badgerface

After just returning from a week of camp as SPL i have a comment to make. At Camp Sequassen in Connecticut, we had a leaders meeting the first day. The first thing the program director asked was that no scouts were allowed cell phones. She said that it is possibly a danger that a scout may become homesick and try to leave without informing the scoutmaster and camp staff. The camp went as far as putting a lock on the pay phone. All the scoutmasters were given the combo, but the staff felt it was necessary for the scoutmasters to be aware of all calls home for safety purposes.

Elections are coming up this week and i have a couple quick questions.

1. Is it written in the Boy Scout Handbook that ASPL is appointed? I know that it is, but just looking for written back up.

2. My troop has had 2 ASPLs for the past couple years. I heard that this was due to having between 50 and 60 scouts, but i do not see the benefit. As a scout this should seem good to me as an added leadership position, but there didnt seem to be much for even 1 ASPL to do. What are the benefits of having multiple ASPLS?

Thanks,

Badger

In my troop, cooking has been on the rise in the past year. This is due to two things. 1.the adults set a good example and had us scouts drooling over their food asking how to make it.

2. The patrol that is mainly olderboys decided to cook a fancy meal before the adults started demonstrating thier fancy cooking. The drive for food was started by the older scouts that have since turned 18 and left, but the drive has continued.

As a scout, the best way to get better food would be for the SM to talk to the older boys about cooking better food and have it spiral down from there.

In my troop, cooking has been on the rise in the past year. This is due to two things. 1.the adults set a good example and had us scouts drooling over their food asking how to make it.

2. The patrol that is mainly olderboys decided to cook a fancy meal before the adults started demonstrating thier fancy cooking. The drive for food was started by the older scouts that have since turned 18 and left, but the drive has continued.

As a scout, the best way to get better food would be for the SM to talk to the older boys about cooking better food and have it spiral down from there.

That is almost exactly what i thought, but I just wanted to double check

Thanks,

Badger

2 questions on totin chip before i leave for a campout in about an hour.

1. Is hatchet needed for totin' chip. It is not on the totin' chip card, but i believe that it is necessary. not sure though...

2. To backup to what i teach, are all the rules/safety guidelines listed in the scout handbook.

I have to go pack now, but i will check back before i leave. Please respond quickly if you have an answer.

Thanks,

Badgerface

My troop has 2 problems.

1. Our meetings are not very fun. The best meetings we have are the tops 5 meetings a year that we have just for fun. We attempt to teach the same skills every single meeting. This gets repetitive and is only done for advancement purposes. Most of the adult leaders realize that the meetings have not been very fun lately. I, and other scouts, have also noticed this. I have tried, the past 2 or 3 PLCs, to bring this point up that everything is not for advancement. It seems that no one has realized that the adults just try to push all of the new scouts through up to first class very quickly. I realize this mine, and other scouts, fault for not planning the fun meetings but its the PRESSURE put on us all that we NEED to advance.

2. There is no patrol activities. We follow parts of the patrol method, in that the patrol elects a patrol leader and we have a PLC that plans almost everything, but there is no sense of patrol unity. No patrol on record has had a patrol only outing or meeting. The only time we even set aside 'patrol time' durring a meeting is to plan a menu and duty roster for the next campout. A group of boys that sleep in tents together and cook together is not what makes a group a patrol.

Has anyone else overcome a similar situation and know how to solve it. Currently everyone in the troop, scouts and adults, are willing to work together to fix these two problems. I think that if the meetings become fun the 'need' to advance will become less, but the patrol unity is a serious problem. I look forward to any suggestions

Badgerface

EagleinKY sounds like a very similar problem. I am a scout and always attend the PLC to help plan the meetings. Lately we have attempted to split into groups of 5-6 scouts and teach a skill. Durring this time, 1 or 2 older scouts will teach each group a skill, then we will switch groups so by the end of the skill session, everyone would have, as an example, been able to learn the square, diagonal and shear lashing, or any combination of 3-4 related skills. Next, we plan on playing a game for 15-20 minutes that is just for fun. Then we have the closing and its done.

This style isnt bad, but it is not working. Everyone, including myself, is bored learning the same-old scout related skills and having less than a quarter of the scouts actually listening. The others talk and do not even try to listen, no matter what. It would work if it was not the same every single meeting. One good meeting we had last year was a hobby night(everyone had to bring in a hobbey that they liked, some people brought in collections, guitars and even a dirtbike...). This went very well but this was the ONLY out of the box idea. I am just looking for a few ideas to suggest to have for meetings that are not already set aside for camping prep.

Thanks for the ideas youve already given...if anyone else has any other help feel free to share.

In my troop we have a contest for the 'top dog patrol'. There are points awarded for attendance, correct uniform, first campsite set up, first site down, best behavior, etc. There has been a slight lack of enthusiasm towards this since it just started, but for me personally, it is just starting to catch on. I think in another year or two this competition will grow into something that everyone wants to win. At the end of the year, the winning patrol is given posetion of the 'top dog flag'. This patrol is allowed to change the flag and it will be a lot of fun once there is more on it other than a picture of the snoopy dog...it is fun

This may be similar to the thread i spun this off which was on scouting games. My troop recently has a problem that many scouts are becoming bored and disinterested. It seems that all we do is teach scout skills at least 2 or 3 meetings a month. I know that we should attempt to incorporate that months theme or outing into the meetings, but we never do. What do other troops do durring their meetings other than teach scout skills, make a duty roster or plan the meals for the upcomign campouts. It just seems that, me included, most scouts in my troop are realizing that the meeting quality has gone downhill. Does anyone have ideas for meetings that they have done that are lots of fun/memorable to scouts?

Thanks in advance,

BadgerFace

I believe T487Scouter is looking for ways to make scoulike activities more fun. He used the 'missing' stove to practice orienteering. I think he is looking for other ways to incorporate scouing skills into games. I am a scout, and it is fun to play games every so often. Usually we play our traditional Key game, where a scout is blinfolded and put in the center of a circle of scouts. You put the biggest/clankiest set of keys under the chair and select scouts 1 at a time to rescue the keys without being pointed at.

The reason that i asked the question is that currently in my troop the adults do not let the SPL take any true responsibility and if anything starts to go wrong they step in because they dont have confidence in him. This has happened more with this SPL than before, but i think it wont stop unless there is an SPL that has the complete support from the adult leadership. Although i do want to step up and hopefully be voted SPL, i do not see the point in running(hopefully becoming) SPL if the adults do not see the qualities that they hope for and do not trust me. Then any decision I/the PLC makes will be changed by the adults. I do not want this to happen.

I guess that it is more whether I am willing to stick-up for all of the decisions we make and force the troop to stick with them. I think that as long as I am very commited to sticking with the decisions then all else will follow...

I just hope that the adults will learn to put their trust in the SPL and stick with the decisions made by any SPL. But it is interesting to hear that most of the things you adult leaders think are important are the same things that i(and other scouts?) already thought were the important qualities.

Hi all...I was wondering what qualities adult leaders hope to find in an SPL? I know that in my troop we scouts usually end up voting for the person that has the most experience, gets along with the most people, and has the most amount of time to devote. Is this really any different from the adult point of view. I really want to just hear what makes the perfect SPL before i truly decide whether or not i can make a strong enough candidate for SPL next year. What are the best qualities?

chicken ranch...everything that you said puts you as a prime candidate for becomins SM. You realize exactly what is expected of SM without realizing it. Sitting on the sidelines and guiding individual scouts rather than the entire group is the perfect scoutmaster that i would want. Right now im trying to get my SM to become more like that. If the troop and SPL and PLC work right then all an SM should do is attend every activity and sit on the sidelines to help individual scouts and advise the youth leaders how to lead better. I hope this helps coming from the perspective of a 14 year old scout. I know that everything you said about what you want to do while telling scouts how to advance and telling people what the bsa suggests they do is exactly the perfect SM. I hope that you become the next SM so that you can talk to the PLC and as long as they agree give them all power immediately. As long as they are willing just sit back relax and go along for the ride.

I do realize that my troop does have a lot, but with some of the adult leaders we have now, it can become better. The adults want us to become more boy-led but dont realize that while they are helping, they are actually keeping us back. I think ill bring it up with our troops SPL to add this to the agenda for the next PLC. Maybe with some of the right people attending i can remingd them of what we had decided at summercamp and how we need to take even more responsibility than we already have.

I have one other question...How much responsibility should we take. Currently we decide on a place or activity idea then the adults take everything from there, then we may get some feedback of where and what will happen there. Then that is about it. They tell us what will happen, but should it be us scouts making all those decisions. I understand when it is our summer trip to boston and they want to make that organized perfectly in a city, but should we be the ones planning all other trips. Would it make sense if we did all the planning for ordinary troop campouts and events and then had one adult confirm/pay for the reservation?

I know this is a big jump, if that is how much responsibility we take on, how gradually should this effectively happen?

Currenly i am a freshman in high school, have earned life,and am very active in our troop.

My troop has traditionally had a 'boy-led' program with adult approval. The adult 'approoval' mentioned above was a little more than that. The boys would plan a general plan for campouts and events, but had no say in the meetings. Every meeting our former spl would start with the opening ceremony before asking our former SM what we were doing that day. After that, everything was 'boy-led' but that is not enough. This SM was replaced by our troop's new SM two years ago because the former SM's son was getting older and he wanted to leave time to acclimate the new SM with the troop.

The new SM was similar to the old one but allowed more input from us scouts. He still sometimes changes the plan of a meeting to meet the needs of an upcoming campout or event but it is much better. He uses a lot of techniques to run things behind the scenes(ie. telling stories about somewhere fun, hinting at an acitvity but letting us think we had thought of it). Although this happened the way it should, with no adult interuption, it was still not perfect

Once a meeting or event started that the PLC had planned, the power left the SPL and went to the ASMs. The SM did not necessarily approve of this but never stepped in to ask his ASMs to back off. The SPL would barely have the power to suggest playing a game of manhunt before the adults stepped in telling us yes or no with no SPL input. It was starting to become that the SPL was just the ASM's puppet. The SPL would start something then an ASM would step in and tell us what to do. It would be fine if the same messages were given by the SPL, that small of a change can still make the biggest difference.

At summer camp last year we decided on implementing a new troop official policy of being more boy-led. One night the Commitee chair came for a visit and a bunch of the older boys went into their lean-to with him and the troop's SM. After talking about the limited(no) input given about the troop during summer camp, a decision was reached to make the troop completely boy run. THat night the SM and ASM's sat at their picnic table while we had an SPL led meeting at the other end of the campsite. The decision reached earlier was told to everyone and we all agreed that this was what must happen. For the rest of the week, everything happened like that, SPL led.

This happened for 1 reason. The acting SM that had run the troop's summer camp probram for the past 5+ years was a firm beleiver in this. After summer camp ended much has returned to its earlier norm. I have finally begun to realize, a year later, now that i am beginning to take a more active leadership role in the troop that we have already forgotten this decision. It is necessary for us to revert to the way the troop ran at summer camp. ONLY the SPL should run a meeting. The SM and ASMs should be present and possibly listening with no interruption. When something goes wrong they should tell the SPL to fix it and not do it themselves. I am very intereseted in fixing this problem. I really need help in finding a kind way to tell the adults(starting with current SM) that our decision at summercamp was forgotten and that we need to encourage youth leadership. Does anyone know a kind/courteous way to bring this issue up...it has everyones support but just needs to be brought up and put into effect.