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Here's one more thing, it is okay for scouts to see adults respectfully disagree. Sometimes there is a little push-pull between SMs and CCs. And, between guys in general, we can disagree hotly but in a pinch we have each other's back and the coffee's on first thing in the morning. So take all the drama with a grain of salt. Lost slides? Teach the friendship knot. Good enough until the boy can get a hold of some chord and tie a turkshead. As far as scout spirit, I'm usually not asking a boy about anything that transpires during a meeting. But are they a scout when nobody's watching and the uniform's off? That question has to be asked carefully, because boys are their worst critics and tears can flow.

Once again, we often flood the pool with too many amateurs teaching the badge. Have the boy talk to his gym instructor, athletic trainer, or sports medicine doctor/nurse/physical therapist or aid, or sports store owner and come back with a better answer. @@chrisking0997, if you are any of the above, pardon the presumption. But, you get the idea. Part of the MBC role is to share your passion with the scouts and give them go-to people who can help you with that.

Hear's the deal. Boys are smart. If they feel people are manipulating them via advancement, they'll stop advancing. If on the other hand, they actually believe they can be better scouts by wearing their uniform, they will. So have more carrots. Greet scouts. In a friendly manner ask them what happened to their pants/shirt/necker. This is especially true of boards of review. Ask the boy how he can fix it. (Maybe that's what your CC meant by sitting in on BoR's.) Any SM/ASM who shows up out of uniform, when he/she greets scouts apologize to the boys for whatever is missing. If only one or two scouts are at an activity in uniform, award them a patch from your bloated collection. Scouts in uniform are first in line for snacks. Only scouts in uniform may be color guard. We've had SPL's borrow a scout shirt from he closet to lead a ceremony. The SPL should hold uniform inspection routinely. Patrols with the highest average score get a totem on their flag (e.g. an arrowhead with binoculars could be a Look Sharp award.) Eventually boys will determine their own sticks.

Attempted to be proselytizerd ... No different than any other expense of precious resources on the spiritually indolent.

I'm afraid that will continue to be hotly contested from national. If you want an organization that will let boys be athiests, consider http://www.traillifeusa.com/generalfaqs Are non-Christian youth permitted to join a Trail Life USA Troop? Our Member policy allows for boys of any faith (or no faith at all) to participate in the program of Trail Life USA. Local Charter Organizations satisfy the specific ministry goals of their church or organization. In some cases, that may be as an outreach ministry to boys in the community. In other cases, that may be as an in-reach ministry specifically to minister to the families or members of the local church or organization. Therefore, individual Charter Organizations may have more specific membership requirements that limit Troop membership to boys of a certain faith or membership in a certain organization.

ussscouts has a politics free policy. As do other intensely moderated sites. This forum could follow suit. But then maybe the fact that it doesn't is what makes it special? Honestly, I've used what I've read from you all to help polarized boys empathize with their diametric opposites. If a topic devolves to cussing, I stop replying. Otherwise, I try to tie my fingers before anyone really gets put out. Price of admission, I figure. Besides, it's more fun to irritate by being nice ... Guess I'd rather grow the thick skin than stop hiking rough terrain.

My boys may owe you guys. On my walk to the coffee shop (btw @@Stosh $1.80 for espresso the taste of which is still lingering at lunch), I thought that part of this problem is troops often grab anyone with a pulse to be counselors for required badges. No disrespect to Suzy homemaker, but the best counselors are often the folks who have the topic as a profession. Then I thought of the scouts who I've seen at this shop. So I asked the owner if he'd be willing to sign on as an MBC. He said he'd be glad to. I warned him about the paperwork to get started. Having been a lawyer, he wasn't phased. He does the same for his employees anyway. Moreover, the notion of having boys food-safety trained before they started the job was very appealing. If they could come to the shop, he'd gladly counsel the badge.

@@Stosh, just because you can understand where a kid's coming from, that's no reason to let him stay there. Here's a reason nobody mentioned: world travel. I know a kid who wound up working at a popular restaurant in Dubai. Think laterally ... Being the deciding factor in war. Infantrymen move on their stomach. Understanding cultures distant in space and time. Being part of history by planning months (now years) of meals for astronauts. Operating a delicatessen or winery. Getting out of the grind of estate law and creating a welcome place for folks in the community to grab a coffee before the morning rush. Which reminds me, gotta go meet my barista.

Here's my take. A scout will likely not be interested in any given career. But, if he can think about why he might be interested, he might gain a little empathy for why someone would really be glad to have that job. That way, when he has a buddy come to him asking about how to plan for the future, he might be prepared with useful career ideas for his buddy. This reminds me of a conversation I had with Lebanese boys decades ago. They were talking about what they'd do when their civil war would end. The one boy (a Maronite Christian) said he was saving money for a garbage truck. His buddies were dumbfounded. He said, "Don't you know the one thing that everyone will want when the fighting stops? They piles of trash to be removed! And they will pay any price for it!"

That post was a train-wreck waiting to happen. No offense to the OP. The cautionary tale here, nation-wide we are bringing back scouters who have been on the adversarial side of policies. (The jury is still out on if that number will ever offset scouters lost due to the tables turning.) High minded talk can amount to rubbing salt in the wound. So this isn't just about the barriers of face to face ... If it happened on a forum, it can happen at your district round-table or camporee. Wise up here, and we might just better serve the boots on the ground at our real campfires.

I sought advice from Council HQ because of several internationals interested in Venturing. Having grown up with the occasional exchange student in our troop, I knew there was a way to make this work. Bottom Line: The host family serves as guardian for the duration of the student's stay. So it is on them to sign paperwork and communicate to parents. It sounds like you have concerns that these particular guardians wont have the student's best interest at heart. In that case, there is nothing wrong with asking the student to fax back-and-forth the parent's signature as well. I'd even go so far as to skype with the parents and let them know what's on your program. They may want to arrange the scout's return trip so as to not miss a summer camp or high adventure. My exchange-Venturers wound up not participating much because they didn't grasp the how and when of our schedule.

If I recall the saga of this troop correctly, the "toxic pairings" were all about the same age, so they needed their space. The previous configuration was micromanaged by adults. This upcoming configuration was micromanaged by PL's using a stochastic process with Baysian priors weighted by utility (a sorting hat). For most troops, that's about as good as it gets. Once in a while, you get a few boys who say "Hey, we think we can make a great patrol, how about it?" In the best of all worlds, IMHO, they recruit boys from their non-scout friends to come give it a go.

Although they may charter through a council (and assigned to a district). They may also be affiliated with a unit, and most are in my district. The district then tries to make it the units' responsibility to keep their respective MBC's up to date and trained. An MBC may decide to work soley with their respective unit, but what's the fun in that? I encourage them to work with any scout in the district.

Oh, you should feel put out all right. But, you should try to understand other folks' position. Why the last minute cancellation? Why by text and not phone chain? I doubt that there will be any satisfactory answers. But, it gives you time to think about what to do next. Now, here is where we get into that "working with millenials" issue. First of all, a district that is two hours away would be completely alien in my day. (I know for some of you out West, this was always the case. But here it was different.) It would be a huge ask of someone's time to commit half a day's travel to help in a ceremony. Even so, the advisor would arrange a meeting point in the district and folks would car-pool from there. Secondly, you listed four different means of communication, the minority of which involved getting another person on the other end of the telephone. So a number of 21st century circumstances conspired to make this a failure-ridden situation.

Really? The 4th 8h and 3rd points of the Scout Law add to the requirements?They seem to me to simply highlight that aspect of First Class that defines arrowmen.

I like the notion of honorary first class scout. None of 'Schiffe's reasons for recognition parallel The Eagle award. Thus I hesitate to use that name. On the other hand, maybe we should focus on having our elected officials honor our fellow non-scout citizens for their noble deeds.

Oh, the opportunity to get boys (especially from out of state) singing "Country Road" before they even think about college applications? You bet they will try to keep this going. Fact is scouts whose first love is the outdoors would be ideally suited for many of WVU's branch campuses. In addition, college students improve their science skills dramatically if they have someone to teach those skills to. By the way, your USGS and state survey offices are great resources for materials (and possibly presenters) of interest to many of your boys.

Well, obviously if a DAC approves a project plan, his approval/disapproval sets precedent in the district. Unless someone convinces him of the error of his ways, he's likely to do the same thing for other projects. Should I expect my DAC to act the same way as your DAC? From what I've learned about the latitude given to councils about how they implement the approval process, the answer seems to be "no." I would think, however, that a Life scout in district A who learns about his cousin's project in district B should expect to be able to propose the same for his project without much opposition.

Most days, yes. I'm giving @@ScouterJLM some benefit of the doubt that he's picking up more than what he wrote. There might be a reason that these particular boys or the other boys in the troop have him in gatekeeper mode. That's why giving a lodge advisor a call might help sift through the specific circumstance. One other thought. These boys sound like they're over-taxed with activities. Maybe a friendly query about how each boy would want to add an ordeal weekend to their busy schedule would do the trick.

Welcome to the forums! Those of us who've worn multiple hats simultaneously always ask ourselves if we've done a disservice to one unit or the other. I'd like to know what's so magical about you that the CO thinks you would make a great SM? I'm not asking to be mean, but really, folks have seen my great outdoor skills, how well I work with the boys, how I nail rules and regs, etc ... and they all knew that the best position for me was ASM, and later crew advisor. Maybe that's because we had a lot of depth, but the point is that someone who enjoys being SM (basically a mentor and coach), does not enjoy being CM (a master of ceremonies, gopher, and recruiter), and maybe one in five SMs enjoy being a crew advisor (good for nothing and best used that way ). The person him/herself doesn't always see that, but someone from the outside often does. So what are these people seeing? And who is the most correct? Who does your spouse think is right? Here, you'll get a lot of opinions on new scout patrols, if any patrol needs its own ASM, how you should be working your troop, etc ... The fact is, nothing we say is gonna help you with that until you really get to know these boys and their parents, go to district round tables, and get trained. Most round-tables split sessions between Packs and Troops/Crews. Given that, there is now way you can maximize interaction with all the people who are most likely to help you be a good SM/ASM and those who would help you be a good CM/ACM. That alone limits your ability to be the best you can be in either position. On top of that, the synergy between the two position descriptions is simply not there.

But, who's planning and implementing your camporee, if not the older scouts? Oh, never mind.

In addition to mentoring the candidates ... You need to think about mentoring the troop. We've had our share of bad kids. Our SM, to my knowledge, has never discouraged a boy from being a candidate, yet Scouts like this never get elected. At least twice before the election we remind the boys to think about each candidate along two very important dimensions: 1. Does he serve cheerfully? 2. When you or your patrol needs help is he there? It really helps to hold elections immediately after they've been camping together for a couple of nights. That way, the boy's behavior over 48 contiguous hours is fresh in everyone's memory. (That's why I favor summer camp Tuesday elections.) One more reason to give your Lodge Advisor a call. Maybe he can send an election team to meet you when you all return from a weekend camp.

Whatever an a%# is, your being it. Comes with the SM patch. Your frank appraisal might be the kindest thing anyone has done for those boys. If it is still nagging you, give your lodge advisor a call. Ask if any other SM's in your council have had to deal with a situation like yours.

I was about to ask you to uncross your eyes, then I realized that we were looking at different charts. My "go to" reference has been http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34416_Insert_Web.pdf. That one has the line going across varsity and venturing. Still even on the other "blurry" chart, there is no distinction between older/younger boy scouts. The line for camporees just stops before venturing. Which is retarded because camporees are the one thing that my Venturers look forward to. (Although they call them "summits" just to feel special.) P.S. - I am not using "retarded" in any way disparaging to mentally challenged individuals (who I know for a fact bring camporees to life). I'm using it to suggest that whoever wrote this chart is thinking backwardly.