Twocubdad

I seem to recall completing a membership application for the BOY Scouts of America. We're here to deal with the boys and hopefully help them learn to deal with these situations by applying the Oath and Law. I would talk with both boys to help them do that. But I'm not here to teach their parents how to play well with others. But I didn't volunteer to teach a bunch of adults how to play well with others. I've been sucked into these situations before. I may not be smart, but I am trainable. I won't go there again.

Haven't we been through this before? So, Christine, how would you propose to solve this?

First, Pack is correct. HIPAA doesn't apply. There is not violation of the law, so take the high horses back to the barn. Secondly, let's say, hypothetically, that instead of being the Neanderthals we have concluded them to be, the troop leaders here are reasonable Scout volunteers with the best interest of all their Scouts at heart. Let's further hypothesize that they could be dealing with more issues here than we know. No matter how thin you make a pancake, it always has two sides. Can no one envision a scenario where it would be a good thing for Scouters of good conscious, deali

Ding! We have a winner! CalicoPenn receives two free passes to the Rotary Club Square Dance this Friday night. No more calls please. Honestly, I think some people join Scouts only because it gives them another group of people to whom they can pass off responsibility for their lives.

This should be a den function. Scouts need to be assigned to dens before hand. This gives den leaders the ability to prepare for their Scouts with a roster, be familiar with any special needs, etc. The den leaders should be at their den's location, ready to go, as soon as the first Cubs arrive. They should spend the time getting to know the boys, helping them get settled in, coming up with a den flag, maybe letting everyone make their own nametag, etc. If the Cubs are twittling their thumbs waiting for the adults to do paperwork, you're doing you need a better plan. There are a number of

Welcome to the forums, Chief. You sound like my kind of Scoutmaster. I will say, however, we seem to have had different experiences with MBUs and even summer camp. There are a great number of counselors not as diligent as you or I would like. My experiences are similar to those Bad Wolf describes. Most disturbingly, our council condones such programs -- especially at summer camp -- bemoaning the lack of staff or budget which they seem to believe is an acceptable excuse for short-changing the requirements and the Scout. Until recently, we Scoutmasters have been powerless to correct su

Forget God, Gays and Girls. The death of the program will come from within. Our brand managers are managing us into irrelevancy.

Oh, our Good Ol' Boys are more than happy to have you "help." But that generally means dealing with Cub Scout stuff, like running day camp and membership campaigns which are beneath them. If by "help" you mean have any substantive input into how district camporees are run, when or where training is held or other decisions important to the Good Ol' Boys, for get it. It seems to me there is a balance between what the district giveth and what the district taketh. And that balance may vary by unit. As a Cubmaster, my view was the district did a good job of providing a good day camp program (I

Reminds me of a story about a group backpacking in Europe when they come across a male and female bear. It's a long story and not really worth the effort, but the punch line is, "the Czech's in the male."

zzzzzzzzzz SNORK! Sorry, I may have dozed off on the deer discussion. You guys are looking for an regulatory solution to an operational problem. Clearly, the SM is responsible for approving the completion of the requirements. You need a SM with half a brain and a pair of stones. "Mr. TwoCub, can I count the crawdad I found in the creek?" "Are you going to cook it?" "Already did." "It counts." "Mr. TwoCub, I got my 10 animals, 6 crows and 4 squirrels." "Nope, that's only 2 animals." "But my PL already signed my handbook. Mommy printed a page out of the Guide to Advancement

I'm not surprised, although I did think they would give it more of a rest than two years. Glad I'm retiring. Hey, does this mean we can ignore the squirt gun ban too?

I had a dad -- an ASM as a matter of fact -- tell me he wanted his son to hurry up and earn Eagle by the 8th grade so he would be done with Scouting and go on "better" stuff in high school. I told him to go ahead and fill out his son's Eagle application and I would sign it. "Really?" the dad asked. "Will that work?" "Does it matter?" I replied and walked away.

Hey, let's start a campaign for everyone to send CSE Michael Surbaugh a squirt gun and maybe a "pair" of Ping-Pong sized water balloons.

The guys on the local talk station were laughing so hard about this they could hardly speak.

Because this isn't a safety rule based on a rational assessment of risk. It's a political decision made on emotion. You either nod you head in sympathetic agreement or scratch it in amazement.

First rule of command school: never give an order you don't believe will be carried out. It becomes a habit.

It seems to me you broke your supper dish when you rather strongly declined the invitation to meet with the SE. Maybe that meeting would have just been opportunity for them to beat up on you, but it may have been a attempt at resolution. Either way, your right about screaming at a wall. The SE has a great deal of discretion is such matters. You should look for another opportunity for your volunteer work.

We run a training program for all new parents. First, during our Webelos campout, while the Webelos are off on a hike with the Boy Scouts, we do about a 90 minute parent's presentation on how the program works. Then again, the first month of troop meetings after crossover, all new parents are invited to attend a series of presentations from the troop leaders. The first meeting is membership and paperwork. The youth quartermasters do a session on the equipment the troop provides and what the Scouts need to have, The committee does a session on their roles, and last I and the ASMs do a sessi

What troop are your friends in? By far, the greatest indicator of a Scout's success and longevity is being able to enjoying the fellowship, fellowship, encouragement and positive peer pressure of being with his buddies. That solves almost all Scout ills. The rest is adult drama the adults need to deal with.

I'm having t-shirts printed. Who's in?

Real world goal: Increase sales 15% or your ass is fired. BSA goal: Develop a "tool box" so someone else can increase sales if they feel like it. SUCCESS!

The actual schedule is set by the PLC. The whole mass email thing is a bit of an anachronism. The main people who are interested in receiving them are the parents, so it's a committee function to keep an online troop calendar which automatically generates email reminders. I doubt there are 10 Scouts who have emails registered. What has changed over the past few years is the boys have built their own text-based system. They seem to have (I say seem to, because I'm not in their loop) a number of different text groups (one for their patrol, one for the PLC members, one for the Philmon

So the time has come for me to step aside. I've given notice to the troop committee I will be stepping down as Scoutmaster as of the end of summer camp. New SM is onboard and going to camp with us. Actually, this has been in the works for 18 months or so. I have always said it would be time to go when I felt my lack of enthusiasm for the program became a detriment and I've felt that way for some time. OneCubSon has graduated college and TwoCubSon is a senior. While I have always taken tried to leave my sons alone at Scouts, not having a son in the troop has affected me more than I exp

Hey, E92-94 -- aren't professionals prohibited or strongly discouraged from wearing knots other than Eagle or the Darth Vader (professional development) knot? Maybe that explains Green Bar Bill's uniform rather than it being his personal preference or a political statement. I agree with both E-94 and Stosh's earlier posts on the subject. Wear them if you want. I've got a great team of ASMs in my troop, many have been in the program with me since we ran the pack. But the way they knot program is set up, ASM are generally eligible for only the Scouter Training Knot. And because it

What he said.