akela

What a mess! I agree suspend the scout for 30 to 60 days and only upon a SM conference will he be able to return if his attitude is corrected. I would also suspend the parent from attending any troop activities until she can handle her angry in a manner more appropriate for scouting. I have bitten my tonuge several times, but I think you are about to bite yours in half. Make a list of all infractions before setting down with the scout and parent(s) and have the child sign acknowledging that he has been suspended and that he has received a written notification of why he was suspended. Cover your fanny. You can never be to careful. You sure do not want to find yourself in some type of lawsuit. Be sure to have all the adult leadership you can with you when you conference him (them).

Good luck

Cheryl(This message has been edited by supermom)

We allow our troop to take electronics only on long car rides, then they must be left in that car and locked up once we get to our destination. The only person who carries a cell phone is the SM. Other adults carry cell phones, but they must be left in there vehicle upon arrival, unless they are needed for a work connection.

It seems to work well for us.

Cheryl

Laura:

We have had the same problem, but at this point it is getting better. We had to take it to the last resort and have SM conference with the parents. But so far it has worked, and things are coming back together. We are the new patrol in the troop and just entered in February; our town only has one troop so you go to it, or go to another town. It was to the point that we (me and a co-leader)were going to start a new troop. Things went from bad to worse at summer camp and everything came to a head Friday at camp. One boy was so upset he spoke to his parents as soon as they got to camp for dinner, and the fur started to fly. it was good though because it made us get our point out and the boy got his point out and hte parents got there points out and we are talked about the best way to improve things. It was a last reslut, as we headed out of camp to dinner, the adult leaders at camp were discussing what we were going to do with the boys who were "misbehaving" and we had deceided that parent conference with all 4 boys and all 4 parents was the solution, but when the parents of one showed up, we just went ahead and got the ball rolling.

My son is sensitive, and he has been going to quit twice, before we got to camp, now things are going rather smoothly; by the way half of the troop has been gone on vacation, maybe that is what made it smooth? LOL

Good luck

Cheryl

I am chiming in a little late on this thread, but would love to give my two cents worth. I would love to see and ettiquette merit badge. These young men I deal with don't know what the word even means. They are not getting the information at home. Most are single parent families, or one parent works away from home and is only there on weekends.

Example: One boy 15 at summer camp, stood at the PBJ table and made himself a sandwich. did not have his plate with him so proceeded to eat his PBJ over the table where he had made it rather than returning to his table. When we asked why he did that, and that he had not used proper manners, his reply was that he was still hungry when he had made the first sandwich and was going to make another, so he just stayed there to eat the first one, so he did not have to get up twice.

Plus we live in redneck country, so spitting under the dinning fly is the most nerving one I get. I have instructed the boys that this is where we eat, so we don't spit.

I am all for the merit badge.

Cheryl

We recently had new shirts made. they are tan with navy print on them. They hide dirt nicely. They boys have a bsa trefoil over the breast with Troop 111 under it. then on the back we screened a large (takes up the hole back) trefoil with our troop number and town under it, it kinds circles the emblem. You should just add an emblem or design for the back, it would be less costly. We have a local church that has it own screening machine, they make shirts for bible school. and they are always willing to help us out, check with some of the larger churches in your area, or do a little digging, you might get it done for $0. Good luck. We are looking at doing shirts for the CS pack with a large screen of our state on the back. We don't take them out of state, but thought it was a great idea.

Cheryl