eghiglie

I've encouraged my son to learn to pray for our elected officals as they are human and doing the best they can. Even though we didn't vote for many of them we still pray FOR them to guide our nation as best they can. As our nation is a republic the 'winner' needs support, regardless of our views. Hopefully the praise organizer in NJ will be educated about the choice that was made. God Bless America!

The boys in our troop rough house and annoy each other but not excessivly. Sometimes they get hurt or a t-shirt gets pulled or something like that. Two years ago a Tenderfoot and his mother came to me that someone was bullying him during a cooking event. A Star Scout was being accussed. It just so happens that the porch where the cooking was being done has video surviellence cameras because of thefts that have occured. I went to the video room and the video showed the TF poking another boy with a stick over and over again. The Star scout took the stick from the TF. Once TF and his Mom saw the video they backed off. I then explained that the TF needed to aplogize to me for causing a ruckus and he would need to apologize to the boy he poked. He did both but not exactly willingly. Him and the Star Scout became freinds.

Nice to hear this. They have a passion that should be encouraged!

Yes after this past summer camp. The boy was disruptive all week, pushed quite a few buttons and caused trouble. He somehow convinced the SPL that they should cut classes all day to catch up on sleep. The SPL caved in. Both him and the SPL earned 1 MB each. $350 for 1 merit badge. The other 4 boys that came completed all the badges they signed up for. During the school year he attended two weekend campouts, out of nine. During the school year he would brag to me and the other scouts about all the detentions he would get in school. I thought he was kidding to show he was a tough guy. His parents confirmed that he really did serve at least one detention a week in 7th grade. He claims everyone at school hates him. When his parents picked him up I spoke to them and they told me about his issues. He then started saying that I hate him. The parents then stated that they would need to reconsider his being active in the troop, I replied that its a family choice they would have to make. He can remain in the Troop but one of his parents would have to attend all meetings and outings. They chose to leave.

In a high tech world, there are many things that appear to be out dated and should be removed. However, there is the tradition of keeping these things in and teaching the skills to the next generation. Many organizations have this and it lends to the character of the group. As far as knots and rope work goes, I think that there are as relevant now as when they were invented. They come in handy for many things and they should live on forever. For my son the outdoor experience has been to learn how to do without and appreciate what we have, like AC, heat, refrigerators and so on. Recently he attached some boards to his fort using lashings. When I was in a Troop many years ago, we were taught how to sew back on shirt buttons and how to temporarily hem pants. It was not a requirement but it helped us be just a little bit more independent.

In our area Council requires that you have a three year term limit, just as they get good at a job a new person comes in. Its sometimes frustrating.

On another topic I learned that a cub scouts ages out of cubs at 12 yo. A boy who is now in 4th grade came to our meeting Tuesday night. He is now 12 yo. He has been left back twice. In a call with the local council they confirmed this. They are requesting he find a Troop so he has a reasonable shot at rank, and not being a 14 yo Tenderfoot. I'm not sure how this comment applies here, but thought I would share it.

The suggestion that 'twocubdad' made is great. 'To that end, for Life I require the Scout to give me a quick, one paragraph proposal as to what he is going to do. I also ask that they plan for the one project to take all six hours.'

If narcissism had been prevalent in the late 1700's the US most likely would not exist. There must be some way to instill a sense of responsibility in the kids. My son tells me that school does this, but kids don't expect scouts to be like school. I agree and we try to do fun stuff. Scouts is fun with a purpose to teach leadership skills while they are younger. I know scouting membership is way down from the 60's and perhaps the various movements that occurred in that era have made people less involved or committed.

Very sad situation, good luck Keep after them.

I have seen the same exact things occur on a regular basis. I get the same roll of the eyes. My only guess is that other things are a higher priority to them and blowing off a commitment made seems to be a family trait. Even with all the new communication gadgets such as texting and cell phones the calls go unanswered. I have one family that insists the boy must play flag football so he gets a scholarship to college. Go figure!

We never retest once the item has been signed in the book by folks in our Troop. Council has made this clear to all the troops in my area. When we get sheets like that we take it as they have been taught, then we test. That said we've some strange things signed off. We have an advancement camp out once a year. They work for us. Its like a catch up before summer camp in the event boys missed a meeting or two (or five). The boys that need T-2-1 stuff signed off are teamed up with an older boy. This is for first aid, knots and lashings, and gives the new scouts a real sense of accomplishment to get these items signed off. One rule we have is that the boy who teaches them cannot be the same boy who tests them. Most of these scouts still need to attend the Trailblazer program at camp, and we test on those items once camp is over. I'm amazed at how little they remember. After 1st class only adults such as the SM or ASM can sign boys books. Patrol Cook is a very serious job in our Troop. They are the Head Chef for a weekend and its important that everyone can eat the food cooked. We require a boy to have assisted in the kitchen at least twice before they can be patrol cook. We also require a senior scout to be an assistant cook. We encourage the parents to let them help with cooking chores at home for practice, lets face no one wants a 1 inch thick onion slice. We've learned over the years that the boys who plan the kitchen well advance quicker. Not sure why but this is what we've seen. We've also seen the boys who do a poor job in the kitchen leave, thus why we added some extra training. This extra emphasis helps them a lot. We had one boy who aged out come for a visit and he was telling us that when he is dating a girl he cooks a very nice meal for her, this saves him a ton of money.

In the service you would get an Article 15 or worse for creative uniform wear. Congress passed a law a few years that covers wearing military medals that were not earned. The BSA does not have these punitive regulations, which is good. Some people just want to be a little more creative and a market exists for these products! I wear a red/black bobwhite patch as I am proud of being a bobwhite. Our Troop numeral patch has the city and state we are from. I don't wear any of the 7 square knots I've earned nor have I ever worn the Quality Unit strips that the unit has earned. Although I wear my two beads with pride I've noticed that almost everyone at the District RT has at least two. There are many people who also wear three beads and have not been on a Woodbadge team for a long time. Personally I think there are more important things to worry about. That said though, I would refuse a boy a Scoutmaster conference if he showed up in a t-shirt.

Very sad that this occurs, there are some people who reject regimentation yet belong to organized groups. In a way they draw attention to themselves by being dressed differently. With out the book advancement will be really hard. There is also the memories that the book brings. My son just found his Wolf, Bear and Webelos books and as he examined the pages and initials he recalled fond memories of his cubbie days (this was not that long ago). As he is getting ready for his Eagle SMC and BoR I'm sure his boy scout book will bring him the same joy in a few years.

LOL on this one As a SM for a small Troop I don't think this impacts me that much. With the depression we are currently in if this saves the BSA money than so be it. With membership numbers down this cost cutting move sounds great. What I would really like to see happen is for the folks at my local council to answer the phone and/or return the phone call more promptly. Quite often voice mail tag is played.

One thing to point out is that wouldn't it really be the 1st group of boy scouts? Wouldn't the unit of submitted a charter request for more than one boy? and with a minimum number of boys required for a charter wouldn't the first group all be considered first? I'm not trying to rewrite history. Our Troop was founded on 8/1/2007 two boys were in the room, we were charted a month later when we had all 5 apps turned in.

I too worried about this, but when our Lodge had training for Brotherhood they covered it all. At my ordeal a few words were whispered in my right ear, which has lost some hearing range.

I guess I'm not understanding the request. The internet is full of CoH ideas.

It doesn't pass as a true service project so the answer there is no. For Star and Life the goal of service hours is to get help them understand what the Eagle project will be like. When we did middle school recruiting we ask the boys to at least wear a CLEAN troop t-shirt. This helps somewhat. My son was telling me that the peer pressure is very intense in middle school these days. The girls seem particularly vocal with bias these days. We use a pizza party for these types of events, usually after the event at a troop meeting.

Joining a Troop can be done by either having completed the fifth grade being 11 years old or be 10 1/2 and have earned Arrow of Light If they meet the requirements have them join a Troop. In our area its very easy for kids to be left back one year in school because if they fail the reading test that year.

I'm fourtunate to have leeway from my PLC. Basically the PLC has told me that they want two troop meetings month, with one outing a month. The parents meeting is held on one of the off Monday's. We don't meet during Thanksgiving Week, 2 weeks for Christmas, one week in Januarary for school Midterms, Spring Break and Final Week. We also take off the from mid-July to August. This has worked well for us a small troop with 5 boys. One thing we had to do this year because of the depression we are in is to cut back on a few campouts and replace them with day hikes instead. The PLC didn't nitpick, just wanted to make sure that we attended at least the Council Camporee.

In our Troop if the SM or ASM is a parent of a boy in the troop they are allowed to vote. This was a lesson learned from a troop in our area. The problem faced in the old troop is that the committee had one set of views and the SM staff another, after the committee spent quite a bit of money. All but one member of the SM staff quit the troop and took their kids with them.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a 18yo going to WB, after all lots of 18yo's go into the military, besides getting shot at, they go to school to learn how to be a NCO, with in a few years they are running a small group of soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines.

My parents threw out my patches but saved my cards, I always thought it was cool that we went up the food chain. Bobcat, Wolf, Bear then Lion. A friend of mine in a Council out west told me that they have a Lion program for kids in K, not sure if its nationwide.

Yep, a webelo can go kayaking and canoeing, flat water only and most likely shall be accompanied by a parent or guardian. This was a one-on-one supervision thing.