mk9750

1st, Welcome! 2nd, great question! I'd suggest letting the boys in the Scorpion and Dragon Patrols decide. Guide them to three options: Graduate into one of the existing Patrols (other than Ranger - They are your Venture Patrol) once they make 1st Class, allow them to stay as is (my bet for what they will decide), or to reorganize into three Patrols. 11 guys in a Patrol is more than the prefeered number, mostly because each Scout is likely to not have a significant enough role in the running of the Patrol to feel important. This is just one more reason why a good Troop Guide and

Sctmom, I have had this conversation with others, and no one has ever satisfied my couriosity. On what part of the Consitution are the laws gauranteeing ANY education by the government, let alone the best education? The right to which you allude is always spoken about as if it comes directly from the Constitution, but I have never been able to find that connection. As a society, we have decided that it is in our best interest to educate youth. And anything worth doing is worth doing well. It is from this perspective that I agreed with the point Laura made that we ought to b

Eagledad: "Parents have to learn that they cant push the program around to make if fit just their son. If every parent does that, it would be pure chaos and nobody gets anything from this great program." Thanks for a great quote. I have offended far too many parents trying to say this. Wish I had these words before. I suspect one or two boys (minimum) might still be in Scouting if I had said what I wanted to say THIS way instead of MY way. Mark

Salt, I've noticed the same thing. As a matter of fact, he has been absent from all of the threads for a few days. Any chance the other "Bob White" thread has something to do with his absence? Hopefully he's at summer camp or something. But if you remember, he talked about not posting publicly the last time things got ugly between him and another poster. I hope he didn't leave this time. Mark(This message has been edited by mk9750)

Laura, Nice post. You hit on a couple of great points. I have questioned for a number of years the trend away from traditional teaching methods. As much as they sound warm and fuzzy, I think the evidence suggests something completely different. As you suggest, basic and advanced math, grammar, and science and geography skills have suffered tremendously, as well as something you left out, writing skills. This decline, in my view, has come at least parallel to, if not because of, these new teaching methods. I do agree that some of these methods do a better job of providing the ski

My youngest son is in a crew at Tinnerman this week. I have never gone, but after now seen both my sons prepare for this trip, here are a couple things I can say: 1) The advice about sunscreen should be mentioned 50 - 100 times. The sun is exponentially more intense on water, and aluminum canoes multiply this further. The most oft - missed body part is the back of the legs. Unfortuately, this is problably the area on the body that will hurt the most if sunburned. 2) Map carefully. If there are multiple choices to take on a river, making the wrong turn is not a good idea. 3) Fo

For those of you who remember, I was investigating the UU / BSA disagreement. I suspect what I found during that investigation is applicable here. To apply the UU situation to the Episcopal Church, if the Church changed the Religious Emblem to include something with which the BSA has a problem, THEN the issue between the two organizations may come to a head. Or, if the Church started preasuring BSA to accept members who do not meet membership standards. Until then, I suspect that the BSA will feel as though they have no reason to take a position about an issue over which they have no cont

It's not so amazing that something good can end something ugly, is it? Thanks OGE. I wish our Troop sang. I envy you. Mark

In the example of the cliff (I am assuming this is a climbing / rapelling activity), using the directing style of leadership happened far later than the real leading activity should have. The PLC, when they decided on such an activity, should have identified resources needed. One of these resources is proper training. During this training, all participants would have been taught (probably by a coaching method, but not necesarily) to stay away from the edge of the cliff. If, in that scenerio, a directive style of leadership needed to be used, the proper leadership was not employed wh

Neither of my sons are ADD or ADHD. Both struggle to do well in school, but both are motivational issues. My opinion on this subject has evolved over the last few years. Back in '93, I was asked to serve on a community steering council to determine how assessment would be done in our school district. This was a big joke, as it turned out the board had determined they were moving toward outcome based education, where grades would be based on how well you tried, not how well you actually did. (I know this is a bit of over simplification, but the basic idea is correct). They just wanted a ci

For what it may matter- My son's Eagle project proposal estimated that he would need over 800 hour man hours. As Advancement Chair, I still guided him to alter his project because there was not enough evidence of leadership. In the end, his project required a little over 500 hours, but he demonstrated a significant amount of leadership thoughout almost the entire project. And he was questioned quite critically about this by his BOR (upon my suggestion to the District Advancement Chair). Time means practically nothing. Mark

OGE, Although I've heard of PERT, I can't recall in what context. I think it was in relationship to Critical Path Planning, but I might be wrong. The process of working backwards from a required completion date I have always called a Gannt Chart. Scouts who make 1st Class get a lesson from me in this technique with the hope that they apply it to working on Eagle. Most don't bother, but a couple have, and have been very pleasantly suprised by the results planning like this has made. As to GMTA, I'm not so sure in this case. I still have a long way to go to prove I belong in any

SaltHeart, Aaahhh, the old trying to recapture lost oppurtunities screen name ploy, eh? Understood. If I went that way, mine would be "couldabeenaminorleagueballplayer". Or Maybe "shouldagottenmycollegedegree". Or best for this forum, "wishiwereaneaglescout". Thanks for being here. Mark

Rudd, As to the signatures on the blue card, two Troop signatures are required. One is on the first third of the card that is the application itself. The Scoutmaster or other designated adult signs this to verify the Scout is eligible to begin working on the badge. The second signature is on the second third of the card, which I am almost certain is the Scout's record. The signature is there to verify that the unit has knowledge that the Scout has completed the badge. We use this signature as evidence that it has been entered into TroopMaster. If a Scout can show me a blue card with this

Rudd, In re - reading my post, it is obvious to me that I didn't emphasis my main point. Let me try again. I feel it is our (Troop adult leadership and committee) to GUIDE an Eagle candidate to making his own determination of what is an acceptable display of leadership. I feel it is NOT our responsiblity, nor do we even have the right, to "approve" a project. We simply acknowledge with our signatures that we have done our duty to guide the Scout. Approving the project is the duty of the District Advancement Chair, and reviewing it after completion to determine if it adequately met th

Saltheart, I too missed the start of this current bout of acrimony. Might be better if we stayed ignorant though, heh? Just curious: What's behinf your screen name? It seems like it could have an interesting story. Mark

In what way would adding a tenure requirement to early ranks advance the Aims of Scoutiing better than the currect methods? I am not being contridictary. I think there is room for healthy debate on this, and, if great minds like ours (well, maybe great minds like everyone else's LOL) can agree that there is value, maybe we should try to appoach National? Certainly, I hope we all agree that until National added this requirment, we would be in no position to do it ourselves, right? Mark

I noticed my last post conflicts with one earlier in this thread. Now I'm not sure I remember whether it was Personal Management or Family Life. I think more likely it was Personal Management. Sorry for the confusion, if any. Mark

Advisor FB, Thanks for saving me the typing! "DITTO THAT!" Mark

Eamonn, I too had a similiar circumstance. A boy who transfered to our Troop from another state did nothing toward Eagle for about two years. A number of us tried to coax him to do the last 4 MBs he had left to do (he already had a project completed when he got to us). He just made no effort. He was a grade ahead of his age, so he was already away at college when he was turning 18. He came home from school the weekend before his birthday, and called me asking to do Personal Management MB. This requires a three month budget, which he had yet to start. I explained to him that it was not po

Rudd, I applaud the spirit in which your old Troop set this minimum. However, I too have a problem with it, and let me try to give an example that explains why. You want to hold Scouts to a high standard. Great. I agree. You feel the high standard is 200 hours. If I wanted to hold the Scouts in our Troop to our interpretation of a high standard, we could impose a 500 hour minimum for projects. that's two and a half time your standard. And if OGE wanted to really be an SOB, his Troop could impose a 5,000 hour minimum. That would really be a high standard, right? At som

OGE, Your suggestion seems so much like what our Troop does, I wonder if you copied from us (or maybe we copied from you?). I only have one thing to add. I'm guessing that you were intend on discribing the planning process, and figured this point is the next step. But it's important to remember, because good planning will turn into bad execution without it. Follow up. Once the plan is made this way, you have a group of people who are committed to making it work because it is their plan. Unfortunately, that commitment doesn't always maintain the same intensity weeks and mont

I've come to learn in my timne in this forum that almost all of the participants have a niche in which all of the answers on that subject seem to be right on (Don't worry, I figure mine out sometime!). This one is perfect for EagleDad, I think. I've seen him tackle very similiar issues with a great deal of valuable thoughts and ideas. EagleDad? Mark

As the PL, I would use the divide and win over tactic. For the sake of the discussion, I am going to assume the APL is the know - it - all. My first act would be to pull everyone together and begin asking questions that would lead to the group deciding as a unit to put aside the catapualt project in favor of the things that are scheduled. "Mr. Lashing, it's certainly true that pioneering is a very valuable part of the skills Scouts must have. I'm glad you want to share those skills." "Yes Mr. PL, if lashing needs done, I'm your guy!" "Great Lash! I knew I could count on you

Being funny must have run in the family genes. In my early adult life (as I remember looking through the fog that has built up over those many years!), I worked at a clothing store where I sold clothes to Bob Hope's nephew, Milton. Everyone in the store just loved when he came in. He had us salespeople, the counter staff, even other customers in stitches (yeah, I know, REALLY BAD PUN!). He had a way of saying the most rude things and making people feel good about hearing them. He picked on my weight all the time. And it was hilarious. We had one girl who was quite well endowed, and was very se