pargolf44067

@@resqman, that sounds awesome!

This story is definitely not as awe inspiring as the photo that @ posted in the post above this, but I have to share a story that happened at camp yesterday. I have an older scout (has been in the troop for over four years) that hadn't been able to pass the swim test in his first four times at Summer Camp. I had offered several times to work with him at our community pool to try and get him over that hump, but it hasn't worked out well. So yesterday as I was preparing to head down to camp after work, I was speaking with one of my leaders and he mentioned that Alex needed to speak with

Our troop leaves for summer camp at a camp about a half hour away tomorrow. We are going much earlier this year due to some issues with our original dates. Very disappointed that for the first time since before I took over originally in 2005, the troop has no high adventure planned for the older scouts. Couldn't get enough boys interested. Hopefully next year, we will start another long streak!

I think this would be great hands on training. However, if @@Stosh and @@jr56 think that the cost and amount of training initially proposed would drive the majority of the volunteers away, imagine how much further it would diminish if they were expected to survive in the woods like that!

We had a dad who didn't get involved at the pack level. His son and my son were in the same den. He was an Eagle Scout (as were his brothers) but he let his wife be involved. She was a DL and very involved at the pack. The dad would come on pack campouts, and would help when needed, but otherwise let his wife do all the volunteering. As soon as his son crossed into the troop, there he was volunteering to be an ASM, getting trained, going on campouts, including a high adventure. He worked well with the boys. He was also big into the sports side with both his son and daughter. His son to

Sounds like a great day! That's really what being scouts is about!

We have a rather large slice of tree trunk with a chain on the top. It is large and heavy and each SPL signs it and passes it along to the next SPL as a sign of the heavy responsibility each SPL has to the troop and their scouts. There are SPL signatures going back to the 1970s on this. It is a pretty cool tradition.

As part of our elections the other night, our boys that were running for SPL were talking about meeting on a separate day from a meeting so that we could have all of our meetings in a month and not have to rush through a planning meeting during the half hour or 45 minutes before a meeting. This was as part of their speeches. They asked if it would be alright and I told them if they were willing to find a day that worked for most of the PLC, I would make time to be there to observe and guide if necessary.

Thanks @ for clarifying the method. I should have explained it in my OP. We have held ours either annually or semi-annually depending on the size of the troop at the time. Right now, the boys haven't been held accountable at all for their responsibilities. I don't think that they are looking to start firing people. Before we held the elections, we let the boys know what the duties for all the positions were and that we (both the SPL/ASPLs with my assistance) were definitely going to be holding them accountable.

We had troop elections last night for the first time since I have come back as SM. The current SPL was not running again, so I let him handle the elections last night, and he did a pretty good job. Those running for SPL had to give a brief speech explaining why they wanted to be SPL and what things they would do as SPL and answer any questions that the boys had. Just to be clear, I did not talk to any of the boys beforehand about where I thought the program could be improved or how we might do it as a group. As each of the boys came up, they all noted that the boy leaders needed to have

We did that when we were out at Philmont two years ago. Definite lack of water when we were out there.

I did say "for the most part" !

We had four packs fold at recharter last year for the same reason. Two of them had been around for over 60 years. Very sad.

Obviously, different troops do it in different ways. We have had boys/families who decided not to do an ECOH. The only thing our troop provides is the typical Eagle awards pack (neckerchief, slide, award and patch and mom/dad and 1 mentor pin. The families do everything else, so in a sense what @@Stosh and @@blw2 are saying is kind of what happens in our troop. There is some coordination with the family on the troop calendar, but if the date they want to do is not a huge issue, the family picks that date and makes all the arrangements themselves, including arranging the place where they wa

Not to speak for @@blw2, but I think that is what he has been trying to do is get someone that he can train over the next 9 months, but no one has stepped up.

@@blw2, Sorry man. That stinks that you had very few parents show up. I honestly don't think most of them will care if you recharter or not. Actually, one of the Webelos leaders will probably step up so their group can get through AoL, but that isn't the solution the pack needs. Good luck with the situation. Hard to see the hard work you put in go down like that.

@@Stosh, I usually agree with you, but in this case the family is the one making the arrangements and it is the committee members that are complaining about when it is. I think Barry is right that it is the CC that is trying to put his will on the family as to when they should have it. It doesn't sound like they are asking the troop to do anything for it, just trying to line up a weekend that is available at the church. If the Eagle Scout wants to have it when his mom is in town and that doesn't work for the CC, who cares. We have had a few occasions where there are a couple of things

Hopefully, the situation for the OP works out better than the one here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/schaumburg-hoffman-estates/news/ct-autism-boy-scouts-lawsuit-met-20150601-story.html

Actually, as SM I have never MC'd the ECOH program. The Eagle Scout and his family come up with the program and usually I am asked to present the Eagle award, neckerchief and parent pins (give to the scout to give to the parents). Usually it is one of the Eagle's buddies doing the MC'ing and some of his other friends or adults that are important to him that do the other parts of the program that he came up with.

Yes, we had to argue with council that one of our boys did NOT earn Eagle 18 years before his birthday. It was his dad, but it was like pulling teeth to get it fixed.

We sanitize and I STILL run my personal plates through the dishwasher at home.

Our ECOHs are all arranged by the families. Most have them at our CO in the sanctuary, but a lot have them elsewhere. The parents do try and coordinate with the troop around certain things like campout weekends, although if they are on Sunday, they are usually late enough that the scouts are back. Everyone in the troop is invited and if certain families and/or leaders are not around, then they can't come. I agree with @@Stosh that this is for the boys. Yes, we all have lives outside of scouting and there are good reasons for missing ECOHs, but this is for the boy and his family and if the

Our summer camp started doing computerized blue cards last year. Prior to camp, we input what MBs the boys are doing at Summer Camp. That way Summer Camp knows how many will be in each class. During the week the counselors input what requirements are completed as they are completed. At the end of the week, all the blue cards are printed out and given to the SM for advancement purposes. Kind of takes the boys off the hook for keeping track of their blue cards, but it is great as SM, I don't have to fill out all the blue cards prior to Summer Camp and give them to the boys when they go. St

That's what I did when I was SM and was able to get my replacement when I left. However, when he needed to step down, none of the ASMs in the troop were willing to step up, which is why I stepped back in. Need to work on this going forward!

I did all that as well, we did almost a full year of training, but being a flatlander, you can't really test how the altitude is going to affect you. Thankfully, I was able to get back out there and finish my trek after a couple of days. Blood pressure spiked a couple of times climbing up some of the trails, like Black Mtn. Unfortunately the forest fire that was just off the property caused us to have a re-route, so we didn't do Mt. Phillips like we were supposed to, but proud to say I did make it to the top of the Tooth of Time! From a physical standpoint, I don't think my son was ever as