bpaul

Wow. Congratulations on your enthusiastic view of your adventures as a WDL. There are a lot of great comments in this forum about when to camp, how often, etc., as well as lots of great ideas for day trips. With the number of boys you have, you will have the boy who loves camping, some that are still trying to figure things out, and then you have those darn parents , who really control when and if their son gets to go and how often. My son "grew up" in a Pack (and WD) that did not do tent camping. So I took my son to the 3-4 times a year "Cub-n-Ones" sponsored by our Council an

When I read the original post, the first thing that popped into my head was a concern by the adult leadership that when seeing "skilled labor" there was a concern for how the project would really be completed and the Scout might not be able to adequately express his leadership capabilities. I only make this observation, because I have been on projects where the "professional/skilled labor" tried to take over the task just to get the project done, rather than await the direction of the Scout leading the project. Is it possible that this was really the concern of the adult leadershi

All, I am looking for some resources for regular Court of Honor (CoH) scripts - not for an Eagle CoH. If all of you sitting around this virtual campfire could share some of your ideas or resources, I would greatly appreciate it. I seem to be able to find lots of ideas for the Eagle CoH, but not a regular CoH. Our Scouts are young but are really wanting to do this CoH on their own, and I would love to help them out with resources and/or ideas, so they can make it their own (not just use the script the adults in the troop have done for them previously). And yes, before the question i

Mdsummer, I am like everyone else, I would love to know the outcome of this saga, as it seems to have gone on much longer than any of the experienced Scouters have expected it to. However, my interest, at this point, is in regards to your son. Obviously, life continues, but how is he doing? How well is he handling this situation? Is he still involved in Scouting? I would be interested to know if he is using his experiences with the process to help mentor other Scouts who are getting ready to work on their Eagle projects. Thank you for keeping us posted on your son and his situa

John-in-KC, I have a question for you with regards to your statement "It also means you've assigned him a Counselor and written in the contact data on the back side" Can you please clarify that statement? Why is the SM assigning a counselor? I thought it was up to the boy to acquire the counselor of his choosing (of course as long as they are a recognized MB counselor by the council). Does it matter whether the counselor is one from the scout's home unit, another unit, or maybe through one of the council's sponsored programs, such as a Merit Badge University, Winter Camp, or an

Ok, In reading some of the posts, I have seen the reference to having an Eagle rank revoked. I have never heard of that. Can you please give some examples of how and when that type of action would take place? Thank everyone for educating this very inexperienced Scouter!!!!

Ok, I'll bite... So when you folks cite something as a myth, can you please provide information on what the "real deal" is? Speaking as an inexperienced Scouter, I would greatly appreciate not only knowing what the myths are, but what the real source/guidance/way to do business is. For example, all I have ever been told (with the exception of the below example) is that once you cut the four corners off the Totin Chip, then the Scout loses it, and must reaccomplish the training to re-instill safe knife handling practices before being allowed to carry a knife again. The exception: I

All, I just received an email saying that the SCUBA merit badge has gone into print! Here is the link I have to the MB. https://rcpt.yousendit.com/749811021/0d84313a877dc3012d2b200490e3d236 Just out of curiosity, does anyone have any idea which MBs will be removed from the active list due to the introduction of the three new MBs?

Thank you for the ideas about activities for keeping the skills fresh. Now to add to the question, how do you do some of these activities when you only have 6-8 boys involved in the troop? Most are 2C or lower, with one Life and two (new) 1C scouts? Our SM is new and the SPL is young. How can we have an exciting meeting, where the boys are learning/honing their skills? What kinds of activities can we do on a camping trip where the boys could use their knots and lashes, or what can we do other than to go on a hike and identify things (animals or plants)? I admit, I don't h

I recently went through the Ordeal with my son and had to fill out that information as well. In my experience, some parents went with their son, as they were either going through the Ordeal or were working as staff (in some capacity) during the weekend. Other Scouts, depending on the troop they belonged to, were brought up to the Ordeal weekend by someone in their troop leadership - no parents allowed (that particular troop's way of doing business)for the initial registration and susequent events. The parents were more than welcome at the closing ceremonies on Saturday night. So in my expe