qwazse

Wow! A whole topic just about me! (Except the ex-mil thing, and the $1000, and if it seems really important I have a pair of vintage BSA shorts and dark green hiking socks.) Be up front with the guy. Say that his one shortcoming in your eyes is that he won't throw on a pair of trousers from National Supply. But if he persists you'll try to dig deep and bear it. Your leadership is more likely to be undermined by some knot collector in complete field dress.

Where three or more committee are gathered, there we may have a BOR. They seem to take pride in being available to the boys, dividing and conquering if necessary.

1Hour - that's more PM than we have in our average-sized troop! One year our senior scouts where a bunch of scholar athletes. It made for a leadership vacuum in the fall. The younger scouts filled the vacuum with hardly a complaint. We did have to shy away from extremely rugged activities because the maturity just wasn't there for sufficient discipline. (On the flip side, the football team's defense was the smartest and fastest our conference had ever seen.)

Jblake makes a good point. If you and a couple of others are investing a lot of volunteer time towards council venturing (that means time away from your crew), then the SE had better giving you a serious allocation of staff time. You should have a big say on who that is, and request a change is it isn't working out. That staff had better be able to connect with the top youth in your council. The VOA officers will need a lot of respect and support.

E61, excellent application of acronyms. Doubt any'll stick, but I'm at my coffee break chuckling subtly. That said, our advancement chairs probably do deserve a regular dose of flowers and chocolate! Ours tries to make it to every troop meeting so boys can register their progress with her. We do advancement-as-you-go, and that spreads most of the traffic over the year (think of that fortnight spread over one evening a week for 14 weeks). The CoH is basically a handshake for patches that should already be sewed on the uniform. There is a little pile up the week or to before CoH, bu

What would happen? A few troops would do it on their own as they always have. The rest would pull together, start a capital fund for a sweet piece of property, recruit full-time staff to develop/manage it, encourage boys to become counselors for a pittance, and adults to make annual donations to offset the cost to individual campers. They might even come up with a fancy name for themselves like "District X, Friends of Scouting!"

mn: Outdoorsmanship = Citizenship At least in my mind it does. Learning to respect the land you walk on puts you a good ways down the road in learning to respect the people who depend on it.

Lowering an "energy footprint" is conservation minded, but comes off a little too abstract for LNT. LNT is teaching your neighborhood kids that nobody else wants to find out what kind of candy they got at the corner store by seeing the wrapper on the side walk. Sure Johnny loves little Suzie, but carving her initials on that oak in the town park is not as cool as bringing her back 30 years from now to see a healthy unmarred tree still growing. At least, that's what the LNT mentality is all about.

E.F., my 14 y.o. is a PL and does not have a cell phone. Life for him is so much easier that way. He had one, but kept leaving it at home when we expected him to have it. I might think of reactivating it in a month or so, but HE PAYS FOR EVERY PHONE CALL AND TEXT. (I'll probably throw $20 every few months for emergencies and the hundreds of commands his poor mum will throw his way.) You have to understand that camporees hopefully attract the total diversity of troops in your district -- and the probability of one with a "no cell" policy is high. And remarks like "Where in the world ar

We had one scout (a First Class First Year type, by the way) drop out because he wanted more time to play his video games. I kid you not. That's precisely what the boy said! On the flip side, one younger brother signed back on after being away for a year becaus he wanted to come backpacking with us. He came, enjoyed the hike and is sticking around. needless to say he's not the FCFY type. As far as numbers we're down to 18, which I think is as low as I've seen it.

Our council provides us a lot of support, but I think that's partly because we have a lot of volunteers who support venturing. Some things that we get ... Access to facilities for annual events for all the crews in council. Teleconferencing facilities. (We are still working the kinks out, but this month it made it possible for the VOA to phone in from different locations on a particularly bad night for kids to be on the road.) Space in the council newsletter. A web page for the VOA. Up-to-date membership stats. As far as not having a VOA, it's a shame we make it sound mor

Sorry to hear of your loss so close to home. We've had to endure a few of our own, and not a one of them sets well. These boys grow into your life, and they take a piece of you with them when they pass on before you.

All the advice here is good. I would also suggest something like this to the irate parent: "It's clear that that this was more upsetting to your son than he let on. Make sure he knows that I'm always here to listen to his concerns -- just like our committee chair is available to listen to yours. So in addition to the things that I told you I will do differently the next time, do you or your family have a way that we can herd our boys in the right direction? If so, please consider lending a hand on our committee. We need your input!" Of course, you may owe your CC an apol

I can add to L-bob's laundry list. Shoot, some folks have typed some prejudicial stuff about venturers on these forums, and I have to suck in my breath and remember that most of you haven't had a sit-down with the youth in my crew. There are only a couple ways to deal with this sort of thing. 1. Let your actions speak louder than your words. That is, have fun camping and hiking. And if a cuss-of-a-magician's little old lady happens to need help across the street, lend her a hand. 2. If you are ever welcomed into a dialogue say "I really feel sorry for you, because it sounds li

A one day Eagle project might get by without food; but don't try that in life! Our troop has quite a few candidates coming through the pipeline, most of them have ambitious projects that require more than one day, so scouts develop certain expectations. Sometimes the benefiting group pays. Sometimes the family pays. Sometimes additional funds are raised. Sometimes older scouts expect to show up at a project with a few bucks to pitch in for food. So the OP's problem today involves one project, but he's SM for more than just his kid. So, yeah, it's important to educate "the contro

Spot-on BD. I did not mean to say that the neighborhood sidewalk was not part of the outdoor experience. Rather it begins there. (For son #2, it better begin at his bedroom!) We go to church on a college campus, and a preacher (we have many) will routinely point out that faith begins with what you decide to do with the litter on your street after a Friday night.

Some of the best scouters don't respond to E-mails. Some folks inboxes are over-loaded. Life is hard. I can imagine some TG's have a vision of being devoted to their patrol %100; to their fellow staff, not so much! Now you understand how hard it is to be a Patrol Leader sometimes! Try a phone call. Especially if there's a task to assign. "Hey, I was calling because I'm looking for a favor and you were at the top of my list ..."

As a matter of course none of my sons' dens had snack time. (Meeting times were usually 6 or 7 pm.) There were special occasions (e.g., cooking instruction), but most meetings were without munchies! The facility had a water fountain. That seemed enough to get everyone by.

Is it structure that above all that boys need? Is it the common group sharing of experiences with team members that does it? Is it the dedication os adult paid/volunteers and their character influence that mentors the boys? Yes

I live across the street from a gas station. The rubbish that gathers around my fence has everything to do with how well their customers understand (or don't understand) LNT. Fact is, if everyone knew how to better respect property within their reach, much of the outdoor experience would be within their grasp. Anyway, MT, you're on the right track with the WB project. Be creative, and try offer some media that will be a change of pace. (For example, in ours, we had students use vegetable dye pens, vanilla wafers, and Nutella to make edible models of the "Sandwich Principle" while

Some youth may feel more comfortable taking NYLT with their peers. Although unlikely, a 20 y.o., may have just spent the year on prepping for high adventure with the 13 y.o. who just joined his/her crew. IMHO, there's no reason to rush a 20 y.o. into WB21C. There may be tons of reasons to encourage it, but few of them are scouting related. (E.g., the youth is advancing in his/her job or growing a new business and could use a little management training "outside the box". A youth is spinning gears in college and needs a "safe" environment where he or she could do a little goal setting.)

More importantly, will the flyers provide the reassuring proviso in both languages: "No wood will be splintered in the implementation of this course."

Yep. Your scout has some work to do. All three of the options for #3 are within his grasp, but the point of #1 is that he talks to you before moving forward. An 11 year old could be cut a little slack for misunderstanding whose approval he needed. So if he shows up with #3 a, b, or ,c completed in a couple months and the cat doesn't look like it wants to run away, sign the card. But the point of talking to you is that *you* set the bar for the boy, not the other way around. If he decided to host a neighborhood pet show in his back yard (maybe for a fundraiser for charity), and his cat

Yep. Do it all the time with crews and troops. I feel a little bit "safer" knowing other drivers are heading my direction! I think the youth are better off for the friendships they make. The key is good communication. You need a good estimation of the patrol leaders and their navigation skills. (Canoes can get spread apart and miss pull-outs and portages.) For a big trip it never hurts to have the PLC's meet once or twice ahead of time and have a pre-trip shake-down.

Go for your best choice. Period. If your ASM's are stand-up guys, they'll fill in the gaps. If not, you'll have to reduce part of your program to fit the SM's schedule. Either way, you'll have the role-model you think your boys need.