qwazse

You just reminded me to wade through my cards. I don't have any from when I took paddle craft safety, etc ... I also have to check in with my SM to make sure he got my BSA guard cert. (I left camp before the AD could issue it.) Given he speed of program changes, if patches don't have the year issued on them, you'll still run into the same problems.

I think you'll find yourself needing to corral about one in 10 of your boys if those "beach girls" were spending the week at camp in the heartland. You would appreciate it if those girls wore something that communicated "I'm here for scouting." Alternatively, you would appreciate it if the boys had done their scouting all along in a co-ed environment where everyone learned boundaries from an early age.

On your life preserver and throw ropes! Honestly, your certification cards are more significant than these patches.

I know you mean well, but let me say here what I've said to other adult (volunteers and pros): The girls in my crew are not honey, and your boys are not flies. We give our troop free reign to decide when they want to invite the crew on camping weekends. Guess how many weekends a year that amounts to? Maybe one. Guess how many summer camps that amounts to? Zero. That's right. Our older boys have the option of picking a co-ed high adventure week on the other side of the lake from where they always camp, and instead they choose the run-of-the-mill all-boy campsite. Venturing is the fastest-shrinking program of the BSA. The behavior this crew demonstrated is not going to motivate any of the SM's attending camp that week to want a crew in their CO. I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are looking at camp next year and calling the CD's asking point-blank if any crews will be in camp. It will take young men and women of great character (and modest dress) to change their opinion, and those seem to be in rare supply.

For Pittsburgh scouts, XI(a) Discuss the minimum number of varieties of tomatoes to advertise on your bottle of Ketchup to reach market saturation. XI(b) Determine the tensile strength of bun required to hold all four food groups (including fries and coleslaw) on your sandwich. XI© Estimate how many miles your patrol can hike on a large order of O-fries (with and without cheese sauce), or XI(d) Estimate the added time the Perogie needs to round the bases during a Pirate's home opener after eating a large order of O-fries.

Don't let the internet fool you. There aren't hoards of disenfranchised boys out there looking to hop to a troop that will allow them to run in an OA election. But, from time to time you will have a boy who realizes that OA is really important to him and his family, and a troop that won't "bend" to accommodate him. There are three basic options, stick with the troop and abandon aspirations of being elected, transfer to a troop that holds elections, or sit around pouting making everyone miserable. In those cases where a scout transfers, the boy isn't necessarily leaving the unit in pursuit of a sash (or "pocket rocket", or really cool lodge flap, or whatever). The boy is choosing a troop that performs scouting as he understands it. He may return service to his new unit -- and maybe even his old one -- in any number of ways as long as we scouters don't bear any hard feelings. Really, it's like a boy transferring from your troop because all your PLC does is backpack and the troop down the street canoes! It's not that the canoe outfitter is encouraging your boy to leave, it's just that the other troop is using the outfitter to create a program that suits the boy.

Here's another "culture clash" entirely of national's own making that folks fail to recognize: older youth keep later hours. The BSA has countered that by training boys since age 11 to respect taps and lights out. But they have not been doing the same for girls, many of whom have become conditioned to treat every campout as a slumber party. Guess how much the G2SS or leader specific training discusses this? Zippo.

I tend to think differently. Of the folks in your neighborhood, is the SM the ideal counselor for the badge? That really should be all you need to know.

Problems like this should be reported to the SE and the SE (or his/her director of field service) should notify all units (troop + crews) in which the boy is a member. If it was something the boy did in one of his units, I'm not sure if the OA chapter would be informed. If a youth did something criminal at an OA function, as a crew advisor I would be very upset if I were left in the dark about it. I would expect to hear from the SE or DFS. I would also like to hear from the lodge advisor before having a sit-down with the youth.

I agree with SSScout. Encourage the COR to attend Round Tables and Council Meetings. As with most things financial, scale is a factor. Consecutive years with $2K surplus from hosting every pack in your district would draw the attention of your council. Coming $200 in the black one year from parents of two packs, not so much. I would suggest you consider returning the favor by purchasing a handbook for every cross-over or underwriting training for any scout in your troop who serves as den chief. That way, whoever made it possible for you to come in under budget will have still contributed indirectly to your recruitment efforts.

For this, I would count 6-8 hours of any skill-specific district level training, including camp seminars for adults (other than the garden variety, take-a-nap MB). If you've updated your first-aid/CPR with a few other scouters, or maybe took a course in range safety or orienteering, stuff that would be a huge benefit to your unit. You can look up most U of S course offerings online to get an idea of the kinds of things we're talking about. Woodbadge is on a somewhat different dimension. I can see a lot of WB-ers (such as myself) not counting it for the award. On the other hand, I couldn't argue with someone who did count. If those two weekends were all they had to spare one year, and attending WB left no margin for UoS, I'd definitely count it.

You have the right attitude. Here's the thing about bad kids: Even if you stop their advancement, expel them from your unit, etc ... They stick with you. You'll cross paths sooner or later, and when they do, you'll want to see signs that they've straightened out long enough for you to be willing to help them. Keep your guard up, but be open to accepting a little hurt to give the guy a chance to prove himself a better man. For now, be honest with the boy. Let him know that he's done something that's gonna make a lot of people keep their guard up when he deals with them. No amount of being an excellent scout over the next year is going to change that. In some folks eyes, no bling is going to hide the user/dealer "patch" he just awarded himself. So, however you challenge him (suspension from troop so he can work on addiction issues, finding new friends or talking to good old ones, postponing SMC, etc...), it will be so that he can soberly reflect on his actions, forgive himself, and walk tall even though other folks might think less of him. I get where folks who don't want to make this "all about the bird" are coming from. But if that's what the boy values, you would do well to let him know that that goal is still in play. He might even be able to spell out to you the conditions that he would have to meet before feeling that he deserved the award. He might be tougher on himself than any of us would be. Or, he might be clueless and just playing his dad and you for a fool. Regardless, if Eagle is his touchstone, use it.

Do you really need an an$wer to that que$tion? You are really wondering why the pro$s didn't proactively e$tabli$h a code of conduct? I wi$h I knew!

1. They are venturing crews, not venture crews. (Sorry, I'll take off my leader specific trainer hat now.) 2. If Seabase has a dress code, so should any BSA camp. We expect our lifeguards to adhere to a standard. It's not so far fetched to expect the same from young women and young men. 3. One of man's greatest inventions was clothing. 4. We have not trained our boys in Dinka culture. (Which carries punishment of death for not controlling one's biological displays of interest in the presence of a naked woman.) 5. Rather, our culture conditions boys to see women as prey. It conditions women that they can only achieve greatness by dressing like prey. Call it the spoils of the sexual revolution. Ideally, we would approach this on both fronts: instructing youth to dress modestly AND instructing them to regard one another as more than pieces of meat. But that ain't happening at home or school, and we scouters just are just trying to teach boys with an already limited attention span to start fires without burning the forest down. Very few of us want to be bothered with lessons on sexual harassment.

Well, this beats anything that I could possibly say about Son #1's wedding. But since you asked ... just about when you were coming to the rescue of a drunken disorderly ... The dance really started to "light up" as DIL and I started handing out glow sticks. (As I learned from an all-night scout climbing event a month earlier, things always go better with glow sticks.) What made that part of the evening special for me was memories of these former venturers dancing on the beach years ago.

You're distressed enough to talk to other scouters about it. That's reason enough to hold off on the SMC. Without yelling at the boy, you need to be very clear that you are upset and need to figure out if he really does have scout spirit, or if he's been playing you for a fool all this time. Tell him you don't need an answer now, but in a couple of weeks, you will need to know what's more important to him: scouting or his drug of choice.

What is compelling about NA cultures is the sheer level of resourcefulness. Understanding Other cultures, even in the most rudimentary sense of going through ceremonial motions, begins to show a youth how resourceful humans can be.

And Darwin face-palms. The secular myth of origins allows that high degree of empathy confers survival advantage among species with very social individuals. Or, in terms we understand, a scout is kind. There is something very good about a patrol of boys learning to adjust to one another's disabilities. With a new scout, this will involve some parental guidance, but soon the boys will gain the respect for the disability they need to deal with the situation.

SM either has a lot of assistance, the troop is truly in he hands of a solid PLC, or he may have OCD and should seek immediate psychiatric attention! I bet posts from the troop scribe would tell a more interesting story.

There is always a conflict.

Yes. Yes, which is why a lot of those parents make do with whatever. It's a lot to pay for a silly look. but as long as he's not tripping them and hurting himself when he runs/walks, I assure you, the psychological damage will be minimal. The only look you really have to worry about is the size of the smile on the boy's face!

We usually have enough drivers willing to camp with us direct contact adults to cover the boys who want to go. Most of our trips are within a 60 mile radius. The more distant ones are more challenging activities and attract fewer youth.