qwazse

Venturing, our grand co-ed experiment, is the fastest declining division. THOSE co-eds are the ones who will be agents of change in 10 years. And, if their numbers are shrinking, who's going to be around to press for what looks to be a loss-leader? Unless the majority of dedicated boy scouts who aren't in venturing want something different for their kids, there is no constituency. Just sayin' ... from the crew advisor's cheap seats.

Daughter's friend is a pro ballerina. Just like earning all the MB's, home school helped her pursue her passion. The down side: zero time for venturing -- and these were parents who made a sincere effort to make scouting work for each kid.

Oh yeah. Checklists. I had one crew officer bragging about how she "just had to" get red carded her senior soccer season. I leaned over, gave her the cold stare, and moved my lips "N O". She was too busy too earn any bling from the BSA, but she never got worse then a yellow that season, and that's award enough for me. So, a kid earning 2 MBs a week ... that's a checklist attitude I can tolerate.

KDD, sad story: A scout missed our last campout because he volunteered to make a Minecraft pyramid for social studies class, and got behind in completing his assignment. Sadder yet, the boys got into chopping so much wood, that he could have spent the weekend stacking it into pyramids!

BD, in our outfit, age is not a consideration for JASM. A lot of our 16/17 y.o.'s have preferred to be guides or instructors, or serve as a crew officer. Although, the wiki says "must be 16", so we probably wouldn't give a kid the patch for it. If he was 14 and doing the exact same work ... a rose by any other name ...

The reporter asked all the wrong questions ... Especially for a video segment. I would have preferred footage of the boy tying a timber hitch, or maybe demonstrating some Lifesaving holds. But, if you didn't know his age, you'd look at his insignia and ask if he'll have his Eagle project done soon. The boy is already SPL.

MT, I have yet to meet a boy who would beg his mom to look up ornaments online when there was a chance to join with some older scouts in making catapults (of any size). But, yeah, I agree that everyone should keep this about the boys and try to find another weekend where you all can make decorations (and cookies).

I'm so sorry about the coffee. If it's any consolation, I'll keep an eye out for a ceremony team leader, and run a serving through my espresso pot for him in your name (er, alias). Change is always afoot. Sometimes it's at the council level, sometimes it's at the camp level, and sometimes ist's at the national level.

Welcome to the forums, SB. Two-deep is most relevant during overnight camping. Or any scenario where one-on-one contact is likely. (Definitely meetings and go-see-its ... thus the buddy system.) Unless you're driving one of those road homes with private rooms, one-on-one contact is unlikely. Drivers in separate cars is just fine. (Of course it's always nice to have another parent to talk to.) By the way, Son #2 visited a TV station when he was in cub scouts. A local weatherman invited our den. It was a whole lot of fun!

First of all, it's really encouraging to hear someone had a huge recruiting year. With a bigger unit, you will appreciate adults who "take point" for a number of tasks. Definitely make the treasurer a separate position. For any organization, IMHO, there should be no more than three signatories on accounts. Adding to what Fred said, only register MC's who are willing to get trained as such and attend roundtables - at least in turns. What you really need of MC's is people who are taking the pulse of the Pack and making sure the boys and the DL's have everything they need for a successful program.

Yeah, Huey, that's all fine and good, but if I get my BSA guard from somebody who ran an aquatics area for five years but hasn't taken EDGE for a decade, I think my card is bout as valid as that from a guy who to EDGE yesterday but has only operated an area for one year.

MT, There is basically only one question here that matters. You should encourage your Webelos to visit and camp with every troop within an day's walk, then decide amongst their folks and friends to where they would like to crossover. A UC can't make anybody do anything, so don't try. Buy them coffee. Listen to their vision, and help by connecting them to the people or resources to make it happen. You don't have to agree with them. You can even tell them "I you wish you would consider doing things differently, but I'll do my best to help with whatever you need." How the baggage with MIB (my shorthand for MT's son for those new to the formums) should be handled? It's baggage. Let it go.

I doubt you'll find a national policy on this.

Don't use any individual's # from here on out. See GeorgiaMom's post below. That link is new, and the most detailed I've ever seen from the BSA. Beats me why it is on the Seabase site instead of Scouting. A lot of folks do the individual thing because it is less of a paper-chase. But that's a poor excuse that puts the unit at risk for all manner of graft and corruption. (The most obvious is actually the treasurer declaring those $$ as income and then applying the untaxed portion for his/her personal gain.)

I think it's up to the council to decide if there's an inappropriate time for the fundraising. My understanding of the point of the fundraising application is to make sure the methods used don't conflict with the BSA's values and other fundraisers. As long as the boy makes it clear that the fundraiser is to pay off personal loans that underwrote the completed project, there's no ethical conflict. Most of your federal taxes, for example, are to pay off the interest accrued on dept (not even the dept itself) for services already used. But, just like taxes, fundraising is that much harder when donors realize they are contributing retroactively. Obviously, there is a point when the boy should call it quits. More than a couple of months, and it gets a little absurd. Might as well give those receipts to the tax preparer.

You mean you can only "imagine". I have seen. And your worst-case scenarios are extremely rare and no less likely to happen with 16+ y.o. JASM than a 13+ y.o. PL or any 1st class scout (the concept not the patch). They are definitely more likely to happen with adults. That said, at some point in the year -- usually early spring -- we have all qualified scouts sit down in a big circle and go over the basic criteria for signing off on work. Keep in mind, we don't usually have JASMs. Most of our boys achieve 1st Class around age 14. Patrol leaders are usually 13.

Time for the scout to earn textile MB. He might be able to parlay it into a trip overseas ... "Visit a textile plant, textile products manufacturer or textile school or college. Report on what you saw and learned. " http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Textile

Welcome! You may want to talk to the bank president about how to make this work more smoothly. Obviously the best way is through your Charter Organization. Regardless of which EIN is on the account, the assets your unit accumulates ultimately belongs to them, not the BSA or any individual member. Using their identification is one way of securing that.

That's one more thing. I teach boys to get a marker and write their name and troop # on the *edge* of the book. So that if the cover or binding or cover page fall apart, there is an outside chance that they will be able to read it from holding the book sideways. (Now that's an edge method that translates into any language! )

What would really be cool, is to get a mold for one that's small enough to fire in an art-shop's kiln. Then the boys, with leftover coffee grounds, some silver nitrate, and the right clay could make their own. But I don't think it will work. The organics are in the mix to burn away during the firing and leave the clay porous. I suspect to do that, brick kilns operate at different temps, oxygen mix, and tolerances for soot. Then there would be the testing to prove the pond-water is microbe-free after going through little Johnny's filter. But, what a great way to learn STEM!

Backups are always busywork. That said, our reports go to the PLs, who then use them to determine program. Then they are given to the boys to cross-check with their books. If they have a sign-off in their book that's not on the report, they can go and inform the AC so she can update her records. Doing it this way means that the AC does not always have her finger on the pulse of what the boys are doing. For example, she thought one boy had aged out because she had a partial blue card for an MB he was taking from her. Well evidently he arranged for a different MBC, completed his work with him. had his SMC, and submitted paperwork to HQ. T'was a little perplexing to her when she heard our SM report! Basically, this means that we're counting on the SM to have his hand on the tiller when it comes to upper level advancement. The bigger the troop, the more that's a worry, I suppose.

If you are looking for something suitable for your troop trailer "base", and you want your boys to learn about solving third world problems, get in touch with your Rotarians and see if you can get a hold of a filter that sits on a 5 gallon bucket. My friend showed me one of these a couple of years ago, demonstrated it for a week, and I was very impressed.

Yes. Looks like my post on the gravity filter thread got lost!

Frank would the scouts be allowed to participate by taking tickets, checking coats, or putting on a presentation or show? Just curious.

Registrars can make all kinds of funny things happen, if they are so inclined ... for boys who alternate custody between parents, for example. The "on the ground" reason to do so in this scenario may be to have a boy or two the nascent troop to hold positions of responsibility to guide/assist a couple of very young boys, meanwhile those boys can also keep meeting with their buddies from their original troop and work on their advancement with their original SM or Eagle mentor. Yes, there are boys who would jump at the chance of twice as many meetings a week and twice as many camping nights a year! I think that's how my troop got its start a few years before I joined as a scout. For this to happen in this day and age of bean-counting, the original troop has to be willing to take a JTE hit, or the DE has to be willing to take "on paper" membership losses as just that and make sure the original troop is given whatever privileges would come had the boys not transferred primary membership. But that's just adults meddling in the intuitive egalitarianism of mature scouts.