AdvanceOn

Our district dinner last year was held the same weekend as my husband had the JLTC developmental weekend.

I didn't know he was going to get the District Award of Merit until the awards chair started asking me "odd" questions about my husband. During that conversation I mentioned that I would be coming to the dinner alone because of my husbad's need to be at the developmental. The chair about swallowed his teeth! So, I contacted the JLTC course director, swearing him to secrecy but getting him to tell my husband that attending the district dinner was important. My husband relented, suspecting that he was getting some sort of recognition but not realizing it was the District Award of Merit. It all worked out in the end but there were some tense moments!

I feel like someone in the family or unit should be informed so they can help get the person there. The secrecy and surprise are fun but only if the person is there to get the award.

I agree that the Scout should be working on the new requirements but how do you all handle this situation?

I was just at our Scout Shop today and specifically looked at the personal management merit badge book with the intent of buying it since there are new requirements. Guess what? They still have a full supply of the old requirements. If a Scout or merit badge counselor were to go in to buy the book they would get the old requirements.

If the expectation is that the Scout will use the new requirements then the curent books need to be there.

The site rex2796 references has excellent information but please be aware that they have NOT updated many of their pages in a long time. Always get the latest information regarding advancement requirements, etc. from BSA.

With that caveat, this is an excellent website and I found it to be a useful tool as I was developing my resource handbook for our district.

If you feel you need a separate special needs unit then you should be working with the District Commissioner and the District Executive who have the information on how to start a unit. Also, each Council has a person assigned to special needs issues and have resources available.

I did a search on special needs in Scouting to develop some resources for our district as part of my Wood Badge ticket. There are resources out there.

I'm sorta with Fuzzy Bear. As someone who works with people with disabilities on a daily basis, I really prefer to see individuals included in existing units. At the same time, I know that sometimes the disability is significant enough that inclusion in an existing unit just isn't feasible.

Just don't jump into forming a special needs unit without developing the needed infrastructure and getting district support. You CAN'T do it alone.

Good luck.

Eamonn:

Not sure what happened to my profile. It was there a short while ago? Anyway, I am District Commissioner. The fires that I am talking about are struggling units,district committee (or lack thereof), etc. Yes, I am busy but I am trying very hard to do my job and not everyone elses. Which seems to be difficult to convince others. I got a call about a SFF meeting and they hoped I would attend. I'm not the chair for that and have no intention of adding another meeting to my plate (just got home from Commissioner Cabinet as it is). I immediately e-mailed the district SFF chair to let him know about hte meeting.

Anyway, thanks for the information and I will check about the DVD. I'm also hoping our new DE comes back refreshed from PDL. He gets home Friday evening and then comes to our District Pinewood Derby on Saturday.

Thanks.

This thread was spun from another thread.In reading Eammon's post in What to do without a DE it really got me wondering -- How often do most of you have Key 3 meetings and/or contact? Eammon said they meet weekly and talk almost daily. Is that typical, high, low?

We went for many months without a DE and are still struggling to get back up to standard since our DE is so new (he's at PDL I right now). The only time we seem to meet is when I insist on a meeting. I try to keep communications going with e-mail but our new DE doesn't have e-mail so that hasn't worked very well. Is there a standard that BSA recommends? I haven't found it (but haven't looked too hard, since there are many fires at this point).

Thanks.(This message has been edited by AdvanceOn)

We did Sea Adventure for our day camp last year. We made memory stones with a sea theme (shells, fish gravel, etc.), made wood lighthouses, had a "treasure hunt" that involved scout skills, etc. Our den "flags" were actually fish windsocks. Each den had a color from the fish that was their nametag and we had neckeerchiefs in that color. It made it really easy to identiry what den a kid was supposed to be in. The kids had a blast. I will private e-mail you some of my stuff when I get a chance.

Have fun with it. Our theme this year is safari.

Some of the suggestions to not pay until your checks clear don't really help if your commission is based upon on-time payment. In our council (also Greater Pittsburgh) units get a higher commission for paying their bill on time. If payment is made after the due date then the unit loses 2% of profits.

I wonder where the accountant is coming from in this council? Why is the world would they want to pay the expense of writing checks to all the units. That is real money lost. Seems stupid to me.

How much are you charging for your council Junior Leader Training this year? Is this an increase from previous years? How much of your budget is used for staff "goodies" (t-shirts, hats, mugs, other recognition items)? How much do your staff pay to be on staff? Do you have a different staff fee for your youth staff vs adult staff?

Thanks for your responses.

Here Here! I sign the petition. I am one of those who has hesitated to post and have also stopped reading many of the posts once Bob and FOG start going at it, which is a shame because both have posted many excellent bits of information and resources.

If your troop had had these plans just for the troop would they have cancelled or moved them indoors? Why not do them in the rain? Webelos II should be preparing for Scouting in all kinds of weather. Sounds like a great opportunity to get a taste of Boy Scouting!

A Scouter friend of my husband insists that the trained patch comes off once you have earned your Wood Badge beads. I say that's not true.

What has anyone else heard?

Your council should never give you that kind of answer. Your DE has a supervisor. If you're not getting a response ask to speak to that person and don't take no for an answer.

I have the cell phone number for my DE. The fact is he is rarely in the office. The office voicemail system is also antiquated -- they don't get a visual alert that they have a message waiting so unless that actually check they don't know. Also messages apparently are purged automatically if not picked up within a certain period of time.

Adding to what Ed had to say -- yes our Council has done University of Scouting for awhile. However, the numbers are REALLY dwindling. I don't have the current registration numbers but on Monday we were still at less than 100 registrants. It will held on November 8th.

Our University of Scouting is held in conjunction with a day-long Den Chief training.

There are two different websites -- www.gpc-bsa.org and www.gpcuniversity.org.

The first site is our council website with a link to the forms. The second is an independent site with basically the same information, just set up a little differently.

Sometimes I think we go just a bit overboard. Have you tried to get these totems to STAY attached? The leather actually breaks pretty easily. Also the leaders ALWAYS remove the totems at the drop of a hat. Remember this is CUB day camp -- most of the leaders are over concerned parents!

Back to my original request. I'm not too concerned about the cost. I expect it to be more than a regular patch but I doubt that the added expense would be more than what is already being spent on the patch AND leather totem.

Also, back to the neck issue. I'm open to considering other options. Some of our Boy Scout patches recently have had a button tab at the top. I like that idea too. We could still tie a thong to it if we opted for the "around the neck" option but the boy could wear it on his uniform come fall.

Hi:

I'm trying to find information about a day camp patch that I once saw. This patch was also used as the totem the kids wore throughout the week. It was really nice. It had the hole at the top for hte leather thong to be worn around the neck and the 5 holes at the bottom for the daily activity beads.

No one around here has ever seen or heard of one. Have any of you used something like this for any of your cub scout activities? If so can you send me a picture of it so I can show it to our patch company?

Thanks.

http://www.scouting.org/forms/

This is the Nationl BSA website with all the forms they have online.

Class I Medical is also required for adults. We had to have them completed for every adult that participated in our day camp. The forms says "for all participants" when the outing does not exceed 72 hours. Anything over 72 hours then kicks into the Class II or Class III medical form.

Your council scout shop should have them in stock.

You can also order it through the national distribution center (1-800-323-0732).

It is item #WW33088D and costs $4.40.

Congratulations on such a successful sign-up night.

Our district, unfortunately is really struggling with sign up nights. We currently don't have a DE so there has been only one school talk and two sign up nights. I try to do most of the boy talks and sign up nights but without the DE doing the flyers and helping out we're just losing momentum. Hope they hire someone soon.

"Training alone doesn't help. A change of attitude is also required."

Agree. But training is a good start. Also, from what I've heard about most of the individuals involved (with the exception of one or two) they want to do things the right way they just don't know what the right way is.

Now, maybe I'm an unusual self starter but I personally went out and bought the books so that I could find the answers when I first got started. These people didn't.

I talked with this Unit Commissioner and quoted the pieces out of the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures. I made sure I had them in front of me before I called him.

I agree about having Board of REview as a topic at roundtable. I've talked with our Advancement chair a few times. He tends to focus on Eagle boards and very little else. But, I'll keep working on it.

Up until this most recent roundtable, no one from this troop has come except the Scoutmaster. That is part of the problem. These people are ignorant to the requirements. They're still just a bunch of parents, not trained leaders. Also working to change that soon.

We have done some, actually need to do some more with a couple boys. Overall the boys are advancing pretty well so we really haven't needed to.

Thanks again. Just as an update. I spoke to the unit commissioner who participated in the BOR.

He said he was asked to be there because they weren't going to have enough people. As nicely as I could (what I really wanted to do was strangle him for not knowing the correct procedures) I explained to him that his role as unit commissioner would be to observe, not participate. He complained that the others "were just asking general questions so I got out my rope and had him tie some knots!"

This guy goes to trainings but gets aggravated because he's not given everything in black and white yet here is a "black and white" and he didn't use it.

Sorry, I'm venting.

I appreciate your responses. It makes this difficult task manageable. I am currently working to increase my unit commissioner staff and hope to have this person out soon.

I know what the Advancement guidebook says about boards of review and I agree with all your answers (clearly this committee hasn't read the section on boards of review). This is a sticky situation for a number of reasons. One, the person complaining is one of my unit commissioners. Second, for some unknown reason (to me anyway) the unit commissioner for that troop participated in this board of review. I will be calling him today to find out what in the heck he was doing. And, unfortunately, he asked some of the retest questions (had it not been so late last night and had I been less angry I would have called him right away).

The Scout did pass, however, because of the length of this and another board of review at least two other boys didn't have their review as they had expected.

This troop has many problems, this is only one of them. I was meeting with the new committee chair at our roundtable meeting on Tuesday trying to work out a plan to bring Troop Committee Challenge to them. Hopefully we can get on top of this before too many boys get interrogated.

Thanks for your feedback.