Eagle92

E, Maybe it's time to step backfrom all district/council resposnibilities, and get back involved on the unit level. hard to do yes, but maybe, just maybe, you will become re-energized by seeeing why we do all the hard work that we do: making sure our youth have a great learning expereince. I know stepping away is hard. I stepped down as chapter adviser last month, yet i'm still on board as an associate adviser, and doing alot of the same things until the new guy feels comfortable. But I need to be with my TC son starting in June. But here's the thing, I see challenges and want to get involved. We have a major problem with an inactive CS RT. We do not have a training chair for the district at this time. Things that I know I could do or try to do, yet I do not want ot be overwhelmed as I'm told being a DL is the hardest job in scouting.

Stricklat, Best advice I can give you is follow a DE around on the job. Best learning experience I ever had. Even though I was on the district committee and was very active on that level once I turned 21 and had numerous meetings with DEs and a FD to talk about the profession, I took one day to follow my DE around. Heard the negative and the positive. I fell in love with the profession having a very good understanding of what would be expected. BUT mt caveat is that every district and council is different. growing up and being active in a metro council, was very different from my rural council I eventually was hired at. If you are invited to an interview, take the time to find out about everything: the council, the district cultural activities, life in general. And make sure you visit the district you will be working in! I thought that the district I would be like the city I was interviewed in. Definitely not the case.

Yep neckers have gone by the wayside for many scouts and scouters. Makes it easier for those of us who collect and wear them to get them I also have a drawerfull of neckers, from those of my old troop, to jambo ones, to my SM Fundamentals necker, to my One World One Promise celebrating 100 years of World Scouting.

As a former pro, here's my advice. 1) If you feel uncomfortable about what your council leadership is asking you to do, get clarification, document, and trust your feelings. If you think you need to leave the profession, DO IT! If you are being threatened with losing your job, document it. 2) Make photocopies of everything you turn in to the council office. EVERYTHING, and know wher you keep copies. 3) Document everything, takes good notes during your staff meetings and write up summaries of any meetings with your bosses.. 4) DO NOT JUDGE ANY COMPETITIONS, i.e. uniform inspections, cook offs etc. They do become political. 5) Stay out of the district and council politics as much as possible. IF they rear their ugly head, be firm, fair, and remind everyone that we are in it for the boys. 6) Do keep the rest of Key 3 up to date with what is going on. 7)Be active and enthusiastic. If you start getting negative about the program, it will spread to the volunteers. 8) If you are single, do not let your volunteers set you up or date a volunteer/ vol's family member. Trust me on this one 9) be on your best behavior at all times. People WILL come up to you at the grocery store, movie theater, restaurant, etc and tell you ' Hi Mr. Scout man" or talk about their unit's latest activity. 10) HAVE FUN!

If the mandate comes to fruition, I hope the SCOUTNET records are current. THAT is the major problem with my council, and alot of others.

I was in a similar predicament. Except I wasn't around the adults drinking, I found their empty beer cans in a pyramid like it was a frat house after they left. Report it ASAP. I wil tell you that there will be hard feelings, you will be considered a trouble maker, and the environment twith the rest of the adults in the unit will be hostile. BUT the safety of our youth is the number one priority! What would have happened if an emergency arose while they were impaired? Even knwoing what would happen to the camp staffers, firm warning by the SE, and being a pariah on the camp staff, to the point of driving home every nite and returning for breakfast every morning, I'ld do it again in a heartbeat. the safety of our scouts is the number one priority.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

Good question, I honestly don't know. Council should, repeat SHOULD, take them back. But each council shop is basically adistributorship and can set their own policies. They may make you return them to national directly.

Only time I had that problem with my old troop was on a backpacking trip. Everyone was supposed to pack in 1 gallon of water, and we also had a pump. After realizing that not everyone brought their gallon, I made a side trip to the grocery store and bough a few gallons of water. Our campsite was somewhat close to the road, and on the way to drop off a car at the end, we stopped and hid the water I bought. We made everyone who didn't bring a gallon work the pump to learntheir lesson. After those who didn't follow directions spent soem time on the pump, we found the water cache.

yep invoke the warrenty 'Lifetime Guarenteed" You'll laff, but my shop replaced a 30 yo pack with a brand new one because of the warrenty. Since the BSA didn't carry the individual frames, which is all he needed, we had to issue a new pack! Just cut off all the pacthes: csps, knots, etc, before returnign it.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

Someone made a reference to being an example all the time. Leaders neeed to do that, especially in small towns. As a young DE I had to visit every single elementary school in the district. kids would instantly recognize me as the "Boy Scout Guy" in the grocery, at the resteraunt, everywhere. in reference to troops taking on the characteristics of the leadership, very true. My troop was known as a 'hiking and camping troop" as that was what the first SM was interested in. When he retired, the new SM had a water background, he was a QM in Sea Scouts, and we focused more on water activities, canoeing, rowing, and motorboating. We still did the alot hiking, but once the weather was warm enough for water activities, aout trips incorporated them into the activities.

What I didn't liek about the left chest pocket is the pen seam. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a bellows pocket. Luckily a seam ripper took care of that problem. Now I got to make a button hole on the right pocket flap so that you can actually use the button for temp insig. without having it fall off.

As I said in the other post about the new, new trained strip, the one that looks like the old one but is smaller, not a lot of info has come down from national on it yet. BUT it is believed, and I am stressing believed that the CS reference is for FEMALES in the YELLOW BLOUSE, not leaders in the centennial uniforms. Again this is from a converstaion I had with someone working for national supply.

Ok I got SOME clarification on stuff in the IG. Called my old shop about it. 1) the references to CS leaders with red numbers and trained strip under the POR is in reference to FEMALES in the YELLOW BLOUSE. That is a major typo according to my source. If you are in the centennial uniform you DO wear tan and green numbers, whether Webelos, Male CS leader or female CS leader IN THE CENTENNIAL BLOUSE ONLY. 2)In reference to the new trained strip that looks like the old one but smaller, source didn't know what the heck was going on as there has not been alot of info about it from national. When I asked if a CS leader in the centennial could use the new trained strip, source said he wouldn't worry about it. MY OPINION: They brought back the old trained patch for Venturing leaders, Females in the yellow blouse, and those of us who have old uniforms. AGAIN MY OPNION ONLY. Too bad they didn't implement the green and white Trained strips for venturing leaders. 3) Some minor moddification have been made or in the process of being made to the uniforms. One is more belt loops on the larger pants. Another is longer shirt tails. Source also believe the tech pocket will be moved up some as well. Looks like I need new unit numbers as I cannot use the red and whites I have. Luckily they are the fully embroidered ones that wife can use with her vintage uniform.

See the other thread on the insignia guide, i just got some info.

Yep my troop also had youth onthe T-1-2 BORs in the 80s. They stopped sometime in the late80s early 90s. A few things I liked about the policy. 1) it gave the youth experience in conducting things simliar to BORs like job interviews. 2) Youth at times have a better grasp of the indiviudal's attitudes than adults. 3) It reemphasizes the leadership roles and responsibilities of the youth leaders. Again i don't remember exactly when or why the troop stopped having youth on the BORs, but I did like the idea.

Actually according to the Guide for Officers and Advisers, it is 'preferred" that units do not do elections at summer camp. Which seems kinda weird to me since A) OA started from a summer camp society and B) one of our primary goals, ok several, is to promote camping. What better place than summercmap?

Scouter760, I think we discussed this in another thread about your lodge. According to the Guide for Officers and Advisers, p 20, the unit leader must approve the candidate PRIOR to the election. I know every lodge does things a little differently, heck I've been in 5 already, but I am surprised that someone hasn't brought that up to your lodge before. in order to change the "SM's can disqualify after the elcection" policy, all anyone has to do is say it violates national policy and implement the national policy. Now if it is written into the lodge's by-laws, then you can still do it as above, but go through the formal process as well to get ti off the books so to speak. Hope this helps.

my old troop was a "hiking and camping troop." our troop patch had a tent with two feet sticking out of it with band-aids on them to remind us of that fact.

BDPT, Let me explain how my old troop did T-2-1 BORs at one time. You had 2 committee members and 1 youth, with the youth being the 'chairman" in that his signature was the first one and he made the announcement to the youth of passing. Everyone one on the BOR signed the book. usually the scout onthe BOR was a member of the Leadership Corps, which loosely corresponds to the Venture patrol today. I think that when a nationalmade it adults only, the troop changed it, but I could be wrong.

Short, We posted at nearly the same time. I agree with you for the most part. When you have a SM, or any adult for that matter, starting to yell at the election team over the results, that's when the adult steps in. And yes that happened several times to me in the past. I had to step in when adults tried to tamper with the results. maybe that explained why my first chapter had so many problems with membership.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

Sometimes the SMs try to blow off the CAs. First gig as a chapter adviser, I was 21 and I could of used the late Rodney Dangerfield's line "I get no respect" with some of the SMs. Try to tell me I don't know anything about the OA, I didn't have their years of expereince with the OA, yada yada yada. One time i got into a very heated discussion with a SM trying to intimidate my election team into changing results. Didn't happen. That's why I like to have an adult present. You would think folks would not try to influence the youth, but they do.

Scottteng, I've been involved with the OA for a little while, serving as a youth officer, two tours as a chapter adviser, and now on my third tour as a associate chapter adviser. I think I have seen it all: SMs trying to tell people who to vote for, SMs trying to do what was described above, popularity contests, (sarcasm on) my personal favorite having little brother influence the election by having his entire new scout patrol vote for you (sarcasm off), elections in which no one was elected (even after the second ballot), and folks stating they don't want to be inthe OA. yes those happen, but if you got a good, trained and motivated election team the bad stuff doesn't happen. Again the key part is the training. Showing a video is ok, but you need to have passionate and trained youth conduct the election. And an adult to advise the team when needed, and protect the youth from the adults who want to interfere, like the SM above. If your unit elections are popularity contests, I would have a chat with the CA and chapter chief and express yor concerns. The elections process is not the problem, the way it is conducted is.

Anotehr trick to recruiting parents is to have several folks approach them simultaneously. Two to three leaders, especially the ones most active with the son and/or knows the family best,i.e. works with parents, goes to church with parents, etc. Rarely will someone say no using this approach. They usually are the ones who have used this approach on others Good luck.

The situation you described is why I want an adult with the election team. Once the SM signs the form approving all eligible for election, he no longer has input, only the youth of the troop and those leaders 18-20. that said the election teem needs to get the info for ALL those elected and submit them. Further a letter to the SM citing chapter and verse from either the Guide to Inductions or one of the other books that contain the election process. All are avilable vie the national OA website.

Ok this post has been bugging me all day. Question for TDK101, is the adult registered with the BSA? If yes then follow YP if it is still bugging you. If they are not registered, and you gut tells you to watch out, talk to the CC and make your concerns known. I guess I am a little sensitive on this topic. While working at a British scout camp, we did have an issue with a non-registered adult helping a CS pack out. We were fortunate in that we had an off duty constable on the service team that week that dealt with the problem very quickly, but still scouts got hurt.