qwazse

He started out with just one, but our proclivity for apples led to a need for more specific guidelines!

One thing that you can do while waiting to ask your SM or CC how you could best serve your unit, is to create an account with scouting.org and take the online Youth Protection course. Membership applications for adults need proof that you've completed it anyway. Once you've found your old or been given a new memberid number, you can log on to scouting.org and match it with your online account. This will give you access to a bucket load of other courses you may take.

The real advantage of dumping the time requirements, IMHO, is that the scout can focus on complete skill efficiency. So, for example, if a boy wants to nail down knots and lashings, he can spend his first few months doing just that. He doesn't have to think that for two months he only has to do tenderfoot requirements -- some of which may bore him. He can ace everything from the square knot to the square lashing. Then for a camp gadget, he can lash together a lounge chair and read up on first aid or aquatics safety. Another advantage: suppose a boy joins at age 15 and has some of these skills down already. (This happens to boys who never bother with the EDGE method and simply learn skills the more efficient way: by reading a book and practicing on their own.) He can simply knock off a rank or two by his first camping trip with the troop, and be on his way to holding responsibilities more suited to his maturity.

There are stock patrol patches maintained by the scout shop, and there are a bunch of online sites that market unique ones. There is also a blank patrol patch. We've encouraged the boys to consider them all. If you have a parent with the craft materials, the more you produce by hand, IMHO, the better. If there is a site to register your squads' designs, consider doing so. (It may make for patch-trading fun down the road.) Contrary to some of the above posters, I advise: DO NOT ASK HQ for a policy. If they have publicly offered something, then avail yourself of it. If you ask for a rule, someone will make it, and a bunch of folks will be miserable thanks to you. You don't want that. I think it's very wise of you to ask what BS and GS do and improvise from there.

Drop the cigs and drop the fat. You only have so much time with your kids, and you don't want to spend it waiting at the trail head. I'm sorry if that doesn't sound politically correct, but I'm not talking about dropping any old "weight." I could shed 30 pounds of fat, and that would translate into being able to carry some awesome gear in my pack, hiking some "weightier hills", not worry about mud-weight from bogging, etc ... Burn fat. If you shed 30 pounds of muscle in some screwball fad diet, that does your unit no good. Restore lungs. It really stunk for a couple of dads when I had to resort to "plan C" for our insertion into a wilderness recreation area and they realized that on day 2 the younger boys were not returning to base camp because the trail heads were still a mile uphill and the boys were hiking in another 2 miles beyond that! (Thank God the SM had that bariatric surgery and one other dad was fit.) It doesn't sound like much, trading in a lifetime of smokes for four miles through rocks and bogs and a night in the middle of nowhere. But, when that night is a chance to watch your boy grow and lead, it could mean the world to you. One of those dads has since sworn off smoking.

C21's is a by-the-book roundtable. We would all do well to read the following http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34342.pdf. Don't let the venturing label turn you off. Frankly RTs should be something that would attract some older youth. Also, geography matters. We are 20 minutes away from our meeting place. How distant is th farthest unit from the center of your district?

Nice to hear another troop Luther taking "bad kids."

Nor our unit, but or council Venturing district is trying to teleconference as much as possible. Attendance has not increased, but some of save gas and have more time to write in these forums.

I was a cub parent, and I want to again thank the lot of you for taking on all of those positions that would have just driven me nuts. (I had much more fun teaching tigers how to fuse rope and play British Bulldog.)

Whatever they got the best deal on at the time! Our camps have gone exclusively to compound bows. In terms of specs, they usuallly have something with a 25 -35 pound draw. (Or that much of a hold for the compounds.) What would be insanely cool is a camp that raises their own stand of yew, and your week at camp would involve conserving it, harvesting the wood, planing the branches (I don't think regs for tools prevent that.), and finishing the bows for the camp. This would need a camp director with a requirements-be-damned approach, but it would be saying something if a scout was only allowed to complete the teas at camp using bows made the previous year. (The actual fashioning of the bows could be part of the camp's high adventure program.)

I started on this forum because I had a lot of questions about being a crew advisor. I consider myself to be a by-the-book kind of guy, but folks were accusing me of being divisive. Following these threads helped me to iron out sore subjects in my head before "bumping into the issue" in face to face conversation. But for me, I can think of two: - requiring adults on parol overnight outings - that unfounded teaching method our boys have to mimic to advance.

If it's to haul a massive canopy so that the boys can stretch hammocks three high between each pair of posts, maybe. Otherwise, luxury.

Chris, here's how to "amp it up" once the boy gets his dead eye ... We had a cabin on a big lake. We got a five gal sealed container, tied a chain and anchors to the bottom, taped a vertical stick (light weight, balsa) nailed a crossbar to the top, hung cans from the ends of the crossbar. Floated about 100 feet out. Shot from shore, had a blast!!! Speaking of blasts: mini water bottles, little vinegar, little Baggie, backing soda. Add ingriedients in proper order. Seal bottle. Shake. Aim shoot. (warn your neighbors first.)

The information on the web represents current standards. You would have to check the references of each to see if one was updated after the other. A lot of it also depends on how used your boys are to open ocean activities, their level of discipline, how closely the boat captains work together, and your general comfort level with things. You get a half-dozen captains who each have a different favorite location miles apart, then you're gonna want every adult on top of things and trained to the max. You get a good flotilla of captains who coordinate their trips, keep the radio on, and keep you in the loop, then more of your adults can just be along for the ride. You got a disciplined and skilled patrol of older boys? I don't see a problem with them spending the day on a boat to themselves if one of your adults is going to be in a boat nearby. By the way, this is just me talking. Not representing council or district. The last thing I'd ever do is ask them for a rule on something. I read the guidelines and apply common sense and a good bit of judgement.

significant and growing liberal wing who disagree with that view. This is particularly so within the Anglican communion where there is a growing and I believe an almost inevitable threat of a split in the church over the issue. The fabric has already begun to tear in our neighborhood. The Episcopal bishop broke communion with his liberal counterparts and joined the more conservative worldwide communion. (Pardon me if I've botched those terms. I don't keep track of boundaries very well.) From his perspective, they left him. I personally like the guy, he's been an inspiration to a lot of youth around hear, and he tries to make it about more than this one issue. Presbyterians are not far behind. Basically American Christians are torn between two views. One that says "In a pluralistic society, we have to adapt our sexual mores." Versus another that says "In a pluralistic society those who wish for leaders who adapt their sexual mores may choose a different religion." The so-called liberal wing may be growing stronger in their respective denominations, but they are assuming charge of shrinking boats. The same may be said for so-called conservatives. No more oxen liners, just canoes and kayaks.

Sounds fun! It all depends on captain's qualifications. He should be licensed ans properly trained for water rescue. If so, you already have one adult per boat. I don't think you want to go below one adult from the troop per boat.

Looks like you're locked in to a few things. I'd encourage your leaders to be sure of the boys' general activity level. Have the older boys lead the newbies on a day hike around the area. Each boy should carry a day-pack with a snack and water and gear appropriate for the weather. One boy should bring a garbage bag. Plan the hike so there are plenty of loops back just in case you have a couple of boys who want to quit. The adults observe all this from the rear so that they can begin talking to parents about future acquisitions of footgear, packs, tents, etc ... The other strategy is to get into the habit of parking about a mile from campsite, if possible. This forces the boys to plan how they hike their gear in. If this happens for nearly every camp-out, they will eventually get the picture that packing efficiently leaves more time for fun at camp. Consider a heart-to-heart with your crew about your wish to get the young boys up to speed and your perception that the older boys in the troop may need some guidance.

primary goal is to revitalize this Troop that started in 1936 You might want to point out that one of the barriers to revitalization is a slip-shod attitude towards paperwork and paying fees. When parents see you all glossing over details, they will be less comfortable with 'lil junior in your care. A 50, 100, 50 has been adequate here. I'm not about to ask if that has changed. Did your DE say why? I can see how some folks might be hard pressed to up their policy. Anyway, make it clear that you expect everyone to work through issues, not tiptoe around them.

Not an HP. An HP would be nagging an SM until his or her baby's book was brought up to date. An HP would give the kid a list of merit badges to work on in order from easiest to hardest for the next two years and would have already called the counselor for the first one. Or, an HP would have said MBs? Why don't we wait 'till your 1st Class? An HP would not only help junior with his knot, but would make sure he got tested that night (lest he forget how later) and breath down the PL's neck when junior was getting tested. Naw, jp, your an ASM. It sounds like the kind of thing you'd do for any boy in your troop if they'd ask. (Between putting out fires, that is. )

Christians reserve the right to impose on culture. They demanded the Roman Empire end the practice of molesting young boys, among other things. They appealed to Britian to abandon the imperial slave trade. They drive capitalism towards pacifism. (Okay, that one's not going very well.) They oppose slaughter of innocents. And they put constraints on one's sexual expression. Conservative Chrisitians in the USA see themselves as called to uphold these cultural mandates (hypocracies notwithstanding). So there's no reason to expect Christian COs to back away from seemingly strident stances.

Edad:Im curious, do you think a male leader would have the identical influence on the girls in a Girl Scout Troop as a female leader? That's like asking if Jane would have the identical influence as Suzie. If Bob's influence is more like Jane's than Suzie's do we count it as identical to a female leader's? More importantly, would either woman's influence be corrupted if Bob came camping with them on weekends? The men I know who help lead a GS are admired by their daughters. By GS camp staff, not so much. My coadvisor has absolutely no problem with men of integrity (especially her husband) camping with her troop.

Technically scout accounts are troop monies that assigned to individual youth to use toward the betterment of troop life. If they wern't you'd might as well pay put cash along with 1099 forms at the end of the year. The other stuff, pick your battles. Personally, I'd harp on the med forms. The insurance, take 'me at their word. Have them write their coverage on a piece of paper and sign at the bottom. The title for the trailer, don't pull it if you don't like it. Scout Parents don't get to dictate what you and your CC (oh yeah, that's you too) decide to be picky over. Only the MCs who have paid their dues in time and money get a chance at calling any shots, and even that has to be in an orderly fashion in accordance with the wishes of the CO.

BD, your unit doing activities with another district is a good case for the relevance of districts. It gives clusters of units the opportunity to train together and to work towards common, yet diverse goals. I'm basically in two districts. The Venturing District, which services all crews in our council. And the geographic district which services packs and troops in a reasonable geographical area. The council-wide "district" helped me to get my unit to out from under some squabbles, and if my youth want to team up on an adventure, they are usually looking beyond geographical boundaries anyway. The down-side is that forums and stuff require distance communication, which we are all still learning how to do. The geographic district is a convenient outlet for announcing my crew's service projects. The commish is happy to forward things along, and welcomes our youth to come make announcements. Since meetings are less than 20 minutes away, your evening isn't totally shot. The roundtables have pretty useful teaching sessions (we all take it in turn to present stuff on topics people request). The adults in our troop who go regularly seem to benefit from it. So I don't see the district model going away anytime soon.

You know, SP, it's never one incident, but a pattern of behavior that will get a UC tagged as "Too Bold". (That's a very polite way of putting it!) What you don't want to happen (that happened to us) is for the unit to request your removal and then that unit get tagged as a go-it-alone group. UC's simply do not darken our door. So if upon reflection, this is clearly a one off thing with this unit, carry on. If on the other hand you're seeing yourself in kind of a "rut", then maybe you need to say "Hey, guys, I've been UC long enough, let me suggest a new commish for you. If you need me, you'll still have my number ..." That way the ball's in their court. If they want you remain active, you can offer to do so as committee member for the events you are best at organizing.

Also worth considering is that boys are looking for non-familial adult female role models. Not to pan dev psych, but it is a science of norms, not variation. (There was I time when the journal of that name asked authors to not put error bars on the plots of trends in the data!) All that is to say, we should accept individuals, not their gender into positions of responsibility. If ther is a female with integrity and direct-contact skills and experience, then you may be doing your boys a disservice by passing them over for less qualified males. Your making a trade off between preserving a culture for some hypothetical gain and being flexible to address immediate needs.