EagleInKY

Ours our planned by the PLC with the SM. The SPL is the primary master of ceremonies. ASPL and PLs may help out along the way. Boys will give reports from the activities that have taken place - this is a great opportunity to get the younger boys involved. SM or ASMs will present ranks and Merit Badges. Any special awards (year pins, Quality Unit, etc.) are typically handed out by the CC. As SM, I usually have a brief welcome and a Scoutmaster's minute. In the welcome I like to point out that the boys have planned the COH and are running it. It's a good reminder about the boy-led concept and it is impressive to those first time visitors.

When camping, we ask to make sure their "tent buddies" are there. That way, they're not always re-pairing up and getting confused. They can almost always remember the scout(s) that are in their tent. That, combined with a quick headcount, should suffice. When hiking, we remind them that the group can only go as fast as the slowest person. With that in mind, they usually put the slowest person up front to set the pace. We also position a slower adult at the end to make sure none fall behind. This is good timing. We're reviewing hike safety and starting to work on map & compass with our first year scouts. This will be a great article for them to learn from. Some good points and bad points regarding the scout and the troop.

Bob58 - I've seen similar situations with some of our BORs. I'm glad I'm the SM and not the person responsible for making those decisions. It gets into one of the true gray areas of advancement (IMHO). For the record, our BORs never use the world "Fail". They ask the scout to come back and finish at a later time. I can think of a couple of BORs that were treated this way. Typically, the scout either couldn't remember the Oath and Law, thus couldn't talk about what it means in their life. One Scout pretty much froze upon entering the room. He went into a total brain freeze, I don't think he even remembered his name. He came back a week later and did fine.

FScouter said what I was trying to say, but much more effectively. Good points FS!

Technically, any donations are actually made to the CO, who owns the troop. If the CO is a 501©3 entity, then the donation is tax deductable. If the organizations is not, then the donation is not. I say "technically", because most common folk out there don't understand the whole CO concept. They think they are donating to a Scout Troop (which, in fact, they are). For example, the artisan, in his mind, donated his services to the troop. But, from an IRS point of view, he donated it to the First Church of whereever.

I'd like to think they are too. And it certainly may be the case. I guess it's my involvement in advertising that makes me skeptical. Hopefully, you are correct, it is just another happy Tiger Cub. I do hope that National followed the sound legal practice of having parents sign the proper release forms before using the photos.

I believe what FOG is saying is that you can easily form a corporation named "Friends of BSA Troop ###". This organization can file for non-profit status, and then donate there proceeds to the troop.

File it! Otherwise you are in violation of policy and are not covered by scouting's insurance. You are supposed to file it any time your troop is traveling to an activity other than your normal meeting place. There's a little vagueness around whether certain activities are required. For example, let's say you have everyone meet at a local park for a picnic, I don't think it's necessary. But some people do. You run a slight risk that the person who reviews it at the scout office will look at your plans, and feel that you are in violation of scout policies or G2SS. To make sure that is not the case, make sure you have followed the correct procedures - in this cas - for a safe trip afloat. If you have covered off on all of the points on the rules for a safe trip afloat, then they have no reason to reject your permit. A good practice is to go in at least a week before the trip. Then, if they try to reject it, you can work through your DE to get the trip approved.

Policeman? Sorry, not close. Although I grew up pretending to be one. No, I'm kind of rare in my industry. I'm in the computer biz. But the strong "E" made it hard for me to be a traditional heads-down programmer. I'm in management now, and spend a lot of time with clients and executives regarding strategy and projects.

More than likely they are paid talent and have signed all the appropriate release forms.

Been involved since my older brother became a cub scout. I was a "junior cub" (more like the den mascot), until I was old enough to join. Went on to make Eagle, and served as an ASM for several years (until I got out of college and got married). I was not active for about ten years, although I stayed in touch through my dad and other friends. I became active again when my son joined Tigers. I was their den leader, then Cubmaster, and now Scoutmaster.

Fling, I interpret the requirement as your item C. We do the initial test at one of their first troop meetings. After the 30 days is up (it could be longer, but a minimum of 30 days), we retest. The boys that don't show improvement know they have to go back and work some more. I don't think that many of the boys actually do any formal program like your son. Most are simply active kids, and will naturally show improvement as they grow. The ones that aren't very active quickly learn the importance of exercising. Which, I believe, is one of the key points of the requirement.

Our WRC is open to all parents/guardians. It's a great way for them to learn about the transition to Boy Scouting, and to figure out if they want to be a part of it. WRC is a great transition moment for the boys. They begin to learn about what scouting has to offer, and it offers a preview of the scouting program and Boy Scout summer camp. Parents can also learn this too, and find out that they enjoy it as well.

FOG- you beat me to it. Check out the list on Virginia's site. It's riddled with organizations that are not open to everyone. AKA - Traditionally African American Sorority Order of the Eastern Star - Religous Professional Fire Fighter - Strict physical requirements Sons of Confederate Vets - How insensitive is that??? Pearl Harbor Survivor - I wasn't even born then, that's not fair! Tobacco - Haven't these people heard of lung cancer? The list goes on... it's not the government endorsing anything, people. It's about people expressing their personal interests and donating to it in a special way.

Ooops, forgot to finish.... we have always had 100% participation from our Webelos parents, but I cannot gaurantee that will always be the case. We did have one parent have an issue come up at the last minute on a campout last year, so the parent gave another parent permission to take him.

I think this is another example of BSA keeping a guideline vague. I believe there is a strong preference for a 1-to-1 ratio. But, they don't want to seem insensitive to those who have parental "challenges". Personally, as a SM, I would ask them to prove at least a 2-1 ratio (no more than 2 boys per adult).

We talked about doing a Friday night COH, but ran into too many roadblocks. - Blue cards aren't given until Saturday. It then takes at least one meeting to reconcile the differences. There's no chance of getting them Friday night. - Camp store doesn't sell MB patches, so we'd have to run to the Scout shop in the city. - FOG's concern about them losing their awards. I usually find at least one award or card after each COH. Our problem with quick recognition is that many of our families head on their family vacation after camp. We don't have a full group back until school gets underway. Also, we share a lot of leaders with the pack, so we have to work around their schedule as well. When we worked on scheduling the COH it was early September before we had a good opportunity. At least it's better than last year, we weren't able to do it until mid-October. That was WAY too long.

Great question mom. The talk of "moving troops" has come up time and time again. How do you know it's time for your situation? Not an easy one, but I'll give throw a few logs on the fire and see what fires up. First of all, realize that, to your son, this is a huge decision. It's equivalent in scale to you changing jobs, changing churches or moving to a new house. These are not easy decisions for adults. At his level, this is just as big of a decision. I do have some experience at this. At age 11, my dad was asked to start a new troop, so we left our current troop and moved across town. I don't remember being consulted on the decision, but I believe I was. I know it was a good move for us. Also, last year our pack decided to break ties with a local troop and start our own. It was a difficult decision, and similar in many ways to what you are thinking about. Here are some questions for you (and particularly, your son) to ponder: What does the future look like for you at this troop? Will you be happy? Will you be able to advance? Will you learn and grow? Have you exhausted your efforts to effect change? (Both from a troop committee and youth point-of-view.) Is there any potential shake-up in leadership that may create an opportunity for change? (such as a SM retiring or a problem scout moving on) What other troops options are there? Do you really know that much about them? Are you running from one problem troop into another? Step back - Am I the problem? Are there others feeling the same way? If not, is it because they don't care/don't know any better? Finally, if you do leave the troop, leave quietly. Let the CO, Committee Chairman and SM know exactly why you are leaving (you may also include the DE & UC in that list). Don't recruit others to follow you or try to hurt the troop in your leaving. Hopefully, they will learn from the mistake, see the light, and make changes for the better. I know that when we broke ties with the local troop, it really shook things up. They're trying to turn things around. Hopefully, their scouts will benefit by the decision we made.

You're correct, our blue cards were signed by the camp counselors, many who were older youth, not adult leaders. The biggest problem we still have at scout camp is the counselors signing off boys for "just being there". I believe it was in another post that I told about some of my older boys being frustrated with their classes being too easy. Lifesaving was one of them. How can Lifesaving be easy? My son, who has an incredibly strong moral compass, went through all of the requirements for the MBs he took at camp. He told me that the Cooking MB guy didn't cover half of the stuff that he checked off. He wants to go over it and complete the requirements they didn't do. Regarding the blue cards, we also had some that were practically impossible to read (the remaining requirements part). In our haste to check out on Saturday, we didn't catch that. We've gone back to the boys to figure out what they did and didn't do.

GKM - Sorry to hear about that. It sounds like an appeal is in order. You're absolutely correct in the inaccurate rationale they used. It sounds like you'll be looking for a new troop soon.

We've done the humorous awards in the past. You have to be careful and not offend anyone (accidentally did that once at a PW Derby, not fun). Last year we had several boys cut their fingers in woodcarving (luckily none serious). We jokingly referred to their "Fingercarving MB". This year, we had a boy throw his retainer in the trash at the dining hall. One adult and three boys put on rubber gloves and went on a hunt (it was lasagna night). Luckily, they found the retainer. We're giving them a "Dumpser Diving" award.

Hey 74 Glad to hear the young lad wasn't hurt too bad. I ended up sitting right next to him after we came in (while he was still sitting on the stairs). I know he was in some intense pain. You're right about the attendance. I've been told that the camp was designed to support 500 total campers. It held up well considering it had well over that.

I love the diary idea. It is too late for this year. But we do have a "digital diary". Two of us had our digital cameras and each took owell over 100 shots. Between the two of us, we can build a pretty good storyline.

Richmond - Not sure what you're looking for. We schedule a COH about 2 months after Summer Camp. That gives the guys some time to wrap up partials or clear up in discrepencies from camp. The boys give presentations about summer camp, including some retelling of stories and such. We'll have some pictures in a slide show that we'll show. After which, we'll present camp patches and merit badges they've earned.

Frankly, I prefer a quick trigger on them. But I like Boleta's advice. Simply give us a comment as to why the thread is being closed. Hopefully people will learn from their actions.