qwazse

True, cussing is a waste of breath. He should have taken a deep breathed, counted to three, reached around, and poked the bear in the eye.But the boy was tired, untrained, and not thinking too clearly. I'm sure he'll do better next time.

I am imagining some communication's merit badge counselor helping Johnny wrap up his partial: "No Johnny, voice impressions of the CSE does not count as describing yourself for requirement 2a, even if the White House switchboard patched you through."

Boiling frogs slowly. That's what it sounds like.

One thing, and I think it explains how much harder it gets as youth age: brotherly love. When an Eagle scout came back from Paris Island (having sent the SM occasional letters, which were read to all of us), challenged me to a wrestling match (or maybe I challenged him, needless to say I was back-to-the-lawn in zero seconds flat) ... I felt like the younger brother to a rock solid hero.

It is possible to be a good surgeon and lousy SM. Actually, with the few surgeons I know, the odds of being a good SM are stacked against them. Advancement is the least of your worries. Although I think both of your boys could request a board of review under disputed circumstances. Regardless, that's their problem to solve. You can stay out of it. The aggressive behavior of the SM, and the lack of leaders to call him on it means that the troop is not functioning as it should. The charter organization should be informed as well.

I concur. I have never heard of any Eagle who only "marked time" and earned Palms. If that was a problem in your troop, none of these changes fixes any of that. Johnny rotten earns Life at 13, racks up 31 MBs, does the SPL thing for six months, then drops of the face of the earth for 3 years. He comes around in time for some snazzy Eagle project and his SMC at age 17.99. Now you're telling me he deserves Palms? For what? Three years of parlor scouting? Or even the kid who does NYLT, NAYLE, HA quadruple crown, and a business degree at Wharton, but never darkens the door of the scout house for three years... I should proudly order his little palms because the bling he got from actually doing those other great things doesn't cut it? The kid who has a great time earning MB's and develops leadership, etc... but never hustles up to get his bird ... is a perfect scout in all things except timeliness. I should feel sorry that all he gets is a medal and a pretty sash? He got what he wanted out of the program. He read the book. He knew his procrastination wouldn't get him beau-coup palms. Maybe in his future I should be upset if he get's offered to work overtime, passes on it, and never sees a time-and-a-half paycheck. The new requirements award this slipshod behavior. I hope our boys scoff at them.

At issue @@Stosh and @@NJCubScouter, is how much access you give boys to BSA literature, and then allow them to make a decision on operations. If you leave the room and then tell them to have a slate upon your return, with no knowledge of the possibility of scheduling regular elections, that's as adult led as any more regimented troop. If, on the other hand, you have the boys read the pertinent sections of the handbook(s), ask them how they think it should apply to their troop, and give them a means to approve that mode of operation, with the scribe noting it in their minutes, and the historian filing a copy, you've allowed youth to lead and provided a decent management skill in the process. You also leave open the possibility for future youth to make a course correction.

Our lake at camp had an imbalance of bullhead catfish. Scouts were instructed to leave any such fish that they caught on shore to die. This lasted for quite a few years.

False. It was recognized by a sash full of cloth medallions. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/advancement_news/2015_Mar-April.pdf page 12I know a lot of the time most of us can function not giving a rip about what other scouters think. This is not one of those times. If you're in favor of the revisions, odds are you got your way at the expense of 10 to 20 other scouters who saw things differently. Also, it's not leadership, it's leadership development... The method of scouting and the old Palm requirement ... why that is now nebulous when it never was before defeats me.

I really like your outlook, but those are supposedly criteria (in broad strokes) for an Arrowman.Also, you use "high adventure" and "camping nights. What of crews who don't make that a priority? Should they conform to a more outdoor oriented program? Okay, we're coming on your 20th post. Are you going to start calling yourselves "venturers"? Or are you (like one former crew president who I know and love) going to insist that BSA made a boneheaded move with their name recognition strategy, and insist on "venture scouts" inspite of any training to the contrary.

Welcome to the forums, and thanks in advance for all you do for the boys. Aside from laying out the troop's expectations for its SPL, I would not interfere. Pick a bad SPL, the other boys take up the slack. It's good training for when they get the position.

From a council or lodge perspective, it's free advertising. It's absolutely in their interest that those patches see the light of day.

Are you sure they said 2% of CREWs? Wouldn't that be venturers? I offer advancement to every generation of crew, but all but one ever earned an award. That puts us around 1 or 2% over more than a decade. @@Scourge, who would you want to be accepted into this society? Assuming that you'd get there yourself, what type of venturers would you like to be in your company? What would you like them to accomplish?

@@Fehler, I don't think these guys were making a moral equivalence. They were going over ways that scouts at age 11 and 12 develop courtesy and loyalty. Loyalty comes in to play here, because venturing females are exotic creatures among Boy Scouts. They can either be respected for what they bring to the scouting table, or they can be treated as outsiders invading their scouting turf. When the latter happens, there is a misplaced loyalty to some gang land vision of manhood. But this slices in the opposite direction as well. I've had girls who wanted to "style up" their image in their uniform (leave open more than one button on a green shirt, or tie it off in a mid-riff). It's a really tough sell convincing them that loyalty to the organization should triumph loyalty to some fashionista. Although @@Scourge, I'm sure, made no comprise with her uniform, others have. Norming both groups takes time.

NJ, absolutely yes! All of them and every Eagle to come, will spend more time as an adult with the award than as a youth. (If death intervenes, I'm not sure. I'd like to think then we can get by saying, "He was an Eagle Scout" without someone interrupting the eulogy.) If they are all in e same room for some NESA event, it seems silly to have to sort out whose palms mean what based on date earned.

@@Scourge, thanks for the boots-on-the-ground viewpoint. I am speaking as a guy who who was enamored with the Swedish scouts visiting Jambo way back when .... No, sexual harassment and thievery is not scout like. The handbook makes it very clear. As doss the 5th point of the law. But Boy Scouts don't often read these pages. And they apply the law to little old ladies, but not their peers. Obviously they know that their SM's would not approve of this behavior, so they aren't going to act up when anyone they should respect is watching. So, it's up to you and your fellow venturers and any noble scout in the vicinity to call them out on this at their first uncouth action or deed. "Scout, your troop number!" Would go a long way. You were all well within your rights complaining to the scout's SM, if you or your Jambo advisor could find him. You and your advisors should write a letter to your Scout Executive and the Chief Scout Executive. And this really isn't about defending you and your friends. It's about life skills. Both yours and the scouts who behaved badly. You need the skills to build a workplace where you can do the best job you can. So do those scouts.

The reason it seems unfair, is not because there is a wrong side of the line. It's because there is a line. Some lines are intuitive. (E.g., you can't go make last century's Eagles decipher EDGE before permitting them to wear their medal again.) This one is not. An Eagle Scout with all of his cards already knows the badges he earned and when he earned them ... there is no extra work involved in ordering the award. "These twenty six were before Eagle, those 5 were three months after, the next 5 were half a year after, etc.. Please ... pass the catch-up Palm." There is just no logical reason why the change needs to be there. But if it is, there is no logical reason (aside from brute ageism) why it should apply to some Eagles and not others.

Yes. Your scout may sew on the favorite of each to his field uniform. The other ones can be sewn on the back of his MB sash or a brag best. Tell him a stranger on the Internet said so.

They do. As a recent Eagle and troop SPL, I was invited to speak at one. Actually the original invite was to lead the opening and introduce a guest ... A pro football player. The pro couldn't make it so I was asked (I think the day before) if I could fill in the time. They were very gracious to a guy just cutting his teeth at public speaking. And I learned a lot that evening from conversations with men who shared their various interests and hobbies over cocktails and sodas.

Thanks for the report! It's like history repeating itself: http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/23697-national-youth-leadership-society/ A program that some adult asked for that no youth needs and very few want. Needless to say, I favor O/A being scouting's honor society. Period.

If everyone's on board with training, start-up should go quickly. One piece of advice. Pick a meeting night different an the ones of your adjacent troops.

Few things would make me seriously consider dropping ties with BSA, mailing in my Eagle, and striking it from my resume, than BSA abandoning this practice.Of the program materials they provide, encounters with public servants is one of them. Teach boys how to handle off-color speech, that's on us.

Nice to know things haven't changed much since the 80s. I went to Jambo once and decided that I preferred rocks in the middle of nowhere alone or maybe with a buddy or two.

Lock picks don't wear a badge announcing their skill. (Not that I'd know for certain. ) Yeah, Son #1 and his posse were all scholar athletes. They didn't bother to earn Scholarship or Athletics.

I guess, because I rarely ever did structured fitness, I would not buy into this. But I could see myself helping guys who wanted to master some of these skills. But, this shows that BSA, by denying adults advancement, created a vacuum that someone else will try to fill.