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DadScouts

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Everything posted by DadScouts

  1. True, and I have no problem with this. Unfortunately, BSA doesn't allow too many responsibilities to be placed on the Scout either, which is why I sadly just called it quits as Advancement Chair for my Troop after over a decade and 50 Eagles. Far too many parents earning Eagle. When I realized I was ready to tell a couple of parents the Scout store product ID# for an Eagle medal and just go to Council to buy one to save everyone time and paperwork, I knew it was time for me to leave.
  2. We ban aerosol sunscreen and bug spray for their flame thrower potential at summer camp, actually tell Scouts they will be taken and not returned. You could have a laptop available and show a couple photos of burns for first aid skill purposes. Could ask him if he was alone or with others and how would he feel if someone else had life long burn scares from his antics.
  3. Rodney Scout Reservation, Maryland. Don't worry, things went up the chain of command above the camp director, both during the week and afterwards.
  4. Never more a true statement written anywhere. Went to an excellent camp this summer, as far as MBs go. Strict (& low) limits on # of Scouts who could take each MB. Leader guide had highest # of pre-reqs for MBs I have even seen. The week went as expected on both fronts. Saturday morning at the end of camp had a couple of missing MBs I needed to track down for my Scouts. Every dept head and the camp manager were in a building ready for Troop leaders to come in and discuss. I went right up to the camp manager, shook his hand, and thanked him and his staff because I had the highe
  5. Ranks handed out night of BOR, or latest the following meeting. (Our Troop has an excess stash of patches.) MBs? Whenever. Scouts give them to me, I see the 2-3 week/month old date, and toss in my shirt pocket and SM hands them out in front of the Troop about 1x/month. Only exception is no one gets anything post-summer camp until the big COH held each Sep - just too much paper and patches. $s? One BOR, w/o my knowledge, withheld 1st Class rank for a very disorganized Scout who owed $s for an activity months prior. Parents, who actually are well to do, were contacted without results
  6. What if the Scout developed and implemented a plan to recruit, help in process, and train others to become counselors at that camp? Rather than one Scout doing great service at a camp he would be leveraging his time to get multiple people to do the same.
  7. Agree 100%. Call them Merit Badge Palms instead of Eagle Palms because that is exactly what these new things are. MB Palms would be held in the proper esteem as accomplishments like, well that international revered award, The World Conservation Award, aka the PPP (the Purple Panda Patch).
  8. This is a shame. We had palm BORs and for ex-SPLs who were active JASMs, doing mentoring for Senior Patrol and New Scout Patrol the BORs were a great way for some adults to sit down with a Scout and discuss college app process, scholarships, and other true life skill stuff. Ya, could still have that but the palm BOR was a kick in the rear reminder to get some great adults together and have this chat with the Scout. Our palms actually held short-term leadership assignments where the Scout, in advance, set up the goals for those 90 days and the BOR was a great chance to review successes and n
  9. I got you to -12. You're welcome. I think Red and Green are simple purpose: Up means you like or find the post helpful and Down means you dislike or find it non-helpful and "Report" is asking someone to taken to the principal's office.
  10. "Not every good thing a boy may do has to lead to Eagle rank." From your lips to God's ears!!! I will pay big bucks if someone would beat this into the thick skulls of many of our parents!!!
  11. BTW, since I posted weeks ago basically saying "Troopmaster, or nothing" I emailed Troopmaster for a reporting enhancement. This wasn't a bug fix but an addition to a report. One day later they agreed to do the enhancement and said it would be added to their enhancement list - ETA about a month. Next day other email, wouldn't be done by the end of the month but rather the end of the week. That afternoon yet another email - forget the end of the week, the change was done and would be uploaded that night system-wide. This was for a "nice to have" not a "need to have" report formatting chang
  12. I agree, but seem to recall the current BSA workbook and policy doesn't necessarily agree with this statement, sadly.
  13. Local HS has about 15 male sports. Of the 2 best 1 was created and coached the entire time by an Eagle Scout. About 10% of the team is Eagles and about 5% of the team attends West Point, Naval Academy, or Air Force Academy. Coaches who understand the potential of Scouting know how to use those Scouts. As an aside, know personally the # of kids who never get those scholarships but thought they were is VERY high. Worse yet, the # of kids who get the scholarships and then drop the sport or transfer to another college is equally high. Trying to play a sport so a school pays for college has t
  14. "Audit"? LOL. I'd bet a large % of MBCs are not currently certified for those badges per the "official" district/council records, since those records are out of date or incomplete - if they exist at all. Agree with all the comments here. In a class is the only circumstance where I would even think of signing my son's card. Also completely agree the trend towards "in Troop" MB completions is a poor one. Some parents are pushing to get signed up as MBCs since "it's so hard to find one" off the district list. I thinking taking MBs outside of the Troop and outside of a summer camp (do
  15. Troopmaster over Scoutbooks. Period. Email Troopmaster and they will likely have a bug fix out in a week; if you are asking for a Troopmaster enhancement they often give that to you in a month. Ever try to email BSA tech support? The owners of BSA Internet Advancement and myscouting.org, or wait it's now my.scouting.org, now own Scoutbooks. The patient will die quickly. Ask any Council staff about ScoutNet and they will roll their eyes. The day BSA requires Scoutbooks to be used over Troopmaster is the day I start doing paper advancement reports again.
  16. Coaches (youth & high school) and high schools are the problem. Just need to know how and when to push back, and hard. Had a Scout due to summer camp and another non-Scouting conflict asked to skip an entire week of school, finals week no less. He took it to counselor, then assistant principal, then principal, then assistant district superintendent., and then finally the superintendent. A year later the principal right before graduation thanked the student for "educating" him. 2 years later the principal enrolled his son in Cub Scouts. Coaches and band directors (unless they are
  17. We require all Scouts to pack one ziplock bag with their name on it and clean socks, underwear and Class B shirt. Collected before we even leave for camp and held by adults until lights out the final night. Bags distributed to the Scouts that night so at least the adult drivers won't have to smell dirty clothes, on top of dirty bodies, in the cars on the way home. One of the better "traditions" has Troop has adopted.
  18. Ask them if they are having fun. Yes or No and explore from there. Encourage attendance at outings. Lather Rinse Repeat. (For Scout rank.)
  19. Sounds spot on. Typically we have 5 Scouters & 55 Scouts. 1 at campsite basically all the time, 1 with new scout program, & 1 wandering around camp checking things out; typically 2-3 on Mon & Fri. The rest? Hammock time, Walmart run for ice or supplies, maybe someone has a work conf call for a couple of hours one morning. No one leaves camp for a meal but often the person running errands will make a pit stop somewhere and bring treats back for the Scouters or the whole Troop. Often Scouters don't sit around campsite but explore the camp, chat with staff, and take training or
  20. I once had the best of both worlds. I held out w/o a cell phone as long as I could. Got a TMobile one. Coverage was spotty and in our local camp, very close to my house, no coverage unless I grabbed the metal flag pole in camp or stood on top of a car. Basically I had outgoing coverage if needed but no incoming coverage. I loved it, until my wife switched our plan to another carrier - that got 4 bar coverage in camp. Have had to return home at least once a week from camp, including pool maintenance and once even worse for dinner with my out of state mother in law who was in town the week
  21. Use to strictly ban cell phones back in the day and confiscate them. Now we don't but tell Scouts AND parents they shouldn't bring them. Lose them? Oh well, were told to keep at home for a reason. Cell phones lose power? Sorry, Scouts not allowed in leader lounge to recharge and if they leave in the dining hall to recharge and get stolen, oops. However, doesn't have to be ban or allow 100%. Did a 6 day wilderness trek with older Scouts. No Scout was allowed to power on cell phones or have a GPS on the trail. Music they would listen to were the birds and wild blowing thru the tree
  22. Current process had a potential flaw exactly how you described. (Old process had a flaw in that some Scouts were spending tons of hours pre-approval on plans that never were approved.) For our Troop I approve all proposals for our TC Chair. I tell each Scout, with parent there, there is a flaw in that their plan and the requirement itself is formally approved at their EBOR and they can deny the requirement. The way to avoid this is to have their Final Plan informally reviewed and unofficially approved before construction by an ad hoc committee that the Scout picks and convenes. This
  23. The project is the "Eagle" Scout's responsibile, not the coach's. "Did not follow any of the District suggestions for changes. Did not follow the directions of the city (to wait for 1 week after applying herbicide before planting - instead did entire project in 1 day)" I believe that is the Scout's issue. Sadly, for you, it is up to the EBOR to determine whether or not the requirement was met and if he didn't then he didn't. (Yes, the EBOR can look towards other ways the Scout demonstrated leadership if the project is a weak one.)
  24. Plenty of warm and dry suggestions. Best words I saw were good fire = good morale. I would suggest once camp set up find a parent to walk around wearing nothing but a swim suit, shoes, and sunglasses (zinc oxide on the nose is a bonus) and check in on every scout. Being wet is nothing - ask people in Hawaii on vacation. Being warm is a state of mind. Having FUN is important.
  25. The only true thing in Scouting life is you can never please all Scout parents all of the time. We meet at a church facility that is not our CO. The church is great and allows several community groups to meet there. One or two parents complained when the church allowed an Alcoholics Anonymous group to meet in a different side room the same night as our Troop meetings. The SM was floored. We would even see a couple former Scout parents from time to time attending the AA meetings. It was nice to chat with them, catch up, and see how their sons were doing.
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