eghiglie

My opinion is similar to Beavah. Not sure that earning all 121 is really the point of the program. I would not stop someone though from going for it. We encourage boys to try a variety of badges from different topics and try different things. We have one boy who has earned every aquatic and nature badge and has had a great time doing so. Now he is trying working on the "trades" and science series of badges. He has told me that he can't play music or do the "artsy" badges. But he is the exception, the other 9 are just after the magic 21.

Our Troop only permits a SM or ASM to sign for Star, Life and Eagle, with the caveat that it is not a family member. We teach "teaching and testing" every year at election time, so those boys who ATTEND the class are allowed to sign off books, as long as its for a rank they have already earned. Also, with the caveat that it is not a family member. Scout Spirit and SM Conference is for the SM to delegate. Family members extends to cousins and grandparents.

I would recommend against these badges at Summer Camp if possible. As a SM and a MBC sometimes a boy or two who goes to a summer camp or a merit badge college will earn a partial on one these badges. Then they call a local MBC to help them finish. Without retesting its clear that as we get to the later requirements that build on a early requirement they just don't know the information. Many times the worksheets are missing or very little is written on them.

Our Troop, like thousands of others, open every meeting and many outing with a flag ceremony. Our turn was Tuesday morning but no other unit did it. We also noticed this at Summer Camp this year, the Oath and Law were never said. We recite the Pledge, Scout Oath and Scout Law every time. Recently we were at an outing with a group of other units. The other units told our SPL that they don't say the Oath and Law at every meeting because it takes to long. An adult told him that its considered retesting. Am I behind the times? Seems to me that a regular reminder keeps the points fresh in their minds. What do your units do?

Finally had a chance to read through the 2010 changes Most of them make sense to me and they seem to have a place in developing a boy into a leader. Scrathing my head on the 2nd class earning money and the Leave No Trace Trainer. I'm a current LNT Trainer so how do we get the boy trained to be one? I admit that adding the Scout Law requirements is a big help! Most of the boys in my troop memorize it for TF and then never say it again.

One boy in our troop had a CoH recently, when his letters were presented there were only a handful. I was surpised at the list: The John Deere Tractor Company Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) Sen Jon McCain Ford Motor Company Our council sends a packet of certificates and those plus the above were all he wanted.

One boy in our troop had a CoH recently, when his letters were presented there were only a handful. I was surpised at the list: The John Deere Tractor Company Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) Sen Jon McCain Ford Motor Company Our council sends a packet of certificates and those plus the above were all he wanted.

I recall this from WDL days, the two Dens I had were very different. The boys from the 1st Den set a goal to earn all 20, basically one a month. Of the five boys, two made it. All went to a Troop. Of the two that made all 20 they are still scouts, of the three that didn't only 1 is still there. The 2nd den (two years later) started as 5th graders, there goal was to get AoL in 8 months. They all made it with about 10 pins each, all five went to a troop. Four are still scouts.

Thanks for the feedback. This idea came up because of what GKlose stated related to Family night. The camp we were at designated Family day on Friday and the parents that came up took their kids home. Bear in mind that the Troop is small so when 3 of the 6 kids are gone the Saturday AM work fell to fewer people. Because the kids signed out of camp early they did not get a camp patch (one boy lost his eligibility for Honor Camper) because of not staying in for six nights. The other intresting thing is that when I received the advancement report from camp on Saturday the boys that left all had partials. The boys that stayed didn't. This is a coincidence of course.

I just finished summer camp and it was great! It starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday AM. After a long drive home I got to thinking about a 4 day summer camp. Still start on Sunday but end on Friday AM to head home. It would be great for many adults to get unpacked and then ready for work one day earlier. Are any camps doing this? Councils could save a lot of money doing this! PS: When I was younger the camp in New York started on Sunday and ended the following Sunday AM.

Our last SPL had the same complaint about respect and getting boys to listen to him. Despite the fact that he was the oldest boy and knew what he was doing, he was also the shortest. For some reason the boys prefer the tallest boy to be in charge. Don't know why. He is 13, and even shorter than the 11 year olds. I've been told that the taller boys are feared, not respected. How the short SPL overcame this was rather simple. He showed he was an expert camping cook and desert maker. On a overnight backpacking trip he was the only boy who had a hot meal and it was a somewhat chilly night. He used a homemade achohol stove that he made from a soda can. After that all the boys wanted to learn how he did it. He is just one requirement away from Eagle.

We do Leader Training every six months and part of that is how to teach and test. In our Troop its fairly simple, for T-2-1, any boy who is 1st Class or higher can sign. Except for activit requirements, Scout Spirit and anything that requires verification of completing something like recruiting or the drug awareness. No scout or adult can sign off for a family member. If a scout comes to me for a T-2-1 signoff on most of the demonstration requirements I ask the SPL why. For Star and higher only an adult can sign off.

For both the SMC and BoR we don't retest anything. All that does is frustrate the Scout and takes up valuable time. I want to know what was great, mundane and needs improvement in the Troop and how the Scout Oath and Law fit into their life. I ask about the MB that was hardest, easiest and most fun. The BoR asks them more or less the same questions. Both are about 20 minutes long. After the Life BoR is over and they advance I schedule some private time to go over the Eagle rank with the boy and parents. The merit badges that everyone in my Troop has a great dislike for is Personal Management and Cit in the Community.

asm 411 Nicely said. I tell the boys in my Troop this every so often, at CoH's, Scoutmaster Conferences and every so often as a Scoutmaster Minute.

OldGrayOwl What's the secret to ice cream in the dutvh oven?

The issues experienced in my Troop had nothing to do with cooking but cleanup was a hassle and fights occurred over who would dump the gray water. So in December we took a hard look at the menus and how to cook with little cleanup. We also reorganized our duty roster to make sure that the same crew worked the kitchen the whole weekend. The menu must be approved by the SPL and SM. In fact, the boys love the new menu and staffing so much that they repeat the menus. Our goal is to have fun not wash pots and pans. The other change we made is the staffing, previously the head cook worked with a rotating staff of young scouts just to get requirements signed off. This failed. The new plan is to have the head cook work with two assistants. One assistant must be 1st Class or higher. The other assistant could be any other youth. A youth must be an assistant cook for at least three campouts before being considered for head cook. The Troop Guide, ASPL and Patrol Leaders must be Head Cook and Assistant Cook once during the six month term to get the POR signed off. The idea is that repetition makes them better at leading teams. Omelets in a Ziploc bag for example are a very delicious meal with little cleanup, then use the boiling water to clean the one or two utensils. Instant oatmeal in a Ziploc works great also. Foil dinner foil meals have become very popular and delicious. Our Troop allows meals to be repeated over and over again. We do not allow pop tarts, hotdogs or hamburgers. It is great to not have any arguments and very little cleanup to get to the fun. Our last campout took 25 minutes for a hot breakfast of omelets in the bag. The Patrol Cook does prep at home and is encouraged to get one of the assistants to help him with the shopping and prep work. School makes this hard though.

I left Scouting in 1971 as a Star Scout when I was 14, when I hung up the uniform and my membership ran out my rank also expired. The Scout Law and Oath though stayed with me. They have helped me be a success. I tell people that I left as a Star Scout. A colleague from work who made Eagle in 1969 never heard of Once an Eagle, Always an Eagle until recently when his son made Eagle a few years ago. He speculated that this is a marketing/fund raising technique.

It should be recognized that the Troop has already given time, talent and treasure to the Eagle scout as he earned his was from Scout to Eagle. Our troop has had only 1 Eagle so far and with a very small amount of money we found it hard to fund gifts. We settled on the cake for the CoH. The giftcard to kiva.org is a GREAT idea. It starts to teach how to give back, or "Pay it Forward".

Eagledad is right, I should've asked How do I get my scouts to be more efficient with their time?. Myself (SM) and the SPL makes an agenda and duty roster a number of days before the campout and its emailed to all the participants. We also have a short PLC Friday night after camp is setup to discuss the duty roster. He asks each boy by name if they understand what there job(s) is(are) that weekend. We also post the duty roster on the troop trailer. Beahav also identified the other issue, this is a young troop (18 months old), 9 boys that range in age from 10 1/2 to 13 1/2. The SPL is the oldest boy in the Troop. I do wrestle with a maturity issue most times. The feedback provided has been great. PLC is next Monday and I will bring these suggestions to that meeting. I will post feedback on how it turns out and what's decided. I'm even going to make a checklist of sort for the head cook to follow.

I am wondering how long other patrols/troops take for the youth to have a hot meal from start to finish? Meaning from once the crew gets into the kitchen to when they are done and all the utensils/dishes washed? On our last campout the hot meals took 3 hours and cold meals took 2 hours. Of course there is some bickering between the helpers and the head cook. The adults cook and eat seperate from the boys and we are done real fast. Has anyone come up with technques to make this go better? One thought was to have the Patrol Cook pick his staff for the weekend, figuring if he picks his friends they will get along better. Thanks, Ed

We're fair but firm with the boys. We compare it lost work at school. - If its a partial from Summer Camp we put that on the blue card and record it in Troopmaster. - If the boy is working on a MB with a MBC actually in the Troop we ask that the MBC or boy tell the Advancement person what requirements are done. The info is put into Troopmaster. - If the boy is working on a MB with a MBC from the district we ask that the boy tell the Advancement person what requirements are done. The info is put into Troopmaster. In all cases the blue card is the boys responsbility. The boy keeps the blue card. If he loses it we have the data for what was done and can work out a method to replace the card for what we know. The part that gets tricky is when some requirement has been done, but it wasn't recorded in TM. At first we very happy to replace lost blue cards and quite a few were being lost. We since instituted a $3 charge with the first lost card free. Since we started charging no one has lost a card.

In our Troop we have a few guidlines for this, but basically Scouts can sign off. We're a small troop with nine boys and seven adults. Three of the adults have been through SM training. So having the boys teach and test has been a BIG help. The scout must have been trained on "How to Teach" and "How to Test". We do this every time we do Youth Leader Training every six months. Youth Leader Training is done the week after Troop elections. The scout must be at least at least at that rank to sign off for that rank. So a Tenderfoot Scout can sign off a Tenderfoot requirement. The TF cannot sign off a 2nd Class Requirment. The Scout cannot sign off anything for a family member; brother or cousin. We even have a 14 year scout who is an uncle to a 11 year old scout. No Scout may sign off requirements for Star, Life or Eagle.

Actually the Scout handbook has the answer to this one. Page 61 says that after you have had a SMC, the SM will arrange a BOR for you. This has worked well for us.

Safe Swim rules must be followed Where I live there are so few BSA lifeguards that no one would ever get any swimming requirements signed off until summer camp. The local pool has trained lifeguards and they do a great job. Scout swim tests are free!

I agree with all the information provided so far and wish you well, small troops seem to be better for the boys to learn life skills, this is my opinion. I started a Troop in August of 2007 and we went through a lot of pain. We focused all our energy on getting camping trips planned that we adults never sat down to organize ourselves first. After a bunch of pain and false accusations we are still a troop but 4 of the families left recently. The knife wounds are going to take a while to heal. My advice is this: 1 - Get with the adults in an informal setting, with coffee and cake and state it that everyone needs to learn how to disagree with each other. This might take several weeks. 2 - Get a set of bylaws. Cub scouts are a much different group than Boy scouts. Everyone needs to learn that more responsibility falls to the boys. 3 - Make sure that if there are issues get with the people involved right away, don't have secret meetings, don't conspire against them and so forth. 90% of the time they have no clue that they did it wrong. 4 - Expect to be making sacrifices of time, talent and treasure for a while. Although our Church has been very generous to the Troop, I still find myself making donations to cover different things that the Troop needs. 5 Teach the boys how to teach. Lastly, if anyone wants to bring sugary types of snacks like cookies, cake or candy to a meeting set down the law that it can be eaten after the meeting is over and the meeting room has been cleaned. Even 14 year olds get too hyper on sugar when the meeting starts. Ed (still) Scoutmaster - Troop 809 Just celebrated our 1st anniversary in August 2008