Excursion

If you complete Wood Badge training, they will give you a neckerchief to wear along with beads.

Boys need to take responsibllity for their advancement and this needs to be communicated early on. Our job as leaders is to do what we can to minimize the impediments outside the boy's control. We can have camping trips but if he has too many soccer games to participate, he may not make first class in a year. If he (or his parents) choose not to attend summer camp, he misses a great opportunity for advancement. In our unit, for the boys who want it, Star at the end of year 2 is not unusual. Some boys don't reach First Class in 2 years either, but most times that is an issue of the boy not choosing to participate at a resonably high level in the unit. He needs to engage himself in meetings and other unit activities, not just show up. Unlike public schools today, I don't see us changing our program to target the level of the bottom third at the expense of the boys who take on the responsiblity and leadership to advance and grow.

Appreciate the input. As expected it all comes back to the boy leadership. One can only do so much to mask a weak leader without compromising the integrity of boy-led.

I amy have this posted in the wrong forum so I ask your tolerance. I know that the BSA Program Features plan a meeting to last 90 minutes. In business, I dread meetings anywhere near that long. In talking to a couple parents and one of my own sons who dropped scouts about why boys don't go to the meetings, length is a common theme. I know that we as many troops struggle with boy-led planning and execution of meetings especially during those 6-month periods when we don't have a strong SPL. It would seem to me that reducing the length of the meeting might help. I would like to know the length of meetings of other units. Other tricks and ideas are also appreciated. In the interest of full disclosure, I am only a committee member and am researching this to aid the SM and ASM's.