Stosh

Structure? Vision? etc. I see a problem arising in that I'm thinking people define these ideas differently and thus misunderstandings arise. I have a boy-led program. There are parameters set down by BSA they must stay within. They can't do sky-diving, for example. Yet within those parameters they are allowed to build whatever "structure" they wish to make. Suppose for a moment a troop wished to schedule a dance for next Friday night. (I'll wait for the air to return to the room, that was quite a gasp!) So what if the boys decide to invite the neighborhood Girl Scout troop over for an evening of sharing scouting and having some music play in the background? Venturing Crews do it all the time! However, those adults inclined to maintaining control over the program and its structures find this quite difficult for them to let lose of. Somehow they have the idea that if left to their own recourses they're going to go off and commit some crime somewhere. It's like some Baptist grandma that finds a deck of cards in her grandson's possession and immediately the assumption is he's got to be a professional gambler that needs to be rehabbed. If a scout is to be given the opportunity to be trustworthy, the adults need to give them enough rein to prove it. It is my experience that given enough rein, the boy very seldom disappoint me and more often than not impress me with what they are able to do without adult "supervision", aka interference. What I'm hearing Beavah suggesting is that the more the adults learn to trust the boys, the less their involvement is needed. A poke here or there, a tuck a time or two, but nothing heavy handed is necessary. What a glorious day it would be for the SM to find out that after all he's done for the boys, they no longer need him at all! That's my goal for the boys! It's called growing up and a good SM knows he's been a great value to that boy especially when the Eagle mentor pin is pinned on him at an ECOH. Stosh (This message has been edited by jblake47)

Both my daughters were Girl Scouts. My youngest is heavily into cosmetics and doesn't own enough fancy shoes, yet every year she and I pack up and head out into the back country. She's been to the Boundary Waters twice. She has canoed some of the best whitewater in our area, and does a pretty fair job of Dutch oven cooking. None of which was Girl Scout related. We have our annual trip planned for this fall yet again. She never had the opportunity to camp with the Girl Scouts and thus dropped the program early. She did join a Venturing Crew in BSA and did quite a bit of camping with them until she aged out. My other daughter never camped either but did achieve her Silver Award. My youngest is now married and still looks forward to our annual trip together. It was unfortunate that GSUSA had nothing to offer her. Stosh

I was 2ASM and had a conglomerate of boys from multiple troops. All gelled well, had a great time, no one got sent home, one boy left due to homesickness, but for the most part I was impressed. One patrol had my 4 boys, 1 ADD, 1 austistic, 1 auditory learning disability, and one with authority problems (knows everything about anything). They had a great PL from a different troop. VERY impressed with this young man. Stosh

As pointed out by others, weighing the scores would put undue pressure on the older boys. Once they get the "requirement" out of the way, they promptly forget it. I know a lot of Life scouts that haven't the foggiest idea how to tie knots or start fires. Maybe there should be a calculated stupid factor that is added in for these older boys, then maybe it would work. I do have a serious problem with the ad hoc patrols that many troops come to camporees with to insure winning trophies. After a competition at a camporee I congratulated a scout for his patrol's win and he informed me he was with another patrol for the weekend. That "other" patrol cleaned up most of the other trophies. Kinda sad if you think about it. Stosh

I still prefer the boy with the troop necker in his pajamas wearing bunny slippers as a viable option. On the other hand an overweight scout in a speedo with necker may not work in my book, I have my limits, ya know! Stosh

I have a standard F/G Conn brass bugle for the boys to use. $65 off of E-Bay. Rather tarnished but no dents yet. I have a silver F/G Rexcraft BSA bugle for the boys to use at special functions. $95 out of an antique store. One very minor ding and I hope to keep it that way. Either way, keep your eyes opened, get on E-Bay, pick up a good bugle and if need be have it refurbished. I have no idea what that may cost, but with no valves/pads or moving parts, it shouldn't be that cost prohibitive. Met a scout at Jambo who had a copper/brass British duty bugle (short and compact in size) and he did a nice job with that. One has to be careful with those bugles in that some are more for ornamentation rather than being played. The one this boy had was definitely a musical instrument and not a wall-mount. Stosh

I don't take comments negatively, no worries. The point I was making was in the area of fuzzy theory. If I have a handful of sand, and I take away one grain of sand, do I still have a handful of sand? How many grains must I remove before it's no longer a handful? If scout wears a full uniform, obviously he's in full uniform. If he doesn't wear the socks is he still in full uniform? Maybe just wearing the necker is enough for full uniform for some? Everyone has a different definition of what a full uniform is and unfortunately many times it is not what is prescribed by BSA policy. So it begs the question, if a boy is standing in his pajamas, wearing a troop necker, does he use the Scout salute or does he put his hand over his heart? I'd rather have a boy stand there in a partial uniform because he can't afford the whole uniform and put his hand over his heart. He is thus showing respect for both the Flag and the organization he is representing. Your mileage may vary. Stosh

So what about the situation where on the Blue Cards the unit leader must sign off before the boy starts the merit badge. Our council has done away with the Blue Cards and the other day when I suggested the boys look into the 4 heritage MB's that will be around only for this year, they announced they had already done two of them...... So much for following policy.... Stosh

If anyone really understood the importance of a bugler, there would be one in every troop! 5:45 am - Musicians Call (also known as first call to gather up all the musicians) 6:00 am - Reveille (everyone out of the tent and standing for roll-call before the playing of the last note! They should have heard the First Call 15 minutes earlier and have plenty of time to get ready) 7:00 am - Mess Call (grab your kit, food's ready!) 8:00 am - Assembly, To the Colors (Flags) (Line up we're going to be marching off to the parade field.) 8:30 am - Officer's Call (present the day's schedule of events to the leadership) 9:00 am - Fatigue Call / Church Call (Sunday) (Start of morning activities) 12:00 noon - Mess Call (grab your kit, food's ready!) 1:00 pm - Fatigue Call (activity call) (Start of afternoon activities) 5:00 pm - Mess Call (grab your kit, food's ready!) 6:00 pm - Assembly, To the Colors (Flags) (Gather up, we're heading out for evening flags!) 7:00 pm - Fatigue Call (Start of evening activities) 10:00 pm - Lights out followed by Taps (no more lights or talking!) No boy needs a watch...... Of course there are other calls for specific situations that could also be used. The more the bugler teaches the troop, the easier his job will be to communicate with all the boys no matter where in camp they may be. Stosh

Sadly enough, I tend to agree with Kudu in much of the dynamics of what leadership development is all about. As one who is trained in management, I know the benefits of a well managed troop. It involves a lot of organizational skills directed at both the task at hand and the people involved with accomplishing the task. For expedience sake, it is far more feasible to have the adults organize and manage because of the experience in the skill sets they posses. However, once one includes Kudu's 300' separation, the control of such managed operations is quickly drawn into question. Unless a scout is trained specifically in all operational mindsets for management of tasks it is easy to toss a wrench in the process and derail the whole thing. Once one by-passes the management style of operation and replaces it with a leadership style which isn't designed along operational tasks and instead focuses on the personality of the leader and his followers, then that person is allowed to think beyond the box, so to speak. Assume for a moment that the boys are going on a canoe outing. The SM has "counseled" the patrol leadership in all the tasks they need to accomplish, i.e. cooking, locating the campsite, etc. They should all have the skill to accomplish the tasks, the "leader/manager" simply coordinates the efforts. Well, they leave in the morning, get 20 miles into the back country and as they are landing the canoes at the campsite, two canoes roll, dumping everything into the drink. The boys are able to salvage any thing that floats, unfortunately the chuck box is at the bottom of the lake. A manager does not have the skill set or experience to fulfill the task anymore. A leader on the other hand possess all the same skill sets as the manager but now his only "directive" left as a leader is to "take care of the boys!" He must now create new tasks, new management alternatives, and an underlying desire to assist all the boys to make do with what they have. The management plan is tossed out the window and all the boys in a varying degree must recreate the trip for the benefit of each other, making sure everyone is taken care of. Joe's backpack sank, do we have clothes for Joe in someone else's pack? or is Joe going to wear wet clothes for the weekend? Let's first find Fred's medication, it's a safety issue! From that point onward a manager would be lost, but a leader would dig into his bag of tricks and make do and keep everyone safe. A Leader does not manage tasks, he leads people! How can he draw the best out of everyone to overcome a difficult situation? The term patrol comes from BP's military background. It is a small group of soldiers that are trained well enough and have sufficient leadership to be able to separate themselves (sometimes more than 300') from the army and function under difficult situations to accomplish a task while insuring the safety and well being of all members. A leader is focused on the people under his charge and the task of the mission is secondary. A leader returning having accomplished his task but lost all his patrol members doesn't bode well for the next mission. If he returns having not accomplished the task yet has all his patrol members, he can be resupplied and sent out again. Having studied the US Army leadership training manuals, it is remarkable how much duplicate verbage is found in the Hillcourt material, yet absent from the more modern BSA manuals. Yes, we no longer follow military dynamics in modern BSA, but in many respects we have tossed out leadership, a anchor in military development of people, and replaced it with a business management style which teaches achievable goals, but often times requires no leadership at all. Merit badge requirements: do these things and you will be successful! Follow all the instructions, do the task and you will get a badge. No leadership required. If all the true leadership stays with the adults, the boys will only have the opportunity to follow. Telling the SPL what he has to do is not leadership, it is the SPL FOLLOWING the directives of the adults. Most people can be taught to add 1 + 1 to get the result of 2. This is a task that most people can do in their sleep, but do they fully understand the theory behind arithmetic well enough to think outside the box and then add 3 + 4, and maybe understanding the theory behind it be able to add double digit, triple digit numbers, too? A good SPL, or TG, or DC, will require the most leadership understanding to be good at it. I met a boy at Jambo, he had been selected to be the PL over the four boys from my troop attending. One of my boys is ADD, one is autistic, one has auditory learning problems and the fourth one has a serious problem with authority and knows everything to know about anything. At the end of the Jambo I went and personally thanked him for the outstanding job he did with his patrol. He couldn't figure out how I had come to that conclusion in that he said he had spent the whole time babysitting a bunch of screw-ups. I smiled and said, that's what makes you a great leader! He knew how to lead people!, not just manage tasks. Stosh

I got pulled over the other day by a policeman who noticed I had a taillight out. He looked sharp in his police uniform, but the cut-off blue jeans shorts and sandals did look a bit strange. However, when I got to the hospital I was comforted by the professional look of the doctors and nurses who wore scrub pants and t-shirts from their recent medical convention held a month ago. I also was kinda surprised to see the professional football player who had just come from a news interview playing the game in a suit and tie. He did have his helmet on, though. And it was kinda funny to see the US Marine in basic training wearing a Hawaiian shirt and baggy shorts. But I'm sure the Corps was making an effort to be more up-to-date and relevant in their recruiting practices. As stupid as all these sound, to me, any scout who shows up for a scout activity in anything less than a full scout uniform is NOT in uniform. Period! All the examples above are indicative of a symbol in our culture. Sure they are all professional people, but when the aged veteran puts on his old military uniform on Memorial Day, heads turn! Today when a scout wears a full uniform people notice and often times comment. When the scout isn't in full uniform, people generally blow them off. When I was a kid I wore the socks, pants, shirt, belt neckerchief and hat in Cub Scout blue, then I wore the socks, pants, shirt, belt, neckerchief and hat in Boy Scout green. I paid for them myself and I learned what the word THRIFTY meant. At opening flags at summer camp quite a large number of staff came over to our troop and made the comment about how impressed they were with the scouts in the troop. We stood out from all the rest of the troops at camp that week because we were the only troop there that full uniforms. As a matter of fact only our troop and the staff were fully uniformed. Except at the water front, all our boys were full uniform outside of our campsite. People notice when full uniforms are present and when they are not. One can make up all kinds of excuses as to why it is impractical, infeasible, inconvenient, etc. to require full uniforms, but excuses don't make up for the poor impression one makes on those around them. Walking around at Jamboree this year only emphasized which boys were Jambo participants and which boys were Jambo visitors. One would think one shouldn't be able to tell the difference, but one easily could. Stosh

8 boys? Need an SPL? Sure put a patch on him and get his POR requirement done. There's nothing the boy can do to earn it, but hey, he gets credit. Presently I have 9 boys, one patrol, it's boy led and the SM is the PL. Every time a boy needs a POR he goes to the PL (me!) and asks for the position. Being extremely lazy, their PL (me!) doesn't lift a finger to do anything for them, but will train them and help them get started. I have two boys presently vying for the PL position. One boy totally organized every detail for summer camp this year, the other boy handled both fall and spring camporees. That included the registration, collection of money, MB's, organization of rides, equipment, and program. I have a Chaplain Aide who has a prayer/devotion for every scout activity we do, including regular meetings. I have a boy learning the bugle calls, I have another who inventoried the troop trailer and is negotiating with the committee treasurer on new replacement equipment. I had our one tenderfoot ask if he could be the PL and I said, sure, get a patrol together and let me know. (He's now organizing an extended recruiting effort to focus in on next year's Webelos II boys. He decided to go that route rather than compete with the other two who were vying for the PL position.) One of the few times the SPL issue came up was when the summer camp organizer said the camp needed to know who our SPL was. I told the scout that as long as he had done all the work for the activity, he should probably put his name in that spot. At our BOR's it is tradition to visit with the boy about what he had done for this POR. If the boy cannot come up with 6 months of POR functionality in any of the POR's he's going to have problems with this. On the other hand he may give functional leadership rationale in multiple POR's. He did some PL work, served at SPL at summer camp, did some QM work, etc. etc. If a scout can come up with 6 months of POR leadership he gets credit for it. Over the past 2 years the only time SPL was addressed is when one was needed by outsiders. We'd show up for a camporee and they'd ask, who's your SPL. Our boys have fun taking turns being this person. They all know it's a "do nothing" position for the most part in a troop that small. But, whoever is not busy with camp duties runs up to the SPL Meeting to get the information and bring it back. It's not one of those items that any of them brags about at their BOR's. Stosh

To a certain extent, knowing how to read one's hydration level is important. There were a lot of people who commented to me during the Jambo how difficult it must have been to wear the wool 1910 uniform all day long, the one with leg wraps, etc. I carried a 2 quart canteen and monitored myself and drank no where near the 4 gallons recommended. However I have been doing Civil War reenacting for over 10 years and wear far heavier uniforms in far hotter conditions doing a lot more exerted activity for that. The next guy doing what I'm doing would be in the hospital tent. However, with scouts they do not do this monitoring until they begin to react severely to the symptoms of dehydration and then it's too late. At Jambo there were a few heat related problems, but at Civil War reenactments in Virginia in August I have seen hundreds of participants being carted off to the hospital. Most of them were the younger people who don't pay attention. Taking rest breaks, finding shade, drinking water, etc. all work together to keep a person safe. To just take drinking water and overdoing it doesn't really make up for the other parts of the formula. Oh, yes, I do wear long underwear when I wear the wool uniform. Teach the boys the whole package! For example, how many boys when they filled their canteens/water bottles also soaked their t-shirts in water? If the t-shirt is cooling off the body core, then the body doesn't have to and will conserve fluids. Heck, I've even gone so far as to wear a bandanna and put ice in my hat. Works great and as it melts it keep the shirt wet. Yes, wearing a hat on a hot day can be a good thing. For winter survival we teach a lot about fabrics and layering, drink fluids, wear wind protection, avoid moisture, eat high protein/fatty foods, etc. etc. etc. For summer survival we simply say drink 4 gallons of water and pee a lot. Yeah, right. If one is taking care of themselves properly, they probably don't need all that water. Don't play with matches isn't enough to protect anyone from fire, wear your mittens isn't enough to protect anyone from the cold and drink water isn't enough to protect anyone from the heat. Stosh

If they cheered it would have been an expression of free speech. If they booed it would not have been? The day free speech is intimidated, coerced, or shamed out of existence will be a first step to the downfall of the American Experiment. I was surprised and a bit embarrassed by the amount of booing, but I'll defend everyone's right in the crowd to express their free speech as they wish. I did not join in and I did not try and stop anyone from expressing their free speech. When people called President Bush an idiot or criminal, reacted the same way as I did when President Obama was booed. Once our country achieves a single party sway, King George will have his revenge. I'll cheer and I'll boo and I'll vote as I see fit and as I believe. When the day comes that I am no longer able to do that, then I'll cease calling myself American because the Constitution that protects all Americans will have ceased to be of any value to our society. I wished the crowd didn't boo the President, but then one must always be careful of what one wishes for..... Stosh

Offers to trade garrison caps were almost as prevalent as offers to trade patches at Jambo. The number of times I heard: "I sure wish they'd bring back that old green uniform!" was too numerous to count. (And most of those comments were NOT from adults!) Stosh

Out of a rather large sub-camp at Jambo, we had only 3-4 buglers. Some were fairly good, one was really bad. I so much appreciated the one bad bugler because it took a lot of courage to get up and struggle through the call and take the heat for a poor job and then get up and do it again. All in all a poor bugler is better than none at all. Now that bugling is here to stay, when are we going to bring back whistles for PL's, or are we going to just rely on cell phones for communications? Stosh

I might be a wee bit out of the loop, but our troops has no SPL unless the activity requires an SPL to show up. Then one of the PL's just goes instead. We've bounced back and forth between 1-4 patrols and never really had a need for an SPL. However, if we had more patrols, it might be necessary to offer some organizational help. If the SPL is going to "run the troop", then our boys aren't going to fall into step with it. The "Senior PL" is just what it says, the oldest most experienced PL that can help the other PL's develop into good leaders. He's the TG for the PL's. Some of my best scouts have risen from the pack by being a good DC then a good TG then into a PL that helps his fellow PL's (de facto SPL). However, our troop leadership does not run the troop because the highest ranking officer in the troop is the PL. The SPL, the QM, etc. all support the patrols, not direct/manage/lead them. That's what the PL's do! The PLC is a gathering in which all the PL's let the other patrols know what they are doing and what they are planning on doing. This is one of the reasons why I have older boys still "hanging around". The 5 older boys don't have to do what the 16 new Webelos boys want to do because they don't have enough votes anymore in the PLC. Nope, the older patrol does what it wants to do and the NSP's do what they want to do. If they both want to go to the same summer camp the PLC is the opportunity to work out the common logistics, i.e. 2 adult leaders needed instead of 4, etc. Too much emphasis is placed on who's running the show and that just isn't leadership. Just because the SM gets the SPL to do his bidding does not make it a boy run program. As a matter of fact, it only proves the SPL is NOT a leader but just another SM follower. I see this dynamic operating all the time in adult-led, troop-method programs. Just keep it in mind that a true leader does not lead program, he leads people. A manager manages/directs tasks and/or people. One has to remember just what it is we are asked to do in the BSA program. Not many people feel comfortable with giving the opportunity of free rein to the boys. I have found it quite rewarding to see the boys step up when given such opportunity. At the end of this month I have all my boys going on a backpack trip they are totally unprepared for. It's going to be a train wreck, but my ASM (2 Philmont treks under his belt, 4 years SM experience, Eagle with palms and 3 of the boys are his own) is willing to go with them to make sure the same number come home that he left with. Who am I to say they can't have the opportunity to give it a try? And if I pulled the plug on the activity I thought would fail, would it be the end of a boy-led program? Is it safe? Yep, 3 Eagle scouts, 2 of them over 18. Will they look and act like scouts? Hope so, they generally do. Will they have fun? Depends on their lack of conditioning, their lack of knowledge about backpacking, and they've never camped in a facilities free environment. But then not all challenges are fun at the time. I'm thinking their going to learn a ton of things and I'm excited for them. They chose to go Wednesday - Saturday and I don't any any vacation time left so I can't go. I would have loved to see for myself how things turn out. I'll be off 50 miles away on a white-water kayak outing (Friday - Sunday) which they chose to pass on to go on the backpacking hike. You see, the PL actually does run the patrol. Stosh

qwazse, I have just a wee bit of difference of emphasis in that in terms of THRIFTY, I don't draw a line of distinction between earning money with a part time job or getting off the sofa and hustling door-to-door with a popcorn fundraiser. To me it's the investment of one's self energy into the process that develops an attitude of thrifty/monetary awareness for the scout. If all I do is make one phone call and grandma buys enough popcorn to feed her neighborhood and I get to go to summer camp, that's really not investing much of myself into the process. Neither is going over spending an hour sweeping out her garage to pay for a week of camp. On the other hand if the scout is out every fall raking leaves, every winter shoveling snow, every spring cleaning out flower beds and every summer mowing lawns, for the neighborhood, then selling popcorn to all his "employers" in the fall, I'd say he is putting in a pretty good personal investment into whatever he wishes to spend his money on. Heck, if I had a kid in my neighborhood that hustled like that, I'd slap down $50 cash and tell him to not be at all "thrifty" with the money and totally enjoy every treat the trading post had to offer. At the end of the week if he hadn't spent it at the trading post, he had to bring back the change, and there had better not be any. Those that put their own sweat into the money appreciate it more than the gratuitous handouts of rich uncles and sympathetic grandmas. It just depends on what lesson one wishes to teach.... Stosh

As a SM of a boy-led patrol-method program, all youth leadership is arbitrary. If a boy steps up to the plate and functions as a POR he gets credit for it. If they are functionally operating as a QM they get credit for it. No one wears a POR patch unless they earn it with extended leadership functionality. For advancement? If a boy functions as the PL for 6 months and has enough "evidence" of his accomplishments during that time, he can go before the BOR and tell his story. The patch on his shirt says nothing other than the fact that his mother can sew. After 6 months of PL work he can then put the POR patch on because he is no longer doing what he's doing to "earn" something, he's doing it because he wants to do it and is enjoying it. I have two boys vying for the position of PL right now. Both are doing PL level work at the same time on different projects that are coming up. I have only one boy doing a job with a patch and that is Chaplain's Aide, a job he's been doing now for over a year. He started as a TF and has just turned FC and will now start getting some "credit" for his efforts. I have all my boys at different times taking on leadership projects which would qualify them for Star rank and even my TF scout has an equal opportunity to take on any of these projects, he doesn't have to do it for "advancement" but can do it for fun and the experience. This TF's last "project" was to organize a Saturday AM service project which he did a nice job on. Picked the date, organized the crews, arranged the rides and such. Nice experience for him to pick up a few pointers he may need somewhere down the road, like maybe for an Eagle project some day? As a SM I generally don't get much of an opportunity to install and/or remove any leadership in my boy-led program. The boys themselves seem to be doing a fairly good job of monitoring that by themselves. If So-and-so isn't doing the job/work, someone else has the right/opportunity to step up and take over the reins. Cream always floats to the top. Stosh

I grew up paying my own way for all my trips and activities. That included college and graduate studies as well. I'm thinking somewhere along the way some of these things were subsidized by other funds (property taxes and the schools), but it didn't make much difference in the long run. If I wanted to go, I anted up the money on my own. It was easy since I have held at least a part time job since I was 12 years old. I never really developed the notion that somehow there was some sort of free lunch out there and all I needed to do was have someone else toss me a few bucks along the way. I paid for it or I didn't go. As in the world back then I'm thinking I'm a small percentage of those who opted for that route to travel, but as I see it now I own my own home, drive 3 different cars all of which are paid for, and I owe no one any money. Last time I checked my credit rating was somewhere around 825. I'm thinking I'm still a small percentage of those who continue to opt for that route to travel. Did I miss out on anything? A few trips here and there, and a whole lot of financial headaches along the way. A scout is trifty for a reason. So, Beavah, yes, the boys should all pay their way in the world. It's a lesson in leadership that will enable the boys to function better in any economic environment. And by the way, whenever the youth come around and try and sell me candy bars, popcorn, wreaths or cookies, they get a check and told to take the merchandise over to the nursing home. Well, with one exception, those GS thin mints are pretty hard to turn down. Stosh

If it's gonna rain, or if it's gonna be too hot, I ain't going.... As a Civil War Reenactor, I've had some really tough weather in Virginia, it's just part of the adventure! The boys should come prepared.... Stosh

I my area the Lyme's ticks are more of a threat than small rocks so I go with the gaiters and/or duct tape the cuff's shut. Some of the boys pull their socks up over their pant cuffs, too. Looks dorky, but so does duct tape. Some of the boys opt not to because it tends to be a bit warmer than open cuffs, but everyone that does never get's ticks. So far I have only had to take one tick off of any boy. When the SM comes at them with a knife in one hand, needle-nosed pliers in the other, a bottle of alcohol to clean up afterwards and a Cheshire grin from ear to ear, they become avid duct tape disciples. Stosh

I had an interesting situation last night at our troop meeting. My JASM is not going to Jambo and will be in charge of the boys for the next two meetings. His goal is to set up the annual calendar and plan out the next major event after Jambo. It would seem that the boys want to do a hiking outing with staying in a rather wilderness area with no facilities. They got the idea from the Camping MB requirement. Well, they haven't thought this out very well. The JASM and I visited about the logistics problems and focused on safety issues, which the adults are expected to address. The rest is up to the boys. I offered to do some pre-event training to help the boys get ready, but the PL told the JASM that they didn't need any training. (They are brothers!) Well the JASM knows this is going to be a total disaster even before they leave and has come for more advice. It is my "tradition" that those who have their Eagle and are continuing in the troop to get the opportunity to lead as an adult, i.e. stand back and develop the leadership in the other boys. When one has this type of situation, does one use his oldest scout as a leader or as a trainer of leaders? One can't do both because as soon as the older scout takes over, the younger scout shifts into following mode rather than getting the opportunity to lead. What pearls of wisdom can be given on this? Stosh

I wear any BSA sock I wish with shorts. I prefer the knee-highs in brushy locations. The only time I wear non-BSA socks is when I wear heavy hiking socks, long pants and gaiters. I've never had any uniform police types ever mention something they can't see. Stosh

Congrats! Your gain is our loss. Keep in touch! Stosh