Twocubdad

Welcome, Joe. Depends on what you mean by "work on". If you mean learn and practice skills associated with the merit badge, no problem. If you mean complete requirements and expect the counselor to accept your or the Scouts word, I would say that depends on the requirement and the counselor. Again, Camping as an example -- I doubt any Camping counselor would not accept the troop's records of a Scout's nights camping in satisfaction for the requirements. No problem. But I equally doubt a counselor would accept that a Scout explained the principles of Leave No Trace to a leader on a ca

Thanks!

Is anyone else having a problem with this error message? Seems like the auto save function is gummed up. After a few minutes of typing I start to get this error. It seems to pop up about every 30 seconds.

Who said "replace all", Matt? You've taken this to an illogical extreme. No one has suggested the average Scout camp counselor should be 62. My premise in starting this thread is that too many camps recruit the staff they can attract/afford then assign MB classes rather than finding good counselors and recruiting them. I'm asking how to turn that around. If your assumption is we should recruit older staffers just to ensure summer employment for 50-something Scout leaders, you've made a mistake. The point should be to improve the program. Yes, there are some excellent 18-y.o. MBCs st

I like the form. It's an interesting idea. But I have to ask what the down side is for coming in under 100 points?

They didn't get bad reviews, they were murdered. I get your point, SP, and understand what you were trying to say, but that is one of the more offensive things I've read here lately. Yes, just because we can, we, indeed, should. Otherwise that's the First Amendment equivalent of "if you have nothing to hide you won't mind me searching your car." Civil Rights are useless unless they are exercised from time to time.

Volunteers are SUPPOSED to be running the program. The pros are supposed to worry about money and members. Be careful what you ask for. We complain when the pros aren't involved in the program and we complain when they are.

What is your guess of the street value of a single shot, bolt action .22 rifle? I'm guessing the thieves would have been better off had they taken the four chain saws they left behind. I'm not a shooting sports guy, but aren't BSA shotguns modified so they only accept one shell at a time too? If the dad in the report is really worried about the these guns being on the street, either he's an idiot or the producers did some judicious editing to create a little drama. I'm betting on the latter. You go after someone with a bolt-action .22 in McDowell County, your life expectancy is measur

Fred, when explaining the situation to the parents of 10-y.o. Webelos looking to join the troop in two months, do you think they will be concerned with nuances of dealing vs. distributing, vs. providing vs. facilitating vs. passing out vs., vs., vs.? My guess is they will cut to the chase and be concerned that one or more Scouts are bring weed to campouts and "making it available" to the other Scouts. And when I signed up, I don't recall seeing anything on the application about agreeing to go along with the poor decisions of the prior administration or turning a blind eye to prior mi

That being the case, he should talk with the Scout executive. Any negative results from the background check are reported to the SE. If a volunteer is disqualified, the SE sends a letter to the CO letting them know the application has been rejected, but provides no details.

Actually, AARP membership isn't required. I know a lot of 50ish corporate guys who have four-plus weeks of vacation banging around looking for something to do. No, you're not going to get a 30 something guy with a couple young kids to give up another week of vacation to Scouts. I didn't really intend to limit the thread to MBCs either. Nothing in the world wrong with working the T-2-1 program, although in my experience the older Scouts are more capable of running that program than many merit badges -- if they have the proper leadership. Unfortunately, T-2-1 seems to be the dumping gro

It's a two way street. Have the counselor sign the printout and return it to the SM. Or maybe the counselor can call the SM. When it turns into a PIA for another adult, may the SM will get off the schneid.

Ditto, Scouter99 But I'm rather interested in the agreement behind the "leadership shuffle" which led to you becoming SM. It sounds like the council was involved in that. If so, that would be highly unusual that the council involves itself in unit leadership issues. . Either way, you've been put in an impossible situation -- bound by both your obligations to run a program which lives up to the Oath and Law while hamstrung by the terms of the agreement. So here's my advice: punt. Boot the whole mess, wash your hands of it and get on with the business of Delivering the Promise to your

Keep in mind that with his Eagle application, a Scout must submit a letter of recommendation from a religious leader, or if there is none (I'm not aware of Flying Spaghetti Monster priests) a parent must submit an equivalent letter addressing the Scout's religion (my words, I'm not looking up the quote.) For adherents of the FSM, it should be interesting reading.

Why do I get Scouter a week after the rest of you? Grandpa always complained about the Grand Ol' Opry not getting here until Tuesday morning. Maybe this is what he meant. (For those who aren't aware, the Grand Ol' Opry was broadcast live on Saturday nights. If you didn't receive it until sometime Tuesday you must live WAY back in the country.)

The Scoutmaster failed both the Scout and the members of the board. This is something which should have been dealt with well before the EBOR level. Fairly early (maybe not Tenderfoot, but certainly by First Class) I ask Scouts how they do their "Duty to God". Now, even the T-2-1 Scout Spirit requirements mean at some point he has to give a concrete example of how he demonstrates Reverence. I'm not some much interested in the Scout's response -- after all, there are really only a couple "wrong" answers -- but I'm looking for an entre' to discussing BSA attitude toward religion. I don'

Pack -- we've eliminated them in our troop. I take the camp schedule and white-out Communications, the citizenships, Personal Fitness, etc. before we distribute to the Scouts. The only blow-back I get is from parents. The Scouts generally appreciate it. I mean really, who wants to take Communications at summer camp.

Qwazse -- you disappoint me. Just when I thought you had kicked the Flavorade. When I ran CSDC, we were required to build-in a 10% contingency. Makes sense. Breaking even is a myth, you're either making money or losing it. This isn't the federal government. We can't print money or quantitatively ease our budget, so we must stay in the black. No problem. At the end of camp we almost always had more than 10% left and would invest in equipment for next year and return the rest to the council. And I'm all for accurate cost accounting. The camps which are held on council property need to

Let's call this program C.I.R -- Counselor In Retirement -- which bookends nicely with Counselor In Training. Or Curmudgeon in Repose. Maybe Crabby Individual Resting. I'm sure the Scouts will find more fitting titles. Over the years there have been more weeks than not where I've been presses into service as a MBC for at least part of the week if not all. That's not really what I'm talking about. That's fine for an emergency fill-in, but as noted above, too inconsistent.to build a program around. Myself, I have no problem staying busy during the troop's week at camp.. It takes a lot o

Every time we mention problems of summer camp merit badge programs under aged, inexperience and plain ol' incompetent counselors are mentioned. I assume just about everyone here counsels a few merit badges for which we have some relative expertise. So let me ask this -- what would it take for you to be on camp staff for a few weeks of the summer? Better food? Accommodations? Pay? For the sake of argument, let's put aside the obvious problem of vacation time aside. Or perhaps another to ask the question is, if you were your camp's program director, how would you go about recruiti

Scouting is to be experience, not completed. Experience takes time. I believe it is my responsibility to help the Scouts I serve get the most out of the Scouting program. I hope we can all agree Scouts get more from the program the longer they remain in it. One of the beauties of the program is its breadth which allows boys to repeat activities at different ages and stages in their lives and learn learn and gain more each time. I hope our Scouts learn as much from their first year of summer camp as their seventh. In my opinion, tenure in the program is more important than awards earned.

Reminds me of my grandmother. The sheets and pillow cases at her house were always full of holes, patches and seams where she had pieced them back together. But she died with a closet full of brand-new linens still in the packages. She always said she was saving them for "good" but somehow good never came. A product of raising a family during the Depression, no doubt. The SM is doing the same thing. He thinks he's protecting the boys from losing the cards, but the cards are of no more use all locked up than they would be if the Scouts lost them. They can no more complete partial bad

I don't understand this. Why doesn't the SM want to give the boys the cards? Is he afraid the Scouts will lose them? He doesn't want them working on MBs before earning ranks? Is he just disorganized and can't get around to producing the cards? The SM's reasons and rationale make a difference with how I would suggest you proceed. I allow for the possibility the SM has good reason for this and you and your son need to listen to his counsel. Then again, this may be a situation where you need to move up the chain of command through the troop committee and district/council advancement f

LOL. Reality has a way of creeping in and biting us in the butt, eh? I think we all have an inflated view of the role of merit badges in career development. Over and over again I see Scouts earning the merit badge for the career they wish to pursue AFTER developing an interest in the subject. That's been the case for myself, both my sons and four or five more of my Scouts I can name off the top of my head. In the case of both my sons, they were disappointed in the content and depth of the merit badges and both felt they knew more about it than the summer camp counselor who taught it.

Welcome to the campfire, OS. Over the years the regulars here have hear Basementdweller's stories of trying single-handedly to run a low-income unit of mostly single parents, getting no help from the district/council, dealing with bigotry at summer camp, being run off from selling popcorn in the more affluent neighborhoods, etc., etc. All the while, he has been the guy running the type unit you grew up in, providing the resources and opportunities you were given, frequently out of his own pocket and without much help. What is galling in this thread is that the PARENTS AND TROOP