CrewMomma

I am so tired of the "It's not fair! " statements that I hear all the time from one Helicopter parent in my son's troop! It seems like every time her boy isn't getting to do what he wanted to do we get the acid emails with the infamous "It's not fair!" line in them...

Hello Hagerde!!!

Welcome to the fire!!!! I am glad you are enjoying your Cub Scout time! I hope your son continues his adventures through to Boy Scouts!

I always got a giggle out of "Gravity Check!"

Gravity Check:

Someone runs up on the stage and jumps up and down while yelling

"GRAAAAVITY CHECK!"

Then runs off stage with everyone giggling at them

John-in-KC,

I think you need to sing all four verses for us! I have only heard the first one "Announcements"

I haven't had a chance to watch Man VS Wild yet but I am looking forward to seeing what it is about.

I have seen Survivor Man several times and enjoy it. He is a little bit melodramatic but he gives me a laugh. One of the things I remember SM doing is creating drinking water from salt water. We are headed off to sea base next summer and thought it would be a great thing to try out with the Crew!

Hi There!

I actually like my District round tables! The first half we go through announcements about events going on or coming up within the district, sometimes there is a WB presentation or a guest speaker. We then have "breakout" sessions where we divide up into our various organizations. These breakout sessions usually have one leader and there is a theme each month that we talk about.

One of the key things about the breakout sessions I like is that it gives the Wise Old scouters and the Enthusiatic Young scouters a chance to get together and learn from each other. We are lucky that we have enough female Venturer advisors in our breakout session that it isn't awkward anymore for the guys that aren't used to seeing female Scout Leaders.

Thanks Beavah! Wise words as usual. Over the last few days I have seen the SM and the ASM's coming together to let this Mom know exactly how they feel about her being an "attack helicopter". The open door has been pointed out to her with the understanding that it's her choice right now, shape up the attitude or exit stage left.

Let's keep in mind that we are here for the boys!

(or in my case, the boys AND girls!)

They have to be pranks with a sense of humor! Nothing malicious at all...

For Example... our Course Director is an Eagle and has lots of Eagle "totems" sitting at the table. Our prank is to "kidnap" the eagle and take pictures of it in different locations..(In the mess hall,Hidden in the Bear cookie Jar, sitting on a log with an "owl", sitting on a bench in the showers)

Of course the pictures will show up the next morning in the Gilwell Gazette...

Harmless and kind of fun...

Thanks for your replies!

My husband does have a good support group with his ASM's and committee chair. They have learned to tag team each other when this parent goes off her rocker again.

It's come to a point where "if you are not happy here with the troop, there are many troops in this area that might be a better fit for your son".

She is a bit of a "stage mom" and gets angry when everyone doesn't fall at her feet when she reminds us all of "everything she does for this troop".

She also went as far as to write to the SPL to complain about issues within the troop. COMPLETELY unacceptable and she was told not to do that again, "I was just trying to get some answers"..by harassing the youth?

My thoughts, we are here for the youth, not to rack up our own accomplishments.

Last year, my husband was a Troop Guide while I was on course. One morning he overslept, so the next day, all the troop guides put their alarm clocks around the edge of his tent, timed to go off simultaneously!

After another long night of watching my husband (Scoutmaster) go through the turmoil of parent politics ("My little boy should have been voted into that position instead of Johnny who you know really doesn't want to do it"), my question is, who is there to support the Scoutmaster when his frustration level over flows? My husband LOVES scouts and LOVES working with the boys, but its when parents start becoming demanding and treating him like he is their employee is when things get frustrating. I HATE seeing him go through this, especially when it is the same parents over and over again. They are not happy with the way their son is being treated so they will make sure that everyone else is unhappy too.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Hello all!

I am a new Troop Guide this year for Woodbadge. We just had our first Staff Development weekend! It was a lot of fun!

It seems like a lot of our staffers are a bit mischievous and there was a lot of whispering and giggling going on about "enhancing the course experience for the staffers" IE: "what harmless pranks can we pull on eachother?"

Anyone care to share there past pranking episodes???

Hey there!

Just one quick hint when talking to the youth about the co-ed part of the program. Our crew is a "No Purple" crew... we teach this to all of the new members.

What "no purple" means is..

Boys are blue

Girls are Pink

Pink + blue = purple

Crew is No purple!!!!

It's been an easy way to let the kids know what kind of behavior is expected from them during meetings and camp outs! If a guy and a gal start getting to cozy, a quick "no purpling!" reminder gets them back on track again.

Silly and fun! We have even adopted Purple as our unofficial color!

So it's all that coffee that is keeping us Owls awake all night!!!!

Woohoo! I love to hear about new Crews getting started!

One thing I will caution you on is to not deplete your troop. I have talked to a few Scoutmasters who have complained to me that the older boys will start a crew, leaving the troop with just the younger kids with no older kids to help guide them. With out the older kids to be examples for the younger scouts, you get a troop that will have a hard time growing and sustaining.

Another issue I have heard with starting a Crew is that the scouts being so specific on who can join the crew, that they end up killing the crew. One troop started a crew with these parameters " Only Eagle Scouts, and they must be over 18". Well, their crew quickly fell apart when the members started going off to college and having full time jobs.

I help advise a co-ed crew and we have a great time! I am finding that the girls are great at organizing the camp outs and the meetings and the guys bring in all their scout knowledge that they have learned from their years in scouting. I haven't had a problem with hormones running a muck either!

This has been an interesting thread to read.

1)22YO's as Scoutmaster's : male or female, that is too young to be a Scoutmaster. Not enough experience or maturity to be role models. Let's face it, Scoutmasters are almost like surrogate parents. I'm married to a SM and I am a Crew Assistant adviser as well (in a different troop from his). I treat the kids in both the program as I would my own.

2)Young Single Mom's: Adoption isn't always the answer. My oldest half sister was adopted and ended up being molested by her adopted father instead of cared for as my Mom was told she would be. I was a young Mom at 20, got married when I was 5 mos pregnant, had a very rough first ten years of marriage and now after 17 years I cannot even fathom living without the love of my life.

Just because I know how hard it is to be young and have a young child, I personally cannot imagine wanting to be a SM with babies to deal with on my own. Unfortunately I think this young lady has chosen a route that is going to be very difficult for her, but it is her choice (and the CO's) and it sounds like she has a family that can help support her emotionally and physically.

3)Two Parents: I agree that in an ideal situation, children need both parents around to learn from. They learn different things from Mothers and Fathers but as we know, this isn't an ideal world and things happen whether it is a parent that dies or decides not to be in the marriage/parent anymore. I have both of these scenario's in our troop and I applaud these parents for the wonderful job they are doing raising their children the best they can.

4)Morally: We have no right to be a moral judge of anyone. People make their decisions and have to live with their own consequences. BSA has a moral law that we chose to live under but, how many of us can say that we can tick off all 12 attributes. Go ahead, throw the first stone.

A SM is a highly visible position, if someone chooses to accept that position then they need to understand that there is a certain amount of scrutiny that comes with it. People are either going to hate you or love you. You get a tough skin and keep scouting on. (I can just imagine the SM Crowd out there rolling their eyes and nodding their heads)

(This last point is preaching a bit! You can stop reading now if you want to!)

5)Jesus loved people regardless of their situation. He may not like what you are doing or what you have done but He loves you regardless how many mistakes you make. He has the ability to take our most screwed up situations and turn them into His most valuable creations. It is us responding back to His love that makes us want to change the screwed up thing we are doing. Go spread some love.

Hello! This is a great start for you to gather information! I would also encourage you to attend the roundtables at your council and pick up on any adult leadership training that you can. As you probably realize there is a wealth of knowledge out there in people who have "Been there done that, let me help you out here...."

Good luck and most of all, have fun!

I am not sure how other Crews work their MB system but our Crew Advisor and our SM work well and keep in communication with eachother.If the SM see's some requirements signed off with our Crew Advisors initials on it, he pretty much knows that the Scout/Venturer has fulfilled that requirement.

The adult patrol in my son's troop call themselves "The Geezer Patrol"

At a camporee, the powers-that-be decided that an adult patrol should run the course as well as the troop patrols, I had the wonderful opportunity to be able to participate.

We called ourselves "Prime Time" with an appropriate yell of "Prime Time - Aged to perfection!"

Yep, our scout shop was told to sell off what they had, I believe it was almost half off the original. I hope they come out with the switchback pant style!

Hello all!

I've been enjoying reading through these forums!

I have a 12yo son who is a Star scout, a 16 yo daughter who is in a Venture Crew member, my husband is the Scoutmaster for my son's troop and I am an assistant adviser for my daughters crew here in Idaho. We are a scouting family! Our main joke is that the only family vacations we take are at what ever camporees we get to as a family...

I am also working my WB ticket, hoping to finish it up by the time the next Woodbadge session starts in September, I've been asked to be a Troop Guide this year!

So swing by and say hello! Fires going and the coffee's hot!

Thank you for the welcome!

This was an established campfire ring, not a "virgin" campsite.

Lots of good advise here, thanks guys.

We had a question come up this weekend with my Crew. We had a tripod hand wash station setup with a bucket to catch gray water. The crew had a huge discussion on what was the best way to get rid of the gray water ( no food particles, bio soap ); fling it, bury it or save it to put out the campfire. In the end they used it on the campfire even though some kids were adamant about that being an inappropriate disposal of gray water.

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