Chippewa29

Two years ago, as our challenge Scout and his parents were looking for a troop, his mom called me on a couple of occasions (we ended up talking about her son for about three hours or so total) and let me know her son's situation. I had met the kid on a visit by his den to our meeting, so I had a little bit of an idea. She also asked me some questions. I don't remember all of them, but I do remember her asking me "What kind of impression did you get of my son?" I told her he had some good traits, but he needed to learn how to use them in the right way. When they decided to join our troop,

In regards to the question of what would it take for scouter.com to put up a chat room: Chat room software is actually very high level and requires some extra connectivity that other software (like we are currently using) doesn't need. Also, with a chat room, it is totally unmoderated. Once something is said, it can't be edited out. If someone wanted to come on and cause trouble (as we've seen on this forum), not much could be done to stop it. I think using the Yahoo chat room (or a similar independent) would be the best idea. With their size and technical capabilities, it would be much

Like has been said before, if it is a planned troop or patrol event open to every Scout in the troop/patrol, then it should be allowed. The mode of thinking prescribed above would mean that attending a National Scout Jamboree wouldn't be regarded as fulfilling that requirement, while a troop's local day hike to a nearby state park would. It doesn't make sense to me.

Fortunately, the church that sponsors us is very good about letting have pretty much full run of the church when we need it. We'll do a service project for the church about once a year. As long as nothing is broken or missing, the church stays out of our way. We'd love to have someone from the church be a member of the troop, but we haven't had any luck getting the Webelos who are members of the church to crossover to our troop. My perspective is that they provide with great facilities and allow us to run our program as we see fit. To me, that is a great CO. Unless someone wants to b

If the newer Webelo will still cross over to a troop and become active with the later crossover date, you are probably right. However, the later in the year I see kids cross over, the more chance is they will drop out before the next fall. Also, if this kids buddies are crossing over, it may be awkward for him to join at a later date and "be behind" his peers. Please keep us posted on this, as I'd like the information for future reference in case I have parents that want to discuss it.

There are probably some issues there that aren't readily apparent. The SM may feel that his son needs to grow up and learn responsibility, so the only way he can do that is by being the SPL. The SM may feel like he's losing face if his son is forced to step down as SPL. There may also be some issues from home. The SM may be getting pressure from his wife to put their son in the spotlight. My troop had that happen in the late 80's. The SM's son was babied by mom all the time and whenever dad tried to punish him (he was a trouble maker) or do something to help him grow up, the kid woul

OGE- Yes, it is the one and same. I'm glad I don't let my instinct take over at times, as I know that calling him a baby isn't the right thing to do. I think my real question is that I don't think he should be babied all the time, but what do you say to a kid like that? The other Scouts are tired of his act and basically ignore him (the game continued on even after he started crying), but fortunately don't pick on him or say anything to him. In regards to your comment that ADD kids are often 2-3 years behind in maturity: I wish we were that lucky. I'd say this kid is probabl

I'm actually dealing with this same issue right now. We have a group of Webelos that won't be ready to cross over until May. I'm trying to get them to start participating in troop activities a couple of months before, so we can get them hooked into our troop before summer (and baseball season) swallows them up. I've heard of troops where the kids basically pull double duty for a couple of months. They go to all the troop meetings (which become their den meetings) and campouts, but still attend the pack meetings once a month and any pack activities they have those last couple of months.

I'm sure many of you will smile when you read this, because I'm sure you've dealt with it before. It is kind of funny, but at the same time, it is a semi-serious issue that I'm going to have to deal with. At our troop meeting last night, our Scouts were out in the field behind the church playing a game toward the end of the meeting. I was hearing lots of laughter when all of a sudden, I hear someone screaming like his leg was chopped off. All of a sudden, I see our challenge Scout running toward me with crying and screaming (my four year old niece doesn't cry that much when she gets hu

As long as the pets aren't causing a distraction at the meetings/events, I don't see a problem with it. However, if the dog is doing anything to disturb the other units, then it should probably be left at home (being alone for eight hours wouldn't kill it). We had a situation once at a camporee. One of the troops had a dog with them. The first night, the dog kept our section of the camp up much of the night with its yelping. The next morning, after getting complaints from several neighboring troops, the owner took it home. However, I've seen other times people have had dogs at those

bigbeard- I applaud you for sticking to your guns on that. The Scout that did the work got his reward. The Scouts that didn't do the work still had a good time, but didn't receive something that they didn't earn. I wonder if the parents that wanted you to do storytime (picture yourself reading the book to them and showing the pictures along the way, ala a kindergarten teacher) have any concept of what initiative is. You are presenting your Scouts with opportunities. It is up to them to take advantage of those opportunities.

buffalo2- I like how you guys spread it out over three very separate days. That way, Scouts who come unprepared the first day can get a reality check and come for the final sessions more prepared and ready to actually earn the badge as opposed to the one day sessions or coming unprepared to summer camp.

I like the idea of the Lumberjacking MB. I think it would be a great challenge for the Scouts. However, doesn't the BSA have the Paul Bunyan award? If I remember, it is patch of a full doubled bladed ax. If they still have that award, I wouldn't mind seeing them convert it to a merit badge.

I like all the responses about needing to raise the bar. It's good to see that our Scout leaders are smart enough to recognize that the youth of today need to be challenged and shouldn't just be given things to "boost their self-esteem". Unfortunately, many people (kids included) today confuse success and recognition. They believe that as long as they are recognized, they are successful (this is a topic we could discuss for months). We all know that that is not necessarily true. I do believe that it is important for people to get recognized for doing something positive, their moti

Most adult males I have seen with long hair and earrings (outside of motorcycle gangs) tend to be very open and accepting people and don't judge people by the their race, religion, etc. However, 99% of the young boys (before high school) that I've seen with earrings have been trouble makers that had very little respect for any kind of authority. Back in the early 90's, another rage were those rattails the boys wore (usually along with an earring). We had 3 or 4 Scouts join our troop during that time span with rattails and earrings, and they were nothing but trouble. Usually, when a Sco

Rooster7- I'm glad you haven't had to listen to some of the junk I've heard over the years. Fortunately, most of the people I've seen do it were people I didn't respect and ended up not staying in the Scouts for a long time or they were older Scouters who grew up in a time and place where it was acceptable to openly talk down someone of another ethnicity (basically, think of Archie Bunker in a Scout uniform). In the metro area where I live, you don't hear of a lot of racial problems and most everyone works with people of different ethnicities. However, once the work day is done, they all g

If you are talking about a Scout needing to do a presentation to the troop for a merit badge or rank, then the Scout needs to speak with either the SPL or the PLC to request time to do the presentation before the troop.

I have a few questions for you: 1. How is the SPL not doing his job? Is he not showing up for events? Is he showing up, but goofing around all the time and not setting a proper example? 2. When is his term over? You mentioned he was elected in October. Is his term over in April or October? If his term ends in April, you can probably ride it out the next couple of months and if he is really doing a bad job, there are two options: he doesn't get reelected by the Scouts (the best solution for a Scout-run troop) or if you think he will get re-elected because of his charisma, then the ad

If I remember my Scouting history well enough, it seems like the BSA has been very progressive and inclusive over the years. Didn't the BSA start a project around WWI to try and recruit inner-city and African-American Scouts? Also, didn't the BSA make major efforts to recruit and include Hispanic Scouts sixty or seventy years ago? I never had a clue there were so many different religions and denominations until I joined the Boy Scouts and saw all the different religious awards available. I've seen my share of bigots in the BSA, making comments like "check for your wallet" whenever an

Although I believe the Eagle award is a great way to develop character, its requirements themselves don't necessarily develop the character. It is the experiences the Scout goes through while working on those requirements where the character is developed. If a Scout wants, it isn't really that hard to get their Eagle award. Some merit badges are very easy to get (Pets, Leatherwork, etc.) and we've all seen projects that we've questioned the quality of. Therefore, someone saying they are an Eagle Scout unfortunately needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The experiences along the way make

My troop had a Scout about ten years ago who was going for all the merit badges and ended up earning eighty or so before he realized at sixteen that he wanted to accomplish other things in Scouts and life. He was accused (or should I say, his Dad was) of pencil whipping. In reality, he didn't need to cheat, because he had every possible advantage without cheating. He was an only child whose parents basically revolved their lives around him and were active Scouters. Mom only worked part-time and Dad's work schedule was very flexible. Also, the family had a nice bit of money from inheritanc

I have two possible suggestions for the lack of attendance at outings: 1. I hope this is absolutely not true, but a few years back, my troop had a "Scout" that would smoke when the Scouts went exploring the woods on a campout (adults weren't around) and threatened the other Scouts if they told on him (he was older and always had a knife on him). For a few outings, we had lower than normal attendance. Finally, it came out and the "Scout" was exposed and ended up leaving, but not before half of the troop had quit (none of them would come back after he left, unfortunately). You may want to

Very interesting discussion. I'm only going to comment on one part and this will be pretty tame. As far as changing the Boy Scout rank: If a Scout doesn't like the way the patch looks, he can do some work and get his Tenderfoot, which is a badge that looks much nicer. Eventually, if he works hard enough, then he gets to wear the best looking patch, the Eagle. The "cool" looking patches can come in the form of event patches. For most Scouts, what the rank patches look like doesn't matter. But rather, what the rank represents.

Last year, I had a parent on my track team complain to me about the high cost of her daughter competing in track and cross country. I did some research to see how much it cost per year (this includes both XC and track). 3-4 pairs running shoes $300 XC camp $40 2 sports bras $40 running shorts $20 Then I compared it to the other sports in our school. We were the second cheapest in the school, with only swimming being cheaper (they wear the least, so it makes sense). Several sports told the kids coming out they needed to plan on laying out at least $1000 to participate based on t

Just a quick interjection for a couple of people who have said they don't think that running is a good activity for getting in shape for hiking. I'll have to disagree. I've been running for 17 years (currently 40 mpw). In my troop in the past decade, we've had five adults who have had knee problems. How many of them were runners at any point in their lives? None. Currently, myself and three other adults in the troop run on a regular basis. How many of us have ever had problems with our knees? None. A physical therapist friend told me several years ago (I wish I could remember the exac