qwazse

tgr, where are the 11-13 y.o. pre-high school youth who would participate in her election? Does she want to be in OA? Or, does she just want to do the great things that Arrowmen do? If she organizes her crew to spend a night under the stars and a day fasting while performing service in complete silence. All without the fussing over sashes, etc, designed for uniforms which many venturers never wear ... would that suffice?

Not everyone ... Lots of us bought the cow before taking the milk, and are still kicking. But, again, I'd rather have the permission to go scouting with the army I have. If that includes "broken leaders", I think I can work with that.

You mean like the personal offenses I endured because I wouldn't back down from befriending the grubby, potentially gay, or gender-confused kids in class? I finally applied Mamma's advice. "Stop cryin. Get big." And kept my friends. Maybe that offended the Klansmen among them. But it was clear that I was not about to be bothered. (Not flinching when punched helped a little too.) I don't direct scouts to share tents. If a guy or girl's bothered about ANYONE whom they tent with, we got plenty of open sky.

Maybe some misguided Hacker Scouts ...

If a church is having misgivings about hosting a BSA unit, maybe this is their program. But, I would be concerned if, for example, the best canoeing instructor in the community is non-Christian, and my youth want to develop a long term canoeing program. I would like to be able to incorporate that person in an official capacity in my unit. Sounds like the TL leaders are going to have to work around obstacles like that.

Part of the purpose of scouting is to teach citizenship. Part of the responsibilities of every American would be to leave pristine land to which they as individuals have no title or deed.

My Jordanian friends would take offense ...

Not a stretch at all. She should go for it, and be prepared to explain a little bit of scouting history along the way. I was pleaseed to visit another troop's court of honor and there saw one boy in a uniform from the 50's. I didn't ask if it was grandpa's or a find on E-bay. It looked sharp ant the boy wore it well.

Unfortunately, I have experiences similar to KDD's that are much more recent.

The are lots of cons. The worst of which, IMHO, is that a troop meeting can turn into one more hour of school. I find the troop meetings are busy enough getting the boys to master first-class skills. Part of the time is teaching the skill to newbies, part of it refreshing the skill, part of it having a mini-competition on the skill, and part of it planning the next event that will demand use of those skills. We barely manage to cover every skill in a year, and our scouts rarely reach mastery of every skill in two years. The pro is that a counselor can introduce his hobby/profession to a l

My experience is opposite: Some of our boys applied for and got camperships this year. Might have helped avoid a family with sky-high health bills having to choose which son went. Our state park fees are more expensive and often charge per user. So, a patrol might find the state park cheaper than council camp, but four patrols? Doubt it. Between crew and troop, we will have used council facilities at least 6 times this year. So, yeah, FoS does take the edge off for us. If a variety of council facilities were not available on a competitive basis, our boys would have to fund raise

Basically, I'm telling the other person that I think the boy's fit for the job. You know those thoroughly inept camp staff that irritate the tar out of you? Well, some scoutmaster or crew advisor recommended them to the job. Now sometimes, a person's flawed character does not manifest itself in the few weekends the unit leader has had to observe them, but most of the time the SM dropped his pen down without even calling the camp director about some slight reservation. When I was recruiting additional members for my Seabase contingent, I wanted an SM or Advisor to talk to about the youth. I

Accomplishments trump bling. If the boys play the games, they get the pin. Loop, card, or platinum embossed plaque is not necessary. If money's tight, don't even buy the pins. Just award the badge once they've completed the rest of the requirements.

Nothing wrong with visiting a troop you won't be joining for a couple of years. Your boys can ask the older boys what that in-between year is like. Tailoring a program to suit the spiritual needs of the community doesn't sound all that crazy to me. It's just how to make scouting work.

Never say never ... If this boy is fulfilling his positions of responsibilities, is gung-ho about scouting, and still knows most of his knots, why stop him? There's got be something of substance that's bothering the SM about this kid.

It's what the CC was doing to the SM. I would strongly encourage the CC to back off. Save the heavy hand for real bad kids.

This falls under the category of "be careful what you wish for.". Our experience ... We have a detailed troop handbook with a discipline policy that nobody reads. Oddly the goy that helped us write it had a boy with some of the worst discipline problems in the troop. That boy was one of our better leaders. My bottom line, the ASMs and committee need to be prepared to support the SM. If he's worried about the same things you are, move forward. If you're not convinced this is a problem that needs a whole "Geneva convention", talk to him about what you think would really assist him.

I'll leave the actual date-checking to the collectors among us. I usually just look at the requirements listed in the book, and if they are a lot different than the ones online I suggest the boy get a newer one. Troops should keep a library of used pamphlets to help boys save costs. One boy should be a troop librarian, and be responsible for making sure used books are collected (say after camp, or once a few boys are awarded MBs), and make sure really outdated editions are not in the library. Our library, by the way, is a couple of durable plastic file boxes (you know the oversize tool box t

We don't get eel on the line in these parts. One time when son #1 and I were visiting FL, we pulled in a ribbon fish from Jensen Beach pier. Now that's the stuff nightmares are made of! But, never an eel.

This boils down to "letter" vs "spirit" kind of thing. If you've endured Eagle mills all of your life (or even a small fraction of your life), you switch into a bean-counting MC to prevent one more unfit candidate from skating by. If you are used to high caliber boys who are Eagle material letting an opportunity for recognition slip by, you are going to stretch the definition of BOR (or whatever single technicality is in the way) to make it work for that boy. There is little love lost between "bean-counters" and "stretchers" so don't expect the one camp to praise the other anytime soon. We p

A first-class scout is qualified to take his patrol hiking and camping. That would include teaching the essential knots, fire starting, and orienteering among other skills. So, I don't ask questions, I just look for the boys with that rank and expect them to live up to it. That said, I'm not against the boys coming up with their own systems of recognition, as long as the entire troop is amenable to it and the cost isn't ridiculous. It's just that our boys have made it very clear that they prefer a very utilitarian field uniform. Unfortunately, that excludes neckerchiefs. The boys voted

I hate when this happens, especially to a family who is new to scouting. If I were you, I wouldn't worry about that woman if she is indeed 80 miles away. Maybe she is doing something important on a council or area level, but it sounds like it's completely irrelevant to your son's growth as a scout. If I were you: I would get to know your sons wolf den leader. Let him/her know what discouraged you about his first year. Ask if activities could be a little more engaging, and maybe offer to help with a particular activity your son and his buddies would like. I hope the program can

I wouldn't hold out hope that there will be a lot of reliable scientific conclusions from this. It's still anecdotal evidence. Chances are each report will include a finding by the state, but in terms of if the rate of assault actually decreased, I'm afraid we'll never know.

My first YPT course ('01) was taught by a fellow who was a former camp director and current member of the council camping committee. He had specific examples of how YP protected adults. (His experience seemed to indicate that scouts who tended to make accusations made them against female scouters.) He also had examples about how the buddy system protected kids, but how it could fall apart (e.g., older scouts vs. much younger scouts, etc... ). Anyway it was memorable because it felt like some of "the files" we're being opened for us, and the events weren't from someplace on the far side

Got JTE envy? Keep in mind that FB pages really shouldn't involve cubs, so this is an adult ego trip. Get together with your adult committee (this should include your Charter Organization Rep) and decide what you need to do. (E.g., contact parents and other scouters in your area announcing your new Cubmaster, talk to your DE about your charter's status, etc ....) And, let us know 'cause this is one for the believe-it-or-not books!