Buggie

There's a lot said when things are quiet. Sometimes you have to listen harder to what is being said in the silence.

Whatever you teach, I recommend adding an element of "fun" to it. Scouts, especially at that age, respond well making games out of it. And they can be dorky games too that are designed to make people laugh. Making a game out of some things isn't easy though and requires imagination. First, teach the skill. Make it simple and focused. Too much talk makes a scout lose interest. But cover it enough that you get a basic point across. I'm going to use the example of a square knot since that's pretty common to train new scouts in. Once you've gotten the scouts to do it a few times, the fun

"Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them will reach your destiny." -- Carl Schurz

I've seen similar arguments over time in regards to what was tradition now being seen as hazing. For example, when I was at Texas A&M I learned how they made a lot of the traditions illegal for various reasons. Some had been made illegal within the corps years before I arrived and some after. All for good reasons at the time, but the resistance to those changes was incredible and can still cause some folks to go red face and bug-eye'd with foam flecks. Two examples. To say a cadet was motivated and/or doing great you used the term, "Red A^^". The history of that phrase dat

Yah, I was thinking along those lines as well. Probably the best thing I can come up with is some sort of "group" board that retains the conversation record with a very small group. For example, the "Group Me" application could be used, setting up a new group with each scout seeking X merit badge. I'm sure there are other applications, but that's the one I'm most familiar with. Anyway, you can create a group of just the MBC, the Scout(s), the "buddy", and an adult representative. Whoever is applicable. That way the conversation remains through out the life of the group, even if you have to c

Well, the nice thing is that as a community and comrades, we tackle whatever posts come up and handle them respectfully all around as much as we can, with a few oops now and then. And we don't resort to undermining tactics or name calling. No matter what the rest of you disgraceful low-life no-nothings think.

Can one take IOLS before completing the application process and being registered with a unit? I'm asking because I'm not sure what requirements there are for that. Do I need to make an account on the BSA site to sign up for it or do I need to work through the unit to do it. And yah, I probably could ask the SM or CC or write an email to the IOLS person, but I'm on the forum right now and I might forget in a few minutes. LOL

In my state, tornadoes are rather common. So locals at scout camp know the signs etc. (watches a cow go flying by) "Just a minor zephor." (house with a little girl, dog, and a witch?) "Let's bunker up. Dang, too late. There's the lollipop guild. " Thankfully tornado shelters were installed near every camp site at the main scout camp for the area. However after a few years we made a few comments. 1) Please clean out the shelters at the start of every year and make sure they aren't flooded or become animal habitats. 2) Did you know that you can't fit everyone into the shelters u

I took it earlier this year (Feb/Mar). In fact, I took it a few times. Annoying. Because the tornado section #8 was bugged. You had to click on the safe areas in a house. Yet you weren't allowed to click on the last safe area. It wouldn't let you. Didn't matter what order you went in, the last click never would register. So I took it the first time, went past that bugged section after giving up and found the course wasn't marked complete. No problem. A week later? Started from the beginning and got to section #8 again and same problem. It took several weeks of starting from the beginning o

True Dat! You need to take it out for a spin and do more than kick the tires. See comment below next paragraph. Troops can certainly change over time. It all depends on the scouters involved and what they are willing to do to go with the spirit of BSA. I know of a troop in my area that at the time of my son's crossing over, was bent towards agriculture and mechanics. I don't know anymore than that as it wasn't what my son wanted so we didn't return, but I was happy that for scouts who were into that sort of thing, that this could be a great troop for them. Fast forward two scout generat

Never trust that common sense is all that common. I am sure I have been an excellent example at times.

Last year when my son was 16 at summer camp, he tried to see if he could go in and look at some shirts at the trading post. He is 6'5" and 250-ish lbs. He's lean and athletic looking. Has a good beard too. Often he is mistaken for a college student or recent graduate. We had just completed changing some of his merit badge classes and came out of the program office. Next to that was the trading post and it was adults only time. He looked at me and winked, "I'm going to see if they notice." I went in after a few beats and watched. He went down the center aisle, so far so good. He turns to

sings Because you know I'm all about that bass,'Bout that bass, no trebleI'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no trebleI'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass, no trebleI'm all 'bout that bass, 'bout that bass Sorry, my mind has been corrupted.

Two troops I know of end with the above benediction, all within a circle. One troop has everyone in the circle; scouts, scouters, and everyone else that might be in the room. They are holding hands and pass the squeeze to go around the circle. Newbies are instructed before the proceedings about the squeeze. Another troop has their scouts do the benediction circled up in the dark with scouts only, adults staring into the darkness wherever they may be in the room. At the end the scouter in charge of the adult side, typically the SM, says "Goodnight scouts". They respond with a "Goodn

Okay, favorite memory. Camp Constantin summer camp around 78 First scout camp for me. Across the lake are these wonderful looking cliffs. It's the OA tap out ceremony and we're lined up in one long line along the shore. Across from us, the sun has set and there were bonfires lit at several points on tops of the cliff. By this time, the fires are mostly embers. And as we stand there in silence, I'm guessing a bulldozer or something pushes the embers over the side of the cliff, creating an absolutely beautiful fire waterfall. It was incredibly magical.

Yah, I don't know the particulars of expenses that any unit faces. Just the bare bones stuff one sees as a parent like what you mentioned. I know they exist, but I don't know the particulars... yet. I'm too new of an ASM to be aware of anything in detail. One of the things as a parent that is very frustrating is when an activity requires fees that parent's can't afford. I've no problem with fees, as one can't run an organization without them, but when they prohibit any kid from joining in I feel like it cheats everyone out of an experience. Part of the fun of scouting is diversity. You ca

I've been interested in seeing if my daughter (age 8) could join a pack somewhere, but there's nothing on the council site lookup for troops in the area that shows a girl pack anywhere. We looked into GSA in our area, but we were told that the yearly dues were around $100 something. Which was way too steep for us. I don't know if it was for that one GSA group or if it was for all of them in the area/state (Oklahoma). But it sort of rained on our enthusiasm. We encounter way too many groups (baseball, softball, band, etc) who want to charge hundreds of dollars for a kid to participate. It real

I was frequently entertained as it were, by the things my son tried to pack or not pack in his early days. "Why are you packing a jacket?" "I might get cold." "It's summer camp. The lows at worse next week is going to be around 80 with the highs in the 100s. And you should take rain gear just in case." "So no jacket then?" It took him YEARS to finally start remembering to pack sunscreen. Especially when other scouts got tired of sharing. These days, he's got it. At worse I'll ask if he has a hat. And if I know he's going to be in direct sunlight a lot, I'll ask him about

My son (age 13 at the time) wanted to go off on a January camping trip without a coat. He only had a hoodie. "It's warm!" he told me. No, you're taking a coat. A scouter told me I should have let him learned. However I'd rather that lesson not be life threatening. He did appreciate having a coat when the sun went down.

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Thanks for the replies. Yah, I'm still watching and learning. With the troop I've recently joined, I've only been with them a few months so I'm looking for things and knowing that I've not been there long enough to see much of anything. Waiting on background check etc before I let them pull me into anything further (they are eager too), because I'm very process oriented for the sake of my sanity. I'm fine with dealing with changing climates as I work in that, but my personal mindset has processes and checklists as a way to keep things organize and to look before I leap. Most of my

@Eagledad As a parent I'm all on board with the concept of practicing "how". Our son has some difficulties that require a little extra help (vague enough? good) and one of the techniques that works for us is some coaching about how to work with situations he encounters and shows he needs some help with. It's the same as working with cub scouts and teaching them how to approach people to sell the ol' blue and gold. We worked with our son with every fund raiser he had to do (scouts, school, church) up until he was confident able to approach us and say, "Hey how does this sound?" before he ran

Okay. I'm new. It's a terrible disease that fades away over time. As I wait on the background check to complete (how many weeks does it take? The fostering parent background check took less time than this), I think of things, contemplate them, chew them around, review them, write them down to review much later once I've had the time to figure out what the troop does during the course of the year, and see how valid it is to bring up. One of the things that keeps popping up for me is from my son's experience in his troop. (I signed up for a different troop after he aged out and time fina

Hello. Long time scout parent and now I'm making the leap to ASM for a troop that's pretty eager to have me join. One of the items they brought up was identifying any merit badges I could become a merit badge counselor for. Outside of merit badges that I am qualified to be a counselor for, how does one go about training to be a counselor for a badge you have an interest in being a counselor for, but you don't have a lot of experience in. For example Hiking seems to require knowledge of various good hiking trails for the hiking outings to complete etc.