Trevorum

CALL THE SCOUT EXECUTIVE TODAY

Hello jschalla, welcome to the forum! That is the Mid-Iowa SA-22, right? A fun patch! Wish I had one, too! If you want to buy, your best bet is eBay; the catalog values this one at $10-15. If you want to trade, you should join Patch-L at http://www.gilwell.com/patchl/. It's a great place to trade patches of all kinds.

I'm wondering if 12 months works best in smallish troops (where there may be fewer candidates each year) and 6 months works better in larger units (where there are lots of fellows needing PORs)

A new forum member, TheFourGuardians, has just been elected SPL and his message got me to wondering about the election cycles in other troops. In our troop, we elect officers for 6-month terms; elections are in March and September and the new officers are inducted at our Spring and Autumn CoHs. How about y'all?

T4G, Welcome to the campfire and congrats on being elected SPL! I'm sure you'll have a blast. Does your troop elect for 6 months or 12?

How many of you guys wear your Scout uniform to school? I didnt think so. Well, I dont wear my uniform to work either. However, I do have a Scouting emblem on my car. Every day. So, wherever I go people know that the person who is driving my car is a Scout. Which means that if I do something jerky - like cut someone off in traffic it doesnt just reflect badly on ME, the driver, it reflects on YOU too, and on every other Scout in the country. I try to remember that and not do anything jerky. Sometimes its hard, I admit, but that little sticker on my car keeps me acting scoutlike. Now, you may not wear your uniform everyday, but your friends probably know anyway that you are a Scout. Are you scoutlike? Think about it.

In a Cub pack, I always thought of the CC as "the man behind the curtain" who pulls the strings and makes everything run smoothly. Whereas the CM is the "Master of Ceremonies" who makes everything sparkle and weaves the several dens together into a pack. The DLs are the ones who "get dirty" down in the trenches on a weekly basis, giving the program to the boys.

In an earlier thread, good ol' Gerry Bozman (from Greater St. Louis Area Council - you need to trade with him for his CSP!!!) has recommended the 3-ring binder pages from Ultra Pro. See http://www.trade.norwesters.net/pages.html with these pages for sale by Paul Crollet (not affilliated with Gerry, Paul, or GSLAC)

Acco, thanks for the idea about the written verification. I'll make up a certificate to use. I think I agree with you that 5 minutes should be enough. And with a den of 6-8, an hour should be plenty to hold 1:1 conferences for all. SWS, OK, I see. Well then, let me ask this, since other SM conferences can be given on campouts (IMHO, the best setting!), can the SM conferences for Webelos be held during a campout where the Webelos (and his parent) is visiting the troop? I don't see why not, but I welcome other views.

I just knew that ol' Semper - that fixture of our forum - could not resist the attempt to enlighten us with his (re)volting puns. A predictable arc, we've had the full spectrum of comments.

SWS, I apologize for redacting. However, I disagree with your interpretation of the requirement. The way I read it suggests that the Webelos visits a Troop meeting with his parent, during which he participates in the SM conference. I don't understand why you interpret it to mean that the parent participates in the conference as well. No other SM conferences are done that way.

This last weekend I held an Eagle SM conference with a fine young man. This fellow had been active with the troop for six years, including nearly four as a Life Scout. He had completed all of the requirements for Eagle including (finally!) the service project. What was remarkable in one respect about him was his lack of leadership, or more precisely, his self-admitted lack of interest in being a leader. His Positions of Responsibility for Star, Life and Eagle were all Den Chief (at which he did an excellent job), but he was never a Patrol Leader or any other troop officer. In fact he had turned down several opportunities for troop leadership. Knowing that leadership development is one of the BSA methods, I talked with him about that. He's always been a quiet, shy fellow. He told me that he absolutely hates public speaking or being the center of attention and that's why he doesn't think he's a leader. He's never been a team captain or a club officer at school or church. We then talked about his Eagle service project. He did an excellent job of behind-the-scenes planning, implementing the plan, and then documenting the results. During the "work day", I noticed that all the scouts very carefully listened to his quiet mumblings about what needed to be done and they then organized themselves and got the job done. Several of his volunteers, more vocal than he himself became self-appointed "lieutenants". Meanwhile, he quietly resolved several major unanticipated problems with the project design so that most of the volunteers never even knew there were any changes at all. To my eye, it was a great example of team building. At 17 years old he may not yet think of himself as a leader, but I know better.

You know what? I dont disagree with anything Rooster has just said. What is very interesting to me however, is that in re-reading the original post and replies thereto, its clear to me that we had very different mental pictures of this woman leader. My mental picture was that of a sloppy, "earth-mother" type in a loose fitting blouse, who badly needs some deodorant. In contrast, Roosters mental picture was perhaps more of a well-endowed, alluring woman who was sending out signals to youth and adults alike. Lacking more information, only Diver can say which of us is further from the truth. Maybe its me, maybe its not. In any event, a tempest in a teakettle. I wish you well, Diver, with whatever course of action you select.

The Arrow of Light requirements include: "... arrange to visit ... a meeting of a Boy Scout troop ... Have a conference with the Scoutmaster." Does this conference need to be one on one? Are group conferences acceptable in which the SM leads a discussion with the whole den?

Good point. Ya know, for those guys who end up actually recruiting a friend under this requirement (that's the whole point of course), maybe instead of the standard recruiting patch we should award them a palm for their First Class badge!

I can't believe I missed this thread! I had not heard about the new recruiting requirement, and I've got to say, my first thought was to wonder if, while recruiting, the boys would be expected to use ride their bicycles around the neighborhood while wearing white shirts and black ties. I am convinced that the source of the requirement is the continuing slide in membership due to some of BSA's increasingly non-mainstream social policies. But whatever the precipitating cause for the new requirement, recruiting is a good thing. After reading 4 pages of discussion, I think I agree with Neil. In fact, when the time comes I think I will introduce the requirement with a SM minute on Bravery. (now, where did I leave that light bulb?)

With regards to spewing "hateful vomit", if I recall correctly wasn't it Trail Pounder who, in a discussion about gay Boy Scouts, gleefully spewed "No flames in tents!" ... Personally, I can think of many things that are worse than being "politically correct". Small-mindedness comes to mind. Ed and Bob are both excellent fellows (albeit sometimes annoyingly argumentative) and I look forward to their rejoining the campfire. However, I won't mind this forum being permanently "suspended" from certain other computers.

Congratuations! But don't stop at Wood Badge! I've found that in Scouting, like life, there are no "pinnacles", just high plateaus from which one surveys fresh terrain and spots a new peak to climb, a new challenge. (hmmm... that sounds like a SM minute...!)

This last Feb, we had a 5th grader who had not earned the AoL with his buds, but didn't want to stay in the Pack, alone, until June. Understandable. We allowed him to participate in the troop (with a parent) as a "prospective recruit" for several months. He could not work on advancements or vote in troop elections of course because he was not yet registered with us, but he was able to stay with his friends. As soon as he graduated 5th grade, he filed his registration form and is now a Tenderfoot, working on 2nd Class. An eager Scout - I think he'll go all the way and I'm glad were were able to be flexible.

Well, I've seen a few "fat, smelly, slovenly" leaders in uniform. It was OK though, they were all male.

In this situation, we have a registered male leader who would hypothetically resign from his unit (or maybe BSA, it's not clear) because a woman leader does not wear a bra. The CM doesn't say she is exposing herself in any way, but she is "large" and presumably is somewhat floppy inside her blouse. And we're assuming she has an odor problem from his statement about bathing. Not an appealing picture, I admit, but I can't see how this is about "character", or "right and wrong". It's about hygiene and, perhaps more to the point, being oblivious to ones appearance. The poor woman needs a kind word, not a pursed-lips boycott.

My guess is that the kids were cub scouts (movies on a Boy Scout campout??) whom typically are a bit less trained in outdoor manners. Regardless, scouts are not immune from criticism. Different units have different "cultures" and habits. It still takes a lot of us, trying hard, to make up for a few bad experiences in the public perception.

Having been both a CM and a SM, I think the biggest difference between packs and troops is the constant turnover of leadership. In a Cub Scout pack, the leaders (CM, DLs, etc.) are generally around for several years so there is a strong continuity. In troops however, the leadership turns over every 6 months (some units do 12 months) as the troop elects new officers (SPL, PLs, etc.). Adults in the troop provide a certain level of underlying stability, but each new crop of youth leaders tends to make the same mistakes and go through the same learning curve, over and over. It can be very frustrating for an adult leader who would like to see "continual process improvement" in the troop. In the midst of continual chaos, the troop is constantly "reinventing itself", with fine young men emerging as leaders.

David, welcome to the Forum! I haven't seen that list, but it sounds good. Personally, I figure that my "one hour per week" is paid up through the year 2037 ...

OK, I'm confused. On what basis is the school classifying organizations? The news report suggested that Scouts use the facilities "to engage in pure speech"???