Proud Eagle

Never underestimate Kentucky weather. Just when you think it is August, and so it should be 90 with a 90 percent humidity, you will instead wind up with some freak cold front moving in and drop the temperature down to 60, but still with that 90 humidity, so everything winds up cool and very soggy. Then throw in a tornadic thunderstorm on the second night for added kicks, and then you have a weekend.

Or the previously mentioned 70 in November. Heck I think it hit 80 on Halloween this year. Some years it snows on Halloween. Most years it seems to rain.

Really, Kentucky weather isn't as hot, or cold, wet, or dry as some other places. The problem is, you never have any idea at all what the weather will actually do. You can plan a winter camp-out for a weekend that it has snowed on every time for the last hundred years, and instead you will get high 50s and a driving rain storm.

Another problem is, in Kentucky we really like our nice fall and spring weather. Most of us plan for that sort of stuff. It is also what most of our equipment is best for.

So, when we get down to summer camp and it is 90 all week, with it never dropping bellow 80 at night, all our equipment is too heavy, hot, and closed up.

In actual cold weather, that same equipment is too airy, light, and cool.

Heck, I think the legislature may have even out-lawed true four season tents the things are so rare.

Yet my council managed to find 120 four season dome tents with full length flys to take to the 2001 Jambo. Talk about hot. Of coarse, being Kentucky boys, and knowing Virginia can't be that different from Kentucky, we didn't dare take those rain flays off. We rigged the things up for bad weather as soon as we got there. That put us in good standing the afternoon the severe thunderstorms ripped through and tore everything up. Our council's tents constituted about half the tents left fully intact in the entire sub-camp. All the rest either collapsed, partially collapsed, had their doors blow open and the rain pour in, or some other unfortunate thing. In fact, despite the unfortunate lightning strike, I think most people were far too frightened by that little bit of weather, and at the same time too many didn't really seem to know have prepared for it. Don't they have thunderstorms every wear? I thought that was pretty much a universal part of weather. Anyhow, the point I was originally going to make was, that we wound up using the best winter tents I have ever slept in, for the National Jamboree, in Virginia, in late July and early August, in an area that is basically a swamp. Go figure.

Another nice thing about Kentucky is no one knows what to do about snow and ice. Sure, there are salt trucks and snow plows. But in Kentucky, we usually end up wasting all the salt on tiny little snows that don't stick in the first place, then some giant last minute freak storm hits with 6 inches of the stuff, the road crews are out of salt, and there aren't enough snow plows in the entire South to dig the place out in reasonable amount of time. (Which explains why you sometimes see private citizens taking matters into their own hands using backhoes, front end loaders, tractors, pickup trucks, even once saw a bulldozer and a lawn mower, being used to clear snow. Heck, some people have wound up shoveling their way to a cleared road after a few days of being snowed in.

Though the most fun I have had with a Kentucky winter was a the year it snowed so much they literally closed the state. All the parkways and interstates were closed. All US highways were shut down. Nothing moved. The National Guard had to use helicopters to move people between hospitals if they needed to go to one in another town for special care. It was a mess. But, there was great sledding, we missed a lot of school, and I even got to ride a snow mobile. (The snow mobile was in my dad' warehouse on the other side of town, so we didn't get to it until after a good deal of the snow was already gone.)

And I know. Every state and country has its own weather stories. I wouldn't want any part of winter in the north east. Or summer in south Texas. I wouldn't know the first thing about actually building a snow shelter (other than what the books say). Snow shoes and cross country skiing are unheard of around here. So in some ways you guys have opportunities we don't. Sure, every so often someone decides there needs to be a Klondike derby, sledges and all. However, it doesn't take long to determine that those sledge races seem a bit different in Kentucky than the ones written up in Scouting or Boys Life. Maybe it is the running them in mud instead of snow?

(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

Another area is to take the time to try to get your local paper, radio, or TV station to cover specific Scouting things that may be of interest. This is more workable in small towns where there isn't so much other news.

If there is a big district camporree at the local state park, someone should make sure the local TV station sneaks it in someway. Around here, the weather men actually do a lot of that, they will say have a brief shot of some event while summarizing the days weather, that sort of thing.

Our troop used to have the troop picture taken at camp published in the local paper. They were more than willing to provide the space.

Eagle Scout projects are frequently the source of large articles. Other times they will put something in about an Eagle COH.

I know when I did my project, and had my COH, I knew in the back of my mind that the paper often did articles on those. However, I didn't think it was very important, so I didn't make the effort to contact the paper and see if they were interested. So, I am probably one of the very few local Eagles who never received mention in the paper. Looking back, that was a mistake. It was a chance to do something that would help in a small way the public's perception of Scouting. At the time, I just saw it as self promotion, and that was something I wasn't going to spend time on when there were more important things to do.

That decision also disappointed some other people who had, I later found out, been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to clip an article about it. Oh, well.

So, I guess the best way is to start locally. Contact the small town newspapers (or even the big ones, all they can do is say no). Write something about those service projects. Talk to your local mayor about getting a proclamation made for the anniversary of the BSA.

Perhaps the best answer is, start thinking of Scouting as a news worthy enterprise. Don't think of summer camp as a routine part of the program, think of it as an amazing opportunity that other people may not know about. Those of us close to the program probably take a lot of this stuff for granted, and don't really consider as being a important thing for the community to know about.

Oh, one final thought. Word of mouth between people that know each other is far more powerful than some radio ad or news article. Spread the word on Scouting to your friends, neighbors, family, co-workers, and people you go to church with.

Just a thought.

Perhaps using sports analogies to explain the imporance of that once a year event may be a good idea.

Let everyone know it is the Cub Scout equivalent of the final tournement or something along those lines.

For the troop I am a member of...

It must be either the current, or an older version of, the troop T-shirt. Most of ours are red, with large screen printed logo on the front. The logo includes a large BSA emblem, troop number, and home town. There have been others, but that has been the norm.

We have also been one of those units to use an A, B, C, method of identifying uniforms. With A being the field, B the activities (w/troop T-shirt), and C being a Scouting T-shirt with appropriate looking other clothing.

The camp I worked at requested that all staff and Scouts wear either plain or Scouting related shirts. However, it was only inforced on the staff. (Some units enforced policies of their own). I certainly see nothing wrong with a patriotic shirt, particularly at camp, or something like that. Though it would be better if everyone had something more uniform when interacting with the public.

Long diatribe to follow. Please skip if you don't enjoy that sort of thing.

Sports does a better job of marketing to society as a whole. They also have a better starting position. Every school has many sports teams. Almost all colleges have major athletic programs. There are pep rallies for sports. There is entire section of the newspaper dedicated to sports (and at best a page per week on community groups). There are sporting events on radio, broadcast networks, satellite, and cable. Heck, card playing gets more TV time in a week than Scouting does in a year. Then there are all the celebrity athletes. Some are NHL, NBA, MLB players. Others are Olympic athletes. It is hard to convince people that Scouting is really important when society gives more of its attention to a single man (pick any of several) then it does to an entire program.

Now, some of us have had the opportunity to experience both sports and Scouting in our own lives. I personally liked Scouting more. Sure my parents encouraged me to play sports, but they also encouraged me to do Scouting. In the end, Scouting was what did it for me. I probably should have stayed in sports longer, but I wouldn't trade my Scouting memories for the all the sports in the world.

If I was a parent, I think I would look at Scouting as a more important thing. All you really need to do is look at the mission and vision and ask what do sports have to compete against that? Sure, its a great thing for Scouts to also play sports. But honestly, does every kid really need to play six sports?

The truth is though, sports have become some sort of cultural thing with a life of its own. The fact that we have so many fat kids, and fat adults, indicates the sports programs aren't doing as good of a job in promoting physical fitness as they once did. On the other hand, we now have a bunch of fanatical sports junkie parents that place the sports programs above almost everything else in their children's lives. It is pretty common for parents to write notes saying their kid couldn't do his homework because a little league game didn't end until 11:00 pm, and this for elementary age kids. There are lots of otherwise church going people who will decide to put a Sunday practice or game ahead of going to church.

I think the both the fanatics and the people that lose interest are both a product of the current sports culture. There isn't really much room any more for the kid that just wants to play for fun and doesn't really want to commit 24/7 to the team or the sport. So what happens is some people don't do any sports, while others become sports junkies.

I think this has even impacted the quality of high school athletes, at least around here. Think about this. The star basketball player in 6th grade, it is assumed, will eventually be a key player on the local high school's varsity team. At the same time, the mediocre player, it is assumed will never even make the JV team once he gets to high school. Coaches devote attention to one, not the other. One continues in the sport, the other does not. Now, three years later, they both enter high school. The former 6th grade star is now a 5'6" kid with some trouble playing against his taller contemporaries. The kid that quit playing, is now the tallest member of the freshman class. That sort of thing happens. On the other hand, if the former star had been the one with the growth spurt, maybe he would have gone on to become one of those new wonders that goes directly to the NBA from high school.

Now Scouting on the other hand is different. We don't have an MVP. We don't have an all-star team. We don't try to turn the coaches son into the star player so he will be a starter on the varsity team some day and maybe get a college scholarship. We don't demand total commitment. We don't tell a kid to give 110% or get lost.

Instead, we will take in just about anyone. We have room for the eager beaver, the slow poke, and lots of room for those normal kids, that don't want to dedicate their life to a sport, or Scouting, but instead want a place to have some fun, be with other kids, maybe learn something, and still have a life.

Something I would be willing to bet on. More Scouts probably do Scouting in their adult life, than athletes do sports. If we look at total life time as our retention goal, I bet we do better than any sport out there.(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

Eagle,

Good advice I would say.

However, I don't think he will have any trouble reaching his destination even if he doesn't have any navigational equipment at all. It also happens that he is right, the compass was the only thing on the boat that can tell which direction is which... when the boat isn't moving. I don't know why the builders didn't include a nice marine compass, or one of those digital ones. Maybe they figured you would never need it unless you were moving fast enough for the GPS to calculate it.

Eamonn,

GPS is nice, and it comes in handy on occasion, but it takes a while to really learn how to make best use of it.

Just don' throw out the old compass.

GPS can only tell which direction is which while you are moving.

If you are sitting still, it can't tell North from South, or East from West.

Though, I think there are a few models that are now including a built in digital compass, but most still don't have that.

I recently had the opportunity to tour the new house boat that had been built for a couple that is friends with my family. The couple were in the process of taking it down river from the builder to the lake they vacation at, and they made a stop in the local area.

Anyhow, this was by far the nicest boat I had ever set foot on.

It had the latest GPS with moving map display.

It had a RADAR system.

It had all the modern electronic controls.

Yet, what did I notice sitting beside the massive steering wheel on the console?

An old BSA compass.

I asked the owner about that, and he said that as far as he could tell, it was the only thing on the boat that could tell which direction was which, and it was from his own days as a Scout. So, even after a several decades, the old compass, and the old Scouting skills, are serving him better than the latest digital navigation equipment.

In my council the District Advancement Chairs organizes the Eagle BORs.

This is great for my troop, since our DAC is also our unit's COR.

In other districts, this is not so good, such as the one where the DAC spends a couple months every year down south on vacation.

Now, I have the experience of my own Eagle BOR, as well as two others to draw on.

The SM for the Scout was invited to attend, however, some choose not to.

Generally, the other board members are often the District Commisioner, and some leaders from other troops.

For my Eagle BOR, the DAC, my SM, the SM of another troop in town, my former SM, the CCs from two troops, a District committee member, and the District Commish were present. Also, a good friend of mine sent in a list of question by email through his father, who was one of the CCs. This seemed to work quite well. It was certainly the best BOR I had ever been before.

Now, our DAC also asked me to sit in on two Eagle BORs since then, for members of other troops. Both had similar composition, though one was much smaller. As to weather or not all the people on the board were technically members of the BOR, I couldn't say.

I will say, those BORs were by far the best I have ever seen. No other BOR I have seen even come close.

Now, was all of this within policy? I don't know. I have certainly never read anything to indicate it wasn't. I know for unit level BOR it is the committee that must do it. However, I have never seen anything on district or council boards that would indicate the policy, other than the SM of the Scout is only supposed to be an observer. I certainly think these boards were better than if they had simply gotten some unit committee members to do it, since most of them are not really competent to do a review for a Tenderfoot scout, let alone an Eagle. (That goes for all the troop committees in my home town.)(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

Well, we had another troop meeting last night.

I can't say that it went very well. In fact, it was a pretty poor meeting for the youth.

Fortunately, I was able to meet with the committee which helped get some important subjects out of the way.

Among the ideas I pushed was the value of training, the need to ensure we have adequate and current publications, and the fact that we can not do a good job of planning the next calendar year until we conduct a thorough examination of the troops current situation, evaluate our past performance, and determine in a broad sense our future goals.

The committee chairman also did a good job of outlining my role in the troop to everyone. I was glad someone else was able to explain that reasonably well.

Unfortunately, there were some things that were said (and not said) that caused me a good deal of concern. It turns out no one has bothered to talk with our COR about the situation. Also, no one had considered asking the church for help. Certainly the idea that the district or council could be of at least some use was not entertained.

Also, the mention of Fast Start and Youth Protection received a non-reaction that indicated that at best one or two people on the committee had ever even heard of them.

Finally, there was one issue I had considered perhaps the most important in the short term. It is certainly the issue that the youth are the most concerned about. That issue being selecting the new youth leaders for next year. It is past time for the current SPL and others to be replaced, so it really needs to be done before we take our long break for Christmas tree sales. Having the junior leaders selected before the start of the year will also allow an opportunity to give them at least some training in their positions.

Now, here is what the issue was. The last couple of times that youth leaders had been selected, they had been appointed by the SM, and the committee chair had backed up these appointments. I had indicated during a troop meeting last week that I thought we would hold elections. I was quickly informed the committee would need to take up the issue. So, I inform the committee that the troop needs to choose new youth leaders for the start of next year. I essentially then asked for their thoughts on the matter. The committee chair quickly jumps in and says we need to appoint the SPL. I then tell them that if the committee decides to appoint the SPL, there isn't anything I can do about it, but that I will not be making such an appointment.

This produced something along the lines of stunned silence.

The committee chair then comments that it sounds like I have a problem with appointing the SPL.

I explain that yes, I do have a problem with that. I happen to have my copy of the SM handbook (opened to SPL job description) laying on the conference table in front of me. I proceed to explain that elections is the means of selecting an SPL provided for in that book. I also suggest that elections are a key component of the concept of a boy-led troop.

There was a somewhat awkward pause after this.

Then it quickly became apparent that the committee was split almost in half as to weather or not to appoint the new SPL.

I think this issue may have opened up a bit of a rift in the committee. There were already some issues of contention, and this seems to have heightened the split. I also think this may have put me in poor standing with the committee chair, which isn't good.

I was able to excuse myself shortly after that, and I must say I was glad to get out of the room. The committee indicated they would discuss it more later in the meeting, but they never reached a decision.

The troop needs a SM and I am the most qualified adult in the troop, but I simply can not take the position, even though I would like to. It would not be fair to me, the parents, the committee, or the youth, since I would have to give it up by summer if not sooner, as well as a few other issues.

I don't really have to worry about them asking me to take the job at this point. Now that I have said that an Assistant Scoutmaster is what I am, and what I intend to continue being, I think they understand I don't want the job. Plus, some of them don't think I am qualified. They remember me more as a Scout, rather than seeing me as a Scouter. Unfortunately, that means a good deal of my knowledge and understanding of the program, as well as my personal connections, that could be of great use at this time, will go unused. I have a fear that I may know more about Scouting than the entire committee combined. I hope I am wrong about that.

Oh, and no, I am not in Louisville any more. That is where I was going to school. I have been back home since the end of summer, and I will be staying here until at least the start of summer 2005.(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

Thank you all for the information.

There is one item that would seem to be just the sort of thing we need given our current circumstances, but that I am unable to find in the catalog or on the scout stuff web site.

That item is the Selecting and Recruiting Leaders pamphlet.

If anyone has any idea if perhaps this has a new name, or where it could be found, I would appreciate it.

Thanks again.

In KY there is no electioneering within 300ft of a polling place. They even post notices about this at all the polling places.

In my town most polling places are churches, with the second most being schools.

I have to drive past one church used as a polling place, and then one school used as a polling place, to reach the church that is my polling place.

I voted a little before 2:00 central time.

One other guy slipped in the door just ahead of me so I had to wait a few seconds while they found his name on the list.

Then they found my name, I showed them ID, signed the book, voted, got my sticker, and left. As I was pulling out of the parking lot an older couple showed up. Pretty slow going at that hour.

My parents on the other hand encountered a line out into the rain when they showed up a couple hours earlier, so they ran some erand and went back to find a much shorter line.

I have only missed one chance to vote, and it was for a primary.

While it is a bit frustrating that they hide things, it is not suprising.

I know the oa-bsa.org site also has a good amount of information that can only be accessed if you know the exact address. An example would be the information presented in a NOAC training session I attended this year. The sylabus, power point presentation, and other information are hidden in the OA shows web site, simply because one of the guys doing the training knew someone in shows who could get it online.

Quick question related to applications-

When is a boy considered a member?

Is it after completing the application and paying the fee or after completing all the joining requirements in the handbook?

At what time should the temporary membership certificate be given to the boy?

I agree that these are all things parents should read and pay attention to. In fact, it might be worth giving everyone a new application and asking that they read over it just to get the point across to the current Scouts and parents.

Actually, you are close, but not quite right.

My understanding is you may be a member of as many councils as you wish. However, you may only be a member of one OA Lodge at a time. That OA Lodge must be the lodge for a council in which you are registered.

That being said, it is possible to pay dues in multiple lodges so that you recieve their mailings and such, and to attend events at multiple lodges. The trouble is making certain they understand which lodge you are actually a member of.

An example of how this sort of thing could happen may go like this:

A Scout turns 18 and becomes a SA in their home troop.

Then they move away to college, but maintain contacts at home.

The 18 y/o joins a Venturing Crew as a youth in the place their college is located, which happens to be in another council, while maintaining registration in the old troop.

Now this person could choose to be a member of either lodge, and if they wished, could pay for mailings in the other, and attend the events and activities of both.

I have taken both Youth Protection and Boy Scout Fast Start on-line. Both were located on the servers of scouting.org.

However, the only on-line training I can find now is the Venturing Fast Start.

What happened to the other on-line training? Why is BSA apperently backing away from on-line training?

It seemed like such a good way to offer those early trainings. The interactive nature of the on-line versions was much superior to the videos normally used, in my opinion. It also makes it easier to update the coarses, since new videos don't have to trickel down to the leaders. Most importantly, it allowed leaders to recieve training at the time most convenient for them. In my case, I think I did both sometime in the early AM in my appartment at college one night when I discovered the links to them on the Lincoln Heritage Council website.

OK, minor update.

It now appears that BSA has removed all links to online training from its national web site, but some councils, including the Trans-Atlantic Council, still have these links. I can't even begin to guess why this is the case.(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

Bob White suggested training as resource number one on another thread about the books, manuals, materials, and resources that a troop needs.

I happen to agree that is probably the most important resource we could provide is training.

Unfortunately, it is also by far the hardest item to get access to. If that wasn't enough, it is also the hardest thing to get people to use even when they have access to it.

Now, in my district, training is pretty much non-existant, and it has been non-existant for quite some time. Also, the council only conducts a very limmited schedule of council wide trainings. It usually does one Woodbadge, one Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills, one JLT, and one Den Chief Training each year. It also has a Powder Horn about every other year now. Now, obviously the council doesn't need to conduct all the training at council level, but it would be great if they would let everyone know when a district is conducting training so those of us in poorly organised districts can at least have some opportunity.

So, question number one is-

How do we ensure we have sufficient access to training? What can we, as unit leaders, do to make certain all the leaders in our unit at least have an opportunity to be trained (which most have not)?

Second, even when training is available, it is quite difficult to get people to commit to going to it. Sometimes people are just too busy, others don't understand the need for training, and still others just aren't willing to put in more time even when they have it.

How do we convince people to go get training?

No one really seems to know what level of training they are expected to have. I know that all unit leaders are supposed to at least be Fast Start trained before taking on leadership responsibilities. While this may not always be possible, it is at least realistic to expect all leaders to be Fast Start and Youth Protection trained within their first month. Unfortunately, most leaders don't really know what level of training is required to carry out their duties, or what level of training the unit and charter organization expect them to achieve. Therefore, they assume since they are registered in the position they know enough to do it without the training.

How does a unit go about setting realistic and proper expectations for the training of its leaders? What level of training is needed for committee members? for parents? for SM and ASM? How quickly should leaders be expected to become trained?

I think we need some sort of schedule that tells parents that they should recieve Youth Protection training in X days, months, etc, and that committee members should recieve the same in Y time, and then additional training in Z time, and so on.

I wish I were a trained leader. I have never been a trained leader. It doesn't look like I will become one any time soon. I have been through Fast Start, Youth Protection, SM/ASM specific, and I will soon go through New Leader Essentials. Sadly, I don't have even the faintest idea when I may be able to go through IOLS (even though I can teach any of the Tenderfoot through First Class skills, I think it would still help to get that training).

The next training opportunity available is going to be at a OA Lodge hosted event. The lodge will, in a single day, offer more training than my district has in over a year. In fact, it will probably train more people than the entire rest of the council has this year combined. I will be going to get NLE training, and I will also be teaching a session on mentoring (we couldn't find anyone with much experience in that, and I mentioned that I once took a session on it offered by the state YMCA). With any luck I will also be able to take at least one other session.

How can I get others to go along to be trained as well? (Should committee members be going to NLE or other training before even taking Fast Start?)

I know I can't fix all of my troop's problems, or even all its problems with training, but I would certainly like to at least make a start on fixing a few of them.

Thanks for the feedback thus far. That seems like a reasonably good list. There are a few items on the list I either am totally unfamiliar with, or have very limmited knowledge of.

Chances are I will need to be able to offer an explanation of why we need these items, and since I am unfamiliar with some of them, perhaps someone could give me a very brief discription of these items:

cooking for small groups

selecting and recruiting quality leaders

historic trails brochure

Also, is the merit badge counselor application a national or council produced form? My council has what may best be described as very loose policies for merit badge counselors, so this isn't an item I have run across (even though I am a registered councilor for every merit badge offered at camp this past year).

Finally, any suggestions on how to best use and display posters and charts? We don't really have a dedicated room to permanently display such items in, nor is that likely to change. (We do always have meeting space available, but sometimes the room changes, and the rooms are always used by other groups on other days.)

If anyone else has suggestions or ideas, feel free to provide them.

What books, manuals, and materials would you say a troop needs to keep current copies of?

I don't really know for certain what we have on hand, but my best guess is not very much. Most of the things have always belonged to individual leaders, but this seems to be a less than optimal approach since often no one has the latest edition, or the resources are lost when leaders move away from the troop or Scouting in general.

I am most particularly interested in the program related materials since we are preparing to plan out the next year, and preparing to select new youth leaders who will need training.

However, the committee, and its sub-committees are likely working with out of date materials and in need of up to date items, so a list of what they should have would also be useful.

I will likely make a recommendation about this matter to the troop committee this week so that we can find what we need and start putting these resources to use.

I don't much care for siblings on Scout outings. I also don't much care for leaders turning Scout trips into small family vacations.

Now, here is why I don't like siblings. Usually the one in the unit doesn't like it but isn't willing to say anything to the leaders or their parents. However, you can tell from their reactions to their siblings they would rather not have their little brother or sister following them around. This is particularly a problem when a parent has the Scout keep up with the younger brother or sister. It very seriously takes away from the Scouts ability to enjoy the activity, even if they never get up the nerve to say so.

If a leader is looking after family members that are not part of the unit, then they are not able to give the level of leadership and supervision needed by the unit. I would generally not want to count someone that is pulling double duty as a leader and parent as one of the leaders for a trip. Now if the other parent is there to take care of the parenting, while the other one does the unit leading, then that is a better situation.

Adult staff members that bring kids to summer camp is an area I have had a very bad experience in. These staffers basically turned their kids loose on the camp and expected the other staff members to look after their kids. These same staffers also demanded special accomadations for themselves at no cost, which meant many of the other staffers had poorer living quarters. This is made even more akward when the preffered parenting technique is to scream at the kids, even in public.

Now, for a unit leader to force the members of the unit to baby sit their children is totally unacceptable in my book. It is not the responsibility of those youth to look after someone elses children. If I were one of those youth, I would refuse to do it. I would not, in any way, take responsibility for the unit leaders children unless I made the choice to do so out of my own free will. Now, if they unit members do this willingly, that is a different matter all together.

Scouting may be a family affair, but it is first and foremost for the Scouts. The convenience of the parents, or the unit leaders, or of the siblings, certainly comes after what is best for the Scouts. Now, if we can do what is best for the Scout, and accomodate the wishes of parents, leaders, and siblings, then that is great. If not, someone is going to have to make some sacrifices for the good of the program and the Scouts.

Tonight was the first meeting without the SM.

We spent most of the meeting working on a service project with some members of the church's mens group. That went pretty well.

Then we ironed out some details for a camping trip this weekend. That was a little less organized, but went OK.

We also had a discussion about the fact that things will continue as always, but that it will take an extra effort from everyone, and that we will have to pull together a bit to get through things. We then cleaned up and then circled up for the closing. There were final announcements, then I read a letter from the SM addressed to the troop (intended for the boys, but I asked the parents to join us as well). Then we closed the meeting.

Afterwards I had a nice talk with the SPL, a couple of the parents, a somewhat less great talk with one family that is hoping a will jump in and change a bunch of things, and then I started checking to see if we were the last ones in the building.

I wound up finding the Cubmaster just as his meeting wrapped up. We had a nice long talk as well. Turns out he is new to that job.

Anyhow, I think meetings will go pretty smoothly for the rest of the year. We had a good number of parents who showed up to help keep an eye on things. The bulk of the remaing meeting have already been planned out at least in part. We are basically wrapping up all the ongoing badges, requirements, and other things before we take our extended holiday break. We stop meeting around Thanksgiving, and don't meet again until after Christmas, because we do a tree sale as our major fundraiser during that time of year. It is good because it gives us all a chance to get caught up on paperwork, make a good amount of money for the boys in a short period of time, and gives the boys a chance to work on badges and requirements on their own for a while.

We are scheduled to have our annual planning meeting just before tree sales start, so over the break we will have a chance to start doing research on the details of how to make the plan work for next year. Then we can review it once we start back again.

My biggest challenge personally is likely going to be getting all the parents to understand what my role in the troop is for the next couple of months. Some seem to think I am doing the SM's job, others that I am just there to run meetings. Once we get that all figured out, perhaps things will work even more smoothly.

Though the current situation does cause some serious uncertanties. SM conferences are an obvious one. I don't entirely feel comfortable with that. Also, some of the boys will be starting to plan Eagle projects soon, and I am somewhat uncertain what we will do about signing off on that if we don't have an SM. We had one boy ask me tonight about signing a form for him to go to Philmont and do Rayado (however that is spelled) next summer. I told him to contact the just resigned SM, since he is still registered as the SM at the moment, but I wasn't certain that was the right call.

Another problem is the previous SM did some things in a non-standard way in some cases. Some parents were already after me tonight to reverse his decisions on counting some MB requirement and the like. I more or less told them it was my intention to follow BSA policy, but that it was really up to the MB counselor, and on some other issues up to the committee.

The transition period is going to be the worst part, because no one is really in charge in the way the SM is. I don't really have the authority to make the sort of decision he did, nor do I want to. On the other hand, we can't just go ask the committee every time some decision needs to be made.

I think I am going to have a hard time not taking on the role as Scoutmaster. The more I think about, the more I realise I wasn't acting like an ASM, but like an SM tonight. The problem is that I am not the SM, nor should I be.(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

Good question.

I know my troop certainly hasn't recieved any benefit from the commissioner staff in at least 3 years. Chances are we don't even have a UC, though it wouldn't be anything new to have one on paper that does so little of the job that they haven't even bothered to contact us to let us know they are the UC.

The only involvement with the commissioners I remember lately was a bad incident of the District Commissioner yelling at the troop's adult leaders at a troop meeting for not submitting the charter early, something that no one had even asked them to do.

Then there was a "paper" Unit Commissioner that decided he should get in touch with someone in the troop since no one from the troop had bothered to contact him about picking up our charter from him. This was about half way through the period that charter covered, I should note. It should also be mentioned that no one had bothered to mention that we had a new UC, or that he had our charter, to the unit leaders.

I understand developing a good commissioner corps is a difficult thing. It is hard enough to recruit volunteers when you can use the angle that it is for their kids, or for their church, or whatever. It is much harder to convince people to volunteer when they don't understand why they should, or what the benefit of it is. Add to that the need to have commissioners that know and understand the program relatively well, and it pretty soon starts looking like a near impossible task. I certainly wouldn't want to be a District Commissioner.

Actually, now that I think of it, I would probably be a good commissioner if I didn't have unit level responsibilities.

Now, on the other hand, I have heard wonderful things about commissioners in other districts and councils. I have talked with unit leaders that have said they wouldn't know which way to go without the things they get out of their unit commissioner and the round table commissioners. So, obviously, commissioners serve some useful purpose in many places, otherwise they would have been done away with long ago.

Now my experience is just the opposite.

Around here the quotas survived a bit longer than the actual policy did.

So, I remember several elections with quotas in place. In every case, the quota was filled.

On the other hand, I have both conducted and witnessed elections under the current rules where not all those on the list were elected. I have even had a troop decide that no one was worthy.

We should not say select the best.

We should select those who are worthy of the honor.

Scouts are not more or less worthy.

They either are, or are not.

It is a yes or no, black and white.

Perhaps the fact that not everyone understands this is part of the problem. Certainly those elected should be some of the best Scouts and campers, but just the eligibility requirements pretty well ensures that in most cases.

There is far more to being a worthy candidate than just being the best Scout in a group. It is entirely possible for the very best Scout in the entire history of some given Scout troop to not be truelly worthy of being elected.

Considering this is getting absolutely no play in the press, and that there seems to be no attempt to use this in campaign speeches or ads, I would say this is not some sort of political trick. If this was some big political thing, there would have at least been a major press conference by the Secretary of Education, which I don't seem to remember hearing anything about. Plus, no one can really claim that they have done anything about this, since these roles are not yet in force. The only people that can possibly score points off this are in Congress, and they certainly have no interest in the story about the rules coming up, since it only shows how little they are actually capable of.

I think there is a far more plausible explanation.

This was part of the No Child Left Behind Act. That was the largest single set of changes to public education since the 1960s.

Obviously, that required writing and rewriting a great many rules and regulations. I would have to guess those sections dealing directly with education, such as those on testing standards, were probably revued and the necessary rules written first. After all, testing under this law has already happened. So, this section was probably near the end of the list.

Now, to compound this problem, the Department of Education isn't really one of the better prepared departments for writing rules and regulations. The EPA or DOJ, now they have many lawyers that do nothing but write and rewrite rules and regulations for the ever changing laws they deal with. Department of Education on the other hand probably doesn't have nearly so many lawyers, nor as much experience with issueing rules and regulations related to major overhauls of its area of responsibility.

The challenges of inducting 1000 members per year would be quite substantial, I do believe.

I do think there are a great many ways to limmit the degree this creates a problem.

For example, the lodge could conduct a greater number of induction weekends. This would likely spread them out so there were fewer per weekend.

Perhaps a more practical approach would be for the chapters to conduct their own ordeals on the behalf of, and with the approval of the lodge. This would spread the work load of planning, preparing for, and hosting the Ordeal over a greater number of Arrowmen.

One final note, 100 per ceremony is really too many. There is a reason the quality lodge petition makes that an optional critieria, because too large of a ceremony makes the experience less meaningful and less personal.