Jump to content

qwazse

Members
  • Content Count

    11210
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    231

Everything posted by qwazse

  1. Sorry, I thought since I didn't have first-hand knowledge of such a position, you'd get better feedback from others. I've never seen any one position for this activity, but folks have done for our council ... Invited a group of talented scouts from Israel to make our council a stop on their tour of the US. Recruited contingent(s) for World Jamboree. Set up International Camp Staff Exchange. Make sure imformation about international opportunities are part of basic trainings. I'm sorry your SE doesn't have a particular vision, it means you will have to assemble a coalition
  2. Here's another one to consider: we have an all night climbing event 9pm to 6am at the cope course. No tents are pitched. If they sleep, it's usually by the fire or on a basketball court for an hour or so. Under the stars but not sleeping. Does it count?
  3. Just for the sake of muddy waters, everyone ... What if the boys did set up a tent, but ran an extension cord from an outlet in a nearby pavilion so they could finish playing that video game that was interrupted because they had to get out of the car and set up camp?
  4. Unless those are tarp roofs that the boys set up, they don't count.
  5. At roundtable, I suggested developing youth instructors for SM basic (IOLSC). Talk about an idea being shouted down faster than I could speak it! Evidently since the syllabus requires complete "Train-the-Trainer" for all instructors. Seasoned instructors please comment ...
  6. I always thought names should be more affirmative rather than antithetical. "Young Naturalists Society" would have much nicer ring. Anyway, "belief" or "orientation" are not explicitly criteria for exclusion in these by-laws. So, I think that we're talking apples and oranges.
  7. I took Wilderness First Aid this weekend, and could say something similar (3 youth 12 adults). Only one instructor and assistant; however, both adults. Good fellowship, and it was a pleasure to see an older venturer working on her ranger award between college terms. I would like to coordinate a course in our community involving more youth participants and instructor's assistants.
  8. One "red flag" of excessive adult involvement is creating drama instead of attending to health and safety! It's highly unlikely that every boy in the den is bothered about this. Has any boy outright told you they mind the patch being occluded by the colors? If they haven't read p. 32 yet (thanks for the reference, dedkad), how would they know to ask? But just in case the design was made by a boy, who worked very hard to produce and order the patch himself (maybe paid from his individual scout account ) ... After they've read the reference in their Webelos book, ask them what
  9. It is very very hard to put faith in your youth. It's sometimes hard to put faith in themselves. I had one VP-Program want to try a self-defense course, so I gave her the a number of a consultant who had worked with us before and told her to let him know when we were meeting. She was shocked when he showed up the following meeting night with some pads and mats ready to teach some basic escapes! She thought we would just be "planning" the course. That said, there are numerous times when youth wont make those calls and will let you down. (Sometimes, the first call doesn't work, and they ge
  10. I find things shift back and forth between where I'd want them to be and where they are ... With the crew, I'm pretty hard and fast. They propose a date and event, then see if a couple of adults are free. Or, they ask us when we can take off work then check their schedules. This makes it rough on committee who might rather schedule an event to their liking. More because they feel non-participant's guilt. I don't see it that way at all because if each of them can see their way free to an event that the others can't once a year ... that's four or five more possible events that would otherw
  11. Don't know what you mean. I direct my crew. I set the boundaries for how other adults interact with the youth, and I give the youth (pretty wide) boundaries within which they must operate if they are going to take advantage of my services. My committee is there to support them. I tell them how I would like them to do that. Likewise, it's my SM's troop, and I'm there to assist him. I remind folks who may wish things were different that he's "the guy." Doing "the time." And getting "the work" done. In the next sentence SM Bob refers to "our bylaws and methods". Which implies he'
  12. TB, not really a red flag. I personally would rather have the backing of a CO, but if this works for SM bob let him have at it! I think the real challenge will be finding those couple of adults who can grasp the implications of whatever by-laws there are and build a productive committee around them. Generally older scouts will dive in wherever you put them. I think you're on the right track with starting a new patrol. Then ask the boys what they would like to do most in the next few months (Service, High Adventure, Skills Acquisition). Keep an eye for the "odd boy out" who might
  13. Well, I guess if I relay this to my youth, it would be under "why the nation needs first class scouts." And the moral would be "get me those hike plans and get out there where you'll do the world some good."
  14. How about encoding the record on an RFId and implanting it on the kid subcutaneously?
  15. I hope she sent them some signed peacock patches. Always great to have a great story behind a patch! And, Skep, way to live up to your screen name by making this about corporate media jockeying.
  16. So you still get to be SM? Or will you face off in a game of mumbly peg, loser getting the patch? Our troop absorbed a number of boys from adjacent neighborhoods ... mainly because they saw us as being more boy led. Most of us adults really enjoyed the new boys' company. Some of the adults were a little rough, but to complain would have been pots calling kettles black. Our established boys in the upper age range, however, were a little cliquish (stellar academic and athletic types). It took the younger siblings in both groups to really form a decent bond with one another. During
  17. When you have a vehicle crash on the way to camp leaving one family mourning, and four others trying to get counseling for PTSD for their kids and their health insurance giving them a runaround. Those pro's who seem rather quiet at roundtables or wherever you may see them ... they sure know how to fast-track care for your boys. Or a less dramatic example, maybe not relevant to leaders of packs or troops: when kids from your crew volunteer as officers at a council level. the council pro that comes along side them and helps them put together some unique council-wide programs ... he/she will
  18. Not really. Many of the scouters in our neighborhood are on local park boards. They help parks think "out of the box" and apply for grants and such to develop conservation areas. Some years all of our eagle candidates may choose a project from a single park, and each boys' projects within a park tends to be completely different from the other. Creativity actually increases because the boys are looking to enhance unique aspects of the park.
  19. Sorry to hear that. I hope you have a chance to explain to parents how their boy (by not collecting the signatures in his book) may be losing a keepsake they'll cherish years later. But, it should be no bother to those "tiger parents" if you focus your agenda on those few boys who are plodding through in a less supervised way. I would also suggest you give those further advanced boys the benefit of the doubt in case one or two of them are high achievers (and not really helicoptered) by asking them to lead an activity they already got signed off. For example, if they know their k
  20. Well, I'm personally proud of you for trying to push the church rules as far as you can. But, at the same time, you can't outpace a bishop who is stickler for protocol. Just like the LDS allows someone other than the 11-year-old's dad to be with him on a weekend campout, it does not allow him to camp for a week long! So, if you are going to call on rules when they permit you to do something, you're kinda obliged to stick to them when they restrict you. Maybe the boys can approach the bishop with a plan for what they'd like to do. Maybe not summer camp, but a weekend here and there, and s
  21. What I did was start a Venturing crew and held the line about putting responsibility in the youths' hands. (The first year, I had to shoo "helpful" adults away, saying they were consultants and were to do *nothing* unless explicitly asked to do so by a youth.) This gave son #1 and his buddies an outlet while still contributing to the troop. My daughter was next in line and took advantage of unique opportunities not available in Girl Scouts. Meanwhile, the troop began putting more responsibility on the boys. (Caveat: leaders who did not like this style spun off their own troop.) Now Son #2 is
×
×
  • Create New...