qwazse

"We don't care what DL don't allow, We be loyal scouts anyhow ...." Bottom line: your boy won't complete AOL, he won't complete 5th grade, and he won't be 11. He really should be in a the next younger den, and there should be no reason to dey that to him,

Here, weather is the main factor. Schedules are the second. For six months out of the year, hypothermia is a present risk, especially to 10 and under years old. For three months, frostbite is a present risk ... especially when boys are by a fire and not attending to those earlobes farthest away from the flames! So most packs settle for a spring or fall weekend and summer resident camp.

Moz, sounds like the problem is with your district advancement chair. Complain loudly at round table that you need a little more backing from higher up when it comes to the planning process. But also, explain to your boys that they should be able to come back to their project 10 years from now, maybe with a wife and kids, and say "Wouldja look at that? The guy who set this up musta been some kind of awesome!" An Eagle candidate must have said "I will do my best ..." sometime during the program. About the only person who knows really what constitutes a boy's best is the boy and his SM. Never let all of this paper pushing get in the way of that.

I've seen more of this at VOA events than others. Not surprised. Not making excuses, but not judging either. Venturing adults have the widest extremes of bed-down preferences ... from sleep anywhere with at least a rock for a pillow to only in cabins with heating and plumbing. Love your crew for what they do and praise them loudly whenever they push the envelope.

RULE # 1: NEVER ask someone for a rule, they'll give you one. I don't sit around waiting for people to tell me what good work of mine is acceptable. If nowhere it is written that a good deed, like walking through MB requirements over the oh one in advance of or persuant to a counseling session, is unacceptable, then IT IS ACCEPTABLE.

(I tried to reply yesterday, hopefully it will stick today!) The details make a difference, and in this case they work in favor of you being accepted as a leader. Even before the background check, there's a (very small) space to disclose this on the application. Fill that out. Find a quiet place to explain the situation to your Charter Org rep and Committee Chair when you turn in your application. (Be patient while they laugh at you. Then tell them it's not something you don't want bantered about You just want them to be prepared if the folks at headquarters find out from the check.) If the record does turn up, a Council executive may call your CC/COR about it. If everyone agrees that that's all there is to this story, that's the end of it. I think it's worth the effort. And, on the application, you'll read fine print about your rights regarding the background check. Have fun leading.

You and your son may also want to consider joining a new pack for summer camp. Now is the time to jump on that bandwagon, if there is one.

My take on all of this: The draft is not supposed to help the scout with the final plan. It's just supposed to let everybody know that the scout wants to do "project x" and everybody is in agreement with him developing and implementing a plan to do it. It's between the scout and the "Service Project MBC" (sorry, getting sick of the term Eagle Coach) how much feedback he should get and how solid his plan should be before implementation. Different projects require different levels and types of preparation. Thus, the draft is a blue-card of sorts. That said, our district advancement chair is fairly meticulous about projects, and requests that boys meet with him personally. He likes to see drafts in pretty good condition before giving the go-ahead.

A rose by any other name ... No matter what you call it, you are accounting for individuals' fundraising and crediting their access to pack funds in proportion to what they've raised. The only question is: does that accounting exist for the boy's parents' personal benefit, or does it enable the boy stewards over some pack funds for the pack's benefit?

Was at the scout shop yesterday and skimmed it. It did not seem "head and shoulders" better than the last edition, so no purchase made.

Son #1 and his buddies listened to mostly 80s music, so if the band was good I doubt it would have been a problem. Son #2 was with our crew this fall at a council camporee that included a decent local country western band, laser show, and fireworks. They were delayed because of rain, and one of the girls was getting chilled, so he and another fellow and female youth requested to go back to camp (which was a mile away, but there was an adult hanging back there). I had no problems with it. I can imagine a patrol of younger boys wanting to make similar adjustments. So my opinion: as long as the boys were still being accountable to their adult leadership, the Campmaster was out of line. If there was a safety issue, he should have had the courtesy to explain it.

I got weird database errors when trying to post yesterday. Not sure what that was a bout.

I dunno, a little oragami can make a comfy shelter from a tarp, or a perfect sling from a necker, or a sturdy pack from two boards and a drop-cloth, or a collapsible three-shelf oven from a #10 can and a wire coat hanger ...

"I can't help but think that if the other adult leaders in the troop had the strength of character, including myself, and/or the inclination to take on the role of SM that the current SM would have been ousted by now. If he steps down or is asked to step down, I believe it is highly unlikely that the troop will continue." This is an indication of really bad leadership that a lot of us need to look out for. When folks around us think that we cannot be replaced and everything will fall apart if we go, we are not prepared when things go off the rails. You need to find the institutional head and ask for someone to step in for the COR. Heart attacks take months to bounce back from. You can tell him/her that since becoming CC you realized that the troop isn't functioning as it ought, and you need a little guidance to make it better. We scouters screw up interpersonally all the time. It's actually one of the benefits of being an adult in the program. You get to come clean about your strengths and weaknesses and over time improve a little. I'm all for giving a person the benefit of the doubt, but if a guy hasn't apologized to you for his inappropriate behavior, I'm afraid it just means he's moving on to his next mark.

If you mean will the BSA still exist? That really depends on if the adults of tomorrow value what BSA's done for them as the youth of today. Will scouting still exist? Based on the number of scouting organizations world wide and in the USA. Odds are one or two of them will allow youth to hike and camp and head up a vibrant program independent of adults.

We've had a spate of Eagles who generate service projects every other month, it seems. Then we collect scouting for food and sort it for the pantry at our CO. Folks ask us to retire flags, so we do that. Then we leave it up to the boys. Most of them volunteer to help our crew coordinate the district in placing flags on veterans' graves in a large non-profit cemetery. Plus, wherever we camp, we ask how we can help. We definitely knock out more than 4 a year. It depends on the year and the boys if we do more than that.

Not sure what you expect us to do with all the personal stuff thrown in there. Just let me say that whatever he offered in terms of "friendship", you did not return it if you just accepted it as part of some reputation. I tell my female youth that real friendship means putting us guys in our place when we are wholly inappropriate. For teens that's often a matter of saying "I'm just not that into you." rather than "Let's just be friends." But for adults, it's a matter of saying "How dare you ..." and "Don't ever again ..." I'll leave actual committee chairs to discuss how they deal with the management issues. But in general, yes, folks do become surprised when you aren't a pushover. The polite thing to do is to express your dissatisfaction with how things are operating and give a vision of how you would like them to be different. Then ask one of those helpful parents for an honest evaluation of how you did and what you could do differently. Regarding the Eagle application ... it all depends if the typos reflect a lack of officiousness or lack of integrity. If the boy's just sloppy, let it go. If he's trying to pull a fast one on you and the SM, put your foot down. The more Life BOR's you sit on, the better feel you'll have for which boy is which.

For a few years, a local sporting goods store gave a modest discount with your card, so we all got used to carrying them. Sadly those days are gone because the recession was tough on the corporate and they had to sell "our" store to pay for recent expansions elsewhere.

When we played the lottery (couple years before you) the spring and winter break slots were open. Never could get my crew to part with family for the holidays. Spring break is usually problematic around here because snow days are taken out of that break.

Flowers and chocolates to your wife, every month. Work really hard to remember what it was to be a scout the age of those in your unit. You'll do just fine.

Clearly BSA sheds liability in these cases. But, at what cost? Obviously there is a perverse calculus that the losses in registration fees (from boys who would rather spend them on a weekend out with their buddies) will be offset by decreased exposure to litigation. Yep, I remember troops like that in the 80s. As a country youth, I chalked it up to "citification." Now that I live in suburb/hood, and volunteer with a variety of adults, I realize that there are parents who will allow certain levels of independence to foster, and others who just can't bring themselves to do so. SM just told me about counseling camping MB for a boy who left our troop right after his first year a while back. Not one backpacking night in the four years since! There are lots of reasons why his troop never did this (so far), but it is discouraging to hear because these are scouters who could make it happen, and they oughtta know I'd loan them the youth to make it so.