Stosh

4 rolls of colored tape. Make a narrow rectangle of blue/yellow on one end, red/green on the other end. Pull up and toss away when done, store the tape in a drawer.

This kinda reminds me of what privates in the Banana Republic armies wear on their shirt. I haven't worked with that age youth in the past, but I would start out with going down to the schools and interviewing kindergarten teachers as to what kids of that age would appreciate. Maybe it's a little token to set on their desk, a lion of some sort with a ribbon on it, I dunno, I'm just guessing. It would do one well to actually go and check with people who work with these kids on a daily basis. Maybe it's just a certificate of accomplishment that they can throw away or tape to their bedroom wall, but at least for a few moments they can get up in front of everyone, get "something" and be recognized like the other boys. Just some random thoughts, hope it helps.

I'd rather get a handwritten note from a friend saying "Congrats". These letters others get are from people the Eagle doesn't even know. These letters are going to end up in some scrapbook and looked at maybe a half dozen times and the Eagle's grandchildren aren't even know who these people are.

@@belladonna, It would seemI missed it in my first post, so Welcome to the forum!

@@Back Pack Sorry, but I think David CO was making a humorous reference to the screen name chosen. "Belladonna" is a highly toxic poison.

Gee, I must be REALLY old, I thought the limit was 6. As far as uniforms go, the trend seems to be whatever one wants to wear is acceptable. Just last week, I was late for the meeting and slipped on just my shirt, didn't have the pants, belt or socks to go with it. I had on a pocket vest with all my stuff in it and my jackshirt and expedition hat. I was not being a good scout in any sense of the word, but it was either that or be late. When it came time for the opening flags, I gave the civilian salute. One of the boys said something about it, that I hadn't done it correctly. I said hand over my heart, what's wrong with that. He said I should have used the scout salute. I said I wasn't in uniform. He said I had my shirt on. I reminded him, that's not being in uniform. We'll see where that goes the next couple of weeks.....

I don't know of any other major celebration in a person's life. The whole class is not expected to show up for graduation from HS, College or whatever. It's usually limited to family and friends The whole class is not expected to show up for any coming-of-age celebrations. It's usually limited to family and friends Weddings? Same thing Birthday, even the biggies? Same thing Promotions? Anniversaries? Why is ECOH any different? Or worse yet, every gets invited and no one shows up. Every boy is to decide how he wants his ECOH to go.

When I did Civil War reenacting, one could get shot for cross-dressing.

Cooking stoves get really hot, I recommend you not touch them.

Morality cannot be legislated with rules. One needs to rely on one's own True North to set direction for others. If one is a true leader, they will follow. Simply asking oneself the question is it right might mean one needs to review their own True North. If one experiences a sense of uneasiness about a situation, it might mean that one's compass has been bumped. One might not find it necessary to correct other's course as much as it may mean that the correction needed is one's own course adjustment and taking a different path than theirs. This is why I don't often attend such activities. Again, it goes back to the issue of leadership. I have the choice of following the leaders of my own choosing as does everyone else.

If someone ask for advice, give knowledge, not judgments.

Being a new guy is difficult at best. What we often omit in the discussion is the importance and power of silence. Listen, observe and reserve judgment. Gather the intel and be patient. The time will come when someone in the group offers an opening. "Well, you've been here for a while. What do you think?" Now you can speak from your experience of what you've learned by watching, listening, and keeping one's mouth shut. Others often are bothered by silence and will open the door for you to walk through unimpeded.

Barry is right, there's a fine line between just letting them run loose and ignoring bad choices. A SM is there to support the boys in their growth and development (whether they want it or not. ) They will push the envelop and when they don't get gentle push back, they will conclude it's acceptable. After an "out of bounds" skit performed by your boys: Scout: "Mr. Stosh, what did you- think of our skit?" SM, "It was okay, but it left me kinda disappointed, I know you can do better than that." Scout: "Really? We thought we did pretty good." SM: "That's what I mean, it was just pretty good. You guys have the ability to do a lot more than just 'pretty good'." Scout: "Will you help us then?" SM: "I guess I could do that. Why don't you all get some Boy Scout skits off the internet and we can sit down and I can help you work through them for next time. Okay?" One hasn't dumped on the boys with a bunch of rules, One has taken their words and worked them to one's advantage and they have invited support from the SM. Now the SM has an opportunity to go through a bunch of skits and discuss why they may or may not be appropriate for next time. One is there to support their learning. Everything needs to be a lesson that comes from within the boys as they take ownership of the process without feeling it's really a learning situation. They need to know the edges of the envelop and a gentle push back will always be more effective than a lecture on rules, regulations and by-laws. Yes boys will push authority, but all one needs to to is point out the fact that there's always an end to every trail.

One of the problems with LNT with Cub Scouts is the fact that the adults are accustomed to "just doing it" instead of doing it along with an opportunity to learn. Oat meal in the morning? Boy takes his packet, tears off the top and pours the oatmeal in his hot water. The adult dramatically gasps and holds his chest while making a big scene. The adult has the attention of all the boys! He then points out that this poor Cub has made 2 pieces of garbage in stead of leaving the flap on so he only has to worry about one piece. With a smile, the adult thanks the boys for pointing out this problem to the other boys. This type of lesson can occur in a cabin, in a house or in a campsite. Usually as a tag-a-long I always apply LNT to their homes as well. Pick up after yourself! Do you leave traces of you being there in the kitchen? The bathroom? The living room? A piece of bread falls on the ground during lunch and the boy doesn't retrieve it. Again with the over-dramatic act. Warn the boys about all the animals that are going to attracted to it after dark. Then look around to make sure no animals are already coming in. Remind them to keep their flashlights handy! Then carefully and dramatically retrieve the little piece of bread as if it is radioactive and slowly put it in the garbage. Then with a loud whew, tell the boys how heroically you have again made them safe again. A couple of outings like that and the boys will think you're a blithering idiot, but they will learn! and have fun doing it. Resources? We don't need no stinkin' resources, your boys are the best resource on the planet. They are going to mess up and step into heroically teach the boys a LNT lesson.

Be safe and best of luck with your selling!

I worked part time as a professional and found that it wasn't for me. Only those with a fortitude of a mule can make it through. Non-profit organizations all tend to be the same, whether it be churches, community based help group or educational settings or volunteer programs like Scouting. Resources are always wanting and to make the most of it will rely on short-changing their workers. Public school teachers are always complaining about low wages, but a church school teacher gets paid even less. Is it fair? Nope, But is that the way the world works? Yep. In today's fast paced world, getting to retirement without burnout, divorce or financially having to work past 65 is how things work now. A schoolmarm used to be able to handle a couple dozen children of various ages in a one room school. Today's teachers have the same number of kids, all the same age, all working on the same thing at the same time, and they are burning out. What's with that? The key to the whole process is knowing one's limits and knowing when to walk away. I read a couple of books "back in the day" that made sense ("The Peter Principle" was one of them). I have gone through college to the master's degree level, but I flunked out in the beginning. I went through 4 parishes in 15 years before walking away completely from the ministry, went through a divorce, left a good paying job because my blood pressure was 250/150 due to stress. Yet even knowing the pitfalls, I stayed healthy mentally, emotionally and physically. I now am reitred, been remarried, have an 8 acre hobby farm and enough money to live quite comfortably. It's called life. I knew when to walk away. So the boy goes into professional BSA, who are we to point out what others did with it? He might do just fine, if not, just walk away. If he goes into conservation, he might do just fine, if not, just walk away. The pattern is always the same until one finds that which works. There are those that can't make the adjust to retirement and have serious complications because of it. Me? It's the best time of my life. I have volunteering going on in my church, in my community, in Scouting and if I want to go on a trip across country all I have to do is find the car keys and go. It was worth the journey, every step of the way and don't let burnout catch oneself off guard. It's coming Be Prepared.

I think these two quotes need to be together. Yes there are Scoutmasters who inspire differently, but then there are those that are patient enough to wait for the inspiration from the boys and then support it. Many times with boy led, there is a tendency for adults, with all their life experiences, to jump to the end of the process when patience is needed for the boys to catch up. So while we wait, the inspiration for the resolution of this dead lock can come from the Scoutmaster, it can come from the boys, or it can come from the ultimate goal (i.e. getting their AOL.) In the course of 5 minutes I could solve the problem for these boys, but I won't. It's not my problem to solve. How long will it take the boys to resolve it? Time will tell, but in the mean time will it adversely affect the boys' development and put their goal in jeopardy? Boys at this age are still immature, not only with foresight of knowledge, but also in the development of their problem solving capabilities. This calls for patience, not solutions. So 5 boys show up at the playground. One has a football, another a basketball, another a baseball, and another a volley ball, and the lasts one a soccer ball. Even with 5 boys they only have 2 choices. Either they spend the afternoon arguing or they can play a game. How long before they decide? Anybody's guess, but they will eventually realize the benefits of working towards the goal of at least playing a game instead of standing around arguing. So in steps the adult. Says there's no basketball hoop, so that's out, no nets, there goes soccer and volleyball, no bats, so why don't you just toss the football around for a while. That's fine, but the boys learned nothing in the process other than when adults decide at least we get to do something other than argue. And what have we as adults done to prepare them for later in life when there's no one else out there to do it for them? As a Scoutmaster we, too, need to learn how to know when it's proper to step in (safety issues) and when the situation needs us to step back and allow the boys to grow.

http://kclocke.tripod.com/index-6.html

I spend a lot of time working on getting my boys out of childhood and into adulthood. They often feel the campfires tend to be rather boring and a couple even compared them to Cub Scouts. When told they were to have a skit for the campfire, they simply announce that they would be busy that evening and wouldn't be able to attend. If they don't get told they would be part of the program they sometimes might go but the older boys have their own campfire because their SM makes all the popcorn they can eat on the campfire. After a long day of activities my boys generally head for the sack early. They stay up late on Friday, have a full day of camporee, they pretty wind down around the fire and call it an early night. Many times we have had to wake the boys so they can go to bed. Raucous campfires of boring skits and unimportant awards? Or a mesmerizing fire of small talk and popcorn? I think in the past 10 years the youngr boys might have done one or two skits, but after attending a campfire that quickly passes.

This guy's got more than two rows!!!

I've had a 3-person Kelty I've used now for 20+ years. The kids wanted to do a Christmas present for the wife and I and we went to the less cozy 4-person Kelty. It has more ventilation and better for summer use. The 3-person is more enclosed (less screening) but I like the style because they both have double vestibules and the rain flies go all the way to the ground.

Barry, All valid points. So is it my understanding that the POR Bugler and the Bugling MB need to be tossed out as passe? If they aren't going to be functional, they need to be dumped on the heap pile of history. You're right on the knots. With the way the kids wear their shoes today, even if they have laces they don't tie them. I would almost bet dollars to donuts that if one were to poll all the scout units in the nation, that only maybe a dozen or two have bugles, let alone boys that can play them. Even then it's only ceremonial because all the calls for communication directions are unknown to the people hearing it. Yeah, we all know what Taps is, maybe Reveille, too, but in the field no one even cares anymore. Let's keep WebMaster and instead of Bugler, we should have an EmailMaster instead, to kinda keep up with the times. There more functionality in an EmailMaster than there is in today's Bugler POR.

The "Special" calls mentioned are the ditties. I mentioned this practice in an earlier post. A colonel was responsible for 10 companies comprised each of 100 men. That's one man directing 1,000 soldiers. He had only one bugler. The if there was no ditty the command was for the whole 1000 men to follow, if he only wanted 1 company to function and the rest to stand in line, i.e. send out skirmishers, the ditty was played to let the company know which unit was to move out as skirmishers. I think your boys would totally enjoy the history of the bugle in battle in that huge numbers of men's lives depended on how good the bugler was. The rank and file fighting of the Napoleonic tactic was to have a solid line that couldn't be broken by an enemy advance. However a cavalry unit if quick enough could break the line and scatter the men, their fighting ability was now gone. Flag would run back behind another reserve unit and post a position. Bugler would sound RALLY ON THE FLAG and all the soldiers would run back and reform on the flags. Each regiment carried 2 flags, one the national color, the other the regimental color. Now besides the bugle, one can understand the importance of the patrol flag as well! ) So how important was this bugler??? EVER OFFICER in the army not only knew the bugle calls he also had to be able to PLAY THEM if needed! In today's scouts that would mean the SPL/ASPL and PL/APL's would be required to bugle! ....or have a whistle which would do the same communication for his men.

My bad. Misunderstood We had one scout that had a simple solution go knee deep in the mud and come up with no boot. He did that 3 days into a 9 day float in the BWCA. Spent the rest of the trip wearing water shoes. He was not a happy camper.

I have only two patches on my shirt that mean anything to me. One is the SM position patch and the other is the Trained patch. My old Venturing patch had Advisor patch and Trained patch. My UC shirt has has UC patch and Trained patch. Everything else including loops, shirt color, and service pins, knots, etc. are irrelevant. Your mileage may vary.