qwazse

I think we're actually better for keeping it simple. It returns us to the original notions of projects, which weren't intended to teach boys general contracting. However, I do agree: "Briefly" should include a metric (one, not a half-dozen) that quantifies what you expect to do. Fred's examples are fine ... except for the "how much you hope to collect"? That's a little out of the scout's control. And we should be satisfied with "... the beneficiary is grateful ...", at the same time, we should coach beneficiaries in expecting an appropriate level of action. Then the scouts after action review should be able to critically evaluate: Did he implement his plan? Did it have the intended result?

So, we had a break in the weather this weekend ... which basically meant a few inches of snow instead of mind-numbing cold. So I spent a lot of time shoveling snow/slush before everything re-freezed. In the afternoon I walked a mile to our neighborhood coffee shop. It's a pleasant walk through a sleepy town across a couple of bridges: saw some deer bedded down in the valley, the finches were out, etc ... Anyway, an erstwhile scout in Son #2's class was working at the shop, and when I placed my usual afternoon order (iced coffee), he pointed to the snow outside the window and asked, "Are you sure you want that given the weather?" I assured the young fellow that it was the beverage of choice given the conditions. And I ribbed him that if he had spent more time camping with us, he'd have a better sense of when warm beverages were essential. Sometimes, you just gotta model to young people how they should live ... really live ... and hope that they'll try on their own and think "So, that scouter might have been crazy, but he was also right!"

When we use someone's style (or lack thereof) as an excuse to discount everything they have to tell us, our words become bludgeons instead of ties that bind. Here's an link that references the article in the OP: "PC doesn’t so much liberalize our nation as divide it, and the divisions will only widen the louder and angrier the forces of political correctness become."

For fits and giggles, I started with the clearance (since it had an online app). In the organization field, I put "Church scouts". I'm playing "God is who I'm working for, and anyone who accepts currency with his name on it should be fine with my one clearance." If the bureaucrats kick it back to me, I'll let you know. P.S. - There seems to be a way to submit your organization's code if they're footing the bill. I can see that going bad quickly!

As absolutely important as it is that we hear from you, maybe you should submit your musings to the course newsletter ... How were the tents? Hopefully canvas. Nothing grates like snow sliding down nylon (millions of tiny fingers on their little chalk boards. )!

It can be worse to be the SA and spouse of a type-A personality with a 17.9 yo life scout. "Can't you become a counselor for one of his remaining MBs?" "Sure, honey, you know me. I'd love to add to the BS in the BS of A." (Actually, I didn't have the spine to say that. Instead, I pawned it off on the District Advancement Chair who knows everyone in the troop and has no qualms about raising red flags.)

Don't get me wrong, I think the elective MB program is terrific for a boy. If you can encourage your boys to each pick one elective to work on outside of camp and a couple in camp every year, you'll be doing right by them. "Hey son. Earn some badges. Sucker your troop into participating in some of them. I'll find you counselors." That's what I do. As far as my contribution to STEM, sometimes I bring my work with me camping. Then I'll show the boys some of the analyses I'm working on or writing up. We get deep into scientific method, ethics, experimental design, and statistics. But, given a choice between introducing the boys to our latest MB counselor in whatever program the boys are designing versus promoting one more top-down scheme. I'll choose the former. I'll encourage the adults to do the same. Caveat: I'm in a school district that sends a lot of its students to college. Their math and sciences are quite good. If that wasn't the case, maybe I'd be a little more pro-active, tell the boys to read http://www.scouting.org/stem/Awards/BoyScouts.aspx, and let me know if any of them would like to try it. If they give the go-ahead, I'll find them a mentor. If I were in a community where the youth lacked any vision of their role in the sciences AND other adults were doing a bang-up job with the outdoor program, I might consider being a STEM mentor. Finally, let me clarify my understanding of "youth driven": a unit comes up with a program, finds out that other troops want to imitate it, and make a proposal to national. An example would be the recent "Honor Guard" position. It may not meet some national imperative, and the way it's being implemented irritates the tar out of adults who want there to be a laundry list of requirements and qualifications, but it captures the vision of the boys of troop 944 and writes it large! I assert that STEM, on the other hand, is "adult driven" ... very thoughtful adults who may be on to something ... but adult nonetheless. Name the youth advisory board for the STEM awards, and I'll retract my assertion.

Sentinel, part of my comments were just to lighten things up a little. Advisors who I know laugh at this bean-countery. Wanna date across the fraternization boundary? Just let one of your registrations lapse while you do. Worst that can happen? Someone's service star comes in a few months later -- if the registrar even notices. Hopefully, this link will shed some light on your question.

NJ, I'm not entirely sure this should be in I&P. Yeah I know. I really resent (should Mrs. Q ever decide to leave me for the milkman) not being permitted to invite a venturer to a candlelight dinner until she ages out of the program. The fraternization policy isn't about age taboos. It has more to deal with leader-subordinate roles being undermined by dating relationships. There's a number of threads around here somewhere that discuss it. No need to cuss.

More details and heated opinions Here

On the flip side, most of us need the clearances for other youth programs we're involved with. So it's not like we're not already getting this done. But yeah, it may be more economical for the boys if they just go hiking and camping on their own. 😉

Yes. The choice of CC is entirely up to the Charter Organization; therefore, the Charter Org Representative can allow whoever he/she thinks is best for 5he job to chair the committe.

Thanks! Lots of meat in the Q&A of that document. For example ... "An 18 year old Venturer who fills out an adult applications for the Crew will not be permitted to serve as a leader for two deep leadership." This then begs the question, what is the benefit of the additional paperwork to being in a crew? Thinking of a scout who wants to just go hiking and camping on college break with his/her buddies who are a couple of years younger, it seems better off if they all bypass the BSA, hop in the car, and hit the trail.

Sorry LC, these posts have natural selection all their own.

Um, Stosh, you're the first one to use that acronym in this thread.

First, a scout does not have to show me anything. Our PL's sign off on requirements. Things that I suggest that they require for signoff include but not limited to ... Assisted by a map, a verbal description of each find (location, type of evidence, estimated size or numbers, particular activity). Notepad with drawings. Reference to the page in the field guide used for identification. DNA samples, with lab results. (Okay, just joking!) Pictures, with labels. Audio recordings. Even if the PL is present when the boy does his little exploration, I encourage him to review each find using the one of the above methods. Finger-pointing in the moment does not cut it. If he can't recall 10 items that he just saw, he wasn't paying enough attention and did not fulfill the requirement.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with teaching a skill that the boys want to learn! They can call a counselor and have him or her come in and maybe explain some of the finer points of the requirements. Maybe provide them a practice session. But, even when our boys had the chance to do worksheet-type paperwork, for a badge-on-the-spot ... only a minority would have completed it ... EVEN WHEN THE ANSWERS WERE SPELLED OUT DURING THE MEETING! Isn't it better to take that time pencil-whipping and use it to demonstrate something cool? Anyone who wants a patch for it can ask for a blue card and line up an appointment with a counselor. If they didn't remember anything specific from the meeting, they master requirements by the first step in the tried and true method of learning MB skills: referencing a pamphlet!

Well. I gave you one way of interpreting the intent of the med forms. Scoutergripper gave you the opposite. And there's everything in between. So now you can tell your committee there's a half dozen scouters on the internet with as many diverse opinions. They'll be shocked. I'm not against in principle having some basic medical and contact info on file, but you're stuck herding unwilling cats. Tell them what you'd like (which you've already done). Maintain that folder with flags for everything that is outdated. Make sure your key leaders know where it is ... if you've asked someone for something and they've denied it ... that's on them, not the troop, leave it alone. Insert a blank form in your binder with a flag that's your special color for "requested not returned." You're not a failure if only 80% of your peeps are compliant. But, even if everyone has a change of heart and turns in their paperwork ... you need to understand something: these forms work really well for a camp where there is a medic station with a full time crew in radio contact with every camp staff director. For the day-to-day workings of a troop of volunteers ... not so much. With a troop your size working the patrol method to its fullest, you'll have boys on multiple different activities on the same weekend. If you're forcing those forms to be available for every meeting and eagle project (take it to the extreme ... every contact with a merit badge counselor), and a couple of your patrols meet at their convenience, as do your SPL/APL then your troop has a logistics nightmare. You'd have to split up the binder as needed and hope the forms get "checked in" at the end of each group's respective "activity" ... or make copies, then keep track of who has copies for which and make sure they get a fresh copy when a new form is turned in. Let's take your worst-case scenario. Someone collapses into sudden cardiac arrest. Will the person who knows where the form is be there? When he/she opens that binder, will the forms still be in alphabetical order? What's the odds of the sibling/parent form being grabbed? In the four pages of that form, how long will it take that person (not likely a trained medic) to hone in on the relevant data? Since they have the form, would he/she hustle the boy to the ER, consent to treatment, etc ..., and forget to call the parent/guardian???? The victim is better served by a medic alert bracelet. A misplaced faith in paperwork will not forestall death. You scoffed at the phone list. But, when our troop's very bad day happened and our cars were separated by miles in rush hour traffic ... one of the scouts in the accident sat in the officer's car and got online and remembered our website's password and the officer was able to contact all parents involved then the SM, who -- binders full of forms notwithstanding -- was the last to be contacted. Yes, we did pull the med forms, collected siblings and he sped off to the hospital ... just in case a parent didn't beat us there. They did. Take your pick: Burnout from trying to fulfill the literal interpretation of writer at national who knows nothing of your unit ... or fulfillment from making sure you've increased everyone's odds of handling an emergency well.

d821, I may have misunderstood. Were you thinking that the boy needed to come with a freshly completed part A for every meeting? That's what I was responding to. You DO need complete contact info for every parent. Collect it once, put it on a clean sheet of paper. Before making copies, call every number on the list to make sure you all recorded it correctly, update it at rechartering or more frequently if your parents change phone #s often (it happens). Honestly, when there's that kind of emergency, you will have one irate SM if all there is are a stack of medical records to wade through. You WILL need a medical record for any activity where it would not be practical to wait for a parents' arrival to deliver care beyond first aid. Which means you should collect a copy of A and B one from a boy annually, and for most boys, you would get that along with part C when they go to camp for a week. Frankly, if your troop is full of active boys who actually go out on patrols, etc ... the medical record is best served kept on their person, with the troop copy as a back-up. (This is extremely practical for venturers -- who often participate in events beyond the crew's purview.)