Twocubdad

When OneCubSon was a Web2, we went camping with the two troops where he had friends. On one of the campouts, the SM pulled all the parents aside for a talk about the troop's philosophy. His main point was that any boy who stayed with the troop three or four years was basically guaranteed Eagle. I was appalled. You get service stars for hanging out for a few years. Eagle should require extra effort, ambition and perseverance, right? I gritted my teeth trying not to influence my son's selection of troops, and was GREATLY relieved when he chose the other troop. Unfortunately, IMHO, (and havi

Precisely how we handle things, resqman. It is a rare occasion that anyone is excused from returning to the Scout house.to help with the unloading. The year my younger son was SPL he had the entire troop stand down and stop unloading for about a half-hour until two guys who left early were called and returned to the scout house. The troop then resumed unpacking. The parents who were forced to wait were P***ED OFF until I explained what was going on. Then they got behind the SPL, giving him attaboys and high-fives. They appreciated the lesson. When the two arrived. one's mom was ve

I have a friend from high school who is active in all sorts of social causes, including the food pantry where she lives. A year or so ago she shared an article on FaceBook from some minister calling for churches with ministries for the hungry to "embrace the government." The premise of the article is that the government provides something on the order of two-thirds (I don't remember the exact figure) of all nutrition programs in the country. Between school lunches, AFDC, food stamps, and good ol' guv'ment cheese, that's probably right. His point being that churches couldn't begin to feed t

That's wimpy. Why 18 months? Why not pay the current year's dues and be done with it?

Our troop does a lot of stuff like this. We collect or grow more than 15,000 (that's right, fifteen-thousand) pounds of food for the local food pantry and soup kitchens. This summer one of our Eagle projects was to build a reading room for a community afterschool program and collected over 8,000 books. Another Scout did a juice drive (collecting juice boxes for the same program) as his Second Class service project. He's continued it every year and is trying to figure out how to make it into an Eagle project. While all that is important and meaningful, the one thing we miss is direct conta

Our lodge require you to pay back dues (max. two years) for lapsed members. Seems to encourage a lot of members to stay lapsed.

WOW! 12 hours?!?!? I wig out after about 30 minutes. I don't know what the legal definitions are, but seriously, this is getting into neglect/abandonment area. After a few hours -- far short of 12 -- I'd be calling the SE. Too many fuzzy YP issues here.

Been there, done that, too, SP. If folks know you won't leave until some agrees to take your place, they all start looking like my father-in-law does when the dinner check arrives. That your first job responsibility is to find your own replacement is one of those BS scouting saying. Sorta like "one hour a week." In the first place, recruiting volunteers is not on everyone's job description. For units, it is primarily the responsibility of the committee chair. We've had several instances where a volunteer recruited folks wholly unsuited to the job. If any ol' warm body gets you off t

No, it's not a success, but where does the failure lie? I agree with Base. Scouting is a voluntary extra-curricular activity. If either parents or Scouts cannot play by the rules they don't need to be in the program. You could tack the money onto the boys recharter fee, but, frankly, the money is beside the point. The mother's utter contempt for the troop leadership is the real concern. Parents must be on board with the program and a partner with the unit. This broad ain't. What would have happened if her son had been injured or his behavior necessitated him going home? I tell

For a single incidence to cause me give back the patch it would have to be WAAAY out there. Trust me, if so I wouldn't have made it through the second year when a dad called me an SOB because I apparently "didn't know who he was." I think it is more of a balance point that a single event. When the bad stuff starts to outweigh the good stuff or when your attitude or lack of enthusiasm starts to negatively impact the program, its time to go.

That's fairly standard here, too, Skip. Can't say we include it in every email, but it is written in the troop handbook and is repeated numerous times when we are collecting dues and summer camp fees. Our council has "campership" funds for summer camp and a special fund for things like Philmont and jamborees. That said, it depends largely on the local unit. If the troop or pack doesn't have the money, it can't cover the costs.

I doubt anyone among us haven't done the same. Twocubmom and I have sent several kids, besides our own, to summer camp over the years. If you've followed the forums for awhile, you know Base's troop is in a underprivileged area and he constantly picks up the check for his Scouts. But there is a clear difference between offering to help a deserving kid and the sort of demanding entitlement these parents demonstrated.

First and third lets you start of with a low D instead of a middle G and effectively buys you a "step down" as far as lip goes. Although I played though part of college, I never had enough music theory to know what the proper terminology is for the steps.

I'm working on it.

For about seven years I missed two roundtables -- one was when I was on Wood Badge staff the other was National Camp School. Then my son's Communication MB counselor suggested he go to RT to take notes instead of the town board (which conflicts with troop meeting night). On the way home he asks if that was a typical RT meeting, which it was. "Well that was the biggest waste of time I've ever sat through. I can't believe you put up with that crap every month." From the mouths of babes. Basically, I haven't been back since which has been about six years now. It's hard to get around th

A two-man patrol. That's evil...... I like it! LeCastor -- I'm not suggesting the Scouts be booted from the troop, just sent home from the campout. These guys have no consequences for their poor behavior. My understanding from Lee's post is the youth leadership is at the end of its rope in dealing with these two. The adults can counsel the boys, but at the end of the day they have to make a decision to participate or not. We can't beat them, we can't skin them, we can't eat them. If they don't want to participate, our best option is to send them home. The door is open for them at the next

I've had guys like this. The normal result is misery. The key is control who gets miserable. The best outcome is for the other guys in the patrol to make them miserable enough that they comply or leave. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't take the hint and hang around making everyone else miserable. So your best option is this: Send them home. If they want to be Scouts, they have to act like Scouts. Frankly, I'd pick a campout at least an hour away from home for this. Then have a nice long chat with the parent before putting them in the car. The lynch pin of Scouting is tr

We have a guy in the council who wears something on the order of 22 square knots. Even him I don't think I've ever seen wear multiple medals or ribbons. I think d-rat has the right answer. There probably isn't the market to support mini-medals. Our council doesn't even stock the training awards or Scouter's Key medals. I think you would have a better case if there were consistency between the medals and ribbons. But thinking about it, silver beavers, antelope and buffalo and the religious emblems can be awarded to non-BSA members (religious emblems are't even BSA awards), so I suppos

Greetings from a fellow Carolina boy.

I got an early Christmas present from the father of one of my Eagles. His son is completing college applications and one of the prompts was, "Tell us about something which shaped your character." This was part of his essay: "If I had to say the one singular way that Scouting has shaped my character, it would be the instillation of empathy into my life. Empathy is not a common trait that would be used to describe a teenage boy, but I feel it is the underlying characteristic that Boy Scouts actively shapes. "Empathy, in the way that Scouting presents it, is the ability to connect w

Let's not go there. There are threads ad nauseam on scout accounts. Base -- I'm as disgusted as you are. You should total all the things you've spent money on over the past few years, divided it by the number of Scouts and send each family an invoice. Here it's not about money, but I'm having the similar frustrations. I'm thinking it's time for me to find a new pastime. Sounds like you may be there too. If you find yourself saying "I'm about done with this" more than a couple times, you probably are. Shoot, just based on length of time we've been members of these forums, we've

My advice on your ticket is the same as for First Class Scouts asking me about Eagle projects. Start collecting ideas, but don't become wed to anything. I think it's okay to ask other leaders in your unit for ideas and input, but stay open minded. Part of the course is learning what makes a good goal and how to approach the projects. The idea, as with Eagle projects, isn't just to do a service project, but to put into action the processes you've learned. Plus with Wood Badge, there are specific requirements regarding the projects you can do. Seems like those rules are constantly chan

Not a goal I would encourage.

My older son's Eagle app was kicked back because he didn't include the statement. Apparently it had been recently added to the application (it isn't list as an actual "requirement", although I understand that will change in the next edition of the BSHB.) When our Eagle coordinator (who also serves as a district Eagle BoR rep for other troops) returned the application to him, he quipped, "My life's ambition is to be Chief Scout Executive so I can fire the idiots who come up with this stuff." To which the Eagle coordinator replied, "if that's you life's ambition, who am I to argue?" Of cour

No bugler, but over the years we've had two different pipers. The troop being led into the opening campfire at summer camp by bagpipes is pretty cool. I play the bugle, counsel the merit badge and have volunteered for Bugles Across America in the past. We've had a couple guys take a stab at bugling for the troop, but never really stuck with it. (Maybe it's tough to compete with bagpipes.) The troop has a bugle which we loan out to the guys. I think guys really need a couple years on the trumpet/coronet to have a good shot at it. They need to hit a high G comfortably, and it takes a couple