perdidochas

I think your son needs to learn how to politic better. How long has he been in the troop?

I would say no to both. JASMs are youth. They are under 18 and CANNOT share restroom facilities with adults per YPT. I've never been to a full summer camp as an adult, but the three days I did go to, adult meals were the same as youth meals.

Wow, all of those words are used weekly in our Troop.

JoeBob, My oldest was in that same boat--several partials. He completed two of them fairly quickly after he realized that he could get an EBOR before Christmas.

I'm with skeptic. The only complicating factor is that a lax parent can end up letting the children of stricter parents get away with stuff. I'm waiting until I see evidence of wrong doing before banning things.

As an ASM, and a former Cub Scout Den Leader and soccer coach, I resemble that remark. Most of our leadership is similar.

We had a policy of leave the electronics in the vehicle in the Troop at one time. We gave up on that about two years ago. Haven't had any major problems, just a few minor irritations (mainly Scouts calling home to complain). If the scouts are involved in what we are doing, they don't want to look at the cell phone. A lot of our older scouts like to listen to music on their phones at night (using earbuds). I've found that you can allay some of the parent's fears (if you have cell service) by posting pictures to the troop facebook page. It makes them realize the boys are having fun and are safe, which is the concern of most parents.

I can't see one. It's simple enough, takes about half an hour.

It is much more common on multi-troop campfires to do things like that. usually it's a more theatrical troop trying to one up the other troops. We have a few "hams" that love to do that sort of thing. it's why our troop won the "spirit stick" at summer camp last summer.

May not be a requirement, but it's a good idea, not just for the Scouts' sake, but for their own. It is ridiculously easy to do the YP Training online.

Our council works the same as above. The thing is, that doesn't leave it up to a single adult. At the point of council approval, three adults have already approved the project.

I agree, the parent vs leader bullying is probably the most prevalent in terms of adult bullying. I've mainly heard the bit about why isn't Johnny advancing....

My two are into scouting. It is a hobby, but it is also part of their lifestyle. In terms of the knots, whenever I'm working with the boys, I talk about the knots I actually use, and where outside of scouting they can use the knots. My favorite example is "when you're in college, and the cute girl you're dating is moving, you need to know the knots that will let you strap her futon to the roofrack of your car." I give similar examples for the cooking merit badge--"when you invited that girl you are dating over for dinner, you're going to want to cook something good, and have all of the parts to the meal ready at the same time."

We have a separate staff for our troop for awards older than two or three years.

My scouts are looking forward to our backpacking trip. The first 3 yrs my oldest was in the troop, we did no backpacking. Talked about it a lot, but never got around to it. Last year they did their first one. The boys loved it, and we are doing a more challenging trip next year. Not sure what you can do to change your troop. Ours like a bit of challenge.

My son had drumbeats from the OA ceremony team..... And Jimmy Buffett music on the slideshow my wife made for him.

My son had drumbeats from the OA ceremony team.....

It's troop by troop, SPL by SPL, SM by SM. Our Troop was doing it when my oldest was SPL, they didn't with the next SPL, and I will see what happens now with my youngest was SPL. Our previous SM didn't care for it. The current one likes it. We'll see what happens.

Exactly. In our troop, we only wake up the SPL (if he's not already awake, that is). The SM tells the SPL about the external schedule, the SPL implements it. Otherwise, its the SPLs call. The only provision is that they be quiet enough for people to sleep.

I thought that my son would get delayed on his Eagle Project by the district folks as well. The "official" date of project review was the Thursday the troop (of which my son was SPL) was in summer camp. Thankfully, they were reasonable (without any problem at all) and allowed him to do it the week before. I would suggest the Scout go for it. The worst thing that can happen is the technicalities of Eagle weren't met, and he stays Life for life. If he doesn't go for it, I see little chance that he will Eagle.

My troop got a place--actually 8 slots.

I find more than 2 to be noisy.

I'd do well. I'm good at kicking boys out of my chair. Do you get bonus points if you grumble about bringing your own chairs.

Do you have a good set of plans for a box oven?

A simple science project is to determine which brand of paper towels is most absorbent. have kids develop a hypothesis, and the materials needed are different paper towels, eye droppers, and small cups. For Thursday, set up seesaw type levers (a long board, a round piece of wood long enough to use as fulcrum), and have boys adjust the two sides of lever to have little boys lift big boys or multiple big boys. For pulleys, you can use paperclips and string to make the different kinds of pulleys. http://topscience.org/activities_print/FreeDownload22.pdf