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Again' date=' not disagreeing with you in the merits of advancement as a method. In my way of thinking it falls under "[i']blessing of their family and respect of their nation",[/i] but advancement and recognition is not the exclusive way that that need gets met. We need to be cognizant of that as we encourage boys to advance. On the trail to first class, it's like "We want you to make rank because you'll have the basic skills needed to hike and camp independently as a citizen in this great nation." On the trail to Eagle, it's more like "Would you like to make the next rank? What's your plan? How can we help you?" With my older scouts, I train them to have an answer to "What's the plan?" Spoiler: some boys will fail to implement the plan. They won't make Eagle. That doesn't make the process less valuable ... it does make the badge more valuable. And that's where you need to withhold your judgement of Ambitious Athlete. You want to encourage your boys to evaluate if he's ready for a particular position, and ask them to elect him to the best position for his abilities. Then sometime around January, you need the boys with PORs to evaluate each other. Nothing complicated. Go over each position, give the boys a chance to say what's going well, what's not so well, what should change. Have them give an action plan. Give them time to implement. Evaluate ... Repeat ... Then after summer camp, ask Ambitious Athlete to reflect on his experience in position X. Ask him if he thinks anything from scouting might help him be a better football player. Ask him to try and not disappear for the season (suggest he start Personal Fitness MB and see if it helps his game), but regardless, when the season is up, invite him to try another position of responsibility ... just for kicks. What you are doing here, is planting the seeds to enable the boy to talk about the balance of sports and scouting (and the rest of life) to those new crossovers a few years from now.

Wow! It's like the evil twin of one of my patrols. With some exceptions ...

St717, do your requirements allow a scout to commit to something else for a season? That's what OB seems to be complaining about.

I was brought up learning "no other gods" ... false or otherwise. I've had some relatives who've aligned themselves with lesser gods. They can forgive my use of "lesser" because, well, obviously one should think more highly of their object of worship than anyone else's. To call them "false" would be insulting. Athletics is important. Scouting is important. Each has a role in their community ... in the same community. So, your boys need to figure it out. Each person is an individual. Your football player may not be scouting for 5 months, but may dive back in full-tilt for 7, invite his QB to come camping, line up a service project that involves the troop and the team, and maybe even the cheerleading squad. That guy shows up, and giving him a POR is the best thing ever for the troop. Giving it to some other year-round-slug who's marking time in meetings may be the worst decision a patrol could make.

I missed NER-A4's meeting, so I can't contribute a broader perspective than my own observations. In general, local management makes for a better program. However, the rural councils surrounding us have had incredible boom and bust job cycles. Thus in almost as many years, two councils merged with Greater Pittsburgh to form Laurel Highlands Council. So, the challenge is to allow local management to occur while maintaining accountability across a wider area. Then we have to figure out the right "carrot" for the local boots-on-the ground. Do we consolidate properties? Do we keep a diversified collection? (I think most of our properties revert to the original donor's estate, so there's no windfall to be had from consolidation.) What council activities can we have in the areas that were recently absorbed? How do we pitch that to to scouts and parents who have to commit to driving to those events for them to be successful? How do we make teleconferencing fun? Plus, there's the big picture for our nation's youth. It's not merely Hispanics. Many of our fellow citizens are living what I call a "Post-Modern Nomadic" lifestyle. Committing their youth to 7-14 years of scouting is just not in the cards for them.

Well, a little "mom squeamishness" amuses the boys. But, you're right, chronic stress on parents does rub off on children. So, you need to balance that. One disadvantage of cubs in our nearly nomadic society is that your parents really haven't gotten to know one another. Get to know your people. Understand their comfort level. Do you have den chiefs who will cheerfully haul gear for some of those moms and their boys? Is there an empathetic adult who can handle "parent panic"? Does one adult come with an "adults-only" picnic set up, (e.g., tarp away from the kids for smokers, espresso pot, classy treats like gourmet chocolates or candy-coated almonds, tablecloth, with centerpiece for wildflowers, etc ...). Have your dens experienced enough rigorous activity (e.g. resident camp) to come to expect a little bit of hiking, bugs, weather, etc ...? Have you shared a camp meal at a pack meeting? All of these factors determine where and how long you want to camp.

Not exactly what Ambrose intended when he told Monica "When in Rome ...", but the sentiment applies. I'm no Papist, but in this case would be happy to incorporate the VC flag in the troop procession. BSA is non-sectarian, not non-denominational. There's a difference. Your CO wants to be acknowledged in a very specific fashion. Acknowledgement is not endorsement. It's just a way of saying, "Thanks for providing us this house." Rest assured, other houses who have not asked for their pennant to be incorporated in anything a troop does have been less than hospitable. Oh, and congratulations to this young man on his fine achievement!

That's basically what I did with my family (2 Sons and Daughter). Every other vacation was under canvas. Some of the ones that were "under a roof" were in cabins. Others (for my dear wife's sake) were to visit Gram and Gramp and see the nearest theme park. We often shared the outdoor vacations with another family of similarly aged kids. It worked out well and prepared them for life in a troop and an outdoor-oriented crew. Sometimes you can hit it off with another dad in the pack. For Son #1 when he was in Webelos, his best buddy, his buddy's dad, and I took them on their first backpacking weekend.

I would suggest he bring the sash with him, but only put it on when he wants to talk about O/A, and take it off when he's finished. That way, he sets the tone for handling business of the Order and kind of gives everyone an understanding that this is something special, not just another piece of "bling" for the uni.

If A is part of B then B must in all parts be like A ... which logical fallacy is that? Of course, Sea Scouts have a rank system in addition to venturing awards and recognition. Those ranks have very specific meaning. (Just as you wouldn't trust young gangs of boys to be lead by less than first class scouts on their independent outings, you would prefer to not turn your boat over to a less-than-Able seamen.) They also have a collection of recognitions (http://www.seascout.org/youth/recognition) than include the venturing recognition. I could imagine a specialty crew (be it in SCUBA or LARP) might have it's own set of "ranks" that would identify a person as qualified to independently operate and lead missions in their specialty. But, there is no reason to think that a bronze-awarded venturer, even one who happens to be in an outdoor-oriented crew, would have any outdoor skills.

Since everybody is so into STEM these days, you could set up a Black Jack table and teach kids some basic probabilities.

Sounds like your council doesn't require letters from the parents. (Makes sense to me, haven't they done enough paperwork already?)

Dad! Stop over thinking this! No wonder the poor kid is a perfectionist! With 2-3 patrols, I took a play from the guys on this forum and had the SM de-elevate the role of SPL to a sane and manageable level. The SPL just checks on the two PLs to see if they need anything. Sets up a roster to assign tasks to patrols (opening, closing, clean-up). On outings assigns similar rosters (flags, site sweep, evening campfire): Find out what the patrols are doing. (The advantage for him here, is if one patrol is doing something that he might need for advancement, he could ask to drop in.) Find out what they need. Get ASPL to help with it. All the other stuff that adults expect of SPL are things the PL should be doing or things that should not be happening. Beyond that, SPL regularly follows-up with the SM. If your son is like mine, your hardest job will be nudging him to get on the phone with the SM and find out what needs to be done for the next meeting. Oh, and drop that non-consecutive term rule ASAP. It's idiotic. If everyone feels one boy is the best for the job for 10 terms straight, let him have it.

The boy is required to list a parent or guardian as a reference. If your question is about a written reference being normal, that varies by council (ours requires the boy to collect them). There is nothing on the application that says someone on the BOR couldn't volunteer to check each reference by phone or simply walk around town and get a handshake on each reference's vouching for the boy.

I think a HB like Stosh's would be very helpful for the 2C's troop to see.

I think this is a great opportunity to work with your son at a "teachable" age. But ... Don't lift a pen for him. But show him where he should be "filling in the blanks." Read the SPL handbook with him. See if your PLC could plan an ILST course. Most importantly, make sure he has the SM on speed dial. It's okay if plans are a little rough. It would be very bad if you smoothed every thing over and raise the bar too high for the next SPL!

Don't know. Been to a GSUSA camporee, and it was a blast. (Of course, half of the organizers/staff were venturers ... I literally could have had a crew meeting during break time. ) There's a lot to be said for keeping the opposite sex out of the equation. Certainly Girl Guides in the UK are motoring along just fine.

(Point of clarification to some of the replies that were cub-specific. In spite of his handle, the OP is dealing with troop management issues. Although it sounds like some cross-over parents are asking, "Why can't we do it like we did in the Pack?") I think we need to stick with the hardcopy handbook, initials, and notes for one simple reason. It's a wonderful momento. Two examples: I showed my scouts my HB a few months ago. They got a kick out of it, and a few went straight to the back and compared what MB's I earned to their list. One boy was quite proud that I earned an elective MB that he was also interested in. Last year, after a Wilderness First Aid course, a venturer (from out of our area) asked the instructor to sign her Ranger hand-book. This guy hadn't initialed an advancement for years! It was amusing to see the puzzle look on his face. (Note: in our council, we don't expect the college kids to chase signatures, we do expect them to give us course dates and show us certifications, photos, etc ...) So, some advisor in Cradel of Liberty sees this initial and dates from an old salt on the other side of the Appalachians ... not gonna tip the scales in deciding if the young lady gets the bling. But for that young lady, there's a fond memory of a weekend with some genuinely awesome scouters. These books -- if they survive years of moving and child-rearing -- have stories that get pulled out of the attic and told every now and then. Those stories inspire the next generation of 1st Class Scouts. Some of those stories might show years passing between requirements. That's important too. A youth who's doubting him/herself might realize that Dad or Uncle or Mom had to be patient too. Or he/she might decide that it's time to beat the old folks' time! 2C, maybe that's an approach you could take. Find someone who was in the program as a youth. Ask him to bring his HB in and talk about the initials and dates in it. Tell the boys that the PLs and SPLs who will fill the pages of their books are helping them with the story of their 1st class journey as well.

So, do these parents want to buy the PL's smart phones, so they can log the skills they observe in each boy? By "lots of guff" are a dozen parents livid at you? Or, are a couple pushing to innovate and want you to get with the program?

15 minutes is more than most younger scouts can stand! And that seems to be the average length of ours. A scout may request a BoR any time three committee members are available. (We use the term loosely to be sure to include "off-roster" folks such as yourself!) Obviously, he is more likely to get one if he requests a week in advance. Generally there is no problem take a scout out of a meeting ... especially if he has made arrangements with his patrol in advance.