qwazse

No matter how we slice it, it is pretty impressive. It's also an under-count because lots of folks (myself included) will rarely bother to log hours.

Hail moderators! Time for a new sub-forum!

Extra work for the treasurer(s). Put the scout on a payment plan: $30/month until the dept is cleared. No summer camp unless a substantial amount of that is cleared. Every meeting inform the boy on what's been payed vs. what is owed. Your bigger problem is dealing with the boy's deeper issue. It really stinks to have kin steal your stuff. But the boy isn't helped by keeping him out of the loop. Keep talking to the boy as if this is his problem to solve. If you discover that this is happening with other activities he's trying to participate in, inform your SE. This may be a sign of neglect. Meanwhile, the troop and pack may have to adjust their respective budgets to account for loss due to theft. In the future, your committee might decide to not accept fundraising orders without payment in advance.

"All politics is local." The culture in the community makes a big difference. If parents are brought up with every-man-for-himself attitudes, they are going to pick troops who, as far as they can tell, give each boy maximum control over his fundraising dollar. If they are brought up with one-for-all-and-all-for-one attitudes they will look for a troop who makes sure no scout is left behind. Of course there's all manner of in-between and mixes of different proportions thereof. And part of our job as scouters is to get everyone to respect where the other is coming from, yet still nudge them along a certain trajectory that works best for the boys. Especially harmful is a parent who seeds a none-for-all-yet-all-for-me attitude (a.k.a., an entitlement mentality). That'll undermine every possible benefit that could come from scouts working together to solve a problem. My general impression is that communal fundraising might get you to offset registrations and everyone's summer camp fees. But it wont underwrite trips to the BSA HA bases or Jambo. Bless the troop where every boy is all-in with fundraising to the point that large fees like that can be paid ... but, sometimes it helps an SM sort out a boy's interest and commitment to a particular adventure if he has to make payments of $100 out of his own earnings every month. Finally, what's better for your boys? Them learning to find odd jobs that make it worth folks paying them ~$25/week, then deciding if the income is to be spent on scouts, sports, or girlfriends? Or, them learning to team up for a collective financial goal?

Welcome! and on behalf of our boys, thank you for your service.

Yes and no. The boy hit the bottom of his "safety net". Now, it would have been nice for it to happen where BD could help him forage for some cattails and trap some fish in a sieve. (Or entice them to bite on some baler twine .. seen that done.) Then he could have gone home angry, but empowered. He may not appreciate it now, but by forgoing the movie with him, SM could afford the PP&J and gas in the Mrs' car. It's not what a boy wants, so on one level that's downright mean. But it may be what the boy needs. If his mom pulls stunts like this in other areas of his life, he will need to understand that level of resourcefulness ... accepting that other people may help ... but not in the terms he thinks he needs.

The LDS uses the BSA program to meet the needs of the church's youth development program. So, there are specific leadership needs, scheduling needs, age targets etc ... (although the age targets apply more to young boy scouts than cubs, that would certainly impact which troop you would direct your AoL's to). Other COs adapt the program as well; however, this tends to happen at the unit level. LDS simply sets nation-wide guidelines on how to do so.

Suggestion from the cheap seats under the heading "If you can't beat 'em, use 'em." For your dadwood derby, have a staggered finish line. The track gets an inch shorter for every committee meeting attended that year. Ten inches shorter for every service star.

First, this is where you bend the CC's ear. He/she and the COR need to get the parents and any other responsible relatives in the room and make clear this is unacceptable. They need to come up with a better plan or be prepared to have the police knocking on their door for neglect. We get that this economy demands folks work double shifts, Sundays, etc... And for some kids, we know grandparents, etc ... for this purpose. And, some kids are latch-key. Got it. Tell us ahead of time and we'll support your arrangement. But behavior like this is beyond the pale. Calling your SE is probably a wise move at this point as well.

Never heard of a den meeting on a Friday. Our CO building use dictates the schedule. So, afternoons are out because the daycare is running. Troop and crew have Monday nights, which is sometimes the CO board meeting night as well. That leaves Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, of which one of those is the monthly Pack meeting. Leaders' schedule is the main determinant.

In fairness, fellas, this story could easily turn into "Eagle badge procrastinators cause local governments to interrupt essential services for last-minute interviews." If I recall, Son #1 and his buddy had to make an appointment with the school board president weeks in advance to meet him *after* the board meeting. He expected them to attend the meeting and be prepared to discuss the night's docket as well as whatever issues they had in mind. Before any of you shout "adding to the requirements", everyone needs to understand that 'round here we expect a certain quality of work from high school youth, especially boys at the top of their class in both academics and athletics. And it makes sense that an elected official responsible for educating young people should make every youth encounter an educational one for both parties. I think our elected officials have the right to hear from our scouts on the officials' terms, in a way that they can ensure good two-way communication. So, I'm all for a scout finding out from his government "why" they won't turn on a dime. But, I'm against a young adult whining to the media about it without him being willing to commit to helping the solution by either voting for a candidate or putting his hat in the ring himself. P.S. - The board president's daughters were in my crew and one was a good friend of the boys, so he could have made this very convenient for the scouts. I'm quite glad that he didn't.

So, daughter comes home from break and I find her, Son #2, and Mrs Q playing a feisty round of cards. Talk turns to who endured the worst childcare, who got sent to the worst church camp, who didn't get sent to any church camp, etc .... Daughter than pipes up, "Well, I couldn't be a member of the BSA for 7 years." I tried to point out that she was the one who let her membership lapse when she went to college, and she said that those weren't the years that mattered. Her childhood was spent watching me take her brothers off camping. GSUSA, you gotta step it up. Get your moms out under canvas (or less) more often in tougher conditions. Or, someone else will.

I'm assuming you're the counselor. If not, he should call the MBC right away and let him/her know about this snag. Failure is a possibility. Partly his fault because for starting this one so late. Partly the fault of an unresponsive government. How to counsel the boy? Well, persistence does matter. So he should stop in at the town hall every day for the next two days. He should log every call. There has to be SOMEBODY he can talk to about this. As a last ditch, he could interview the person who is putting him on hold, and ask if he could get his/her opinion and if he/she has any idea how young people can help. Even if he gets a "No Comment" I bet he's learned something. When he turns 18, he should request a voter's registration. And possibly consider running for office.

My SM started in retirement and kept going till the Parkinson's got the upper hand. This had certain advantages. If you needed a conference, you could just walk over to his front porch after school. (My house was a mile away, but it was a splendid hike.) Plus he could tell you history like it was first person. (Still remember him talking about his family worrying about polio.) It had disadvantages. He was no spring chicken. So our backpacking was in countryside, not wilderness. Point is, he stuck with it thanks to constant support from the CO (his home church, which he would attend when the church he played organ for didn't need him). We boys didn't know the difference until some of us went to ?Jambo, etc ... and the contingent was led by a young SM. I don't know when I'll turn in the Advisor's patch. I've got decent support from the CO, but I keep thinking that my youth might benefit from someone young stepping into the gap. Still looking for that replacement.

Sorry your attempts fell on the having "to be willing to accept a little hurt." It's better to drop him from the charter. If he wants to come back in the new year, it will require talking to you, plus the paperwork. If he take's up the first burden, I'm sure the BSA youth application will be pretty light. If he doesn't come round, he's better off for having dealt with you. Hopefully he'll have the good sense to tell you that when he grows up. (Here's praying he does.)

Oh, not irate. Just jawin' on the other half of the shoe. It is possible to not throw the baby out with the bathwater, work hard to build the cardre of adults so you'll never come up short, everybody doing what they can to hold accountable, etc ... I suspect that's what the OP is trying to do. Get a bead on the G2SS wording and explain to her parents that they need some men to step up. But, it ain't hurting anyone to know that a stipulation can amount to nonsense. And "compliance" might not get you the YP someone thinks it will. It might work against you. That's where nose-to-the-grindstone good judgement needs to be applied. IMK and her committee thinks she's used it. You disagree. Folks in internet-land may fall somewhere in between. It's a good idea to hash out why they do. Here's where we agree: If any unit leaders are in this kind of bind with routinely finding appropriate two-deep, for whatever reason, I definitely think they need to get in touch with their DE or even SE and build a better action plan than going off with some provincial interpretation of the G2SS.

And how, pray-tell, does encouraging units across the country to procure a politically-correct-sexed person they may barely know from Adam or Eve to supplement their complement of chaperons-of-uniform-but-opposite-to-the-youths' sex do that? How does cancelling the activity help that one youth who might have been counting on it to get a day away from an abusive situation? Most rules are a reaction to something gone wrong. It's always good to know when they aren't likely to have the intended effect of making things right, and adjust accordingly.

I tell a scout to be true to God and his Country. Self comes in a close third, but only in terms of physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

'Skip, it varies. Many parents who need it are too proud to speak up (rugged individualists), and many who don't are quick to milk the system for all it's worth. In our neck of the woods, we've found it best to have that policy, but not put it in writing. We train our adult leaders to be on the look-out for boys and families who might be in a bind. The SM has a discretionary fund for minor things. For substantial expense, he can meet with the treasurer and committee chair to make an executive decision. At the next committee meeting, the treasurers report will have that decision of the amount spent without mentioning names or number of kids assisted. This sounds a little cloak-and-dagger, but we have parents and boys who would not accept charity if they ever thought word would get out. And, we have the occasional boy who wants to go on a big trip, but his spending priorities put making payments for the next adventure at the bottom of his list.

Gold Bond is your friend, gsd. Just sayin'!