SR540Beaver

Just like "boy-led" varies from troop to troop, so does the size of the troop. I've been involved with one troop of about 15 boys and another troop of about 8 to 10 boys. I'm now involved in a troop with 60 boys. How the different troops operate is directly proportional to the size of the troop. Our SM does all SM conferences and interacts with all the boys. That being said, there are 3 ASM including myself who oversee our new scout program. We typically recruit anywhere from 15 to 25 new scouts per year. There are 2 who work with the scouts who have moved from the NSP until they have accomplished 1st Class. There is 1 and maybe 2 who work with the scouts working on Star and Life. What we are currently missing is an Eagle Advisor to work with the 17 guys we currently have sitting at Life. While the SM does all SM conferences and interacts with all scouts, he is simply one man and can't possibly do it all by himself. In a troop of 10, he probably could. In a troop of 60, he can't. We all tend to think that what we know of our own unit is what is "normal". It isn't. Each unit is as individual as a fingerprint.

E, Our troop is in dire need of an Eagle Advisor. We currently have 17 boys sitting at Life. Some for a year or two. With another 40 boys in the troop, it is difficult for the SM to work with each of the 17 boys on an individual basis for advising them on Eagle.

I would ask the young man who did the project workbook in his place since it is obvious he didn't. If he did, he would remember having to fill out this section. "Plan your work by describing the present condition, the method, materials to be used, project helpers, a time schedule for carrying out the project, the estimated cost of the project, and how the needed funds will be obtained."

vcrew66, I would avoid being MBC for your son. In our troop, we don't allow it except in one situation. We periodically will offer a merit badge as a class. These are usually Eagle required MB's where we want to ensure the quality of instruction and are always done on a day different from troop meetings or outings. When an MBC is teaching the MB as a class, their son can participate. Outside that, we don't allow their parent to be their MBC. Same goes for Scoutmaster Conferences and BOR's. An ASM will do the SM conference for the SM's two sons and a parent can't sit on their own sons BOR. As Lisa basically said, in many cases, perception is reality. You might not do anything wrong, but if you put your self in that situation, you could be accused. I would advise my son to seek out a different MBC as that is part of the design of the whole MB process.

I chewed tobacco for 20 years. I loved it. I still have very fond memories of it. I quit cold turkey at the 2005 National Jamboree because it just wasn't appropriate in front of 40,000 scouts. That and you're packed in so tightly that you couldn't spit without hitting something or somebody. I'm not one of those folks who quit and am now an obnoxious crusader preaching to everyone about the evils of tobacco. It isn't a healthy habit, but it is an enjoyable and relaxing habit for many folks. I don't begrudge anyone making the personal choice to partake. I do on rare occasions purchase a nice cigar and smoke it on my patio in the evening looking at the stars. Personally, I would have no problem with adult leadership lighting up a cigar around the campfire after lights out. I would take issue with them doing it during the program day in front of the boys. I think a friendly talk with the adult leadership would be the way to approach it. Remember, these guys give up their personal time, energy and very often money to deliver the promise of scouting. There is no reason why they can't bond and have a little enjoyable camaraderie among the adult ranks on an outing, as long as they do it at an appropriate time.

I wonder if the newspaper is bothered by the fact that 575 participants, staff and National Forest Service worked from June 7th thru June 14th of 2008 to cut down trees as part of ArrowCorp5? BSA thru the Order of the Arrow partnered with the National Forest Service to provide service for conservation projects at five locations around the nation on federal property. The Mark Twain Forest project in Missouri saw the above mentioned folks cut down 285,000 invasive Eastern Red Cedar trees over 134 acres. The work exceeded the original plans, resulting in restoration of a natural glade necessary for sustainability of the environment, as well as wildlife in the area. The Forest Service renamed the area "Arrowman's Glade" at a closing gathering. I guess conservation only counts if you don't make any money off of the trees removed. I must have missed the articles covering the outrage of removing these 285,000 trees from the wilderness.

Brent, You should know better than to take campaign rhetoric seriously from any candidate on either side. George W. Bush to Al Gore in a 2000 presidential debate - "If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road. I'm going to prevent that." We are still in Iraq if I remember correctly.

We have at least a dozen in our troop sitting on Life that have been there for some time.......my son being one of them. They all seem pretty complacent for now. If/when they finish up, there will be combined COH's for them. The troop has gotten big enough and produces enough Eagles that the committee decided to combine the Eagle COH's with our regular COH's. I don't like that as I see it as a dilution. I understand WHY they made the decision they did, but I feel that a boy making Eagle is a singular distinction worthy or singular attention. What this decision does is it forces the boy to have his Eagle COH at the charter on a specified date as opposed to having it at a place and date of hiss choosing. If you have grandparents or family out of state who want to come, it makes it difficult for them. On the other hand, 5 or 6 Eagle COH's in addition to our regular COH's 3 or 4 times a year gets to a saturation point where attendance at the Eaglee COH's drops off.

Tent? Manly men don't use tents!!!

It appears that President Obama may be taking Democrat Congressmen to task for not being willing to act in a bipartisan way.....especially on ths issue of birth control pork. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090127/D95V83N81.html

Our Ordeals run $15 for members and $30 for candidates.

Lisa, It totally depends on the boy and how comfortable his parents are. When I was an ASM for the 2005 Jambo, probably half of our troop was in the 12 to 13 year old range. We only had a few older than 15. My son signed up as a Webelos, joined a Troop and made 1st Class in time to go with no problem. We had three other boys in our troop who had all been Webelos together who went. I was more worried about them sharing hotel rooms in DC than I was with them at Jambo. Although, we had hired chaperones at the hotel who stayed up all night sitting at each end of the hallways to make sure no one stepped out of their rooms.

scout, Even a squirrel will store nuts for the winter instead of wait until it is cold to go looking. I understand the market and how it works, but that doesn't mean you wait until we run out. Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door is part of the market as well. I liked my old vinyl albums that worked just fine until cassettes came along and then CD's and then MP3's. NNone of those came about due to disapperaing vinyl supplies. They were improvements. Energy is a national defense/security concern. Cheap oil can/does keep us from planning for the future.

Keep in mind that very few parents get to go to Jambo. A troop consists of 36 boys and 4 adults. If possible, one of those adults is between the ages of 18 and 21. That being said, they can apply (have to be approved by your council) to go as staff which is cheaper than going as a participant. You pay the cost of Jambo and arrange your own transportation. You are paying for the privilege of going and doing manual labor in many instances and your time is limited for spending any of it with your child. Typically, they want a person there more than a 2 week vacation window allows. The other option is to visit Jambo asa guest, but that is really a very limited time for seeing your child. The best thing is to let little Johnny spread his wings on his own. Councils generally do an excellent job picking the adults who will take kids half way across the country for 15 days.

frankj, Do we continue chasing and depending on cheap oil or do we try to develop new types of energy to break our dependence? The idea of using higher gas prices to help wean us off of oil isn't an idea floated by only liberals. Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer has been floating the idea for some time. http://weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/949rsrgi.asp While there are arguments for drilling here, the other side of the argument is that it just prolongs our dependence and slows our inevitable move to other forms of energy.

yah 2eagles, I'm SR540Beaver, not Beavah, eh? Ya can tell by my proper use of da English language, eh? Well, proper use of Okie English anyway. Sorry, Beavah, I couldn't resist.

2eagles, I'm encouraged to hear you say that as a homeschooler. We have a good number of homeschooled boys in our troop who have scouter parents and they watch their boys and others like hawks. They have a hard time buying into boy led and usually go to summer camp every year. They are very protective. But most of that grows out of their fundamentalist religious beliiefs more than anything else. That isn't meant to be derogatory, just my personal observations as a NSP ASM who has to deal with parents of new scouts. The homeschoolers required more maintenance than the public school kids/parents. And please folks, don't let my observation derail a great thread.

428 degrees? That reminds me of the 2005 Jamboree.

I have accompanied my son on much of his journey, but certainly not all. He joined as a Webelos. He immediately asked me to register too. I held off from September to April before I joined. It was another adult's enthusiasm that convinced me. He has never been a homesick kid or one who wouldn't participate without a parent in attendance. I went to summer camp his first year (2004) mainly because I wanted to experience it. Other than that time, I went for half a week in 2006. Beyond that, I've been content to let him fight the heat, bugs and poison ivy in my place. I'm an ASM for new scouts in our troop. He served as one of my TG's for a nine month period. Beyond that, he has been his own man as a PL, ASPL and now SPL. I was fortunate enough to be selected for adult leadership to the 2005 Jambo and experience that with him.....when he was around. I did make the trek to the other side of Jambo to try and meet Eamonn twice and missed him. I left him some patches and he was kind enough to mail me some in return. While I wanted to, I chose not to do Northern Tier, Philmont or backpacking the Pecos Wilderness with him due to my diabetes. He didn't need me there anyway. He is an OA Chapter officer and on the Chapter ceremonial team. I get to share some of that with him because he needs a ride to get there. He turns 16 a month from today and will want to drive himself. I'm content to let him. Last year he staffed summer camp and staffed NYLT and I took him back and forth. He will be doing both again this summer....but will be driving himself. We are at troop meetings together every week, but he is doing his thing as the SPL and me as a NSP ASM and we are both usually on every troop outing. There are troop meetings and outings though where we hardly talk to one another until the trip home. In some respects, we have been there side by side with many common experiences. In others respects, he has been his own man and able to spread his wings. I think it has been good for both of us. I see him as a young man who has earned a certain amount of independence. Mom on the other hand still sees him as her little boy. That will change with time. I know his involvement will lessen due to getting a job to pay for his truck. He is still doing camp and NYLT staff this year and Philmont and Jamo again in 2010. Dad will continue to help with the troop, is slated to staff WB again in 2010, Continue Campmastering and looking for his own individualt adventures inside of Scouting.

vol - "I am still waiting for the left to scream about the bombing of a sovreign nation that is an ally to boot. Oh, I forgot. He is a liberal so he was justified whereas a conservative would be skewered." In all fairness, the vast majority of liberals (not all, but moost) were highly supportive of Bush on the war in Afghanistan and getting bin Laden. Where they disagreed was his step back from that mission for his invasion of Iraq. If chasing bin Laden into out "ally" Pakistan furthers the mission of trscking him down and making him pay, I think almost any American will support that.....regardless who is president.

The talk radio host I have the most respect for is Neal Boortz. His disclaimer is the reason why. It says: ALWAYS REMEMBER Don't believe anything you read on this web page, or, for that matter, anything you hear on The Neal Boortz Show, unless it is consistent with what you already know to be true, or unless you have taken the time to research the matter to prove its accuracy to your satisfaction. This is known as "doing your homework." In other words, don't take what I say as spoon fed ready made personal ideological truth......think for yourself.

eisley = "What concerns me as much as any particular policy position is the cult of personality that has developed around Obama that he seems to encourage. This is something novel to the American experience and worrisome." Ronald Reagan and Heritage.org's "what would Reagan do?" agenda.

Brent, You see, this is where so many folks get confused about news and reporting. Stephanopoulos is not a reporter of news. Never has been. When his wife referred to anchoring, it was ancoring the programming of the inaugural balls and commenting on them, not doing Katie Couric type anchoring of the actual news. George comments on the news, he doesn't report it. Hannity flashes breaking news on the screen when he is actually commenting on the news. I'm 51 and when I see "breaking news", that usually means something like a terrible accident or tragedy has happened. He abuses the term news to his own ends. I challenge you to do this. Record Stephanopoulos' show Sunday morning. Record Hannity's tonight. Watch one after the other and tell me if you think they are comparable in tone and content. Be honest and objective about it. I'm betting you can't help but notice the difference because it is pretty stark. Now, if you had said Olberman on MSNBC, you'd be in the ball park.(This message has been edited by sr540beaver)

N, I was an ASM for one of our contingent troops in 2005. Our council started with 4 troops and had to cut it to 3. Back then, our price was $1,900. For 2010, it is $3,000. When I was out doing promotion and recruiting, boys would laugh and walk away when we told them the price saying that their parents would never pay it. True that this Jambo will be a special one what with it being the 100th year of scouting and being the last one at AP Hill, but times are hard and the price is higher. We have a number of newer folks in our troop who signed their sons up as soon as they could thinking the spots would fill up fast and they might miss out. I kept my mouth closed. They wanted thier sons to go and there was certainly no harm in getting signed up and getting payments started sooner than later. My understanding is that the council only has about half the spots filled so far. $3,000 is hard to swallow. My son and I went in 2005 for $1900 apeice as I said earler. He wants to go again in 2010. I didn't put in to go as adult leadership again because I simply couldn't justify $6000 for the two of us. Jambo often seperates the haves and the have nots. Income challenged folks usually don't attempt to send their kids. But in the end, Jambo will have 10's of thousands of folks there like it always does.

Beavah, I think you might be picking nits over vol's post. You are right, a birth certificate is a state issued item. For a child born in a hospital, the state has no idea of that birth until the attending physician/hospital staff provides the details to the state so the certificate can be issued. You don't get one without the other. What the conspiracy theory wingnuts want is to see the "old" style document that was produced back in the era Obama was born in. I have a copy of my birth certificate from 1957. It is black with white text and has al sorts of data regarding date, time, mother, father, doctor, etc. I imagine that if I contacted the state today and requested a copy, I'd get something very similar to what Obama put on his site. It would be a modern day form certifying I was born in Oklahoma on said date. To conspiracy theory wingnuts, that isn't good enough and is "easily" forged. They desire something from the original era with a seal on it that I guess could be provem by carbon dating for crying out loud. I have a hunch that it still wouldn't be good enough and they would claim that George Soros has the resources to fake even something like that. Bottom line is that officials from the state of Hawaii have said that the documents exist and are authentic and that Obama was a natural born citizen. For those that believe in conspiracy theories, nothing will ever be enough.