Hedgehog

@@David CO I think that the "RULE" is an over reaction to the problem of one boy choosing Eagle over Confirmation. I don't see how the two are mutually exclusive. The boy could do Eagle first and then Confirmation later. It is sort of like choosing to start out your day by drinking coffee or exercising. Choosing one doesn't preclude the other later. Nonetheless, I think the conflict between Confirmation during 8th Grade and Eagle would be minimal. My son received his confirmation in 8th grade this spring and also earned his Life rank. He progressed pretty quickly in our unit (Fi

@@Stosh. I recognize that our troop has a long way to go to teach true servant leadership. i've mentioned before that I'm working on the materials for a weekend training program for the leaders. All of your thoughts are helping me think about how to teach servant leadership. In this situation, I have a boy who does care and wants to lead by helping others achieve what he has. I think it is true servant leadership to spend your time making sure someone else enjoys and benefits from scouting. Really, he is leading one boy at a time and being a mentor. Maybe his example will inspire othe

That is another "adult goal" that I have - asking the boys in all positions to set goals for their positions and to think about (and maybe plan) how to accomplish them. @@Stosh, I think our definitions are more similar than different. When I talk about "what needs to be done", I'm talking about goal setting. Leadership can be an individual setting a goal ("I'm going to organize the troop gear") or a group goal ("Our patrol is going to teach lashing skills"). Management is "We have to arrange the troop gear because the ASM told us to." Deciding "How to do it" can be leadership by an in

@qwaze - I like your idea, but my sense is to let the boy who wants to do this figure out his own way. After thinking about this, my sense is that I let the scout that wants to take this role do it. It works for him as a learning experience, it helps the other scouts with advancement. What I've realized that I'm tripping over is the organizational contrivances that I'm trying to fit this into. If the boy wants to help others with advancement, then the most important thing is that he be given that chance. I don't understand your distinction between leadership and management

@@Stosh - I agree that the PLs and APLs should be doing this. But that has proved harder in practice in part because of our focus on boy-led. The issue has been discussed at PLC meetings by the SPL based on a mention by the SM. But, it seems that everyone agrees that they need to do something, but forget when they go to their patrol meetings because of everthing else they are judgling. So I'll admit that my adult solution is to put a boy who cares in charge of taking care of the new guys. It beats micromanaging how the PLs operate. There are a lot of other priorities that I'd like to see

Agreed. That is why I won't rule out a NSP if we get 10 crossovers and won't automatically form one if we get 4. @@Stosh and @@DuctTape, our issue isn't the lack of opportunity or coordinaton with the outdoor program. We have at least one campout per year where the boys can do orienteering, a hike on half the campouts, two backpacking treks a year, etc. The issue is like @@qwazse said, for the PLs advancement of other scouts is low on their list. Nobody is paying attention to the fact that the guys HAVE completed the requirements and that is with TG's inserted in each patrol, presuma

Our troop hangs out at night at camp. There are at least three or four chess games, a checkers game and a couple of card games including an interesting one where you play without people telling you the rules (which I've never figured out). A couple of guys bring books to read. I can't think that our troop is that much different from the rest. Have him do the First Class skills. Our camp includes rifle shooting and archery, a 5 mile hike and a lot of swimming as part of that. If he is a good swimmer, swimming is a great badge (and there is some overlap with the First Class skills) an

Valid point. The problem is our recruitment is like a box of chocolates -- we never know what we are going to get. My first concern is that we have four Troop Guides and no NSP patrol - not really "standard" BSA practice. With that structure, I am seeing some problems with advancement where it seems that some scouts are falling through the cracks - having completed requirements and not having them signed off or just not knowing what to do to get the next requirement completed. My sense is we have four guys not taking responsibility. Like the saying goes - if everyone is responsi

I like that idea. I still think giving a "path" will more strongly instill a sense of purpose and recognition, but this is a workable solution. The problem is that the PLs have not been historically attentive to advancement because they are focused on their other duties. We've got a group of young PLs coming in next year and my concern is that they will be spending their time getting up to speed on other duties that are more urgent (but not neessarily more important) than advancement. Stosh, we have a significant retention rate of boys that join our troop. Over the last th

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~Edmund Burke.

Having an NSP is a non-starter. Been there, tried that. Listening to feedback from new scouts they unanimously say the best part is that they are part of a patrol with the older guys from the beginning. I like the NSP idea, but I can't impose that over the boys decision. I'm in agreement that having a TG for each patrol is overkill. It take most guys around 18 months to get to First Class - some in 12, some in 24. They set their own pace. So there probably are around 4 guys in each patrol that are below First Class at any point in time. That is why I was thinking having one guy do t

In a way, that is what I'm struggling with. However, there is more to the description of the POR in ILST than just the new scout patrol: Troop Guide Introduce new Scouts to troop operations. Guide new Scouts through early Scouting activities. Help set and enforce the tone for good Scout behavior within the troop. Ensure older Scouts never harass or bully new Scouts. Help new Scouts earn the First Class rank in their rst year. Coach the patrol leader of the new-Scout patrol on his duties. Work with the patrol leader at patrol leaders’ council meetings. Atten

Our Troop has 4 mixed age patrols with a Troop Guide assigned to each patrol. The TG's role is to assist with advancement of the scouts through First Class and help integrate the new scouts into the Troop. Our new scouts come from one to four packs in any year and we get anywhere from 2 or 3 to 10 new scouts. Our Troop's experience has been that the NSP doesn't work because the new boys want to be part of the regular patrols. Our boys have decided that they don't want a NSP and I'm not going to overrule that decision. My first thoughts are that we aren't using the Troop Guide the way t

Maybe reach out to counsel and have them find someone to do training for the boys. It seems like nobody in your troop is trained - adults or scouts. Heck, if you are located within 2 1/2 hours of Princeton, NJ or are willing to have the leadership do a weekend campout at a location somewhere in that range, I'd be glad to come out and do leadership training for both the Scouts and Adults (not SM Specific). I"m currently (I mean moments before I checked in) working on a program to be done during a two night campout.

Now is the time to start to build a boy-led troop. The boys should be the ones teaching the skills and the boys should be the ones signing off on the requirements. You really don't learn something until you either do it repeatedly or have to teach it. In our troop it is the Troop Guide, the APLs and the PLs that are permitted to sign off for Scout through First Class. The Scoutmaster signs off on Star, Life and Eagle. The boys should be encouraged to do activities that practice scout skills at their weekly meetings. Have a contest to see who can build a tripod the quickest and

@@Beavah you are not the first person in my life to criticize me for standing up for my principles. I've stood by my principles even when I knew the outcome would be better if I just "got along" or "went along." I will always take the side of a child when an adult uses their position to disadvantage a child. I will always take the side of following the rules even if it means damaging relationships. I will always speak out when I see something that is wrong regardless of who I'm speaking out against. I will never just stand by when I see an injustice - no matter how small. SSF's boys

However, "consistent with" doesn't mean "contrary to." If a SM and CC are violating the rules to advancement, there is no way they are consistent with BSA Policy. If the CO knows of that violation and permits it, then they are not following the conditions of their charter. We're not talking about asking the scouts to take care of the CO's property, we're talking about going against very clear BSA rules. Maybe a scout's advancement by the rules isn't important to you. It is to me. Every scout should have to follow the same set of rules and criteria to attain a merit badge or rank. It f

I'm encouraging our CO to insert an additional rank of "Hedgehog" between life and Eagle. Small furry friendly mammals are under represented in the BSA ranks. We have wolves, bears and Eagles. The requirements are an additional 10 nights of camping, a 50 mile backpacking trek, the Wilderness Survival merit badge plus a boating merit badge and a shooting merit badge. If they do, could or should a scout challenge the CO's ability to do that?

You are assuming facts not in evidence. The post said the SM and CC banned this parent, not the CO. We have absolutely NO IDEA what the CO's role in this is. As @@CNYScouter stated, most CO's have no clue what the unit is doing. Your CO most likely is the exception. It is also certain that as @@TAHAWK pointed out, that the CO is requied to implement a program following the BSA's rules. You can own a McDonalds franchise, but you can't sell pizzas unless McDonalds says you can. The CO can own a BSA unit but it can't come up with its own advancement rules. No,

I really can't let this pass without commenting on it.... No. Boy Scouts are boy-led. An adult-led is Cub Scouts. Please read this link: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/TheBuildingBlocksofScouting/leadership.aspx which is quoted below: Although the BSA may ignore it, being ADULT-LED is not a method of Boy-Scouts.

It is sad when people have to leave a troop because it is being badly run. @@SSF, if you are anywhere near New Jersey, your sons are welcome in our troop.

Correct. But the benefit of the $168 write off depends on your tax bracket. If you are in the 25% tax bracket, it would be worth $42. As a result, the decision doesn't rest on the benefit of being reimbursed vs. taking a tax deduction -- you will almost always be worse off while taking a tax deduction (the break even point is getting 75 miles per gallon with 2.50 a gallon gas at a 25% tax rate). The decision is whether you want to increase the costs of the trip to include the cost of gas or if you think the adults are comfortable donating the costs for gas.

We've got 50 boys in our Troop and there three other troops in the same town -- pretty popular if you ask me. I share your frustrations with the "school" merit badges and the "school' parts of other merit badges. However, you have to understand that Eagle is not just a measure of the boy's competence in the outdoors (Camping, Hiking/Biking/Swimming, Cooking) (actually, I think that there should be more emphasis there) but also is a reflection on character (Personal Management, Family Life, Personal Fitness), citizenship (Community, Nation, World) and stewardship (Sustainability / Env. S

It wouldn't be a problem in my church: http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/13/pope-tells-moms-its-ok-to-breastfeed-in-church/

Stosh: It is actually 4 out of 5. The five meals would be for a weekend campout and would typically be a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner and a second breakfast. The menu and shopping list is for the five meals.. However, you only have to prepare four of the meals: 2 using a lightweight stove or low impact fire, 1 using a dutch oven, foil, kabobs, etc. and then 1 dessert or snack which is "prepared" but not necessarily cooked (i.e. application of heat to ingredients). It makes sense to cook a breakfast, a lunch, a dinner and a dessert and not repeat the breakfast. My guys do bteakfast on