gazoo

I just watched the 60 minute show on "drinking in the house." The gist of the story is a parent decided to host the after prom party. The parent did not supply the alcohol but knew it was present. The parent did take all the keys and did not allow anyone to leave once they were there. This parent was arrested a one week later. Moral of the story, if it is against the law, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW! The scout is not living the "Scout Law."

I just watched the 60 minute show on "drinking in the house." The gist of the story is a parent decided to host the after prom party. The parent did not supply the alcohol but knew it was present. The parent did take all the keys and did not allow anyone to leave once they were there. This parent was arrested a one week later. Moral of the story, if it is against the law, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW! The scout is not living the "Scout Law."

I have just been elected SM and the first project for our PLC was the troop calendar for 2006. In our troop the PLC picks the outings for the following year and SM does the deconfliction with school, community and work schedules. It went really well. The PLC has been around long enough to know the places we attend and were able to add a couple of alternates. The boys did a very good job. I would like to ask a question from some other SMs about the troop "responsibility" to the associated Weblos and Cub Scouts. Every year we do a Family Camp and invite the Weblos to our "Winter Camp." Prior to my assuming the reigns as SM the "committee" had wanted to take our troop to a "camporall." This was done at the angst of the boys. The PLC had decided to move one of our more adventurous outings to the same month (a romp in the Appalachians in OCT vice Mar). We have done this outing many times in March and have frozen our rearends off. The PLC decided that OCT would be a better time (warmer and leaves changing). I agreed with the boys, deconflicted the schedule and will present it tomorrow night. I have been forewarned this schedule will be met with stiff resistance. We have a great relationship with our pack and they always crossover a lot of boys. This camporall would be a first and would not beeffect their arrow of light badge. Anyone else having to deal with a "strong armed" committee?

Anarchist's post although not in keeping with the name does raise some very good points I am dealing with now. I have assumed the duties as SM as our previous SM was hurt on an outing. I have been with the troop for three years. I was not involved with scouting when I was young and have spent the last three years observing. One of the observation was that my son was struggling with sign-offs because our troop did not use the patrol method and advancement was left up to the scout to figure out. We are changing that with help from my ASMs. Along with changing our structure I am trying to change the the BOR format. Previously the BOR was a review of the SM conference and the scouts abilities. The BOR could be inquisitions if the advancement rate was slow. This is where the issues have developed. I feel the committee is stepping into the SMs shoes and trying to run the programs as well as the "financial." In our troop the SM generates 90% of the guidelines and then presents these guidelines to the committee. These guidelines cover advancement, outings and DISCIPLINE. It is the SMs job to administer the guidelines. Our CC is very involved and attends a lot of outings but he seems to be a little more intrusive than I like to see and this is another issue we are working through. I have tried the walk and coffee with some success but the full frontal assault seemed to get the best results. Sometimes it just takes a little more assertiveness to get the point across. This is a sad fact but it has to be done. Good Luck I feel your pain.