T2Eagle

A couple of more thoughts on this. Terrible an idea as it is, there is a small bright side to extorting money this way rather than in some of the other ways council does it. Using this method your shakedown payment is at least tax deductible. Think of all the little profit payments built in to other parts of the program: like training and camp fees. What size involuntary donation do you think is being built in to the fee your scout will pay to be in the council contingent to jambo? Its probably another $100 or so. Which brings me to my next thought. If the FOS donation is required f

When they gave the Area 2 project presentations here in Toledo one of several incomprehensible slides showed an in increase in revenue -- this after they had just detailed how it would be a decade plus before Michigan got back to where it was economically before the recession. I asked where they thought they were going to get that revenue. Now I see their answer. Thank goodness we opted out.

I think the first two words in your post are telling: "problem parents". This isn't a boy problem so the solution doesn't really lie with them. My experience is that this kind of thing involves a discreet number of repeat offenders. I would try talking directly to those particular parents, tell them they just can't send the junk. Your idea of checking the packs and sending it back is spot on. If you can't do it before you leave do it when you get where you're going before any packs get inside the tent. Hopefully a few times of sending the stuff home will do the trick. Abse

As a troop we camp minimum once a month every month, we usually get an extra 4 day trip in during the summer in addition to summer camp, and sometimes we'll get an extra trip in the spring. Then for various members of the troop there's NYLT, Jambo, Philmont, etc. and the shakedowns that go with them. We'll stay in a cabin a couple times a winter depending on the weekend activity: we do a November weekend with our Cub Pack where we stay in cabins, if we're going skiing or tobaggoning we'll stay in a cabin. Sleeping outside in the winter is fun, and we do a yearly "Camp Alaska" where we b

We count anything that's not a "troop or patrol meeting": eagle and troop service projects, fundraisers, scout sunday, parade, pretty much anything scout related. We read the requirement as a question of do you show up for things besides just the Wednesday night meetings. I see this as a requirement that rewards enthusiasm at the early stages of a scout's career not something that acts as a high hurdle to advancement.

Nice work basement. With all that extra time on your hands now maybe you could get involved at the district level -- or staff at Woodbadge.

Find a way to call the parents and scouts that came to visit. Ask them if they've chosen a troop, ask them to take another look at yours. You have a small troop and are probably going to have to work harder than others to get your recruits. One model I've been thinking about lately is the college coach-high school prospect: a couple of contacts throughout the year including a personal home visit from the coach. This could translate to inviting some Web IIs to a campout during the summer or fall and then a personal visit from you and maybe your SPL.

Make sure the boys get to try a cheesesteak with some tastykakes for dessert while you're there.

Good luck! I suggested something similar for the joint weekend we conduct with our Cub Pack. I was loudly shouted down by the PLC. They apparently love overpriced slushies and sugar.

Our council has two camps, one 90 years old that is now right in town and the other is the council summer camp about an hour away. We do a joint program with our Pack every year at the in-town camp, the past couple years we have done our Annual Program Planning in December at a cabin there also. Our district does two winter weekends, one coincides with our planning weekend, the other we sometimes do and sometimes do not attend. We usually use the summer camp at least once,occassionally twice a year, part of the deal with summer camp is you get one weekend tent camp free that year.

I think you have two separate issues and you shouldnt conflate the two: 1) You needed to change plans but you didnt communicate that well 2) You had scouts that had to go home early and that was not communicated well to you. So, 1) If you changed plans without letting anyone know than the best thing to do is say sorry, we didnt get everything done Sunday that we needed to so we had to make the change to take care of the equipment. But youre right, I should have let everyone else know as soon as the ASMs and I knew we needed to make the change, Ill try hard not to let it happen ag

We just completed our re-chartering and tried to use this code. There is apparently no way to use it in the online system and so our council registrar needs to do it manually. I do like the position. We have a couple guys that fall into this category. They're certainly adults and great guys to have around but they really don't fit the role of Assistant Scoutmaster. They cannot make the time commitment necessary to really be given any specific assignment, but they drop in when they can and often join us for our longer, more adventurous trips -- where they're invaluable: after a full day

I object to spanish also, I think they should return to presenting it in latin.

For some reason I cannot start a new thread, so if someone else could spin this off I'd appreciate it. I was looking for a Christmas themed SM minute and I found this one. I could never get through it without balling, but I may use parts of it. http://www.scatacook.org/ScoutmasterMinutesTroop76.html#SM8 Does anyone have any other good Christmas ones to share?

This looks like marketing/propaganda more than any kind of real data. Without knowing who and how many respondents there were for the groups, demographic information like socio-economic status, and some regression analysis to show that the two groups were demonstrably the same, this kind of survey doesnt tell us anything. On second thought, it does tell us where some of our FOS donations are but shouldnt bespent.

In the Pack, for the last stragglers, if we know they still want to be registered and we're confident they're good for it we'll pay the recharter fee and collect later. If they don't recharter they have to fill out new applications so it is ultimately easier on us to recharter and collect rather than get whole new applications. If there is a question about either their commitment or solvency we let them fall off and rejoin. We recharter in January and our Pinewood Derby is usually late January or early February so we have a hard rule that you have to be registered to race, and we collec

I wanted to revive this thread and ask a slightly different question. How much of your calendar of events is set before it gets to the boys? My view is that we are starting with a blank slate, and working with the PLC and other POR holders they choose their activities for the upcoming year. I have received some resistance to this from within the troop with some leaders believing there are "must do" campouts that shouldn't really be an option. At a training seminar I attended at a University of Scouting that was the message also. The presenter essentially scheduled 10 of the 12

Generally, I consider scouts to be part of their education as opposed to recreation. It's not a reward for other good behavior rather it's an integral part of their growth and development. So I look at scout meetings as part of the evening's homework, and other activities are curtailed that night accordingly. If they don't have their other homework done before the meeting they have to finish when they get home, and if they have to stay up a little later to do that so be it. If they don't get done before it's too late then the same consequences apply to any other time when they have incomple

I guess if a myth is around long enough it becomes the truth. Ridiculous and sad.

Beav, Can you point us to the new language. The only thing I can find is an asterisk note in the Eagle project booklet that says "Power tools considered hazardous, like circular saws, must be operated by adults experinced in their use. See the Guide to Safe Scouting." But I can't find anything in the G2SS

Lawn mowers was the example I used to show the absurdity of this when trying to correct the information at WB. The person I was speaking with made it clear that they didn't appreciate being enlightened.

I'm sure this has been covered before, but two posts on the parent thread obliquely indicated that scouts cannot use power tools, and I was even "taught" at Woodbadge that Scouts are not allowed to use power tools, so I think it's worth covering again. There is no prohibition against Scouts using power tools so long as you are following the Sweet Sixteen of safety (the exception is that somewhere there are extra rules about chainsaws). Does anyone know if scouts EVER were really prohibited from using power tools or this just a myth that won't die?

I talk to the parents of my scouts all the time. Contrary to what some people believe I think that's actually a critical part of a SM's job -- specifically because I recognize that they are entrusting me with the most precious being in the world to them, their child. I talk to parents about many things, including safety issues of which YPT is just one. I have had one or two parents not have a scout go on a particular trip because of a safety concern -- not about how we operate but because they weren't sure their son would be responsible enough for the event, and I don't second guess the

Basement, I do think you should write to someone about your experience. I assume you noted their council and troop, I would write to their COR, with a copy to their council, and if you can find a direct troop contact than to them also. I don't think it's true that noone would care. I know for sure that in our council there would at a minmum be a formal inquiry from the District Key 3 and some response back to you. And I know that our Chartering Organization would be VERY VERY unhappy with us if they received that kind of complaint; you would unquestionably get an apology in respon

I dont know what rules we could add that would change what you describe Basement. But I do think a bit more self reflection and self critique can always be helpful. I believe this starts with acknowledging that we ARE different --were not like other general public users of camping areas, front or back country. Were made up of a different mix of ages and genders than any other comparable number of campers. A typical outing for our troop could be thirteen scouts and three adults. Compare that to a comparable number of non scout campers. We are three adults sitting back allowing 13 yo