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Mikey, Let's forget about ages and clocks and calenders, and set up a more practical metric: Has your son mastered all of his first class skills? Could he be trusted to take a group of his buddies hiking and camping? If so then he is a 1st class scout and not just wearing a patch. He should tell his SM that he would like to discuss a position of responsibility with the SPL. Not for the purposes of rank advancement, mind you. But simply because he is confident that he qualifies to lead. He can make a deal that if he's not living up to his responsibility after a month, he'll resign t

Aw, BP, you're just jealous! Besides, didn't you say "good-bye" to the lot of us earlier this year? What kind of respect do you think you deserve after breaking our hearts like that? Anyway, being tagged a senior member isn't solving any problems. Still can't post new topics. I agree with you, going back to the old format would be fine with me -- even if it did come with banner ads?

Aw, BP, you're just jealous! Besides, didn't you say "good-bye" to the lot of us earlier this year? What kind of respect do you think you deserve after breaking our hearts like that? Anyway, being tagged a senior member isn't solving any problems. Still can't post new topics. I agree with you, going back to the old format would be fine with me -- even if it did come with banner ads?

In general I'd agree with you. I don't need a parent up my craw any more than a boy does. But if a parent is willing to sit quietly with us on the opposite side of the field and the boy is able to come to him/her to avert total meltdown, and the parent is someone the other boys can relate to a little, and the boy gets better and better as he matures ... plus we learn something about the boy that helps us understand what makes him tick. I chalk it up to a positive. We've seen it happen. We can work with that.

There's a not-so-fine line between conduct disorder and autism spectrum. And, that's exactly what committees are for. If a parent wants us to work magic with a kid, but won't come hiking and camping and be at the ready to take the boy home the minute he can't contain himself, then it's time to put and end to long suffering.

Doncha just love these lotteries that, by winning, you're the one who owes $$? Don't worry about deadlines. If your slow with the paperwork, the day you put it in the mail give them a call to let them know it's on it's way. Frankly, I would let them know that your troop's commitment is contingent on the cost being less than $X. (I.e., let them know that you "know when to fold 'em.") Talk to your contingent about their options. Some folks are happy to just land in Miami, stay at a hotel the night before and hire vans to take them down the next day, and do the reverse on the way back

We have that with quite a few of our boys. Actually, the young women in our crew find it especially hard to balance obligations. Step 1: Teach parents to take it down a notch. Step 2: Encourage the youth to set priorities and let them know he/she's welcome whatever the choice. Step 3: encourage them to stay registered because it saves paperwork. Step 4: Have arms open every time they come back.

pdl - this is really messed up. I've known of teachers who had pure dislikes for a particular boy. Never knew of an SM. To the scout's credit, he's stuck around. I've heard of cultural differences slowing things down, but never chasing someone out of the room. Sounds like you'll never get to the bottom of that well. The idiocy has to stop. Was the boy elected? If so, this guy is giving all of the boys a slap-in-the-face for their decision. Get the boy some training. Get the SM to talk to someone you both trust on how to get over this.

I still see a scout attending camp as a service to his troop. He is volunteering his time so he can qualify to take his patrol hiking and camping. Or, he is volunteering his time and money to help other boys qualify to take their patrol hiking and camping. By having some troop funds allocated to him, he is committing to use those $$s in a way that will help the troop, and when he leaves, his stewardship stewardship of those funds is returned to the troop. Furthermore he commits to hand down gear and outgrown uniforms to scouts who need may need it more than he will. That said, I do lik

I've been trying to reply for a while. We'll see if it takes my post this time. In general your link is how we see things. If your kids and the CO is after a specialty program focused on aquatic skills, be a ship. If they want to specialize in something land based (outdoors, sports, youth ministry, a hobby, etc ..), or be more general interest (like ours) and evolve their program in various directions over time, be a crew. Also, what do the youth in your community need? If there already is a vibrant sailing community with a youth program (as we have just an hour north of us), you pro

So, would a church youth group who performs charity work be required to allow athiests. Better yet, if there was an atheist youth organization involved in public activism, would they be required to grant admission to the hundreds of evangelicals who would just love to preach Jesus to them while volunteering in leadership positions?

I should add (no pun intended) that I'm not seeing any banner ads. Maybe maintenance costs have dropped and you don't need as many advertisers? Maybe advertisers are paying more, so they don't need to be as ubiquitous? Or maybe it's one more thing your software vendor sold you a bill of goods on.

Except for this one

Past 5 attempts over the last week, I have not been able to post a thing in these formums.

Much to my wife's chagrin, we took the kids on camping vacations before they could walk. Son #1 asked to be in cub scouts the minute he got the tiger cub flyer from school. Never had to push him to keep signing up year after year (including helping start a crew) until he went to college. Daughter didn't like girl scouts, so she waited until she could be a venturer. Likewise, she enjoyed it until college. Son #2 started as a tiger and is likewise enjoying troop and crew life. Makes me wonder if I should let him go to college?

Likewise. They go in a box with my O/A necker and sash until there's some woodbadge stuff to be done (e.g. beading or announcing the next course). I'll probably wear the beads to crew meetings if our crew ever settles on a uniform. (This might be the year, a lot of the boys are talking about getting it done and aren't bothered about my "no capes" rule.) I would never wear them routinely at a troop meeting because I do not want to one-up the SM who hasn't had time to take the course because he spends his weekends hiking and camping with the boys. With or without beads or necker,

BD, I had a lovely reply. But I got a JSON error and the page crashed on me when I tried to post. Anyway sounds like you've got a good plan. The best ones happen when you interrupt a video game!

Limbo was never church dogma. So there was nothing to eliminate. Ratzinger merely felt that the importance of baptism stood on its own merits without the need for limbo to motivate believers to baptize their infants. Others have disagreed.

Not much to add to this except: pick your battles. Boys (and most people) get overwhelmed with a laundry list of goals. Pick one thing, then at your conference ask "Hey, by next week [end of the month if you think it will need it] can I see you do more of X instead of Y?" This probably means you will see no more than a half dozen changes by the time your next election rolls around unless your really lucky and find the 'linchpin' that precipitates a flood of improvement. And, stand by your man. Your committee [possibly even some of your boys] may be impatient with him. Your reply "Wel

The good news is you have a clear understanding of what is important to the committee. Remember they are your allies, and they are supposed to see things in the boy that you don't. So, really you all now have to feel like you can be a better team. Have the members of your committee been going to round-tables and other district meetings? Are they trained? Is there someone they trust who can give you all constructive feedback? On the boy's part, ask him what he thinks will help him to be a better scout: appealing the board's decision or working on a few of their suggestio

As always, it's the details that matter. Pappadady, is your council having family camp every week? Or, is it creating more weeks of family camp? Is there a week or two that are strictly cub camp? I would not have minded my daughter in camp. She camps with us a lot. But for it to really work, I would have wanted a female den chief for all of the sisters.

You omitted a third option. A national policy that requires units to present homosexuality as an example of morally straight to all of our you.

Okay. Here's the deal. If I am "not allowed to create this post" don't tell me after you give me a "Post Reply" button and a box to write some text! Anyway here's the reply that I wanted to write in "New to Forum!" Hi KM! I'm a tent stake guy too, although I operate with a hand ax and whever branch there is to spare in the axe yard. It kinda freaks a few boys out when I knock out a set of pegs faster than they can place an order with their i-thingies. However, I wouldn't take it up as a proffession. Margins are slim, and the patent office won't honor my claim, so the boys wind up c

I'm getting logged off randomly. The page just refreshed while I'm typing a post (I think because Guy's post came in), and erased a post. I'm felling a whole lot of postmodern dystopia right now!

Tried to post a reply to Bearclaws topic, got a JSON paste error, so here's that reply ... We are strong on boy-led, weak on patrol method so take our example for what it's worth. We don't say no to the boys when it comes to program. So, if they want to try an MB class, we do it. When they are sick of MB classes, we stop. If they would like a completion, we plan one, if not we don't. Advancement is not a priority, skills are. So, for example, SM brings in a couple of spars, pulls out some sweatshirts from the lost and found, and says "Make a stretcher, go!". While he's giving