qwazse

there are Reasons for quitting not that are not on the rechartering form, my most popular one:Refusal to pay the increased registration fee. For the money, I can go hiking an camping independently now, thank you very much.

Raising kids is not cheap, but kids are some of the most cost effective labor a neighborhood has. However, many kids don't know how to leverage that. The point of troop fundraising, IMHO, is to teach boys to sell something useful to meet financial goals. Like most things, a kid isn't usually going to make a windfall, and a family has to decide if and how to bail him out. The question a family should ask: is he meeting the family needs in other areas, and how much is that worth to us? In our family, with our kids, there was no excuse for anything lower than a B in any class no matter how hard. (It's their fault, they kept jawing about wanting to be engineers, doctors, scientists and researchers.) In my mind, that equates to extracting real value from taxpayer dollars. So we paid for a lot of other stuff because they got job #1 right. Nothing about the council fundraising process is designed to manage windfall gains by one scouting family. If the IRS came knocking, the boy would write off the paint and his payroll and itemize a charitable contribution deduction.If on the other hand ... Is buddies in the troop want to help him ride the wave, submit a plan to council with a goal of filling 2000 orders of pallet flags.

A couple of years ago, we were having so many ECoHs that SPL and SM couldn't attend all of them, so starting with one Son#2 and I were working, I modified scripts with more generic names, SaA and MoC. If your troop only gets recruits via Webelos, I suppose you would use "crossover." But about half our scouts are in troop/crew situations where it could be a 14 year old's first time to sleep under canvass (or open sky, in the case of one venturer), so "newbie" covered everyone present.

Glad you liked it. BTW, I make no qualms about offending anybody. I just wanted to provide an example of how to guide boys who aren't versed in religion to assemble something that comes from the heart. The group who heard this was Christian (of various sects), and they had all heard the classic version that intertwines Bible verses with the 12 points. They certainly wouldn't have minded hearing it again, but Son #2 wanted a brief ceremony, and I wanted to focus on the boys' memories (some glorious, some tragic). These lines were boiled down from what the boys or others said about the troop/crew over the past few years. I knew I hit it out of the park when the SPL gave the script the once-over and his eyes lit up when he came to this page.

Don't let the "third world generals" fool you. Your first two "hurdles" are not requirements for any district position! That may be why some volunteer positions in your district are not being filled. Nobody thinks they're qualified for them. Raising 7 kids maybe should be a requirement. You an the Mr. are working the patrol method 'round the clock! Time is the big thing, but I'm just putting "the bug in your ear," because, well, you seem to be a quick study ... capable of finding a task you can do and chipping away at it. By the time Jr. sticks you with that "Eagle mom" pin, you'll be plenty credentialed.

From a guy who stayed in the background at the cub level ... I had three kids coming down the pipe ... one likely to head toward GSUSA (although that only lasted half a year). I was as non-committal as I could be. Needed fire? I'd light it. What bug is that? I'd identify it. Want canvas up? I (along with another non-committal dad) was on it. Mobile kitchen? The family camp box was tossed in the van (table cloth included). Coffee? If you could handle espresso, it was ready for you. Silly songs and dances? Oh yeah! Science projects? Boom! Committee meetings and round tables? Not on your life! I had just come off of serving on a contentious church board and needed to find my soul again and it wasn't gonna be around a table of "decision makers." God bless my DL, she tried to call a meeting during camp seista time and me and my other "non-committing buddy" made a be line for our tent, keeping all flaps up so we could be observed napping from 360-degrees! Then, come crossover, I was really ready to assist. Did a sting as MC, then someone tossed me an ASM patch. Then Son's girlfriends wanted Seabase and Daughter was hating GS, so I knew if she was to mature in her love for the outdoors, I needed to do something about it. Thus venturing. My point: don't look at everyone as though you are grooming them for your unit. You might just be there to help them find their niche somewhere down the road.

Love that Jr. knows what to do with his free time! BTW how are those bugle calls coming? @@christineka, ask someone in your church or community who is an electrician or electrical engineer if they would go through the trouble of registering with the BSA as an MBC. Now that you know what it's like to be a mom with an ambitious kid, you might want to think about filling that vacant district position.

So, not to keep you on the therapists' couch any longer than necessary ... but you haven't really addressed the 2nd half of your title:"how Wrong We Were To Join This Troop" I know you were being rhetorical, but this is where you want to think carefully (maybe including your son in the discussion) before you continue visiting other troops. Well, how wrong you were depends on what you were looking for. If you were looking for top-down adults-in-the-business-of-everything a kid does organization that would protect your son from potentially mean boys, you were quite right. If you were looking for something where the boys took responsibility for each other, and worked hard to figure out the quirks and be quick to forgive. While the adults coached from a distance ... well you missed the signs. So, what are you and your son gonna look for now that you weren't looking for before?

No reason for them to know ... There's only one space to sign for the requirement, if I recall. But, our advancement chair does keep on top of those things.This lot doing any form of demolition out of sheer boredom ... Now that's funny. Their sisters, on the other hand ...

For Son #2's ECoH, I took a slightly different take ... touching on some of the favorite activities of our boys, the sergeant at arms called up a recent alumnus to read this while lighting 12 candles: The scout law reminds of the essential things people have come to expect from first class scouts. Trustworthy: what the climber needs when you are on his belay. Loyal: what your countrymen need when it’s time to take a stand. Helpful: how tents get pitched, wood gets chopped, and meals get served. Friendly: what the newbie needs on his/her first night in the woods. Courteous: what people need to feel respected and glad to know you. Kind: what people and wildlife need from you to grow strong and good. Obedient: what the rangemaster, lifeguard, and all those guides, need to provide a safe experience for you and your mates. Cheerful: what bad days need for everyone to enjoy a new dawn. Thrifty: what super-activities need for you to afford them. Brave: what people need from you during those dark hours. Clean: what our minds need to stay true and our bodies need to stay strong. Reverent: what our soul needs when we’ve come short in any of the above, or when we want someone to thank for all of the above. A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.

So ... it would be interesting (and challenging) to add another article on scouting's innovators (or as some here might say, heretics) since Hillcourt ... at least try to bring it to the close of the century. From folks who influenced the BSA since 1980, whose bios would you want everyone to see?

That's where the CC and a really good cadre of ASM's come in! Also, the emphasis should be on the learning experience. A troop's not gonna fall apart if a boy flounders in his position for a month. But we then need to nudge the kid ... "How do you think you can do this better? What are we going to see from you next month?" I think that's where the idea of election cycles might help some boys. If they know they are "locked in" for a few months ... with the expectation they do better each month, they might respond to each other a little bit better. Here's a tangent: what do you all do with the position patches? Do the boys return them/swap them around at the end of their term? Does the troop order them? Does the boy go to the scout-shop?

Our church would rather us attend to making sure things are in order for their nonprofit pre-school that uses the facility the other 5 days of the week. We do. Pastor's grateful. But, when they were in financial straits, we considered throwing in from our funds for the electric. They would have none of it. Frankly, a lot of our boys aren't that great with positions of responsibility. (It's not that they wont do the job, it's that they pitch in on every other job so much that you lose track of who's wearing what patch.) So, having a church who needs a scout to head up a service project is pretty handy. That way, the boy may report something specific at his board of review. "So, son, how did you perform as librian?" "Well, sir, not many pamphlets were being checked out. So, I pulled up the old carpet from a preshool room." Committee scratch heads over requirments as written. -- Priceless!

Things often don't make sense looking in from the outside. Chances are there was a decision to adjust things for a particular problem at the time. Personally, I don't see how "collections" and "elections" are linked at all. But this downstream effect was probably one the adults or boys (there's really no telling who) were willing to put up with. Our troop was down to one patrol and the boys insisted on having Son #2 as SPL, their persistent logic, "He's leading, he's a senior, and we're a patrol." Nothing I said could disavow them of that notion. The PLC should be free to eventually ask the question "Should do things differently?"

Most IH's would not want to overstep the COR's selection of adult leaders. And it doesn't sound like you need that kind of intrigue. You'll want both of them to get on the same page about Erstwhile Hothead. That means the two of them having an open conversation with him about their apprehensions. Then leave the decision up to them. Heck, leave the room, maybe even the building when it happens.

Well, at least it's subsidizing as much scout as possible for the dollar!

I don't think with this type of solicitation, any of the money can go to the pack. The pack, may, however, make money by having the boys provide a service (e.g., cold drinks, custom t-shirts) during the event. There is paperwork involved (http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34427.pdf), and you should talk to someone at your council service to see what the chances are of your plan being approved.

Noble goals indeed. I think there are plenty of ways to have a light hand in the SPL's mentoring.each troop is different regarding this. The main thing: no matter how busy the SMs are, make sure they arrange time for after action review with the SPL. This is especially difficult with high school age youth. The coffee comment applies to older SPLs ... you may find the only time for AAR is while the patrols are working on breakfast and you all are boiling up a pot. Sure, this can be a sacred time for adults, but from this side of the Internet, @@Eagle94-A1, you don't seem to maintain boundaries very well. That's a compliment.

I've spent a lot of time with amputees. They can do everything the rest of us can ... until they can't. A scouter can be just as impatient with a kid who hits that wall as those ASMs who were up in arms about imc's son. Or, he can start with whatever limitations the boy has and grow from there.

I was a scout a little more than 30 years ago, and like @, my SM had roughly the same procedure. For upper ranks he created a file on each scout. Kept it beside his shoe box full of pictures and organ pipes needing repaired. My brother was a scout almost 60 years ago. Some kid not getting a medal would not generate much outcry among the miners, shepherds, and veterans to whom we sold beer.

Not gonna lie, a one/legged one/armed kid would be rough on our troop. We hike. Lots. The patrol that got that kid would have to revise their hike plan. Some of them might have had a vision of scaling some peak next year and will have to settle for a short hike and overnight camp with their buddies until they figure out the adaptations they need. On the flip side, they might incorporate more acquatic activities, or downhill skiing. But that would mean changing attitudes because they got in the habit of minimal acquatics for the sake of the scout whose disabilities prohibited swimming. Lets make it 12. Thrifty: they squandered dozens of man-hours bending the ears of committee and other unit leaders so they could take the easy way out rather than getting on with hiking those miles down the hard road.

Not sure that's a bad thing. But, my brother is not an Eagle because an SM went AWOL with all the troop's blue cards and no other scouter was around to back him up and encourage him to hike over to the next nearest troop and figure out how to reconcile matters. So, I don't see a meticulous advancement chair as a bad thing either.

Signing adult on is between the COR and IH. Leave it there. The wannabe ASM's a big boy. If he cares, he can go to them with hat and hand begging for a trial run by using some variation of @@moosetracker's bleeding heart speech. The current SM may "have no problem", but unless he's enthused about this guy, this is a non-essential issue. If you're assisting the SM, do what he asks you. If not, tell him you're not and look for another "patch." How is this complicated? I've mentored SPLs ... it especially helps take the pressure off when they are SM's sons. Get the kid to read the SPL's handbook. Get him to some leadership course. Show him the ILST syllabus. Give him the paperwork he needs and the SM's phone number so he can schedule meetings efficiently. Get him into the habit of communicating plans with the SM (copying you if via E-mail) and reminding PLs of tasks (copying you and the SM if via E-mail). Arrange for a scoutmaster conference in a couple of months to evaluate. Edited: Oh and teach him how to operate your coffee pot.

Agreed there is a fine line between self-advocacy and entitlement. In cases like these, I side with the SM. He sets the tone for how he wants his boys to act (and be acted upon). If he wants his assistants to train for working with particular youth, they should train, no questions asked. If a PL needs to adjust his hike plan or maybe have a disabled kid's parent follow along at a distance or meet at a few checkpoints, the adjustments need to be made before the plan is approved. I'll respect any adult who, being at loggerheads with the SM, moves along and starts his/her own unit. It happens. Make it work. But I've learned when adults malign the youth (or hard-working adults) in my unit through district/council channels, to treat it as a personal affront. I summon what little Christian character I have to avoid vulgarity, but I make my displeasure very clear to the folks next up on the organizational chart* and in writing ... copying the offender and offended. That way, it is clear that I will continue to do what I do and I expect everyone to fall in line .... no "select committee" gatherings required. *Or down, if, like me, you've inverted the chart to interpret it correctly.

Same station, same news hour, sometimes even the same day you'll hear a story on the shennanigans at national, then a special interest story on some massive Eagle project or some scout in a minority neighborhood making Eagle 'round here. Then there's the best medium, talking to strangers. Last month on the bus home, as we passed the cemetary, I pointed out to some kids and their mom, "My scouts put up all those flags. They got scouts from all over the neighborhood to help them. Maybe when you're older you can help too."