Buffalo Skipper

I live one of the largest communities of military retirees in the nation, and I have heard these "fake" bugles play at several funerals the past few years. The local naval base is a training center which draws in service members from all the branches. These students are encouraged to participate in the ceremonial teams, and can be heard daily at local funerals. They are taught how to "simulate" playing a bugle, and do so flawlessly. Nearly all in attendance have no clue they are not really playing. That said. We enjoy our bugler playing at campouts. We even have a back-up, as we hav

mmhardy, Yes he does avoid eye contact and interrupts others, but I have not noticed him ever violate others' personal space, and he rarely steers the conversation to his topics. When he is done with the conversation, he generally walks off, whether others are done or not. Willful is a signature trait, and he does sometimes appear to be selfish and aloof. He is stiff, though I would not say rule oriented. Though I know him from church (we are always uniformed at scouts), I have never noticed that he follows or ignores trends. His hygene is above average, but not excessively so.

Stosh, Keen observations. The 4 who are not in patrols are not "active." Three are 17 and approaching a birthday (in one to five months) and have openly declared that they will not be participating in campouts and that their schedule will prevent them from attending most meetings. All are closing on Eagle, but it is quickly appearing that one will not get his project off the ground (less than 60 days left), another had his project a week ago, but is floundering on MBs, while the third has his project in 2 weeks and is nearly done with his last 2 MBs. The fourth is the younger brother of

How about having a scavanger hunt? Announce it in the camporee guide, and encourage units to gather older scout uniform parts and patches in advance. Have it all to be turned in in the morning (tagged) and display it at the afternoon events. Come up with a clever way to judge it, and offer bonus points to patrols which wear vintage uniform parts (extra bonus if they are wearing matching/age appropriate rank insignia). Make it fun and they will come.

Have the sit down chat with him. And yes, make it a preemptive conference; don't wait until he comes to you for the Life SMC. Talk about scout spirit. Ask him who shows the most scout spirit in the his patrol and also in the troop. Ask him about his scout spirit. How does he say he is doing? Discuss the specific areas in which he appears to be lacking in spirit, and how he can improve that. Ask that he come back to you with a written plan with specific goals in which he can show scout sprirt, not only at troop functions, but also in his daily life, at school and at home. Set up a

We also have a small troop, and we have limited the number of PORs. We have 2 patrols, and five scouts not assigned to patrols. Four rarely attend meetings and never outings, so I didn't want to burdon the patrol leaders with their dead weight. The 5th is the SPL and we have no ASPL. We have a Bugler (because he has a bugle and can play--he is a vital leader in the troop), an Instructor (who does a reasonable job), and a QM (who is actively reorganizing, inventorying and maintaining our troop equipment). All these are members of patrols. One of our PLs is the Chaplain's Aide, and does hi

I need some advice. We have a scout who has developed an attitude problem, and he is a PL. It is difficult to sum up the issue here. He decides what to do, and does it. Right, wrong, or indifferent. If he decides that the previous patrol leader did not call the patrol members, then he sees no reason to do it either. If he takes on a project, he will stubbornly work on it until it is done (or finished); he will not ask for help, nor will he listen to any advice offered. When offered advice or an idea, he will even sometimes respond with a snide remark. And for all that, he can never

Uniforming is a method of scouting. "Partial Uniforming" is not a method. These are the rules, plain and simple. I see scouters who don't view it as important as saying "The rules shouldn't apply to me/us, if we don't want them to do so." By instilling that value in our youth, one reinforces the social stigma that rules don't always apply. Recently an NFL player $5000 for wearing the wrong color chin strap; he did so intentionally. Is the lesson of doing what you want because you want to do it the lesson you want to reinforce to your scouts? When I see a scout in blue jeans and

In the past (going back to when I was a scout in the 70s), any requirements change could be deferred IF the scout was working on the rank (or Merit Badge). So a First Class scout on December 31 could earn Star with either (all) the old OR (all) the new requirements; one could not mix and match. I believe there is a blanket statement in the Advancement Committee Guidebook to this effect, which is in line with what you have quoted from Scouting Magazine. I do not have my ACG with me today as my personal scout office/file cabinet (car) is in the shop, so I can't confirm that. Again, this

I know this thread is about Scout pants with the Activity uniform, but to me the uniform is the uniform, so I will comment on it as a whole. At the troop, we expect our leaders to wear a complete uniform to set an example for the scouts, and we do. For over a year, I had been working with the scouts to wear a complete uniform, which had been laxly enforced in the preceeding years. This was met with significant resistance, especially by our oldest scouts (who are now 17). As these older scouts began attending fewer meetings, more and more scouts began showing up in a uniform shirt with

That's good information. I still think the requirement for Star is whole out of line, inappropriate, and unnecessary. The cost and availability of such courses (even 5 years from now) will be limited at best; after all, who will really be taking these courses except Boy Scouts and a few sporatic others? On the other hand, if a course like this was offered directly by BSA, that would be the horse of a different color. On the same lines, that raises a multitude of other questions and issues. It will be intersting to see how this pans out over the next few years.

beardad, Once your son earns the AoL, he is eligible to join boy scouts. EARN is the operative word, not present. It is appropriate to present the AoL once earned; this can be done at a pack meeting. Otherwise, the boy scout and cub scout programs are exclusive of each other. One is either a cub scout OR one is a boy scout. Once one joins a troop, it is pointless to "return" the pack to cross. We had two Webelos 2 dens last year. One choose to cross in November. The other included the newly recruited 5th graders, and waited to cross until all den members were eligible. The e

"I've never been to a Scout camp that didn't have at least one camp dog hanging around. Usually some mutt that wandered up and lives on dropped Cheetos and burned bacon. They can't leave because they're too fat for the hike out." Twocubdad, I am not talking about puppy-eyed district committee members--every council (and camp) has plenty of those. I am talking about a troop which on occasion takes along a leader's pet dog. It seems to me that the right dog could be a real bonus to the troop, teaching lessons of BPs original 11 points of the scout law. It is nothing I am really ser

I was reading an old (pre-1920) boy scout fiction book I found burried in our scout hut, and it referenced a dog who accompanied the troop wherever they camped. I know there are many places today you cannot camp with dogs--that is not the discussion I want to have now. But have any of you seen modern troops who have a mascot with them at appropriate campouts and outings?

We also have a female SM for our upcoming Wood Badge course. She is also the council commissioner and a real ball of fire. She also is no token appointment, though she is the first ever in our council.

I have seen in our council (and occasionally when meeting other troops at out-of-council camps) a handfull of lady Scoutmasters. I have great respect for them all and I cannot recall one whom I did not perceive as doing a fine job. I have also seen troops which state (very clearly) that women have no place in their troop as ASMs. One of these in particular is chartered with a church who does not allow women in top roles in the church either. Though this is allowed (the charter runs the unit), I believe it is out of touch and reminiscent of the dark ages. Years ago in our troop, we

We are working hard to inspire our young scouts to attend high adventure bases, and it would be cool to have a contingent at the first year at The Summit. For us, distance/travel break-down to high adventure bases from Pensacola are as follows: The Summit 750 miles, 10.5 hours driving time Florida Seabase 750 miles, 12 hours dt Philmont 1300 miles, 20 hours dt Northern Tier 1500 miles, 24 hours dt Yes, we live in Florida and it take less time to drive to WEST VIRGINIA than to the other end of the state. Irony can be so...ironic. I am looking for

I have heard (not in our area) of Girl Scout counselors chartering all girl Sea Scout ships; these are frequently called "Mariners" or "Mariner ships." If this is true, they would be registered Sea Scouts (BSA) so including them also as Girl Scouts would be double counting. Or so it would seem.

I attended some years ago an Eagle CoH which was done with several scouts at a campout/campfire. They did not want a big deal, but patrols made deserts and parents were invited. It was really well done and very tasteful, elegant and an excellent way to receive one's Eagle.

Great information, and glad to hear it. Any pictures from the flyover or of the model? I'd love to see more....

Hoping I didn't bust out laughing, I would reply that as a SM, I am fond of quoting our founder, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, who said "Advancement's like a suntansomething that happens naturally while you're having fun in the out-of-doors." I would continue by saying that advancement is something we do not rush. It must be done at a pace which is best suited to each scout. One of the main goals in our troop is to foster growth and responsiblity in the outdoors through fun, games and skills. Certainly we want and expect scouts to advance, but that will happen as we are doing what t

Being a SM with 3 months left as W2DL and having made multiple crossover presentations at roundtables (to Troop leaders, Pack leaders and SPLs), I can tell you this is how it is suposed to be done (by both the SM and the DL--well done!) I took my son to 3 troops, even though I am SM of one troop, and I have encouraged my Webelos to attend more than just my troop. We have hosted Webelos from dens which were "committed" to other troops, but we welcomed them in the same warm and inviting manner. In the porcess, I have seen many surprising things. I have had Webelos cross solo to my troop

Nothing to brighten the day like reviving a long dead thread. I have been strongly encouraging our patrols to earn the National Honor Patrol, and they appear to be doing so; but 6 weeks ago, the patrols decided to change names (and I told them that the "new" patrol could only begin the required 3 months once the new name was adopted), so they have 6 more weeks to go before they are eligible. My questions are on the second and third requirements: 2) "Hold two patrol meetings each month." Does this include meetings at a troop meeting, if this time is designated or should this be

For our BS Roundtable, November is our planning month. We all sat down (we had nearly 50 in attendance) and discussed what we wanted over the next year. The BS Commish (that's not BS for Buffalo Skipper, by the way) wrote down all the ideas, and will now try to prioritize them and when applicable, place them in the best month. We typically use December as a social (pot-luck) and is as well attended as any other month. Some of the BS leaders agreed to do some dutch oven meals. We typically also have a similar gathering in July, but decided this year to suspend that meeting as many would be

We just came back from our district camporee, and I have a very fun story to pass on to the gang. The camporee had a Renaissance theme, and there were events like Don Quixote Dragon Fire, Stump the Wizard, catapult, chariot races and the like. It was a lot of fun. The event was organized and run by the troops SPLs and has been 1 year in the planning (it was originally planned to be the Spring Camporee, but severe weather caused it to be cancelled). However, I want to tell to you about the catapult competition, in which scouts competed for both distance and accuracy. Most troops brough