moosetracker

Few TroopMasters are directly tied into the council records. It is difficult, and some say it is more headache then help. Our troop does a audit of the Council records every year.. Once a year you can ask for the Council to print you the information they have on each boy in your troop.. My husband (Advancement Chair) fixes up the missing blue cards once every year.. There are a few that go missing but they are much more on top of this then Adult training records. This report is really neat, and will list everything you earned from Tiger through current. This way a boy turning in paperwork a day or two before he turns 18 has no surprises of missing merit badges where then he has to scramble. If a merit badge is missing you can prove it by a few ways.. 1) the blue card. 2) If your Advancement chair is on top of things he kept a copy of all the paperwork he turned into council, and he can use this.. (Not sure if my husband is now able to print them now that Advancement is on-line). 3) If you have the approx. date you earned (from your troop master).. The council should keep a file cabinet (or 10) on the paperwork they got for advancement. You could zero them in on the approximate date the paperwork would have been filed, they can look up on their paperwork. Every time (in our troop at least) the paperwork was filed, the person keying data into the software, jumped a line, and skipped entering a merit badge. Good luck..

Your right, I knew such a clause was in the Adult leader reading. But I guess they just soft shoe it with the scout in them signing they have read the Scout oath and promise to live by it, before they even sign up.. Knew they couldn't advance even to cub scout or Boy scout badge without saying the oath..

Against my better judgement, I will throw something in for the piranha to nibble at.. I would like to know seriously is there anything that keeps a athiest from JOINING the BSA? I know there is things that will keep him from advancing.. But, if you are honest about being an athiest will someone tell you, you can't join, because of rule such & such. Or can you join go on campouts, go to all the events.. But just not advance.. Sort of like the non-swimmer who can still join the swimming team. Now there is a rule barring homosexual adults from joining, but not youth.. Am I correct?

OK that explains it maybe. I know there is no Varsity on the Roster of our District. I am unsure about the whole council. So maybe there is a reason I have never seen orange. I wasn't implying you guys did secretive things.. Just, didn't know if standoffish meant, sort of a comfort zone of being with your own, and you were leery of a stranger in the midst. I just don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. I did attend an LDS funneral once, it seemed pretty normal to me. Also I figured I would have noticed LDS if they were the really wierd ones, so I figured you either blend in well, or don't attend.

Do ALL LDS wear orange tabs?? I DO look at shoulder tabs, and orange tabs would get my notice (an probably I would be nosey and ask about the orange tabs, I did the first time I saw yellow tabs.) I have never seen a single orange tab in my life. I know we have LDS scouting units though.

I don't know if this is the right place to ask the question. But basically, my dealings with LDS is that if I did work with LDS people I didn't know it.. If they were never at any camporees, or sitting in my District meetings or sitting next to me in Trainings because they are stand-offish I didn't know that either.. I guess to me when at a Scouting event a scout is a scout.. But this coming year, working at district level I want to go out and visit units.. Not just LDS, just all different units.. If I email or call an LDS unit to ask to visit is there a better way to do so that would put them at ease? Or will they be like me, if I don't introduce myself as LDS or non-LDS will they just take me as Scout?

With number 3 you definately did the right thing.. I don't know about son, but father definately needs to be weened off son. Son might just know Dad wanted to be his MBC, so asked if it was possible, also if he is really devistated I think it may be with Father's reaction to the whole thing...

We use the parent as the last resort also. Otherwise, the scout is give a list of MBC's in the area (with the councilors that the SM or Advancement Chair have decided not to use again edited out).. Hopefully our district Merit Badge list will be fixed before the end of the year, but right now the scout may have to call 5 or more to find one still doing MBC work. There are some councilors that work well with most boys, but a boy or two would rather not work with for a variety of personal reasons, he should have some say in the decision of who he works with, so he can be comfortable.

Can you define Sports?? And Pack // Troop // crew?? I am closer to a Troop.. Like Sports as in climbing, Biking, Swimming, Hiking etc.. Alot of our program is in preparing for these type of outtings, then doing these outings. If you mean Sports as in basket ball, football, soccer etc.. About 5 years back our venture patrol got permission to use a gym and went to play basket ball one evening.. That is the only time that comes to my mind.

Best of luck to you. You will do great and if you follow the YPT I am sure there will be no issues. I don't know if it was that we were not too bright in the past, totally naive, or the world has just changed by leaps and bounds to be more cynical and greedy which surpassed our imagination of things to protect ourselves against.. But, BSA is very up-to-date on everything to protect you, the youth and themselves, Now and in the future..

Jeffery H wrote "it's quite common for traditional Boy Scout Troops to begin losing boys after the age of 14. The few that stay on in Scouting are active in Venturing or they are continuing toward their Eagle rank" Sounds like he is slanted toward ventureing, and had a bad or no experience in BS.. That is like me looking at my district of only 5 Venture Crews and close to 40 Troops.. Venture crew barely have 5 scouts and skeleton adult leaders.. Average length for them to survive is 4 to 5 years (Except 2 that are strongly tied and part of strong Boy Scout troops) yes Venturing Crews, not Venture scouts... While troops have some skeleton groups but alot of healthy ones in scouts and Adult leaders and celebrating 80+ years. Now I could make a blanket statement here, negatively toward Ventureing.. But, fact is my statement would be that somehow we (at least my area) are failing getting these crews off to a strong start.

I didnt have time to take the new on-line specifics until this weekend. First the good. 1) I was surprised by how thorough a job they did with the committee. I thought those were the best two modules. Much better then Troop committee challenge (which I think is a worthless). I might just suggest people on the troop committee take what is required. But, if they really want to know about committees to take the Pack one, and just make some mental adjustments due to the different programs. 2) Pack trainer I thought was good now. But the real eye opener was the fact that a few weeks back on this forum someone asked about IOLS training, and people said just take EDGE, and you are authorized to do your own. It was said by more than one person, and though some people did not think this good practice no one challenged it. I as a newbie District Training Chair accepted this. Unfortunately I got email from a Pack trainer between then & this weekend stating that he does his own specifics. I just replied to make sure he sends his list of those trained in to council. NOW this training kind-of implies.. NO.. They are trained to do enhanced trainings they need to encourage them to do the on-line courses, and take the Required courses with district or council trainers. I have now emailed my Council Committee chair for clarification before I email back to this person rescinding my previous statement. Bad. 1) I thought they could have done better with the Tiger/Wolf/Bear & Cub Master Specifics. With all of them a lot was repeated. 2) Still dont like the fact of every course is the Exact Same.. Even clicking through and retaking the tests was annoying. That really should have been a seperate module. 3) I was disappointed to see my course numbers show up as C40, C41, C42 etc, rather than WC40, WC41, WC42 as they have done with other courses that are both class courses and web based so that you can distinguish between who took on-line & who took in-person. Also strangely each course is recorded in your on-line verification twice.. Example C40 Cubmaster&Asst. Pos. Specific tng 09/04/2010 C40 Leader Position-Specific Cubmaster 09/04/2010

Oh I am sure it is above 500 degrees. IF your pot is just rust and no build up of seasoning from past use maybe, but I would do something to try to strip the seasoning off if you have any on the pot, old -new or whatever. For me I will stay away from self-clean. Theres other ways to clean rust.

I use Equal amounts of salt to water to make a gritty substance and steel wool (like choreboy).. I just read someone saying equal amounts of salt to oil.. Don't know if that is better with the rust removal, or not. If you need to take off rust, you need to reseason anyway, so shouldn't worry about removing the current seasoning. Warning about setting it to the self-clean. I have heard people doing it, and the oil on the cast iron starts a fire, and they can't open the oven to do anything about it. So beware!!! I will take the oven temp up to 500 to bake in the oil, but I wont do self-clean.

bbender - Nice... seems like you get the option to embellish. We do with IOLS, but must follow the stiff syllabus.. Cub Scouts is a little better because you get power point lines that you can embellish on, but Boy Scout specifics almost is like memorizing a 20 page long script for each section. By the time you get done reciting your lines, theres little room for something else.. (Psst.. my instructors don't really memorize, they get the gist of the reading, then put in in their own words. Don't tell though.)

That sounds great. It also sounds like your young scout will be making an excellent leader in the very near future.

SSScout Dont worry, The less our Training staff has to do Basic training the more we can concentrate on beyond-the-basics training. I love Intro to Outdoors because the syllabus is small with a general guideline and you are then allowed to bring the ideas across in your own style. I was not too fond of the Specifics as they tried to make the Trainers all fit a cookie cutter mold. Teachers in a school program get a syllabus, an expectation of what their students should get out of a course, but they are not given a day by day power-point that they must follow, the exact exercise they must use etc. They may get a Textbook chosen by their schooldistrict or have some freedom, but they get to choose some of the assignment, field trips, videos etc. We get to keep IOLS (until they come up with a virtual campfire, and how to teach hands on guidance through a video).. The cookie-cutter specifics will become an occasional small class of those not computer savvy.. For me, I plan to get out and visit the volunteers of units and find out what they want, and design a beyond-the-basics to their needs. Maybe give my Training staff something more interesting and fun to teach.. Let National set the guidelines such as to teach it the EDGE way, or whatever.. Or stick within the scouting guidelines of A-Z.. Thats fine. But if it is not required training, but elective training the volunteers and staff should get some freedom of choice. If you design courses to meet their needs, I think we will get people to come out to eat our donuts, recognize us and others at round tables, ask us to visit for more personal help.. the whole 9 yards. Im optimistic this may be a good thing in the long run.

"Derby" Pinewood Derby for cub scouts, Klondike Derby for boy scouts - But in this sense Derby doesn't parallel anything in common.. Pinewood Derby is racing boy made cars Unit - then district.. Klondike you load up a sled in the winter filled with required items and run around from station to station for challenges. (similar to Camporee, but in the derby you are required to bring 10 times more stuff around with you then the Camporee..) Chuckwagon - cub scout version of boyscout Klondike Derby.. Where they wheel a pint size chuckwagon around (boys are the horses).. Chuckwagon carries a whole shopping cart of items they were to gather up, and they go from station to station doing challenges.

CNYScouter.. to your comment "I am being told that to be considered trained for their position a persons name must appear on the Training Complete report." There are people stuck on the "untrained" report with no required courses needed. They will just never ever go to the trained report.. Our Council Training chair is one stuck on the "Untrained" and she organizes and runs every required course offered. She is "untrained" with no courses needed. I had about 4 from my district like that. You have other people stuck as trained, although they were trained for a position they no longer have, and are untrained for their current position. National had better not take these "buggy" report as gospel. As to your comment "My DE checked their training records and it comes up they are missing one of the courses (both happened to be This is Scouting and both leaders did it online) ".. If you were trying to credit them with New Leaders Essentials that was replaced by "This is scouting".. Then they probably did something position or unit change that made the grandfather clause for NLE null & void.. That's why they had to take "This is Scouting"..

BIG reason why I do not want this to be created in a way that forms a dependency. So like with our ex-council lead JLT program when we drop the ball, there doesn't become a 5 year counter-productivity, until the units learn to become self-relient. I am hoping that if we just aid in them doing it for themselves, then if district does drop the ball when my energy is spent, the units can form their own groupings.. Maybe not so large scale.. I just see units that are struggling and saying "You are not giving me the training I need".. The Basic training is something that they do, but still feel we are not giving them what they want or need, we have missed the mark. But they are unable to formulate into words what it is that they do need. So I see the question being asked, they are just not coming up with the answer.. I am guessing at the answer, because honestly I don't know the answer either.. But, I figure we need to start somewhere, then we can refine the answer if I did not get it quite right. Now to hopefully entice the units that are excelling and not needing any help to taking the stage.. Hopefully they can see it as a benefit in helping their scouts take on more leadership responsibilities. Well, that's second.. First is to convience the Key 3 of my council this is worthwhile, and to convience my Training staff that they will still have important roles, and are not simply being replaced.

Ahh. but I think District level because I am District Level. I am the new District Training chair.. That is why I worry about throwing my Adult Training Staff into a tissy, I want to make sure I offer them something to dig into with this idea, and don't just replace them with the youth doing their own. If it goes from district to small groupings of different troops coming together then I will have success. Troop helping Troop. Crew helping Crew. Or any variety there of.. A way for units to make connections. Find a way to get excellent units to see the benefit of helping the struggling units. Get the struggling units not to fear approaching units with the knowledge. If it improves the PLC of troops & Crew members in their teaching skills. I will have succeeded. They can learn as they organize a presentation, they can learn by watching others their age conduct a presentation. There is something about watching your peers that gives them a different perspective and has them not only look at the material in the presentation, but allows them to imagine what they may do different if they did the presentation. If it raises the quality of the program for any unit then I will have succeeded. Maybe I can't get all the scouts of all units to be fantastic Instructors like your unit. But, if I can make a dent in improving any youth Leader in any way, that will carry forward in improving their units overall, then I will have succeeded. I don't know if this is per say JLT.. But, I do think it is more JLT the TLT.. The one thing with district JLT is that our district use to run it. All Troops depended on it, and when district stopped doing it, the Troops did not know how to run their own. That's because Adult Trainers organized and ran it. I do not want units to depend on this for JLT or TLT.. I just want to get Units together to offer each other training. I do not want to form a dependency on it. If anything, they should walk away better prepared to train themselves, not with knowledge, but unable to do what was done for themselves. That is why I would like the Scouts to be the ones doing the organizing.. And the District Training staff to become those who are training the trainers. Any ideas of what to Do and or not do, if I wanted to carry this type of event out?

OK.. I know this is way into the discussion to be asking novice "Can you please explain in detail what we are talking about".. But I am intrigued and a little confused, because this may be close to what I am thinking about doing, and if it is I would like to know more. Is this all in-troop/creww training and using Scouts for instructors? Or is this multi-troop/Crew, district wide training, where the Scouts of different units are getting together to cross train leaders and pick up ideas from each other? I really want to start some sort of training that is between the gap of TLT training and NYLT training, and offer the boys a chance to figure out what they want to learn & teach each other. So a troop that is great with color guard could pass this training on to other troops. While some other troops PLC may show how to set up for a nighttime orienteering, maybe one troops could coordinate from all the troops ideas for local outings that when completed could offer all the troops new ideas on what type of different outings are in your own backyard. Maybe a Crew into rock climbing can teach a class to troops on rappeling technics etc. I have some ideas, but I have not approached my District with it, and I am worried about the response of if we can pull it off. If I can convince them the youth can rise to this challenge. I also worry about those on my training staff worring that the youth will replace them so I am looking for ways to include the staff with helping train the youth instructors and making sure what they plan to present is of quality.. I am curious if this is something you guys have already put into action. If so, I would love to know more on how to successfully implement this. I figure this will both help the boys learn great

We are going through clean-up now. The on-line verification may be deceptive. You have to know that this shows you what is on-line, MAYBE what is at Council (IF you set your on-line account up with your membership ID# & District).. And then if you see both your on-line and council "in-class" courses, you will then know if you council courses are right, but this does not guarentee that council is seeing your on-line courses 98% of the time you should be Ok at this point. But Council does like quirky software issues, like the one I have where the wifes account is showing her classroom courses & on-line and all looks good. But the Council is not crediting her account with the on-line courses, they are crediting her husbands account with them. I thought once I had the cleanup done I could then keep on top of the on-line course recording. But, as I go through the cleanup I figured out I never will be able to. Problem is it is out of my control. People take courses out of district, out of council, at summer camp, or they have trained someone in their unit to do their own personal training. I can not control these other venues to get their courses information into council. So in-person courses will always, ALWAYS be on-going cleanup work. Here to hoping that the promised "future" software will make this process easier.

I was hoping they would fix that running through the Intro to leader specific by making that it's own video module That is recommended to take first. Then put all the other specifics seprate. Seemed redundant in the classroom setting too. Why if someone had taken the intro piece during their specifics when a Tiger Den Leader couldn't they be told the intro started at 8:30 but the position specific started at 10:30, so they could just come it at that time and skip intro again. I never knew, because it wasn't worth repeating when a den or Webelo leader.. They had been a leader long enough not to need a basic intro repeate 2 or 3 more times year after year.

We normally only have 3 patrols so the 7 lb propane tanks are what we haul. They work well, but I can see what you are saying about the 7 patrol problem. Normally ours use one of those propane trees that split the propane to the stove & lantern, but I know it has more then one split out the side, so perhaps you could position the stove so several stoves can use one propane tank, using the tree.