WisconsinMomma

Nice! My 9 year old wants to be a blue angel. I took him to our air and water show where they appeared. He watched for 20 minutes and then said, my tummy hurts, and we left. LOL. He still wants to be a Blue Angel!

OK, my oldest son has been in the troop 1.75 years, so I've been around that long but really interested for about the last year. My husband is an ASM. I know I'm limited as a committee member, so I'm curious about what you would recommend for committee members to bring up at meetings that can support boy lead programming. I can also make suggestions to my ASM husband to be involved. We will be in the Troop a long time. I want to think about what moves are the smart moves to suggest, what will get buy in easily, what will move the needle, etc... Thanks for any suggestions!

If you were a committee member, what would you do to encourage an adult-focused troop to employ the patrol method?

Here's an article about the Star Wars movie and gender politics -- it has spoilers https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/12/star-wars-last-jedi-laura-dern-admiral-holdo-listen-to-women

Girls in hockey truths: https://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/things-girls-who-played-ice-hockey-know-to-be-true?utm_term=.xkqOYdPDD3#.bigr7AOPPQ Mote girls joining hockey http://wgntv.com/2017/12/20/more-girls-are-stepping-into-the-rink-joining-youth-hockey-leagues/ Getting rid of ice girls http://www.thehockeynews.com/news/article/hey-nhl-lets-treat-women-as-equals-and-ice-the-ice-girls Struggles of a female hockey fan https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-struggles-of-female-hockey-fan Being a girl in a male dominated sport

Not to get too off topic --- I have not seen the latest Star Wars film, but in Dr.Who, the newest regeneration of The Doctor is female. My oldest son is unhappy with it, but we will continue to watch the show as a family. In the last season, one of the characters was a lesbian.

My biggest takeaway from observing girls and girls teams in hockey is how youth hockey organizations work together to create opportunities with limited resources. Maybe this is something that Troops can do , or Districts -- to help interested girls and their families find each other and work together to benefit the girls' program and form some girls' "teams" in the BSA. With girls in hockey, I think there is some natural hesitation in a game to play hard against female opponents, but in my observation, the boys get over that pretty quick. How do the boys feel when they are out skated by

My youngest son is starting to play hockey this season. While hockey is boy-dominated, some girls play hockey too. I wonder if girls' participation in Boy Scouts will look like their participation in hockey. This is what I have observed as an inexperienced hockey parent: 1) Some girls play hockey 2) Some teams include boys and girls, these teams generally have more boys than girls 3) Some organizations have boy only teams and girl only teams. 4) An organization that needed more girls borrowed some girls from another organization to have enough girls for thei

NJ, what do you think motivated him? What was his Why for going for it?

Thanks for clarifying that, it helps a lot.

See page one, I have a link there. Women were welcomed to the OA in 1988.

Tell us how you worked through managing your workload when you went for Eagle. Thanks. Did you start early? Did you pound it out towards the last minute? When did you decide that Eagle was your goal? How was it balanced for you vs. Troop life?

Hi Scouters, One of the volunteer jobs our committee is posting regularly is Assistant Scoutmaster. I am thinking of suggesting to our Scoutmaster that he appoint a Junior Assistant Scoutmaster. I have a suggestion for a boy in our Troop who I think would be a great fit (he was an excellent SPL, in the small view that I had.) Have you as Scoutmasters used the JASM position? Has it worked well for you? I need to learn more about this role and what it does, and then I think I will make a suggestion to our Scoutmaster to consider it. Thanks for your help.

I'm asking about Roundtable. Thanks!

I have attended exactly one district meeting, and to be honest, it wasn't that useful. Now as an interim Cubmaster, I should go to district meetings --but tell me, Scouters, what is the point of a district meeting, and what makes a good district meeting vs.. a meeting that could be -- a newsletter? What are the high and low points of district meetings you attend? Personally I wonder if they're mostly a waste of a lot of people's time.

It does sound like camp merit badges are of various quality levels. 5 of the boys last year earned Swimming and I heard they worked hard on it, and it's hard to ignore those requirements. My boys have done some easy merit badges -- Mammal Study was finished at camp his first year but he came home with homework for Geocaching and Sculpture, and they didn't get done until February. This year they came home with no partials, and I question the Chess badge my oldest received. We'll have to play some chess over the holidays.

I am a merit badge nerd. There are a couple merit badge universities in our council, and I like the idea. My sons have not been to one and I'm not sure that it fits in our calendar this year. Two technical colleges host them, and I think it's a wonderful way for boys to go out and see a place of higher education and be in an environment that has a lot of the equipment, along with knowledgeable instructors. In our area, the welding workshop is popular and it has a waiting list. What a great way for a kid to see if he has interest in welding, and possibly find a future job. I like all th

Hi Scouters, I'm interested in hearing your perspectives of how Scouts should or should not pursue the rank of Eagle Scout. OK, maybe this is a dumb question, but what are your thoughts and feelings about a boy's journey through Scouting whether he achieves Eagle rank or not? I am observing, through adult discussion, two Eagle candidates who seem to be close to their 18th birthdays, who need to complete one or more merit badges very soon. Like, very soon, as in, they may not make it all the way to Eagle, they may stop short at 90% or thereabouts. Of course, missing a goal i

My husband uses a CPAP machine and has had it now for a little over a year. He takes a battery when he's camping outside. At my Wood Badge, several CPAP users were placed in a cabin with electrical outlets to meet their needs. I think they were grouped into the same patrol? Maybe I have that wrong... I'm not sure but a whole group was in a cabin because of the need. Honestly I don't care for the CPAP machine and would like it if my husband were able to get away from the need for it, which would mostly require weight loss. He's not sure if losing weight will be the cure, but go

When my sons need to call the Scoutmaster, now, this was for their first few times, I would write them a list of the points they needed to make in a conversation. This was something my dad taught me, now to prepare for a phone conversation. Think about what is important to communicate, make some notes, and then make your call. Now they do their calls on the fly, but I will probably still teach them to make their own prep notes before making important phone calls.

Helpful Tracks, yes, I'm being totally honest about what I was like when I was learning about how the Troop works. Now, I am more relaxed, but I think these kinds of concerns are common, and it's part of learning how things work in Troops. ETA: I am hanging around here to learn from you guys, doh!

Thanks to WRW_57 who recetly shared this story about a young Polish scout who survived Auschwitz: And here is an amazing graduation speech from Admiral William H. McRaven that might be wonderful to share with Scouts -- abbreviated? https://news.utexas.edu/2014/05/16/mcraven-urges-graduates-to-find-courage-to-change-the-world Either of these might be good food for thought for a Scoutmaster / Cubmaster Minute.

Would this be interesting story to share for a Scoutmaster minute? Thank you for sharing.

The CO owns the Pack, but they do not own the people in the Pack. I find it unreasonable if a CO attempts to limit whom a free person can communicate and associate with. The boys and families are free to choose. Don't be a jerk about promoting other Troops in front of the CO, but if your den leaders are going out into the community there is nothing wrong with that. They should know that they have options, and it is unreasonable if the CO wants to pretend the boys and families have only one choice. Hope that helps. A song: You don''t own me I'm not one of your many toys