ScouterRob

I have a scout who has just gotten his Eagle Card from National.  We are considering of having a small Eagle Ceremony at Scout Camp with OA.

Do anyone of you have any experiences with doing at OA Eagle Scout Ceremony at Camp?  Does anyone has any ceremonies than the basic OA ceremonies at http://www.eaglescout.org/finale/coh/template06.html

Thanks

I have a boy who primary lives on the West coast for most of the year and he is highly active with the troops on the East Coast for the summer. 

On West coast where his home troop is he has tons of family, but none really attends his COH or any of his scouting activities.  He is pretty much alone in support in scouting except for his mother and step dad.  His troop is very badly organized.  It takes the troop a year to setup a COR and most time the troop loses the MB blue cards.

On the East Coast, many scouters are involved with him and they take him to scout campouts and summers camps.  He is invited almost every weekend to some scouting activity.  The East Coast Council knows the situation about his home troop and they regular update his files at both locations.

So should the boy does his ECOH on the west coast or on the east coast where he is more active? 

What is your opinion.?

I was searching for this on scouting.org and could not find it.  This is perfect for what I need.

http://www.scoutstuff.org/media/content/docs/pdfs/6590UnifTowerPrcChgesFNL.pdf  is the PDF with items and what not.

 

 

Guide to Awards and Insignia link to Venturing section.

 

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/Venturing_Insignia.pdf

Behavioral contacts(Standards) can be useful when educating the scout and parents of what the troop expects. The rules are common sense, but a lot of parents seems to be missing that.  The scouting age is a good time to teach boys common sense.

One rule in the contract is a parent is not allowed to drop off their child(camping trip) and leave until they are cleared with a leader.  In the past, parents has drop of their children with no supervision and did not know the trip was canceled.  The parents(who left without checking) screamed at the leaders for their children being left alone.

Another rule is the foul language and indecent behavior(parents again). 

Also basic sportsmanship, when a simple game/contest ends it does not mean that you have to fight over who is the winner(argument lasted 6 months with 2 fist fights).

Guess who started the idea of the contact?  The PLC did.  Most scouts and parents who joined afterward did not have any issues.  The ones that did went to another troop.

Also the contact has been useful for dealing with some autistic scouts.  Some autistic scouts are looking for structure and the contacts provide them their structure.  My son has Asperger's and he read the contact and learned more from that one contract than he did from a lot of his counseling sessions.  He is now in a different troop, but he still follows that contract today

Contacts can be good and bad, depends upon how you run your troop.

Some scout troops are creating behavior contracts that parents must sign for their children to join. 

The contracts lists the proper behaviors that scout must provide and it lists the consequences. 

If the parent realizes that their child can not handle the proper behavior then they might realize that scouting is not for their child.

Each autistic child is wired differently. Some children does not want to be in scouts because of the self control it teaches(scout oath and law).

My aspergers son has completed COPE because he followed the contract and plan he was given.  Without the contact, he would have never completed COPE, he would hidden in his tent all week long.

The only training I gave to the COPE Staff that he is autistic and he just need a plan. 

Can anyone recommend a good site for the patch placement for a venturing shirt?  especially on the sides of the shirt.

I am seeing so many sites with the patches together and patches separate.

My 15 year old son has agree to do a Phimont trip in 2015, if I go with him. Now I do not know too much about Philmont and would like to try to plan for next summer. I have been a scout leader since he was a tiger scout, but I feel that I am over my head on how to approach this. I am getting very little info from Counsel about Philmont Continguents.

I have see the Philmont videos and read the website, but I feel all the programs are about the same skill set.

So any suggestion on how to approach this?

I know that the WB Patrol Patches are not allowed on the Adult Shirts, but my son and I are getting Photos done and he wants us to match.

So the question is which WB Patch are you putting on your uniform? BTW, I am Fox. I seen a few examples but I want a patch that looks similar to my son's patrol patch.

In the past troops, he was told by SM to get the worksheet done and find a counsler, then he would get a blue card signed by SM. I had to buy the blue cards from the scout shop because the troop never had any blue cards.

My son with Aspergers has filled out the worksheets for several of his merit badges including his Personal Fitness(90 day chart) and Personal Management(90 day chart). He is being told that they are not being accepted by counslers because he was supposed to contact the counlsers first. The counsler are refusing to sign any of the requirements including the written ones.

Does anyone know anything about this?

We are looking for two types of drums. One type of drum will be used for marching cadense. The other type will be used for about 2 or 3 hours constant drumming. The drums must be light enough to be picked up by a scout and carried(incase of rain storm).

Also please recommend a good vendor(cost), because we have several scouts and leaders interested in buying their own drums.

Another book I found is Das Pfadfinder- Handbuch. Tipps, Tricks, Abenteuer. Paperback by Walter Hansen. Had to find the proper German spelling for Scout. But I don't know if these books are actually used.

The closest I found is "Handbuch für Pfadfinder" by Klaus Eicheler but there is no reviews about it.

My son is taking German in school and was asking me if there is such thing as a German Scout Book?

I have a scout doing the programming merit badge, but how do you award a scout a Cyber Chip? There seems to be no really info about this for leaders.

I have been asked to become a Chapter Advisor, since no one else wanted it. The old chapter advisor is going to train me, but I want to get a head start so I know what questions to ask him.. I have never had another advisor position, so I am clean slate on this.

Any suggestions? I am also looking for tips, suggestions, and ideas from anyone.

Does anyone know what is the most common recurve bows that are used at Boy Scout camp?

What is the etiquite (not rules) for wearing different flaps? Like should you attend your lodge conclave to just wear that flap?

Since my son did not receive a lodge flap from his ordeal, I have bought many differenet flaps and he wants to a choose an older flap.

I remember at one lodge meeting a scout got picked on because the flaps on his uniform were for NAOC persons only, not just an average OA member.

This ordeal to me was a last minute event in Utah.

I was disappointed in the Lodge because most of the youth only showed to practice ceremonies on Saturday but did no service. Once it was ordeal time(5 pm), the youth left for home leaving ordeal members and 3 youth to do the ceremonines.

My son was allowed to borrow a sash for the ordeal, but the people were saving money and told me that I was supposed to buy a sash for him before the event. I also doublecheck myself and he was told after he got there that ordeal members were supposed to supply their own sashes and books.

There was no medical forms requested or additional informaiton. My son applied for the ordeal 3 months in advance and was not called with anything to bring, except for a class A Uniform and sleeping bag/tarp which on the online registation form.

I did contact council and I told them about the ordeal and they are going to send a membership card.

The only thing that counts to me that he is now in OA, so he can enjoy the brotherhood and cheerful service.

I was told by the lodge advisor that my son is the first scout in years in his chapter that has ever done the ordeal. His troop is not active or encouraged.

My son just passed his ordeal and was talking to me about there is no chapter chief for his chapter because no one wants the job. He was asking "Could I become chapter chief?" I have found nothing in the lodge rules saying that he could not.

So what do you think?

My son passed his ordeal with 9 other candiates and now is waiting for his membership card to buy his ordeal sash, book, and lodge flap. Do you know who is supposed to completed his membership? He did not received anything at his ordeal.

I noticed right after the ceremonies were done, all the boys except the new ordeal members left without asking for address or contact information. My son ask the adults, and the adult just shrug their shoulders.

The SM is not against OA, he just does not support it. He willing to let the scout to join OA, but doing the election is dificult since he does not control the troop.

The Troop is LDS, so no Elections, the patrols are sort by age(11 years olds, 12 years olds). The patrols meet differenet nights. The SM does not mind scheduling the election, but the other scouts will not show for one boy election.

BTW my son is the only one in his patrol(age group).

My son is getting a new uniform and his old awards(Rank, Ribbons, and more)are either soiled or just look worn.

How would he get replacement awards, esp the restricted items?

A scout wants to be in OA, but the SM does not want the troop to hold OA election since only one scout is interested. How would you scout handle this? The scout can not transfer to a nearby troop because the other troops feels the same way in OA.