NeilLup

Bob White is exactly correct. I should have said garter tabs. This particular set of yellow garter tabs had great meaning to me because they were presented by Bob Untch, former Director of the Cub Scout Division at Philmont Training Center. Bob passed away last year and we lost a great Scouter.

Hello Proud Eagle, I would be very comfortable with your statement if you would have written "The units claim that they don't have any leaders to spare to move into district positions." We have one unit that has 10 ASMs, 20 committee members and a war chest of over $10,000. They say: 1) We don't have any leaders to spare 2) We don't have any money to spare and won't have a Friends of Scouting campaign 3) Besides that, the District and Council never do anything for us. I don't necessarily fault this unit too much. It is our responsibility to make District and Co

When I look into my Scouting closet, I see: 1)The uniform from when I was a Scout. (It has really shrunk although I was my current height at age 15. 2) My green exploring uniform from when I was an explorer 3) The khaki (tan?) uniforms from when I was first an adult leader and did my first Wood Badges. 4) The forest green (khaki?) uniform from when we had Leadership Corps wearing forest green at Wood Badge 5) The current uniforms. 6) A yellow uniform shirt I picked up by error (oops, forget that.) Which do I like best? The forest green uniforms. I remember when I fir

Proud Eagle wrote this in another thread "I think part of the problem is, no one wants to do anything for the district. All the competent leaders currently in Scouting are up to their eyeballs in unit level stuff. No unit has any leaders to spare to move into district positions. The district hasn't had much luck in getting people outside of Scouting to help out either" This hits extremely close to home. If I had a nickel for every time a leader in my council told me "The only place that real Scouting takes place is a Troop" I'd be a wealthy man. I was Council Commissioner of

Great question, FOG, To some extent, it might matter why the adults are shepherding the boys. Is the reason 1) safety 2) ensuring that the boys maximize their badges earned, learning,etc. If the former, then you need to look at the camp layout, structure, etc. and do what is necessary to ensure the safety of the boys If the latter, then some training of the adults may be in order. Maybe some adult related activities or else a set of easy chairs to enable the adults to join with the SM ("The test of a good SM is the easy chair.") I have read about "hyperparentin

Hello CW, You haven't said where your SM is in this. Have you counselled with your SM and with the other adults in your Troop? Even when you are 17, it is their job to help you and provide guidance and assistance. Particularly when you are dealing with peers or individuals who were your peers and now are in subordinate positions (always a very difficult thing), you need the help and support of your SM.

Hello Greg, You're in a tough situation. Thank you for sticking with it. I've seen situations where the employees "fired the boss." One time, to my deep regret, I was the one being fired. If one loses the confidence of the employees, morale drops and productivity drops, then the bosses boss notices. If this person is any good, he or she begins making investigations talks with the employees, forms an opinion and does what they think appropriate. It doesn't necessarily even mean that the boss is completely wrong and possibly the employees are. But if the boss says "we'

I believe there may be some other factors at play here. The primary one is the "I'm an important person, those rules don't apply to me." There have been cases where very prominent Scouters went to Philmont who were clearly out of shape but insisted that they go on a trek, etc. It put the local Philmont staff and even the National office in a difficult position when someone says "I give a million bucks a year to this organization and I demand to go." At that point, Philmont can point to the weight rules which apply to everybody There also might be (although I'm not sure there ar

As I am sure you know, Bill, remember that you can, to some extent, govern his rate of earning of Merit Badges. If you don't approve him for counseling, he can't earn the badge. And while I would not ordinarily suggest a quid pro quo (I will only approve one merit badge application for each month that you are active. And active, in this case, is MY definition of active.) it might be appropriate in this case. Again, you need to make this quite clear in the Scoutmaster's Conference you hold with the boy.

Hello Bill, Welcome You have a tough challenge. That's why a Scoutmaster gets the big bucks Scouting at the 2nd Class and 1st Class level is designed for 11 and 12 year old boys. A 14 year old is a little old for that but it is no big problem. If he wishes, he could be able to speed through. However, there are requirements to be met. If the boy chooses to meet the requirements, he can advance. If he doesn't want to, then he shouldn't advance. It sounds as if the boy and/or parents read a book on college admissions and found the line where it says that be

I agree with Its Trail Day. I found myself posting much less. I would request that the stars go away.

Eisley, There are many ways that a child can make their parents proud. Your son has certainly chosen one. Congratulations and thanks to you both. You mention that he never earned the Eagle. So what? It certainly appears that he understands and is displaying Scout Spirit. My prayers and best wishes are with you.

Last September, the Key 3s of our council met and determined that volunteer leader recruiting was the most serious problem that we had. They asked the council to do something about it. So the Scout Executive and I prepared a 90 minute training on how to recruit. We start off with 45 minutes of instruction then do 45 minutes of practice and case histories. Surprise, we use the methods Eamonn listed. They work extremely well if you use them. We have now presented this 4 times to 4 districts. We have been asked back to two of those districts and last Monday, I was asked to

Not necessarily any from the point of view of KA6BSA. However, in your latter case, if the plaintiff learns that all the boys are Troop members, the plaintiff might well include the Troop, the sponsor, the local council, the BSA and possibly all the other Troop adults as defendants. And the BSA's lawyers will work hard (and probably succeed) in having them removed as defendants. If not, I believe they would be covered. Several years ago, I had the dubious privilege of being a defendant briefly in a BSA related case. I had been Council Commissioner of our council during the ti

If you like the new requirements, may I suggest that you write to National and tell them that. In particular, tell them why you like them vs. the old ones. Normally, they hear only the complaints.

Hello Outdoor Thinker, 1) It wouldn't bother me 2) Almost a dozen years ago when my daughter was on summer camp staff, the Program Director was female. Great lady. Since that time, I am very pleased to have successfully nominated this woman for the District Award of Merit, Silver Beaver and Vigil Honor. I suspect that she is a member of one of very few families where all the members are Vigil Honor (her husband and their three sons also.) My daughter was Archery Director at camp and told me that most Scoutmasters took her at face vallue, no problems. A couple gave

Packsaddle - This is very old information for you now but tomato juice does work. About a decade ago, in downtown Boston where we lived, we had a skunk living under the deck in our yard. At about 11PM New Years day, one of our cats introduced himself to the skunk. So I had to go running down to the local 7/11 saying "I need all your tomato juice RIGHT NOW!" But it was amazing. It cut the odor immediately although even though we shampooed the cat (one very happy pussy there) there still was residual odor for a couple of weeks on the cat. I agree with almost all that Bob Whit

I was an Exploring Post Committee Chairman from 1971-1973 and your facts are correct. We did have OA elections with only male members eligible for election. The reason for the advancement non-requirement is that,as I remember matters, there was only one advancement alternative at that time for Explorers -- Eagle Scout for male members. There was no advancement to First Class as an Explorer. I believe that also there was very serious consideration of youth female members of the OA at the 1973 National Conclave, where it got about 30% positive vote. I don't believe that the propos

Hello Laura, There very definitely is a National plan. However, National things are done by volunteers too. Sometimes, things don't get done on time. Sometimes, the requirements recommended by the task force are not approved by the oversight committee and need to be reworked. And then, there is a schedule for printing of the advancement books. I think there is a very simple solution although I know this will incur the wrath of a number of posters on this forum. In the words of my old Wood Badge Course Director "Don't overwork the problem." If the boys cannot convenien

Hello Eamonn, Tickets are a pain. Tickets were a pain when I first was on staff in 1971. They have been a pain ever since. They don't HAVE to be a pain and I would never suggest that someone not go to WB because of the ticket. They aren't THAT much of a pain. But they are a pain because they require that we look at our job in Scouting and decide and plan what we will do. My guidance to people I counsel and on the 21st Century courses I have done is to do the following: Vision -- Think about your job in Scouting. What is your job? What would be a really good job. N

Hello CampfireFairy, I apologize for the use of an acronym. G2SS stands for the "Guide to Safe Scouting" which is a publication that outlines, in detail, the procedures, leadership, etc. that must be used by and that is recommended for Scout leaders. You can view it or download it from the BSA national web site www.scouting.org. As far as the practical significance of capitalization and non-capitalization, in my opinion, there is none other than that it is the way that the BSA writes such things. Among other things, I suspect it enables them to protect their rights to use th

Campfire Fairy, as usual, you write and discuss well. However, the BSA in considering its policies has to consider at least 3 factors: 1) Facts 2) Perceptions 3) Legalities and liabilities The facts may be that the person or situation may be completely comfortable. However, the BSA has made the judgement that it creates an unacceptable perception to have a coed activity without mixed gender leadership. Particularly in some parts of the country, this would be considered Sodom. That is contrary to the values which the BSA wishes to espouse even facts in a particular circum

NJCubScouter makes very good points. I would only comment that there is no one "in command" of BSA publications at a level below Roy Williams, the Chief Scout Executive. Each BSA division publishes its own material. They try to coordinate with other divisions but sometimes things fall through the cracks, particularly when one publication is put to bed and ready to go out and another division changes something which is referred to in the publication. Or else, the publication is on a 3 year review cycle (or longer) and something changes during that cycle. I completely agree with BobWh

Don't we have fun! Yes, Bob, I agree that for a coed Venturing activity, there need to be both a male and female adult leader present. I hope that I never implied that I thought anything else. NJCubScouter. To me, your alternative 2 appears to be clear, logical and satisfies the requirement. The sentence from G2SS clearly states that there need to be two adult leaders and one needs to be registered. That pretty clearly means that the other one does not need to be registered. I'm not sure where the implication is that "leader" means "registered leader." I don't see that

The BSA knows how to write the words "registered leaders." If that is what they mean to say, that is what they say. "Leaders" is not a synonym for "registered Leaders." The specific paragraph out of the Guide to Safe Scouting which I just copied is the following: "# Coed overnight activities require male and female adult leaders, both of whom must be 21 years of age or older, and one of whom must be a registered member of the BSA." Note please that the paragraph is extremely clear that ONE of the leaders must be registered.