committeechair

Thanks for your quick reply! I will give your directions over to Scoutmaster (my husband) to see if he can build this. I think I will just make the sandwiches for the COH! Those I cannot mess up. Thanks Again!

Does anyone know how an "Eagle light box" is made to use in an Eagle COH? I have looked all day on line, trying to find directions. Thanks

Eagle-To-Be's Eagle project is most definately benefitting the community! If it weren't, our District Eagle chair would have never given the go ahead. His project isn't within the city boundries. Therefore, this 12 year old kid stated it isn't benefitting "our community." The project is mapping and transcribing a historical cemetery, that is quite large for a rural cemetery. Eagle-To-Be has told the troop that this project benefits no only the town, but the state and anyone that is working on their family history. He plans to submit the information to several locations. It is an awsome project

An Eagle project must not be scheduled as a "troop activity." And, the Eagle project is the Eagle-To-Be's project, not a troop project. That has been understood by us all along. However, for only one out of a group of 20 or so Scouts, and 2 out of 19 leaders to show, is just horrible. Better odds playing poker in Vegas! The non support of the troop for his fellow Scout is showing a lack of Scout Spirit, and yes, this will hold them back until they start acting like Scouts. I typed up the Scout Law and checked off how much of the law has been disregarded by our troop. Trustworthy (they couldn't

Some questions posed was: 1) has this Scout helped me out in my times of "need", 2) is his activity well thought out and planned, 3) is food being provided, 4) are proper facilities available (bathrooms, running water, tools, etc., 5) has he looked to fellow students, siblings, friends, parents, etc 1. yes 2. yes 3. yes 4. yes 5. yes. Scout has attended the majority of Eagle projects in our small town over the last 5 years he has been in Scouting. The cost of food is his biggest expense, and that was properly detailed in his write-up. Bathrooms are provided, as is the tissue, water and so

Our troop has a Scout who has been in the Scouting program longer than any of the rest. He went all the way from Wolf Cub to Arrow of light, then directly into the troop. He is 15, and most of the troop is 13. Scout is the Asst SPL. Scout has had his Eagle project ideas approved by the District Adv. Chair, as well as the Troop Committee Chair (not me, I am now a MC, and Adv. Chair), and SM. Next weekend is the planned date for the project. He announced the date, and what the project entailed to our troop a month ago. This week when he passed out the invites and sign up sheet in our troop, h

An actual percentage rate for how many meetings and events you much attend. This is left up to the individual troops to come up with. One example I have (this was actually about an OA qualification, not regular troop...). I am now advancement chair since my husband took over SM duties. I was asked for a list of which Scouts had 15 nights of camping over 2 years. We have one kid who was very active one year, but since then stopped being active. Last year: 6 nights of camping, and that was from summer camp. No other camping! He hasn't gone camping at all this year. But he is still eligible

In our small town we have 3 troops. One troop we call "the eagle factory" because they have parents who sit and work badges with them and get them to eagle before they reach 13. The problem is, that troop doesn't retain those Scouts! And some of those, after getting the eagle rank transfered to another troop to get the actual experience they lacked before. One dad told us if he had known before, he would have slowed his kid down. We tell our guys that one of the most important parts of the goal is the journey itself. Don't rush it! We do not look at the book "Oh, little Johnny has been at th

This post is rather old, but there is a similar problem occuring in our troop (BTW, I am no longer Committee Chair, but adv. chair in our group) My husband became Scoutmaster last year. It has taken him about a year to settle into the new job. In the meantime, one of the Assitant SM has decided to bully-pulpit his way to the front of the the troop each week and start telling them what they are going to do and how to do it. Never mind that my husband had an agenda typed out, and had plans for the Senior leadership to lead the troop in activities each week. Once Mr Bully starts, the boys get int

In Noah's original note, he states: "In and of itself a flag pole is not terribly difficult to do and would not require a whole lot of leadership." This all depends on who is putting in the pole. I couldn't do it and have it stand straight! I think it will take leadership skills to get the job done correctly. I do wonder about the school financing 1/2 the cost of the pole. I am new to the Eagle project area. I know that you must earn the money for your project. I would just get advise from people who are in charge of signing off on the Eagle project before doing anything. I am really confuse

"Scout Spirit." In our troop we keep a roster each week of who comes prepared with their book, wearing a uniform, is present, etc. If a Scout does not come prepared, this shows a lack of Scout spirit. And for rank advancement, our troop does expect a Scout to come looking like he is wanting to be a Scout! To sign off a Scout to advance when he hasn't been coming dressed properly, or hasn't been coming regularly, that would be just running an Eagle Mill. We have one of those in our town. And we don't run one at our troop!

To have 75% attending an outing is great! At times we have had less than 10% attend a campout in our troop. Our PLC has suggested activities that cost lots of money, and not really related to "Scouts" But they are allowed to list everything. As a committee, we tell them why certain things really can't be done: whether it is too expensive, date interferes with something else, it isn't safe, etc. They are never told it is "stupid," but that it just isn't appropriate and we tell them alternatives. In our case, we live in a small town. Most people don't make a living minimum wage. My kid gets sent

In Dec of 2003 our troop swelled from under 8 regularly attending Scouts to 35. My husband took over the role of Scoutmaster for recharter time. We tried to get the young Scouts to go to activities, and get their parents involved. "We don't like camping." Or it was some other excuse. We'd have boys walk in asking to join, and we'd say, "we'd like you to attend a couple of meetings before signing up to make sure you are interested." No, they wanted to sign then. After a campout and a few meetings, they'd quit coming. We'd call. My husband spent his own money sending letters to Scouts and pare

Rents are high nowadays. If my 21 year old son should EVER (please, please) move out, he most likely will have to share rent with a friend. And I do prefer the friend not to be female unless he is married to her! I hope everyone gets to know the new DE and learns to see what is under that little beard. The beard phase may pass in time.

In our troop, a Scout's account can be used for uniforms, camp dues, weekly dues, anything from the Scout shop, or camping supplies from Wal-Mart or other stores (as long as it pertains to Scouts). So if the food has to do with the Court of Honor ceremony, like the special cake and decorations I would think our treasurer would approve of that being a "Scout" expense. It would be different if you were starting out, probably. But at this point in your journey I don't see why not. But, how a Scout account is able to be spent is left up to individual Troops. For example, several years ago

Unfortunately, it doesn't get better over time. There is a bully that started out in my son's Cub den (I was the leader) in 3rd grade. As long as I was the leader and didn't allow mistreatment of others, used timeouts, etc, the bully was kept at a 'tolerable'stage. Once he got into Boy Scouts, however, I was no longer in charge of rules. Since meetings were at night, his caretakers attended the meetings and interfered with any disciplining that went on. After 2 years of me complaining to Scoutmaster and going up the ladder to other people about what to do, the kid wasn't advance any longer. Bu

Yes, we had 7 adults on this campout with 14 Scouts. We had more than enough leadership. Of the 7, at least 5 of us have been trained. Three of us just last month. When we heard from one Scout that another was 'acting gay' we asked what do you mean? His answer was "he is jumping on others backs." That doesn't mean anything other than roughhousing. All this was being done in a patrols campsite. Leadership DID go over to investigate and all the men were told came out as tattling, that "johnny wouldn't leave anyone alone and kept jumping on us, tearing up our tents." "Johnny" was told that it

Where do I begin. Our troop went on a 5 day campout for Spring Break recently. The kids who attended the campout had been camping before without any problems. This campout was horrendous! We had been saying that their rowdiness was due to "boys being boys," and needing to get out all their pent up energy (it had been raining a lot lately). We had been hearing a lot of tattling from boys. One said a Scout "hit your son and has been acting gay." We never could get more out of the kid what he meant by 'acting gay' so we just thought it was name calling. The kid who was hit was MY son and he di

Your best "weapon" is becoming Scoutmaster. My son was bullied for years by a kid raised by grandparents who saw the devil as a little angel. This kid wasn't bright in school, and in fact had suffered brain damage from father. But he was very good at knowing when adults weren't looking! He'd do all sorts of abuse to my son and others, and as soon as they'd be pushing themselves away an adult would look and see a "fight." My son ended up doing so many hours of work because of this. The bully would cry and moan "HE DID IT!" My husband even saw the entire situation many times, but the others beli

Our town has approx 12K people. We have 3 Boy Scout troops, and two Cub Scout troops (one recently absorbed another that folded). At one time BS met on different nights, so people picked the troop for the night that was best for them. It isn't all that simple, however. Leadership styles, personalities, what kids are in the troops/packs determines where people want to go. Our town had a fairly large pack that folded due to lack of a Committee Chair for 9 months, the Cub Master had change work hours (and quit the pack), plus none of the leaders would do anything without being told what t

The Girl Scouts who were reprimanded for their cookie sales in the bowling alley - they probably didn't fill out a form they were suppost to. We (Boy Scout units) were told at Roundtable that we haven't been filling out a required "funraising request form." Some of the older Scouters were aware of such form, but ignored it. We just had our garage sales, taco dinners, etc. I am not sure if this form is an attempt by the council to get a cut of any fundraising or what. Our council has lost United Way funding because of the gay issue and I think the money people are trying to make up for the lost

Yes, GS cookies are so much easier to sell. Just about everyone will reach in their pockets to pay for a $3 box of a few cookies. But, I was told they only make 25 cents from each box. That is only about 8% they make on their sales! The popcorn is very hard to sell, especially once the boys get past Cub Scout age. Instead of the people thinking "oh, isn't he cute..." they are thinking "That stuff is a rip-off." It takes boys who really can speak well, and sell the product as something good for the organization. I live in a small town. The kids who do sell have their target areas and mu

The safest way to handle the popcorn sell is to get all money first. There is a deadline that we must turn in our orders. This is the date our Scouts are told to bring in all money with their orders. I know, the money itself is not due until later. BUT! All boys are told to get payments with the orders. People will understand. We are an non-profit organization that is raising money, not the local grocery store that will give the popcorn to them. This is no different than if they ordered from a catalog, or a store over the phone. Payment is expected up front. Boys who don't have all their mon

Behavior problems that rewarded by the parent/s only get worse. And the only way to effectively deal with the problem is to face the parent and say "this will not be tolerated during the meetings. If the behavior continues, he will have to go home (or miss the next campout, etc)." My son's troop had a bully who ran off most of the kids, and kept all Webelos from joining. We actually had moms tell us that their son's were not joining our troop because of this Scout! The bully was raised by grandparents. Grandma thought whatever he did was cute, and unintentional. She was manipulative, and

Old Guy: the mini-skirt and high heel wearer had a beard. lol. He is a down-town regular. The girls are the ones wearing boots and jeans. We have a Austin police in our Troop leadership, and he gets to work downtown during the rowdy events. We don't take the Scouts downtown except for the Report to State Parade, then we leave ASAP! God Bless America.