MattR

We're not trying to beat you up here. Your asking for help is great. We've all been through dealing with people like this before and we're focusing on the practical. We're also thinking about your son. The other thing that's not being mentioned is that, believe it or not, this is an opportunity. Most problems are. Read the front page on the BSA website and it will say something along the lines of teaching scouts how to make good decisions. Granted, this guy is not anything we'd create, but, if he's not wearing down your son so much that your son is frustrated, lemons and lemonade. If your son

Now that I think about it.... We've had requirements at times to solve certain problems but once we grew out of those we dropped those requirements. In all of the positions the SPL picks, I talk to him. I don't make decisions but I describe the job, we talk about personalities, we ask each other questions. I'm always interested in the difference between what the scouts and adults see. This discussion about different ways of doing things has some unintended consequences. Namely, if there are so many ways of doing things then the training can't really get specific about anything in particula

He could be the biggest jerk in the district but if the committee likes him then that's what they want. If the scouts like camping only 4 times a year then what happens when this parent demands he leaves? I often hear and see what happens when a new parent tries making a big change in a troop and it doesn't work. It doesn't matter how valid the new parent's ideas are. This SM does sound like a jerk but unless there are other parents that agree this is likely not going to end well. If this guy is so bad then why is it that everyone accepts it? This troop could very well be a mess. Who will he

What does your son think of the situation? If it's bothering you more than him, then stop letting it bother you. Talk to him. If he's upset then give him moral support. That might be all he needs. Encourage him to seek out feedback from the scouts. If, as you say, they like him, then that will also be plenty of moral support. However, your son being so young, the SM being grumpy. I don't know. Digging a bit to find out what the cause is might help a lot. It might be that the SM is upset because he feels someone is taking his power. I don't know what the dynamics were before your son became

I don't know if this is sacrilegious or not, but the push for Eagle by 15 seems to be a mistake. 15-16 is the height of what we call the slacker phase and I understand that getting eagle before that will raise the numbers, but the scouts that make it through that phase seem to be much better scouts. They help out more, enjoy the activities more, the younger scouts look up to them more. I don't want to do the girl scout model and I won't prevent a scout from completing eagle early, but I sure won't encourage it. @@qwazse said: are we discouraging scouts who would never make Eagle from enjoy

Other than about 3 scouts, there is only one cluster in my troop. Technically you can get Eagle up to 3 months after your 18th birthday (so long as the SM signature is before) so my guess is our average is a bit over 18. Very few scouts can actually wear their Eagle award given that their coh is usually months after they complete the rank. We should just hand out knots. We just had an ECOH for 3 scouts last night. All of them completed their rank after their 18th birthday by about a month, and it was all the same month. After his mom pinned the medal on one scout I joked and said he had to

Can't a scout take care of another scout while also taking care of a job? Isn't that really the challenge we all have? We have to get paid, buy groceries, fix the toilet ... and at the same time care for our family, colleagues, and community. We have to take care of the tasks, we choose whether to take care of the people. Character seems to be reflected best in those that do both. So the QM can take care of the gear while also showing a new scout how to fold a tent. He could have just yelled at the new scout but instead he took the time to do it right. Done right, the QM will have a big impact

Sentinel, and I guess everyone else that has patrol pors, how do you encourage the patrols to use these pors? I keep suggesting them and the scouts don't see any benefit, or maybe they see the benefit but don't want to put in the effort. Some of them will create positions for a campout but that's it. They still manage their own gear, buy food, and all that, but they just can't grasp the benefit of divying up the work ahead of time.

It sounds like your underlying question is should this really count as an eagle project. Well, obviously if the scouts didn't show he shouldn't get credit. But you also mention that the "ladies organized everything." The question for any eagle project is how does the scout show leadership. Sounds like this case deserves more questions. If a scout asked me or my district to sign off on a project where all the scout has to do is show up and do some work, or even just provide the labor, it would never get approved. But I don't know all the details for this one. I'm guessing.

Why do scout leaders always make assumptions? Just to clear things up, it is not always the leader's kid. blw2, this is your oldest son? who is about12 or 13? If so, you're in for a ride. It might not be your son so much as it's you. Your son is doing what all boys do at that age, they start to split away from mom and dad. This may sound crude, evil, mean, or just plain wrong, but hear me out. I've seen something happen over and over again and scouter fathers can't believe they're doing this. Maybe this is you, only you can answer this. These dads love scouts and want their so

Those numbers do not reflect my council. We are one of the largest troops in our council, often we are the largest, and a good year for us is five eagles. We've never had nine. Typical for our district is one or two per troop. Nine eagles a year would be half of our typical troops. So, maybe being so close to national changes things. Or maybe you're near a big city.

A story to illustrate how useful our modern tools of communication are: I called a PL a week ago and left him a message to please call me in the next two days. I just wanted to know what his patrol was doing at the next meeting. Three days later I called him again. He answered. I asked if he was going to call me. He said he did, twice. No record of this on my phone. Think think think. I then asked him if I answered the phone. No. I then asked if he left a message. Pregnant pause. No. Honestly, I'd prefer, when trying to communicate with scouts, that there was no email or sms so the scouts wou

@@Krampus, I currently have 5 patrols and one of the problems we used to have was "rotating through stations." 10 minutes per station is an artifact of the number of patrols, not the activity. If the activity should last for a half hour (what can you cook in the 5 minutes you'll actually have if there's a 10 min period?) then consider 3 meetings of doing 2 stations at a time rather than all 6 in one meeting. My scouts have revolted at 10 minute activities. That said, climbing at a rock wall, archery, going to a pool, ice skating, and roller skating. These are all full meeting activities.

All the packs I go to use their bridge just for the "graduates"

@@Eagledad, I'm curious about your activity crews as a way for scouts to say they want to do something that might not fit in with their patrol. Scouts in the same patrol might have similar temperament, so they have fun together doing typical scout stuff, but not always the same interests when it comes to pushing the edge. They all like to camp but if some scout says he wants to do 20 miles in a day, his patrol is likely not going to go along with it. But there might be some other scouts in other patrols that would. Are these crews just for a single main event (and maybe training to go with

This could get ugly. We should stick with scouts.

The jeep commercial was probably the only one I paid attention to, and I did see the scout. I thought that was cool. NJ, it must suck not having a team in the superbowl. Oh wait, you never can have a team in the superbowl (the New Jersey Gladiators?) All gloating aside, I was going crazy just assuming the fairytale would end before the game did. Remember, two years ago the Broncos' first play at the superbowl was a safety. Given all that misery and one win every 17 years, please pardon my happiness.

@@CherokeeScouter, this is not a screwup at the largest level. Are there any medical bills? Mistakes were made and now is an opportunity to show the scout how to solve them. Talk to him. If the scout is really ready to be a life scout then the news that adults make mistakes will not wreck his life, although it might delay his Life . If he is going to cry about it then maybe he shouldn't be a life scout. Decide what it means to be a Life scout and don't sign off until he's ready. To me, a life scout should be helping the troop quite a bit. If he's already doing that, and he really does know

Me thinks the devil's in the details. First, just explaining anything to anyone will not be enough. I have laid it out for the committee several times, they all say yep, and then something happens and they don't even realize they're stepping in. It's getting better. Slowly. I'm also learning how better to explain it. Also, just handing over the reigns to the scouts will create lots of problems, which is what you want, but there also needs to be a way for them to learn from them. This is where the adults can help a lot. They've never solved problems on their own. Of the 4 items on your list

Who makes what decisions? How long is a committee meeting compared to a PLC meeting? Also, it's not a binary thing where it is or isn't boy led. We just got a foot of snow and I got email from our co saying they'd tell us this morning whether the building would be closed. I forwarded it to the spl and made it very clear the adults would do nothing to get this info out. The spl is doing great. Some parents, however, aren't real happy. In a nutshell, they don't trust the scouts. I'm sending out a lot more email telling the parents to back off than what it would have taken to just solve this

You don't need spray. At philmont just do as they say about bears. It's mostly an issue of keeping the smells of food away from you. They are anal about it so just do as they say and you'll be fine. Bears don't care about people, they do like our food. Well, grizzlies have short tempers but you won't see any in philmont.

New definition that circumvents the top down bottom up discussion: Leadership is management based on good character. A leader can simultaneously look out for the needs of his people and tell them what to do. I tell the scout leaders in my troop that every decision they make has to be checked against the Oath and Law. If he puts the good of his patrol before himself then there's nothing wrong with him telling a scout what to do. This is what good presidents, generals, parents, mid level managers at big companies, and any other good leader does. I agree there's a difference between handling

So,sticking with leaders work on people while managers work on tasks, let's look back at history. Lincoln had a vision of abolishing slavery. He then had to manage the task of making that happen. Yet, he was looking out for his people. Not all of his people agreed with him. What people want is not always what they need. Before you say it, I agree that sometimes people are wrong deciding what others need, but anyone that has been involved in educating a child or student knows that what a student says he wants is not always in his best interest. Similar situations for our founding fathers an

We do COHs and flag retirements.We do flag ceremonies for anyone that asks. The scouts take a lot of pride in them. A couple of scouts are going to get free hockey tickets for doing one in a month. I was frustrated because my scouts weren't doing them, and then one day they started and now they really enjoy them.

Talking about what a leader is or does still seems a bit murky. I've seen scouts with lots of charisma (other scouts just want to be with them) but their only vision is to get scouts to follow them in a social setting. I've kept in touch with a few and they still haven't grown up. I tried hard to get them to use their talents for doing something besides screwing around but it didn't work. What I have also seen are people with a passion for something. Some scouts want to organize fun campouts or campfires. That leads to confidence, and people tend to follow. I have a scout in my troop that