Twocubdad

Perspective members are always covered whether or not they have actually joined or not. Besides, your DE will think this is a WONDERFUL idea. From his perspective it's all upside.

I think this will be a great fit. It certainly plays to the core strengths of the Boy Scout. Local councils have way overbuilt classroom and lab space at our summer camps. This will be a terrific way to utilize those resources. Besides this is a grossly under served market segment. Children have scant opportunities to learn science these days. There is only one middle school and one high school (out of 12) in our school system specializing in STEM education and only a handful of charter schools. TwoCubSon, the one doing genetic research in college, was limited to starting college with on

I'm figuring these were adults. They should have sense enough to light a fire safely. I'm more bothered that they are teaching tin-foil cooking. This may be a reasonable lesson for BALOO or even WOLS, but I would hope we would step up the game for training Boy Scout leaders. My guys did that in cubs. Where is the challenge? Where is the skill development? Where is the edible meal? I know hobo dinners can be well made, but burying them in 120 pounds of charcoal is most likely to produce more charcoal. It's always amazing to me some of the nice, well-intentioned but totally ignora

I see the same thing in the Boy Scout troop only the parents are a bit more politic and savvy in how they phrase their whinning. My opinion only, but I think this is a consequence of how youth sports are run. One or two gung-ho dads and maybe a team mom run things. Parents only show up for the games. At higher levels parents pay big bucks for their sons to be on teams with semi-professional coaches. Scout parents seem to thing that is the way of the world. Drop your son off for all the mundane, boring stuff but pick and choose the fun campouts to attend. When the troop goes whitewate

Are these troop or district positions. Not that it matters. Your position is still committee member, the tasks you've taken on don't matter. The conflict excuse is about as lame as they come. What are you going to do, approve each other's pay raises?

Ask another non-profit group to serve as the umbrella and give the Scout cover. The nonprofit becomes the technical beneficiary and the Scout does the project on their behalf. Perhaps your CO is agreeable or that person's church. If the person is a vet maybe the local American Legion or DAV would help. But keep in mind ramps usually require building permits, engineered drawings, licensed contractors and liability insurance. The days of cobbling together some plywood up the front stoop is past.

People who only show up when there is a problem soon become associated with problems. If a UC's role in recharter is to nag late units they won't be seen as a helping hand just nags. UC's could help themselves by contacting committee chairmen early, get the contact info for the person handling recharter and build a relationship with them. Hopefully, most units have experienced people doing recharter and a plan to train their replacements. But last year our four-year membership chmn was diagnosed with cancer right at the start of recharter. The CC was new and clueless. We recruited a new mem

1. Ya did good diffusing the situation with the other SM. I would have probably gone all papa bear on him. 2. The PLC should not have made a decision regarding the Scout in abscentia. But failure to appear is really bad form and would have resulted in further conversations regarding courteousness. 3. So the Scout blows off the PLC but still shows up to ask for a SMC? How does that work? 4. And here's where things really fell off the track -- under the circumstances you should have never delegated the SMC. That was your opportunity to deal with all the swirl in one sitting. At that poi

Fred -- BSA rules and policy say an Eagle project can take as little as an hour. BSA rules and policy say an Eagle project can demonstrate leadership with only one other person. BSA rules and policy say an Eagle project can be performed with anyone helping, including parents. BSA rules and policy say an Eagle project does not have to have a long-term impact. So you and your mom spend an hour dusting bookshelves at the local library and call it good. Qwazse -- I advise my Scouts to select a project which is important and meaningful to them. I advise my Scouts to f

CM Mike's OP (you remember the OP, don't you?) was about collection-type projects. For a long time our council discouraged and usually denied collection projects. It took a lot to sell the EP review committee on them. The rule of thumb was to get approved, a collection project needed to look like a small manufacturing operation. Unmanned collection bins didn't cut it. I know a few projects approved on the basis of building the bins, but they were eventually frowned on as the bulk of the work went toward build single-use bins which weren't terribly useful to the beneficiary organizati

I don't like the choices either. It should challenge the Scout (so maybe that's "C"), provides a meaningful service to the community, provides the Scout an opportunity to demonstrate his ability AND is something meaningful and significant to the Scout. That last point is too often overlooked. I see far too many boys who just build picnic tables and drop them off at any ol' park or non-profit who thinks someone may use them some time. The best projects are those for which the Scout has a passion and commitment to the cause/organization. My older son knew from the third grade on his E

We intentionally avoid "instruction." Just have fun. Each Boy Scout patrol puts on a demonstration of some fun Scout skill with the goal of getting the Webelos excited about Boy Scouts, not trying to complete requirements. (Anathema!) For example, we always have a first aid station, but inevitably the focus moves from demonstrating first aid to how to create the grossest fake wounds. We now have our own official troop recipe for fake blood. Last year the guys built a huge pioneering tower which the Webs could climb and rappel down. (yes, it was supervised by our climbing instructor.) Coo

Here in the south we would just smile and say, "well bless your heart" and move on. All you can do is run your program and not worry about the rest. Ultimately the boys know the deal. A couple weeks ago I attended a Eagle project work day with one of our Scouts. He had a number of the troop members about his age plus one kid who left our troop a few years ago under less than stellar circumstances. He transferred to the local Eagle mill across town. You should have seen the looks on the faces of my guys when this kid announced he had passed his Eagle board of review: they all turned

Then you'll have folks complaining they missed Outdoorsman. People make choices. These families have made/are making theirs. As I recall, Readyman wasn't a one-meeting badge. It will be considerably more than "review" for the boys repeating it -- what? three times in a matter of a few months? I would let these families know the campout will be the last den-provided opportunity for earning Readyman. If they miss it THEY will be responsible for learning the material on their own. (Maybe some of their buddies will offer to work with them.) But then the den will take one meeting sometime i

My only experience with losing a scout in the middle of the night was with two Wolf cubs tenting together but adjacent to their dads. One kid got up in the night and his buddy rolled over an went back to sleep. The only detail the buddy. Could provide was "it was dark out." After a 90 minute search the CM of the adjacent pack brought him over. He was in line for breakfast and they hadn't noticed him. Consequently I don't put a lot of stock in the safety provided by an unconscious tent mate. Frankly, if a kid can't manage to get himself to the loo and back he probably doesn't need to be in

Is your troop chartered by a law firm?

Sorry if this makes you squeamish, Matt, but this is exactly how adults ruin the advancement program for boys by applying their adult experience, education and organizational skills to a problem the boys should be figuring out on their own. We provide them with fill-in-the-blank forms to make sure they don't waste a minute of our, um I mean THEIR time on starting, stopping and starting these merit badges again. Of course we adults can figure out all sort of ideas for organizing ourselves to make earning these badges easy. But easy isn't the goal. Overcoming a series of progressive obst

Our troop has had one of these for years. It's called THE BOY SCOUT HANDBOOK.

Hard to argue against more training. But come on. We tried everything formal training to one on one handholding. I don't know if it's laziness per se, but certainly a lack of seriousness, pride in a job well done or responsibility. Take scribe. I'd be thrilled to have a scribe who will CONSISTENTLY take attendance. I can't conceive anyone making it through the second week of kindergarten without understanding the concept of taking attendance. PLC minutes is different. I doubt most adults know how to properly record the minutes of a meeting. But how about "take notes"? I've created fo

Perhaps I'm missing the point, but my understanding of the main issue here is the older, "cooler" guys don't want to put any effort into the program. They expect the adults to spoon-feed them fun and adventure (well, maybe not adventure, that takes work too). Their parents and at least some of the adult leaders are backing them up. These older Scouts and their parents have well-defined expectations of the troop which must be either changed or met. The best outcome under Stosh's program -- which will be great if it works -- would be for the dorks to come together as a patrol, develop a gre

IMHO, your Number One issue is the lack of a clear, common vision for the troop among the key troop leaders. Until the adult leadership can agree on a vision and direction for the unit, expecting the youth leaders to fall in line is ridiculous. Fall in behind who? Unfortunately, you have to come to terms with the COR. He represents the owners of the troop and it is his vision you need to work toward. That's not to say you don't have input. You should. But so should the parents of the slugs, um, Scouts. If the COR, committee and parents want a glorified Webelos III program, it going

Please don't.

Who knows. All these discrepancies are well within the media's usual margin of error.

Note the join date. But the two cubs are still around, just not Cub Scouts.