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I think it is pretty important for the SM to handle those T2F rank conferences. It's your best chance to touch base with each boy as he's growing. Your previous experience is all the more reason to have the conferences where a kid can go back and master the skill. Campouts are ideal for that sort of thing. Meeting, not so much. The boys need to know that their conference is not complete if they haven't mastered the skills.

Steelers fan here. So I get how we have to make adjustments for such things. (And kinda wishing I was in a similar bind ) But this one is so simple. Arrange for 3 committee members to come camping with you all on your next overnight. Boys who have been waiting for SMCs and BoRs may request them that weekend, and you will schedule them throughout the day. Scouts not attending the campout may schedule SMCs and BoRs during the standard time available at your regular meetings on a first-come, first-serve basis. If you don't mind setting aside liquor and cigars, you all could also schedule a Superbowl party with the scouts. Oh, and congratulations to the boys for getting so much work done in the off-season.

I remember setting up our klondike sleds in the bank display window. So much fun playing "mannequin" when you saw your friends walk by ...

@@SlowDerbyRacer, I sort of agree. But, now is the time to start warming up next year's leaders. DL hates bureaucracy. Fine, then get a tiger parent who will help manage it for her. The reason this is important? As the boys get older and the program gets more complex, being mavericky is a non-starter. She's gonna hit a wall.

First, never take this stuff personally. If a DL wants to go off the rails (but the boys are otherwise safe), there is no amount of training or correction you can do to stop it. Never, ever, feel stupid. We're all learning here. Clearly, you need to listen to your parents more. You don't have to agree with them. You just need to better understand what they're thinking. Then, you might want to ask the least disagreeable parent to step up as Wolf DL! That parent (if you identify him/her) will start by participating in the leader's skit and dispensing awards at the B&G. The uniforming thing ... you need to talk to parents about how they feel. Some den parents are fine with a tight ship. As a parent I pushed back on any over-policing. (Partly because I knew finer points. Partly because I knew what would be no problem for us could be a hardship for others.) Your troop's SM needs to understand that there are personality conflicts that may be driving why few crossovers come his way.

Thanks for sharing. Wouldn't it be lovely if those two eventually join this forum and tell us about the "real" 'skip?

We love our pro's! Welcome.

Honestly, our best MC's are the ones who come camp with us (or even visit for a few hours) and observe how things operate. When the boys are at their best, we really enjoy your company, 'cause there's nothing else to do. When they are at their worst (happens when you take on bad kids) it's nice to have the committee there for backup.

I miss my scout-house (basement of a mansion, really) as a youth where each patrol had a room. Your people, like mine, might be a victim of their space. With all of the patrols in full view, it's conducive to the SM's "dropping in". In fact, our SM asked me to touch base with his youngest son's patrol because the father-son dynamic is a little rough at age 13. I'm still trying to figure out how to best do that without any semblance of leading the patrol. I think the best strategy will be an offer to the PL of particular weekends where I, along with one of their dads, can chaperon an overnight for just their patrol. Anyway, pick your battles and be positive. It'll take a few campouts before you can evaluate where you can really help your troop mature.

Okay, let me explain this in terms that you might understand. You and I don't watch Doctor Who just because the dialogue's witty, we watch it because they saved the film where the actors were reciting their lines from memory ... and cut out the film (if there was any) where they were reading through the script. It definitely sounds like your lodge has gone off the rails ... your lodge chief needs to learn: Even a dry speech is better when recited. Every video can be replaced by some personal anecdote from the presentation team and/or your troop's O/A rep. Our council's elections team never collects dues during a troop meeting. That's just ridiculous. As for regalia, that is for call-outs, not elections. But I think if the content of the presentation were handled appropriately, you'd be fine with the boys in field uniform and O/A sash.

So, @@Stosh, are you saying that you don't have sufficient experience with an SPL to determine if a committee would benefit from his presence at their meetings?

Step 1. Memorize the speech. Step 2. Practice the speech to one another on the team. Step 3. Evaluate who presented the speech the best. Decide what everyone liked about it. Step 4. Practice again. Step 5. Practice introducing yourself to leaders (adult and youth). Step 6. Practice holding an election. Step 7. Knowing that you're prepared to do your best, go forth. Every scout notices when someone takes their job seriously. Scouts who've memorized the perfunctory elements have room in the brain to address individual problems. It won't look like you're looking for the answer in a piece of paper if the piece of paper is tucked safely away in your pocket. Our district's O/A reps meet at round-table just so they can approach that level of proficiency.

Congratulations! 1. Well, I logged in. Went to membership manager. Selected my name. Clicked print cards and then this: Oops! Something went wrong...Aim low, and BSA's IT will never disappoint. 2. Talk to your DE, but I think you need Trainers EDGE to be legit.

Yep, do your best to always know where you are. That way, you'll have a good estimate of how much your destination arrival time is being delayed, and can reasonably ask the group for a map review before the distance they must recoup is beyond their ability to do so safely. But topos on GPS units can be your enemy ... Just ask my scouts who were swayed by the SM who said "Says here ... there's a trail just across this ravine!" A 80 foot drop, 75 yards of laurel thicket, 200 foot climb, and four miles off course later ... well ... let's just say MY track record of orienteering blunders has been forgot for the past three years. Land navigation is at its best an exercise in communication. What one pair of eyes missed, another pair can fill in. Success is when all boys are in a circle around an oriented map, telling each other how what they see over the shoulder of the guy across from them is depicted on that piece of paper.

You're welcome. But, that's pretty much my mode of operation ... even when the troop was leaning toward adult-led. It's from taking that 1st class land navigation requirement quite seriously. But I guess that brings up a series of things that adults desire (mainly because they are unprepared for others' mistakes): Wanting to cover the hike with no wrong turns. Unprepared to walk a mile or two out of your way. Wanting the grilled cheese sandwich with no burnt sides. Unprepared with hotsauce in the pocket. Wanting the knot to look exactly like the picture. Unprepared to test its function. Wanting every pack to be perfect. Unprepared with that extra sleeping bag. Wanting a fail-safe menu. Unprepared to be pleasantly surprised. Wanting to be in earshot of the boys. Unprepared to set your shelter at a distance. Actually, all of them kind of reflect a pessimism that seems to squelch the joy of watching boys grow into men.

I encourage the practice. The challenge I see is freeing up the SPL's time to drop in on a committee meeting. But, I would not encourage folks who do it to think that they are more youth-led by doing so. As Barry points out, the whole thing is a bust if this is just a bunch of adults heaping advice on the SPL. It's a boon if on the other hand it's the CC asking, "What can we do to help you all?", and the SPL saying "We can manage XYZ, but are a little weak on ABC" then the committee sets to working on how they can enable the ABC (hardly matters if the boy's in the room or not).

New requirements are now on http://www.scouting.org/meritbadges.aspx(click through to the .pdf of the first few pages of the respective pamphlet) so get those shoes rigged! I'm not a fan of clipping from PDFs of the pamphlets to get to the requirements. Especially since the pages clipped don't have the revision date. I'm not a fan of the links being labeled "Current" and "Previous". I'd much prefer using the year as a tag.

Only 900# at 8'? That's one anorexic bear. Probably'd be happy that you echo-located a filling meal.

@@k3egl, thanks for taking this personally. Unfortunately, much of the problem has to do with professional staff (who have dwindled in number and become burdened with more tasks) not having the lodge in their radar at all. I'm sure (just like with districts or councils) there are some clique's who have made fiefdoms of their lodge to everyone's detriment. In those situations, scouts "vote with their feet." All of us in councils with outstanding arrowmen can't control what others do, but we can have kind words to your pros and volunteers who added facilitating a healthy lodge to their job description. We can also give props to our boys when they are representing their lodge well through their behavior.

The best camporees are never at a boy scout camp. No soliciting. Period. I would however encourage leaders to put up a "flyer wall" announcing troop fundraisers and such. Some of us are looking to visit some breakfasts/dinners on the weekends. All soda machines, lunch carts, ice cream trucks, etc ... 2 miles away. That said, it wouldn't hurt to have some venturing advisor (especcially one in a wide-brimmed leather hat ) and your council/district VOA officers wheeling around a keg of root beer and ice cream to undisclosed locations ... doling out rootbeer floats. Or, from "nuggets" patrols win at competitions, they can "purchase" ingredients to make their own trail snacks and beverages throughout the day. Merit badges??? Are you guys insane??? Pioneering weekend, yes! Pioneering blue card management, no!!!!!!! If the O/A sells anything, how about a small craft kit and time instructing on making some native beadwork or leatherwork? With all due respect to your SPL, I would not enforce a uniforms, but I wouldn't outright ban them either. Heck I would offer an inspection station where if a scout scores 80%, he wins the coordinates of the next expected location of the rootbeer float cart! Maybe a build-your-own activity shirt station would be kinda cool. What would that look like? No clue. But each patrol would come out looking proudly unique.

For our routine CoH's (typically on a meeting night at the meeting location with a total of 1 hour): Cookies and soda pop. Sometimes ice cream. Now, for Eagle CoH's: more heavy-duty snacks to full-blown sit-down meals (usually provided by the boy's family) ... depending on how much folks sync it up with graduation parties. I like the "patrol progressive dinner" idea in general. But, I would rather something like that happen out doors where the boys could show some scouting skills: setting up a cooking fire, a tarp for the eating area, dutch-oven desert.

Now comes the tough part of teaching these courses where you ask yourself "How much do I want to be The Guy." Since you got positive feedback, these leaders sound like they trust you. (Either that, or Mormons are just inscrutably nice even on feedback forms.) Get with the course coordinator and see if you can follow-up either by phone or at roundtables in the next couple of months to see if anything you taught actually worked for them! Then see if you can invite them to whatever next class you're gonna teach.

Tell your ASM that he's suffering from overthink. Meanwhile you need help not burning the coffee. This is an opportunity to talk to the boys about how hanging together in one massive patrol may be fun, but it may slow down advancement ... Let's suppose half the boys need to finish this requirement, that means scheduling 6 days of camping so each boy gets to cook. That means obliging the ASM and a buddy on as many days to come camp within 100 yards of you for the sake of adequate overnight supervision. That means more cards, flowers and chocolates to Mrs. ASM and Mrs. Buddy for doing without their spouses for those weekends, which increases everyone's costs. Whereas, two patrols of six (small yes, but leaves room for growth) with each patrol having three scouts who need this requirement. That means maybe three days of camping. Patrols on opposite ends of a 200 yard field with ASM and Buddy in the middle for adequate overnight supervision. Far fewer cards, flowers, and chocolates to Mrs. ASM and Mrs. Buddy -- maybe even "thank yous" from them for babysitting their men while they have a girls night out! Costs contained. A downside is some scout may be stuck as a one-man patrol if his buddy's bail on him. No problem. It'll be his patrol by the book. He can rate his own food, and report in to his patrol leader next meeting for sign-off. Lay it out to the boys something like that. Say that if they are comfortable keeping things the way they are, you'll support them and help the PLC make a long term plan. If they want to give change a try, you'll support them and have the SPL get the new patrol leaders up to speed ASAP. Either way, they'll know that they've done it by the book ... with pride. (Note that, in my framework, this has nothing to do with the ASM or the PL making the decision. It has to do with the boys feeling pride in their work. Assuming that they have sour memories of one Webelos requirement where an adult played the "do your best" card. You will have boys hungering for someone who interprets the program quite literally.)

Isn't it encouraging to observe the "wildlife" from a distance? P.S. -- I hate cabins. If at all possible, I will set up a hammock or a tarp just outside of them. In exchange for enduring cold temperatures, I get a good look at the stars and better sleep in the absence of all the chatter and smells. But, it does give the boys a chance to model basic housekeeping.

First, thanks for your service and welcome to the forums. Second, I hate paperwork and a tour premit for every little Tiger half-day outing does sound ridiculous. That said, if it's the hoop you all have to jump through then you need to find parents willing to jump through it. Your CC and COR need to decide if this leader is delivering the program that the intended, and if not they need to talk to the other Tiger parents and see if there is anyone else willing to do a better job.