qwazse

UC is a good idea, if you're a good listener.

I did talk to our AoLs who visited tonight, and they did not have a name for their den.

I think the step down began with the name. At least with the Silver Award, anyone who had seen an Eagle Award would make the connection. And folks from the military might make the association with "Silver Star." I'm afraid not everyone makes the association between "Summit" something grand and glorious -- at least not until they've seen a 14k peak with their own eyes. If anything, given the "One Oath Initiative", I would think calling it "Venturing Eagle" or "Eagle Venturer" would have conveyed a greater sense of intrinsic value. But, the venturers who cared about naming awards also cared about being distinct from boy-scouts, thus the names we have. I doubt the name-choice is precisely why the current medal might not look as noble as earlier awards. I suspect there was a change in manufacturer due to uncertainty in demand. On the other hand, the award now comes with a patch ... so it could have been cost containment. At the next Area summit, I will try to pay closer attention to what youth who actually earn the awards think.

Our Pack's Weblos dens never did. If I see the current WDL's, I'll ask. There was a period when our troop re-organized patrols, and they would sound off as patrol #1, #2, etc ... and I would comment, "Den's have numbers. Patrols have names!" I think you have the right strategy, Let your Bears lead by example when they move up. If the boys are enthused by it, keep it up. If you find it to be a net negative, drop it. Then pass on what you've learned to the next DL.

@@SSScout and @@Eagledad, the OP was referring to the 'classroom' training, not IOLS. And the question was not if he should, but if he could. I see no reason why not -- considering there are limited opportunities for that course throughout the year. Get the boy trained before he goes off to college or war, and fitting things like this into his schedule will be difficult.

don't worry, there are plenty of yanks who wouldn't know either!There is a Chemistry MB, just not an advanced one. The official list is here http://www.scouting.org/meritbadges.aspx

From my days as a PL ... Material: used pillow case. Medium: spray paint. Method: stencil. Cut from a paper bag. Case slips over staff sews tight. On tac on the bottom, tapped in with back of pen knife. Done at summer camp, day 1. Do differently,: turn in spray can to SM. Scouts like to make flame-throwers.

Stosh, I think CP is saying that seeing "Eagle" on a kids resume, HQ will presume he's qualified for a position without considering if he actually is gifted in that area. I've seen that happen.

I'm sorry, did I offer a reply that you didn't like? I have been advising a crew for a few years and in spite of being enthused about the awards program myself, have gotten strong push-back from my youth. So I've dropped the discussion with them. They love meeting other venturers in the Area, they love challenges, they love service, but they couldn't possibly care less about the awards -- the exception being one young lady who earned her religious bronze. I have, on the other hand helped other youth as they worked on these awards, but have yet to make a single court of honor. I also keep in touch with pro's and volunteers on a regional level. So, if they bring up the topic, posts like yours are about the only thing I have to go on. I wish you had replies from other folks who were a little less ambivalent -- one way or the other. You didn't. That doesn't mean my reply constitutes a troll.

First, the personal axe to grind: if things turned out differently -- say a 21 year-old UCed three units whose SM's learned to better implement the patrol method on account of his experience with (and enthusiasm for) it -- you would no doubt open this topic with favorable words and an equal controversy. The commissioner corps is what it is because senior scouters across the nation have abdicated their responsibilities. Some have only UC'ed units in which their boys were members. Some put on the UC hat without taking off one or more other hats. Finally, some have tricked otherwise knowledgeable scouters into thinking that UCs are part of the unit key three instead of the Unit leader, the CC and the COR -- or that the UC could double in one of those positions for any length of time without the unit collapsing. So, I would tell a young UC that he's been set up for failure. His 7-10 years of experience in troop life is no match for an SMs 15-20 years. For him to have a chance of success he needs to ask to be assigned to one smooth-sailing troop for every two distressed ones. What he learns from the one, he passes on to the other two, letting everyone know he's operating off of limited experience but lots of hope. They can take a pass on following his advice, but he will promise to give them the best advice he can. He should wear no other patch. This should be his only volunteer role. No filling in for SM, CC, or COR -- not even for a day. Anything else he may do (say escorting a crew to Philmont or working a camporee is just for fun), otherwise he gives every other committee a pass. His best volunteer time time is to be invested in finding out what might ail his troops, how they are fixing it, and going to roundtable to learn how different SMs solved different problems. If he does not do that, he can turn in the patch. I would tell all of this to the young UC for one simple reason: to take the BS out of the BSA. If he knows he's been given the short straw, there's an outside chance he can make good. If everyone at HQ has been giving him attaboys for just signing on and that's all he knows, he won't stand a chance.

Guidance tech is awesome, but it pays to be a Luddite in that and other areas, for example ... Every now and then I grab my espresso pot without checking that it has all five parts. This is especially embarrassing when we have a bunch of Webelos dads to entertain. (Not that someone else wouldn't bring along their crap coffee, but it's important for new parents to make a fully informed decision about their troop ) Well, my fallback was Arabic coffee, which with a patrol kit coffee pot, wrap for insulation, patience, and very steady hand (grains float freely then settle to the bottom ... the trick is keeping them there), can brew up quite nicely in the wild. It payes to know first principle thermodynamics.

A lot of the details about what fundraising will work and what style you need to adopt will come from the people in your community. For example, everyone expects our boys to hold a spaghetti dinner fundraiser weather they need the money or not. Even though that particular church is no longer our CO, they would like the boys to hold it there. Most scouting is local. Go figure. I would recommend this little exercise (you might be buying quite a few folks' coffees): Look up your classmates who were scouts (even if it was just for a couple of years) in your troop, and see if a few of them can get together for an hour to talk about old times. Let them know what you are planning to do, and ask them if they could talk to you about what they liked about your troop and what they didn't like. Ask the boys who were only scouts for a short time why they left the troop, and those who were there until aging out why they stayed. Hopefully there weren't any terrible skeletons. But you might hear a few things that went on that you never noticed as a boy. Those will inform you as to the kind scouter that you may want to be. Maybe you'll be a lot like your former SM, but maybe there was some adult who you never gave much thought, but made a world of difference in your buddies' careers as scouts. If so, it might behoove you to get to know that person. There might be things your SM did that were really off-putting, or a situation or two he didn't handle well. By now everyone ought to be able to understand both sides of whatever it was, but it will help you learn generally what your troop will need from you as an SM. And, if you can't provided it, what you will need to ask from other adults to make troop and your district be the very best they can be. And from that meeting, you might just get one or two volunteers.

Okay, we've settled that you need to get a flowers and chocolates weekly subscription. Choose a different catchphrase about parents. You're asking them to give up their boys for entire weekends now. The results you're offering will take years to realize. Things aren't settled by an end-of-season box score. Parents who may not have served well on the pitch may be exactly who you need on your troop committee. You will need: A troop committee chairman whom you that your back and who will have the stones to tell you when you suck. A charter org rep who has a pulse on he people who own your meeting place. ASMs who live up to their title and are really yor assistants. A unit commishioner who will help you set obtainable goals. You and the wife and kids need to get up in those beautiful hills you all have in your backyard. If that ain't happening, you're doing it wrong.

Congratulations on having such a great son! I think you're talking about Scoutmaster Essentials. I would sign him up and let the District Trainer know what you're doing. It makes sense that you want your ASM to be on the books as a trained leader as soon as his application can be accepted. They should be able to credit your son for the course the day he takes it regardless of his birthday. Heck they credited one of my venturers for earning WB when she was 11! (I think her dad was more than willing to give her his beads as a crank gift!)

I don't want to understate the importance of discouraging bullying and teaching our youth to put a premium on graciousness and distance themselves from those who take pride in malice. But ... First, we need to be very careful about the causal chain in the lives of suicide attempters. There's a lot about depression and hopelessness we don't understand ... Especially in youth. It sometimes drives children to prefer situations that draw abuse. If someone's being mean to me, I have justification for my feelings. It allows me to reinforce my negative emotions and spares me from making the effort to face down my demons. For example, normative kids use social media to allow friends to challenge thier thinking. In doing so they become articulate in defending ideas they value. This empowers them to think in ways that promote self-preservation. In such contexts, pathological kids withdraw, find a narrow circle of social or behavioral situations that allow them to contemplate self harm, and they only announce any intention to a wider audience when it is too late for those potential harm-preventers to act. So, our job as adults who have survived such depredations is twofold. First, teach and preach compassion. Second teach and preach tough-as-tanned-leather meekness in the face of troubles. Or, like Momma told me when I was being bullied (after hanging up the phone with the bully's mom), "Stop crying so much. Get big."

I'm beginning to think 'schiff's 1 cent is worth more than face value. I could see an SM minute (maybe father's or mother's day, maybe at a CoH). Talk about the old days when some adults were allowed to work rank advancement and some dads would earn, say, Bird Study with their son. Then offer a challenge "Boys, have you ever asked your folks if they had a favorite MB they wanted to do with you? Maybe even if they didn't want to be the counselor, they would like to go through the reqs with you and maybe see if the counselor has something cool to teach you both? How about going down that list of badges with your folks tonight and see if there's one that may suit the both of you? Report back to me next week." With all of the discipline we need to exact on adults these days to keep the youth in charge of the program, this would be a nice reminder to parents that their role is no less diminished.

Lots of examples of boys with hats inside : http://www.inquiry.net/uniforms/hats/inside.htm Even as far as removing it outside, there is regional variation. When watching a parade, in some parts, the hat comes off of men's heads as the lead color guard passes. I always demonstrated that to the boys. I've observed that the rule is enforced more stringently (with sergeants-at-arms going ahead through the crowd reminding them of the protocol) in the Southeast US. (Maybe more in small towns vs. cities?)

A "well seasoned" scouter stopped in to our meeting this week to help an older scout on his MB. It happened to be when the AoL den was visiting the troop. Turns out one of the cub dads was a scout in the troop when that scouter was SM! Names to faces ... I think that's the hardest thing about this gig.

I'm pretty sure that for my mom and dad (and, in turn, for me and the Mrs.), the SM (warts and all) was one of the best people my kids could spend one hour a week plus a weekend a month with. Regarding our boys who didn't make FCFY ... it wasn't the troop. It was usually one requirement. For one or two: the exercise; others, land navigation; others swimming. One scout, the lake just got into his head. We arranged for him to do it in a pool ... he said "Nope gotta pass it in the lake," and it took him to his fourth year at camp. I think the fact that everyone stood by each other regardless added value to the program. The boys who did make FCFY? Well, there were video games to play, ... One other thought. The boys who got homesick at camp and went home for family night. We lost most of those. I think a lot of other troops did too, 'cause the camp dropped family night from the program -- no complaints from the scouters. How 'bout you all?

So, let's run with the thought experiment. What if every parent (well, at least one for each scout) was strongly encouraged, for starters, to counsel just their boy in one MB of their choosing? Pick any from the list. In fact Home Repairs allows Either a parent or the merit badge counselor may supervise the Scout's work on any Home Repairs requirements. Maybe you could ask the parent -- if he/she hasn't registered with the BSA -- to touch base with an established counselor to show him/her the ropes. Might this help nurture the pool of qualified counselors?

@@blw2, Each troop is its own little experiment. Sometimes the stuff national puts out meshes with what we've seen and we say "Oh, yeah!" Other times we just go, "Huh?" But even within one unit, after a few years, you get a sense how things go and along come a bunch of boys who defy your expectations. One anecdote that may be of interest to you (and I've reported elsewhere on this forum), because most of your parents will have an "advancement pump" primed: In our troop, when we pushed "1st class by first year" the same percentage of boys advanced to higher ranks and nearly had the same age of obtaining Eagle. When we dropped that program and let boys advance to first class whenever (although we try to encourage boys to at least knock off one rank per year), we still had the same relatively high percentage reach Eagle. We did not have any different rate of drop-out among those who advanced to 1st class in one year vs. those who took 4 years to earn it! My takeaway: tweak the program, if you must, at the skills and activities level -- not at the rate-of-advancement level.

I forgot about the following lively discussion: http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2013/10/29/tuesday-talkback-when-should-scouts-wear-hats-indoors/

Well, although it might sound like you should, you are not to wear it at any candidate's political rally.

I think you read (or someone read for you) a little bit more into the YPT. You could certainly have the event with demonstrators who have not taken YPT. They just can't sign off as counselors without district's approval. Unfortunately, if there is a charge of an actionable offense, the plaintiff's lawyers won't just go after the offender. They will go after anyone who hasn't performed due diligence in screening him/her. (And they will target the biggest pocket!) We all trust our people ... until one of them hurts a kid. Then we trust nobody.

I didn't understand this was a "ship has already sailed" scenario. From such parents whom I've known, I'm pretty sure you would be thrown another "straw man" in short order. I think we're about the same rate of loss after one year from former cubs vs. non-cubs. The difference? With former cubs, it's usually the parent's decision over the boy's objection. With non-cubs, it's usually the boy's decision over the parent's objection.