Eagle94-A1

Back when DALE was announced it was going to SCOTUS, I had a CO tell me they would no longer charter a pack. I had until the end of the School year, about 4 months, for the pack to find a new CO as they would no longer be allowed on the property. When BSA changed the youth membership standards, we lost a bunch leaders, donors, and an entire troop went to Trails Life. In fact, it was the troop my son first visited and wanted to join. Our membership number in my district have dropped, and it looks as if we may have to merge with another district because we do not have enough youth members to

I would love to say the Scouts, but it's complicated. 3 years ago, it was suggested to try something new by one of the ASMs. Boys agreed, and we went there and had a good time. When it came around to last year, unanimous decision was to go back to that camp, which we did. This year got interesting. I don't know if one of the ASMs got involved or not, but the SPL put his foot down at the planning meeting with the PLC saying we needed to go back to our home camp this summer, which we did. I know the adults talked about trying to convince the Scouts to go back to the home camp, so I don'

I beg to differ. School and Scouting are two different animals. You cannot compare the two based upon my experiences as an educator and as a Scouter. School is regimented, disciplined, and has a hierarchy to instill knowledge. Scouting, especially old school Scouting as envisioned by BP, is a thing of self-learning. The Scouts do things on their own with SMs to guide and mentor, not supervise. You go to other countries, and Scouts will camp as patrols on their own without any adults present. In the US, that is no longer the case since about 4 years ago. In my 34 years in Scouting, the yo

Question is am I paranoid enough?

Agree, I would have issues if a manager didn't have a hard time allowing folks they do not know take over. Supplement my staff, yes and have had that happen back in the day. But as a pool manager, you are legally obligated to make sure folks meet all of the requirements for certification and maintain those skills. Only time I had no problem with someone coming is and working was when they came from a sister facility when we were short staffed, and I was one of the instructors who trained her. FYI, I would have yanked them out but was told not to by the BSA Aquatics Supervisor when I was ab

While having a UC affiliated with a unit, let alone having a Scout in a unit, is not optimal, there are times when districts have no choice. I had to take over as UC when the UC of the CO's units died unexpectedly back when my older two Scouts were in the pack. 5 years later, I'm still the acting UC for the pack, not the troop though, because the two UC's they had assigned to use got frustrated enough with the troop to quit. And some SM's are so obstinate that they refuse to listen to anyone who is trying to help them. It sound as if this is the case with the SM of this unit. And one o

Until the SPL resigns, just stops showing up, or the youth want a new SPL, Zuzy's son is till the SPL, regardless of what the SM or any other adult wants.. The youth voted him in, and the adults need to keep out of it. Adult interference WILL (emphasis) destroy a troop. My troop is currently having issues because of adults constantly interfering. It's only been since we have stepped back that things have gotten somewhat better. Most of the youth are still not happy with the situation, but are tolerating it now that we adults have backed off and let them run things.

EBOR members are as varied as the leaders in Scouting. I've seen first hand, and heard of some EBOR members from the district level who are real control freaks, and are very offensive. The district advancement chairman who sat one mine was one such fellow, and I believe he sat on a friend of mine's too. As I've mentioned elsewhere, he wanted to deny me my Eagle because he was not the DAC who approved my Eagle project. And while he did approve my friend's project, at the EBOR made a comment that if he had known exactly what was involved, he would not have approved the project since it didn't re

Doing a little research, finding someone qualified to run the Mile Swim may be a challenge. I needs to be a BSA Aquatics Supervisor or equivalent. BSA Aquatics Supervisors have to go to National Camping School. As for "Equivalent" I am assuming, and you know what can happen when you assume , that means a BSA Lifeguard Instructor, who is trained by an AS to teach BSA Lifeguard, the Aquatics Supervision Swimming and water rescue, etc. http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards_Central/MileSwim.aspx

If losing membership is "thriving," I'd hate to see what dying is like.

I agree with Mash, some of the kids I guarded while doing mile swim had me on edge the entire time. It was so bad that if I had the ability, I was guarding to meet BSA Lifeguard requirements and didn't have it, I would have taken two out because they were essentially doggie paddling the entire time. Several times I though I would have to go in.

Yes, and then you have to take it off afterwards.

Reason why my friend left and restarted the pack was because the IH is an Eagle, saw that the church had at one time one of the oldest troops and packs in the council, and saw a need for a pack and troop. Very hard to say no to your pastor. That CO wants members of the church as CM and SM, and asked him to be CM. Funny thing about the pack, they "ripped off and duplicated" my pack's program. Some minor differences, but overall identical. This has been pointed out on multiple occasions when I and my middle son were asked to switch packs. If you have enough folks from your CO to run

I agree it is not good as it leads to burn out. And I do agree I wear too many hats. Trust me I've stepped back from to focus on the two units I serve. As for the UC role, gotta remember I'm the Assistant District Commissioner for Cub Scout Roundtable, and was asked to be the temporary UC when the CO's UC died and they could find a replacement. Reason being was that I was with the CO, but not with the troop, and maybe the SM would listen to me. Didn't happen, and I asked to be replaced before a UC could be found. Long story short, there have been two UCs since me, one who was a former ASM

I gotta laugh at that because you need to read my previous posts over the years about this troop. I have bent over backwards trying to help this troop out. Here's a quick summary of the past 6 or 7 years. As soon as I found out the old SM was stepping down and that the new SM and other leaders did not have IOLS, I set up an IOLS course in 3 months working around that troop's schedule specifically to get their leaders trained. The SM was the only one to attend and told me the reason no one else showed up was "it's too cold to camp." When their UC (who was very active, knowledgeable, an

I know the blue cards have a section for the Scout to keep as a record, so I don't understand why the SM holds onto all of them until he is an Eagle. Glad he got the MBCs to sign a second card. Question, can your son get a copy of his SCOUTNET records from the council? I'd be more concerned about that since if the SM loses bluecards, is the records getting turned in to council? And even then, I know for a fact that sometimes councils will lose, misplace, or even use the wrong date the rank and/or MB was earned in the records. Took a month AFTER my EBOR for council to fix my records as th

Some ideas without expanding upon the hurt feelings: Scouts volunteering at Cub Scout Day Camp, Pinewood derby, etc. Den Chiefs which is what you are doing already. Get pics in the newspaper, website, facebook group, etc. Publicity is a good promoter. Have scouts invite their friends. Get a list of all the dropped Scouts/ failed to cross over ex Cubs, have the Scouts look at it, and see who they can talk into visiting. I can understand your situation completely, i.e. involved in one pack but involved in a different troop. I'm still in it, a pack committee member w

Last night was another reason why I like having a Scout pay some how, whether doing fundraising or putting "sweat equity" into doing camps and trips. As you know, my troop's Philmont trip was cancelled, and we had a bunch of upset Scouts. One of the leaders was bound and determine to get the boys on a special backpacking trip and they are doing the AT. One of the Scouts who was suppose to do Philmont is in financial difficulties. The fundraisers didn't pan out as planned (one reason trip got cancelled). Anyway, to go on the AT trek, The Scout was borrowing a bunch of the gear needed for t

That is a very real possibility. My wife's best friend and my in-laws had a conspiracy to send us to Orlando to go to Disney as a Christmas present. Friend had a timeshare she couldn't use last year, and the in-laws paid for the tickets. We could not afford to go otherwise. Edited: One thing I did was mention that fact to folks, because it can look very bad, and appearances are important. I especially mentioned how the present was given, i.e. a box with a card saying "You're going to Disney!" and the look at first of stunned belief on the youngest son's face, then the "happy dance" he did.

To quote Spicolli, "AWESOME! TOTALLY AWESOME!"

No apologies needed. Trust me, I've probably heard the rant a time or two. One reason I didn't send oldest to that troop to look at. However, that is the troop oldest has a bunch of friends from the homeschool group in.

Yes, the maple sugar frosting and BACON is awesome. I should have added, my family too has a ban on DD. Something in their ingredients really gets to my hoodlums and make their behavior worse than normal. In-laws are not happy with that as Mom-in-law is a donut fanatic, and used to bring a dozen or two from DD since we have a DD store 3 blocks away. But KK and a local bakery's donuts, as well as the Duck Donuts above (with their MAPLE AND BACON DONUT ) do not cause behavioral issues.

We've had some transfer in, and some transfer out. Our door is always open. Our concern is when they quit altogether. I've helped Scouts find homes, even if it wasn't the troop I'm with.

When I say I find a troop's practice EBOR, here's the reasons. 1) The DAC and/or EBOR members have a yearly meeting talking about the entire Life to Eagle process: i.e. projects approval process, paperwork involved, the EBOR, etc. I attended part of one (it was the same night as Roundtable), and it was extremely informative. It does prepare Scouts for the entire process and I want to take my son to the next one as soon as he is able to. 2) From I've been told, these "practice" EBORs are harder, more difficult, and are more on the lines of retests than a true BOR. 3) I've been told

Yes, I've never heard of a practice EBOR until I moved to NC. Only reason I can think doing it here locally is that when the council went from troops holding EBORs with a district rep to district level EBORs, the troops kept doing them anyway, calling them practice. Personally I think it's a waste of time. But that is me.