swilliams

I very much dislike it when I feel the need to question a scout or parent, but sometimes it happens. This one is a biggie, and I've reached out to our CC, but wanted to get some other opinions - opinions and advice from those who don't know the scout. Last night at our troop meeting, a Life scout handed me a stack of completed blue cards. I sat down this morning to get them entered, and after recording two of them, realized that they all (9 of them) had been signed by someone with the same last name as the scout, on the same day. In one case, the original subject of the blue card had been

What is "Tatoo"? Do you have sheet music? Bugleson (or maybe we should just refer to him as Scoutson, now that he's not really bugling anymore) felt that Taps was too melancholy. Maybe our new bugler could use it as a replacement.

My recurring nightmare is that my husband will make me use the chainsaw. I can, but I hate it and it scares me.

No, sadly. He stopped as soon as his six months was up - a year and a half ago. He played at one of the Camporees with much encouragement (force? lol) from me, but he never really got comfortable playing in front of people. He still loves band, where he's one of three dozen kids up there performing, and trombone is still his instrument of choice, but he will pick up the trumpet from time to time just to mess around. I don't think he could hit that high G now. Use it, or lose it.

Just wanted to thank you all once again. Bugleson did get his merit badge (a long time ago now), but I came back to this thread for a reminder, as our Troop now has a second scout willing to take on the position of Bugler. I'll pass along suggestions for him when he meets with the SPL to determine what his role should entail.

I have no experience with other Venture crews, but ours is probably not much like any other out there. It is all girls, for starters; mainly sisters of Boy Scouts. The crew advisor quickly realized that while the girls wanted outdoor adventure, they had little interest in Venture advancement. We meet once a month for an hour and a half, and have one outing a month during the school year. One of those is a day of outdoor service. That’s pretty much it, but it has done really well. The boys’ troop our CO charters is about 30 scouts, the girls’ is 15, and the crew is 22 strong.

I've been saying similar, but my (admittedly hopeful) estimated number of LDS scouts/families who go this route are higher than most folks here agree with.

Found a few things while browsing old threads, but could use some specific tips for recruiting. I recently agreed to take on recruiting, as we haven’t had much luck in finding another adult to step into a formal recruiting position. Here’s a little info about what’s up in our troop. We had previously drawn from two towns, but the neighboring town has been able to get its own troop up and running, and they seem to be doing well. As a result, we won’t see any new scouts from that town. In addition, the packs in town have been going through some pretty major changes, and have seen their

There are a number of members here who have offered help and asked for clarification from you, despite what some of us saw as a rather offensive opening. There’s a lot to learn here - if you were really looking for help.

Half glad you opened this, and half not, because now there’s an opening to let others in on actual church teachings. And there’s the possibility that I’ll be admonished for this post, but I’ll put it here anyway. I’m also a Mormon, and there’s a very good reason - besides being married to a Catholic - that I choose to not be an active member. I appreciate your views, but you don’t get to dictate what Mormon doctrine means to anyone but yourself. Did you have to sit in seminary every year and watch that hideous movie about how many cows a woman is worth? Did you ever have leaders

It's possible to respect what they're doing but still feel a bit hurt by their statement or diminished by how the program was presented. I've done my best to refrain from what would be considered attack, while still expressing what recent events have meant to me, personally, particularly given some of the teachings I was raised with - and which are not appropriate to go into here. In any case, it's less about how they are running their program, and more about the presentation. I wish they would have given different examples of what young women can accomplish. I am thrilled that th

I’ve been stewing on this statement about the BSA leaving the Church for a while now. Churches/religions exist to guide us in being closer to God. By extension, deserved or not, they have an inherent moral authority. Having a church leader say the BSA left them is essentially saying BSA stepped away from morality. With the high-profile acceptance of gay males and then females into the program, the implication becomes that allowing these youth to participate in scouting is immoral. Is it any wonder this subject gets heated? It was an unfortunate statement that I don’t think was really mean

I added the non-practicing Mormon part to my post because I DO understand the doctrine. I love the LDS Church, and am very grateful I was raised the way I was. I fell in love with and married a Catholic though, and have taken a couple steps back, which gave me a slightly different perspective. I also understand the need to feel like one has to defend the Church - there is plenty of misunderstanding and hostility out there, but Mormons tend to see any criticism as hostility, when it just isn't there. As to the claim that the Boy Scout program was not a priesthood program, you're right

The LDS Church has revised it's stand on same sex couples being apostates. They've also said that they understand that being gay isn't a choice, and that if a member is gay, that as long as they are not sexually active (with someone of the same sex, of course), that they can be members of the church. So... I'm a bit puzzled as to why BSA's acceptance of gay leaders and youth was seen as 'not standing on principle', and why it was an issue for the Church. If it wasn't the acceptance of gays, then was it the acceptance of girls? We're to believe the Church doesn't see women as inferior.

You've just found the solution to the BSA's woes, lol. In all seriousness, though, I've been pushing for our middle school to allow the troops in town to reach out to all potential scouts through either the 'Friday Folder' emails or the PTO. There's also something called 'Enrichment Day', and while it's technically for exploring types of jobs, if they'll let the color guard of the high school take a slot, I don't see why not scouts.

Okay, on reflection, my post about not willingly working with the OP wasn't very scout-like. Rural has it own set of strengths, you need to look for those. My neighbor showed me how to gut a deer (Wilderness Survival?). His nephew - yes, many of the people in the town are related - showed me how to make an excellent jerky and mix meats for hot dogs (Cooking?). This summer/fall, we joined a friend in harvesting her garden and canning (Gardening). How to develop leaders? The point here is that regardless of where in the world you are, there are going to be folks who can have a po

A bit? Sorry, but as someone who lives part of the year in a very rural area which, if one were being nasty, could be described that way, I would not voluntarily choose to work with someone who had such disdain for those he/she was purportedly trying to help. Seriously, OP, you need to do a LOT of self-reflection before trying to lead anyone.

I only got through 12 minutes before stopping (had to get my daughter from swim practice). As soon as I heard “home-based, church-supported”, I cringed a little. Everyone will start with the best of intentions, but without a more concrete structure or plan I don’t see busy families creating something that will last longer than a few months at most. Granted, there may be more laid out that I didn’t get to, but if that first twelve minutes is really all there is to it, I don’t see how it’s that much different than what a lot of us do with our kids on a regular day-to-day basis.

Troop stayed at $100. Many of our parents don't care to be involved beyond coming to a COH and dropping their kid off for meetings and camping trips, so most of them have no idea that National raised their fees. We're looking at a spring fundraiser to offset the increase, but nothing is set at this point. Crew stayed at $125 for current members, and is $150 for new members. We only have one new member who hasn't been involved in the past. Other new members are sisters of existing crew members, so they were aware that the crew charges a bit more - mostly to offset the more high-adventu

Had to laugh at this, particularly since our Venture crew girls were giving me the stink eye as I had them collect more and more dry grasses. They were using a striker, and still barely managed to get the twigs going before the grass ran out. As leaders, just like scouts, we learn best from watching others who are more experienced. Anything I might manage to do well is something I picked up from other scouters. That makes it tough for those who don't have the advantage of having a strong unit with experienced leaders or those who weren't scouts themselves. For units that aren't getting

I was seriously surprised that a troop is trying to be formed in my parents’ town. My initial thought was much more aligned with what others have posted above. With what my mom was saying, I got the impression that even with a robust church program, there were still enough families that want their kid to potentially earn Eagle, that it was worth the effort. (Of course, that brings up the issue of earning rank v. experiencing scouting, but that’s another topic, to some degree.)

Background... I was raised in a long-standing Mormon household. As in, I have a great grandfather's journal about living in Illinois during the Mormon persecution, another grandfather who was part of the Mormon Battalion, and other ancestors who travelled with the handcarts from NY to UT. I was talking to my mom recently. My parents live in a very tiny town smack in the middle of Utah, with a population that's 99.5% Mormon. (My guesstimate. Point is, very little religious diversity.) Mom is on the city council. She said they're looking into who could be a CO for a BSA troop becaus

Don't want to hijack, so I'll start another thread, but I have a little bit of insight here.

Slightly less than the rumored $70-100, but that’s a significant jump. Ouch. That’s an increase of about $2,000 for our troop, assuming council dues stay the same. Meanwhile, our fundraising numbers are down for the fourth straight year.

Unfortunately, no. Because we don't use Scoutbook (we use Troopmaster), I can only view items on Scoutbook. The good thing is that the MC for the COH is a super bright kid who understood my instructions to ignore the merit badges with an 'R' next to them when creating the program, and add in the list of merit badges and awards I emailed him last night. My daughter asked me this morning if fixing the BSA software would be considered an Eagle project. The project of the century, haha.