Eagle92

Like Vigil, I too have worn everything I have earned that is allowed by BSA. But I am slowly thinking the "less is more approach" may be better. At this point as long as it is authorized and in the correct position, I am fine with it. See I was in one of those troops that was big on the uniform method with weekly uniform inspections. (And yes we used the other methods, esp outdoors as we were a "hiking and camping troop.") the uniform was ingrained on us from the older scouts and passed down to succeeding generations of scouts. If was a scouting function, except for a few occasions, you better be in uniform. PLC meetings, in uniform. as an adult going to RT and other meetings, you are representing the troop, so be in uniform. And part of that was wearing everything you earned, weather youth or adult, as appropriate. And that has carried over to today. Went to jambo, you wore it. In the OA, wear your flap. Went through Brownsea, wear the strip, etc. But again I am reevalutaing. That's because the problem I am seeing now, esp on the CS level that I am working on now, is that folks are wearing all kinds of stuff on their uniforms, most not authorized. I see folks with all kinds of dangles, lapel pins, feathers,two and three temp patches (don't ask), ad nauseum. It getting to the point of ridiculousness IMHO. And to be honest I look at my uniforms now and ask " is this starting to be ridiculous." And even though all my patches are authorized and in the correct positions ( hey I'm the guy who used a two compasses to get the the patch JUST RIGHT ) , And I am coming to the answer yes. Especially the anniversary ring. I am in the process of updating my sea scout uniform, and the "plain Jane" look does look a lot better. The only changes I would like to see in the Sea Scout unis is the World Crest, as that is the one emblem All scouts around the world is suppose to wear, on all uniforms, and the CSPs back on the working uniforms. Hopefully the powers that be will do that. I admit I am not going to change all my uniforms at this point. Some are so old that when I tried taking off my regional insignia from my period as a DE, there was definate shading differences. I had to buy a new shirt altogether for my Sea Scout uni as taking off some insignia left shading differences. But any new shirts i get will go the KISS route.

I have not gone through WB yet, but I've attended many beading ceremonies. While you may not think the youth maybe interested, and I think they would be surprised. Most memorable one for me was a friend who is hyper involved in the OA. He talked to the lodge chief, and got approval to do his beading ceremony Sunday mornign of the Ordeal weekend for several reasons: almost everyone from WB would be there, part of his ticket involved the lodge, and a lot of the lodge members, both youth and adult, wanted to see him get his beads. Another one that stands out was one done at a troop COH. Again all the youths, except our recently crossed over ones who didn't know alot about it, were interested.

i was the one who mentioned test out option. it was either over here or on MyScouting.org that the topuic came up, and someone cited the exact page it was on. I'll search over there tomorrow One comment, unless the self study method of training and personal coaching method of training are no longer allowed, and I haven't heard otherwise, it looks like you can study the material fromteh BSHB, and go to a trainer for the "personal coaching method of training" and demonstrate the skills listed on p95 and 96 for check off. be advised basic CPR has changed in the last 5 years. You can do compression only CPR on adults if you do not have a barrier device, or do 30 compression to 2 breaths for one man Adult, infant, & child. Every 5 years CPR gets reevaluated, and the conference that does that met in June or July. SOOOO be expecting some changes for next year , like 50:2 compressions to breaths ratio for one man.

Miq, Some of us don't like Starbucks. Then again I grew up on Cafe du Monde and Community Coffee in New Orleans, so I need coffee with chicory in it. and speaking of Dutch ovens, some Dutch oven beignets, powdered suger, and CDM's cafe au lait sound awesome right now

One thing I've heard about was one camp doing all of Basic Leader training: fast start, sm spec, and IOLS, during the week of summer camp. I heard that the folks going through it wqere bable to get a real feel for things.

I love eating chocolate covered coffee beans. help me out with one special OA function I attended.

It's been a while, but this is what I remember from my PDL-1 Class on SCOUTNET prior to it being released in '98. SCOUTNET is suppose to allow the records of an individual to move with them, so that if they move to a different council, the new council has their records already. Since all records are stored in one central database, the new council just accesses the file and updates the info in it. Now in theory that is how it's suppose to work. But I know I have had major problems with my records a few years back when I moved to 4 councils in three years. I had to repeat YPT a few times, and my records were not complete.

I second Peri's recommendation about havuing the WDLs talk about den chiefs. They are a great recruiting tool. I actually saw a troop fold b/c they thought the Cubs at the CO 'belong to them," but would not do anything to help the pack. So when another troop sent over a DC, and had one of their ASMs also work as an AWDL, guess where all the Cubs crossed over to?

SR, That's not it. What I had was in a bottle that you squeezed and it filled a measuring device that was built into the top of the bottle.

While I am normaly in favor of having the patrol invite guests, Maybe having all the adults eat together may save more headaches about who is eating with whom?

I do not know if this product ever got off the ground as I have not seen it since, but one company made a concentated liquid coffee that all you did was add water to the desired strength. Or if you liked it strong, then just add milk and sugar. A container of concentrate lasted me 5 days as I like my coffee strong. Also I had a friend use Water Joe, caffienated water, to make his coffee. said he couldn't get the desired strength while camping.

Does sound out of whack. BUT if the adults can keep from interfering withthe patrols, then I won't see a problem. that's the key: keeping the adults from interfering with the youth

This is what I use. http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___80750 I love it, and got one for my wife's uncle who lives in assisted living.

of course after the required time for rank advancement is doen they can get credit. But in one case I've seen it used, it was a year long responsibility. That way everything in that year was consistant.

Pack, I wish my council would let us do that. Instead the new folks pay for the one or two months left on the charter, plus the next year. Good news is that folks are not hit with paying money within 3 months of joining. bad news is that the kids that drop after the first few meeting must be rechartered as the parents have paid for the year. One way I've seen it done is how many kids are attending meetings and activities at cross over in May, and then how many show up in the fall. I admit I lost a few from when I started. 1/2 of my group of split off to form their own den And out of the half that remained I lost 3.

As someone commented, there si discussion about his award onthe Venturing forums. Apparently the folks who created Range did have a say inthis award for scouts.

Moxie, Again if memory serves, the local council decides the actual cost of their CSP, regardless of where it is sold. So ifa council picks $5, national sells it for $5. Also a council can restrict who sells it, i.e. with in geographical borders to ditributors, council office only, etc. Some councils refuse to allow national to sell their CSPs.

Bac, As you know I am not LDS, but I do have a favor. If you get a non-LDS commissioner, please get them up to date on what the differences are between LDS and non-LDS units. B/c as Gary has pointed out to me, what one unit says is the norm, may not be the case. If it'll help, I'll post the link that Gary PM'd me on an offical BSA publication on the LDS church's implementation? EDITED: decided to add the link anyway https://www.ldsbsa.org/index.html Did a quick review and it may be helpful in my situation, i.e. trying to get the LDS units more active in the district. Hope it helps.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

Buff, Thanks to the link. But req 3 for camping has me scratching my head: Earn two of the following three merit badges: Cooking, First Aid, Pioneering. Isn't First Aid MB still required for Eagle?

Off the top of my head some ideas. 1) create a scrap book/year book with photos, stories, COH covers, etc. This is one POR i'ld recommend the SPL make a year long one, and maybe have an assistant. 2)start researching the past via talking to older /previous members/leaders. Get their photos and stories recorded. 3 start indexing everything.

Trev, playing Devil's Advocate so bear with me. Once upon a time, Eastern Woodlands Indians believed that how a captured enemy behaved under torture signified how much of a man he was. Singing their death song, hurling insults at their captors, not crying you tin pain, etc symbolized the bravery and manliness of the captured, and if he "died a good death," he would be honored by the enemy after his death. I believe the author Axtell goes into a lot of detail on this.

Bac, No disrespect to you, but while you may not be helicoptering your son, you are the scouts/venturers. Things that they should be doing for themselves, or going to the PLs and SPLs for assistance, or crew secretary, president, etc as the case may be, you are doing for them it seems from your post. Scouts should be able to handle their own advancement. The scribe should be able to record advancement, attendance, etc in the Troop Record book the most units use. A scout being nervous or shy about approaching an SMC should have a PL helping him out. Scouts is not suppose to damage your relationship with your son, rather it is suppose to aid you in helping him to become a man. And please do not take this and an attack on LDS units as it is not meant to be. My observation with 2 sets of units, one was top notch, the other had a long way to go, was that adults do more of the youth work than in non-LDS troops. I thing this is because LDS units are divided on age, i.e. 11 yos work with CS, 12-13 work together in a troop, 14+ in a crew. I believe that it takes away from having the patrol method somewhat. And here's why: once you have an experienced youth who is capable of being a leader and passing on his knowledge to his patrol, he moves to the next level. But because that isn't happening, adults are doing more of the older scouts' work. By having the full gamut of 11-17yos all together, the older scouts should be working with the younger ones. the older ones do the teaching, they do the mentoring , they are running the program.

bac, The when in doubt, ask the DAC was meant to say that if a question in regards to advancement come up in a unit and the exact meaning is understood, ask him or her. There job is to support units i advancement. Not saying that you should go to straight to the DAC and complain/demand results. You are correct it will cause problems. But make to make a phone call for clarification.

Baccus, Maybe my troop growing up had different or higher expectations, but keeping track of advancement was the Scout's responsibility, not the youth leaders, not the adult leaders, not the parents, but the youth. When you completed something at the T-2-1 level, your PL, or whichever youth was assigned to work on that requirement, signed you off after you gave him your HB. At the S-L-E level it was the MBC, the SM, or in rare cases his designee, that signed off after you handed them the HB. During the weekly uniform inspections, the SPL or ASPL would not only look at your uniform, but also asked questions to see how things are going with you. One of the questions once a month was how are you doing for the next rank. And it was expected that you know what you needed. Also at the BORs what our plans for acheiving the next rank were, i.e. what was already completed and what needed working on. In my experience, the problem with record keeping wasn't with the youth keeping track, but with adults keeping track of the paperwork, specifically the council registrar. In my case for Eagle, the registrar put in wrong dates into the preSCOUTNET system, and I had to turn in a copy of my BSHB to get it fixed. In one friend's case, council had no records of him advancing for 4 years! We had to turn in a copy of his BSHB as well, AND the troop turned in their copies of the ARs to show that yes the reports were turned in. As for calling him a helicopter parent, one sign that I have seen with them is that they focus on advancement. if he isn't attending functions, then I am wrong in that matter. part of scouting is letting your sons grow up. That entails letting them do things they need to do, with minimal to no assistance form you, and letting them take responsibility, and letting them succeed or fail. Scouting provides the safe environment for them to do just that. More later "Empower" your youth by giving them responsibility for their own advancement, and you will be surprised at how well they do

Gary, I think the main challenge is that lack of communication on the father's part, as well as him being a "helicopter parent." The scouts should have mentioned the situation to Jet, not the dad. the scouts should be responsible for keeping track of their advancement, not dad. And the scouts should have arranged some type of communication with both sets of SMs. It appears that none of this happened, and dad should have talked to his sons about bringing this up to their SM at home. I was duel enrolled in two troops, my "home troop" and my "trip troop." Even though both SMs knew each other, heck the trip troop's SM was an ASM in my home troop, anything related to advancement went through the home troop. the trip troop was for one purpose: the HA trip. But something still doesn't sound right, esp since the goal is to recognize achievements ASAP, so the scouts should have received their advancement prior to returning. Part of me says the other troop should send the advancement to the boys since it was completed under them. Anyway, I would call the UT council, and tell them that you have a transfer scout and need a copy of their records. OR you should, stressing SHOULD, be able to go to your local council and get a copy of their SCOUTNET records as SCOUTNET is suppose to allow that information to be shared with councils you move to. I've had problem with that though. I would also contact the other SM and come up with a game plan for when this happens again. let's face it if you have a summer home, you usually use it. So this will happen again. I would also have a discussion with the scouts and dad. let them knwo your concerns, your expectations, you discussion withthe other SM,and how it will be handled in the future. good luck.