FScouter

From the back side of the Unit Money-Earning Application #34427A: "... is [your plan] free from any association with gambling ...". "Money-raising projects that include the sale of raffle tickets are in violation of this policy." Every possible question one can think of about money-earning events is answered on the back of the application. To paraphrase a wise sage: "Boy I love this resource stuff!" http://www.scouting.org/forms/34427.pdf

"... we have a scout that is 2nd Class and has been waiting for the board of review for over 3 months ..." Scene: Your next board meeting . . . Concerned Committee Member (you): I see we were unable to give Billy Secondclass his board of review last month. In fact, he has been put off for the last 3 months. Is there some reason why we cant schedule him and make it happen? Mr. 1-man-band: One of the board members was unable to meet on that Monday. Things come up you know. CCM: Yes, I know what you mean. I was free that night. You can call me any time to fill in. Mr. 1MB: Thanks, but I already have people to do boards of review. CCM: Thats great, but something has come up 3 months in a row and weve let Billy down 3 times. He missed the last Court of Honor too because his advancement was held up. If our policy is to do boards of review each month, its important for us to demonstrate our trustworthiness and make it happen. Im willing to be an alternate if you need me at the last minute. 2nd Concerned Committee Member: That sounds reasonable to me. After all, since part of Scouting is to teach boys to be trustworthy, as a committee we should be able to live up to our promises. Mr. 1MB: But sometimes I have other commitments and we just cant do it. I was busy trying to rent the tent. Billy can wait for the next one. CCM: Im the equipment coordinator for the troop and I appreciate your help with the tent, but trust me, I can handle that. So, how about getting the entire committee involved in boards of review? The Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures book says that all committee members should participate in that, and it would make it easier for you to convene the minimum of 3 people. And Billy wont have to wait. Im available all this week. Lets schedule it now and get it done right away. Can anyone else here be a part of the board? Other Concerned Committee Members: Im available. Me too. I can help. Mr. 1MB: Im in charge of this and Ill set the dates. CCM: Look, 1MB, youre a very busy guy and you do a lot for Scouting. But we can help you get these things done. We owe it to our boys to get boards of review done on a timely basis, and to get them done when we say we will get them done. I think we owe it to the boy to clear our calendars and get this done NOW, in the next day or two. Were here to support you in making it happen. Heres my cell phone. Lets call Billy right now and schedule him for tomorrow night. The point is, he will not change on his own. You, individually, or as a committee, have to push and facilitate change.

A difficult situation. I don't see a simple resolution. But you need to act. Nothing will change until you and the other adults push for change. The trick is to get the COR to see that change is necessary. That will require that all the "bad stuff" be brought up at your committee meetings and discussed. The SM is being ignored? Then the SM must relate his issues at your committee meeting and ask for help from the committee. It's OK if your one-man-show is present. He needs to justify to the committee his reasons for interfering with the SM duties. Put him on the spot. As advancement coordinator, he prevents advancement and crafts his own policies? At a committee meeting, ask for an explanation of how his actions or inactions are supported by the BSA policies written in the Advancement Committee book. Be prepared to quote the book and how his actions directly conflict with the book. Insist that the troop follow written BSA policies. No adult leader has the right to fiddle with BSA policy. How would your COR be able to support this? Put him on the spot. He butts into the responsibilities of others? They must say "NO THANKS, I'VE GOT THAT HANDLED". They also need to bring this up at the committee meeting and directly state that "I'll ask for help when I need it, but to interfere without being asked makes my job more difficult." Put him on the spot. Push your committee chairman to recognize the responsibilities of each committee position. Bottom line: would you rather have a smoothly running committee, or continue to allow mr. one-man-show and his mother to run everything? Take a stand one way or the other. Mom and son cannot take your power unless you give it to them.

Sure, your SM and his supporters will be upset. You had no points with them before your appeal either. I'd definitely call the COR to let him know how things are progressing, and tell him you're sending him a copy of the appeal.

Eamonn's idea about the 30-day work plan is perfect. At each meeting the volunteers would report on their accomplishments since the last meeting. Assignments not completed need to be brought out into the open and discussed. If the function of the volunteer's position is not being fulfilled, then it's time to have a talk about the importance of the position, and work out a plan to meet the needs. Do you have enough people on your committee to handle the jobs that need to be done? A volunteer cannot "take over" jobs unless the committee chairman is allowing that to happen. For example, if you have a treasurer that handles finances, how can someone else step in and assume that position without the complicity of the present treasurer and the committee chair? Don't ask him to give up duties. Reassign them to someone else. Limit his duties to those required to function in the position he holds. Maybe you should write up job descriptions. The Troop Committee Guidebook does a good job of defining positions. This doesnt sound like a case for removal. Rather rein him in a bit.

"But FScouter, I don't see how the appeal to the Council Advancement Committee is going to influence the leadership issue." If nothing is said about the current practice of adding requirements and not following the BSA program, then nothing will change. If the incorrect practices are challenged through an appeal, the boy will be advanced. The adult leadership may then decide to stop their incorrect practices, lest they get shot down again at a future appeal. Losing an appeal will not win them any points with the council leadership, nor with your chartered organization. "At least one other scout - one seemed like Eagle material - dropped out because of one hassle after another with the SM." Had the other Scout pursued his issues, perhaps your son would not now be fightiing this battle. Your COR may be new, and may not have a lot of knowledge about the program, but he should absolutely be in the loop. He needs to know that the SM and other adults are not playing the Scouting game by the rules, and that boys are being shortchanged.

I'm glad you've decided to pursue the formal appeal. Only in this way is there any hope to get the SM and committee back on track. Running away to another troop may be the easy thing to do, but does nothing to correct the situation with the adult leadership. You're doing what is best for the youth, both current and future members.

The uniforms policies of BSA are enforced every day ... by those that wear the uniform. Those that wear the uniform incorrectly, with the knowledge they do so, are choosing to ignore uniform policy. No one is going to be arrested for wearing military insignia on the Boy Scout uniform. But that doesn't make it OK.

It sounds like your Scoutmaster is ready to advance boys. If that is the case, your mission is at least one half accomplished. At soon as he does the Scoutmaster conference, he would then notify the committee that he has a boy ready for a board of review. The committee should then schedule a date. Heres what I would do if they wont schedule a date, or schedule it more than a few weeks into the future. I would ask them the reason why the BOR should not take place now. If the too young/not ready answer comes up, I would ask them what they believe to be the correct age for that particular rank. I would then suggest that they write up a rank/age chart. The chart would list the minimum age required to achieve each rank. I suspect they wont want to put anything in writing about a minimum age. More likely they would say that the proper age depends on the particular boy. I would then politely suggest that we dont really know if a particular boy is ready until we conduct the BOR and interview him. Id tell them that it is perfectly acceptable to fail a boy at a board of review, and until a BOR has been conducted, how do we really know whether he is ready, or not? My goal would be to get them to go through the BOR process, and put them in the position of being forced to fail boys if they really want to hold them back. If they choose to fail a boy they would have to express in writing to the boy exactly where he failed and exactly what he must do to advance. That becomes the basis for the appeal process.

Read any liability insurance policy. Lots of things are specifically excluded. Our community center has a liability policy that protects us when we have activities there. Some things are excluded: anything involving the consumption of alcohol, "acts of God", damages from a war, skydiving, motorized speed events such as auto racing,. The same is true with BSA liability insurance. The underwriters look at the risks and specifically exclude activities they see as too risky. Fortunately for us unit leaders, we don't need to read the fine print in the policy. BSA has already done that for us. Exclusions in the policy can be found in the Guide to Safe Scouting. If a unit engages in a prohibited activity, they may find there is no insurance coverage. One of the reasons BSA requires a tour permit is so they can review the unit's plan to see if the unit is planning a prohibited activity. A Cub Scout den that want to take their Wolf den bungie jumping off the Golden Gate bridge may be advised to plan something else. There may well be instances where BSA polices are not followed to the letter. Insurance coverage is not necessarily void if mistakes are made, or rules not followed. The lack of a tour permit does not in and of itself necessarily void the coverage. But there will be reluctance from BSA to defend the practices of rogue units that defy BSA rules. Insurance underwriters evaluate risk partly on how good a job the insured does at policing itself. If they see BSA being lax about enforcing BSA safety guidelines, that laxness will absolutely translate into higher insurance premiums. There is some urban legend about BSA insurance. One myth is that insurance is void unless you are wearing the uniform. The tour permit story is partly true. If a unit fails to file a tour permit, and engages in a prohibited activity, there will be no coverage. But denied because of the activity, not the failure to file the permit. BSA insurance is not medical insurance or accident insurance. It is liability insurance that protects leaders from a lawsuit. Unit accident insurance is available at the unit level, at the option of the unit. It covers medical bills resulting from an accident that may occur during a unit activity. Some councils may provide this at no cost to the unit. Our council leaves it up to each unit. The cost is about $1 per boy, per year.

10 or 20 years might seem like a long time. If you or someone else has your eye on a position held by a long-time veteran, let your interest be known. My experience in some other organizations is that sometimes people hold on because there is no clear successor. There may be a fear that if they step down, no one will be able to do as good a job, and the organization will suffer. Demonstrate your competency and you may get selected later. Unproven newbies are not likely to get asked.

There are 101 enhancements you can use to supplement what is in the syllabus and support materials. The dilemna always is how to cover the basic required material, add the enhancements, and still keep the training session to a reasonable length. I's say there is no way to do everything in one session. Skip the enhancements. End your session by inviting everyone to come to the monthly Roundtable meetings. There they can learn more, talk to other leaders, and benefit from their experiences.

Not be be a wet blanket or anything, but . . . From the Insignia Guide: "Imitation of United States Army, Navy, or Marine Corps uniforms is prohibited, ..."

Several thoughts about why some Scouters employ the hold them back syndrome. None of these ideas are supported in any way at all by the Scouting program. - Fear that a boy will be awarded a rank, and then behave in a way the demeans the rank, thus proving he was not ready, and should not have been awarded it. This will make the adult leaders look bad. - A young boy with the same rank as an older boy may be looked at by the older boys as a threat. There may be some feelings of inadequacy among the older boys if a young one achieves what they achieved, in less time. - They have the idea that a Scout starts out as Tenderfoot at age 11, and ends with Eagle at age 18. The straight-line progression of 6 ranks in 7 years is one rank advancement every 14 months. Advancement any faster than that would be off schedule. - If a boy reaches Eagle, that is the end of his Scouting path. There is nothing left. Eagle at 14 means the next four years are wasted. - Maybe the Scoutmaster was a Boy Scout himself, tried hard, but never made it past 1st Class. How could any of the boys in his troop now be any better than him? - The adults are control freaks on a power trip.

I've never seen MB counselors listed on any Scouting website. In our district, the list is kept semi-confidential. Any adult leader will be given a list on request. The director of the program does not want boys calling counselors directly, without first getting the names from their Scoutmaster. Try making contact first with your unit commissioner, district advancement & recognition chairman, district program chairman, district chairman, or district executive, (preferably in that order). One of them should be able to help you.

There are dozens of things your new people could do. All jobs are important. Create a position for every adult that wants to become involved. There is no limit to the number of adult leaders you can have. They can serve as committee members and get involved in money-earning events, boards of review, equipment, membership, courts of honor. Assistant Scoutmasters can work more directly with the boys.

Trainings throughout the country use the same syllabus and are valid anywhere in the country.

I don't think you're too strict. If you state a deadline, and then ignore your own deadline, the boy learns that deadlines don't mean anything and that you are not serious.

There are a number of scenarios where a volunteer might be removed. There is a book "Selecting District People" #34512E that talks about removing a volunteer. A couple of examples: A "person who just can't get along with others and may even greatly offend some, driving good people out of Scouting." Another: "This volunteer is a poor team player who is not in keeping with the organization's image. This person prevents others from being effective and may also drive them out of Scouting. This volunteer may hate his or her Scouting responsibility and lets others know it." The BSA is not a government and is not a democracy. There is no court. Volunteers have no particular "rights". The bottom line is that BSA has the right to choose its leaders.

Our troop has no formal limits. We all understand however that all adult memberships in BSA are for only one year. At re-charter time, the committee and the COR make the recommendations for leadership in the next year. Most are re-chartered in the same position.

Suggested literature in addition to what has already been suggested: Troop Committee Guidebook #34505B Guide to Safe Scouting #34416D, (orange cover. The red, blue, or green covers are old versions) Insignia Guide # 33066D Boy Scout Requirements 2004 #33215 (lists the requirements for all ranks, merit badges, and various other awards) Ensure that you are a registered member of BSA so you will get the Scouting magazine every month.

Maybe in other parts of the country terms like liar are used more loosely than what Im accustomed to. If something is not true, that does not make it a lie. Eamonn has questioned the accuracy of the contents of a memo, and that doesnt seem to be the same thing pointing a finger at a person and shouting LIAR. It simply means that he believes the memo to be not correct. It could be incorrect for lots of reasons. Maybe it was correct in 1973, but is not correct today. Maybe the guy that wrote it had incorrect information. Who knows? It doesnt really matter. Maybe Eamonns belief is not correct. The point is that no one is accusing anyone of lying. I find terms like liar youre a liar, thats a lie, hes lying to be highly charged and almost always inappropriate, and certainly not appropriate in this case.

Sounds like Dad is being a dad. He doesn't understand all the ins and outs of how a troop operates. But dads aren't expected to have the same level of understanding as an assistant Scoutmaster or other registered adult member. He's on vacation. If you want adult leaders at camp to share the reponsibilities, sign up committee members or assistant Scoutmasters. If the boy just bridged, he will have a lot to learn about how his troop operates.

There has been no accusation within this thread of anyone being a "liar". I see this term tossed out quite frequently in our society today, and frankly I find the accusation to be offensive. Questioning the validity of a statement is not a accusation of lying. A lie is an intentional misstatement of facts for the purpose of deceiving others.

I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard a respected veteran scouter make a statement in direct conflict with written BSA publications.