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If it's any consolation, I had a parent on my case when I told him his boy will have to earn Cooking MB since he won't make Eagle until next year. Figured I'd take one for the SM last night.

Good plan. Better Lifesaving skills are more essential for most troops.

We have lots of these. So, I never thought about doing anything special ... I would save the "fidelity" recognition for when the boy turns 18 (or, if he's gone on to venturing, 21). Any boy who sticks with the program all those years deserves at least a round of applause from his fellow scouts. If he did participate in the same CO for all of those years, it might be nice for the institutional head to send him a note thanking him for getting the most of the program. For making Eagle as well? Give him a medal with a red, white, and blue ribbon.

Your signature isn't on the card. Badge isn't earned. Done. It's all nice that you are willing to call the MBC and that. But that's all extra mile stuff. And I sincerely hope the boy at least qualifies for "Pets", but be clear that the blue card doesn't count for tinder until you sign it, and you don't sign unless a boy comes to you with a reasonable plan for how he's gonna earn the badge. Time for the angry parent calls ... Have fun.

Just wondering what makes you think involvement on the district level has anything to do with having an unruly child? Either they want their kid to behave because thuggery is unbecoming, or your most important cause (the well-being of everyone's youth) is lost. I hate when parents, on account of being abrasive and sometimes manipulative, ruin scouting for the boys. I've seen good boys want to hide their heads on account of their parents' behavior. But, when a boy ruins scouting for himself, I'm not all that upset. Sometimes being told he's not welcome until we know he'll respect his fellow scouts is the best way to help a boy.

At Mallory Square in Key West there was this french guy who performed with trained cats. He made a decent chunk of change for his (their) efforts. Make sure the boy wasn't earning Pets MB instead.

A lot of our state parks can only be reached via website. Rangers offices closed on weekends. Most campsites that we shoot for, traveling in groups of 10 or less, do not require reservations. Some rangers are harder to contact than others. Often times my communication has been via messages left with the secretary who will let me know when rangers are due to report in and when I can call after that.

Just back from, troop, crew mtg., then soccer ... That last one was a bit of a surprise, so yeah, I feel your pain. That said, my scouting career was rife with sciences. So, the importance of this is not lost on me.

BD, the course sounds like it's for people who aren't in STEM fields themselves, but need to figure out where to start to make it happen in their district.

Then you truly do have two problems although they may have a common source. 1. The CC lacks management skills and needs to be retrained or replaced. Contact your COR. 2. The boy needs some negative reinforcement, maybe suspension, at the very least a good talking to with parent in the room -- then followed up with positive reinforcement if he improves his behavior. Contact your CM and/or DL. The politically correct (or honey vs. vinegar, or whatever) way to handle this is simple in both cases: "There are some rough edges that will make it very difficult if you continue in scouting (and maybe life in general), we want to help you shed those while you are still with us, if you'll allow it."

Not sure what being CC has anything to do with this. If his kids were gems, would you be able to put up with the mile long E-mails? Some people are verbose, and everyone just endures it if those folks are still great servant leaders.

I made sure I knew what I was taking (got the opinions of lots of scouters) before I took it. I knew I was taking it to light a fire for me to complete some moderately challenging goals. I enjoyed the fellowship that I built. But I missed those weekends with my unit(s)! Plus, a high adventure that we were planning demanded more of my time than expected which -- since all of that work wasn't part of my ticket -- delayed my WB homework. One scout was starting to get too much pleasure in calling me "Old Man", so it was very gratifying to come back from my first weekend and say "Boy, from now on it's "Old Crow"!" I met a scouter taking the course who did not flinch about taking our units winter backpacking. Without her, the ladies in my crew would have not had that opportunity. Any night with the moon hovering over a snowy field is a win. The deer whistling in the morning because hunting season is over is a double win! Also, since I was working on an award, I think it put me on the "same level" as a young lady who was working on our crew's first bronze award, and encouraged her that I wasn't asking for anything from her that I wasn't willing to do myself. So, yes, I would do it again, but I also am very clear with other scouters about the time commitment and the lack of wood to harm in the earning of the award.

As mentioned one of the threads about destructive behavior, "park rangers cringe when they see scouts coming". This may or may not be true of the ranger nearest you. Idiots abound, and BSA only contributes to a portion of those. But, the fact is that a wilderness recreation area is much different than the wooded corner of a friend-of-the-troop's farm. So, before your unit goes there, how often (and how) in the past year or so have you or your SPL/PL contacted the park service the week before you intended to make a trek there?

Save up for those lean years when not a single pro team in your town brings home a national championship. (You'd think breaking a 2 decade losing streak would count for something, but even though I was pretty sure the Cards would stop the Pirates, I still was expecting a little more. )

I'm not saying anything about them doing it for YOU! Ask a favor of the retiring pack's key three. By now I shouldn't have to tell you if a door closes you can wait for the good Lord to open one for you, or you can find where He left the sledgehammer and knock out the wall.

Several of our DEs moved on to some decent careers after doing their jobs as pro scouters well. (By well, I'm talking about that integrity and grit thing.) I recall one getting a foreman's job in a factory, another got a job directing a development center for troubled kids, another became a sports store manager. The first two fellas had a stall in their careers, and the DE job came at a good time for them. The other one really needed to get a break from scouting for the sake of his wife (and dog), and the skills that he picked up as DE gave him the skills he needed to excel in the corporate world. So for the trouble, it seemed to do these guys a lot of good.

Sounds like you have the right background, but you have a steep learning curve. Now, it may be that your council has an executive devoted to just to Venturing and Explorers. But it wouldn't hurt for you to read up on those programs. Find out how many of those units are in your council,. A good question to ask is if you'd be responsible for any of them.

Time to call the registrar and reprint the charter. MT you need to print your units to figure out what was paid for whom. BD you need your registrar to print up the wannabe retired unit's so you can contact the parents and apologize for everyone else's graft and corruption.

Why be cynical? The guy's applying for a job as if it's just about sales, when it's also about shepherding adult volunteers. He'll be starting to do this without ever having been a volunteer himself. Never sat on an Eagle board of review. Never been through a district/council budget crisis. He may need to help a crew, post, or ship get on its feet when he's never been an Explorer or Venturer. (He's mentioned "boy talks", never about "co-ed" teen talks.) He's being fed a line that a couple of nights a week will be all it takes to do an excellent job. Well, maybe if his district has only four packs! Guys like BD and I will come to him with tough questions, we already know the answers to the easy ones. We'll need him to tell us what we don't already know -- and often times don't really want to hear. All I'm saying is that it's really easy for seasoned scouters (who should know better) to come into a DE job with no humility and wind up being a complete waste of our volunteer time. It takes a lot of spine and a commitment of time at the end of the day to make those follow-up phone calls that SHOULD say "I'm sorry, I don't have a solid answer for you yet, can you bear with me?" And it takes grit to keep after those things until you are satisfied that your volunteer has what he/she needs to carry on. ProScout may have all that. Twenty years outside of scouting may have done him a world of good -- giving him insight and integrity and grit. But he'd might as well know that there are scouters (maybe non-scouters too?) out there who have come to take everything they hear from a BSA professional with a grain of salt.

You've never been in a house with a Jr. high kid, have you? Brace yourself. This is a fairly common dynamic when 11 y.o. boys are kept to themselves ... especially with male leaders. They do tend to "cut loose". The question that you need to ask yourself: were they managed to the best of the leaders ability? - Did the older boy introduce himself to you? - Did it seem like the leaders truly loved the boys? - Was the lecture time in a context? Were they going swimming/boating soon? - Who picked that particular topic and that particular way of teaching it? I am pretty serious about aquatics with our boys. Many of them become lifeguards. Lots of them plan canoe trips or sailing adventures. But, the latitude I give them starts with them getting the ground rules in their head, and that usually means one meeting where they sit around and read and talk about safe swim defense and safety afloat. That said, in a situation like this, I would be the one in the periphery making the "helper" (usually a troop guide or instructor -- both boy positions of responsibility) walk through the book with the boys. Then we would devote some time to practicing some aspect of the instruction (usually rescues) via land-based simulation. Ideally, I will have talked with the guide/instructor in advance and we would have arranged the props and activity. But, that's me. And even with that plan, you could walk into my room of 11 y.o.'s and come out with nearly the same comment. I often wonder if I've made a dent in those scattered brains! Visit more troops as often as you can. Talk to a couple older scouts about their experiences. Let boys and families learn the extent of their options. And, let us know what you think. I might start sharing some of these observations with my boys!

This is why visiting is so important. Troops have different personalities and priorities.

But is a fair characterization of what can happen to someone who only thinks that "this is most definitely a sales/PR position first and foremost". Yes, it is about market penetration. But like a decent insurance agent, it takes some spine to say "I'll cover this" or "I won't cover that." The DE's who've served me and my youth best were men and women who didn't waste my time trying to add BS to the BSA.

Hope they enjoy your troop and pack. I'd take their paperwork to HQ asking to waive the transfer fee.

I know a lot of leaders who would leave a site without a cold-out test. In fact that was a serious problem that I was having with my scouts. It's been building over a year. In spite of our best efforts, they have been nurturing an attitude that they can light a fire anywhere without owning up to making sure it is 100% extinguished. What's worse, is they think they know what "good enough" is.

Clearly Steelers/Penguins and Patriots/Bruins fans fed into the temperamental and uninhibited class.