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Regardless of the OP's intent. This is does come up from time to time. Inappropriate touching can lead to a backlash of bullying. So, this isn't just a problem with one boy, but also his fellow scouts. The old SM handbooks addressed this more directly, if someone has one to quote, it would help. Basically, you need to be able to conference with the boy and find out why he's behaving that way. Then you need to conference with the other scouts (SPL PL's especially) and talk to them about calling boys out on inappropriate behaviors before responding in violence. They don't need to be mean when they do it, but they need to address these behaviors promptly. A simple "Not cool, man." may suffice. This an important lesson for older boys to learn, because it applies to harassment prevention outside of the troop -- especially toward the women in their life. By modelling proper behavior at camp, for example, these guys may be able to help a sister or girlfriend stand up for herself in school or other social contexts.

I would steer clear of the SMC's until your are an adult in your troop. It sounds like in your troop, this is an opportunity for the adults to get to know the boys (kind of like a pre-BoR), and you've probably already know the guys pretty well. JASM gives you an opportunity to help your troop in unique ways: you can organize your older scouts into a Venture Patrol, you could research a trip opportunity that would provide multiple tiers for different patrols, visit a venturing crew, an O/A conclave (if you're an arrowman), or talk to new scout parents about what it was like for you when you joined the troop.

I was brought up in the era of Leadership Corps, which upon reflection pulled together the SPL and JASMs into a "lets show 'em how it's really done" patrol. We'd practice a skill (like mess-kit pizza) after helping some Eagle project on a mountainside in the middle of winter, then demonstrate it to the other patrols on some other, more tame, weekend. Aside from a honking big patch to dominate your left sleeve, how did that differ from what was the Venture Patrol pilot? How did the Venture Patrol pilot differ from what is taught about Venture Patrols today?

Thanks for the details on your position(s). I had a vague idea you'd "been all over town". But was too lazy to creep on your old messages to try and figure it out. And thanks for your service! You mean like what is described as the CURRENT program for patrols on http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/...rolLeader.aspx ? Sure don't look dead to me. I still encourage older scouts who sound envious of venturing crews, but short on time for organizing one, to consider talking to their SM about forming a venture patrol. From where I sit, our districts continue to be short on commissioners, so spinning off whole new units on account of a few guys who want a little more adventure comes off as a resource-heavy recipe for boom-and-bust. I do not want to repeat the inflated figures of 2001-2005. (Bit of background: I try to volunteer on our council's venturing committee as time allows -- generally a good experience except for one time we wanted to contact all of our advisors and our DE handed me a list of what were obviously paper crews. Not a good day for him or me.) My point: the distinction between Venture and Venturing (although I really hate the choice of terms) is important because any healthy troop should have that "outward bound" leadership corps (Guide to Safe Scouting notwithstanding). Lacking a better name for THAT group, we're kinda stuck with the tongue twisters! From where I sit, a lot of our short term growth is from youth who don't want to shell out their hard-earned $$ for a uniform (remember, they are older now, Mom and Dad are trying to put dimes together for college or trade school). Our long term retention involves my getting youth to be in the VOA, and when they take on council/area responsibilities (like teaching a class that explain the difference between "venture patrols" and "venturing crews" ), they start hankerin' to look like they represent something bigger. Therefore, I'm guessing it's the other way 'round. Bigger program opportunities (i.e., more youth exposed to wider classes of venturers and challenged to represent scouting more widely) will promote uniforming. Uniforming will not promote a bigger program. Now, inasmuch as the new awards -- even if kids start by sewing them on their backpacks or whatever --- lead to youth being exposed to bigger program opportunities, I do believe more national shirts will be sold. I'll let you know if that's the case. Right now, my crew has outright rejected the awards without so much as looking at the brochure. I'm hoping to find a way to ease it back into the discussion because I have a couple of kids who I really believe would benefit from working on them.

So, it sounds like, for meetings, you need a service patrol (who configures seating for meetings, lines up the gear/props that you all will need, cleans up) program patrol (who picks the game/challenge for the evening, chooses referees, contacts consultants like the VFD if for example the boys want to try fire and rescue drills). administration patrol (who runs the opening and closing, records roll call, reads off the agenda, etc ..). Only got two patrols? No problem, the larger one fills two roles. Your instructor assigns the roster. SM reflects frequently with PL's on how things are going. No critical evaluations. More open ended "What do you think of this month's meetings?", "What went well?", "Not so well?", "What should we do differently?" You, as ASM, need to corral parents and give them your all's vision for the patrols. I suggest simply saying: a patrol leader's job is to qualify to take his boys hiking and camping. A patrol's goal is to hike and camp independently. They aren't there yet. That will start enough heated conversations. But, it will also set the tone for you to talk about "controlled failure", "youth responsibilities", etc ...Don't make this a long meeting. Just 5 or 10 minutes of what you expect from the boys in a year or so, then leave the room to help the SM with whatever and give the CC the floor.

May I ask what seems to be a completely irrelevant question? What are your meetings like? Specifically what kind of activities do you all do?

Trust the SM's gut. Have the Webs join the boys for Scouting for Food in November. Ask the boys about setting up a campfire and talking to the webelos about their last two trips. Cook something insanely yummy over a dutch oven. THEN have the boys ask the Webelos if they want to pay a visit during one of your winter activities.

This "BSA approved" stuff is a joke. (No offense to Costal Carolina BSA. They are no doubt doing their level best.) There are some terrific walking paths in Western PA, none of which are recorded here. (Many of them touch upon Native American life or the Whiskey Rebellion, but some more recent ones recall the good and bad of the industrial revolution (e.g., Eliza Furnace, Rachel Carson). In all likelihood the best trail for you and your unit to set foot upon is not on any of these links. I would encourage everybody interested in this award to contact their local historical societies and ask them about good walking paths that would help their youth touch upon some great American experience. Community libraries are often rife with such references. The majority of you will probably find that the best hike for your youth will not be listed or "certified" on some national site. "All politics is local." - Tip O'Neal.

Fellowship opportunities at a bar or coffee-shop or someones back yard are often very helpful. These are really the most productive when you have one item to deal with (e.g. the next big event) and need people to relax and brainstorm a little.

Never said it would be easy. Even with our troop, which is now basically one patrol and adults. We are very challenged in this regard. Sometimes we trade off yards for # of thickets/streams/boulders or vertical separation. But some suggestions for resources that many folks neglect to ask: Farmers. Community parks. Schools (you know, those places with multiple fields and a stream on one boundary). Fair grounds. Conservancies. Wilderness areas (as opposed to pioneer campgrounds). Have your scouts ask their parents, aunts, uncles, cousins if anyone has a big field or woods they'd let a group of boys who want to practice minimum impact camping stay on.

During meetings, you may want to use a minute to discuss the work of famous patrols. From BP's to seal team 6. You can also go over federal regulations for most back-country hikes, the typical contingent size for Philmont and Seabase.

If you give a mouse a cookie .... Truth is, your SPL has a servant heart. So he wants to swoop in ... thus your PLs' frustration. That's easy enough to do at camp where everyone is usually in relatively close quarters. It's time to up the ante, and you can do it in two words (before anyone whose username begins with a K and ends with a u beats me to it): Physical distance. Your next campsite has to be someplace where each patrol is 100 yards away from the others and yourself and your assistant leader(s). Have the SPL and ASPL camp nearby you. Let all those efficiency experts walk a quarter-mile to each patrol each time they want to micro-manage a situation.

Mine is on year 7, but you've already pointed out elsewhere that we're odd ducks. And in fact, things started running a lot smoother when the SM and I stopped fretting over each other's calendars. So, should crews not attend: - District events? - Council/Area camporees? - Jamborees? Should boys be removed from O/A if they transfer to a crew and drop their troop membership Is the price of freedom exclusivity?

One thing the program lacked ... and I'd say this was I foreseeable at the time ... was a profound sense of mutual respect. There were venturers who did not respect what a troop was trying to do, and Boy Scouts who did not respect what a crew was trying to do. I met SMs who resented being pressured by their DE to advise a crew and lead a troop, others who wer willing, but were stuck between two opposing committees. (Multiply that by thousands across the nation and we have our membership peak in '05 followed by a steady decline.) What you called freedom, others called insurrection. Now, an essential part of my VLST I take a moment to remind attendees "When adults bicker (or foster bickering) youth leave." I should NOT have to do this, but in every course someone broaches the issue of troop-crew conflict. So out there in scouter land, things are broken and youth are being under served as a result. Who needs to adjust? Well it seems like it would be a good idea to start with the division with the fastest shrinking membership.

Sorry. Inside joke. A lot of folks including my crew presidents trip over the term. I'm not so much correcting you (our anyone else) as I am picking on such an unnatural brand name. Again, cart before horse ... this isn't about making kids "do" certain things. This is about them attaining public recognition for the things that they do. If this is successful, we'll see a lot of t-shirts with those diamonds on them. Consider where we're coming from. The pin-on bling would nearly tear a shirt to pieces. From your's and my perspective, that is a really stupid reason not to pursue a nationally recognized award. But the third-world-general look resonates negatively with most of my youth.

There's a more specific response on http://www.scouting.org/filestore/ve...turingFAQs.pdf ...

Usually it's only economical if you have 100+ to feed. Council or Area camporees come to mind. Although I've been more impressed by other camps who have tight connections with their Arrowmen who will volunteer to cook for large gatherings of scouts.

Hey OX, better corral that bull!

The wording is not "Each registered scout earn at least one." Decide with your boys what is more scoutlike: Joey isn't going to earn another outdoors badge, so I'm gonna earn one for him. Joey isn't going to earn another outdoors badge, let's drop him from the roster! Let's forget about this award, and I'll forget about earning another outdoors badge.

As the program revisions are currently written, no, the national uniform is remains one of many options available to crews. The cloth awards will work very well with any of the crew-designed uniforms that I've seen. Note that they are still described as "Awards" not Advancement. And, they are still venturers, not "venture scouts".