NeilLup

Hello Keoki: There is something that puzzles me a great deal about what you have written. Your son was denied registration by the local council. So far, I understand. Your son appealed to the Region. That is his prerogative. The appeal was successful and the Region said that your son could register again. Hurrah!! You then went back to your local council and after 60 days, they essentially said "We don't care what the Region said, we don't care that the appeal was successful, we refuse to register your son." As I understand matters, they can't do that.

Hello, I am so sorry for what you and your son have gone through. It was not clear if he is again registered with the original Troop. If so, it maintaing some Scouting. If not, it may not provide what you wish but if you and your son wish to maintain some Scouting involvement, you might consider talking with the Region about having him register as a Lone Scout. This would at least allow him to continue to participate in Scouting although in a different way. I cannot speculate on the reasons for the Blue Grass Council's actions. Having been through some such actions on t

Hello Proud Eagle, 1) From one point of view, this is your problem. However, my wife has a saying "You can't save every sick kitten." Don't allow this to to remain totally on your shoulders or you will be providing an unpaid baby sitting service for parents. 2) This is your District's problem. Get your DE involved right now. If the district leadership is weak, that represents a serious problem but again, not your problem. 3) It really will be a shame if a unit with 358 months of service does not recharter. However, that service is only relevant if it helps engend

Hello Jet, I'm sure you know this, but there is no limit in the number of Troop Instructors that a Troop can have. So anyone needing a POR can meet that requirement by being a Troop Instructor.

Hello Hal, The requirement for Eagle is explicitly different. For Eagle, the Scout must hold a position of responsibility. Not to say "trust me" but I have heard this explicitly laid out at National meetings. However, you know it is so because that is what the requirements say. Hello urloony, I can only think of one possibility and even then, your Scout is probably out of luck. If your Scout had previously completed six months of Position of responsibility as a Star Scout, left that job and then was appointed APL then he did meet the requirements and was improperly d

Hello packsaddle, I understand (if not agree with) all that you have said. I do understand the contradiction between "We demand volunteers" and "Parents only are acceptable volunteers." However, there may be history or just pigheadedness that gives rise to that attitude. It might be interesting to learn if there are any non-parents now connected with the unit. As Lisabob mentioned, having the former CM sign up as a Unit Commissioner is a great idea. I know virtually no council or district that does not need more Commissioners and former Cub Scouting leaders are in particula

Hello Momof7Scouts, From what you have just written about the other Scouts in your Troop, I would suggest that you or the SM meet with the District Commissioner, District Training Chairman, District Advancement Chairman or all of the above. Outline the problem and the backlog of Scouts who are non-advancing because of this problem. Suggest and ask that the District put together an ad-hoc SWAT team to come in and help this unit, do some quick training, mentor the Troop leaders as they meet with each of these Life Scouts and quickly get them back on the Eagle trail. (Perhaps your

Hello You Can Make A Difference, Through experience, I have learned that a question like yours is a flashing red light and warning siren. Because if the SM and Committee agreed on the situation, you wouldn't need to ask the question. That suggests to me that: 1) The SM (perhaps that is you) wants to dismiss the boy 2) The Committee does not yet want to dismiss the boy I don't believe that you'll find written anywhere in Boy Scout literature a concise "Procedure for expelling a Scout from yout Troop." It is painful and different in each case. I can only suggest

Congratulations to you and your son, MomofScouts, I can understand his frustration. I can only suggest that he be reminded of the statement from JFK "Life is unfair." The odds are that your husband should move to another Troop. At a certain point, one's effort is better spend places where the resistance is less severe.

Hello Momof7Scouts: I apologize if my earlier post was not clear enough. I'll try again. The problem, plain and simple, is a) with your unit's "Eagle Adviser" b) with your District which is allowing the "Eagle Adviser" to be a complete gatekeeper and roadblock but mainly with the Eagle Adviser. You can spend all the additional time that you choose looking at Eagle requirements, etc. but I believe that will not gain much for you. You know what the requirements are, what your son has done, etc. I believe that the problem will continue until you, your son,

Hello momof7scouts: From what I am reading, this has moved beyond being an Eagle Project approval and has become an ego challenge. Not being on-site, it is difficult to give guidance on how things are best handled. If it is possible to find a fair witness/negotiator like a good Commissioner to work your way through the morass, it might help. I will comment that the Eagle process is now specifically designed to prohibit one person with a hair up their tail from blocking the Scout from being considered for Eagle Scout. I still think allowing this unit "Eagle Adviser" to block

Maybe I am dating myself horribly. But I remember that once upon a time, there was a suggestion that each Den should have a conduct candle. The candle is lit and burns for each meeting. However, when any Cub Scout displays poor conduct, the candle is blown out for that entire meeting. With much notice, fanfare and explanation. The the entire conduct candle is burned, then the den gets a party. Maybe today's Cub Scouts are much too sophisticated for a conduct candle. But in those days, actions like this would cause the conduct candle to be blown out and every Den member

Hello Beavah, I understand your comments about not getting the Scout Executive involved. My reason for suggesting the SE was that when I have seen situations like this, and I have, not uncommonly, the troll involved is one of the good old boys and if you go to the volunteer structure, you risk it being that you are complaining to one of this guy's buddies and making things worse. This guy may be one of those people who believes that every Eagle should be 17 years old and if somebody younger comes along, he'll keep throwing up roadblocks until the kid gets older. As I beli

Occasionally, one runs across someone who believes that they are Horatius at the Bridge protecting the purity of the Eagle project and the Eagle process. It can be really unfortunate. There may be no easy answer but what I would be tempted to do is the following: Prepare a presentation package with the work that your son has done, the proposals that he has written, problems he has faced, etc. Ask for a meeting with your council's Scout Executive to discuss your son getting turned off to Scouting as a result of the Eagle process. (Make sure that your son concurs with your doi

You'll have a great time in our council 1) It's not a long walk. Maybe 3 miles. Plus time stopping at the various sights. 2) I would expect Plymouth and Salem to be open. Both represent at least a half day and driving distance for each is 30-60 minutes from Sayre. Note that Salem is north of Boston and Plymouth is south. 3) Nothing special is listed on the council calendar. There may be some special things happening in town that you can find out about as time gets closer 4) Make reservations now and get in deposit. The cabins do fill up. Boston in Febru

Gunny, I appreciate your comment. I was using "congruent" in more the mathematical sense of "congruent triangles" which are triangles that have the same three angles and same three side lengths, i.e. they are identical in every way. When I looked up "congruent" on dictionary.com, the definition was "coinciding exactly when superimposed" -- again a mathematical definition. So my point was that I have known and seen parents who expect their children's values to be identical to theirs in every way even to punishing the child if they express a disagreement. And I do find that cree

I fully realize that my post here is calling fire down upon my own position. I find hyperparenting creepy. I find parents who treat their children a little like first base creepy (don't get more than 10 feet away, you might get picked off.) I find parents who consider their children to be possessions, or robots or their entertainment creepy. I find parents who expect their children's values to be congruent to theirs creepy. I find parents who do their children's homework or do their children's Scouting requirements to be creepy. Children are an entrusted blessing. If one

Another option to consider at age 15 is that he can become a Venturer if there is a Venturing Crew nearby and serve as a Den Chief while a Venturer. Venturing is the program for youth age 14-20.

Let me make sure I understand. Ordinarily, we need to use whips and chairs to get kids to wear the full Scout uniform. And yet there is a question about whether a young man age 18 or 19 can proudly wear his full Scout uniform at his own or someone else's Eagle Court of Honor Setting a powerful example example for everybody in sight. Communicating to younger Scouts that the uniform is a great thing. Am I in La la land? Why in this circumstance would we EVER not want a Scout or former Scout to set a proud example and honor another Eagle Scout? The uniform is one of the

Stosh, YOU have the convenience of picking the mom that you want to model. The Scout with bullying parents who has been elected Patrol Leader does not. He has learned leadership styles from the parents and other leaders with which he is associated. No one is arguing that bullying is acceptable. I am suggesting that for untrained youth being put into a leadership position, bullying will be one of the leadership styles that result. We need to teach the Scouts how to lead without being bullies. But I would suggest that is an outcome which comes at the end of the process and th

With respect, it's me and jblake, I believe that "bullying" or at least the perception is an essentially unavoidable consequence of youth leadership, particularly for untrained youth. The reason is that youth leadership in Scouting is one of the first real opportunities that the Scout has to lead and has to learn how to follow other youth. However, his model is likely his parents, teachers, older siblings, and leadership seen on TV. That is what he knows. And that style of leadership, while perhaps acceptable from parent to child can be very problematical with youth peers. H

Hello BrianScout, I am truly sorry for the very bad training experience you had. You deserve so much better than that. I can give one tiny bit of experience that may explain part of what you are seeing. Your top Council Leadership is probably aware, at least in the back of their consciousness, of the training situation in your district. Sometimes, our choice is what to do when the current leadership is not doing the job but there is no clearcut choice to replace them. The situation can become particularly difficult if the current leadership has been in place a long time, like

I can see one possibility for this "requirement." It could be that the District Advancement Committee is giving project approvals which are not good permanently but only for 6 months, telling the Scout that a priori. So they would say they are not adding a requirement because the requirements to say that the project must be approved by the district and their approval is only good for a certain period of time. Having said this, I don't think that National would look kindly upon this approach if, and when, a Scout appeals his project being rejected because its approval "expired."

Hello ScoutMomSD, I have been following this thread with interest. But this one statement of yours tweaked me a bit: "I know that most kids are molested by folks they know including parents and relatives and friends. I know there are many married pedofiles." With respect, your second statement is, as I understand matters, quite incorrect. There are NOT many married pedophiles. Because THERE ARE NOT MANY PEDOPHILES OF ANY SORT, married, single, gay, straight, male, female, young old, etc. Those that there are can do incredible damage and our caution is well advised but,

Hello Lisabob, A lot of great advice here. I would just also support that Scouting is supposed to be fun for kids and adults. When it's not, it's time to do something else. I would also just suggest a couple of perhaps less obvious things to consider to do that might be fun and rewarding for awhile. If you are an OA member, become more active working with the OA. Perhaps become the adult adviser to one of the lodge or chapter officers. OA kids are great fun. Same sort of thing with the Venturing Officer's Association. You also can become one of the adult staf