AdvanceOn

The course fee is $175.00 and includes all meals, lodging and materials. This is just one council over from you (Greater Pittsburgh Council), I believe. Our Wood Badge course is always held at one of our council camps and apparently has been for years.

But, as an Advancement Coordinator, wouldn't it be quite appropriate to get the forms to have available to the boys? Sometimes I think you guys (yes, I'm a woman) decide that Mom is doing everything for the boys. That's not always the case. I, and I'm sure many other female posters, have legitimate reasons for requesting information, forms, etc. It's not just to make it easier for our son(s). I also don't think it's inappropriate for a mom to try to find the forms to help out her son. The traditional way of getting the forms in from the Scoutmaster. Why shouldn't she try to locate th

Wow! scoutldr -- you said it. I really thank you for putting it so eloquently what I've been feeling. Our DE isn't the take over a meeting and start yelling kinda guy but we can definitely feel his stress and desperation levels. His last performance evaluation was the same day as our roundtable. I may copy your post and share it with others. I really do appreciate your words and your ability to put it all back into perspective. Now I need to head to our district committee and roundtable meetings.

As a kid (MANY years ago!) we used the telephone wire to make jewelry - rings, pendants, etc. Seems like you could use it to do string art -- tap in nails to outline a picture then run the wire instead of string.

I'm with Bob on this one. I hope you don't blow his response off because it's not the answer you wanted. There are reasons why many companies don't let spouses and other relatives supervise each other. Even if you're doing the best you can to be objective you're between a rock and a hard place.

I just wanted to say congratulations to Ed Mori for being recommended for elevation to the Vigil Honor Class of 2003 for Enda Lechuahanne Lodge 57 tonight. Ed, I only saw you from afar and with all the confusion of pictures and getting ready to leave didn't get a chance to come over and congratulate you in person. Congratulations, Melodee Hursey

Your problems are almost exactly opposite of our troops. My son will be running for SPL again in a couple of weeks (also not consecutive). However, the main reason is because of a sense of obligation. Our troop has a terrible time getting boys to sign up for positions, especially SPL. If another boy steps up wanting to run then I know my son would gladly take another position. I wish our troop had the problem of multiple boys wanting positions. This is a long term problem that hasn't seemed to improve much despite the efforts to follow patrol method and boy-led.

Are you saying there are no women in paid positions in your Council or surrounding area? Our council, Greater Pittsburgh, has a number of woman in paid professional positions from District Executives to Program Directors (sorry I started typing this before looking back at the job titles). When I first started reading about your thesis I too had some of the same questions that Bob White was asking. Now, even more I have those questions. I haven't gotten that far in commissioner science but I was under the impression that the purpose of the thesis was to improve services not grind an a

No, this is a national decision. I doubt that it has been shared at all councils yet.

Word is the social security number will be required for exactly the purpose Ed mentions -- background checks. All volunteers with BSA will be screened. New applications are expected out early next year. We were also told that currently registered adults will not be screened unless they change positions (thus submitting a new application). This information was shared by our Director of Field Service and Scout Exec at our College of Commissioner Science this weekend. I don't think there is any reason for BSA to ask for the youth social security numbers.

When you file your taxes online there is still one page that must be mailed in -- the signature page. Our council hasn't gone to online rechartering but we also use Troopmaster so I submitted our charter on disk. All we had to submit as far as hard copy was the signature page. Seems like it would be the same if it was done online.

Not saying that this will happen in all cases but I have found that many times the chartered organization isn't "active" or "involved" because no one asked. In our situation, we are chartered by a VFW Post. Leadership changes there just like in scouting. Somewhere along the way communication deteriorated to just an annual signing. Some of us new folk (not new anymore) were told that the VFW doesn't have any money and won't be involved. DOn't even ask. Well, we decided to ask anyway. With one ask we got some minor items donated and then a check for $200 to update some of our camping suppli

yarrow: When's the last time OA has come in to your troop to make a presentation? OA is not supposed to be a popularity contest. Our OA local chapter (actually the entire lodge) is pushing presentations and home elections rather than holding elections at camp. This seems to have improved the process significantly. The other thing I did for this year was print up a ballot of all the boys who were eligible with the voting instructions. It helped a lot. As far as OA replacing troop activities -- we're always hearing troop comes first. Hasn't been a problem with our lodge.

I'm not the one doing the popcorn in our unit so I haven't followed the whole process (but will have to since I'm assisting a pack get back on it's feet). Each unit should be able to use the system. You have to register. I know our council (Greater Pittsburgh) is encouraging all units to do everything on line at the Trails End website. Maybe somebody out there knows more about the process. Does the system require the Council to be using it before the units can? If that's the case then you may want to try to convince your council to get on the ball.

Have you visited the Trails End website? I haven't checked it out recently but I know they got a budget online, ordering online, etc. Maybe they have what you need. http://www.trails-end.com/

I set up a similar kind of scrapbook for, not only my boys, but for my husband and myself as well. We put everything scouting in them -- Certificates, awards, newspaper articles, pictures, etc. This scrapbook is a great way for the boys to keep track of their scouting history and can be nicely displayed at his Eagle Court of Honor. And it's a good way to keep track of those blue cards in case council ever looses the advancement record.

Get to unit commissioner basic training ASAP. Somewhere in your council they must be offering it soon. Get all the unit commissioner books you can. --Commissioner Basic Training Manual --Commissioner Fieldbook for Unit Service -- Commissioner Helps for Packs, Troops, and Crews Attend Commissioner College (or College of Commissioner Science) As far as questions for your ADC -- have him/her tell what THEY're expectations are for the UC position. You may find as Tdyer did that the ADC and DC aren't very in tune with scouting. find out when the monthly commissioner

http://netcommish.com This is a pretty good website that has lots of resources and descriptions. There are commissioner manuals that are available through your scout shop or through the national scout division. The official job desctription for a DC from The Commissioner Fieldbook for Unit Service (pub# 33621C) -- 1. recruit a full staff of commissioners. 2. oversee the commissioner training program 3. work with the district chairman and DE as a member of the district's Key 3 4. plan and preside at monthly meetings of the district commissioner staff. 5. attend distr

Approval may be too strong a word. Our committee does have the SPL report all their plans to us for a number of reasons: 1) is there enough time to get all the required paperwork done (tour permit, permission slips, etc.) 2) does it fall during a holiday that all the parents are going to grumble about?! This seems to happen a lot in our troop. The boys don't consider holidays in their planning. 3) have they considered the financial implications? I.e., they want to go to Niagra next month and it's going to cost $100/scout (these are just numbers off the top). Sometimes the boys see the

I am planning a Scout-O-Rama for our district as part of my Wood Badge ticket. Our district is quite rural, with no mall. We will be holding our Scout-O-Rama at our fairgrounds which are pretty visible from the main round. Most of our units will have to set up outside but we do have access to a building if we want it. I would love to hear ideas that any of you have for encouraging the units to be creative, ways to do some mini fundraising, promoting the event, etc. The sky's the limit. Thanks, I always love hearing from you. I am REALLY excited to be doing this event and ha

Already working on it. but that doesn't mean I'm not nervous about the can of worms that will be opened at some point!

Jusst received my Scout's APPROVED Eagle packet in the mail today so it looks like we worked out all the bugs. This has definitely been an eye-opener for me. Thanks for all the suggestions, feedback, and discussion. I really like having such a strong network of Scouters. It really has expanded my access to resources.

btps: I haven't a clue how they screwed that up. It seems pretty clear to me. But, they did screw up and now this scout and I, as the current advancement coordinator are trying to clean up the mess.

What amazes me about this whole incident is the snowball effect -- A number of you mention the blue cards -- until I took over advancement often the boys weren't even aware that they were supposed to keep their blue card portion. Now I stress this at every BOR and in any number of other settings. We actually found tons of applicant blue cards in the troop building so here's another example of the adults failing the boys. I agree that the troop has the primary responsibility, I just don't buy that council is a repository only until the Eagle application comes in. That makes no s

So what is council's responsibility in the verification process? As a troop we have to send our advancement reports in. They enter this into their system. Don't they do any kind of verification BEFORE a scout submits his Eagle application? I agree wholeheartedly that this was a troop problem. It should never happened. But, it did. Where are the checks and balances in the system? I just really hate that Council (at least our Council) does no verification prior to the Eagle application coming in. That's too late. I have another Scout who according to Council records had earned th