mich632

WOW, I can understand your thinking that I would deny a scout age boy from attending when I said, "The rest of the year activities are restricted to registered boys and adult leaders."

I was really talking about family members. Sorry.

We have two "scheduled" activites for scout age boys. If a scout had a friend who really wanted to attend a activity I would never deny letting him see what we do.

Obviously our goal is to attract and maintain boys interested in scouting.

KoreaScouter

Hikers guide to OAHU. I wish I needed that.

But the hikers guide for my area. I get your point.

PS. I lived in Waipahu for four years. So as it is getting cold out, I wish I was back there right now.

If I was the perfect Scoutmaster, and I had a shelf of reading material that had EVERYTHING I needed to know, what reading material would be on that shelf?

Here are some that I know about:

1. Troop Committee Guide Book.

2. Scout Handbook

3. Field Book

4. Scoutmaster Handbook

5. Troop Program Resources

6. Troop Program Features

7. JLT video and training manual

8. YPT video

8. Teaching Leave No Trace

9. MacScouter Skits and Songs

What books or references do you have that I have not listed?

Non scouts go on campouts for two reasons in our troop.

1. Recruiting drive. Two events a year we invite scout age boys to attend. We have parents fill out application prior to going and we have attend one meeting. If after event they are not interested, we tear up application.

2. Family events.- We do a couple big events (ski trip, whitewater rafting) that we turn into a family activity. Lots of adults and kids come.

The rest of the year activities are restricted to registered boys and adult leaders.

Bob, I guess that's why this forum has some many responders.

I have done Fast Start Training.

I have been to NLE and SM specific training.

I have been to Woodbadge.

I teach NLE and SM specific training.

I teach JLT in my troop.

I have my own copies of most BSA literature AND I have read it.

I intend on following it.

However, many things BSA puts out you read as BLACK AND WHITE.

I read it, I want to follow it. But I don't see BLACK AND WHITE.

So I ask questions!

thanks

That was exactly what I was looking for.

Now our adult patrol can have their own patrol patch.

Can anyone tell me where to get an "old goat" patrol patch?

G2SS states:"...Verbal insults, ...have no place in the Scouting program..."

QUESTION: So what is a "verbal insult"?

G2SS lists many other things that I understand:" Physical violence, hazing, bullying, theft, and drugs and alcohol" I think I can define and recognize.

But, I'm not sure I totally understand this "verbal insults". Can someone give examples of playful teasing vs. verbal insults?

Here's my cut.

Two friends assign nicknames to each other. They like each other and the nicknames are a fun game. (teasing)

Two boys who aren't friends. One scout starts calling the other scout a nickname. The name is intended as an insult or put down. verbal insult).

Or is teasing prohibited?

SO BACK TO ORIGIONAL QUESTION. What is "verbal insult"?

you mean it's possible after this thread rambled for days, someone is actually going to provide input to the orgional question.

what a novel concept.

It seems that the opinion of the group is that less than 6 is too small and more than 10 is too big. Does that some up your feelings?

You can not make him a perfect scout in a few months. You must focus on a FEW items that can be fixed.

Pick SPECIFIC issues that you want him to focus on. 3-4 at most. If you give him too many, he will not be successful.

Give examples of the problem behavior and what it would look like if he did not do them. Put it in writting. Talk with him about it. Talk with his parents about it.

Since this is tied to scout spirit signature his behavior problem must be tied to a the motto, law, oath, slogan.

When he behaves like you want give him positive feedback.

When his behavior does not match your model remind him of your discussion.

Example: I'm not sure you can stop someone who likes to get into arguements to completely stop that behavior over night. But you might work on:

Swearing during an arguement.

Pushing during an arguement.

Disrespect with adults who try to stop the fight.

Have him work on those three items for the next 3-4 months and show improvement.

If he does, sign him off and then pick 3-4 more things to improve.

Looking for experience on optimum patrol size.

It seems when the patrols are too small, I end up with 2 boys from a patrol on a campout.

It seems when the patrols are too big, the groups are too big at the meetings and the PL has trouble controlling them.

So I would like to take a survey. When you are setting up patrols what size do you shoot for?

Thanks.

"I am told it is a treasures nightmare to keep up w/ this."

I don't understand how this could be a treasurer's night mare.

We have 38 boys in the troop. We do two fundraisers. One for the troop and we use popcorn sales for "scout accounts". All the money raised from popcorn sales goes to each boys individual account. That money can be used for any "scout expense". ( dues, campouts, uniforms etc.)

It transfers over to following year. Only two main rules.

1. When you leave troop the money goes to troop.

2. It can only be used for scouting costs. Example: Can't use it to buy candy at summer camp.

Bottom line, it's just a simple excel spread sheet. It can be done. Sounds like the treasurer doesn't want to.

i am an avid watcher of survivor.

I was very disappointed in her performance as a scout.

The game is great. But to play it, you must violate many if not all the laws of scouting.

She felt winning was more important that following the aims of scouting.

Which would be OK, if she was not wearing the scout uniform. By wearing the uniform she was representing me and all the other SM in the world. And she did not do us justice.

Our troop "always" attends all 4 district outings. And we normally only get about 10% of the troop to go.

This year the PLC looked at attendance and decided to drop 3 of the district events and only do one. They came up with some great replacements.

The troop committee had a cow. The boys explained their reasons and logic and the troop committee accepted it.

Here's my thoughts.

1. It's the boys calender. If they are not interested in attending ALL district events fine.

2. I would rather have 4 troop events that are heavily attended, than 4 district events that are poorly attended.

3. How can you say you are meeting the goals the BSA established to have an outdoor program if no one attends.

It's more important to have a GOOD program that the boys are willing to attend, than meeting DISTRICT expectations of attending their campouts.

How do you sew a rank patch on a pocket and still make the pocket usable?

I use a sewing machine to sew all my patches on, and if I do that on a pocket, the pocket is unuseable. Any suggestions.

Thanks Bobwhite

I have great respect for all those dedicated scout leaders who serve on the training programs.

The quartermasters, the instructors etc. It takes hours beyond belief to be well prepared for WoodBadge or any other training program.

SO my hat goes off to you, for giving.

As to your comment" What I do not understand is what difference it makes whether or not you belong to a rare patrol or a common one."

I guess thats why Eagle69 asked the question. And the reason our SM explained it. He wanted people to know that when you meet fellow Woodbadgers and sing, it very possible that there will be MANY beavers and only one Buffalo or Antelope.

You also can't tell me that what patrol you came from has no meaning. If it didn't matter, then people would not create logins with their WB patrol name, or they would not discuss which WB patrol they were from.

What patrol you come from IS important to people AND I need to understand why there don't seem to be as many Antelopes as beavers.

Bob, thanks for the info that the Course Director can pick the order.

You state that with such authority. Have you been a course director?

It's just that your "facts" don't align with what the course director put out at our woodbadge training course.

It may well be that the course director was unaware that he was allowed to deviate from the order listed for patrols.

Not trying to question you, because you seem to be correct "most of the time". I just don't want to tell people that the "antelope" is the rarest woodbadge member if my course director was wrong.

Thanks.

Yes there is an order that patrol names are assigned. And based on the number of participants some of the later patrols may not get filled.

Antelope's are #8 and are only filled when they have a FULL complement of participants. Which is why you don't meet as many of them.

I am an Antelope NE-1-233. I just finished my first weekend of the training.

As to the order, if you sing the sound the order they patrols step forward is the order patrol numbers are assigned.

Two issues:

1. Flyers to home. If your school board has taken such drastic action I don't think that is an avenue. But, it worth talking with the board and suggesting "policy" which gives the authority to the school administration to "approve" flyers that are released.

I am the chairmen of our school board. And we had similiar concerns. We gave the authority to the school administration to determine what is appropriate for release and what is not. Otherwise you deny many valid groups access. The town recreation program, the PTA etc.

2. How to reach students without the flyer.

We do two things. First, we use our current scouts. We have an open house and we encourage current scouts to bring a friend.

We also use the school yearbook. It list every child by name and grade. If you have the childs name you can look up the address for "most" of them in the phone book. We then send a flyer out to the parents before open house.

what are booth sales?

I take our boys on a white water rafting trip every year.

When I first read some of the posts I was concerned, that I had missed something in the guide to safe scouting.

Here is the link to the age restrictions http://www.scouting.org/pubs/gss/ageguides.pdf.

There are no age restrictions for Whitewater rafting. There are restrictions placed in Safe Swim and Safety Afloat but nothing that is age specific.

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE REFERENCE ME TO BSA POLICY THAT LIMITS WHITEWATER RAFTING TO THOSE OVER 14?

I find that each whitewater rafting company establishes some fairly tight age restrictions based on the river they are services.

"Crab Apple White Water" which we use allows 12 year old to go on the Kennebuck river in Maine which is class 4-5. But the same outfitter restricts the Miller river in Mass to 14 year olds even though it is only class 2-3.

They look at the river difficulty, not just the class of water.

But again, can someone provide me BSA policy that restricts scouts under the age of 14 from doing whitewater?

For each event we have has a checklist of things that must be done. One item on the checklist is the event budget. The boys must calculate cost for food, supplies ( gas, soap etc), event registration, and drivers gas.

The scouts estimate the cost of transportation and each driver is paid a small amount for their trouble. The one pulling the trailer gets more money. It never makes up for the total cost but it helps.

On close trips (1 hour away) each scout might have to put in $1. Our trip to Maine ( 7 hours away ). Each scout put in $10 for gas.

Our scribe also keeps a list of drivers for each event. The goal is to make sure parents share transportation responsibilities.

Sounds so familar.

When I took over as scoutmaster our BOR took about 1 hour and the boys were tested on every requirement.

I sat down with them and reviewed the troop committee guidebook which states, "The board of review is not a time to retest the Scout, but to determine the Scout's attitude and his acceptance of Scouting ideals."

It the beginning I met with resistance, but after a year they have become comfortable with their job.

I am now getting good feedback from them. They talk with the scouts and can provide me with insight as to the strengths and weaknesses of the program.

BOR now take 5-10 minutes for tenderfoot and 15-30 minutes for Life scout.

So train the committee, work with the committee and don't give up.

Good luck.

Local volunteer fire department.

This will be my last post on this subject. Sorry Marinelaw.

It seems from your post that you have a specific "issue" with Seabase and/or the USCG and you are using this forum to express your opinion. Which you are welcome to do. But I will not be participating any more.

I made some calls and was able to get the information I needed to make sure that my scouts will be safe and that Seabase is in compliance with the law and that is as far as I am willing to go.

If you are not able to get a copy of the MOU from the government or Seabase then I suspect there is a reason. I can not even begin to guess why. But that does not matter.

I am comfortable with my boys safety and I am done.

Good luck getting your "issue" resolved.