T164Scoutmaster

I slept in a Holiday inn last night! Ask away!

I think some of you have your panties in a bunch. A Simple knot to Recognize those that support the program and help fund teh scholarships awarded to Eagle Scouts non discriminatively! In My troop any Youth Earning the Eagle Scout Award receives a Lifetime memebership from the Troop. When I earned My Eagle I was given a one year membership for earning the Eagle and My Troop Bought me a ten year membership. when I was finacially secure I purchsed my own Life Membership mainly because I renewed once and thought it would be easier. I didn't do it for any knot. I did it because I am

We jsut had our District dinner at the Masconic (sp) lodge and the evening was grand! District committee, merit badge counselors, troop committee, Eagle Projects, fundraising are all areas where help could be used!

What a great topic! Congrats to the new Eagle! When I went before the Egale Board in 1984 I was 14 and had not yet been able to formulate what my religious beliefs were. I had gone to church a few times and participated in Youth Group, but not becuase I had discovered GOD, believed in GOD, or practiced any form of religion. I went and did, because that is what my mother wanted. My father did not go to church when I was growing up and did not push religion. He was an Alter boy and left the Catholic church at nine years old never to return and never surrendering why he wanted nothi

here are a couple ideas! http://www.t185.org/EagleCourt.gif Do something simple like this till you can build the ornate! http://troop353.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/dsc_0116.jpg This one is nice and simple! http://www.bsatroop74.com/Images/EagleCourtOfHonor.jpg A real simple one! http://tiny.cc/APd2f Kind of cool http://troop5yonkers.org/photos/Court_of_Honor1.jpg Here is an ornate one I think like you were talking! http://www.troop4.org/images/courthonor.jpg

When is the Court of honor? I have not forgot about you! My father died on Saturday the 15th and I have the funeral on the 22nd I have been a little wrapped up in things sorry not getting that to you yet!

The Pack chose to hold there blue and gold as well as awards ceremony and Arrow of light for 10 kids all the same night starting at 7pm. Maybe you are new to having that many arrow of light recipients and a substantial amount of awards to disperse to the other dens. By the time the pack got to the arrow of light it was already 9 pm and many of the tigers had already left for home. Having had this experience with eight crossovers in the past I knew the length of the evening would be too much and the program could not hold itself to a reasonable end time with a formal crossover ceremony as

Thank you all that replied! As I suspected it is a local policy, One in which i disagree. Train the leaders better instead of creating restrictive policy. As I state in a PM to secretde I have the utmost repect for the volunteers and the paid staff in DWC. there are just some things that do not make sense. I also reflected the plethora of available ranks on EBAY. Just today I saw a complete set scout to eagle. Again, not meant to be derrogatory to those that are in the trenches. Yours in Scouting, A servant to the system!

I have the jlt set and the annual planning set that was put out if anyone needs them. I have read the TLT in the scoutmaster handbook and find a lot of open area. when i get my first troop junior leader training off the ground in june, i will combine the two and work in the out doors. No cookie cutter out there making identical troops. Do what works for you!

There are ornate plans for center pieces in the 1987 version of "Scout Ceremonies". not sure if it is in the current one. we just use white birch logs cut flat on one side we have two with 6 holes each and one with 3 hole. the 3 holes go in the middle and the 6's astride! Where in mass are you? I might be able to scan them and fax them to you or e-mail them to you! Stephen

All scouting is global but think local! Every troop is going to have their own way to do things! Every troop will vary in Size, Age status, experience, and available leadership. There is no Cookie cutter producing troops and hence there are no cookie cutter solutions to the issues. If we spent more time opening our minds and recognizing that people have varrying oppinions and varrying ways of doing things, all of which may or may not be successful, then new people walking in here might be able to take an idea back to their troop so they don't have to call a parent on thursday night

9 earned the AOL, one joined cub scouts as a Webelos, and 2 are friends of two of the AOL recipients. They all will crossover to the troop and be received as new Scouts. Then they will get a troop neckerchief and slide and dedicate themselves to the troop and to scouting. There is also talk of a couple more new kids coming that are friends of some of the crossovers. Provide a good program, be involved with the pack and have fun the boys will come. All kids want to have fun and aren't afraid of doing a little work to be able ot have some fun!

I never stated that the boy would just be handed the badge. They are all actually already attending the troop meetings since they have already had their blue and gold and receieved their Arrow of Light. The applications will be in hand at the next meeting and the requirements below will be met when i finish the scoutmaster conferences. Hopefully they will be ready in time and I will have completed all the requirements before the crossover ceremony in APril. Everyone missed the question and I guess it was my way of asking it! Is this a National policy or a local policy? As I s

I agree "What's up with that?" I too am disapointed. not only the shirts all uniforms will be outsourced to China as all the patches are now. The savings will never be felt in the Volunteers pockets. One of many complaints that are piling up in my brain. Think Gloabaly buy locally!

does anyone else have in their council a policy that a leader can not pick up rank badges unless the request is accompanied by an advancement report? This is the most absurd and ridiculous policy I have seen in a long time. Daniel Webster Council in NH, has such a policy. This is totally against everything we teach in the training sessions with immediate recognition. We always had a few extras of each patch on hand so I never ran into this in the past. It has been our practice that as soon as the Scout has completed his board of review and passed, he was awarded the cloth pa

BW you said I would need to take the course in order to teach it. I disagree. I would only need to prepare my self for the course by reviewing the materials. Week before last I went to our district cub speciffic training to take pack comm. As any good scout would do I read the sylabus and reviwed the ppt presentations prior to going. Upon arrival in the morning the district training staff was short handed. I ended up being the instructor and took the time while NLE was happening to prepare my teaching outline. We are not talking about rocket science here. We are talking about disse

"Should the Scoutmaster be replaced or the training altered? Id have to say that the training has to take into account those being trained. We no longer have the pool to draw from that we once had. Since the acceptance by society that both parents must work to provide for the same family unit that one person provided for 40 years ago our pool has changed. Volunteerism has changed because free time has diminished and the scope of interests and opportunities of youth has increased. We just dont have the amount of adults willing to dedicate the amount of time required that we once had. Qualified

We all have issues at one time or another. YOu are in a situation where you can guide teh troop to a new horizon. Your opportunity to handle this situation is to do it on the outings when the scoutmaster is not there. If the outings are boring, step up and do something about it. You said you worked in a gourmet restaraunt for several years. Do a weekend of feast with a taste off and have some prizes to hand out. Small cast iron skillet painted gold etc. Kids do nothing because they have nothing to do and not the education or expereince to come up with things on their own.

fcfy a guidline or a requirement? Guideline! Advancment is 1/8 of the methods of the scout program. If you are following the boy run organization, I find it very rarely that a scout doing the signing off is easier on a scout wanting to be signed off, then they remember having it. On the contrary. If the guidlines are set and the PLC is funcitoning properly then teh #3 would be the norm and less pressure for first class in a year. I have found that the higher expectations a leader places on a scout and the more opportunity to explore and try, THEY do. If the leaders a

Yes All of the Above! I am a firefighter and and an EMT-I, my advancement chair is a nurse. First aid has always been a good topic, both letting the scouts teach it and also being there to step in and stess the importatn stuff. we follow up the monthly first aid theme with a day hike that has emergencies pre-planned out. then we follow up with a weekend of peril with differnet scenarios that happen durring scout skills. pioneering accidents that could be a broken limb or object in the eye. Simple moolage with wax works well. come up with the things you want ot stress

"I Do it For the Boys", "I Do it For the Program", "I Do it For Ideals and Beliefs That Other Outstanding Men and Ladies Passed On To Me", " I Do it Because I am Doing My Best!" I am in my second round as a Scoutmaster. The first round I started at 24, Taking over an Ill Fated Troop with but 3 Active Scouts. Through Ardous Labor and a Basic understanding (youth tenure only) of the program, I engorged myself with the program. At first to relive some of those meanigfull campouts, klondikes, and camp-o-rees I enjoyed as a youth. But that reminiscing was hsort lived and I realized my t

{ "Fixed blade is the policy I am aware of under health and safety." You need to read that again, fixed blades are discouraged for reasons of size and weight but not prohibited. } I don't believe in my post I ever said anything was prohibited! I said I was aware of the policy, and I stated in my district survival knives were prohibbited. But thanks for your attention to detail!(This message has been edited by t164scoutmaster)

Fixed blade is the policy I am aware of under health and safety. Pretty much took away the use of survival type knives. In our district some peopole interpreted a buck knife lock blade knife and outlawed them. local rule is your jewel. Know what is accepted in your district and carry on. think Safety!

"Maybe its not time to do away with advancement, but to remember that Advancement is one of 8 methods used to deliver the program. It may be a cliche to say so, but no method is more important or of lesser significance than another. Perhaps if units delivered the program presenting all methods equally, the pressure for advancement would lessen and scouts could enjoy themselves and the program. It's a thought" My exact thoughts! Forget about the advancement process adn concentrate on what scouting is. A Game with a purpose. Don't stress the advancement stress the fun. Schedule the

Thanks for the response. I would say first of all it should be the scouts decisison if they want to require rank restrictions for the POR. Nothing in my mind would say a rule book needs to be created. The rules are already their. The Law the Oath, Motto, and Slogan are the only real guides we need. What can you do? SM conference is where I would start. I would start with the current SPL. How do you think you have done as SPL? Have you met your own expectations of the job? Do you see any deficiencies in any of the troop operations that you would like to see imporoved