qwazse

Reforesting a field is a tenuous proposition in a good decade. Success requires annual survey and replacement of failed saplings. That's where the Hornaday award comes in, with 5 Eagle-equivalent projects instead of one. It helps a scout get a long-term vision of conservation.

Minutes, which should mainly list the motions and decisions regarding them (carried vs. fail) should be available to parents. (Who will generally ignore them.) Parents who read them and have questions should be invited on the committee! All of the discussion pro- vs. con- should be summarised by "Discussion Ensued". Personal stuff should be discussed in executive session, a motion should be submitted if the key-3 want a committee decision. No parties should be named in the motion. (E.g., "Motion to underwrite 4 scouts remaining camp fee from troop treasury. -- Submitted by Executive Committee -- Discussion ensued. -- Carried".) If your minutes are like that, you should find a way to make them as accessible as possible. If all of the debate back and forth, personal opinions, names of affected parties have been written down ... the minutes need be redacted before being circulated.

What would really be helpful here is a tally of suits brought on scouters who did not administer permission slips vs. those who did. A tally of judgments for the plaintiff in one vs. the other. And damages awarded. In a perfect world we would get settlements as well, but those are always sealed.

LC, suggestion for troop gear: Cheap video projector White canvas tarp. (a.k.a. screen). Rope Small tarp and poles for the vid. proj. Extension chord. Yes, an outdoor entertainment system is a compromise. But think of the camp gadgets: Vid. Proj stand. Towers for the screen. Seats for the "screen room." cup holders! Tripod for the dutch oven popcorn. Game system/dvd player is on the boys. If you want to really freak the little buggers out, bring a digital TV receiver. Most of them have grown up expecting a cable to be somewhere. Obviously some power supply is needed. Talk to the ranger about that ahead of time. Or maybe the scouters who aren't shaking their heads right now can offer suggestions! Disclaimer: our troop does not have these in stock. But once, for a NFL playoff game, I did bring the electronic components and an otherwise lackadaisical scout ambitiously brought everything else.

We have treated the youth application and rechartering as a sort of blanket permission slip. We're a small troop and crew. However, I am moving to an individual permission slip as a lot of outdoor companies aren't requiring release forms. E.g., the ski resort now says acceptance of a lift-ticket and the fine print on the back is an inherent waiver. They're finding that a waiver isn't gonna stop a lawyer from coming after you for negligence, so why irritate customers by making them sign it? The BSA form works just fine.

FWIW - Mine came in the mail -- with instructions that I am to keep the original and give a copy to my "administrator." Sounds simple enough. I'll let you know how it plays out.

Yeah sure, recruit from there. But I'd also suggest ... Knock on the door of every candidate CO in those school districts and see if one of them would be willing to host a pack event (e.g. PWD or B&G). This way, those parents you are training would get a better feel for the resources available to them. Your DE, if worth his/her paycheck, would already have a list of prospects.

Yep, CE, your problem isn't the organization. It's a very clever bully. Organizations will likely miss some detail. Bullies, aided by their parents, will take advantage of those "chinks in the armor." Remind your boys that they are the free ones. Meanwhile, he is in a prison of his own making. Like the other fellows said, a serious thrashing may be the only way to break him out of it. Your boys aren't the ones to deliver it. He most certainly will find someone to do him the favor. The other option may be supernatural kindness .. or remarkable courage in the face of adversity. Your boys may soon be in the position to deliver either. Neither will give them justice anytime soon. But it will enable them to hold their heads high through some formative years.

Why else? To distinguish the boy who still is a Webelos and earned his AoL from the boy who is working on that Scout rank and earned his AoL once upon a time. It's not all about the epaulets! Bottom line: the only insignia a cub can carry over to his hour scout uniform is the AoL. (Okay, and service stars.)

So, just to boil the frog a little longer ... Say a PL gets his boys astronaut certified and they hitch a ride to the space station and spend a couple nights in one of these inflatable space habitats. (Just for the sake of argument let's say the tenderfoot installs and expands the thingamy using robotic controls. And let's assume that any of the survival training he would have gotten to be flight-ready was done before he joined the troop so those nights wouldn't count.) Campout? It is kinda-sorta canvas ... just like most land-base tents these days. The boy kinda-sorta pitched it. If they had spaced-walked to do it, the safety committee would have had a fit. (I'm sure there's some COPE regulation about climbing above 200,000 feet.) There's bound to be a cool patch for it. Not-a-campout? Technically, it's more over the open-sky than under it. There'd be a lot of engineers involved. The equivalent of helicopter parents ... except helicopters in microgravity are probably more like torpedoes! How many nights? Sun sets every 90 minutes. Maybe far-fetched. But fun. And let's face it, any six of them might make less of a payload than any three of us!

Your main concern should be the safety of the boys. If she is a woman of integrity, that shouldn't be a problem. Your second concern should be the maturity of the youth. It really is on the ASM(s) and SM to gauge this. If you have boys who are prone to talking mean and being rude they could give her a bad impression of scouting. Worst case, one of them might take advantage of the opportunity to make a false accusation. The best defense against that is to be sure she's taken youth protection and any other courses your CO might require of direct contact adults. But, if your direct contact leaders think they have a handle on this, and if you think she can "get with the program", then yes, let the SM have it his way. If I were you, I would suggest strongly to the ASMs who may also be on the trip to step up their game and tend the boys for a while so the couple can get some time to themselves. They definitely should honor the separate sleeping arrangement. It's a good thing to model for the boys. Needless to say, if she's any good with this outdoor stuff, give her an adult app and ask her to take on an official role. Will this wrankle some of your MCs? Yes. Will some crew advisor who's short on female adults one day be grateful to you that he won't have to turn down a group of young ladies on account of lack of co-ed leadership? I certainly would.

On the Bryan's forum, SMMatt revealed that his SPL/PLs were deadlocked and came to him for a ruling. Thus, his post. Well, my advice was based my standard "never ask for a rule" shtick. It's really hard in our metric-oriented society to come to a committee meeting with "Scoutmaster's report: This month, encouraged the PLC to keep the conversation going regarding FC requirement 4e. Would ask all adults to patiently sit on their hands while the boys sort this out."

So, Stosh, those Adirondacks that a patrol might cross-country ski to ... if a boy cooks up a beef stew with portabella mushrooms and brown rice followed by tiramisu made from scratch over the outdoor hearth for his mates ... just like he planned with his buddies ... should his PL not sign off on FC req. 4e? "Put your book away kid, Mr. Stosh says this ain't camping ... ... Hey, can I get another cup of that mulled cider before we tuck in for the night?" P.S. - Matt and I were kicking this around all by ourselves on http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/forums/topic/what-constitutes-a-campout/. Thanks guys for promptly lighting things up here!

Here's an example of "without the patch" leadership: Our older boys want to amp up their cooking skills, and we've had surplus from the last couple campouts. So, we devoted a few meetings to cooking dinner. Son #2 is now the oldest in the troop, and needs to knock off cooking MB anyway, so this is a good synergy for him. I guess if we were making a "chef" patch, it would be on his shoulder. But last week, another scout suggested adding empanadas to the menu. (SM is a true meat-and-potatoes guy, so just watching the fellow look it up on the web was worth the price of admission.) Anyway that scout made sure Son #2 had a decent recipe and knew what additional ingredients were needed for this week. The boys cooked up a storm. Now Son #2 is no narcissist (most days), but he does want his last month as a youth in the troop to be memorable. The other scout didn't do much in terms of prep, but nudged in a direction that the other boys were excited about. I'd say one was filling a "POR", the other servant leading. Together, they made for a patrol of happy bellies (including mine and Mrs. Q's).

Props to your boys. And to you being foolish enough to listen to them. See if you can get them to work down that list of 43 invites! A signed invite and follow-up phone call from a scout could go a long way in earning your unit some street cred. About half of that list probably have settled on a troop, but not turned in paperwork. There is no way this should cause bad blood at RT. A district needs every troop to be casting a net.

Yep, that will discourage a boy in no time fast. I have to say that this is one of the tough nuts to crack ... helping a youth to be directive and not offensive. IMHO, there's no POR in particular that requires a boy to step out of his shell like that. SPL, maybe, but I've seen some of those stuck worrying about being seen as a drill sergeant. (I've seen others who could have stood to worry about that a little more than they did. ) The only routine situation where that kind of behavior gets driven out of a young person fast is life-guarding. The risk is too great for any of them to play "Mr. nice guy" for any length of time. I think a lot of boys who opt for scouting over sports have that "gentle soul" and don't quite know how to manage it.

Sorry, just playing on words. Your earlier post said "defiantly" instead of "definitely" -- auto-corrected, I suspect. Work with your boys for a while and they'll tease you for less. Sounds like nobody's holding your past against you, and you're on the right track. Have fun at UoS!

I hope you are compliantly in as a den leader! I think this was your last hurdle. Now get as much training and you can spare time for and help those boys have some fun!

On Bryan on Scouting's forum I wound up wasting words on a fella with a fear-based decision tree: I’d love to see an “ask the expert†response on how to let kids go off without adults and not see yourself arrested for child endangerment or abandonment.

I prefer to avoid the expression because it is no mere myth, but a Disneyfication: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=56 It seems like the the run-off-the-cliff is better depicted by certain flightless bipeds.