oldsm

This thread got me thinking about a situation that happened in my council a few years ago. My son spent his entire summer as a staffer at a council Cub Scout camp, except for 1 week when he attended JLTC (before it was morphed into NYLTC). At JLTC, he discovered a blind spot in one eye while demonstrating to a fellow scout how he helped the cubs determine eye dominance at the BB range. The next morning he reported it to the camp nurse, who said not to worry about it and tell his parents (me) at the end of the week. He did. We got him prompt care (a PA friend that Saturday, then an opthamo

My troop helped with our Council's Haunted Woods (a Cub Scout-oriented event that runs Friday and Saturday nights at a local Council camp). On Thursday after school, I took several boys to the camp to set up our campsite (tents, dining fly, etc.) On Friday afternoon, we went en masse. The boys unloaded wood for the campfires and constructed a 400-foot long rope maze through the woods, hung punch-out skeletons, tiki torches, etc. For the Woods, they guided/scared/haunted people coming through the maze, which ended at our campfire where we read a variety of age-appropriate scary s

Perhaps the question wasn't clear. I know that there are no Patrol Scribe or Patrol QM patches. BUT...the "troop Scribe and QM patches don't specifically state "Troop Scribe" or "Troop Quartermaster"; hence, they COULD be used in patrol positions, too. The question really is: "SHOULD they be used in a patrol setting?"

This should be a simple question, but I've not found an "authoritative" answer. Do PATROL scribes and quartermasters wear POR patches on their uniforms? For troop positions, it's obvious. For patrol positions, not so much. My understanding of the patrol positions is that they're basically training positions for later troop appointment and, since they don't count for Star-Life-Eagle PORs, they probably should not wear the patches. Besides, it can be confusing to see 4 or 5 people all running around with Scriber or QM patches. What are your practices about patrol positions? T

Not to sound flippant, but I find myself feeling strongly for all sides. I think I agree most with Eamonn that we as adults need to be trained and prepared to at least recognize the warning signs and be prepared to communicate such to our scouts. I think, though, that the kids often know more than we do. Suicide awareness and prevention are taught in our schools. A couple of weeks ago, my son was at work when he received a text message on his cell phone from a coworker (both are late teens). It took a couple of messages for my son to realize that his coworker, with whom he was at lea

Our camp goes through Saturday morning. Breakfast is followed by a camp-wide COH that takes about 20 minutes, after which people can leave. Leaving on Friday is an option for troops only if you want to pack all your gear out on Friday. No vehicles are allowed in camp before Saturday morning. We discourage parents from attending the parents night campfire on Wednesday. A few years ago we lost 4 boys from the troop because the MOTHERS couldn't bear to leave without their little ones. Our parents understand and have supported our position. Plus, they save $$$ on gas! On Friday nigh

Just as important is to be sure that the den leader knows how to use a den chief. Yes, it's important for a boy scout to go through DC training, but if the den leader doesn't use the lad effectively, the young man has a frustrating experience. It leaves a sour taste on both sides. There needs to be understanding and commitment from the den leader and the prospective den chief as to what level of involvement is desired and how they will work with each other. The den leader's one-hour-a-week is likely to expand just a wee bit.

I spent a day this weekend going through our troop MB library. I knew that we had a bunch of outdated books and the library needed to be made more current. Here's what I found. We had a total of 58 books in the library. Of these, only 15 are the current versions (and that includes multiples of a couple of them). 43 MB books are out of date, compared to the dates of the last revisions (not necessarily the last printing). Most of them are WAY out of date. Some of the books go back to 1968. Wilderness Survival: we have 7 copies: 2 current ones, and the rest are single copies of var

Thanks. I'd forgotten that.

I just found this posted on Yahoo! (July 29, 7:25 a.m. EST). I'm curious how this happened. The story doesn't state as much, but he must have completed his EBOR (and been approved) before he had to ship out. If this was just the Court of Honor, I think it's great. Too bad it took so long... ====================== FORT MYERS, Fla. - More than a half-century after he finished the requirements to earn the rank, an 88-year-old man was honored as an Eagle Scout on Saturday, making him possibly the oldest person to ever collect the honor. Walter Hart couldn't become an Eagle Scout at

My troop does the same-camp / same-week / same site routine. We have boys continually going back or else doing CIT and then going on staff. We also try to do a "high adventure" trip each year, although they're usually more of a medium-adventure trip IMO. For several years I have tried to challenge the boys in the PLC and the troop to dream big - to come up with a REAL HA excursion. I've shown them pix of Philmont, Northern Tier, and Sea Base. We've shared info about back-country camping in national parks. We actually did a trip to Gettysburg 4 years ago. Next summer I they've decided

My favorite is Citizenship/World. In school, I hated history in any form. I picked it up because there was a need in the troop. I got flak from a committee member because I opined that I didn't think a boy should undertake this MB until at least 10th grade ("It's not in the requirements!!!"). I still use that as a rule of thumb, although I make exceptions for exceptional individual cases. I have had to learn a lot preparing myself to counsel (not teach) this MB. A lot of stuff I should have learned in school. By virtue of waiting until they're older scouts, the boys have develop

After reading a similarly titled thread, all I could do was shake my head. I just returned from a week at our Council camp with 12 Scouts, Tenderfoot through Life. This was the first year that neither of my own sons was present: one aged out and was working elsewhere, the other is working at our Council Cub Scout resident camp. I witnessed a number of very revealing incidents with "my" other boys. 1. One 14-year old first-year camper with physical brain impairment and consequent difficulty with verbal communication learned how to do the side stroke so he could earn swimmer. He also earned

Both of my sons have done CIT. Son #1 did a week at Camp Mattatuck in Connecticut. He was eligible after spending a week there with the troop. During his CIT week (which cost about 1/2 the normal resident camp fee), he was rotated through the 5 different program areas, one area each morning, pretty much learning from the seasoned staff how to work that area, including the mundane stuff. The afternoons were free to pursue additional merit badges. At the end of the week, he was evaluated by the camp director, which was beneficial for both the son and the camp director. Because his performan

LongHaul, What a sad saga. I feel sorry for your council and the camp. What a money-grubbing shame. I did notice an ad for Owasippe in the latest issue of Scouting magazine. I wondered what had happened, since I've been following this issue from afar (really, just through this thread). At 1,000 miles, Owasippe is a bit far for us to go. Best wishes for a successful summer or two - maybe a couple of good years will save the camp?

We don't go for the listservs. Instead, I maintain everyone's email addresses in my own client, grouped appropriately by patrol, parents, TC, adult leaders, etc. I often send emails to the troop advising them of events, due dates for permission slips, and a host of other things that get overlooked - especially when boys miss meetings. I always cc the parents in the emails, partly for my own protection, and partly so that the parents know what's happening in the troop -- maybe, just maybe, they'll throw some encouragement behind their scouts! My problem: getting people to READ and/or

IMO, Troopmaster is a godsend. It makes my life SO much easier. We follow the rule that the book gets signed first. Then the info gets passed along for entry into TM. The wall chart might get updated, but it's difficult in our situation to display it permanently. And as someone mentioned earlier, they do get very messy over time. Another thing TM does very well is let you record activities. Like meeting attendance, service project attendance, and camping trips (even distinguishing between cabin and tent camping) and determine how many nights camping or miles hiked apply. Then you can get

ASM915, it sounds like your district has things pretty much in order. Mine sort of runs the same way, except that the DAC doesn't check blue cards until an EBOR, trusting the units to be sure that the MBCs are/were valid at the time. One thing I like is the training of MBCs. We don't do that. I'm not talking about topic knowledge, because the MBCs usually know the subject matter far better than other people. What I am talking about is the basic of counseling MBs. Things like YP, adding to requirements versus enhancing the experience, how blue cards work, etc. I recently signed up a group

What you need is a Merit Badge Counselor Application form. This gets filled out and submitted along with the adult application. The adult app provides the WHO you are, references, and the permission to do what we fondly refer to as "the FBI check". The MBCA is where you let the council know what qualifies you to counsel a particular merit badge. The one my council uses is here: http://www.ctrivers.org/pdfs/MeritBadgeCounselorForm.pdf I did a quick Google and came up with a different one used by another council: http://www.sdicbsa.org/Forms/content/advancement/MBCouncilors.pdf

We don't even get recharter packets anymore. It's almost all on-line. Our DE or the Council registrar provides each unit with an online access code and we take it from there. In my troop my CC and I do the whole thing. We sit down at my computer (he doesn't have one), and review the names that Council has on our charter. We make changes to address, phone numbers, etc., do the Boys Life thing, drop members who have left, etc. He has already contacted all of the adults based on his own records, and I know all of the boys' status. The boys are paid for out of troop funds; the adults have to

Term limits are fine IF there are people willing and able to fill the vacated positions. In my district, term limits have compounded the problems caused by people whose sons age out and then want to end their involvement. For 2 years now we have had no BS or CS Commissioner. RT's are now joint with "featured speakers". They are boring and poorly attended. We used to have separate BS and CS RTs. The BS ones were interesting and dynamic. Then term limits got in the way. Our long-term training chair is now out of the picture. She needed help, but didn't get any, and finally gave up. The

Like most troops, mine accumulates a lot of ribbons for participating in various events. Things like our district camporees, 100% Boys Life, etc. Then there are the ribbons that each patrol receives (1st place, 3rd place, etc.). For a time we hung them from the ribbon holder on the troop flag, but there got to be too many of them. So we took them off and put them on a special ribbon bar (basically a horizontal dowell suspended from a vertical pole in a stand. But that gets messed up and really wasn't a great solution. It seems that we should retain these ribbons and other awards as a

These old-timers don't add anything to the troop. They don't/won't coordinate an activity. A few of them (not all) still have money in their ancient troop accounts that gets hit to pay their dues. LisaBob makes some good points. From the perspective of those who weren't around many years ago, who are these people? Why are they there? I think it leads to confusion. I have to keep them in Troopmaster or I can't use it to recharter. It makes for (legitimate) bloated numbers and just makes this more convoluted. The only relationship they have is with the CC.

It's rechartering time again for my district. The time when we see how our records match those from the council, formalize who's new and who's leaving. The problem I see every year is with hangers-on. I'm not sure what we should do with them. I'll explain. We are rechartering tomorrow with 18 boys and 31 adults. 18 scouts (all ages) 1 SM 4 ASM (active) 3 ASM (inactive) 1 Committee Chair 1 IH 1 COR 20 Committee Members All except 1 of the Scouts are active. The other is the 2nd son of an active ASM. He attends exactly one event year (an out-of-council ski event

I don't log in. But it still takes a long time to navigate. And yes, the worst is the 24-hours screen: it times out more often than it works...