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I'm not saying anything about them doing it for YOU! Ask a favor of the retiring pack's key three. By now I shouldn't have to tell you if a door closes you can wait for the good Lord to open one for you, or you can find where He left the sledgehammer and knock out the wall.

Several of our DEs moved on to some decent careers after doing their jobs as pro scouters well. (By well, I'm talking about that integrity and grit thing.) I recall one getting a foreman's job in a factory, another got a job directing a development center for troubled kids, another became a sports store manager. The first two fellas had a stall in their careers, and the DE job came at a good time for them. The other one really needed to get a break from scouting for the sake of his wife (and dog), and the skills that he picked up as DE gave him the skills he needed to excel in the corporate world. So for the trouble, it seemed to do these guys a lot of good.

Sounds like you have the right background, but you have a steep learning curve. Now, it may be that your council has an executive devoted to just to Venturing and Explorers. But it wouldn't hurt for you to read up on those programs. Find out how many of those units are in your council,. A good question to ask is if you'd be responsible for any of them.

Time to call the registrar and reprint the charter. MT you need to print your units to figure out what was paid for whom. BD you need your registrar to print up the wannabe retired unit's so you can contact the parents and apologize for everyone else's graft and corruption.

Why be cynical? The guy's applying for a job as if it's just about sales, when it's also about shepherding adult volunteers. He'll be starting to do this without ever having been a volunteer himself. Never sat on an Eagle board of review. Never been through a district/council budget crisis. He may need to help a crew, post, or ship get on its feet when he's never been an Explorer or Venturer. (He's mentioned "boy talks", never about "co-ed" teen talks.) He's being fed a line that a couple of nights a week will be all it takes to do an excellent job. Well, maybe if his district has only four packs! Guys like BD and I will come to him with tough questions, we already know the answers to the easy ones. We'll need him to tell us what we don't already know -- and often times don't really want to hear. All I'm saying is that it's really easy for seasoned scouters (who should know better) to come into a DE job with no humility and wind up being a complete waste of our volunteer time. It takes a lot of spine and a commitment of time at the end of the day to make those follow-up phone calls that SHOULD say "I'm sorry, I don't have a solid answer for you yet, can you bear with me?" And it takes grit to keep after those things until you are satisfied that your volunteer has what he/she needs to carry on. ProScout may have all that. Twenty years outside of scouting may have done him a world of good -- giving him insight and integrity and grit. But he'd might as well know that there are scouters (maybe non-scouters too?) out there who have come to take everything they hear from a BSA professional with a grain of salt.

You've never been in a house with a Jr. high kid, have you? Brace yourself. This is a fairly common dynamic when 11 y.o. boys are kept to themselves ... especially with male leaders. They do tend to "cut loose". The question that you need to ask yourself: were they managed to the best of the leaders ability? - Did the older boy introduce himself to you? - Did it seem like the leaders truly loved the boys? - Was the lecture time in a context? Were they going swimming/boating soon? - Who picked that particular topic and that particular way of teaching it? I am pretty serious about aquatics with our boys. Many of them become lifeguards. Lots of them plan canoe trips or sailing adventures. But, the latitude I give them starts with them getting the ground rules in their head, and that usually means one meeting where they sit around and read and talk about safe swim defense and safety afloat. That said, in a situation like this, I would be the one in the periphery making the "helper" (usually a troop guide or instructor -- both boy positions of responsibility) walk through the book with the boys. Then we would devote some time to practicing some aspect of the instruction (usually rescues) via land-based simulation. Ideally, I will have talked with the guide/instructor in advance and we would have arranged the props and activity. But, that's me. And even with that plan, you could walk into my room of 11 y.o.'s and come out with nearly the same comment. I often wonder if I've made a dent in those scattered brains! Visit more troops as often as you can. Talk to a couple older scouts about their experiences. Let boys and families learn the extent of their options. And, let us know what you think. I might start sharing some of these observations with my boys!

This is why visiting is so important. Troops have different personalities and priorities.

But is a fair characterization of what can happen to someone who only thinks that "this is most definitely a sales/PR position first and foremost". Yes, it is about market penetration. But like a decent insurance agent, it takes some spine to say "I'll cover this" or "I won't cover that." The DE's who've served me and my youth best were men and women who didn't waste my time trying to add BS to the BSA.

Hope they enjoy your troop and pack. I'd take their paperwork to HQ asking to waive the transfer fee.

I know a lot of leaders who would leave a site without a cold-out test. In fact that was a serious problem that I was having with my scouts. It's been building over a year. In spite of our best efforts, they have been nurturing an attitude that they can light a fire anywhere without owning up to making sure it is 100% extinguished. What's worse, is they think they know what "good enough" is.

Clearly Steelers/Penguins and Patriots/Bruins fans fed into the temperamental and uninhibited class.

Clove hitch will work. And, I think is easier on the tree. Thicker rope is better than thin (1/4" or less will likely dig into the bark), web rope (that has a tendency to flatten when under tension) is better, and straps are best. The standing end should come from the side (or even back) of the trunk to the hammock. Problem: double the trunk diameter, and you need 6.3 times the rope for a clove hitch. You'll only need 3.14 times the rope for two half hitches. Try placing a dowel or sliding a ring in the bend in your two half hitches (i.e. on the standing line between one half hitch and the next). It should make it easier to untie without sacrificing the strength of the knot.

There are two ways to think about this: - Do I want my boy to be in a troop who lets things play out with the SPL when they have a boy who acts out like that? - Do I want my boy to be in a troop who brings up a caliber of SPL (and presumably PL's) who will handle my boy that way when he acts out like that?

Now, you are coming up with a list of questions that I would ask! The other question you should probably be asking is if your benchmarks will be based on total units or total membership, or membership based on Packs, Troops, Crews, or nontraditional units. For example, if your boss wants to boost the number of Venturing Crews in your district, that's a completely different animal from recruiting new boys to existing packs! Fundraising usually involves you contacting adult volunteers to help coordinate the Friends of Scouting Campaigns. From what I hear every council does it differently, and every district in our council does it a little differently. The question there is are those adults already in place, or is it on you to find them?

Depends on the tree and how much rope, I guess. I don't do camping hammocks, but for my afternoon nap (crew advisors own the siesta so we can rule the night) I usually use two half hitches or a clove hitch. What I like about the clove hitch is that it's reasonably easy to work tighter or looser without loosing its grip on the tree. A timber hitch might work if you are between large trees and your hammock has some weight to it. I'll let the guys who use web belts comment on their preference for anchor knots.

NOW you tell us about the canopy! That changes everything. How sturdy are your cross bars and poles? You might want to consider some kind of hanging case for your utensils. We keep our sharp knives in a PVC tube with rope knotted through the end caps (partly to avoid losing the caps, partly for ventilation, and partly to hang the tube.

If you're asking if I have venturers take their tan shirts off on the nights our crew meets immediately after a troop meeting ... No, I don't. But, if your asking if a crew can adopt the tan shirt as it's uniform, no it should not. In my training, I was told that crews don't use any part of the Boy Scout or Cub Scout uniform.

My read of the task force recommendations suggest that the "if any" phrase would be deleted. I think a lot of adults are bothered by venturers not being recognizable as such.

Real scouters don't just obsess over rank-required knots! In fact I keep having to reteach myself that Turks head.

Congratulations on such an ambitious son! Merit badges may be sewn on the front and the back of the sash. He may sew them on in any order he chooses. Also if he wants to display some of his favorite scouting activities, he may sew patches from those on the back of the sash -- if there is any room left on the sash! (Meanwhile you should sit back and enjoy a nice cup of mulled cider.)

There are a lot of great opportunities. Some with less whitewater than others. Respect the age restrictions of your outfitters. Discipline is the key. Everybody has to have their "head in the game." Not just be swimmers/paddlers. They need to be comfortable falling into cold water with life jackets on: Adults as well as Youth. They need to understand water rescue from a the boat. MB instruction is not a bad way to do that, but like 2C said, not everyone needs to work on the MB to go. You just want to schedule some skills sessions so that they get comfortable with what's ahead. Most outfitters provide some instruction before launch. Choose an outfitter that will provide supervision commensurate to your contingent's experience. I had one leader who was all about canoe trails who had no clue what were getting into on class IV. Fortunately there was a portage that she could step out on and rendevous with us while she got her head back.

Can't speak about Varsity (never met a team). Explorers had been undersold for years. More than half became venturers. (When son #1Was a tiger, it was explained to me that venturing was the new Explorers. Nothing disavowed me of that notion until someone from the Explorers division made a presentation at roundtable.) They are making a comeback.

Sea scouts are part of the venturing program. Also, this stat doesn't count for multiple registrations. For example, half my crew and I are primarily registered through our troop.

Based on the area meetings that I've attended, about 1 in 5 crews use the national field shirt as their crew uniform. All of the council, area, and regional officers should wear the national uniform when performing their duties. No crew is permitted to use the tan Boy Scout Shirt (or any part of the BSA uniform) for their crew uniform,