youngmaster

This is exactly why I don't friend scouts on facebook until they are aged out or eagle. My first year I was a JASM, I was still facebook friends with a couple of scouts and thought nothing of it because I am more of a friend to them than a scoutmaster. I saw multiple posts that were not scout worthy at all and basically had to hide them until they were out of the troop. Ever since, I kept it as a general rule not to add current scouts on facebook.

Thanks Fred, I do not do physical punishments all the time. But it was the way I was brought up and you can't put that behind you. I think the only time I felt like I abused it was an instance where a kid was overly hyper as we were leaving and I really did not want him bouncing around in my car so I did make him run to a tree a few yards away and back a few times. But if you knew how bad our troop was 4-5 years ago you would see how desperate I am to make sure that never repeats. It's just 10 push-ups, I won't go any higher than that. I realize I am not a sergeant nor a football coach, I'm not even that strict, usually the young fun guy, but when it comes to calling names or fighting, even in good fun, I cannot tolerate it.

Dad gummit, my computer screwed that one up, I'm sorry

I have made a kid do 10 pushups once after I heard him insult another. There was a time in my troop when I was a scout where we fought and insulted eachother all the time and it represented us very negatively. I do not wish for that time to happen again. At this particular instance we were on a backpacking trip and as we were setting up camp I heard a scout call another "gay". So I went over to have a talk with them about calling names, when I actually witnessed him still calling others gay. So I told him to come here and simply told him to "get on all fours, now spread your feet out behind you, now go down and up 10 times for me." I then sat everybody down and explained to them about this dark time in the troop before they came where everybody was insulting and fighting eachother and how I didn't want that time to come back. The other assistant scoutmaster agreed that we were definitely not going to have that. The boys understood well and the boy in question agreed that he was in the wrong. I've made one boy to a tree and back a few short yards away a couple of times, really he was hyper, and we were leaving so I wanted to tire him out before he got in my car. When playing there are usually problems with keeping their hands to themselves, so usually just a warning or two about running around the building will suffice.

However, physical exercise is not my favorite punishment. As I have said I do it rarely. My favorite punishment is after the meeting I have them stay after, I ask them to say the scout oath, then the scout law, then I ask if they have been any of those that night, they usually say no (if I have to resort to this, they haven't.) They then apologise and I explain that if they become that disruptive again I will have to have a talk with their parents.

I say when used right, physical punishment works, but remember that this is not football or the military. Have your scouts obey you, but also have them remember you in a good way.

I have made a kid do 10 pushups once after I heard him insult another. There was a time in my troop when I was a scout where we fought and insulted eachother all the time and it represented us very negatively. I do not wish for that time to happen again. At this particular instance we were on a backpacking trip and as we were setting up camp I heard a scout call another "gay". So I went over to have a talk with them about calling names, when I actually witnessed him still calling others gay. So I told him to come here and simply told him to "get on all fours, now spread your feet out behind you, now go down and up 10 times for me." I then sat everybody down and explained to them about this dark time in the troop before they came where everybody was insulting and fighting eachother and how I didn't want that time to come back. The other assistant scoutmaster agreed that we were definitely not going to have that. The boys understood well and the boy in question agreed that he was in the wrong. I've made one boy to a tree and back a few short yards away a couple of times, really he was hyper, and we were leaving so I wanted to tire him out before he got in my car. When playing there are usually problems with keeping their hands to themselves, so usually just a warning or two about running around the building will suffice.

However, physical exercise is not my favorite punishment. As I have said I do it rarely. My favorite punishment is after the meeting I have them stay after, I ask them to say the scout oath, then the scout law, then I ask if they have been any of those that night, they usually say no (if I have to resort to this, they haven't.) They then apologise and I explain that if they become that disruptive again I will have to have a talk with their parents.

I say when used right, physical punishment works, but remember that this is not football or the military. Have your scouts obey you, but also have them remember you in a good way.

I have made a kid do 10 pushups once after I heard him insult another. There was a time in my troop when I was a scout where we fought and insulted eachother all the time and it represented us very negatively. I do not wish for that time to happen again. At this particular instance we were on a backpacking trip and as we were setting up camp I heard a scout call another "gay". So I went over to have a talk with them about calling names, when I actually witnessed him still calling others gay. So I told him to come here and simply told him to "get on all fours, now spread your feet out behind you, now go down and up 10 times for me." I then sat everybody down and explained to them about this dark time in the troop before they came where everybody was insulting and fighting eachother and how I didn't want that time to come back. The other assistant scoutmaster agreed that we were definitely not going to have that. The boys understood well and the boy in question agreed that he was in the wrong. I've made one boy to a tree and back a few short yards away a couple of times, really he was hyper, and we were leaving so I wanted to tire him out before he got in my car. When playing there are usually problems with keeping their hands to themselves, so usually just a warning or two about running around the building will suffice.

However, physical exercise is not my favorite punishment. As I have said I do it rarely. My favorite punishment is after the meeting I have them stay after, I ask them to say the scout oath, then the scout law, then I ask if they have been any of those that night, they usually say no (if I have to resort to this, they haven't.) They then apologise and I explain that if they become that disruptive again I will have to have a talk with their parents.

I say when used right, physical punishment works, but remember that this is not football or the military. Have your scouts obey you, but also have them remember you in a good way.

I have made a kid do 10 pushups once after I heard him insult another. There was a time in my troop when I was a scout where we fought and insulted eachother all the time and it represented us very negatively. I do not wish for that time to happen again. At this particular instance we were on a backpacking trip and as we were setting up camp I heard a scout call another "gay". So I went over to have a talk with them about calling names, when I actually witnessed him still calling others gay. So I told him to come here and simply told him to "get on all fours, now spread your feet out behind you, now go down and up 10 times for me." I then sat everybody down and explained to them about this dark time in the troop before they came where everybody was insulting and fighting eachother and how I didn't want that time to come back. The other assistant scoutmaster agreed that we were definitely not going to have that. The boys understood well and the boy in question agreed that he was in the wrong. I've made one boy to a tree and back a few short yards away a couple of times, really he was hyper, and we were leaving so I wanted to tire him out before he got in my car. When playing there are usually problems with keeping their hands to themselves, so usually just a warning or two about running around the building will suffice.

However, physical exercise is not my favorite punishment. As I have said I do it rarely. My favorite punishment is after the meeting I have them stay after, I ask them to say the scout oath, then the scout law, then I ask if they have been any of those that night, they usually say no (if I have to resort to this, they haven't.) They then apologise and I explain that if they become that disruptive again I will have to have a talk with their parents.

I say when used right, physical punishment works, but remember that this is not football or the military. Have your scouts obey you, but also have them remember you in a good way.

I have made a kid do 10 pushups once after I heard him insult another. There was a time in my troop when I was a scout where we fought and insulted eachother all the time and it represented us very negatively. I do not wish for that time to happen again. At this particular instance we were on a backpacking trip and as we were setting up camp I heard a scout call another "gay". So I went over to have a talk with them about calling names, when I actually witnessed him still calling others gay. So I told him to come here and simply told him to "get on all fours, now spread your feet out behind you, now go down and up 10 times for me." I then sat everybody down and explained to them about this dark time in the troop before they came where everybody was insulting and fighting eachother and how I didn't want that time to come back. The other assistant scoutmaster agreed that we were definitely not going to have that. The boys understood well and the boy in question agreed that he was in the wrong. I've made one boy to a tree and back a few short yards away a couple of times, really he was hyper, and we were leaving so I wanted to tire him out before he got in my car. When playing there are usually problems with keeping their hands to themselves, so usually just a warning or two about running around the building will suffice.

However, physical exercise is not my favorite punishment. As I have said I do it rarely. My favorite punishment is after the meeting I have them stay after, I ask them to say the scout oath, then the scout law, then I ask if they have been any of those that night, they usually say no (if I have to resort to this, they haven't.) They then apologise and I explain that if they become that disruptive again I will have to have a talk with their parents.

I say when used right, physical punishment works, but remember that this is not football or the military. Have your scouts obey you, but also have them remember you in a good way.

I have made a kid do 10 pushups once after I heard him insult another. There was a time in my troop when I was a scout where we fought and insulted eachother all the time and it represented us very negatively. I do not wish for that time to happen again. At this particular instance we were on a backpacking trip and as we were setting up camp I heard a scout call another "gay". So I went over to have a talk with them about calling names, when I actually witnessed him still calling others gay. So I told him to come here and simply told him to "get on all fours, now spread your feet out behind you, now go down and up 10 times for me." I then sat everybody down and explained to them about this dark time in the troop before they came where everybody was insulting and fighting eachother and how I didn't want that time to come back. The other assistant scoutmaster agreed that we were definitely not going to have that. The boys understood well and the boy in question agreed that he was in the wrong. I've made one boy to a tree and back a few short yards away a couple of times, really he was hyper, and we were leaving so I wanted to tire him out before he got in my car. When playing there are usually problems with keeping their hands to themselves, so usually just a warning or two about running around the building will suffice.

However, physical exercise is not my favorite punishment. As I have said I do it rarely. My favorite punishment is after the meeting I have them stay after, I ask them to say the scout oath, then the scout law, then I ask if they have been any of those that night, they usually say no (if I have to resort to this, they haven't.) They then apologise and I explain that if they become that disruptive again I will have to have a talk with their parents.

I say when used right, physical punishment works, but remember that this is not football or the military. Have your scouts obey you, but also have them remember you in a good way.

I have made a kid do 10 pushups once after I heard him insult another. There was a time in my troop when I was a scout where we fought and insulted eachother all the time and it represented us very negatively. I do not wish for that time to happen again. At this particular instance we were on a backpacking trip and as we were setting up camp I heard a scout call another "gay". So I went over to have a talk with them about calling names, when I actually witnessed him still calling others gay. So I told him to come here and simply told him to "get on all fours, now spread your feet out behind you, now go down and up 10 times for me." I then sat everybody down and explained to them about this dark time in the troop before they came where everybody was insulting and fighting eachother and how I didn't want that time to come back. The other assistant scoutmaster agreed that we were definitely not going to have that. The boys understood well and the boy in question agreed that he was in the wrong. I've made one boy to a tree and back a few short yards away a couple of times, really he was hyper, and we were leaving so I wanted to tire him out before he got in my car. When playing there are usually problems with keeping their hands to themselves, so usually just a warning or two about running around the building will suffice.

However, physical exercise is not my favorite punishment. As I have said I do it rarely. My favorite punishment is after the meeting I have them stay after, I ask them to say the scout oath, then the scout law, then I ask if they have been any of those that night, they usually say no (if I have to resort to this, they haven't.) They then apologise and I explain that if they become that disruptive again I will have to have a talk with their parents.

I say when used right, physical punishment works, but remember that this is not football or the military. Have your scouts obey you, but also have them remember you in a good way.

Hi SCOUTER,

I am a 21 year old assistant scoutmaster to a troop of 6 kids ages 12 to 14. I have posted on here before about eeping the boy's attention a couple months ago. Now they have improved in teamwork, and keeping attention, there are still some outbursts but the "signs up" is used more effectively. Right now they have been finishing up with planning our 95th anniversary troop reunion this weekend that we've been working on all year. A complication with that though, some scouts seem to forget their duties in preparation for this event because they do not write it down. The boys who have remembered theirs seem to be very good at memory, and two other boy's father is also an assistant scoutmaster so they feel that they don't have to. After last night's meeting, my head scoutmaster and I were discussing ways that we could enforce the boys to bring three ring binder notebooks.

We have been trying to enforce notebooks since I was a teenager myself, of course everytime the scoutmaster at the time mentions it the boys just shrug it off. I would like to know your ways of enforcing preparedness and making sure they bring all supplies and utensils ready for the meeting. Even though my views greatly differ, my scoutmaster wishes that physical punishments such as running, push ups, etc not be used. We will be having a meeting about bringing notebooks the next week after Labor Day. Please share your ideas and I will get back to you.

Thank you

Thank you for your advice and your patience, I've been visiting my dad in Florida and wasn't able to reply. This is great advice and I will address you one at a time.

SeattlePioneer: Right now we are trying to get these guys to first class before they turn 15. We've been really behind in advancements so we're just trying to get them caught up. Some of the topics are not fun, but we can try to find a way to make it fun.

Eagle92: I went through youth protection training online, if you mean actual classes then no, I have not but will look into it. IMO our patrol leader plays more into the best friend role then the leader and he needs to find the balance between the two.

SSScout: Mostly I am the "Funny-ha-ha ain't I the entertainer." type and the head scoutmaster is the "serious-nuetral, information coming" type. I get frustrated sometimes because we do need to get the meeting started and going quickly. Our meetings are an hour long and parents do not like to wait the extra time so if it's 8:00 and we haven't got anything done, then we have to leave it at that. We had to cancel a campout that was going to be last weekend simply because they were too hyper to plan the meals.

chaoman45: I completely agree with you there, some members of the troop are taller than me and the oldest members are about 7 years younger then me. So they do see me as the "fun guy" or as "one of them".

BDPT00: I took the youth protection training online, I plan to take further classes after I'm done with school next year.

jblake47: Due to a lot of us leaders not having enough vacation time we have not been to summer camp in the last few years. Hopefully we will next year.

Eagle92: I'm usually popular among the other older scoutmasters in the district because they knew my dad and saw me growing up over the years.

SSScout: I've felt my SPL is having trouble finding a balance between best friend and scoutmaster, and I know that one of the hardest thing to overcome being a leader is telling your best friends to be quiet or do something. I would like to help him with that without him feeling like I'm telling him how to do his job.

SeattlePioneer and chaoman45: Let's not fight in this forum, all of the answers are good.

SM1234: We have had to kick some out of the room before. I give pushups for calling eachother names and make them run around the building 3 times if they don't keep their hands to themselves.

BDPT00: Don't know what's bogus but if it's due to my lack of replys I visited my dad last weekend and have been unable to post anything new.

Again, thank you for your advice, I will post an update soon.

I am 20 years old and an assistant scoutmaster of the troop I have always been in. I decided to be an assistant scoutmaster to help my friend out when he became the scoutmaster after my dad. We are both fairly young and have some troubles keeping the boy's attention. Any advice from more experienced scoutmasters will be great.