

My definition of take care of a scout is very different from an incoming webelo parent. And that incoming parent's definition is surprisingly close to a new SPL or new PL. Last week my newish SPL decided to have the patrols do something and I could just hear Stosh screaming "managing the task and not the people". So I asked the SPL how this was going to help the patrols and he said it will be good for them to be more efficient. It will build teamwork, he said. We had a bit of discussion about who owned the job he had in mind (the QM) how this was impacting him, how possibly a campfire might be