qwazse

Get the CC's (and if possible, COR's) perspective on all of this. If he agrees with the CM, your GF needs to decide how she really wants to serve the pack. Bottom line: we expect scouters to uphold the 5th point of the scout law. That includes use of "please" and not blindsiding fellow scouters.

We print minutes for the committee members to review and approve. We post the minutes on our website for everyone else. (Needless to say, personal information is not recorded in minutes.)

I've stomped and spit nails. Apologized for it shortly thereafter. About half the kids stayed on the advancement track. Telling someone that they are not a first class scout is a positive conversation. You set the bar, watch a kid climb toward it. Like I said earlier, you don't bring up a list of past wrongs. (It sounds like 2c did this.) You lay down expectations of what you want to see, and provide opportunities for a boy to show it.

Well before the event, circulate a permission slip. My SM had a generic one with blanks for activity and departure and return dates and parent's signature and the boys filled it in at the meeting. They then went home. At the bottom of the slip was the parent's signature and a line that says "I can provide transportation for ___ boys (check all that apply) __ to __ from the trip. I do something similar with an online trip for the crew.

Bonjour Dee! Your English surpasses my French! BSA demographics are different than yours (Troops are 11-18 year old males, Crews are 14-20 year old co-eds) which may limit the usefulness of some of our advise. Maybe the Brits among us will give you some age-appropriate objectives. (To be honest, I find that 12-14 age group very scary and am glad all of my children have passed it.) But, where would I start? First, I would talk to my co-leaders and ask what they envision. Who are the adults that will be helping you? Do they have the same concerns as you do? Also, is it possible for you to have the assistance of a Venturer or Rover scout?

I've seen a lot of narcissism, so I have every reason to consider this boy is credible. I hope your CC or someone has the stones to run interference with the parents for you. It's sounds like he's heard your opinion on the specific issues. Definitely no need to go there again. Just remember, there are probably plenty of adults who will waste words on him. All you have to do is point out what needs to appear (more kindness, courtesy, helpfulness, whatever) no excuses. We have a boy who's admittedly antisocial, we make it clear to him that we understand and don't care. His success depends on interacting with people; therefore, we will continue to put him in situations where he must do that. Your scout's success, it seems, depends on him growing some empathy. Lucky for him, your troop has situations where he can do just that.

Y'all can stop talking about us old crows as if we're past tense. I was assigned to one of those "9th patrols." Just got to sing it at a roundtable beading with my three other patrol mates last night. Last month, I loaned all of our props from my WB to a 7th grader who was depicting Poe for her class project. Add that to the "why woodbadge" list.

Well, you could read him "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" ... deadpan ... Just like Edwards did. Or you could tell him what you like to see in a First Class scout (the concept not the patch) ... "Would you be able to demonstrate that kind of character over the next couple of months?" Refer to our discussion of scout spirit. Look, we have bad kids in our troop, but until they at least apologize for and fix the messes they create, they ain't advancing. Don't waste words. Speeches are for the enthusiastic.

So ... how do you interact with youth who quit the BSA vs. youth of the same age who are members? They both said that oath and law once. Let's assume that it wasn't some religious epiphany or denial of citizenship that drove him/her to drop, but it wasn't some extenuating circumstance (relocation financial/family troubles). Scouting - in spite of your best efforts to keep it totally youth led - just cramped his/her style. You see him/her around, or they're still your FB friend ... whatever. What changes in terms of your expectations? What stays the same?

What national is not doing, is envisioning the pinnacle scouting experience as hiking and camping independently with your friends. If that is not the vision, then the patrol method is just a hypothetical method, one that may be abandoned if it doesn't meet the SM's ends of developing character and leadership in post-modern society. For example, if one envisions the pinnacle going to Jambo or some HA base (which likely only will draw a portion of youth enrolled and necessarily require 2 adults for every 10 youth), then patrol is a helpful, but non-essential method for the average scout! They'll pick up everything they need to know on day 1 of the adventure, and if not, there's an adult within earshod to redirect them. On the other hand, if the best and truest scouting experiences are when the gang is out on a routine haunt without any adult, that gang had better develop skills, accountability, and integrity to be a welcome element in their "'hood."

Barry: Thanks for the confidence. I found a guide that she could practice with. If she thinks she'll have too many problems, I'll sew marks in her end so she'll know what aligns where. KM: I wound up using nylon rope for that very reason. Besides, it matched the dress better (and sets off the whipping that matched the bridesmaid's gowns). I still fused the ends a little, and they may catch. TT: S3: I showed them a number of alternatives. They stuck with this! Thanks for the reference! I'll add that to the Ecclesiastes 4:12.

Tangent alert (but I can't resist)! As an afterthought, the new venturing summit award should have a silver vulture on it's device. Vultures are found at higher altitudes than eagles!

Oh, we get this on so many levels. But, here's what you are missing ... If a program succeeds at a district level, a council will do its level best to make sure it perpetuates council-wide. The arms of a council are its districts. A district without a strong, permanent, volunteer leadership structure is considered "broken". When it comes time to do push-ups, it won't rely on that broken arm. The council "helps" by encouraging volunteers to assemble around strong district leadership who include in their plans solid arrangements to pay for staff time spent promoting events (instead of, say, knocking on some millionaire's door asking for donations or some charter org's door asking for space and time to start a new unit). You have an organizing committee that's floating one event for cubs. How about three events per year for cubs, boy scouts, and venturers in your district? If what you are doing is head-and-shoulders above what the neighboring district is doing, promote it at the roundtables of all of your neighboring districts. Now there may be reasons why your units want to steer clear of council (personality conflicts, byzantine regulations, added cost), but in doing so you make yourself out to be something less than a district. The only way to break this cycle is to get a group of scouters willing to manage conflicts, form a leadership structure that can work through regulations, and learn how to negotiate cost with -- or at least extract more benefits from -- council.

Make sure you talk to your leaders right away and ask them if they would at least sign for your first class in your book. That way you'll be able to keep track from where you left off. Don't wait until your scoutmaster conference for star to make sure everything you've done so far has been recorded with the troop and your awards are on the way.

So 'Skip, if some of our disenfranchised homosexuals and atheists shipped across the pond, would you find them jobs and make good use of their free time? Or, when you talk about space limitations, do your countrymen really need to build/free-up more physical space for youth programs?

Stretch hammocks between the adirondacks for any scouts who need to use those 6 nights for the MB.

I really wish folks would get over the "checklist" mentality. I make things open-ended. "What is your duty to God?", "How much have you done that?", "Is there one thing that you are going to try to do more of?" Keep in mind this is a seven year conversation that you're having. Your goal when you review the requirement is to learn something about the scout. Over the years, you may guide him to include his parents or religious leader in the discussion, but you'll be the first person to hear about it. By making the effort, you'll be in the privileged position of bringing those parties together. Moreover, a scout may be fine about his duty to God, but if distant cousins are languishing in a war-torn country, he might have some issues about duty to country. Scout Spirit isn't so much about going through some prescribed motions, but bringing a scout-like attitude to life's tough situations.

So, what you are saying, is that a parent must not only assign guardianship over the child's health and safety over the weekend, but also authority over all of the child's financial resources over the weekend.

Perd's post in no way suggested one-deep adult leadership. He was very specific that the requirement was "at least one" of the congruent sex of the youth involved. For an all boys outing, the unit certainly may only have one male adult ...along with one or more female adult leaders.

Confused about what you think needs changed: Allow "unoffical" guardians (gramps, adult brother) assigned by parents/legal guardians to tent with cubs. (After all, nothing in guardianship law is intended to cover which adults may temporarily shelter a youth for the purposes of outdoor recreation.), or Stipulate that "guardian" in G2SS must refer to the definition applied by your state. (Which it sounds like this pro- effectively did.)

Pardon the fuzzy logic. But with quality #s like these it really is better to guess on the side of most optimistic gains from their reports vs.worst case of ours and then round the ratio very crudely ... Fred: TL troops are K-12. So that 50 probably breaks down the usual pyramid we all have come to know and despise: 10 1st graders ... maybe 2 12th graders. Also I counted 600 instead of their reported 670 of current and in-process of charters. KDD: For quick stats, it doesn't matter where our losses are coming from. Or where TL is picking up theirs. I don't mean to imply that they are even the same boys. Unless TL posts stats on how many former BSA members they have vs. how many youth were never BSA members, we won't have a clue. Pere: Yep, maybe it's 1/5 not 1/3. Still, only a fraction of our losses are boys who marched straight over to TL.