qwazse

Bacci comes to mind. You don't need a regulation set of wooden balls. You could use whatever the playground offers. Have a smaller "target" ball. Each boy gets a larger "shot" ball (or two if you have them). Throw out the target ball. Each boy takes a turn rolling a shot ball. The boy whose ball gets closest to the target without touching ("kissing" -- the translation of the name of the game) it get's to throw the target ball next. What's nice is you don't have to worry about boundaries (although the regulation game is played in a pitch resembling horseshoes), just make sure the target ball is in a safe location.

http://apps.npr.org/tshirt/#/title

I'd say all over the Appalachian foothills. They might be driving back out to a remaining old parcel of the family farm. Or, there's a farmer happy for them to hunt a few coyote's off the property. (Or simply, set up on the far lot and spend the day sighting in rifles.) Sometimes with family sometimes on their own. I met one mom whose boys drove her nuts at the house from time to time, so she would offer to drive them to the edge of a wilderness area and let them walk off some steam for an afternoon while she waited back in the car. Back in the day, those boys could call an SM and make a plan in an hour or so and he'd be hauling us to a site of interest. Nowadays, the paperwork burden in this sad world makes that near impossible so parents are stepping in the gaps that the BSA has stepped out of.

Keep in mind that the BSA has a dress uniform for adults (blue blazer and trousers over a white dress shirt.) Of course, wearing that means you leave all of the insignia and knots behind.

Keep in mind I always operated from the position of *assist* the SM. And I had boundary issues (which ultimately led to my taking on crew advisor, but I digress). So, I never got bent outta shape if some other patrol's advisor wasn't around. I just assisted whoever, or reigned in any boy who was out of control. My PL just knew he could give me a call if I'm in a jam. Also, the tag-team works both ways. My venturers know that the SM is available as a consultant if they need him. The only down side of this is sometimes folks aren't sure if a given conversation is about the crew, the troop, or both.

I was asked to do this once. We were called patrol advisors. I simply told the PL "I'm here if you need me." From time to time I fielded questions about how to manage things. (E.g., how to look at advancement records of his patrol and determine the program he should promote to the boys. What to do when boys weren't working on advancement as planned. Etc ...) I would drop by their table near the end of breakout session and just say "Hi." Sometimes, I would boil down advice given on these forums for a youth audience! In general I kept my distance, encouraging the PL and SPL to work together. I suppose in this day and age, it would be nice to have one adult who could be counted on as an available "leader of record" for patrol overnights, etc ... Bottom Line: it's the details of the thing that matter. If the ASM is expected to take a huge role in every patrol meeting, it's a problem. If he is more of an observer/advisor it's not such a big deal.

No more walking blue cards to the camp/area director!

Emphasis on "some". I guess it depends on location. But, there's still plenty of woods in these parts. Some of our boys and their families have hunting camps.

Others are taking on the extra sports that our available these days. Many are having to take on part time jobs to help their family make ends meet. Others are going to college early. They are taking advanced courses because high schools aren't up to the task of tending to the most proficient youth. That's what happened to my daughter and she had little time for venturing or soccer.

Some of them are going hiking and camping with their buddies and no adult.

And that's the problem. The "ward of the welfare state" may be busting hump to be gainfully employed. He can't afford marriage, but needs a companion to make it through the day. So he and a decent young woman situate themselves as best they can. She is to cautious to commit to the fella, but it sure beats agitating in the "mean girl's" world. If they stick with it, they might make it. But, the egotistic white world keeps pointing fingers because a handful of fellas who match his skin color are thugs. Meanwhile some white boy's thuggery goes unnoticed because he's off the rolls. Mom and dad are sweeping problems under the rug. His manhood ritual may very we'll be to come out of nowhere with guns blazing. What to do? Stop thinking that these problems are unique to one race would be a good start.

RS, if they graduated from 8th grade, they may be 13. If someone that age who had not been a first class scout wanted to take NYLT, I'd like to see something a little more than ILSC before sending him/her to the course. I'd want to see a few months of on-the-ground leadership in girl scouts or youth group. Of course some kids have that natural-born-leader thing going on, and it might be obvious after month two in the crew. I suspect the 7th grade minimum was designed with a particularly exceptional kid in mind. E441, as you can tell, the folks who wrote the brochure really aren't all that bothered about checking the BSA dictionary and using the usual venturing lingo. They don't get the grade requirements either. They probably never took VLST. That's usually a good indication that they'll regard your boy scout achievements as sufficient for the course and won't worry at all about your venturing credentials. The course will very likely be built around a troop model. (Not a bad thing for venturers to learn, but just saying that venturing is probably an afterthought with the instructors.) In general, your rank above 1st class carries over into venturing. So, if you buy a green shirt, buy an Eagle patch and sew it on there. Just so you know, ILST and ILSC are nearly equivalent. If you've taken the one, you could lead 90% of the other. (Only differences are positions of responsibility and Oath and Code.)

BD, you take it for granted. A few boys need to hear it from someone other than SM. Sometimes the SM needs to hear it from someone other than the SM.

What the boys are learning is exactly what the adults have learned through their council's policy of apartheid: If you disagree with who the Almighty has anointed to take of your boys, you can ignore what the Holy Spirit might be trying to teach you (and him/her) and give the fella/lady the boot. Scouting takes patience ... lots of it. Americans don't like waiting for anything (especially if you can get it at 50% off if you hustle away from the table right after desert. !)

So, lots of us are really frustrated by the loss of the personal message on the forum. Every now and then it's nice to get a note to somebody about something without some spammer discovering your contact info and using it for some nefarious purpose. So, how to get around this? One idea I had is those of us who want to initiate personal correspondence creat an account on another service. I was thinking geocaching.com. It allows player-to-player messages. Plus, it gives you something different to do with that map and compass. If anyone has a better idea, let me know.

Don't know if this happened nationally, but 11 years ago, our council received an endowment from someone who asked "why aren't more boys making Eagle?" And, the donor(s) wanted their gifts to go to programs that addressed that question. As a result, our council camp had a "trail to Eagle area" that star and life scouts could hang out and discuss what they needed to complete advancement. Let's face it, in some troops kids don't see anyone making rank, but if they see boys from other troops year after year, they might conclude like Pack, "Oh, I *can* do this."

Hope everyone took the CC's "Here's how it's gonna be..." with the appropriate grain of salt and is now at home helping those kids master a first class skill or two! BTW, there's nothing inherently wrong with a tenderfoot PL in 1st year, but it can limit what the patrol will do relative the other patrols (other patrols being likely more seasoned and high adventure oriented). If the SM would rather PL's be a little more balanced in skill sets, then things like FC rules come in handy. Bottom line: it's the SM's call. Everyone one else falls in line. Period.

Yes, as a discussion point under substance abuse, sub-topic addiction.

In the US, the size of the boat depends on the location of the unit. Many cruise on small lakes just like yours. Did your group build your boat? Or did you raise funds to get it?

So it's funding. Think of it this way: Adults pay from their own pocket, or Adults pay from their boys' pocket. Either is fine as long as everyone knows what's going on. The treasurer's expense report should specify "amount paid from dues collected" vs. "amount paid from troop fund". Chances are your more active adults if they understand what's happening will want to make a donation to offset their membership costs, if they can. Like everything in life, there are pluses and minuses to either approach, leave that for your committee to hash out while you're tending the boys.

I resent the tone the article takes toward my "at risk" venturers of a particular race and child-rearing situation. Were I to take it to it's conclusion, I would presume that my (fortunately formerly) homeless youth of minority persuasion is doomed to thuggery, while I have nothing to worry about from my supposedly well-parented poor-impulse-control youth. Actually, it seems that the former youth is being forced to work (picking up magician jobs at the last minute) for a living and necessarily has to be courteous to all to keep from the brink of starvation. Meanwhile, the other fellow has free time and sufficient shelter to develop a surly and ill-tempered attitude. Our kids are exposed to innumerable man/womanhood rituals that undermine their proper character development. It's our jobs as caring adults to call their attention to any of it. One of my phrases to ALL of my "gangsta wannabe" youth: "Thuggery does not become you." I really, really hope they all take it to heart.

Scouting Magazine for every adult New advancement requirements A whole lot of lawyering That about sums it up.

So, it sounds like your adults don't pay dues. Are you concerned because the boys will have to raise more funds to pay for adult registrations if you keep your pool of adults large? Or, is this about more than just money?

Growing up, my SM operated this way. The committee was just a few parents (including my dad) and started its meeting during the troop meeting and once the boys were dismissed, SM went upstairs to give his report. I distinctly remember waiting in the scout house (along with lads waiting for BoRs) for my dad. Never knew anyone to have a problem with it. SM had more hours to spend with youth. The CC and COR represented the SM to the rest of the committee. The all went to the same church (and school, I think, growing up), so they were pretty tight. My son's SMs aren't comfortable with this, and sit in on the entire meeting. So, we hold it on a different night. Takes up more time out of people's week. With lots of folks pulling double shifts to maintain their standard of living, you lose adults. As Advisor, I play a much different game. (The chart IS different too! But most folks come in with a sense of things similar to your parents'.) I told my crew committee to not hold any meeting in the absence of the crew president. That solved a multitude of problems. (Caused others, like if a youth doesn't step up and make some phone calls, there is a high probability of their pet activity not happening.) Different strokes, I guess.

You can't possibly mean Scouting as it was understood by Baden-Powell: Proficiency Badges that measure a Scout's current proficiency in Boy Scout skills only? Bad idea! That would attract boys who like camping, in the same way that basketball teams attract boys who like basketball, baseball teams attract boys who like baseball, football teams attract boys who like football, and soccer teams attract boys who like soccer. The Merit Badge system is designed for adults with a marginal interest in Cub Scout outdoor skills for teens, but seek to make up for the shortcomings of the public school system by turning Scouting into after-school school. Oh, the horror that a Boy Scout might pick up Personal Management in a one hour trick-or-treat session, while we struggle to uphold the standards that most red-blooded outdoor boys hate, have always hated, and will continue to hate until the end of time. Yours at 300 feet, Kudu Will reducing the number of MBs get us any closer to "proficiency badges" (in the outdoors or otherwise)?