JosephMD

15 is not a young eagle, considering one could earn eagle before they are even 12 if they join when they are 10 1/2. It takes 17 months, that's it.  Of course, it will probably take most longer.  My son seems to be on track for earning Eagle at 14, still has personal management, fitness, & family life, all of which he has started, and a project to do.  His goal is to have is Eagle Court of Honor before he goes to the National Jamboree in July of 2017 (he'll be 15 in March). 

I know a scout who earned Eagle at 12, he might have been young, but nobody would look at this scout and say he wasn't Eagle material.

When I was doing my early rank boards of review back in 89, they were really hard.  I was tested thoroughly, but that was the expectation given to me, that I would be able to answer any question and / or demonstrate any skill that I had learned to get the requirement signed off.  I studied my scout book all week before the BoR, to be sure I knew everything I was supposed to have learned while working on skill awards and the first aid merit badge.  It was actually kind of scary, but that's just how it was done in my tiny troop.  Of course, I never forgot how to tie most of my knots, or my first aid skills, so, there is that. 

My star rank BoR was the most scary, knowing everything about all 5 merit badges I earned ... but that is when things changed, I wasn't so much tested on the specific skills, but rather, it was a conversation about what I had learned.  Even in 89 & 90, this probably wasn't the way it was supposed to be done.  But I think my SM, hey, he was the troop adult, so he did the BoR with his wife, the CC, and that was it, I think his goal was to make sure we would always be first class scouts, as long as we should live, and know what a first class scout should know. 

Would I do that today, no, but only because it is against the rules, not because it wouldn't be the right thing to do. 

I wouldn't worry about a couple of weeks if he hadn't taken the opprotunity during the previous six months, especially if basketball takes priority.  He should schedule his scoutmaster conference at the next time that it is convienent for both of them.  If the SM will not set a schedule, then, it is time to go to the distirict or council under disputed circumstances. In most cases, this will take several weeks, or even months, but committees have to meet, they have to make a determination, all of that takes time, they are just volunteers. 

My son, 14, has been in his troop just over 3 years now and has 96 nights of camping under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America. 

Oh, he has 24 more nights scheduled before the end of August! 

I'm not sure what your role is in the process.

Has the scout completed all of the requirements?  Your focus seemed to be on the project.  Was it approved by your council or district?

You also mentioned leadership, has he completed requirement 4?  

As for outdoor skills, if he has completed the required merit badges, there really is no room for judgement.  I don't like it, but the requirements are the requirements. 

Take some time to read the guide to advancement, again if you have already done so.  When I run into situations where a scout doesn't meet my idea of what a First Class, ... Life, Eagle, scout should know and be, I just have to remember, it isn't up to me to set the standards, the standards are already set. 

The closing ceremony was great.  We went to pick him up as a Family, and hoped that my younger son would see something he thought was awesome.

At the closing, each participant had a chance to speak.  You could definately tell that these scouts were going to go on to be leaders for some time, weather it be SPL, OA Officer, VOA Officer, I'd bet a paycheck a few of them will become young second lieutenants or ensigns in the US military. 

Like NYLT, it his descriptions seemed to be a lot like Woodbadge, with NAYLE adding a lot more of experience and taking some of the core concepts to a more advanced level.  So, the name is pretty descriptive. 

He should be well prepared to staff NYLT on July 9.

My son is at N.A.Y.L.E. this week. I'm thankful for the Summit Bechtel Reserve, although it is a long drive, it is drivable from where we live opening up opportunities that we would not be able to afford given the travel involved to, for example, Philmont.

Other than that it is the next thing after Natinoal Youth Leadership Training, I don't really know much about what N.A.Y.L.E. is. I'd imagine it is a chance to reinforce what was learned at NYLT while at the same time getting to take in some of what the high adventure camp has to offer.

He did call from camp on Tuesday, just to let us know that parents are invited to their closing ceremony on Friday night. I've already booked my room out that way & I'm looking forward to it. This is the first of his two trips to the Summit Bechtel Reserve this summer.

I don't know at this point if "I have to drive to the summit" or "I get to drive to the summit" I'll make that judgement in August, but I must say, I really enjoyed the drive from the gate to the welcome center and back on Sunday!

Strange, so, it isn't something that needs to be filled out - it is just an extra page (looking at the link for the summit).  It looks like I can just print out that page and staple it to the ABC he already has. 

J

It has been a while since I've been to a high adventure base.  Did they do away with the D section of the Annual Health and Medical Record? 

He might mean that the lodge isn't being "Thrifty"

Having seen what goes into budgets, you are right.  I think it comes down to, our youth do the planning and from the top down, it is stressed, you can't be negative under any circumstance.  So, they are overly cautious with their budget estimates that dictate the price.  The nice thing is, when the event comes in at a surplus, that surplus goes back into the program in different ways, so it isn't money wasted in the end, so it doesn't really bother me. 

I don't know what makes sense or not.  But I just write the volunteer mileage off.  Keeping track of it for a year can be tough, but it really adds up. 

Inspired by another thread on budgets, etc.  I thought I'd do some discussion on OA related expenses.

Lodge Dues - $14

Banquet - $35

Spring Fellowship - $35

Ordeal - $35 (regular member price)

Conclave - $40

LLD - $10

Fall Fellowship - $35

That's $204 / year.  I think I captured everything.  Our lodge does a deal that includes Dues, Banquet, Spring & Fall Fellowships that saves about $15 if you pay in advance.  That's what I do for myself. 

Not sure why the banquet is that expensive. I suppose I could look at their budget. 

I will probably also attend a fall ordeal this year, so, probably another $35

$60/year dues, which just barely covers registration, Boys Life, and badges.

 

We do targetted fundraisers for specific needs on occasion.  Campouts are $25, summer camp is whatever summer camp is depending on where they want to go, paid out-of-pocket.

 

 

I'd love to have $480 per Scout per year to play with - we could plan an expedition to Mars with that kind of money - but I nearly got lynched when I moved to raise the dues from $48 to $60 a few years ago.

Before I got involved with the troop, they started having a lot of problems with fund raising.  Too many fundraisers, too few scouts showing up, not enough money being made.  So charging per activity was common.  It was also common for scouts to show up without payment, not because they couldn't pay, but because, they, forgot, or, their parent, forgot. 

11 camp outs per year at $25 adds up, plus $60, plus summer camp, sounds like it will almost always exceed $480/year.

Scouts, lets face it, it costs money, have you noticed how much a merit badge costs these days?  $2.49 -- wow, why?  Ranks $1.99. 

Food is getting more expensive, especially given that scouts are not the thriftiest of shoppers, go figure.  But it adds to the cost of camping.  First aid supplies, and so on. 

I'm not particularly fond of the system, but it does work. 

Troop dues are $40 / month, covers registration, awards, food on camp outs, & summer camp.  Flirting with $45 / month as summer camp has gone up quite a bit since this scheme was started.

The idea behind including summer camp in dues has really improved attendance.  If you can't make it to summer camp, the cost can go toward a make up summer camp held in our county.  you can do both, but you have to pay for one of them out of pocket. 

This was an actual question asked in a lodge candidate forum.  It isn't required but the last few lodge chiefs have purchased the polyester/wool uniforms to wear when performing their official lodge chief duties. 

They do make for a nice looking uniform, considered it for meetings, but if I were to have a third uniform, I would still want it to be useful in the outdoors. 

Of the three dens you noted, how many had den chiefs?  Den chiefs that were trained and engaged?   Den chiefs that come from healthy troops?

My son's first real interaction with a Muslim was through scouting, National Youth Leadership Training.  Wouldn't you know it, the course was occurring during Ramadan, but just the tail end.  Their blue patrol decided to fast on the last day and have a big party at sundown for Eid al-Fitr.  I think it was a good experience for him, a learning experience in other cultures and religions.  Although I know he went through a lesson on Islam in the home school, that was more history and less, today.  He also learned that turkey bacon, while kind of tasty on its own merits, does not deserve the term bacon in it. 

Did you "earn the patch" or "Medal"?  

Of course.

My younger son is probably the most proud of his medal and hopes to get it presented at the year's last pack meeting, hopefully his extra dangly bar will come.  Older son thinks the medal is cool, but was more interested in the patches.

It was an expensive day for sure.  $10/person registration, included event patch and participation CSP.  $10/medal plus $5/add on bar (they didn't have the one for cub scouts).  $5/ for the "earned" CSP looking patch, which they didn't have for our hike.  $15 parking, so, over $100 at this point. 

The good news is that most of the "profit" goes to the council history committee, my son the patch collector gets some goodies, and a good time was had by all. 

Obviously, some left overs from 2015! 

Today, my sons and I spent the day in Washington DC walking James E. West History of Scouting trail.  One of four hikes put together by the National Captial Area Council History Committee.  My older boy tried to get this going with his patrol but had no takers, so decided to take his little brother instead.

It was't a long hike, at least not the planned route, but logistically challenging and took much of the day for various reasons.  The idea is you walk to various locations via instructions given on a guide and answer challenge questions at various stops along the way.  Some of them were easy, others, not so. 

If you ever have a unit or patrol in Washington DC, be sure they know about these hikes.  They take you around all of the sites in the down town federal zone around the mall, captial, and white house. 

http://www.ncacbsa.org/activitiesevents/host-hike/

Somewhere in my 20's I picked up swearing as a pretty bad habit, it is finally wearing off over the last several years. 

When it comes to scouts, I really don't worry about their language very much, it has never gotten to the point where it would bother me.  There are times when an expletive is just the right word.  I suppose, if I were a scoutmaster and the swearing got excessive or inappropriate for the situation, there are several points of the scout law than can be discussed in a scoutmaster conference.

It is funny though, when they do swear, and they think you, the adult, heard them, there is that look, like, what is he going to say, like they are waiting to be reprimanded. 

Our council's cub resident camp confuses me, it is hard to tell if it is considered family camp or resident camp, I mean, it is a resident camp, yes, but they don't go with den leaders, they go with parents, which is understandable for 1st-3rd graders I suppose.  My older son went 3 times, after tiger, wolf, and bear (yes, after bear he did two camps).  The year after the tiger, the program was great, but each year following, it wasn't quite as good as the previous year.  My younger son isn't as into camping, he went to that camp the summer when he was a tiger after joining in spring but he wasn't quite ready for it so we didn't go back.  He was also the only one from his pack to go.  A major difference in philosophy between the cub camp and the webelos camp is that the cub camp liked to put all the singles and doubles together in a group.  The webelos camp liked to put the smallest and the largest together, so the den of 1 joins the pack with 3 dens of 7, which I think worked out a lot better.

As far as the program went, it was very much like a day camp during the day, you just ate breakfast and dinner there, and slept at camp.  The cub programs generally ran Friday, Saturday, & Sunday.  Friday - camp tour, swim test, campfire.  Saturday, program, Sunday program & evening campfire.  Flags in the morning and evening, before breakfast and dinner, uniform expected.  Not wildly different than the first two program days of webelos camp really. 

The program will depend on the camp.  I take from the information you provided that this is for Webelos scouts.  The real answer is, it really depends on the camp culture, camp director, etc.

I will give you an example of how one of my council's Webelos camps ran their program.

Sunday - camp tour, check in, swim test - evening campfire

Monday - set time activity periods at stations like, archery, bb guns, waterfront swimming, nature, scout skills cooking, handicraft

Tuesday - set time activity periods at stations like, archery, bb guns, waterfront boating, nature, scout skills knots, handicraft - evening foil meals in camp

Wednesday - set time activity periods at stations like, archery balloons, bb guns crazy targets, waterfront choice, service project, scout skills choice, handicraft - evening water fight

Thursday - set time activity periods, build your own den schedule from activities above, plus more activities such as hiking, boy scout camp tour, readyman, swimming hole, arrow of light program - evening scavenger or staff hunt

Friday - open program, take a buddy to any program area in camp, take some adults and go for a hike (hikes leave the camp) or go to the swimming hole (a shallow stream, my youngest son's favorite activity) - evening campfire

Saturday - get up early and depart, the staff is looking forward to their day off!

There are two standard flag ceremonies per week day, morning before breakfast and evening before dinner, uniform expected, dens sign up for flag duty.  Lunch / siesta usually two hours, gives plenty of time for camp service project (my oldest son built nice toilet paper rolls holders for latrines, so much better than a nail!)

I think they run a pretty good program there.  The design is to adjust from that structured day camp program that the scouts and parents are used to, to a less structured boy scout camp program where you get to choose your own adventure.  A den leader doing this right will turn the Thursday schedule over to their scouts and give them advice like, maybe you should start the hike in the second period, as it is better timing for lunch, and besides, everybody else starts it at the first period and it'll be crowded!

My oldest son went with me the first year, he was the only one from his pack so we teamed up with a pack that had three full dens of Webelos where he fit right in and they appreciated the extra adult as well.  His second year he talked the webelos in his pack to go back to that camp and he went with his leaders and not me, had even more fun I think!  New pack, my younger son and I ended up the only ones again, this year, he is going again, my wife is going this time as there are only three scouts. 

This was similar to one of my ticket goals.  As the troop committee advancement coordinator my goals were all related to advancement.  One was to provide the scouts with material explaining the various awards and achievements outside of the trail to Eagle.  Since it wasn't a project, only a ticket goal, it was focused only on boy scouts, and unit awards didn't occur to me.  A couple of the scouts have shown interest in the Nova awards, and one is considering working on the Hornaday award because environmental causes are kind of his thing.

Yes, I have dealt with this sort of thing before.

 

First of all, you need to know that my Chartered Organization is a school.  We would treat this behavior exactly the same as we would if it had occurred in the school cafeteria.  Can you imagine how your kids' school would react?

 

I have said this before, so I'll try not to belabor the point.  I don't see why boys in a scout activity should be held to a lesser standard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can tell you exactly how it was handled in my middle school when I was a kid.  Part of my wall of text that I backspaced out of last night was my own experience doing that as a middle school student, in school.  A couple of us crushed up smarties, snorted them through a dollar bill.  One of the assistant principals called us in, asked us a couple of questions, called us idiots, and told us it wasn't a good idea and that we probably shouldn't do it again.  Like he had to tell us, I still remember the unpleasantness that was snorting crushed smarties into your nose.  I'm happy to say I've never snorted anything since. 

OK, what is up with my backspace key?  Lost another wall of text.

Well, it was great, wet, muddy, chilly, but still great. Seems that most scouts had a blast.  Our chapter's contingent of 17, 12 youth & 5 adults was the largest conclave attendance from our chapter in recent memory.  I can only imagine how much more fun would have been had with great weather!