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MT, There is basically only one question here that matters. You should encourage your Webelos to visit and camp with every troop within an day's walk, then decide amongst their folks and friends to where they would like to crossover. A UC can't make anybody do anything, so don't try. Buy them coffee. Listen to their vision, and help by connecting them to the people or resources to make it happen. You don't have to agree with them. You can even tell them "I you wish you would consider doing things differently, but I'll do my best to help with whatever you need." How the baggage with MIB (my shorthand for MT's son for those new to the formums) should be handled? It's baggage. Let it go.

I doubt you'll find a national policy on this.

Don't use any individual's # from here on out. See GeorgiaMom's post below. That link is new, and the most detailed I've ever seen from the BSA. Beats me why it is on the Seabase site instead of Scouting. A lot of folks do the individual thing because it is less of a paper-chase. But that's a poor excuse that puts the unit at risk for all manner of graft and corruption. (The most obvious is actually the treasurer declaring those $$ as income and then applying the untaxed portion for his/her personal gain.)

I think it's up to the council to decide if there's an inappropriate time for the fundraising. My understanding of the point of the fundraising application is to make sure the methods used don't conflict with the BSA's values and other fundraisers. As long as the boy makes it clear that the fundraiser is to pay off personal loans that underwrote the completed project, there's no ethical conflict. Most of your federal taxes, for example, are to pay off the interest accrued on dept (not even the dept itself) for services already used. But, just like taxes, fundraising is that much harder when donors realize they are contributing retroactively. Obviously, there is a point when the boy should call it quits. More than a couple of months, and it gets a little absurd. Might as well give those receipts to the tax preparer.

You mean you can only "imagine". I have seen. And your worst-case scenarios are extremely rare and no less likely to happen with 16+ y.o. JASM than a 13+ y.o. PL or any 1st class scout (the concept not the patch). They are definitely more likely to happen with adults. That said, at some point in the year -- usually early spring -- we have all qualified scouts sit down in a big circle and go over the basic criteria for signing off on work. Keep in mind, we don't usually have JASMs. Most of our boys achieve 1st Class around age 14. Patrol leaders are usually 13.

Time for the scout to earn textile MB. He might be able to parlay it into a trip overseas ... "Visit a textile plant, textile products manufacturer or textile school or college. Report on what you saw and learned. " http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Textile

Welcome! You may want to talk to the bank president about how to make this work more smoothly. Obviously the best way is through your Charter Organization. Regardless of which EIN is on the account, the assets your unit accumulates ultimately belongs to them, not the BSA or any individual member. Using their identification is one way of securing that.

That's one more thing. I teach boys to get a marker and write their name and troop # on the *edge* of the book. So that if the cover or binding or cover page fall apart, there is an outside chance that they will be able to read it from holding the book sideways. (Now that's an edge method that translates into any language! )

What would really be cool, is to get a mold for one that's small enough to fire in an art-shop's kiln. Then the boys, with leftover coffee grounds, some silver nitrate, and the right clay could make their own. But I don't think it will work. The organics are in the mix to burn away during the firing and leave the clay porous. I suspect to do that, brick kilns operate at different temps, oxygen mix, and tolerances for soot. Then there would be the testing to prove the pond-water is microbe-free after going through little Johnny's filter. But, what a great way to learn STEM!

Backups are always busywork. That said, our reports go to the PLs, who then use them to determine program. Then they are given to the boys to cross-check with their books. If they have a sign-off in their book that's not on the report, they can go and inform the AC so she can update her records. Doing it this way means that the AC does not always have her finger on the pulse of what the boys are doing. For example, she thought one boy had aged out because she had a partial blue card for an MB he was taking from her. Well evidently he arranged for a different MBC, completed his work with him. had his SMC, and submitted paperwork to HQ. T'was a little perplexing to her when she heard our SM report! Basically, this means that we're counting on the SM to have his hand on the tiller when it comes to upper level advancement. The bigger the troop, the more that's a worry, I suppose.

If you are looking for something suitable for your troop trailer "base", and you want your boys to learn about solving third world problems, get in touch with your Rotarians and see if you can get a hold of a filter that sits on a 5 gallon bucket. My friend showed me one of these a couple of years ago, demonstrated it for a week, and I was very impressed.

Yes. Looks like my post on the gravity filter thread got lost!

Frank would the scouts be allowed to participate by taking tickets, checking coats, or putting on a presentation or show? Just curious.

Registrars can make all kinds of funny things happen, if they are so inclined ... for boys who alternate custody between parents, for example. The "on the ground" reason to do so in this scenario may be to have a boy or two the nascent troop to hold positions of responsibility to guide/assist a couple of very young boys, meanwhile those boys can also keep meeting with their buddies from their original troop and work on their advancement with their original SM or Eagle mentor. Yes, there are boys who would jump at the chance of twice as many meetings a week and twice as many camping nights a year! I think that's how my troop got its start a few years before I joined as a scout. For this to happen in this day and age of bean-counting, the original troop has to be willing to take a JTE hit, or the DE has to be willing to take "on paper" membership losses as just that and make sure the original troop is given whatever privileges would come had the boys not transferred primary membership. But that's just adults meddling in the intuitive egalitarianism of mature scouts.

Oh, on a really good day, my money's on the DL's not noticing! Ideally, Stosh would have an CC or ASM herd the parents away for about a 30 minute Q&A starting with "So, what have your boys liked about scouting so fay?", describing Stosh's credentials and his vision for scouting, and ending with "Well, I guess we'd better go make sure the boys haven't tied our SM to a tree!" But, that only postpones the inevitable discovery of which adults want "a hand on the tiller." Sometimes it's good to know who these folks are sooner rather than later. I.e., watching your slow-motion train wreck beats seeing it in real time! Finally, Stosh, I think you should help your scout send a follow-up note to the Den(s) thanking them for their visit and hoping that whatever troop they choose, their scouting experience will be awesome (although he knows it will be more awesome with troop ___)!

I remember that feeling when one of our Eagle candidates got busted trying to skate by on fudged Personal Management work. It's not fun. Telling him he needed to come clean with his fellow scouts that he didn't make it wasn't fun either. Downstream ... on the flip side, that young man now trusts us for honest answers to life's questions. Still, I wish he would have stepped to and never had to learn that the hard way.

Hate to say this, but looks like you're making a phone call. Sometimes the guys in the trenches gotta train the counselor. After all, there's no way in the real world any bank would hire a person or firm to produce bogus reports on their assets and liabilities. Oh, wait ...

Great Advice lets give people reasons not to join Boy Scouts and give another option where Families can spend what few chances they have to spend time together. Since Boy Scouts is about Youth unless it is Female youth then they don't matter Grade-school female siblings, I'm kinda okay with. Half of my boy scouts scream like girls anyway. But my ulterior motive (if and when I allow them to participate in one of our activities with our parents) is to inspire moms to be the kinda GS leader that motivate their girls to enjoy "roughing it" so that a few years from now they will be Venturing ready. Jr. High ladies ... I'm in complete and utter terror of them. A lot of what I find myself doing with the boys the same age is unpacking the "Disney Drama" culture that is foisted on them at school. So, without moms or really insightful older sisters who can help work against the culture from the female side of things, I'm just this mean old man telling them to leave the H&BA behind and come out with me and some very strange moms who somehow aren't afraid to look like they've been dragged through yards of laurel thickets at the end of the day. Simply put, the BSA is not prepared to bring Jr. High youth of both sexes through that transition via outdoor methods. Until that is something that is valued across the USA (and I would argue that it is not, looking at our First Families going back many administrations), we troop leaders are better off introducing new parents to what we know works: giving boys the space to be boys while demanding a high level integrity from them.

God bless my wife! Mine, along with my pack and personal gear is at the ready across the floor from the foot of my bed. I encourage every one else to find a suitable nook in their room. Otherwise, they go on shelves or bins in the garage. (100+ year old houses are good for that sort of thing.)

The tree/shrub identification hike is sheer genius, Definitely leverage you science/tech DL. Also a group like what you describe would do well to meet your local game commissioner. A lot of science BTW requires some cube-dwelling. When I presented the scientist pin to Son#2's den, the one thing that they were very engaged with, was a 200 page binder of one analysis that I had just finished working on. (Think charts and graphs 'till you feel vertigo and you get the idea.) They ate up the idea that surveying thousands of kids just like them could result in a scatter plot where everybody was different, yet they showed a trend (or not, depending on the variables). My point is, that each parent and lots of folks in your community may have something to offer these boys, and you just don't know until you give them a try.

Much of my job as a statistician involves tutoring folks with varying levels of training in clinical research. I learned how to do much of what I do from literature a relative gave me on industrial training techniques. Then, I learned by doing and asking for very critical evaluations of my performance from people who I could trust to give me a straight answer. I have had no patience for the BSA materials because they are often too simplistic. Simply put, EDGE is inadequate. Our scouters would be much better served if the instructor provided them the reference and they went around in turn reading the material. (Some of them may be far better and engaging at reading out loud than the instructor. Regardless, our minds often "re attend" as soon as a new voice is heard - even if it's a voice asking to pass because they can't read well enough for the material.) Then the instructor provides some personal experience, or interpretation, or fields questions on the matter. This is, in rough form, how the West managed to drag itself out of the dark ages. That we think we can do much better by abandoning the most powerful of learning methods because the audience is adult, continues to stymie me.

I would find out who's instructing and ask them what the objectives of the course are. More than the $, what's a morning of your time worth? I'd rather be camping. Speaking of which, time to load up. See y'all.

It is hardest on the DL when they go their separate ways. On the other hand there will be a lot of campfires out there to which you may invite yourself!

A scout caught a nice size bass at camp this summer. He asked if I would help him cook it, and I said "Sure, here's my fillet knife..." I'll cherish that scowl forever. However; the boy sucked it up and prepared a couple of nice fillets as I talked him through cleaning it. I would prefer that boys read a guide before they go on their little expeditions (the PA fishing license code book comes with a nice set of instructions), so that they understand what they're getting into. But they rarely have patience for that sort of thing.

IMHO, the scout should report that he did not do any fundraising. Funds were provided by the beneficiary. How the beneficiary got those funds is immaterial to any work the boy did. In the process of announcing his project he informed any folks wanting to make donations to send funds directly to the beneficiary. As such, he is representing the beneficiary, not the BSA. The boy's leadership was shown in negotiating discounts for materials. Like Stosh, I direct boys to projects where minimum or no fundraising is involved. Most communities have a grant or two (from that 90% of taxpayer dollars that went to "non-essential" services ) that can pay for materials, but not labor.