Dan Williamson

Bob White, Thanks. We have a good feeder Pack...same number in fact and same charter organization. This past year we strenghtened relationships with the pack so all is good. I had skulled through a lot of what you recommended but had not thought of the Parent guide part. Good idea. Thanks again.

Bob White, What is your recommended method for handling the Scout Badge requirements for a cohort of Webelos coming to the troop? If they had a good Webelos II den and a quality experience to earn Arrow of Light they should have accomplished most of the requirements for the Scout Badge. Do you do a "check ride" and present them with their Scout Badge the first night they arrive? I can see advantages in that. Or is there another better way. It certainly doesn't need to be strung out but I want to get it right.

kwc57, Nothing personal with Dutch and I apoligize for sounding like I was attacking him personally. I do not like the notion of quitting if all is not square or advising someone to do so. I tend to meet issues head on and upfront. If I was snubbed I would have been 'in-your-face" obnoxious about being heard. I will not tolerate being ignored. When I see something that I know is not right I tend to confront the person doing the wrong and put them on notice. So in his case I would have put the SM and Advancement chair on notice to fix the problem, given them a reasonable time to fix it, then

Yea Dutch do what you want. But I'll stick to my guns too. Go find a troop that doesn't require anything from you personally. Don't volunteer to be the next Scoutmaster and fix the problems and don't volunteer to be the advancement chair on the committee. Lots of work there. Lots of troops out there that meet your criteria. Let me describe "Generic Troop" and it's leaders. They don't really want your help or ideas because they have been doing things the same way since Napolean was a road guard and don't want you mucking around in their empire and upsetting their delicate ego balance. So you ha

kwc57, We are very much boy led. But Boy Led doesn't mean no guidance, no help, no suggestions, no goals. Our schedule is fungible and very much influenced by the boys. In fact if we were just pushing one could make Eagle even faster than we lay out. I guess it depends on one's view point. We have some kids that really advance quickly at a pace they set for themselves. We have some that don't advance rapidly at all because they are not consistent participants. But the average kid who attends meetings, camp, outings, etc. can make Eagle. Most of our boys LIKE to succeed, advance, learn and ge

Dutch, Another viewpoint if I may....Some of what you say sounds like what goes on in our council/district but with huge exceptions. The biggest being standards. We insure that all boys actually do the work and we keep track of the paperwork. We have a merit badge coordinator in the troop to whom the boys go if they want to complete a merit badge. They get a blue card, a workbook and a counselor assigned...and we try to keep them buddied up so we don't get into any one-on-one counseling. Recors are kept with a file for each boy. I don't see anything wrong with this. When we go to "merit badg

Buffalo2, You are lucky. In 1985 at the Staff College and 1993 at the War College we had to do this the old fashioned way. In fact, some of these books about B-P I have only been able to find in these very extensive military libraries....but go to pinetreeweb.com and you can read most of them on-line. Some are by B-P himself and others, The Great Boer War by Arthur Conan Doyle (famous as the creator of Sherlock Holmes) and the short piece in Great Contemporaries by Winston Churchill are pretty good as starters. He was a man of the Victorian Era, very popular in England during his lifetime an

Old Grey Eagle, Since I am a retired Army officer, Command and General Staff College graduate, War College graduate and closet military historian I have been forced, forced mind you, to read and study Baden-Powell's exploits in South Africa...before he invented Boy Scouts (actually I picked him as a subject for further research). They are a great example of the innovative use of all available assets to accomplish a task. He was ahead of his time and a master in his use of deception, camoflage and down right sneaky tricks to keep his enemy guessing and off balance while surviving a seige agai

The subject of military equipment...not BDUs...I am insisting that the parents in our troop go to the local Army/Navy and check out military surplus pistol belts, canteens, covers and harnesses, mosquito nets, etc. for our Scouts for summer camp. The equipment is far superior to the junk they typically buy at the Scout Store or Wally World and will not self destruct after one day of "boy testing". Since women have been around the military for quite a while you can get sizes that fit an 11-15 year old boy. I insist in the summer, since I am responsible for them, that boys ALWAYS carry water wh

LauraT7, There are plenty of positions that count for leadership time that have not been mentioned here. Troop Guide is an honored position in our troop, third in line of succession and only appointed by the Scoutmaster from among the best. OA Representative is a good one. You can have as many Instructors as you want...an example of how to use them is to make them an expert in one task like knots or compass or fire starting and use them to impart knowledge. Librarian, scribe, historian and quartermaster are useful if you use them correctly, give them specific duties and projects and check th

I'm with ASM7. This is all sickening. Most of the posters are relativists. Meaning....truth is left up to an individuals interpretation. Being gay may be a choice but it is the wrong choice. Nature says so...the Bible says so and no sugar coating or relativism will make the truth of that go away. I have a word for Mr. TJ...QUIT! When and if the BSA allows gays I will stand up and do the right thing...I'll QUIT!

Probably too late to reply to this thread but I've been busy. There's a war on you know. AND I admit to not reading every response in detail....but here's my two cents. I played lots of sports in school year round, had homework, but NEVER missed a Scout meeting because of sports and NEVER missed a Scout outing and NEVER came to Scouts without my uniform, sometimes changing at the Scout Hut, because I understood that the standard was to be in uniform. What's different now??...not much. Except when you peel the onion back on the sports stuff the kids are not on a school team but in some sort of

OOps...My last was for Bob White...Thanks for yesterday's 2:50 PM advice. Dan Williamson

Thanks for the advice in your posting of 2:50 pm yesterday. But a piece of it points to my frustration. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as a Patrol Leader and Senior Patrol Leader Handbook and that they were good resources until AFTER my training when I stumbled onto them.

I'm with you. The kids who seem to do the best have parents who "get it"...meaning involved with their kid. Sadly there are some good boys who get no attention at home. Dad seems to ignore them...would rather play golf. Mom has to get her aerobic workout in. (Have a high handicap, stay fat and raise your kid is my motto) They never come to any Scout stuff. My concern is that we will lose these guys when they get older unless we have a program that is so "cool" they can't refuse it. I am bound and determined to have such a program. Bob White tells me there isn't much in the BSA Rules/bylaws