dfscott

Thanks for the quick replies! And eisley, I thought about adding some temporary insignia as well -- I need to go digging for something! Ok, one more question: I originally thought that the CoH was where the awards were presented, but then I saw this excerpt from the Advancement Guide: "Each time a Scout advances in rank, he should be recognized on two occasions. The first should occur as soon as possible after a Scout has been approved by a board of review and an Advancement Report has been filed with the council office - preferably at the next unit meeting. This ceremony s

As SM of a new troop, we're having our first Court of Honor next week (and all the boys are advancing!). I've had a couple of attire questions come up that I'm looking for help with. As background, we're having this in the sanctuary of our CO (church) and following up with a spaghetti dinner in the fellowship hall. 1) What should the parents, friends and other members of the audience wear? My first thought was something along the lines of "business casual," but since it's in the church, should it be more formal? (this is a regular CoH, of course, not an Eagle). 2) One of my scout

>> FIRST, get rid of the Joining Requirements and "Scout" as a non-rank rank. Acceptance of the application form and fees should be sufficient to officially be a Boy Scout. This one has always confused me anyway. If a boy shows up to a Troop and he can't tie a square knot, does that mean I can't take him in the troop? Or do I take him and don't give him a scout badge?

>> If you plan to recruit new Scouts and improve retention, you are better off starting >> with one "Real" Patrol of ten Scouts, under your most mature Scout as Patrol Leader. This sounds great. I'm going to try that and we expect to get another 4-6 boys in the winter. At that time, we can look at where we are numbers-wise and stick with one or split into two.

So, it looks like our new troop will initially have one patrol of 10 scouts. Given that, I'm trying to figure out what our PLC should look like. We hadn't planned to elect a SPL for a one-patrol troop, but if we don't we end up with just a PL and TG in a room doing all the planning. My initial thoughts were to go ahead and elect a SPL. But now I have 9 guys in one patrol and the SPL off on his own (so maybe I leave the SPL in the patrol)? Another idea is to split the 10 into two groups of 5, but I'm expecting some attrition, so that would be a temporary solution at best.

Thanks for all the feedback and I apologize for the delays in replying. As an update, after a couple of recruiting meetings, we're up to 6-8 scouts, so with some help from our DE, we are very close to our chartering goal. We have put together our troop committee, made up of 4 adults (COR/CC, Chaplain, and two others). I have myself as SM and 2 ASM's on-board. Thanks for the info on the pilot program ES1996 -- I wasn't aware of that so that explains a lot. We have signed our Unit Commissioner (under the 3-year rule, you mentioned). He's been out of a scouting for a year or tw

Yes, South Fulton is very active, as is Button-Gwinnett, Foothills and others. All are a significant distance away, mainly due to traffic, not distance. Take a look at the map here: http://troop317.com/images/Atlanta-Council-map.gif See those little light green areas marked N, S, E, and W? Those are districts. Do they need to be killed? Maybe, but there's an awful lot of cubs there. And yes, I guess there is something else going on: my wife and I both sit on the East Atlanta District Committee, so we do have an ulterior motive (although I think it's more of a "two birds w

I'm in the process of wrapping up Arrow of Light with 4 boys in my Webelos Den and they're chomping at the bit to join a Boy Scout Troop. The problem is that there is only one Troop in our District, and it only meets monthly on Sunday afternoons and rarely camps, which is what my boys are eager to do. It seems that most of our District's boys have been joining Troops in other Districts, and then dropping out when they start getting sick of the drive. My wife and I are both active scouters, so we decided to start a new Troop. The problem is that we currently only have 5-6 boys that are w

>> For what it's worth, Baden-Powell's minimum standard for the Patrol System is 150-300 feet, not yards Oops, Kudu, that was a typo on my part. I told them "football field field distance is recommended." Probably not a good analogy since that implies a loooong distance. I really think the main issue is the "boys in their own tents without parents," and this is because of some recent history in our area. To make a long story short, we used to have a troop in our area (2 years ago) and during a campout, there was some inappropriate behavior by some of the older boys towards t

Update: After meeting with the Adults that will soon be the Troop Committee, I met some stiff resistance in some areas. Namely, "300 yards -- with no adults!" and "the poor SPL with no patrol to call home." Since I don't expect to have more than 2 patrols at most, I've elected to forgo the SPL position for the time being. I plan to use a service patrol/program patrol rotation to run the meetings and I'll have an ASM to work in an advisory role to if needed. For the former issue, I brought up Troop Guides, but we don't expect to have any experienced scouts. So, we'll start wit

Thanks, all, for all the comments. My new plan is this: Month 1 (June) outing: Cherokee Trail at Stone Mtn State Park. It's a 5 mile loop trail with lots to see on the way. There's a spot about 1/2 way with picnic tables, so we'll stop for lunch there. Month 2 (July) outing: Let the boys pick: camping or another hike. If hike, I'll give them a choice of several 6-10 mile treks. If camping, I'll try and get into Camp 175 (camp175.com) -- looks like nice, safe camping for new boys. Depending on troop supplies, we'll either tent camp or look at the Adirondacks. Month 3 (August

Thanks for the speedy replies. In retrospect, 5 miles is probably a better plan. We're an "urban troop" -- located about a miles from Turner Field in downtown Atlanta, so just about any hiking is going to be a car ride (maybe nearby Stone Mountain might be a good initial hike). And when I say "new troop" -- I really mean "new troop", not new patrol. I'll probably treat them like a NSP, but there are no senior scouts to help out, and my scouting career is waaaay in my rear-view mirror (but at least I had one, right?) All kidding aside, although the boys haven't spent much ti

In May, I'm going to be SM of a brand new troop. Despite our efforts to recruit older boys, it looks like we'll have about 10-12 1st year scouts (former Webelos). We'll have one 12-year-old and the rest will be 10 or 11. Half these boys came from a Webelos Den that focused on lots of service projects but not much camping. The other half came from a den that focused on advancement, but again: not much camping. Due to the timing of the start date, I'm not going to be able to get them into Summer Camp before the registration deadline (nor do I think they'd be ready -- it's in June). So, at

We were getting pushed by our DE to run a "year-round program." Our pack misinterpreted that to mean "start working on advancement ASAP." Live and learn...

Good point, 2Cub. I had "bear" of a time with my Wolves when they transitioned to Bears. We started early in the spring and went whole hog after advancement in the summer, but then in the fall when we got our new influx of Cubs, we had to either repeat stuff or force the new guys to play catch-up. Also, to further complicate matters, the troop is a brand new troop. We're only getting my 4 early boys, the 4 leftovers from the Web 2 den that imploded, and 2-3 others from a nearby troop that has also ran out of gas. So for all practical purposes, we're going to have nothing but new scout

Thanks, qwazse - I like that idea. I've mapped out the AOL year, and it works out that everything wraps up around that time anyway. I'm planning a couple of fall joint campouts (for Outdoorsman and AOL) so that should keep them all in touch.

The Bear Den has some issues as well. It's made up of 12 boys with a single Den Leader (no ADLs). The CM has been pushing him to split the den and/or get an ADL, but he's resisted, saying he can "handle it." I'm a little worried pushing more boys into that Den. The Scout Troop is brand new (will be chartered this April), so we have some flexibility on when we accept scouts.

I'm facing a hairy situation as a Webelos Den Leader. I'm leading first year Webelos, but two of the boys are newly joined 5th graders (our 2nd year Webelos Den fell apart early in the fall). Things have gone great with the den to this point, with 7 of my 9 boys earning the Webelos Badge at the B&G. At the same time, my two fifth graders have been independently working towards AOL, and plan to get it by May. A couple of the other boys have caught the "AOL Fever" and have been working on it as well (they are "red-shirt 4th graders" so they are eligible age-wise. So now, it look