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Well, it sounds like you didn't tell the boy to "stop and smell the roses," and I consider that a good thing. So what if he eagles next year? So what if he isn't as articulate as a 17 year old about "the purpose of the game"? Just keep throwing down other challenges like palms, religious medals, and conservation awards. The boy is learning that your priority is on learning to reflect. He'll probably wind up teasing you about it. But eventually he'll figure out that if it's important to you, it should be important to him. P.S. - Scout, if you're reading this blog, and figured out this is your SM talking about you (just compare posting dates with what was signed in your handbook), get your parents' permission to open an account on the forums, and let us know your perspective -- it would be awesome to read it.

What example? That scouter may have thought that best way to coach his fellow scouter was to indirectly slut-shame her youth. Find me the script in YPT or somewhere else that would suggest this would be a bad approach? Okay, in the SM handbook, got any quotes on what issues may arise with female scouts? Re-read my quote to be clear on who I say we need to blame. There are people who profit from making girls think they don't have what it takes to turn boys' eyes, and that they have to take advantage of material that will help them compensate for what they lack. There is EXTREME pressure on girls to uniform provocatively. And nearly every American public figure has bought into it. Heck, the former US Secretary of State is the brunt of late-night jokes for her selection of pants suits! We are talking the person who, for good or ill, envisioned this century's diplomatic core ... and comedians take jabs at her professional dress! A recent 60 minute exclusive set up an interview of a British Islamic extremist with a mid-western blond female journalist in a red dress. There are very competent female journalists from El-Jazira who could do the same interview in conservative dress and command more respect, possibly getting us a better idea of how this fellow thinks. But ask yourself ... why did the producers set it up this way? Real world, LC. My young women need to work harder to command the same respect that my young men ALREADY HAVE! Part of that is they are making up for lost time because generally they bailed out of GSUSA a while back and haven't had solid leadership experience. But part of that is because there are scouters out there who are more than happy to put their boot down on any attempt they might make to improve scouting for the rest of us. I got two options: spend my time confronting every scouter who makes "glass ceiling" remarks, or teaching young women (and the young men who care about them) how to shore up the lashings for really effective "catapults" ... because people locked in a glass cathedral may need to throw stones. Some of my key "knots:" Dress to command respect ... Understand the other person's values ... Now matter what's said, always respect him/her who does the work ... Don't judge them, just prove them wrong ... Call that "blaming" if you like. I call it giving a kid a leg up in life.

You say blame. I say, finding the root cause. As I mentioned in one thread that may have been the source of LC's post, what some people think of as "solutions" boil down to "actions that don't matter for problems you can't fix." Now, all of us on this forum have had our world view shaped by the humanist movement. Therefore, we are insulted to be told that there exists problems that we can't fix. This isn't necessarily bad, because when someone reports an intractable problem, we can kick around the tires on the thing and sometimes a light-bulb goes off and the OP or an anonymous reader says "Hey! I never thought of that." The cost of doing that, however, is that the OP feels like Job or Elija ("Some friends I have." or "Nobody really gets me.") On the other hand, our world-view has been shaped by the Great Awakening and the Protestant work ethic. (Actually being Protestant, or even Christian, is inconsequential to that. The very fact that I could use "world view" in a sentence and nearly everyone reading it believes such a thing exists is a testament to the efficacy of Christian missions.) In short, we believe that there exists a simple action that will provide short-term positive results, (answer the altar call, think happy thoughts, random act of kindness, "Yes, we can!", "Mission accomplished!"). That sort of thing gets a lot of people hopping and doing a lot of good ... most days. But some days, the "quick fix" does make things worse. Fretting over a boy's self-esteem for example may make you feel noble, but may make the boy think, "Here's the key my entitlement." Some times, the best course is the hard one, through a narrow channel in hard winds against rocky shoals. (Sorry Seabase-on-the-brain.) Sailors shouting abruptly over the wind to an angry helmsman ... it's not pretty, but then again, neither is a crab-trap on your keel or coral head in your hull! Some days, words are tough to swallow. So you need grit to dig in, keep on course, and wait for a miracle ... It's entirely possible that may require more patience than you are willing admit to lacking. ... But, I'm told rare events happen every day ... Merry Christmas Everyone!

SMMatt, very chivalrous quotes indeed. Here's the thing: the wording does nothing to address the culture clash that is fomenting in American media. The "girls" referenced here are all presumed to be "out there." So, so got any quotes about how to handle the girl in your camp? Any definitions of chivalry? Camp etiquette? What's courteous? There's nothing here about how adults might mis-construe a fella's spending time with a girl behind the program hall as sexual misconduct. How the fashion industry plays on females' anxiety and drives them to dress in ways that send mixed messages. How classifying anyone into categories like THOT is a violation of the scout law ... Even if that person may indeed be sexually active for a price. Maybe I've missed those. But if you find them in BSA literature, do bring them to the fore!

'skip and tyke, there's no "US" in the URL, so as far as I'm concerned, we Yanks are only "native" by virture of numbers ... and we happen to be closer geographically to the webmaster. On or two of us actually are interested in our impression on the rest of the world, so thanks.

LeCastor, for a smiley emoticon from your ipad, type: space colon right-parenthesis. My wink above was space semi-colon right-parenthesis. XD

E441, the example you cite is not an example of political correctness, but rather contextualization - a common practice among Christian missionaries. Why do this? Well, what would a native American hunter-gatherer know of the life of a Semetic warlord? Taken literally, we have King David declaring himself to be a dumb sheep ... an analogy that works quite nicely in a culture where animal husbandry is central to the economy. For a brave who has no knowledge of animals that are entirely dependent on a human for their survival, the analogy falls flat. Another example? Well, nobody had lived through a Roman census for centuries, so the notion of the desperation engendered by having to cooperate with an occupying army to accomplish such an endeavor was lost. So how does one communicate the context of the incarnation? Choose the bleakest time of year when the average pagan is waiting for days to lighten, and have the event venerated around then. It worked! Europeans throughout a fractured empire came to associate winter days with pondering the Christmas message over all other narratives. The trade-off: the modern Christmas is rife with "politically correct" nods to pagan ceremony ... and more recently capitalism' narrative of the importance to "jump start" a consumer economy. So, maybe your "scouts own" service isn't that extreme after all.

Not getting into philosophy as to whose culture is more enlightened. (Suffice it to say that I endure scouters who would never look outside US borders for organizational models and resent me when I point them out .) , but you raise an important point ... Our market is more complex than yours. For example, I advise a Venturing crew. (You've clearly browsed official websites, so I'll spare you the details.) These youth (ages 14-20) have an option of the national uniform, or devising their own uniform. These neckers you speak of ... there is not a boy or girl in my crew who would ever put them on ... NOT EVER ... even the ones who are boy scouts and have a uniform shirt to match officially removed them as a required element of our troop's uniform. Meanwhile, an adjacent crew adopts the national uniform with no qualms whatsoever. (Still, no necker.) They'll likely be the ones paying a visit to our chief scout executive one day. I'm really excited for UK scouting. I think their growth is inspiring. But it will take a little more than that to impress American parents. And as long as they're writing the checks, BSA is limited in its innovation.

Great project! Really, if he keeps it up, ask the SM to get him a quartermaster patch and write "community" in the top of the circle! Our CO operates a local food pantry as well. The boys help stock it with Scouting for Food collections. (Really, since where we store flags and some ceremonial gear is next to to the pantry, they can't miss it. From time to time, they go through and check expiration dates on the items.) Usually once a year, cubs canvas the neighborhood, and on a different weekend boy scouts collect at a store front on a Saturday. When times are tough, the boys will arrange with a store for an additional collection. All our boys are up to their eyeballs in service hours, but this would count for any who needed them. We don't do store-front popcorn sales. However, as part of our spaghetti dinner, the church "purchases" meals for their pantry clients anonymously. But the $ aren't where the benefit lies. We'd never know who these clients were if not for some of them take a moment to talk to the boys waiting on their table and tell them how their efforts put decent meals on their family's table when they couldn't afford it while between jobs. Frankly, the occasional "thank you" is the best reward those boys could ever have. (From time to time, the lady who coordinates the pantry does take a moment to swing by the troop meeting to thank the boys, but it's not quite the same.)

And exactly how much is in the Boy Scout Handbook (or any other BSA material) about how a scout should carry himself around a scantily dressed and very friendly young lady? Maybe the boys thought it would be discourteous to not arrange to meet them someplace privately after hours. And it would be unkind to wake their SM after his very hard day!

No matter how we slice it, it is pretty impressive. It's also an under-count because lots of folks (myself included) will rarely bother to log hours.

Hail moderators! Time for a new sub-forum!

Extra work for the treasurer(s). Put the scout on a payment plan: $30/month until the dept is cleared. No summer camp unless a substantial amount of that is cleared. Every meeting inform the boy on what's been payed vs. what is owed. Your bigger problem is dealing with the boy's deeper issue. It really stinks to have kin steal your stuff. But the boy isn't helped by keeping him out of the loop. Keep talking to the boy as if this is his problem to solve. If you discover that this is happening with other activities he's trying to participate in, inform your SE. This may be a sign of neglect. Meanwhile, the troop and pack may have to adjust their respective budgets to account for loss due to theft. In the future, your committee might decide to not accept fundraising orders without payment in advance.

"All politics is local." The culture in the community makes a big difference. If parents are brought up with every-man-for-himself attitudes, they are going to pick troops who, as far as they can tell, give each boy maximum control over his fundraising dollar. If they are brought up with one-for-all-and-all-for-one attitudes they will look for a troop who makes sure no scout is left behind. Of course there's all manner of in-between and mixes of different proportions thereof. And part of our job as scouters is to get everyone to respect where the other is coming from, yet still nudge them along a certain trajectory that works best for the boys. Especially harmful is a parent who seeds a none-for-all-yet-all-for-me attitude (a.k.a., an entitlement mentality). That'll undermine every possible benefit that could come from scouts working together to solve a problem. My general impression is that communal fundraising might get you to offset registrations and everyone's summer camp fees. But it wont underwrite trips to the BSA HA bases or Jambo. Bless the troop where every boy is all-in with fundraising to the point that large fees like that can be paid ... but, sometimes it helps an SM sort out a boy's interest and commitment to a particular adventure if he has to make payments of $100 out of his own earnings every month. Finally, what's better for your boys? Them learning to find odd jobs that make it worth folks paying them ~$25/week, then deciding if the income is to be spent on scouts, sports, or girlfriends? Or, them learning to team up for a collective financial goal?

Welcome! and on behalf of our boys, thank you for your service.

Yes and no. The boy hit the bottom of his "safety net". Now, it would have been nice for it to happen where BD could help him forage for some cattails and trap some fish in a sieve. (Or entice them to bite on some baler twine .. seen that done.) Then he could have gone home angry, but empowered. He may not appreciate it now, but by forgoing the movie with him, SM could afford the PP&J and gas in the Mrs' car. It's not what a boy wants, so on one level that's downright mean. But it may be what the boy needs. If his mom pulls stunts like this in other areas of his life, he will need to understand that level of resourcefulness ... accepting that other people may help ... but not in the terms he thinks he needs.

The LDS uses the BSA program to meet the needs of the church's youth development program. So, there are specific leadership needs, scheduling needs, age targets etc ... (although the age targets apply more to young boy scouts than cubs, that would certainly impact which troop you would direct your AoL's to). Other COs adapt the program as well; however, this tends to happen at the unit level. LDS simply sets nation-wide guidelines on how to do so.

Suggestion from the cheap seats under the heading "If you can't beat 'em, use 'em." For your dadwood derby, have a staggered finish line. The track gets an inch shorter for every committee meeting attended that year. Ten inches shorter for every service star.

First, this is where you bend the CC's ear. He/she and the COR need to get the parents and any other responsible relatives in the room and make clear this is unacceptable. They need to come up with a better plan or be prepared to have the police knocking on their door for neglect. We get that this economy demands folks work double shifts, Sundays, etc... And for some kids, we know grandparents, etc ... for this purpose. And, some kids are latch-key. Got it. Tell us ahead of time and we'll support your arrangement. But behavior like this is beyond the pale. Calling your SE is probably a wise move at this point as well.

Never heard of a den meeting on a Friday. Our CO building use dictates the schedule. So, afternoons are out because the daycare is running. Troop and crew have Monday nights, which is sometimes the CO board meeting night as well. That leaves Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, of which one of those is the monthly Pack meeting. Leaders' schedule is the main determinant.