qwazse

ASM = ASSIST the SM, not second-guess everything. But obviously this guy is in helicopter mode and telling him that won't help you. Rather, say "Any boy who feels this isn't working out for him can ask for a SM conference and we can see what we can do to make it work better. The next round of reassignments, if any, will be up to the SPL." Fact is, your boys are so young (mostly) that nobody has any idea how they will pan out in the long term. By 8th grade, the "serious" boy may switch to "fun" and vice-versa.

I'd steer clear of animal figures for cubs because someone's gonna make a fuss. Plus shooting a ton of arrows just for one target to bust is a recipe for chaos. Can I suggest balloons stuffed with a few pieces of wrapped candy (tootsie rolls or taffy work best)? Slide them into the balloon, inflate, string or tape to the target. The boys get the gratification of a "pop" and when they retrieve their arrows get their candy.

Agreed. We had a boy fall short of Eagle for skimping precisely on this sort of thing. It was really hard on the MBC, who was close to him and really wanted him to make it. The rest of us (including the youth) agreed that this reflected a pattern of trying to jump hoops as opposed to reflecting on the experience. It just so happened that the badges with the daily tracking requirements are often where all the corner cutting comes to a head.

I remember when we had to sum up an election to the committee: "It looks like the boys elected the most popular, not the most competent, SPL." Hopefully your boys will make a thoughtful decision. I would suggest you touch base with each candidate and have them prepare election speeches -- a few words discussing why they would like to be SPL and how they'd like to help the troop. Make it clear, that if they aren't committed to being at meetings every week and touching base with you before/after/outside meetings (every SM does it differently) they shouldn't run. I think if the older boy gets it, you won't have to make too many adjustments. Your patrol leaders will still have to work very hard. And everybody will have to be accountable for when they can't make it to meetings or can't prepare as well as they should. The PL's will find themselves taking up a little slack. They might resent the work load, but when they blow smoke, you or the ASM can just remind them that they can run for the office six months from now. If the younger boy gets it, he should still be assigned a patrol and answer to his PL for some things (like gaining 1st class skills). In his leadership role, he will be more of a coordinator and less of a mentor. (He may be able to clock more time than the older boy, so he may be able to call each PL during the week and he may show up with a completed duty roster or program plan, but he won't be able to guide some of the older scouts.) Regardless of who becomes "the man." Make sure for all his hard work, you have some kind of officer's privilege (our SPL rides shotgun in the vehicle of his choosing and I usually have a stash of candy-coated almonds -- his favorite -- reserved for him). Thanks for keeping us posted.

So, you do believe in God?

Just had another blip this morning. Yep, I'm a junkie.

Awesome. When you get back, please post some thoughts (yours or the boys) on the trip under "Camping and High Adventure"?

I made roughly the same comment about Jehovah's Witnesses once, and a friend replied "How dare you demean one of the greatest heresies of Christendom!

Did it include his budget? Was each expense explained? Did you ask about any unusual patterns? For example, when son #1 went over this with his MBC, she noticed that his spending dropped off after a particular week. He couldn't quite figure it out until he realized that was the week his girlfriend dumped him! Life lesson learned. So it's not about the data entry, it's about if the boy gave you enough for the two of you to be insightful about managing his money.

The tradition seems to be popular in our neck of the woods; however, we adults never do the corner tearing. We may have the boy (once the wound is patched) report to his PL or SPL to discuss the matter. It's up to the youth leader to decide how to deal with it. Long before crises like this, we give our 1st class scouts general guidelines on how to issue "negative reinforcement" ... sort of along these lines: The point of any negative reinforcement is to impose a pattern of forethought on an otherwise entrenched action. So, in general: 1. Think about if the scout has been showing a pattern of carelessness and needs a reminder. 2.a. If there's a pattern, apply negative reinforcement (in this case, cut a corner) by explaining what needs to change, telling him that you think he can change, and hoping that this is the last time you need to address this. 2.b. If there's no pattern, ask him if he understood what went wrong. Can he explain how he will do things differently? If he does this, negative reinforcement is unnecessary and would probably be ineffective. 3. Let the boy know that you are always available to help him improve his skills. Be humble, maybe by saying "It wouldn't hurt me to practice that with you too!" I haven't heard of any scouts getting their Totin Chip torn for years. Neither has son #2 (just asked him). The kids who've injured themselves have generally fallen under 2b and never repeated their actions. Their nicked finger was sufficient negative reinforcement.

Pardon me for not answering your question. Do SMs have far reaching authority? Well a lot of my youth are older and are my FB friends. I call them on every cuss word and abbreviation thereof. Some were indignant until I pointed out that they have every right to call me on cussing as well.

Welcome to the forums! Hope you keep coming back to set us old farts straight! SM's kids have it tough. But, stupid happens quickly (as you just found out), and he's just trying to get you to slow it down a little. On the bright side, he left you one corner. So, read the card again make a mental note of which points you ignored, then don't do those, and you'll probably never have to worry about it again.

I've never been able to get PMs to work on this new system. Stinks.

The kid's reverence stone-ward isn't sad. That someone thinks we should boot him from scouting because the rock is not *their kind of* supreme being ... that's sad. Given the rapid sophistication of the Zombie in pop-culture over the past few decades, let's just extrapolate and count your jab as veneration!

Forget telling us about yourself ... what about that locomotive in your picture? What's it's guage, HP, years of service? Which lines does it run? Was it steam or diesel? Are you riding it to Jambo?

Well, pardon me for mentioning their sex! But, the two scout dads weren't cleaning my cookery.

Problem is His great affection for pipsqueaks! Half the Psalms are the writer wondering when He's gonna stop putting up with our crap. And (for you "Goddess" fans), I'm using "His" and "He" in the gender-neutral form originally intended (a la "mother hen gathering her chicks" style).

I think you meant assault on "God". The sad part about this is if a kid thinks a particular stone is his salvation and is not disparaging his buddy's devotion to Allah, I'd count it as reverent. If he acted in a way that treated that rock as supreme (even if it was a lady rock ), I'd count it as fulfilling his duty to God. I'd expect a little more sophistication from adults, but not much. And, that's how I've seen it played out by scouters in my neck of the woods.

What BD said. But regarding your "oops I'm in the water" scenario: NEVER GO AFTER A SNAG IN UNFAMILIAR WATER!!!!! (That includes suspending one's self on an outstretched log.) The three alternatives: Reach, Throw, and Row. If they don't have a life vest on DO NOT GO even if we're talking about somebody's heirloom lure (which we probably aren't) just tell gramps that you handed it down to posterity. Pound that into the boys' heads. Stupid happens fast. The buddy system works best at the prevention stage. At the intervention stage: not so much.

" Surely you don't keep everything under a bush in the woods. " Really haven't seen many Arthurian legend movies, have you? Disclosed locations were problematic to druids. Worse for wiccans --ever since Grim & Co. sued for fire safety violations on behalf of Hanzel and Gretels' parents.

Our SE pointed out a few years ago, "venturers (and many troops) look in the back of Scouter and Boys Life for camps outside their own council, let our reservation be one of those camps." Now, our boys love going to their council camp. Never could get them to think differently. Fine. But they know I'd slap them silly if they disrespected a boy who went out-of-council to summer camp.

Jack Handy (probably one of his *Deep Thoughts*)

I thought K was referring to the scout (one of two) he actually had to deal with, not mine who I never met (who, by the way, I have yet to hear from).

Our scouts don't suffer fools, so we've had no problem 1. Our advancement program is "1st class when you're a 1st class scout." We're fine if that takes you 4 years. 2. We camp in a few challenging locations. If all you do is the "car campouts" you won't rack up the nights. 3. We discuss the qualifications for OA on night 2 of summer camp. Elections the next day. The younger scouts will have had 48 hours of data before they cast a ballot. It works for us. Some boys have taken 4 elections. By then they have worked on 4 different character flaws. Younger 1st class scouts get that this is no cupcake walk, and sometimes will ask to not be on the ballot. However, this does not guarantee that a boy would be a good arrow man. Life is busy, and these guys have no clue how hard it will be to dedicate time to the order.

s99, since I wasn't sure if there was something in the text causing the error, I pasted my reply in debugging. It stuck. Trust me, I spared all you debuggers lots of other rejected messages after that. You're welcome.