ValleyBoy

Our main winter campout is our district camporee that is always the last full weekend in January at Camp Lumpkin on Lake West Point.   it has been shirt sleeve weather some years,  one year we had rain falling sideways by the bucket full.  Ice storm one years with a low of 11 degrees which is down right cold for our neck of the woods. 

Being from the south what is a quinzee, to lazy to google search.

6 hours ago, denibug72 said:

I have to disagree with ValleyBoy.  I'm part of our district advancement committee and sit on the project approval boards each month for the district.  Depending on how he presented his project to us, I could see it being approved in our district.  As others have said, there is no building requirement for Eagle projects, and I definitely don't see this as a routine labor situation.  Valleyboy, if he held some kind of a collection drive to collect more Lego sets, would that help his project in your district?  As it is, I honestly see enough chances for him to show leadership in the project as it is, but he'd have to be able to articulate it in his presentation.  I love that he has a connection to the beneficiary - so many of the projects we see in the district don't have that, so it's refreshing when we have a scout that has an out of the box idea like this come up for approval.

 Could this project meet the requirements of an Eagle Project in the district that I am in?  Yes if the scout presenting the project the for approval can show that there is more to his project than just repackaging Lego sets and then presenting then to the school..  

The main issue here could be in how ASMmom1976 son presented this project idea to his project coach and how her son interpreted his coaches response on the project idea   Also if you go back and reread the first post the project coach told here son that for this project to get approved by council  it was going to take more, and his suggestion  was building storage cabinets. 

So to answer your question a collection drive to collect more Lego sets would help. 

As a member who sits on my districts board that approves all Eagle Projects I would be very concerned about approving this as a Eagle Project for the following reason. The project listed is to give 50 Lego sets to a school.  I would have no issues with your son giving them to the school but would have issues with this being an Eagle Project just due to the fact that the on showing leadership and work involved is to just to insure that each Lego set is intact with no missing pieces.  The only way as listed above that I could approve this as a project is to have your son make storage containers for each Lego set. Yes and Eagle Project does not require that something needs to be built but a Eagle Project does need to require more that just giving something that the scout already has or can just buy  and calling it an Eagle Project.

The Eagle project is owned by the scout that is doing the project for Eagle so they are responsible for the workforce doing the project.  As an adult we can advise on the project but the project is owned by the scout.  On most Eagle projects that I have assisted on the bigger issue I have seen is how the scout deals with adults working on the project.

23 hours ago, Bside said:

New member, relatively new Scoutmaster with a few years as an Assistant. Recently, Some members of my PLC had a sleep over. One of the Scouts has developmental delays. He is ADHD, on the Austism scale and has learning disabilities. He is a non aggressive, non violent 13 year old. All of the boys there have known him for a few years through the troop. They all have seemed relatively accepting and patient with him (under adult supervision).

At this sleep over, the other boys began to bully him throughout the night. The adults in the house were sleeping in another part of a relatively large house. At some point, the SPL approached from behind, stood over the boy in his underwear as the boy sat on the floor watching a movie, and straddled the boys neck, pressing his crotch against the back of the boy's head and neck saying he was going to tea bag him. The boy pushed him off and demanded that he stop. The other boys, all part of the PLC laughed at the boy as the SPL persisted, again and again, 4 times until the boy began crying . The boys continued to mistreat this boy throughout the night until he finally called his parents, early in the morning to come and pick him up. 

When his parents arrived, he was crying, angry and very upset. He was ashamed and embarrassed and didn't understand why they treated him that way. As the Scoutmaster, I feel compelled to act. In the few years I have been active with the troop, I have observed instances of bullying and mistreatment among the Scouts. Since becoming Scoutmaster, I have addressed these incidents with the troop many times. I have explained to them that this kind of behavior is unacceptable, impressing upon them that they should be looking out for one another, rather than being unkind. I have explained that the Scout Oath and The Scout Law stays with us all and is not left in the scout room. That they are a code a set of values that we all must try to live by. Values that our society respects. 

I haven't had a chance yet to ask the PLC about this incident. I know from experience that this boy is telling the truth. Before I take action, I must get their side of the story, and discuss the incident with the parents. My plan of action is this; Counsel all of the boys involved. The SPL for his actions, and the rest of the PLC for their failure to put a stop to it. After that the SPL must Mea Cupla in front of the entire troop, explain what he did, why he did it and why it is wrong. He must then apologize to the Scout. I will then suspend the SPL from his position for 3 months. The rest of the PLC that was present will be placed on probation for the remainder of their tenure in their current positions. A further similar act of poor scout spirit will result in me suspending them for 3 months from any leadership positions. 

I invite thoughts and advice. 

From going back and reading your first post and the other posts that have been made on this subject here would be my advise and the reason for the advise.

As Scoutmaster you were aware of the bulling and mistreatment going own within the scouts in your troop.  You addressed  the issue with the scouts since becoming Scoutmaster.  The behavior did not change with this group of scouts.  Therefor actions have to take place within the unit.  On top of this being and issue of bulling it went entirely to another level of sexual assault just due to the fact that the SPL used the "tea bag him". Now I had to look up the meaning of tea bag since I did not know its meaning which I will not list here.  I also have a special needs daughter and can understand that as the parent of the child that these actions took place against that you do not want to be seen as taking sides on what is decided within the troop.  The youth involved should be glad that you do not want to have criminal charges brought against them.  But when it comes to them being members of the Boy Scouts of America that is another story.  Each one of these youth should have read and discussed youth protection with there parents so they and there parents are aware of were the BSA stands on this issue.  When it comes to the scouts this type of behavior cannot be tolerated.  I know that they are still children but this needs to be reported to your Scout Executive.  The reason why this needs to happen is that you as the SM having taken  take youth protection to be in your position  are required to report this issue to your local council.  Really what reporting this to council comes down to is that these are youth instead of adults.  If it were adults it would have been reported to council without question. 

I know at this time you have turned this issue over to one of your ASM and a member of your unit committee but they also need to be aware that they are also required under Youth Protection to report this issue to council.   

I watched a facebook live from my local council yesterday and the numbers given was 3,000 and something boys registered in the council as of end of September.  The number of boys registered was 5 more than at the same time last year.  The number of girls that had registered as of the end of September was 285 if I remember correctly. 

Also over 60% of the adults registered had completed the new youth protection.  In my district 71% had completed the new youth protection.   

Our unit counts time in rank year round.  Most years we have one weekly meeting after summer camp which is usually near the middle of July then do not start meeting again until school starts back which is usually the 2nd week in August. then we do not meet from the middle of December until the first of January.  Added together we takeoff 6-7 weeks a year just depending how the dates fall on the calendar.

Our Charter organization at this time charter a troop and is in the process of chartering a coed pack.  The discussion has taken place about starting a "linked troop" but the 2 troops even thought they could meet at the same time and place will not meet together. 

A Big thank  you for dealing with this issue.   

I have been a member of many of my districts EBOR.  To my knowledge we have never turned down a scout for the Eagle rank that has come before the board.  We as a board know from reviewing the Eagle application and Eagle Project that the scout has completed the requirements for the rank of Eagle.  Yes we have had one or two paper Eagles come before the board but as long as there paperwork was in order and the scout did not state that he had not actually completed all the requirements for the rank of Eagle the scout has not been turned down by the board. 

I have seen this in the past were a Pack that's Charter Organization was a church required that the adult volunteers had to go threw this process to be able to meet at the church.  In this case it was the same requirements that all the church members that worked with the youth in the church had to go thru also.  As the other two posts above this is not uncommon. 

22 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

While I agree 110% with this as my troop has too many helicopter and lawnmower and gunship parents, I am going ot play Devil's Advocate as I am still affiliated with this one, parent heavy program.

What about all the Cub Scout parents?

 

Rule being applied to the entire year is asinine. All Cub parents would need to be registered is indeed the 72 hours is for a program year.

I can see being registered with the troop but when it comes to packs I do not see where this should apply.  My reason is the following.  Excluding Webelos the only over night camping that a cub scout can participate in is family camping where a adult relative has to attend.  My council has a fall family camp (3 weekends) and a spring family camp (1 weekend).  Packs do attend and reserve campsites but all registration for the event are done by each family not the pack.  

7 or 8 years ago we had a volunteer who's background check came back with him being in jail in another state.  Local county sheriff wrote a letter to our council that the volunteer was not the same person that the background check came back on.  At the time I believe the background checks were ran on full name, sex, and birth date.

Learned yesterday that the Life Scout had the wrong date listed for his Life board of Review.

59 minutes ago, qwazse said:

@ValleyBoy I have seen more scouts with a paperwork mish-mash that I'm just waiting for my district advancement chair to approach me at round-table and tell me to have my scouts clean up their act.  These scouts are often the boys who drift into meetings only when they need something relevant to advancement.

They wouldn't admit it, but I suspect the boy and/or his dad who you talked to were intentionally running an end around the committee.

I think independent project plan review is good learning experience for scouts. We need to get it out of our heads that Eagle should possible or even probable for any scout getting reviewed by the district.

This boys Troop has a good SM who's work load has keep him out of town to a high extent the past several months.  The boys from his troop that come before the board are usually better prepared that the boy that came before us last night.  Also the Troop does not have a strong Troop committee.   After the meeting last night the 3 of us that sat on the board talked about this youth and the consensus was that he is just one of those youth that keep putting thing off and thinks his effort will be enough to get him by.  One of the members of the board has been to summer camp the past 2 years where two troops have gone in together so has seen this scout in action.  The boys father seemed to understand the information we gave to both of them last night and did not seem upset.

We had two Life Scouts present there Eagle project to the district advancement board last night for project approval.   On the first Life Scout we had no issues with his project and therefor gave the scout district approval to start his Eagle project.  On the second Life Scout we had two issues with his Eagle project the first was that project had not been signed as being approved by his unit committee.  We have had this issue come up in the past and usually what we have done is go ahead and review the project but inform the scout that we could not give district approval for the project until after he received unit approval.  District approval would be given for the project at that point by the scout contacting one of the district advancement committee that he presented his project to for approval.  The second issue we had with this Life Scout was that his Life Scout Board of Review date listed on his project application  was 5 days less than 6 months before his 18th birthday.  Both these two issues were discovered while we reviewed his project workbook before the Life Scout  came before the board.  We then called the scout and his father who was with him into the room and explained  to both of them that if the date of his Life Board of review was correct that he would not have meet the time requirements for Eagle before his 18th birthday.  We still reviewed his project with the Life Scout with the hope that he had the wrong date listed for his Life board of review.   

12 minutes ago, TMSM said:

I thought you needed to be  life Scout to even start an Eagle Project - Who approved this project?

 

 

Per the article he became Life Scout in February and started the project in March.  

This Life scout did not receive the rank of Eagle Scout due to a Technicality.  He did not achieve the rank of Eagle Scout because he did not meet all the requirements to earn the rank of Eagle. 

36 minutes ago, CalicoPenn said:

It is an internal governance document for BSA staff.  Not everything the BSA has documents for are available or even should be available to volunteers.  This is one of those documents.

If you know of a volunteer that should be removed from Scouting, your role as a volunteer gives you only one option - report the person to the Scout Executive.  That's all you can do.  Volunteers do not remove people from Scouting.  Volunteers do not investigate people for removal from Scouting.  If you think someone should be removed from Scouting, then report it to your Scout Executive.  Your Scout Executive will investigate (if s/he doesn't, they will quickly find themselves out of a job) and then will report to National as the decision will be made at the National level to remove someone from the BSA.  You may not like the outcome if the Scout Executive finds that the actions of the volunteer does not meet the threshold for removal. 

If the issue turns out to center on personality clashes, you're right - the Scout Executive won't do anything - its really not their job to mediate differences between volunteers - that would fall to the Unit/District Commissioners, other volunteers.

Correct.  The SM of my troop informed me that he had contacted our Scout Executive about a volunteer that lived in our district but was registered in our neighbor district that name was in our local newspaper that had been charged with child abuse.  The SM called because it was his duty to report to the council that this volunteer had been arrested and charges had been filed against the volunteer.  The volunteer has been removed from the program by the Scout Executive.  The SM and myself really like this volunteer and knew him as an asset to the scouting program and hope that there is nothing behind the charges against this volunteer.  

15 minutes ago, ItsBrian said:

From reading on this forum, many districts do not provide information on special needs scouts. A SM with no experience of how to help special needs scout will run the scout of the troop. 

As the father of a special needs daughter and a adult unit leader about the only thing the district/council can provide is assistance in advancement changes for the special needs scout.  This process thought the same the changes will be different depending on the special needs of the scout.  Also the accommodations within  the unit for the special needs scout have to be looked at on a case by case manner.

If  he has the rest of the workbook except for the signed copy he can go back and ask the persons that signed the original copy to resign the replacement signature page. 

On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2018 at 4:05 PM, Eagledad said:

http://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-the-male-crisis-thats-ruining-our-boys-and-no-one-cares-about

I’m posting this article because it hints to what many of us were saying during adding girls debate. The article is mostly centered around fatherless boys, but there is some mention of what boys need to develop their instinctive nature that I’ve talked about in other threads. 

For example: “As Farrell and Gray explain: “The traditional boy’s journey to self-sacrifice incorporated service to others, and required responsibility, loyalty, honour, and accountability. It created his mission. And his mission created his character.””

I get that the BSA has moved on and there is no going back, but just maybe a few here will be swayed to consider the needs of the boy, sperate from the girl, and bend their family scouting program, at least a little, toward that need. 

I know that as much as girls needed a program like the Boy Scout program, boys need it a lot worse. 

Barry

I feel like the root to this problem is the brake down of the family unit that has taken place within our society.  No one wants to take responsibility for there own actions.  No ones seems to get the point that there actions affect not only them but there children and there grandchildren.  It is a never ending cycle that does not end until someone decides to put there foot down and take responsibility for there actions. 

Just my opinion, but there is not one thing any of us can do to fix this problem except be a good role model to the different kids that we come in contact  will and hope they decide to put there foot down in there life.

15 minutes ago, Falconidei said:

MattR, thank you for your prompt response.

I take note of the advice, I'll contact the guys in the UK.

So, you were a young scout. Do you remember if your Scoutmaster used garters and tabs?

My first SM only wore long pants, but this was due to him losing a leg in Vietnam.  Second SM who was a Korean war vet also only wore the long pants.  But I did know a lot of adults that   did wear the garters and tabs during the summer.  Never saw them without the garters and tabs while wearing the scout short pants.  Being from the southern US as the weather heated up you would see about as many scouts with short pants with garters and red tabs as you would see with the long pants.  The red boy scout tabs is the only color I remember seeing.  When the uniform design was changed in about 1980 to the tan shirt the long socks were changed to green with a red band at the top of the socks which end the garters and tabs.

I still have by olive green shirt from the late 80's that I wear to scouting events from time to time.

Already can join but since they identify as a boy they would be seen as a male youth scout.

17 minutes ago, FireStone said:

It's a little tricky to figure out from the article, but it basically sounds like this woman has issues with events taking place on the church property, which she lives adjacent to. 

So her response, with kids present, is to fire off a bunch of rounds in what seems like a deliberate attempt to scare children. 

Classy. 🙄

 

Sounds about right.  Just looking the state of Georgia Laws it is not against the law to discharge a firearm on your own property as long as you are not within 50 yards of a road or street,  pointing the firearm at someone, or intoxicated.