Twocubdad

Been there, done that. Had exactly the same conversation with the Scout you did, Matt. Tears and all. Swore he'd never do it again. Parents hired an attorney and got him off. His big "punishment" was to pay his attorney's fees. Of course, he couldn't get a job without transportation, so dad bought him a new car. Since earning Eagle he has been busted twice more. The deal breaker here is bringing the weed to summer camp and offering it to other Scouts. That's a deal breaker. He'd be out of the troop. You need to consider the other Scouts and the trust their parents place in y

Hugh McCall, former CEO of Bank of America, was noted for saying "there is no such thing as breaking even. Either you're making money or losing it." This is silly. Of course it's not a fundraiser. Your COR doesn't have enough to do.

I disagree. At best I think it is in poor taste. it is trading on the name and good will of BSA for personal political gain. A few years ago a one of our troop parents was running for office when his son earned Eagle. The parent plastered all over Facebook photos me presenting the award to his son with he and his wife looking on. Okay, so far, lots of proud parents do. But a few weeks later I saw the same photo of myself popping up in the column of paid promotions. Not cool. Using someone's likeness in a paid photo without their consent is highly inappropriate. Ditto for using trad

That moron was from SOUTH Carolina. He's Packsaddle's problem, not ours.

This is part of the culture of your troop. Every troop has on and every troop is different. One may suppose a troop chartered on a military base may have a heightened sense of Duty to Country. A troop with a fire department or rescue squad may be quite gung-ho about first aid. My religious beliefs are private. I rarely share them and certainly don't impose them on others, particularly the Scouts I serve. But we do encourage Duty to God in the troop, sticking to BSA's Declaration of Religious Principals. We offer thanks before each meal. We encourage Scouts to participate in the r

Exhaustion, not sleeping, bouts of uneasiness, anger, frustration and/or crying .... shoot, that describes about 90% of the kids at summer camp. This sounds like a great Roundtable presentation but I don't see spending a day of training with it.

Mandatory photo? Exactly how do they enforce that? I'm assuming this is a for-profit deal like school photos. Our camp takes a troop photo at check-in then GIVES us a cd with a copy of the photo. Of course while the camp staffer is taking it, we have a half-dozen parents either side of him taking their own. Who wants to bet that at the end of the money trail the council is getting a cut. Tell them to take their contract and pound sand.

I tell folks who have a Rockwellian ideal of all Scouts that they are thinking of the finished product -- I'm working with raw materials.

Vinney -- that's not how we operate. We're going to come to a consensus. If my attitude were no way, no how, no time will he ever darken our door again, I'm sure the CC would back me up. I said I wouldn't object to expulsion, but neither am I demanding it.

Where to start...... I have neither the time nor inclination to write the 10,000 word post this needs, but here the Readers' Digest version: I met with the Scout late Saturday afternoon for his SM conference. After the prelims, we got around to Scout Spirit. I asked him to run through the Scout Law and tell me how he live the 12 points in his everyday life. Starting with Trustworthy, he used the example of being on a sports team that his teammates had to trust that he could cover his position, handle the ball when it was passed to him and pass it back to the other players. "In o

So McGrath's claim that he only wanted to be a Scoutmaster and wasn't trying to make a political statement is out the window, huh?

How do you use RR in a body which isn't supposed to take votes? Unit committees aren't legislative bodies but rather meetings of people with different responsibilities coming together so report on their actions and coordinate common projects. I was in the state student legislature in for three years of college and know my way around RR. Like Q, I've see people use the rules to tie meetings in knots. RR isn't a silver bullet to fix that.

KDD --Because he circled back around and told me he would be attending the campout, but would be arriving late. Didn't mention he would be nearly 24 hours late and would leave four hours later. The kid is good. Keep in mind that except for the two situations related to bullying, the other situations have taken place during the past month. I feel like we've done a good job of bring these issues up to him in real time. But now it's time to have a formal conversation looking at the cumulative situation. That would be happening one way or another. It is coincidental he requested a SMC this we

Oh we've had multiple "conferences" over the past year or two. The bullying (which would take volumes to drill into) resulted in several conferences with him, his running mates and all the parents. The result was the three mates were split up into three patrols. (Which has had marvelous results for for one of the three.) When he told me he couldn't attend the second of the two campouts as Troop Guide, I did tell him I we would find a permanent replacement. That resulted in his dad driving two hours to bring him to the campout, staying a total of four hours then dad driving home shortly after d

I don't have different expectations for people whether they have ever been a Scout or not. I expect people to live by the Ideals of Scouting whether or not they have accepted them or not or even heard of them or not. I just think that's how people should behave. Consequently dropping out of Scouting doesn't change those expectations.

I do think he enjoys Scouts -- but perhaps for the wrong reason. I think we provide him an audience and/or new set of victims for his crap and a perfect environment for his Eddie Haskel modus operandi. But the past few months being troop guide has exposed his behaving one way with his patrol and another with adults around. We keep the new Scout patrols adjacent to the adult camp instead of the 300+ feet for the other patrols. Consequently, I've had more time to observe his behavior (considering his lack of attendance on campouts.) I think it is a typical assumption that he has a lot o

I'm preparing for a Come to Jesus meeting with one of my First Class Scouts. Here is his record of achievement over the past year: He defines insolence. He flatly refuses even simple requests from youth and adult leaders alike. On a recently backpacking trip he refused the PLs request for him to get the stove he was carrying and get water boiling for a meal. He was too busy repacking his personal gear to help. During a service project on another campout he went back to the campsite for a nap instead of participating on the project. When the SPL tracked him down and asked him to help out

BSA policy is not law. It doesn't matter what state you're in. Go back and read Beavah's post from 2011. That pretty much covers it. It isn't our business who a parent designates as their child's guardian for an activity. If you interpret BSA's use of the word "guardian" to be "the person to who a parent entrust their child" you'll do fine.

Simple. Scout Spirit is living by the Scout Oath and Law.

We define leadership for our Boy Scouts as "motivating others to work toward a common vision." Your job as a leader is, 1) to have a vision for where you want the pack to be; 2) effectively communicate that vision to others; and, 3) motivate them to work towards it. Say your ultimate goal is to have a program which is fun for the kids and easy on the parents, consequently increasing participation and enthusiasm for both. That means your program needs to be consistent and dependable so the boys look forward to the programs and the parents can easily plan on them. The two keys to that is ha

It's worth a couple phone calls, but keep in mind the Scout needs to continue working toward Eagle. He should start his 6-month Eagle POR today, for example, and not wait for some ruling from council which could take months.

Annual dues are $95. Summer camp and food for monthly camping is not included. Food cost vary depending on patrol menu and is all handled within each patrol. We do charge a one-time equipment fee for new members of $125 which includes all patrol gear -- tents, stoves, cook gear, fly, etc. A few years ago most of our troop gear was pretty old and in need of replacement. Our main troop fundraiser was producing less and less money. We went to the Scouts and parents and asked for ideas for fundraising. Everyone said "how much do we make the checks for?" The answer was $125. Now, as a

Yep. I hear that, too. Most teenage boys would probably prefer menus consisting of chips and Red Bull, that the adults do all the cooking and cleaning for them and to replace campouts with overnight video tournaments. If all you are interested is raw membership numbers, go for it. I've always said my preference would be to have a troop of five scouts who really wanted to be in a high quality, challenging program. If when those five age out that means folding the troop flag, putting out the fire and calling it a day, so be it. I don't ascribe to the idea we have to do anything and everythi

Good for you! That's the way the program should work. If more counselors and parents operated this way the Scouts would get much more out of the program. I don't have a problem with Scouts using the worksheets as an internal means or organizing their work -- sort of an expanded list of requirements with room for making notes. When either the Scout or counselor looks at completing the worksheet as completing the badge is when I begin to have an issue.

I'm assuming this is one of those "annual report" things which usually features the youth.