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I agree completely with emb021 and LongHaul on this one! TLT assumes way too much on the part of the SM or whoever is delivering the program. The assumption that an adult has been through the new Woodbadge course is a bit too presumptuous, IMO. The old JLT course was dated, but at least you could put together a decent course by selecting items from a menu of choices. The new TLT forces you to basically develop your own program from the ground up. That is bound to give rise to inconsistent quality of TLT. And for those of us who already work two jobs in addition to our hour a week, it's to

Calico, I have not found anywhere a prescribed (or proscribed) process for developing any court of honor, Eagle or otherwise. Out troop's long-standing tradition (since before I joined the troop) has been to let the Eagle and his family plan the ECOH, subject to approval of the troop (specifically, the SM). We do provide guidance, resources, samples of past ECOHs, etc., to help develop a meaningful ceremony. The troop then implements the plan. This has the benefit of making the ceremony truly special for both the Eagle and his family. Over the years we have had elaborate ceremonies a

Yesterday's ECOH for Scout #2 (see the original post) has come and gone. The boys in the troop did a marvelous job of creating a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so to speak. Last Monday (less than a week before his ECOH), I finally saw his first draft of the ceremony. It was very rough, had holes in it, didn't include father's pin, mentor's pin, or the eagle pin the scout's mom had bought for her son to give to his grandmother. Didn't have names of people he wanted to participate: master of ceremonies, presenter, Eagle Charge, invocation/benediction. Had not planned for a rehearsal. We dis

There's the Troop-based version, but it's been watered down too much IMO. The new NYLT is excellent. Consider that your scouts are essentially going to camp for another week: the money pays for certain course materials, food, insurance, staff, etc. I sent two boys last years and they came back so much more enthusiastic and fired up than the boys who went to the earlier version. If the cost is prohibitive for the boys, consider asking your troop committee to budget money to pay all or a significant share of the cost for x number of boys each year. My committee does that (without regar

There are a number of Eagle ceremonies that make reference to a light box that enables illumination of the different colors of the Eagle medallion or the badge. Does anyone know where I can find plans to construct a light box? Or where to purchase one? Haven't had much luck finding one online...I did find one picture that gave no indication of size or any details about how to build it (such as getting the image on a sheet of transluscent plastic, bulb type/wattage, how large it should be to be effective, etc). Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I'm sorry if this sounds negative, but I am really starting to wonder where the "magic" is in achieving Eagle. My troop has produced three eagles in the last year. All of them finished their requirements with only a day or two left before they aged out. Our troop is most definitely not an Eagle mill. We've only "produced" 5 in the last 6-7 years (including these 3). Scout #1 finished his requirements in January, had his EBOR in early March. His ECOH was not held until mid-September, after he was attending college. The purported reason for delaying was the his mom didn't want to deal with

I agree. If an adult won't provide a DL number, then he can drive no one except his own family. I wonder how often anyone checks to be sure that the drivers you have on your lists actually have the minimum insurance they said they did the first time they drove for the unit? In my council, I don't know what happens to the tour permit with driver list. I know that the lady checks key items (like destination, activity, training, and number of seats available), approves it and gives me my piece. The rest gets put into a pile. What happens to the pile? Who knows? Maybe they just get tosse

I checked the link in epalmer's post above. My troop has made custom neckerchiefs for years. They are a plain cotton broadcloth triangle with our troop patch sewn on. We need new ones - have already obtained new patches with updated text on them, but have not yet cut/sewn the fabric. The last few years, the neckerchiefs seemed to be too small. So last night I followed the directions in the link. If I read correctly, BP's original neckerchief was a 32" (finished size) SQUARE of fabric that was then folded into a triangle before rolling and placing around the neck. While it is "full", I fou

My district will approve a very limited number of blood drives annually for ESLSPs. The overarching rationale seems to be that a blood drive will qualify if the goal is to bring in some significant increase in donors beyond what the Red Cross would normally expect to get at that time/place. Sometimes it involves recruiting a few additional volunteers to help with shepherding people around, serving refreshments, etc. Most of the "leadership" work is involved in publicity to get more people to show up. I believe that is more "doing the work yourself" than providing leadership. To my way of

Ryan, Welcome to the forums. I'm glad to see that many units are actively involved in Scout Sunday. From my vantage point, the 12th point of the Law gets short shrift. Perhaps my perspective is a bit different. First, I am a Preacher's Kid (my dad was a pastor) so I was in church every week from the day I was born (at least until I got to college and exercised for a couple of years my prerogative NOT to go!). I am also a church organist and choir director (for the past 26 years), so I am very involved with the services at the church I serve. And I am SM for a troop chartered by a dif

A number of years ago we had a similar problem. We solved it by letting the boys identify the problems and come up with the solutions. What they developed over a period of 2 or 3 weeks was a sort of contract that every member of the troop - and their parents - was required to agree to and sign. It spells out basic expectations that the boys identified (such as decorum, having the scout handbook, wearing the uniform, a few specific discipline items) and a series of consequences (also developed by the boys). Yes, putting up the sign, appealing to the Scout Oath and Law, training...none of t

Last night I passed out copies of the two photos to each of the patrols and asked them during the evening to see if they could identify who was in the pictures. No other info provided. In the closing circle, I asked them if they figured it out. Two boys volunteered that Gerald Ford was in the picture, but weren't sure which one he was ("I don't know what he looked like as an adult..."). I guess those two were at least aware of the "news" of the last week and put two and two together. Anyway, for my SM minute, I set the stage for the political sense at the time (Agnew/Nixon, Vietnam W

I wonder how many of the leaders in those photos imagined at the time - even a teeny bit - that they were helping to mold a young man who would one day be President of the United States. How many of our own young men are destined for greatness?

"The National Council authorizes a local council to use BSA proprietary marks (i.e., insignia, words, phrases, designation marks, pictorial representations, and descriptive marks relating to the BSA) on materials created solely for the council to use in the promotion and delivery of the Scouting program." So does this clause permit me, at the unit level, to use the proprietary marks as part of my unit program? For example, on my unit's letterhead, recruiting materials, powerpoint presentation, etc., where I do the design and production and no outside party is involved? Does my unit "

I would have done exactly what you did. In my experience, youth frequently fail to follow through. They don't seem to get too upset if an event gets canceled or throttled back because of their inaction. Money doesn't seem to be a big issue for them, because their parents are always willing to reach into their pockets. There's another problem with youth following up on some of these things: town hall (for permits, etc.) is usually open only during the hours these kids are in school. That automatically restricts their access. Sometimes we adults just have to assume the responsibil

[RANT] I think our society has become entirely to focussed on feelings. In our perhaps well-intentioned (perhaps misguided) efforts avoid offending anyone at any time, we have become a nation devoid of humanity. We are so fearful of even the possibility of offending someone that we minimize ourselves. Humor has always worked by having someone/something as an object. Sometimes it's men, sometimes women, sometimes the "disadvantaged", sometimes blondes, sometimes [fill-in-the-blank]. I firmly believe that if you happen to be part of the object group, and you find a joke offensive, GE

Is BSA going to come after me because I use the BSA logo on my own troop's publicity materials (a full-color brochure that I design and print)? And on our troop letterhead? How about the printed materials that I have produced for adult recruitment conferences? (The materials were printed gratis - no one made any money.) There are legitimate needs to control the use of trademarks. Doing so to excess is a double-edged sword. BSA may be about to be hoist on its own petard.

In my troop, the scout merely lists on his application the names and contact information information "who would be willing" to provide a reference. Our practice has been that our Committee Chairman telephones those individuals and has a personal chat with them, taking notes as they talk. Occasionally he gets a couple to actually write a letter of recommendation. Last summer I assumed the reference task while our CC was out of town for several weeks, so that an EBOR could be held two days after he returned (I also set up the EBOR for him). I didn't have time to call everyone, so I pro

"We have a bunch of old merit badge pamphlets in our quartermaster, but I don't think there are any that old." Don't you let your quartermaster have any real food? I hope they were tasty!

My troop joins with a number of other interested people helping to sort toys contributed to the Toys for Tots campaign. Locally it's sponsored by the Marine Corps Reserves unit. We spend a day unloading truckloads (as in 40-foot trailers) stuffed with bags and bags of toys, then sort them by age/gender, then pick items to fulfill requests made to them by various community-based social service agencies. For example, one agency might need 15 toys for boys aged 4-5 and 22 toys for girls aged 11-13. It's a fast-paced operation. I can't imagine how many tons of toys are handled. No wrappi

Perhaps a CE who denies seeing something might be demonstrating "plausible deniability". Even though he might have seen it or knows of it, he could believe that saying that he doesn't know anything about it might infer that it does not exist. Maybe that's the game plan from Texas? This kind of stuff happens frequently in the corporate world. The truth eventually comes out.

Epalmer84, thanks for the explanation of hoist by one's own petard. When I posted before I had a hunch that it might have a meaning similar to this, but was too lazy to look it up. And I never caught the line when last I saw Hamlet... The etymology conjures up images that I'm not sure I want to pursue, especially when linking it the the hoist phrase. OK, I'll behave now.

Petard? I had never run across that word before. It shows up as one of the WordPower entries in the (I think) current issue of Reader's Digest. Now I see it here (and, like FB, am curious as to how one would be hung on one).

Does anyone have a copy of the aforementioned communication from National about this? I just checked the website and it appears that nothing in this area has been changed since June, 2005. If there are changes in procedures for us to be able to use the BSA logos, it would be good to know about them before we need to use them. Making an example out of a unit is a poor way to foster cooperation.

Eamonn, I'm sorry if I misunderstood your intent. When you mentioned drugs and alcohol, I took that to refer to illicit drugs - not prescribed meds. I apologize. Based upon the picture that I saw and the news coverage, I would bet that drugs/alcohol were not involved. I also suspect that there is shared culpability. In a parade, one normally cannot drive fast - usually about a walking speed or slower. Therefore, the likelihood of unsettling bumps and quick starts/stops is very much minimized. There were no reports of driver misbehavior, and his vehicle did not strike another.