pamalam

When our previous troop split up, those of us who left scrambled to find a chartering organization. We decided that we wanted to take our time in order to find an organization that had our best interests at heart and would be supportive of our boys. We were told by council that we could charter the troop as "Friends of Troop X" for 6 months or 1 year. We met at the Scoutmaster's house and had a COR who was very supportive of the troop. We chose to do that for a 6 month period but were lucky enough to find our perfect chartering org. in a fewer months than that. We just finished writin

Yeah! Our troop just purchased a 6X12 trailer to store and haul all our gear. The trailer will be stored on the property of our Chartering Organization. Do any of your troops have such a trailer? If so, what do you do for insurance? We would like the insurance policy to belong to the troop and not be tied to the church or any individual troop family. Is this possible? We are having trouble finding and insurance company that would be willing to let us sign. Thanks for your help, Pam

I'm a trainer for the Constituent Response department at Focus on the Family (which explains some of my political views) :-) The diversity of folks that participate on this board is amazing! Pam

Our troop does not have a set standard for attendance requirements. If a scout attends meetings, events and campouts, he will advance. I think that adults are trying to control the kids too much. Also, I'd like to address your statement that without campouts it would take a boy 3 years to attend 10 troop events. This makes me think that your troop isn't having enough events. For example, in the next two months our troop events include: Helping with 1 pack crossover, a merit badge workshop, helping with 2 pack pinewood derbys, helping with an Eagle service project, day hike, camping tr

Actually, it was Dr. Pepper, not Pepsi. This all happened after 9/11 and the story has been circulating long after they stopped printing the cans. If you ever have questions on this kind of thing - go to www.truthorfiction.com and you can find the truth. Pam

TwoCubDad - yes, I'm still here. I'm following this discussion intently. Everyone here has great ideas. I'm not really in a position to do anything about what happened on the trip and am waiting to see what the SPL decides. He's going to read through this string and see what he thinks. You know what is funny (not really) is that I can't remember the last time a boy got sent home from one of our troop activities. It has been needed so many times but wasn't done. I think this is because of fear of the parental reaction. So many parents will not admit that their child has a beh

I was present at the last campout and this trip. At the last campout, the PL and Historian hold up in a tent at a 'camporee' type event and did not show leadership in any capacity. They did not participate in any events and did not assists with any chores. This trip, we stayed in a condominium. Once again, they did not participate in cooking or cleanup. One evening they used a rope to tie the handle of the door to the stair railing so that the boys inside the room(the entire rest of the troop) could not get out. These incidents may seem innocuous but it just seems to be a const

We're in a quandry - our troop has a few members who are consistantly causing problems on campouts and during troop meetings. They are all in positions of leadership - which is at the crux of the problem. These boys comprise more than half of the PLC. On our last trip, their antics continued and the SPL asked for help from the SM. The SM gave them a 30-60 second talking to and let it go. He doesn't feel that it was any big deal and told other that there were only minor problems on the trip and that they were dealt with at the time. However, the SPL (and the boys and adults that were

Thanks so much everyone! I can see that every district has their own way of doing things. I ended up calling council. The secretary in charge of Eagle paperwork said that getting recommendation letters is not 'required'. That's as far as she would go. I'll have Nathan give the District Advancement Chairman a call tonight and see what he prefers. Pamalam

Ok, now I get it. It's not required, but if you want to speed things up and not cause a hassle for the BOR, you get the recommendations in writing ahead of time. Thanks so much! I'm so excited for my son, he has worked SO HARD for this. He's got one more requirement for Emergency Preparedness and he'll have all of his merit badges done. Then, he can schedule his SM conference and BOR! Whoohoo!

Thanks for the link and for all your input. As for what the PLC is not making headway on...just about everything. They're moving forward on the troop calendar (the committee would like a year mapped out in advance so they can work out a budget), but troop meetings, campouts, summer camp plans, plans on how to help out the new scouts that are crossing over in the next months etc. are being planned at the last possible moment. A lot of the problem has to do with the fact that the boys in our troop all came from a troop that was as far from boy-led as you can get. Basically, the old troop

I've seen on previous topics that folks were discussing Eagle recommendation letters. My son is in the process of filling out his Eagle application and I haven't seen anything indicating the need for recommendation letters. The application does, however, have a space for names, addresses and phone numbers of those willing to make a recommendation on behalf of the Eagle candidate. Am I missing something? Pamalam

Hi all, I have been reading the forum forever and have found many valuable insights and ideas. I thank all of you for being willing to share your knowledge and experience. I was hoping that you would let me know how you feel about an idea that my son had. My son is SPL of a troop that is 3 months old. He and the rest of the PLC have a lot of things to decide on and work out in order to get the troop up to par. They have been having a 1 hour PLC meeting twice a month but they don't seem to be making much headway. My son would like to toss out the idea of having a PLC chat.