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my kid does a lot of stuff. scouts, soccer, baseball, band, church. we refer to Scouts as our Alamo. if we need to cut back for $$$ or time, Scouts will be the last activity to go. why? the only one were you are allowed to try, to challenge, and to possibly fail, and then go again. no loss of playing time, no drop in the lineup, no cuts, no one giving you crap for striking out or missing the goal. and the right balance of organized and disorganized--structure when the even calls but plenty of room for boys to be boys and just play/have fun. I have never seen my son smile/laugh on t

My son is on the chapter team. this was the second weekend of multiple ceremonies. Last week had the morning/evening split. This weekend was back to back sat evening then another sun afternoon. The chapter has multiple team members so we can accommodate several ceremonies even if the timing is tight or the geography is hard. But I share your frustration with units who don't have a great sense of time. Our bigger issue is getting units to coord well in advance so we can support all. so many packs and basically all wanting to go around the same time. need advance planning to reduce/el

"It's gold Jerry, comedy gold!"

well, I think many will say boys like to be with their friends and that improves the likelihood of retention. I would have to agree. Your son can always wear the full uniform. model the standard you want, don't lower your to match. go to summer camp, try to emphasize it yourself. again model the pgm you want--organize the SFF or service project, maybe it doesnt happen because no one cares enough to step up. I can not believe anyone would actively oppose one organizing and leading such efforts. Your son can earn Eagle on his own pace. No need to worry about the others. No so

I would think a simple would you perform it in front of your Mom would work 95% of the time. the other 5%, well....

"What happened? First event (a Webelos crossover) some mom of one of the kids in the pack (we learned later she was from SF and a graduate of either Berkeley or Stanford) complained to the CM and SM how offended she was (as a white person) that the Scouts would "so grotesquely flaunt and denigrate Native Americans" by dressing up and performing as such." And hopefully, no one gave her an outsized voice and changed one thing which is what seems to happen. People cower from those squeaky wheels instead of standing up for what they think and that emboldens further "protest" as it is seen

"I was checking out their site and noticed that you don't need to sew on rank patches - they will hang from the temporary badge button under the pocket. I think that's a great idea!" Let me offer a suggestion gained from years of switching unit patches on my flight suit: velcro. On my son's uni we use it for rank, position, patrol. makes swapping easy. I use it on mine for position. A friend who has switched units a lot (military moves) has it for every single patch on his shirt. anyway, I know that wasn't the focus of the thread but compelled to comment

Thanks. great feedback. Like I said, we are not turning anyone away nor will we. just a general concern for the other troops--we all have friends and good relations with all of them and in the end I don;t think anyone wants to become a one troop town. We run a good program and know it--and more importantly the scouts and the community do as well. we know that is what is selling. we are patrol method, boy led. we are planning on three xover patrols with dedicated TG and Instructors for each. we plan on taking those patrols and their TG/Instructors aside so during the first half of

Hello, Interested in hearing some opinions. In our town of around 50K (a bedroom community for a larger metro area) we have 4 troops (although one is chartered thru the catholic school/church and their membership is generally parishoners/students so their members generally didn't consider other troops and non parishoners/students dont join), 1 LDS troop. there is also a troop at the nearby base and one each at two much smaller but adjacent communities. So lots of great options for boys. All troops are healthy, no issues, good leaders/boys. I would recommend any of them to anyone.

that is what we do. we usually get double digit web xovers. the boys found it easier to get them trained up if they were in patrols of all newbies. the older scouts can focus on them and their training. we really focus on getting them thru the BoR for Scout and started towards TFoot before summer camp. then we integrate them into the mixed patrols.

and DJT went to a military themed high school, not a military school. USMA, USNA, USAFA, USCGA, USMMA are military schools. I would even grant VMI, Citadel, Norwich. Current or former commissioned military officers on staff and who develop and execute/supervise the educational and training curriculum. As an Academy graduate I hardly consider DJT's experience remotely comparable.

or "this is how we always have done it"

BORs are scheduled for the last meeting of the month (except for CoH (quarterly) month--we bump it up a week to allow completion before the CoH). Boys sign up on our website calendar, by the Friday prior (we meet on Mondays). The Adv Chair always has Committee members ready to go. We have found setting a stable schedule has smoothed the process for the boys and given them targets. It also ensures we have the people set up to do the BoR. Yes, if you get your requirements done early in the month you have to wait a few weeks but we were having problems putting together BoRs on the fly as b

yeah those of us on the IL side of the river are watching nervously. Rumor is folks in the local scout office have already been told they will no longer be needed. Another is the closings will be on our side as well--driven by the upgrade requirements for which their is no money. Hopefully the OA lodge holds , but apparently a big council in the DFW area wanted to do that and was denied by Natl so we may get thumped to keep the peace. The big scuttlebut is this wont be a merger of equals--GSLAC will be the 800 lb gorilla and act accordingly (they have been that way previously)--and that th

Our troop follows if it is on the troop calendar, then it is a troop activity. from that we count everything but Troop meetings towards the requirements. Some council events make the calendar, but not all--just the ones we traditionally send a good sized contingent (usually travel as a troop, even U of Scouting and the like)

SInce Scout is now a rank, with more and more structured requirements I think earning a MB before Scout will become the norm. It could just be easier. Our troop just had a campout on the lake where the boys earned the mototboating MB. Several hadn't earned Scout yet. now we don't have too many (if any) asking for blue cards on their own--they are earning as part of a specific activity. when my son became a scout a couple of years ago he went to a MB day hald by the council the weekend after blue/gold xover so he earned a badge before scout and this was before it was a BoR rank. I thin

we meet all year--every week. obviously mtg participation dips over the summer but we just keep rolling. and since we generally have a campout every month (except for the month summer camp occurs) we are getting ready to have our SPL election. We will then have leadership and PL elections. Then we will have the PLC. We let the fall staff run the PLC. The spring staff gets summer camp.

tedious, not hard. I would agree with that assessment. and agree we are getting the boys on outings (be it camping/canoeing or other cool adventures) which keeps it fun. haven't seen that impact for the cooking. while some are doing it for the badge, most are doing it so they eat! we also do a few pure cooking campouts at our COs local property so we can have a "local" campout when there isn't a bigger activity planned. That allows for a lot of instruction and getting different boys opportunities to do a lot of cooking. and drop in adults a lot of eating

We are finding it slow going with Scout now being a rank. We are boy led, not a mill but the last few years we were able to get our incoming (motivated) crossovers (usually around 12) generally through TF fairly soon after crossover (or before summer camp) and then they left camp well on way to second/first class. This year we have maybe 2 done. And word from the other Troops in our community is the same, few if any have completed Scout. Understand it isn't a race, plenty of time to advance, boy led they go at their own pace. But I have also seen a correlation between advancement and r

one of our parents runs a silk screen/t shirt business. we did 5 cotton shirts for a week of camp (5 different colors, one for each day) with simple troop logo on front. $25 for 5 cotton, 50 if you wanted the wicking material.

something to consider is appearance of favoritism. while not a perfect parallel when I was in command I didn't friend any of the folks in my unit unless I could friend them all--because i didn't want to create the appearance of playing favorites when it came to assignments, deployments, discipline, whatever. Again, it is different in a Scout unit but what if one of the boys an ASM or SM friends gets a coveted position and the one who doesnt and isnt a friend points that out--or a non friend is disciplined. probably extreme examples. I think beaver makes some good points about engagement

I will offer a counter. Our Troop has 4 CoH a year (once a quarter) Each one was expected to be different, and more elaborate, than the previous--which also mostly meant the parents of the assigned MC team was on the hook for way too much planning and execution. The boys were running out of ideas and locations and the parents were dreading when it was their boys turn. Plus, our troop has generally tied it to the Comm badge (the MC's are doing the planning etc) and were spending more time on party planning (or getting park/community rec center permits) than actually communicating or working

must be nice. here fees for HS/JrHS extracurriculars.

we ask $100 a year at registration time. xover scouts get prorated for what they paid to their Cub pack. we pay as you go for different events. there is some subsidizing summer camp but I don't know the methodology or amounts--pretty much pay your own way there as well. fundraising (outside of the popcorn system) a few times a year, troop gets a cut then we have some sort of system which allocates remainder to the scout that did the selling that somehow isn't the illegal scout account. the boys can use that $$$ to pay for events.

I am an ASM chartered as a committe member. I have not done the O of IOL. As someone mentioned the cost in time is steep. I have three kids. It is hard enough to devote a weekend to just the boy (forsaking whatever my daughters have on the calendar) when I go on a troop outing. I am for sure not going to go on a wholly seperte outing w/o any of them. That is if the one or two times the council holds the training doesnt fall on a big weekend of events (our council seems to always schedule on prom/homecoming/graduation or other highly scheduled weekends). What is truly aggravating is