T2Eagle

How sure are you about the no chartering orgs that served alcohol. That could easily eliminate most Catholic parishes and Knights of Columbus councils. Back in the day, and it was a long day ago, my Pack was sponsored by a KofC, and we met in the social room that also contained a stocked bar. That council sold their building and so we met in the parish school gym, which also was the parish social hall, and there were live (locked) beer taps in the corner.

I won't miss them. I'm curious, has anyone ever had to cancel a trip because Council denied a permit, back when they were permits, or had to substantively change a plan because they were remiss in their plannings? My guess is that thousands upon thousands of these things have been filed over the years without any appreciable effect on anyone's behavior. I cannot think of any reason Council would need to know where my troop was going. They're not going to be there to prevent any problems or help in any emergency, and if something does go wrong it's a near certainty that we'll be ba

Hard to say much without knowing what the Trust documents say. It would be interesting to know what the $500,000 was used for. That's not the kind of money you borrow to patch a hole in your budget, it's more likely to be some sort of capital improvement. Which if it was say a building or pool at the camp might be within the bounds of the Trust to have purchased rather than just loaned.

Here's a suggestion for them. We love xbox, We love xbox, Yay, xbox! Is that one you might come up with? Does it seem like a good Coyote patrol yell? That's OK, you're not in the patrol, and you're not responsible for the patrol. The point almost everyone here was trying to make is that these four boys could certainly reach consensus on what xbox game to play --- because they see it's in their interest to do so. Hopefully, they'll be going camping next month and doing their own meal planning, they'll reach a consensus about what to eat --- because they'll see it's in their i

I can't speak for every council, I'm on my council's Jambo Committee, and we finally did away with the extra tours and events for 2013. Didn't even discuss it for this one. As much as anything it was a case of "we always did it that way." It wouldn't shock me if it started in many councils with the thought, "the scouts may never get another chance to see ..." and has simply always been the default assumption, but with the amount of traveling that is common today compared to even a couple decades ago that's simply a bad assumption. As with many things, changing takes more effort than let

We're still wrestling with this as a troop. For sure no one's name should be associated with a picture. If anyone doesn't want their scout's picture displayed that should be honored. I've talked to several scout professionals about the meaning of the "no private FB groups" they all agree the wording is poor and should be read as meaning no private FB between a scout and an adult, but private FB groups where the membership includes but is limited to the families of the scouts is the right way to go. We're currently engaged in a discussion about the troop calendar being public, ie on the

Any of the ranges, climbing tower, and lakefront equipment are available for a fee if you're at camp outside of summer camp season. You can rent and use off site cross country skis or canoes depending on season. Neither council nor district own a derby track, but plenty of packs do and they get loaned out.

I will say one thing about the privacy issue. Several years ago we put the MBC list up on our website, didn't really give it much thought. A few months later one of the counselors, in hindsight probably rightly, called Council and raised holy heck. Turns out she was a teacher and we had inadvertently published her heretofore unpublished phone number and address. We dropped the list from the site the same day, but it was a lesson learned for us in what was then the early days of having a troop website.

Each scout can and should be judged individually, but I do think it shows at least some deficiency if a scout makes Eagle and almost immediately quits the troop. It's true that most of the scouts I've seen do this are not people of poor character, and they probably do decide to spend their time in other meaningful ways rather than just being narcissists. But I do feel there is some service owed to a troop after it has provided a scout the program and support necessary for them to become Eagle. After all there had to be other scouts above him as he was coming up. Making Eagle and taking off

My first post was long enough that I decided that I should do a separate one for some more observations on the MBC, counselor list, MBs topic. For better or worse, and I think it's worse, most summer camps these days are merit badge heavy. even if your camp has a solid program that does a good job being sure the requirements are met, most scouts come away from summer camp with at least 3 and some years as many as 5 MBs, either full or partial. Take out some of the required badges that really don't fit at all well with a camp experience, like Communications, Family Life, Personal Managemen

My understanding is that the crux of the issue about the The List of MB counselors lies in the decrepit computer systems that BSA uses. Our council sends out a PDF about every two months that has been sorted by District, and then sorted by MB, so what you receive is a list of the MBCs in your district. It's generated from Scoutnet, so you have to be registered in Scoutnet as a MBC to be on it. In our council, if you are already a registered scouter there is a form/application you fill out if you want to be a MBC; you can indicate on the form that you want to be Troop only, and that in

At Round Table last month the break out session for troops was along the lines of how do we get scouts to do a better job of scheduling their time on the required merit badges so they don't miss out on Eagle. The idea that it's OK if they don't make Eagle was never broached, maybe I failed at being Brave for not broaching it, but it didn't seem to be a question anyone there wanted to wrestle with.

Find some hills, bring some sleds.

The second one is open to a lot of interpretation since you would have to define where in the process you start making something. Does sewing already spun cloth count, or do you need to do your own weaving. As to the former, how long do you think that's been a declining skill. To my knowledge no one in my family has farmed anything more than backyard tomatoes since the potatoe crop failed in the 1840s, those and the occasional landed fish are probably the only non store bought food we and millions of others have ever eaten in North America.

Where currently in your troop is the line between what the boys get to decide and are allowed to fail at and what decisions adults retain and don't allow the boys to fail at.

Thanks NJ, what you describe is pretty identical with what we do now. I am not a big fan of either strict organizational charts or any sort of written report. I'm just looking for ideas for how to wear my new hat.

I will soon be moving from SM to CC, and so I'm starting to think about my new role. Part of my understanding of the function of the committee is to evaluate the quality of the troop program through the BOR process. How, if at all, do your units do this? Do you have any formal reporting, is it a standard topic of committee meetings? We currently don't do anything formally, for the most part BORs meet and approve, or really rarely disapprove, an advancement, but beyond the fact of the advancement we don't formally communicate any other impressions or thoughts from the BOR. I'm not co

I was a new SM in a very old troop. My biggest challenge was getting people, scouts and adults alike, to do anything differently. Just because we've always done things that way is not an argument to either keep doing it that way, or stop doing it that way. My best advice, pick two or three specific things you want to change, that are illustrative of the bigger things you want to accomplish, and focus, focus, focus on them. If you don't have a boy led troop pick three things you want the boys to do now. Push, them, cajole them, and train them to do them, and don't accept their not

A topic similar to this came up at our last round table. I bit my tongue through much of the discussion. I have never been stressed by my scouts' last minute attempts to get things done, because it is never my goal for a scout to make Eagle. You have to keep telling yourself and everyone around you that it is not your or their goal for a scout to make Eagle, again, and again, and again. Having said that, I do like helping my scouts learn how to achieve what they want to achieve. Don't try to reinvent the wheel. Most schools provide or recommend some sort of planner/calendar for stu

I'm a little out of my depth here, but just because you take in revenue, popcorn sales, doesn't mean you have increased your net profits for tax purposes. In addition to the direct cost of the popcorn, other expenses, like summer camp or equipment, would offset that revenue so that the business did not actually show a net profit from popcorn.

Hmm Businesses are in fact run by people elected by the shareholders, those people then have to vote to select a CEO and usually also several of the folks directly below that. Most families are partnerships where governance has to be reached by consensus. not strictly voting but not hierarchical either. Many government employees are not elected, but all legitimacy comes from the election of the folks who do the hiring and appointing For the military the senior officials are selected by elected officials, my understanding is that officers at least are in fact promoted based on a

There are no formal rules about terms, term lengths, or term limits. My understanding is most Troops have six month terms, but I know of some that require the position be 12 months long. I have not heard of anyone not allowing SPL s run for consecutive terms as a matter of policy, although I can imagine not lettting a particular SPL run again.

I made 10 of the things, we made ten of the things, they made ten of the things. Depending on context, who I was speaking with and/or how much precision I was putting into an electronic message tapped out in 15 seconds I could have made any or all of the above statements, but unless you were with me to see the body language, nuance, and context of the communication you cannot know what I was actually conveying or have any insight at all into how much respective work my sons or I put into any of the ten cars made while they were Cubs. You are reading much into a sentence that probably

I'm a Camping MB counselor as well as a SM, and we always camp through the winter here in Northern OH. We always do cold weather camping training before the first weekend. We train on the differences that you have to be prepared for in clothing, cooking, sleeping gear, behavior, and cold specific health and first aid. We emphasize how to dress and how to stay warm, ie wicking, insulating, and shell layers from head to toe and sleeping at night. We talk about special equipment like removable boot liners if possible, things like the importance of staying as dry as possible and the critical i

I take back many of the things I've thought and said about the requirement for Council pre-approval for fundraisers. Does anyone have a clue as to how this was supposed to end up raising money?