qwazse

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.

I think historical abstraction gets us removed from the concepts we are trying to handle. It took countless leaders at every level to turn the nation from imperial colonialism and a slave trade economy. Management is where you might see leadership come to the fore. However, You could say the same for service, worship, patriotism, friendship, and nearly any other aspect of the scout law. When I ask a youth to take leadership on something, I'm not asking that he or she assign people a series of tasks (although that may be what is in store). I'm asking primarily for him or her to accomplish something in a way that everyone involved will attain a sense of fellowship an comraderie that would not otherwise be shared. If youth stick with me, after a while, they realize that I'm looking for the shy kid being cared for, the ranger at a run down camp getting a phone call about camping/service weekends, the fire attracting so many venturers that the builders drift into the background. And (sometimes) the tired old ASM getting some weight redistributed from his pack.

And without those changes its all downhill from there (well, except for the uphill part of the cross country option)!

All biofilms are possible (given a billion years and as many acres under primordially oscillating conditions)!

@@JasonG172, move more, eat less. You definitely can shed those pounds over the next three years. One scouter I know found a hike in the woods that he took at 5:30 every AM before going to work. An extra couple of miles (and a couple hundred feet elevation change) every day for a year in advance help him shed quite a few pounds and prepared him for the big hills.

Hmmm ... The greatest among you shall be your servant ... Someone should copyright that.

So, I think what these old guys are saying: have your PL's take what the boys are interested in, and take it to the next level. You don't have to figure out what that next level is, you just have to get them to brainstorm about what it could be. Backpacking? Get a trail map of your state unfold it at the hiking patrol's table and ask "Where to next guys?" Fishing? Get a chart of local game fish to the fishing patrol's table and ask "What are you gonna try to catch next?" Swimming? Get that state map and say "Which pool is next?" Baseball? Ask "Who wants to see if they can throw the first pitch at a home opener?" Part of the trick of being an SPL is seeing the talent and nudging the boys to build on it. I call it vision-casting. Now, not all visions are fulfilled. (Some just plain shouldn't be.) But, in the process of casting a vision, a few ideas bubble to the top that, in the process of going for them ... better and better ideas form. The point of going over the list of merit badges isn't to limit you to that list. But to start talking about a topic, then start getting an idea in everyone's head, then start seeing if you can really do that idea.

I would so love to see a venturing contingent to ride in on motorcycles.

I wish I knew about scouter.com!