qwazse

I don't consider it a nuclear option so much as a "reality check." And it helps guide a youth in more than just advancement. I've had venturers (especially those also in GS/USA) who were invisible to me and my co-advisors for years, except when it was time to sign-off on NHS hours for both time in the crew and their troop. We said "Really? How did your troop benefit from your service in the past two years?" Somehow, they figured making our numbers "look good" was a service. Since then, within the year they stop showing up, I give them a call, ask if it's okay if I drop them from the roster, and let them know it's just paperwork when they want to come back. To call him/herself a scout, I want a high-school age youth to give his/her fellow scouts a good few solid months each year. Then, if he/she is needed by a team or church or some tribe on the other side of a mountain whose medical supplies can only be hiked in, let us know (and send pictures.) My reasoning (and I have coaches who concur): an active youth who can concentrate on scouting for that long will probably pick up enough to improve their performance in other groups -- and academics.

That's precisely why we try to make clear to the parents that we have an executive committee to address these issues. A family's pride is often at stake, and they don't want their dirty laundry aired on some grapevine. Beyond discretionary funds, we have scouters who will dig deep if we tell them a kid is coming up a couple hundred short. They will be furious with us if they get word that a kid didn't make it to camp because of financial issues. My Aunt is probably the nation's oldest Campfire Girl. Weeks on end under canvas hiking the Catskills during depression-era summers. Immigrant family. No $. No idea who funded her. Lots of folks around here with similar stories. Big ticket scouting is a different issue. If there is no way a kid will come close to the first down-payment for HA or Jambo, then maybe it's wrong to put time and money toward that adventure when other things should be a priority.

Depends on the publisher we send to. Some, it's better to spell out special characters. You'd be astounded the non-sense character substitutions that wind up in galley proofs (even from stats journals). This old crow knows exactly how to stay on topi ... oooh, a shiny!

Thanks for the update! Glad we could help you with the paradigm shift. That's the idea. Getting a youth to be comfortable in his/her own skin. This is the right time to do it. Any later age and the mountains can seem, well, insurmountable! PS - I find myself envying my former scouts and what they can now do for themselves.

Discussion has been had and ignored by scouters all across this great land.

Rho Rho Rho your boat gently into the corner Eating aThanksgiving Pi!

Well, hopefully Mike is listening!

Naw, our highest-achieving scouts (in school or sports) are the ones with the most doubt. It's usually all the boy's cogitation, and drives parents a little nuts. Maybe it's because many of them are getting the BoR at about the same time they are applying for college. Sometimes those first few rejections have come in. So, that lot seems to need a little coaching. It could also be, that since the district members come to the unit and unit committee members are on the board, our scouts might be a little more sensitive to the fact that folks on the board already know the good, the bad, and the ugly about the boy. For a while we had a high rate of Eagles, so the boys might also have been feeling that they didn't hold a candle to the guy before them. Lately, our scouts have been more laid back about the process, and haven't been asking for as many tips. I think that's a good thing. The outcome is pretty much the same, I guess. Just giving the boys who need it a little more time, and a little less stress.

With transfers, we often touch base with former SM's. That usually has nothing to do with advancement decisions ... more about what the boy liked or didn't like ... if there's something we could offer by way of giving the kid a fresh start ... how the parents might contribute to our troop, etc ... Without hearing from the other SM, I'm not entirely sure how soon we would give him an Eagle SMC.

Now, for us cupcake scouters (sorry moderators), a former Sunday school student put me onto the shop where she works http://www.vanillapastry.com/. Well worth going an hour out of your way for a dozen of these.

Neither is closer to our house than the local bakers. For a while, my family would go out of their way for KK, but the time they got home, what was left in the box couldn't be distinguished from what could be had from just up the street. Same with DD's coffee. Good in a pinch, but not worth passing by local shops for. One up-an-comer that this town is enthusiastic about: http://www.peaceloveandlittledonuts.com/.

Precisely what I'm talking about. For a while here was a sporting goods store next to camp, that 3 or 6 oz. bottles ... Perfect pocket or hip pack material.

If the boy cannot name one scout who he's taught one scout skill, then he's not really even a Life scout (the concept, not the patch). If you get push-back that that's a back doors way of imposing an unwritten attendance policy, fine. Have him put forward the reference of one cute girl in his youth group who he's taught a scout skill. Oaths and Law aside, is his project a good one? I'd let him give it a go if it is. But, be clear that you haven't seen a lot of scout spirit in him, and if he has been showing it without you noticing, it's on him to tell you where to look. Your the SM? Right? You can refuse to sign his Eagle application. He has the right appeal. This is really not complicated. He's got 5 months to shape up. Let's see if the boy can finish strong.

I don't have too many helps, but for #1 the sport bottles of spray sunscreen work well. They are a lower SPF, but by virtue of quick and easy, are amenable to reapplication with less fuss.

If boys ask, we'll have a practice BoR with whatever ASMs are available.

Yes, when it comes time to build a trebuchet! Also, the best campfire stories come from well-read boys. Meanwhile, if it's recognition he needs, encourage him. To focus on the round awards if the oval is slow coming. Librarian is a troop position of responsibility. Given your son's experience, he may want to help the troop start a Kindle collection of scouting materials. Merit badges of interest: Reading, Signs Signals and Codes, Programming, Digital Technology, Geocaching. Finally, encourage him to make the next campout. I can understand an 11 year old being too young to make everything, camping every couple of months is a healthy goal.

I'll not whitewash things. One scout with limited resources, you all can pitch in (formally or informally) and make things work for him. If he shows enthusiasm for the program the reward will be plenty. If there are more boys like this whose parents really see the need for scouting, it changes your program. These are parents who will be working multiple sub-minimum wage jobs to make ends meet. They don't have a lot of time to give to the unit. Your budget and resources are constrained. More responsibility is laid on the boys, and they are presented with situations most middle-class parents try to shelter their kids from. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The "high adventure" is no longer to BSA's jewels, but a few days in some nearby state park. Maybe run your own summer camp on someone's grandpa's property, asking the local gun club to provide range safety officers, bringing volunteers FD and PD for certain merit badges. Other things like that. Or if one of your committee or a DE is good at grantsmanship, you get support for really diving in and serving the kid's neighborhood. So, yes, there is a little bit of "if you give a mouse a cookie" phenomenon when you do this. On the other hand, I don't think my sons and daughter have hurt for getting comfortable with the other side of the tracks. In fact Son #2 has a summer internship in a neighborhood that gives my SM the chills. (The Lord's work and all that.)

Or SM has a discretionary fund. I encourage committees to have an executive committee of SM, CC, and treasurer, who decide which scouts may need this kind of support. The comment thatmeetings only see a line item in the treasures report "$--.-- allocated for discretionary purposes."

From time to time, I have had to tone down the talk of venturers who had a haughty attitude about their program. So it really does start at the adults. Talk to the ones on the "inside". Because, if this year was worse than usual, they might take the time to fix it, On the other hand if the haughty attitude is a perennial thing like 'rat described, then your son might want to try out a different camp next year. If he's not a lone in the feeling, he might want to do so with his buddy or a whole patrol.

Well, that is unfortunate. Your son may want to spend the next summer camp as a provisional scout at a different BSA facility. Or, maybe by next year he'll be over it and want to join the club. But your son may not be alone. I suggest you ask some of the scouters in your troop if they also thought this year they laid it on particularly thick. If they are members, maybe they'll be able to relay the sentiment up the chain.

If you ask your PLC, they will probably give you criteria like x% of meetings y% of activities that most of them could not even meet.

Not required. Just helpful. Son #2 never earned swimming, but is a solid swimmer. If his friend is of a similar mindset (certified elsewhere, or swims a lot, just not interested in a patch) he'll be a good buddy to have in the class. Sometimes kids marginally past swim tests (although the requirement is to "swim in a strong manner"). Such boys will find swamping drills a tiring venture. But, these are things that boys learn by trying. A good SM, Troop Guide, or SPL will be able to encourage boys who hit that wall.

@@Beavah, if I were to guess, most of these griping commenters are in their 20's-40's. They don't necessarily appreciate how much the land is breathing a half-century sigh of relief from when it was a proving ground for D-day munitions. A little horse-processed hay pales in comparison to unexploded ordinance. The sods are less prone to fly-overs because the landscape is just not that majestic from high altitude. I'm not sure that an ultralight from Timberline would get much of an updraft! So for decades, folks have been used to silence. For a while, not even gun-shots, until land managers realized that deer that come eat out of your hand are probably doing so because they had overgrazed as badly as John Dolly's livestock. So yeah, our job as old folks is to remind fellow citizens that our responsibility is to share the land, and show how to effect government regulations to ensure that's done responsibly. If a scout wanted to pack in a drone, I'd have the boys think long and hard about the LNT implications.

There are some pretty heated discussions on the use of drones in Wilderness Recreation Areas. On one hand the photos and videos are spectacular and insightful (especially for a guy looking to bushwhack to a better cranberry bog ). On the other hand, folks didn't set aside time and hike/paddle to the most isolated spot they could find only to hear motors ... or for their ground-to-sky shot to be photobombed by a pesky drone. Some purists are bemoaning the horseback tours through Dolly Sods. I most definitely would discourage a pilot to try catching late fall foliage (small game season).

So, if someone bothers to bury me or raise some memorial after I pass on, I hope it will involve planting a big old tree, hanging a tire swing, a geocache (initially stashed with colored ropes and knot-guides) in front of my head-stone, and powered-up Pokestops or whatever the rage is for little ones in the future. If of such is the kingdom of heaven, I want them swarming all over my final resting place. All the better to increase the odds, I figure, that when The Trumpet sounds, I'll get caught up by the Only Collector who matters.