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Patches, framed pictures, decals, song book, mix tape, spork, REI mug. good luck

It's like TT's my evil twin! Regarding what the PLC has been working on ... that should be in the SM report. If not this time, let the SM know (maybe through your husband, who's an ASM, if I recall) that you'd really enjoy hearing more about what the PLC's decided. P.S. - A lot of SMs' reports to committee are from the PLC's point of view. (E.g., the boys really liked X, they want to do Y, they had four advance in rank, we picked a new bugler, etc ...).

Oops. clipped. Here's the thing. We all go on and on about the "momma bear" effect. A scouter like @WisconsinMomma might have been more comfortable had she been brought up through the scouting program in an era when kids were told not to come home until the streetlights came on. That's not the case, she was denied the privilege of being a bear or webelos or his/her sister/girlfriend and seeing us make our club and whittle our own derby car. The notion of "trust the village, it'll raise your kid" is foreign, if not outlawed. Instead, she was brought up to be a post-modern nomad in among a bunch of other similarly informed (terrified?) parents that have been taught not to trust each other ... let alone those older boys. Moreover, they have been taught that "getting with the program" means, at minimum, shepherding their kids. They all need to go through desensitization. I see no realistic scenario where WB does this. There are two things that troops need to be trained to seek out: Separate rooms for each patrol to comfortably meet ... plus a common room for opening and closing ceremony/games ... and maybe an ante-chamber for the old goats' committee meetings, BoR's, etc ... Big open spaces not for each patrol to camp 100 yards away from any other patrol and adult campsites. Ideally, these would be close enough to home for scouts to fit in other activities (town hikes, service projects, parades, fundraisers). In other words: physical space makes people feel the "youth led" in a troop without ever having to mention the word. Parents begin to learn their role by watching their boys from across a field. Maybe, just maybe, a few girls coming up through the program will give us moms who can "trust the village" because they will now remember growing up in it and developing leadership through it.

Here's the thing. We all go on and on about the "momma bear" effect.A scouter like @WisconsinMomma would have been more comfor

Had dinner with a bunch of Saudi guys. We floated a couple of activities to do on a weekend. A winter hike was a popular choice. I'm toying with the idea of them visiting the troop on a winter campout.

Adult association is a method of scouting. So, we basically get adults to support fundraisers that boys will get behind. That means scheduling around important events, asking for help appropriate to the boy's skill, and helping the boys understand the balance sheet especially regarding the financial benefits to the troop. This especially means that participation is voluntary. So you better make it fun.

clarificarion: It helps an SM to hear from parents whose scouts are having a tough time in the troop. That news often precipitates an informal SMC. It doesn't help to hear from parents whom themselves are having a tough time with the program. It may help the CC. But that depends on how those concerns are delivered.

Motion: that posts in this thread since Safurday afternoon move to Forum Support. Suggested title: Names and By-Lines

All that said, if a mom or dad knows that a boy is having a tough time, I like to hear about it. Sometimes that conversation with the parent is all it takes to keep her from hovering.

First Aid MB was on the trail to 1st Class in the 70s. I often encourage our 1st-years to take it as it reinforces a bunch of skills. Plus when I clunk over, there's no guarantee that the guys with EMT certification will be anywhere nearby! A scout should have opportunities to earn 10 MBs in as many months. To me that doesn't make a MB mill. It makes a troop that explained clearly to kids how to earn MBs. When that message clicks, we get a number of first-years moving out of the gate completing MBs faster than advancing rank. Then, they realize that they need to master some scout skills for their next two or three ovals, then put some serious time in leadership development for the three after that. That's when the MB accumulation slows down to a trickle. Basically, when you don't press 1st-class-1st-year, a middle-schooler's nature abhors a vacuum, and he will fill it with something.

Mrs Q wanted me to update my wedding band, which I was loth to do until she found one with Gaelic relief that ran ful circle. It's fun to rotate ... on that one finger!

Not that I'd encourage such a thing now. But I could see my troop showing up at the disciplinary hearing with their knives in their pockets!

I blame @Stosh. It was he who wrote "take care of your boys" on the board for PL training. My SM, not some scouter who served me, did something of the sort.

Welcome, and thanks for all you do for the boys. P.S. - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at where scouting has persisted, even flourished, around the world. Look up World Organization of Scouting Movements.

TT, don't write off the informal ball-room dancing. It's one skill that many of the continental European scouts who I've met have that we don't. (I think that was more from schooling than their troop, but it sounds like there was a bit of synergy between the two.) Also, talk to your council relation's committee, there may be some opportunities to meet scouts on exchange.

Against abuse by a determined predator? No. Against legal action? Maybe. Against biased criticism in this politically charged environment? Not a chance.

Oddly, that's what nearly every ambitious girl, atheist, (and in the late 90's, newly minted homosexual), and 18+ year-old says. They would like to be recognized for their work. Their claim is that, right now, you are being cheated, because your badge doesn't recognized what you've accomplished. It recognizes what you've accomplished, but only while being of a particular identity. The it's saying, "You did pretty good, for a boy." (Before anyone balks. Check that this isn't what you'd say about a GS/USA Gold awardee.) This isn't merely BSA's fault. GS/USA abandoned the "First Class Scout" award. For all of Mike Saurbaugh's pleasant reminisces about working with the campfire program, he's never highlighted a WoLeHo awardee. NESA never broadened its scope to honor Venturing Silver or Sea Scout Quatermaster awardees. We Eagles are one of a pantheon of folks who worked at leadership development and building their character, but NOBODY in our organization would tell us that. In a sense, these girls are finally putting clothes on the emperor.

???? I lost track of what poke this is referring to. But thanks for assuming friendly!

I admire the young woman, but I am concerned about her drama ... Girls, in green shirts can attend WSJ! There are loopholes for those "venturers in training" who won't be able to officially register until they meet existing age requirements just prior to the start of Jambo.

In other words restore recognition of adults who serve as an ASM or SM and master skills? Bring back the good-old-days when rank was less about identity and more about achievement and membership trajectory was upward? Why do that?

To be clear: "new" and "helicopter" don't go hand-in-hand. The first one is easily fixed. Show them the lanes, maybe partner them with someone who's don it before, let them run in those lanes! The second one is not so easy. Someone has to stand in their way and firmly nudge them back in the lane (i.e., out of the boys lanes). If they are successful, that person will wind up looking back and laughing at himself/herself. If not, no matter how well the boys do, there will be criticism for every little thing that goes wrong.

I get asked to do lots of things. I said yes to scouting (and stopped doing other things) for one simple reason: to work for smiles!

This is probably because you were never brought up as a PL, SPL, JASM, then ASM years before your own spawn took their first breath. As a result you don't have the broad definition of "my kids". My boys, first were given to me at age 13. I'm still keeping an eye on half of those lot! I didn't think of it that way at the time, but a couple of young women were my girls because the leadership development rubbed off on other areas of life. Son #1 and #2 might have been my re-entry back into scouting, and Daughter into venturing, but in the crew/troop/district/council, they really were some other SM/SPL/PL/Chief/Officer's scouts. The boys in my troop (and venturers across the council and area) caught onto this pretty quick, and -- knowing that I wasn't in it just for my kids -- they had my ear when any number of issues (including EBoR's) arose. More than once I've looked up from my Saturday coffee to see some youth coming up the sidewalk with a concern. And if not me, they knew they could call on Mrs. Q. One even knew he could count on Son #2 for some emergency babysitting! This happens to other scout moms and dads (especially those with good coaching skills). They're just sitting by our fire minding their own business and some kid decides to make the trek over and start talking. All of a sudden, they've acquired one more pathetic life form. I have no way to be sure, Wisconson, but my gut tells me you're gonna be one of those adults, maybe as soon as a couple of years from now. That's about when some BSA4G scout -- who at the moment has a renegade status but by then might want to take a crack at this new program -- could be looking for the one adult she can have a straight conversation with about advancement. So, sure, help your boys and their buddies figure out their next move in the life of your troop, but understand that these conversations here are not abstractions for a lot of us. Soon enough, they might not be for you either.

@WisconsinMomma, these girls aren't a product of fiction. I know one SM who's quite proud of the members of his "unofficial troop." I'm suspect there are dozens of such units throughout the country (beyond the one or two that make the papers). We can expect Eagle applications from them by 2020, if not sooner. No telling which one of us will be invited to their board of review. The value to most girls will be what is involved in earning the award, not the award itself. Like your boys, it's as much about the journey as the destination.

That's the other problem about modern requirements. I would wretch every year BSA modified a requirement to stipulate, for example, "Boy Scout camping" or the poppycock EDGE method, or the recruitment requirement, or butting in on the SMC with the "duty to God" specification. Plenty of guys I know are not part of the program because of those organization-serving requirements. If the rules fail to recognize first class scouts as such, then the rules have already cheapened Eagle by making advancement more about identity and less about achievement.