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sthumper

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Posts posted by sthumper

  1. Thanks guys for the idea of the district scholarship... great idea... honestly after a year of this kind of crap, I am ready for someone else to pick up the CC torch... for being all about the kids we shure spend a lot of time jerking with adult size messes... can't we all just go camping.....

  2. I would like to ask for technical opinions as to how to handle a situation. I say technical as everyone has their own opinion and I already have as many of those as I do people in the committee... I am looking for how to properly proceed as a Committee Chair and keep things done properly.

     

    Situation

     

    Person who is Camp Master for the Summer Camp this year (not the SM) had it brought to his attention that a scout was not going to camp for financial reasons. As the Camp Master and SM (adult camper 1 and 2) get $100 off their fees, Camp Master made the decision on the spot and told the camper’s dad with financial issue, the troop would cover the fees of the camper as a scholarship. No need to go to the District and request a scholarship as only for one, the troop would cover it.

     

    Information about scout receiving scholarship, used to be heavily involved in troop, currently attends about 10% of meetings for last year due to sports obligation etc.

     

    We have several on the committee that thinks we should take back the offer of the Camp Master and have the amount change from a full scholarship to a partial or no scholarship.

     

    We have no bylaws stating in writing how financial issues are to go... so from what I can see the Camp Master broke no written rule.

     

    The standing unwritten rule is that amounts spent are run through committee meetings.

     

    The frustrations are that this was not taken to a committee decision.

     

    With no bylaws in place I only see this as a matter of poor judgment on a person’s behalf.

     

    My personal stand is that as no official rule was broke, as there are non written, I am assuming that the Camp master acted in what he felt was a proper way seeing that no scout was left behind for camp, and acted out of a good heart although flawed reasoning. Second, I do not feel it appropriate to change the scholarship after it has been offered as the Camp Master was acting as a person in charge of camp for the troop...

  3. well first off if you have to even ask why, you will probably never get it... second because homosexuals recruit and influence to their lifestyle. That is not somthing that a person who understands traditional family values wants around their boys.

     

    Second thee is no basis for even changing this stand in the first place... currently to my knoweledge there are no questions anywhere about a persons sexual orientation when you join the boy scouts today as the organization stands... I do not discuss my Heterosexual views with the scouts nor do we even talk about sexual issues ever on a camp out.

     

    So with that being the case... if a person wants to join the scouts today and keep their lifestyle and mouth shut, as it should be, they can join the scouts today.

     

    Where the problem comes in is when they start promoting, and or discussing their sexual preferences, they are then asked to leave and that is as it should be... if I were to go on campouts and discuss my sexual preferences and discuss that with the boys, I should be asked to resign or leave also.

     

    This has nothing to do with discrimination... it has everything to do with forcing others to agree with a lifestyle many will never accept and or agree with.

  4. When scouts is no longer supporting solid family values, and they cave on what they have stood for, for over a hundred years, that will be a sad day... You can call it not discriminating, but the supreme court said it's well within their rights as a private organization.

     

    I like my sons statement best.... "Dad, I bet Lord Baden Powell would be really ticked off right now".

     

    I say fire Ernst & Young and AT&T from the board and reaffirm their stand....

  5. I totally disagree that this will be of no effect....

     

    First not supporting scouts at the national level, will produce lawsuits at the lower level where there is far less safety without the numbers of a huge national organization.

     

    I venture that there are tons of little pro gay groups that are ready and waiting to attack at the lower level, knowing they will win not because of being right, but because there are far less funds... And ability to defend themselves.

     

    Many churches that are CO's will drop the charter... Notice that this decision has been made right after the rechargers are completed... That gives the troops time to find other organizations before time to recharter.

     

    On a personal level, we have already been told to expect a drop of the charter if this decision is made and also as a committee chair, I am having to make the personal decision to belong to a private organization that no longer supports the familly values that I beleive to be critical.

     

    My son saw the article and has already stated he is rethinking his membership in the organization and he is a dream scout who lives every aspect of the law and oath...

     

    No sir, I totally disagree... I hear the same bell tolling. When this is over, we may wind up with an irrelevant organization like others out there.... It used to be a great organization also....

  6. Again, really great thoughts on this subject... I have started searching the threads for more information and one of the struggles that I fight to overcome so that we can help create the ideal troop (which probably will only be attainable for 30 seconds till another issue arises)...

     

    Part of me mentally fights some of the concepts of the whole "boy led troop" from the perspective as I have seen it implemented in many situations.

     

    I believe I am beginning to understand the concept that a leader is struggling to find in the balance of a properly "boy led troop" and using the patrol method to accomplish this, but I think a lot of implementations that I have seen in troops throw the boys into leadership with out the proper guidance, leadership training. In other words the leaders fail on the "Explain" and the "Demonstrate" part of the EDGE method of teaching.

     

    They are expecting the young men to figure this out and automatically start Guiding and Enabling younger scouts when the older scouts have not been properly taught themselves.

     

    I think the most exciting thing that I have taken away from this post at this point (and I may glean more as I reread and search other threads) is that I need to start by focusing on the following.

     

    Begin to look at the boys who naturally show desire to grow in leadership roles (especially the younger ones) and begin to help them get properly training and equipping then to become the future leaders of the troop.

     

    Make sure the adults who are currently in place are also trained and understand what we are trying to accomplish (get on the same page).

     

    Find available local organized training for the scouts and start using it a couple of guys at a time.

     

    Don't expect changes overnight.

     

    On a different note I will say I found it interesting yesterday when I started doing a little digging on the "Green Bar Bill" and who he was and his history with scouts...

     

    Scouting as a whole has been through as many transitions over the years and some they have considered a success and some a failure. They have focused on "scout craft" as the way to accomplish growth and then they have focused on "leadership training" as the way to experience growth.

     

    All that to say... I guess you have to keep the main thing the main thing... lead by a great example, demonstrate the scout oath and law, make a place where kids can have a ton of fun and they will probably learn a lot in the mean time...

     

    Seems like there truly is a ton of ways to skin a cat.

  7. Wow, this is a lot of great information...

     

    I saw a post earlier in another thread about a guy that revamped the troop pretty much from the ground up... and we are pretty much looking at some of the same issues...

     

    I will say this... not having the experience of some of the folks here... and not wanting to experiment on a whole group of kids... I really do see the merits of both as laid out in these posts...

     

    It however, in my mind comes back to what is the best thing for the scouts and what will most get them ready to "be scouts" in more than name and later be Eagles that hold the standards of an Eagle in more than just name.

     

    I certainly see the merits of the integrated in age troop learning to be sensitive to all ages, not just the ones that make us feel comfortable.

     

    This is some awesome information and I really appreciate all the good input.

     

  8. We have a group of boys that vary from scout to eagle, about 34 in the troop.

     

    The boys have been in patrols in the past based on age. Each cross over with enough kids formed a patrol, and they stayed together to eagle.

     

    The problem was that there was segregation to the point that the older patrols wanted little to do with the younger patrols. There was little scout spirit with helping the younger along.

     

    So the great idea came up to blend the patrols with rank and age disbursed throughout the patrols.

     

    A few of the kids are very verbally and behind the scenes fighting the change still after a year. They seem to hate it. Other scouts want to excel no matter how you line them up.

     

    I am new, but personally I do not see either way of grouping patrols as an issue, I see allowing things to become "segregated" in attitude as the problem.

     

    Is either way right or wrong, how do you build camaraderie among the scouts and promote team efforts.

     

    I have been told by a few parents, whose scout as become much more absent from the meetings and campouts, that the reason the scout gave was not being with their buddies any more.

     

    We also have a problem with a few of the scouts. For one reason or another they are the scouts that need all the extra attention. One has a disability, two are very ADD or ADHD and one is like a slug on getting them to participate in any work activity.

     

    The reason I bring this up is that it comes up over and over among the boys that want to work together, that those extra work required scouts just mentioned, seem to suck up all the adult and scout resources just to keep these scouts on track. So instead of moving forward and learning things, you spend all your time keeping the extra work required scouts from causing distractions and or chaos in the troop as a whole.

     

    So here are my questions:

     

    1. how do you deal with your patrols and keep kids working togeather

     

    2. how to deal with "extra work required" scouts

     

    3. should we let the kids go back to age based patrols and just focus on helping them build team skills between patrols.

     

    any other thoughts would be appreciated.

  9. After a couple of years of being in Boyscouts and many as a parent of a cub scout... I have made the personal decision that if it were not for idiots like the SM you are talking about... scouting would be a much more awesome organization... I have ran into far to many idiots like that in my time... their more interested in their opinion that what is right or wrong... and it is usually if not always the scouts that suffer...(This message has been edited by sthumper)

  10. Simple Situation:

     

    1. I am Committee Chairman but fairly new and want to do it right.

     

    2. a person in the troop made the statment that they were submitting paperwork to be an Assistant Scoutmaster. There was no ask for this person to be in this position nor did this person talk to anyone requesting a blessing in this. I understand that people volinteering is a good thing. However in this situation, them choosing themselves appointing and approving themselves, will be problematic now and later.

     

    3. What is the written policy with BSA as to how an assistant Scoutmaster is chosen.

    I have googled this and seen one location state:

     

    A. the scoutmaster picks and the C. Chair appoints.

    B. Another location quoted that the Committee picks and the C.Chair appoints

    C. and yet another stated the COR does both.

     

    It seems to me there has to be a written rule for this. We may want another Assistant Scoutmaster but not like this... seems to be a bad president to start.

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