Torchwood

That is the same Anker unit I have. Attaches easily to stuff with those big grommets, and folds down to the size of a Scout Handbook. I have found that with light phone usage, the charge in the battery pack I have (also from Anker) can last the whole week of Camp. The sola is just nice to have to top off the battery if you get the chance.

Our troop committee meets with our PLC to outline the entire year in advance- usually in June. We have a bike and camping trip on Block Island (off the RI coast) planned for Columbus Day weekend, and something every month through next June (I don't have the calendar in front of me) finishing with our traditional week at Camp Squanto next July.

There is no service hour requirement for Eagle, so there is no need to keep a log anywhere other than in the Eagle Workbook.

I have an Anker 14W panel I got on Amazon. Best practice is to use it to charge an external battery pack (I have an Anker pack as well), and then use the battery to charge devices in the evening. Sometimes, the trickle charge from the sun to the panel isn't enough for the device to even recognize that it is beign charged.

Here are some great videos from Northern Tier. The outdoor sleeping system works just as well inside a tent.

http://www.ntier.org/Videos/WinterInstructVids.aspx

Just because he already has a certain badge doesn't mean that he can't sign up for that class again. If he likes to sail, he can take sailing again just to keep his skills sharp and spend more time in a boat. If he has a willing counselor, he might even be able to assist in running the class. Sound like an opportunity to become a better leader within his Troop?

How about finding other Scouts in the same situation and having them do a service project for the camp? Relacing tents? Clearing some brush? How about working with the first year campers (if your camp has a first year program)- give them some one on one time with a more experienced Scout? There are ALWAYS things that need doing at Camp.

It would be interesting to hear the opinion of a Constitutional scholar, as opposed to that of a labor and employment attorney. I am not saying he is either correct or incorrect, but Constitutional law is not this guy's stock in trade, and it is a very specialized area of the law (which is why so few attorneys can actually argue a case infromnt of SCOTUS). It is food for thought.

IMO, that is the only way that a 1st year program should be done. If the PL's job is to take care of his boys, that should include checking on their advancement. This program does just that- the younger Scouts get the skills in a group setting, and then they have to duplicate those skills for their PL to get signed off.

As for the automatic partials- a similar system is in play here too. The camp MBC starts the process, but a Troop approved MBC does the final check and signs the card.

I'm not saying that this camp is perfect- but they do seem to run a good program as far as the MB classes go.

I was at our Council's Summer Camp for the whole week with my son's Troop. Structure for MB classes is 3 in the AM and 3 in the PM. Our Troop does Troop Swim at 2pm- right after siesta. My son (13.5 years old, Star, Troop QM) signed up for Forestry, Lifesaving (2 periods), Animal Science, Snorkeling BSA and Orienteering. He skipped the Troop Swim, but was at the Waterfront for half of each day anyway. From my vantage point (I spent a fair amount of time wandering the camp during class times), the camp program is better than a lot of the horror stories I have seen on this forum. For the most part, there are no classwork heavy badges offered (none of the Citizenship badges, for instance), and a lot of the descriptions that are in the annual guide are clearly marked "automatic partial". My son completed all of the badges he signed up for, plus he had a partial from 2 summers ago in Fishing. The MBC that year didn't cover cleaning a fish. This year's counselors offered it during siesta at the end of the week. My son asked the counselors if he could join in so he could finish, and did so. I don't have the actual numbers in front of me, but we had a fair number of partials overall- probably about 20% of all of the badges that our boys signed up for. Some were in the automatic column, and some were that the boys simply didn't do the necessary work to complete the badge. the fact that we get those numbers- and our Troop is hardly alone in that, leads me to believe what my tours of the camp had already told me- that this camp isn't a MB mill. the counselors seem to have a handle on the content, and the attention of the boys. But they are also willing to refuse sign-off if it is warranted. I also know that the 1st year program is a skill learning session. they let our SPL know what they have covered, and he had the PLs sit with the boys and make sure that they actually knew the skills before they signed off in their handbooks. The camp staff didn't do that themselves. My son's biggest complaint is the food- other than that he always seems to have a great week.

When our Troop does Scouting for Food, we make it a Patrol competition. Patrol with most food collected by weight gets to eat a meal with the Adults on the next camping trip. Additional bragging rights for individual with highest total weight collected. BTW, we do NOT count this as service hours towards rank advancement- just something that we do as service to the community.

The Order of the Arrow requirements are pretty simple: For a youth member, you must be 1st Class or above, you must have camped for 15 nights, with up to 6 of them being consecutive nights at a BSA camp. Once you have met those requirements, your Scoutmaster must approve your name to be placed on a ballot. The OA will come to a Troop meeting and run the election (th boys are elected by a simple majority vote of their peers). The Order is an Honor Society- a place for those who truly live the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives. It is not a checkbox on the list of Boy scout to-dos. I personally think that most troops (and Scoutmasters) do a poor job of policing who they choose to elect to the Order, hence the term "sash and dash" for those who have no plan to ever serve their Troop or Lodge in the spirit of the Order. If your unit is electing boys to the OA that have not met those requirements, you need to inform your Scoutmaster, and probably the local Lodge leadership of this. Of course, those without proper camping experience probably will not complete the Ordeal anyway, so maybe the process is self-policing to some extent...

The District and/or Council Advancement Chair should be providing an updated list to every Unit Leader. The first step in a Scout working on a chosen Merit Badge is to talk to his Scoutmaster to get a Blue Card and the contact info for the appropriate counselor.

Copying would absoutely be a copyright violation.

Calico-

I think that the concept of a Merit Badge event, in and of itself is not a horrible idea. I do have an issue with the way a lot of the badges are being "taught", since the role of a MBC is not to teach the content of the pamphlet to the Scouts. In my situation, I truly feel that they way I structured the sessions so that they were discussions of the content, rather than me lecturing to a roomful of Scouts on a Saturday morning, made it a worthwhile experience for them (and me too). As i said, I was not there to rubber stamp a stack of blue cards, and even though this was not a class with an "Automatic Partial" asterisk next to it, only 5 or 6 of the 33 boys actually did the work, so only those 5 or 6 earned the Merit Badge. My son attends MBU, and has gotten a lot out of it, but he is also a very dilligent student, and dives into every subject as if his life depends on it. I also quiz him about his experience on the drive home- just to make sure that he is not being spoon fed the information that is in the pamphlets- which he reads and marks up as soon as they are delivered, usually a couople of weeks before the first weekend of MBU. He has done Cit in the Comm and Cit in the Nat at the last 2 events, and he sat down and did the reading, looked up inofrmation online, made an appointment with a Selectman (and gave an interview to the man that prompted him to email me later to tell me how insightful and mature his questions were). I know he is doing the work to earn the badges. I can't speak for everyone, and I know that there are plenty of badges being "earned" that are not truly being earned. I just hate to see the whole concept be maligned when it could actually be done on a large scale with proper results.

Of course it can be taken back if the BOR thinks he hasn't fulfilled the requirement. 

BOR is NOT a re-test. If the ASM incorrectly signed off, the SM should rectify the situation. If it gets past the SMC, the BOR has no authority to deny advancement. That is NOT their function- they are more of a gut check for the Troop as a whole. Their questions should be about the Scout's experiences in the Troop and where the program is succeeding or failing form the boy's point of view.

In our Troop, the SM signs off at SMC. He does have periodic SMC with each of the boys about Troop life in general and advancement goals (or not, depending on the boy) a few times per year anyway. So there is never any misunderstanding about what constitues the fulfilment of each POR, or any doubt about whether or not the Scout is on the right track.

I agree with Stosh. Yes, those rank requirements are tough. They should be. The Eagle needs to have that tarnish polished off, and this is one good way to do it while reinforcing the outdoors as our venue of choice.

I am a MBC for multiple badges, and was assigned DIgital Technology for our local Merit Badge University in March. I am on the fence about the real value of these venues, but for some badges I think they can work. At least we have 3 sessions, with a break between the 2nd and 3rd, so the Scouts have some time purposely set aside to complete some of the requirements. The organizers always talk about "teaching" a Merit Badge, but that really isn't our job. We are supposed to counsel the Scouts about how they might complete the requirements, discuss topics with them, and sign off when they have been completed. Period. I was assigned a 2nd counselor, who despite my urging, sent me the most horrible PowerPoint presentation I have ever seen. I told him that was not how we counsel a Merit Badge. Despite it being a badge about technology, the right way to not use technology to spoon feed information to the Scouts, but to  lead the sessions (not classes!!!) was to generate a series of questions that would lead to group discussions that would satisfy the requirements that start with "discuss with your counselor...". I sent an e-mail to all the boys that had signed up for my 3 sections, telling them what they were responsible for as prerequisite work, and for other work outside of our meetings that would satisfy the remainder of the requirements. Out of 33 Scouts, only a handful finished by our third and final session. Others are in contact with me, and I will sign off when they have completed the work, or they can find a local counselor to finish with. My 2nd counsleor never did make an appearance- I guess he wasn't up to the task of actually counseling the Scouts.

Well, good luck getting National to do anything IT related quickly or correctly...

We use a separate slip for each trip- allows us to collect any funds as well as create the roster of Scouts (and needed adults) on a per trip basis. Makes life easy for the Committee person and Scout team that organizes each trip.

A little off the topic, but relevant with regard to this new QM: The Troop needs to make sure that they capture everyone in how they communicate. If one patrol has a member without email or Facebook, then that boy's PL may need to go the extra mile. How about a phone call or printing the email and making sure that a schoolmate gets it to him. This isn't rocket science, it is a PL doing his job and taking care of the boys in his charge. I also agree with Stosh that this Troop appears to be too adult-led. The SM shouldn't be appointing POR. You have a boy who has offered to step up when others wouldn't. Do everything you can to make him successful. If the SM doesn't know how, maybe he needs to repeat SM training. These are the building blocks of a successful boy-led Troop. Not allowing them to develop into good leaders is short circuiting the program and short changing the boys.

I have a more basic question: Why did that 12 year old have to be FC before he "stepped up"? There is NO rank requirement for POR. There is a POR requirement for certain ranks. They are not the same thing.

Gipper- You are assuming that one Troop is "raiding", as opposed to asking a kid who may or may not have friends in the other Troop already or just be unhappy with his current Unit. Also, the OP hasn't filled in any blanks about who is making the contact.

Perdidochas- You also have made assumptions without getting all of the info. You can stand by your opinion until the cows come home, but given only the information provided by the OP, there was no reason to raise the YP flag first.

I am just curious why more than one poster on this thread automatically assumes the worst about other Scouters. Then you wonder why you have a hard time getting volunteers.

Well, since the OP didn't say how the contact was being made, YOU made that leap all on your own. I understand that YP is important, but why was that your first thought? You assumed it was a Scouter, and you assumed that the contact didn't also talk to the boy's parents. There is an old line about the word assume...

Please explain how YP is even an issue? A Scout is being asked to participate in Scout functions with a different unit. Ethics maybe, inter- unit relations probably, but there is no YP issue.