Stosh

No problems... I always like it when everyone goes to great length to make sure the boys learn to do elections the "American" way, and then use the BSA model which is NOT the American way. : When we in this country elect our over-all leader we all cast votes, but in fact we are really electing representatives to the electoral college to vote for us. Kinda like electing the PL who then votes for the SPL. I follow this more accurate formula and get the negative glances for even suggesting such a thing. Presidents are not elected by popular votes, but according to BSA SPL's are. Stop and ponder the possibility that if the PL is selected to take care of his patrol members, isn't he an elected representative for his patrol to vote for an appropriate scout that will meet requirements imposed on him as PL to take care of his boys? Nothing un-American about any of that. BTW, Impeaching does not remove the person from office, only that charges or accusations have been brought against him/her.

What you don't see just off a ways away is the van with the 14' kayak on it that got wet in the river behind there later that day. And I thought I was the only one left that slept in pup tents for just that reason.

I suppose that Mumblety-peg is out of the question for Cubs?

1910 - 1960 - 2010

I kinda like the community strips, more information than trying to memorize a ton of troop numbers and where they are from. BTW, 1910 uniform with appropriate hat/collar brass and BSA buttons. Finding a community strip for the 1960 uniform was a piece of cake, buttons? they're a whole different ballgame. If one were to look closely at the equipment, it too is historically correct right down to the tent pegs.

There's a big difference in technique especially the release. Once elevation is established for the poundage, the release become vital for the right/left dynamic. One of the reasons long bows are more difficult is that they are such low poundage, the arc is so much more sever than the higher poundage of the recurve and even then the compounds. The higher pounds will more severely affect the arrow coming off the bow as well.

I've been able to use E-Bay for my source of vintage stuff, but I've looked for years and some stuff never comes up. I got lucky on the community strip. I got it off of E-Bay only to find out it was being sold by a scouter a few miles away. Go to old clothing stores and antique shops, the vintage uniforms are there and the one-size-fits all community strip is often just down the street.

One has to be flexible with this type of MB. I once saw a counselor working with the boys using long bows. (Yeah, many moons ago.) One of the boys was having difficulty scoring at both 10 and 15 and asked if he could use his own bow. After struggling for another 1/2 hour the boy asked again. The MB counselor relented and "allowed" him to use his own bow. The boy immediately shot a perfect score at both 10 and 15. This was in the days before compounds. MB counselor was used to long bows and the boy had one of the new recurves. Do what it takes to help the boys be successful.

Yes, I have seen it done that way in some packs. it tends to be a bit more troop competitive and score keeping going on and a lot of confusion going on too. It is also noted which boys crossover and those who DO NOT go to a troop. Just a lot of things going on that make things a bit awkward at times. Remember the big celebration is not a troop celebration but a final farewell by the pack. The "welcome" by the troop is not really the main focus of what is important. Our boys attend the B&G where many of these crossovers occur, but only are there in support of the new guys that will be crossing over later in the troop crossover. It's been the "tradition" in my troops, the boys don't necessarily sit with their families, but are invited to sit with the boys in the troop instead. Some do, some don't, it's the boy's choice.

In our area we do it differently. Our Troop has the bridge and the Troop crosses over the boys, not the Pack. The AOL is a Pack ceremony and is usually bestowed when the boy earns it. It is not "saved up" for special occasions like a Blue and Gold where it is often viewed as the "graduation" ceremony from Cub Scouts. It also has the unfortunate dynamic of singling out the boys that didn't happen to earn the AOL. We dropped the Pack cross-over because of the large number of boys who would simply cross the bridge and then go back and sit with mom and dad and had no intention of ever joining Boy Scouts. We got tired of buying neckers and books and so only those that expressed interest in joining Scouts were involved. At a welcoming cross-over, instead of having the SM and SPL attend a B&G to "receive" the boys into the Troops, now the CM and WDL "send" the boys off into the Troops where they are welcomed by the new Troop. Basically we got tired of being one of many and decided to just focus on just those interested in our troop and a big shindig was laid out for them to welcome them. I like the idea of saying a troop oriented "Hello" better than the current practice of a pack oriented saying "Goodbye". So, our ceremony runs like this: The WDL, CM, and parents present the boy wishing to join and calls out his name. The TG of the new patrol being formed crosses over the bridge, gives him his book, takes off his Cub necker and places the troop necker on. Then he escorts (Guides) him over the bridge where he introduces him to everyone in the troop, the SM last. There's also a reason why the parents stay on the Cub side of the bridge and that is explained during the ceremony. As is the TG being his temporary guide in the new troop and it is also explained why the SM is the last to welcome the boy to the new troop. Except for the lack of Indian regalia, it is somewhat reminiscent of an A/O call out. .... Oops, one last thing. If the boy is not a Cub Scout he still crosses over from his non-scout world into the world of scouting at this ceremony and is presented to the troop by his parents.

This gentleman was one of my Eagle scouts. The uniform he is wearing is the same one he did his Eagle project in. It's the same uniform he wore every week to meetings. As you can tell from the insignia and Eagle knot he was at the time my ASM. He went and got appropriate 1960's ASM patch when he aged out. He had a difficult time, but he did find the community strip, too. Any historic uniform is a valid BSA uniform, but one must make sure the insignia is historic as well.

Currently have two scouts in my troop, one has been with us 2 years, the other one 1 year. So if I have any reservations about NSP's I had better can them quickly in that I have the potential of 2-3 new NSP's coming up this spring in the cross-over. One of my boys is pretty hooked on scouting (the younger one) the older one is quiet and reserved, doesn't talk unless directly addressed and then is pleasant. He does harbor a sense of humor. That's what I have to work with this coming year. I am doing the AOL training for boys from 3 different packs and hopefully my efforts will produce a good number of boys from the cross-over. My boys and I had a long talk about how this was going to shake out and it was decided by them, that they would need to step up their game, but in the short run, I as SM may have to run the troop in the beginning. The boys and I will reevaluate the compact every month. This will give us time to identify the natural leaders in the cross-overs and figure that by this time next year (6 months after cross-over) it will need to be back at 100% boy led. That doesn't mean it couldn't happen earlier, we are just figuring a worse case scenario. Every month more and more boy led will need to be identified and less and less involvement by adults clarified. So, where's the biggest concern here? ME! I've never done adult-led as a SM. It'll be quite a challenge for me. Fortunately I have 2 boys that can help me. I do have WDL experience from 20 years ago that I can get through the AOL training which is basically adult-led, but I'm hoping by the time these Webelos II boys are ready to cross-over, they will be well on their way to boy-led anyway. Next meeting the Webelos boys will be forming their patrols and selecting their leadership, 2 TG's standing by... It's far from ideal, but one needs to work with what they have.

One has to remember that any time someone has a connection to the orientation of new scouts into a troop, it can be a job needing a bit of finesse. Take boys that have had a heavily adult-led Cub program and transition them into a boy-led. Of course these boys are 7 years less mature than say, 18 year-old "adults" going off to college and we all know how that turns out. From that perspective, I'm thinking that as long as everyone keeps sharp objects out of Eagle94-A1's hands everything should be okay. There's nothing he's going to do to these boys that 20 to 25 years of professional therapy can't fix. As a person who does find that new patrols needing orientation can be a bit of a transitional challenge, if done right can work out just fine and the boy can make the necessary adjustments rather quickly. If it's something that one is unfamiliar with it can be a bit of a bumpy road. For his first rodeo, Eagle94-A1 is doing just fine. Like everyone else, he's going to pay his dues and learn the ropes.

My ASM's makes the red loops. The boys voted to stay with the red. I don't know their rationale, but it wasn't an issue I was inclined to get all that concerned about. They went with a blaze orange necker, full square, not BSA branding or troop insignia on the necker. Black trim for youth, white trim for adults. With the availability of red/white numbers on E-Bay, we should be good for say, maybe 100 years. One of my patrols opted for the old red/black patrol patch with the old '60's matching pendant flag.

There's a reason why national elections are staggered. Parliamentary elections can be held any time there's a vote of no-confidence in the existing leadership. I don't think my methods are all that "theoretical". And if the old JLT program was beneficial on how POS's work, one ought to look at GBB's material, even better yet.

Nope, that's what they got you to do, get you outside your comfort zone. They win. And don't think for a moment that there aren't teachers, coaches, and/or parents that haven't got you beat on that type of reaction. Those people are pro's, You're just an amateur. I know of my current troop "pushed me too far" once. They were being real wild for some odd reason on an outing. I put up "sign's up" and there was dead silence. I quietly waited a while, then proceeded quietly as if nothing had happened. Before the weekend ended, everyone of the boys that were screwing up came and quietly apologized to me in private. That's how one plays the game. One of the rules of my game is, as a courtesy to you, I will never use "sign's up" to interrupt you. I find screaming and yelling hard on the vocal cords....

What sort of commitment is expected of the boys for just a 6 month trial run at being a patrol only to have it tossed aside eventually? At least with the reassignments at the end of the trial period, it guarantees the boys will not be together. If the boys figure this out, why should they try, just wait and see what happens is the easier route to take. Of course it won't bode well for the boys who joined to be with their buddies.

Quit reacting the way they expect you to. If you do something different than scream and yell, they won't know how to play the game. Totally throws them off.

Okay they just redefined the separation between Sea Scouts and Venturing. I never did like the lumping the two together in the first place. I was just hoping they didn't dump it down to the auxiliary level of Scouting for Life and STEM.

Johnny Football star player can't run for office this term because of the school team schedule, And Billy Basketball and student couoncil president can't next term, However, if the "elections" could be moved a month one way or the other, maybe both can run. Can't move the election cycle? Okay, someone else can be PL. Tommy Donothing is available. Let him be PL. Johnny Football can do WebMaster POR for advancement and Billy Basketball can be Librarian of old MB books for POR. Works for me....

Maybe with that much drama coming out of that patrol, no one wants them.

I would suggest one would use the color for the position one holds. I am a SM so I wear the red when I wear the shirt with the SM patch on it and when I function as a UC, I wear silver on the shirt with the UC patch. It has no bearing on what I do in real life, when I volunteer, I wear the appropriate uniform for the role I am presently assuming. To wear a BSA uniform as an ASM with silver would be inappropriate as far as my opinion runs. Your mileage may vary.

In that case the younger patrols need focus on the training of basic skills, say compass work or first aid. The middle aged patrols need focus on practice and proficiency in those areas, compass hikes and first aid preparations and proficiency. The older boys need to be doing things that involve those skills, i.e. going to a Rogain competition or set one up for the troop/district or participate or run a mock disaster event with the local rescue/fire department crews. One theme, each one translated to the needs of the boys in the patrols by the PL's. It's the SPL's responsibility then to provide support for what the PL's needs by using the resources he has at hand with his LC people. The SPL announces this month is First Aid. Younger boys' PL's all focus on S2FC instructional training. Middle age patrols, focus on practice and mini-mock disasters. The older patrols, head on down to the fire department/rescue squad to get some actual understanding of what First Aid is all about and maybe work with them to be the "victims" in their next mock disaster to actually see what these people do for real. Next month SPL announces Compass and then let the PL's run with it. I guess it all just boils down to what the SPL thinks his job or leadership directive is. Is he there to put together the program and coordinate the program (management skills) or does he support the program of the PLs (servant leadership skills)? From your example @@Krampus, I'm thinking you are looking for just the management level suggestions.