EagleInKY

OGE - I'm not familiar with Camp Rodney. I looked at their website. Why do you like it?

The key word in scoutldr's post is "solicit". We have received some donations in our troop. These have come in one of two ways. Some have come from grants or local organizations that regularly give money to non-profits. They are always asking if anyone needs anything. When they do, we usually say "sure, we're looking to buy a _____" (gps, trailer, tents, etc.). They're more than willing to give us some proceeds. The second form of donation we've received is from some businessmen in our troop. They have made unsolicited donations to the troop to help pay for items.

I've been sitting back and admiring the posts. Lots of good points. I think it is dependant upon the back half of the question: "What's the most important rank to achieve to an active Boy Scout?" The next one, of course. "What's the most important rank to achieve to fulfill the promise of Scouting?" First Class. When a scout earns this, he has demonstrated the essential skills to be successful in Scouting and life. "What's the most important rank to achieve to positively impact your life in more ways than you can count? Eagle. It helps your self confidence, your personal development, you'll gain respect, and yes, it will can help you get into college or land you that job.

Welcome to the forum. Keep working that ticket, you'll get there. I've got 3 1/2 done here. Trying to wrap it up this fall.

Semper, you old salt, you amaize me with your ability to pop out these creative responses. You must have had a jolly time riding this horse to the trail's end. Hmmm, I think I'll go watch a movie.

I agree that a good program leads to a larger troop. But, a troop may choose to "throttle down" growth if they like. If they don't want to grow too big, they can limit the ways they recruit, have stricter joining requirements, etc. These are all allowed by the BSA. I've seen a couple of research items on the subject. I don't know how accurate they were. The general finding, I believe, was that larger troops offer more opportunities for scouts. But, an ideal size for a troop is usually around 30-50. Once you get larger than that, it takes much more adult planning and coordinating and you tend to move away from some of the Boy-lead aspects. Again, I don't know how accurate these reports were, but they do ring of some common sense, IMHO.

stlscouter - They were required to pour out water bottles at the security checkpoint. My understanding is that they would set off the detectors. My dad is there and told me that over the phone. So, it was the security measures put in place. Was that the Secret Service? Don't know if they handle checkpoints or not, but it was whoever is in charge of that aspect of security.

Madlibs are fun too. You can buy books of ideas and use them once or twice a year. Assign each item to a den. Let them shout it out when it's there turn. (I would just point to them on cue). They had a blast with them!

In these cases, it's problems created by adults not following the program, not the scout intentially tring to get away with something. So, no, I would not imagine anyone revoking the rank or the Merit Badges. If the boy was involved in a deception, then I think I would escalate it to the Council Advancement Committee for guidance. I know of one BOR mistake that happened early in our troop. The Advancement Chair mistakenly involved an ASM on the Board. I didn't realize it until the BOR was beginning. I didn't have the heart to tell the Scout we couldn't do it then (it was for Tenderfoot). I reviewed the policy with the Adv. Chairman afterward and it hasn't happened again.

I agree with the over-emphasis as well. I was guilty of it myself during my first year as scoutmaster. This year, we encouraged the guys to leave some free time to do those other things. Most did not want to, and ended up with a pretty full schedule. I think that their parents, in many cases, pushed them to take as much as possible.

Yes, I have. We started a new troop and two of the nine original boys were in this situation. They've done real well and for the most part fit right in with the guys. Certainly there are times when the age difference is more obvious than others. Also, many many moons ago, about a year after I became a boy scout, my father helped start a new troop. My older brother was 4 years older than the next scout. Obviously, he served as SPL for the first couple of years as the troop formed. That brings me to the point that your older son may like. This is a great opportunity for him to be a leader to these younger boys. Depending on his personality, it may be a great opportunity for him.

As was mentioned in another thread, I believe the BSA needs to step back and look at safety awareness. Perhaps we've become to caught up in other forms of Youth Protection and forgotten some of the basics. Lots of scouters have not had outdoor training, and there is no decent high adventure training for Boy Scouts. That, combined with the fact that the few safety classes they have are a joke (climb on safely, trek safely, etc.). Getting struck by lightning is often unavoidable. In fact, my dad was struck by lightning one year on our way to Philmont. We were all standing next to him, but luckily no one was seriously hurt. Until more information comes out, we'll probably never know if this group made a mistake. (Personally, I know of one situation where I did something stupid in a thunderstorm and realized later how bad it could have been.) Let's hope this is the last of the bad news for a while.

Just spoke to my dad who is a volunteer at the Jamboree. He said the medical staff was begging those in charge to postpone the event from the morning. Those running the show said they didn't want to cancel with the president coming and all. Maybe afraid of political fallout, who knows. Then the security measures went overboard when they made boys dump out their water bottles. Water was available inside, but not enough of it. Apparently there were long lines, and probably some boys, thinking they were fine, didn't mess with the hastle of refilling them. When boys started dropping, they realized the mistake they made and called off the show. Bad part about this is there is lots of blame going around. If you don't like the president, you'll blame him. If you don't like the boy scouts, you'll blame the leaders. From my POV, Jambo leadership dropped the ball on this. Secret Service didn't help things by making them dump out their canteens.

That's unfortunate, but not a disaster. You can still conduct JLT without the video. The boys tend to think it's goofy anyway. So, use the time to do more exercises with them and it will be fine.

As the requirement clearly states, you may use a week (some debate whether this is 5,6 or 7), of a long-term camp. So, if your son has 5 nights in a long-term camp, he has to get the other 15 days through short-term camps. Since short-term camps are typically 1 or 2 nights, this means another 8-10 campouts more than likely. As for the blue card deal. Normally, work completed prior to the blue card handed out is not allowed to count toward a merit badge. However, with camping and hiking, MB Counselors usually accept previous work, as long as it was done after he became a Boy Scout. I know there are some "by-the-bookers" that won't do this, but I believe the vast majority will.

Ditto - at the time of the BOR. We recognize the scouts 2-3 times for each rank advancement. 1) The night of the BOR, we recognize them. If I happen to have an extra patch in my box-o-goodies, I'll go ahead and present him with his rank patch. 2) The next week, the scout receives his rank patch (unless we did it the night of the BOR). 3) He then receives his card and parent's pin at the COH.

I agree with just about everything said about the importance of MBs. Could it be that his troop is forcing the MB by teaching lots of MBs? If that's the case, they could be forcing scouts to take MBs that they do not have any interest in pursuing. I see that as on of the primary reasons for not doing a lot of MB work in the troop setting.

I agree with scoutldr about your immature companion. Sounds like he has some power issues. There isn't one answer for homesickness. We try a number of things. First, we keep them busy. Most of the time, when a boy gets busy, he'll forget about everything else. I've got a great set of assistants. They have different styles. One tends to treat them as yours did, while another takes the "tough love" approach. Another tries to joke with them and have a good time, while another one is laid back about the whole thing. One thing we do is have a parent's meeting prior to camp. We tell them how we treat homesickness. One thing we DON'T do is let them call home. We also tell them that taking their son home on parent's night is not an option. As for parents, we try to make sure they understand the chain of command. We also try to isolate them away from their sons to some degree. We encourage them to stand back and let the boys do their thing. In fact, sometimes we have to be pretty direct with them.

As for creating positions, the most common one I've seen is "webmaster". Several troops have boys rotating through this assignment, and are counting it as a POR for Star and Life. Again, it can't be used for Eagle, but it could be for those two.

nldscout - I believe you meant APL, not ASPL. APL is a position, it is just that it does not normally count toward POR requirements for Star, Life and Eagle. The SM has a little latitude on Star and Life. So, for example, let's say the PL disappears one month into his term for whatever reason. This forces the APL to take over and do much of his work. The SM could, IMO, grant him the POR requirement for Star and Life (but not Eagle). I think that would fall under the "Scoutmaster-assigned leadership project".

Lynda, You stole one of my examples! My neighbor's son was losing interest, just had a couple of MBs to go. Talking to the recruiter, he learned he would make an extra $250 or so per month coming out of Basic Training. He got his act together and finished it. You have to figure out the motivation of the young man. Is he interested in college, then there are scholarships available. Talk to the parents if you need to. Sometimes they can motivate the boy, sometimes they are the worst ones to have do it. It all depends upon the person. One tactic is the "you'll only have one chance to do this" speech. He can always "hide" the fact that he's an eagle. But he'll never be able to go back and turn himself into one. Good luck.

We've toyed with this as well. I don't think the TG should be a part of the NSP under any circumstance. Just like Woodbadge, the TG is present, but not a part of the patrol. Over time, his role becomes less and less visable. I think he fits best with the SPL and ASPL. He needs to be involved with Troop Meeting and activity planning so that he gets the NSP needs covered.

Challenging? Sure it is. But if you can adjust to the idea of allowing your son to be "just one of boys" while in the scout arena, you can develop a truly special relationship with him. And, you get a little peek into what his future is going to be like. I see it as a true blessing and will cherish these times forever. Sure, we all need our space from time to time, and we find ways to do that. I wouldn't trade these days for anything.

Been to Marengo a long time ago. Don't remember much about it. Like some others, I know of lots of camping options south of Indy, but can't think any places north of it. Let us know how it goes.

No, they shouldn't wear uniforms on a hike. They are not designed for that type of activity. Ideally, they'd wear an "activity uniform" (aka "Class B"). That is, if your pack has a t-shirt, or if they have a t-shirt from an Cub Scout activity, or just a generic t-shirt from the scout shop.... But if they don't, just wear something practical.