RMcCown

FScouter: Maybe my message isn't clear enough, I did ramble a bit. We DONT have a fundraising chair, an outing chair, an equipment chair, or a webmaster. All of this has been falling on myself and the ASMs. The TC chair and I have TRIED to recruit people, but nobody is interested. That's our problem.

Howdy folks I'd like to start a discussion on how to avoid burning out when you don't have enough volunteers to do much of the heavy lifting. First, my own history and where our Troop is. We have about 65 registered/45 active scouts. I'm the SM, I have 3 ASMs, and one of them is also TC Chair. We have about 3 or 4 trip honchos that help out once in a while, and maybe half a dozen parents that go on trips occasionally. We have a treasurer, MB coordinator, and a permitting/training coordinator. Our advancement chair works 'once in a while' (translation, maybe once a month). Th

To answer some questions: scoutingagain: In short, yes. We have "POR Blue Cards", which describe the position, and are regularly tracked (Every couple of months). All of the boys in POR were 'mid-term reviewed' a couple of months ago. One of the 'problems' that I inherited becoming SM is a 'non-PL type positions get pencilwhipped' syndrome. i.e. we had a bugler that never buguled, but got through his Star and Life SM conference no problem (Before my time). Now what I'm dealing with, but not TOO much, is the feeling from some of the older parents of "this never mattered before, w

A great thread, and addresses an issue I'm facing right now. Tuesday I had a SM conference with a First Class scout, who is QM, and he hasn't been doing his QM-ly duties much. Gear from the lockers hasn't been signed out consistently, and stuff that gets taken out during the Troop meetings hasnt been signed out AT ALL. The conference went OK, he agreed that he needs a bit more time in the position (I said no more than 60 days), but his dad sent me a rather scathing email along the lines of "That will put him 3 months over the required time for the position". I'm now trying to figure

Howdy all You may have seen my infrequent posts, asking some questions, or lamenting an adult-run Troop. Well, I've got good news. But first, some backstory. When my son, now 14, crossed over into the troop, I was impressed by the lip service and 'rah rah' the scouting program was given by the then leadership of the troop. They did outings, merit badges, camp, all that. Sounded great. In less than a year, my wife and I realized one of two things, either 1) scouting change a heck of a lot since I was a scout in the early 70's, or 2) these parents were way to involved in the t

In the last few months, I've become SM, and started going minutes. We never did them before, and theyre one of the 'neat things' I remember as a scout. i started with a lot of the classics, or some good ones I found around the web (wear your labels, etc). But lately (in managing some troop-wide behaviour issues) I've been doing them more along the lines of "what's the 5th part of the scout law, and what does it mean?" kind of items. Last night, I did a bit about the SPL. Here it is, as best I can recall. Who can tell me why Sam here is SPL? [various murmurs of 'he's cool', et

Howdy I read GernBlansten's post about his Troop being a "Webelos III", and it appears that his troop mirrors what mine is going through. First, some history. When my son crossed over, they most definately WERE a camping and badge club. There was ZERO leadership from the boys, all positions were for the sake of advancement. One year they graduated 5 Eagles out of 6 boys. I knew there was somethign wrong with the troop, but any concerns I ever raised about what was going on was met with resistance, or downright "You cant deny my son becoming an Eagle Scout!" anger. Within a y

Thanks for the replies. The main 'culprit' is a First Class scout, though how he got through his SM conferences is beyond me (that was before my time in the barrel). He shows *zero* interest in participating in the meetings. He approached the former SM and myself about getting a leadership position in the troop "so I can get my next rank" (he's run, and failed to get, a PL position during patrol elections). We told him, tiwce so far, that to be a good leader, you need to be a good follower, and show some interest in supporting his patrol and the troop. He nods and says 'OK', and then reve

Howdy We have a couple of boys who, for reasons unknown to us, aren't interested in 'being scouts'. They don't participate willingly in a lot of the mechanisms of the Troop meetings, they barely go on any outings, and aren't showing any of the SMs any scout spirit. Having talked with the boy, and then with the boy and his parents, he SAYS he's interested in being a scout, but he just refuses to show it. The other SMs and I think its the "do you want to play piano?" question; he wants to because his parents want it. As far as the other SMs and I are concerned, he's welcome to come a

...or maybe a minute and a half... Next tuesday, at our winter COH, our old SM steps down, and I take the reigns. I've been doing the Scoutmaster Minute for the last few months, and I'd like to do one this time and touch on some issues we're having. They're mostly along the lines of "Safe Haven". A few examples. When we're teaching lashings, invariably, there are a few scouts that take a stave and start doing kung-fu moves with it. They're stopped and talked to, but it'll happen again with another scout sometime later, or the next week. Or, we'll have 'hat stealing keep-away'

Thanks for the congratulations, and the advice. I know this is something I *really* want to do. When I first became ASM, and went to Leader Specific training, I was asked "Why are you here?". I said I wanted to learn how to be an effective Scout leader. "But why? Why do you care about 40 boys that you barely know?". After some back and forth, it came down to, for me, that these boys have shown interest in something I liked when I was a kid, and I feel its my duty, as their leader, to be able to give to them the same quality of Scouting experience I had 30 years ago. I've never before ha

First a little personal background. I was a scout when I was a kid, and loved it. I didn't advance far (there didnt seem to be this big "push" for advancement like there seems to be now), but I was in for a long time. My son is 13, and been in Scouting since Tiger. During Cubs, I was on the sideline mostly, though I did help out with the Pinewood Derby every year, and the occasional outing. About 2 years ago, the Scoutmaster for the Troop made an announcement that he'd like a couple of dedicated adults to take on the role of ASM under him. Myself and another dad stepped in, and we've bee

Therein lies some of the problem. >Did the SM conduct an annual planning conference with the boys? No, PLCs were an unknown until this past December. >If not, then why did the committee let the program move forward without an annual plan? Because the SM said that we could have a "good enough" troop without all the advanced planning. >Is the committee outings and activities person handling the logistics of troop outings? Yes. >Does the committee advancement person come to troop meetings occasionally to work with the troop scribe and patrol lea

Thanks for the encouragement, all. Ive been reading through the forums, and it doesnt seem like our problems are insurmountable. I think we just have to take things one step at a time, with a lot of handholding. We'll see how the SM reacts, but there is enough support for being 100% by the book that I dont think he'll have much choice. The WB course is coming up in about 3 weeks. I definately have a good choice of things to put on my ticket. No boredom for me. Right now, we're trying to get JLT in-house. Council hasnt had one for a while, the last 2 were canceled. We may even

First, some background. My son crossed over into the troop 2 years ago. At that time, I attended the orientation meetings with the SM/TC, and liked what I heard about the troop (heavy on camping, lots of service projects, etc). My son got his Scout rank within a couple weeks, and attended camp that summer. All seemed well. But, by last March, though, it was obvious 'something' was amiss. There had only been one camping outing during the year, and that was only for one night. My son hadn't advanced at all beyond Scout, either. About the same time, the SM put out a notice that he'd like

Thanks for the welcome, all. There's a wealth of information in these forums I'm still digesting. Hopefully we can apply a lot of it and turn our Troop around. -=Bob

Howdy all I've never posted here, though I've been reading for a while. I'm an ASM, and have been for about a year. Our troop has about 20 active kids in 2 regular patrols, and one venture patrol. I'm here to learn how to improve our troop. Thanks -=Bob