perdidochas

I have a pair of Switchbacks (bought on clearance, they are now shorts only), and two pairs of the Centennial pants (again, on clearance, as they are nylon). I bought convertible Magellans (mainly because they have zips on legs) from Academy Sports for backpacking/general use. They match perfectly in color, the only downside is the one orange thread going down the built-in nylon belt. They are pretty commonly used around here. When my oldest had his Eagle BOR, a large minority of the adult leaders present had on the Magellans.

Exactly. I'm not against STEM--I'm a former science teacher, who's son wants to be an engineer--but STEM isn't going to sell scouting. Adventures are. The thing is the G2SS needs to find a way to promote safety without squelching adventure. It's good at promoting safety, but it also squelches adventure.

Find another troop, if you can, unless this is the only troop in town.

Things can change from one SPL to the next. I know things were a bit more orderly with the previous SPL than the current one. Don't know what will happen with the next one.

I do agree that the restrictions in things like laser tag/paintball, etc. aren't helping things. However, fundamentally, boys like to camp, make fires and play with knives. At least in my neck of the woods, those are allowed.

Actually, we are doing a poor job at attracting crossovers, initially. We are getting a lot of scouts a year or so into the program. We've also gotten a few scouts a few month after their crossover into other troops. The other troops didn't give them anything program wise. We did.

If not sports (as youth sport participation numbers are falling), what are the competing activities? Personally, I think it's that Scouting isnt competing successfully with video games and Facebook/Instagram/etc. The other is that while the number of kids playing a sport may be going down, the level of their playing the sport has gone up--it's not uncommon around here for boys to play baseball in both the fall and spring. I wonder how their participation in baseball is measured? We need to get rid of silly rules in G2SS, and embrace the outdoors as much as possible. I don't think the new crop of digital subject area merit badges are going to help. Well, if youth sports and Scouts are both having losses, where are the youth going? We had the problem with attendance at campouts. We fixed it mainly by just changing up the locations of campouts. We were camping in the same few spots over and over (Scout camp and a local base mainly). Now that we've branched out more, we are having more attendance and higher membership.

Our unit is much larger than it was, but it has nothing to do with National. It has to do with the breakdown of other local troops, while ours is going strong.

If not sports (as youth sport participation numbers are falling), what are the competing activities? Personally, I think it's that Scouting isnt competing successfully with video games and Facebook/Instagram/etc. The other is that while the number of kids playing a sport may be going down, the level of their playing the sport has gone up--it's not uncommon around here for boys to play baseball in both the fall and spring. I wonder how their participation in baseball is measured? We need to get rid of silly rules in G2SS, and embrace the outdoors as much as possible. I don't think the new crop of digital subject area merit badges are going to help.

I agree with Trevorum--it tells Scouts that Scouting is fun, and not just a humorless activity. After all, a Scout is cheerful. I also agree that moderation is the key--don't keep the spoof patches on forever.

Took a survey about the new digital merit badge books. Will be interested in seeing how they turn out. Christine--if you want "business" as a merit badge counselor, choose some of the less common Eagle required badges. Our troop, for example, is in need of more Family Life counselors.

Have you bought paperback books/magazines lately? The price of MB pamphlets is reasonable, IMHO. The pamphlets aren't necessary. Instead of worksheets, you can print out a single sheet of paper that has just the requirements without all the extra blanks. http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/MeritBadges/mb-CAMP.aspx

Well, I see both sides of the issue, but honestly, without the troop only option, many wouldn't be MBCs at all. I also have seen MBCs at camp vs. at troop, and the troop MBCs are much more thorough. The SM has the choice, because he can more easily see the quality of MBCs than youths. Why are you against in-house? To me, it turns MBs into part of the troop process, rather than an add-on.

Why wouldn't you award service hours? They did service for a good cause. All service should be done because "it's the right thing to do." The whole recording of the service hours is just to make sure that the slacker scouts are doing things. Most of the active scouts we have have no problem with the service hour requirements, because doing those service hours is a natural part of the program, just like most of the rank requirements. We do have a few boys who need to be forced to do service hours, like the scout who showed up to work exactly one hour on my son's Eagle project, because that's all he needed for rank advancement. Thankfully he changed troops. In terms of that, my own sons do a lot of volunteer work. Pretty much we only record service hours for scouting, so that they advance. They probably do as much service work in a few months as scouts are required to record for Eagle (which IMHO, is pretty minimal).

I have not heard of a Trails life troop around here. The only flack I've heard about the whole membership issue is that an older lady told the boys selling popcorn how mad she was about the BSA decision, and we had a district executive resign over the issue (he's still involved as a a parent/OA member, just not as paid staff).

Desertrat77 gives good advice. Take a break from beign ASM. It gives you a little break, and your work will either be greatly appreciated in your absence, the troop will fall apart, or somebody else will do it. My guess is that you will be appreciated in your absence, but somebody will step up. If they don't, the troop might fall apart, but if that's the case, it should fall apart.

Here's the way it's supposed to work: 1. Boy wants to work on meritbadge X. 2. He asks Advancement chair for blue card. 3. Then he asks Scoutmaster to sign blue card, and recommend a counselor. 4. He contacts the counselor. This can be easy--if MBC for Badge x is at troop meeting, or at a merit badge university, etc. 5. He meets with counselor (and at least one other person nearby for YPT). and begins work on requirements. 6. Meets as needed until badge is done. Then counselor signs off and keeps his part of blue card, and the SM signs of, then the Advancement chair gets one part of blue card, the scout keeps the remaining part. 7. Next Court of Honor, the scout receives badge and card.

I hate when my clothes shrink in the dryer :-)

Wow. I can't imagine waiting that long. My son emailed his Scoutmaster on Thursday. SM came to our house on Sunday for SMC.

Wow, That's incredible. I had seen some of the Eagle Projects done. I tried to (and succeeded) in getting my son to bite off a pretty ambitious project. I wanted him to have the most activity possible. I wanted him to do a good job on his POR.

Is he a Webelos or a Boy Scout? If he's a Webelos, technically he should use red numbers. Necker is up to the Pack, and the same with hat. Sash isn't until he's a Boy Scout. He can earn those from the beginning, but honestly should start off with just doing the T--2-1 advancement, and get a MB or two at summer camp. The Webelos badge goes on the left pocket. The AOL as a Webelos goes below the left pocket. The knots go above the left pocket. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34283.pdf‎ http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34635.pdf‎

Good thing that it doesn't meet YPT requirements. We'd need two of these--one for the boys, one for the adults.....

I disagree. I think most cub scouts are just going to the Pack sponsored by their church or school or the nearest available. The problem is when the Troop they are supposed to feed is inadequate. Why encourage new boys to join dysfunctional troops? My boys did join the Troop that meets at the CO, just like the Pack. I'm happy with them. If I weren't, we would have looked for another troop. We did contemplate it after troubles with another family in the Troop. Thankfully, the situation calmed down, and now (a year and a half later), the other family changed troops. They needed less boy led, than our troop. They've joined a mega troop across town. That said, despite troop shopping, my bet is that way over half of crossovers go to the Troop associated with their Pack.

Not sure about the history of them, but the Troop Guide is primarily there to teach the younger scouts the basic scout skills. The Troop Instructor does the same for the whole troop.