Roadkill Patrol

As a SM, I too have a question regarding a new scout patrol. We have a small troop with 2 current patrols. Eacb patrol has 5 members registered, although we are likely to see a mix of 3 or 4 from each patrol at a meeting or outing. They like the patrols they are in and want to stay as 2 patrols. Now we had 5 new scout crossovers, with only a mix of 3 showing up at the last 2 meetings.

BTW, we have decided to run the troop without a SPL or ASPL until we have our Troop Leadership training session coming up soon. Even then, pulling 2 people from the current patrols would result in reforming the remaining 13 on the roster into 2 patrols. We would still end up with an avg of 4-5 from each patrol showing up at meetings and events. Usually when we have an event like Klondike, the ones that go end up forming into a new patrol for just that event. We have seen other troops do that and it seems to work instead of having 2 patrols of 3 at an outing.

Since the new scouts would need guidance, the other patrols would be hard served to sacrifice a member to help the NSP. Since the avg attendance is well below the bare minimum needed to form a new patrol, what is the best way to incorporate them into the existing patrols? Here are a couple of ideas I had:

1. Let the existing patrols pick which members they want? Or would this be too much like school yard picking?

2. Let the new boys pick which patrol they want to be in?

Any other thoughts or ideas that other troops have used for making their small troop work?

We just re-chartered and we are down to 9 boys. Our feeder pack is down to 16 boys, 5 of which were going to cross over next month. Now I found out that only 2 of the 5 may actually join the troop.

We were up to 20 last year at this time.

Here is a link to the Michigan plate:

http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,4670,7-127-1585_1595_9026-267898--,00.html

Michigan started offering a new fundraising license plate for the BSA in 2012. I know they cost more, but I just had to have one. I also decided to get it personalized. I just couldn't resist. The BSA logo is on the left and BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA is on the bottom.

1HRAWK = 1 hour a week (that's all we're suppose to do, right?)

Check out the video I just saw on CNN. A Tiger, Wolf & Webelos, all brothers, are at the airport as a service to greet servicemen and women arriving from a flight, when lo and behold, one of them is their dad! They didn't know he was coming home to surprise them. How cool.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/11/03/exp-mxp-salute-homecoming-raby.hln

Which camp has the oil well? I know the camp we go to has some gas wells, but that is a Rotary camp which is not under the jurisdiction of the BSA so there is no risk of it closing.

I believe our COR has voted in favor of the project. Our council is in favor of it. Our COR's basis is in the end, the program will be the same for the youth, they won't notice the difference. It may change the demographics for certain units that were on the border of their council. The new field service councils will have border changes. So in the end, it all comes down to where you send your paperwork.

The project is based on there only being one 501(3)c Council in Michigan. Under that main council, there could be 7 Field Service Councils that would serve the units. This way only the one main council has to pay the monthly National Dues, therefore saving money all around.

At first, I was against this from what I heard. Then I attended one of our council's Fire Side chats and learned a lot more. I was able to get the questions answered that were putting me against the project.

We can only return full cases to our council also so we team up with our feeder pack and offset our extras as much as possible. Fortunately we have ways to get rid of the extras pretty easily.

I also use the extras to our advantage though. Since the troop has to bear the brunt of the extra units, I have added a scout called TROOP to our order for the last 3 years. This way, the TROOP bought the extra units and I can get a prize for the TROOP at what level we are stuck with. So if the TROOP has $350 extra, I can get the $15 gift card prize level. Normally, whatever extra prize I can get, I raffle it off to the scouts that sold popcorn.

I also allow a buffer week for the boys turning in their orders before I have to submit my order and returns to council. Same thing others have said...do not tell families when the unit has to turn their order in to council. They will use that against you in not turning their orders to the unit until the last second.

Thank you emb021 for the resource. I will get a copy of the booklet and check it out.

We have a local family (in the US) that is hosting an exchange student from Vietnam this year. He is in the Vietnamese Scouting program in his home country. He will be joining our troop for the year he is here.

My question is...does he follow the program from his home country or the equivalent of the rank he is working on in the BSA program?

Still waiting to hear back from council office regarding this.

I discovered the Starter Dri-Star undergarments at Walmart while gearing up for hikes the boys were planning for the merit badge. They worked great. Even wearing one of the shirts under a t-shirt works great. I actually stocked up on a week's worth of items for summer camp since we were going during the hotest week of July. My summer camp experience wearing the Starter gear was by far the best ever!

Thank you all for the very helpful ideas...this is exactly the kind of guidance I was looking for. We have a campout coming up this weekend and we can discuss this around the campfire.

Shortridge: I like the idea of no SPL or ASPL and just having PL's. Did not think of that option. We are looking at having elections asap so that the boys who need a POR for rank can start earning that. It has also been 7 months since the last election and having the elections now is going to help when the next election rolls around after the crossover.

The ASPL was aware he was going to be in charge about a month before summer camp. He performs well in school, however, socially he has some personal issues we hoped he could overcome by being in a leadership position.

qwazse: Technically we have 11 boys on the charter, but with 2 heavily involved in band, we really have 9 active youth to rely on. Now I just found out that one of the PL's will be absent for awhile for football.

Our troop seems to be slowly imploding and as adults not being in this position before, we are struggling to figure out what to do since we are due to perform youth leadership elections.

As some of our older scouts were aging out, we had the last 2 older scouts set to age out in November and December. One of them was the SPL and the other was a JASM. There are 11 other boys in the troop with ages and (ranks) of: 16(FC) 14(TF) 13(Star) 12(FC,SC,SC,TF,TF,TF) 11(Scout,Scout).

Well, without a alot of time to react, the JASM suddenly had a chance to go to Germany as an exchange student right before summer camp. This left our well respected SPL who was great with the boys and an asset to the adult leadership. Well, he just ended up moving away to North Dakota suddenly. Great, now what do we do? The 16 y/o ASPL, (who recently moved from patrol leader after the former ASPL aged out in June) and his 14 y/o brother now cannot attend the troop meetings due to band practice held the same night. Since it was recent that the ASPL position came available, the 16 y/o was only moved up as a test of his leadership ability since we already had a great SPL and elections were coming up soon. Summer camp with the ASPL in charge did not go well as others refused to listen to him, especially his 14 y/o brother. He also gets overwhelmed easily and will just shut down.

Anyway, what I was looking for is ideas from other troops that are comprised mostly of youth (13 and under) and how they handle the position of SPL. We are planning on training the new SPL (unfortunately we were not able to send the 16 & 13 y/o to NYLT this past year), but we are not sure whether we as adult leaders (SM & ASM) should appoint the SPL or let the troop elect one. The most experienced scout is the 13 y/o Star scout, who is currently the quartermaster. However I do know of some that would not elect him just based on the fact they wouldn't listen to him when he was quartermaster and the election would be more of a popularity contest. Any thoughts or ideas?

BTW - please don't say to leave it up to the committee, because there barely is one. We have been unable to get the committee together for a few months now. There are only 4 committee members besides the SM and 2 ASMS (one being myself who also serves as the committee secretary since we don't have one). Our adult leadership is not much better off than the youth leadership. We have 7 upcoming Webelos crossing over next February and when we asked how many adults would like to serve on the committee, we got zero to commit. We are going to work harder as the crossover gets closer, reminding them that the program needs volunteers to keep it running.

I had a Tenderfoot scout who could not spell his first name correctly. And no, he does not have any disabilities either. He is home-schooled, with parents who say public school does not effectively teach kids. Sometimes it is just parents who do not teach their kids skills they will need later on in life. I was dumbdounded when I heard the new beltloops that came out (Good Manners & Reading/Writing), but I now think that National had an idea that these skills were being lost on the recent generations.

Our Fox patrol was awesome and we came up with some good ones. We were the only all guy patrol because the one woman assigned to our patrol did not show up.

1. When they announced is the Fox patrol here, we yelled "Foxes...Bright Eyed and (then turned around and bent over wagging our behinds) Bushy Tailed!"

2. A little more risque, but everyone liked it. "These Fox don't squat" (remember we were all guys)

3. Some times we all just did "Yip, Yip, Yip, Yip, Yip"

Have a blast and enjoy the experience.

Chris

Fox C-01-10

Awesome to know that! I love that show too!

The Webelos had a blast when I put on a presentation and then gave them kits to build so we could have a launch day. Found plans on the internet to make a launch control box which had a key to turn to arm the rocket, then a rocker switch under a red cover "like in the movies". They thought that was awesome.

One thing I did during the introduction to rockets was build a jig out of wood that would hold a rocket engine in place. I could mount this jig on a sawhorse so it was more at eye level. Then we ignited the rocket engine. By keeping it in place, the boys could see the fire from the rocket and understand how it works. When the fuel was depleted, they could see the way the engine pops to force the parachute out of the top of the rocket. I demonstrated this with various engine sizes from A to C so they could see the difference on how long each one lasted during the propulsion stage.

If you plan it out, it will make it more exciting then just building and launching.

Since we had a huge hayfield to launch our rockets, for the last of multiple launches, we actually aimed the rockets on a 45 degree angle so they could see how far they would go horizontally. Just keep it safe and fun!

The tent idea would be great as we have some canvas baker style tents to use. Thanks!

Our troop is hosting the district spring camporee this May. The committee is still in its infancy, but we have come up with a theme: Scouting - Then & Now.

We liked the idea of using old methods and new methods for each station and are looking for ideas. One of ours was Orienteering. Each patrol would have to finish a compass course and then a gps course. Another would be cooking. Using a cooking fire vs a backpacking stove.

Can anyone think of what else would match up with a Then & Now theme?

Thanks for the help.

That is a really good point RememberShiff. They should understand that there will be activities that the parents will have to commit to taking the scouts to as they are not troop activities.

Thanks for the responses. Yes, he just may surprise me. Tapouts are held at summer camp and the first Ordeal is usually a weekend in the fall. Pretty soon they will be holding elections for this years tapout.

I have a question and maybe y'all can help. This year, my son meets the eligibility requirements for OA, however I am not sure he would be able to handle the Ordeal weekend, specifically one aspect of it (y'all know what part I am talking about).

When he asked what goes on at Ordeal, I told him I had my Ordeal in 1985 when I was 13 and I had a great time and left it at that. Has anyone had this type of experience with their own son or member of their troop? Is it best to let him have his experience and hope for the best? I would be there during Ordeal weekend, but I wouldn't tell him otherwise that may give him an easy way of bowing out. I love the ceremonies and fellowship.

I am glad to be back in the OA. I didn't realize it that going through Ordeal as a youth entitled me to still be in it when I became a leader. I sealed my Brotherhood in 2009.

I applaude you reaching the rank of Eagle, however that does not entitle you to receive patches that were only available to be earned during the centennial year. Yes, you can purchase replacement patches that you have earned, however, if you did not earn them in the centennial year, then the scout shops are right in not selling them to you. My son earned his Second Class rank in 2010, and I had to submit additional paperwork in order for him to receive a 2nd badge for his back up uniform.

I just sent an email to our DE and Camp Director asking for clarification because on our camp website, they are still showing the old health form. So at this point, I don't even know which one to use. If there are no adjustments made to the new form, then our troop won't be able to go to summer camp because the leaders are outside the range.